Life Update October 23, 2024

Blogger is STILL a thing!! I turned 58 in October. Lisa Rose and I bought a house together in May, 2022 and in March of this year we moved in together. It's been great. Lark (aka Naomi) is living in my house on Bennett Street. Lisa also still has her former house on Windy Ridge. I'm still with Buncombe County IT and have been part of the Custom Dev group for a number of years now. Lisa is working on her Master's in Clinical Counseling at Appalachian State. Lucas is currently the lead data scientist for Clearline Dental implants though his position will be moved to the parent company, The Aspen Group, (private equity) in January, 2025. He and Sarah married December 31, 2021, toward the end of the COVID pandemic. Unfortunately, Sarah left the marriage earlier this year. He is dating and leaning heavily on his collection of friends. Mom and Pop moved yet again earlier this year. I have yet to visit their new house. My great aunt Jean passed away earlier this year. I ordered a grave marker for Charlie Rushing. I struggled with long COVID symptoms last year and into the early part of this year. I'm still trying to run when I can though I am light years away from what I could run 2-3 years ago. Joel has filed his paperwork and will retire in March of 2025. My little sister is a grandmother and my little brother is retiring. WNC was devastated 3 weeks ago by hurricane Helene. Record, Biblical level flooding destroyed homes, roads, bridges, business and lives. Asheville, Canton, Barnardsville, Marshall, Hot Springs, Yancey County, Spruce Pine and Mitchell County, Erwin, countless country roads and communities, all had parts wiped off the map. Never have I been so grateful to live in the Burnsville town limits. Practically no damage here in town. We lost power for 36 hours. There are still places in WNC with no power three weeks on. We were 19 days without town water. We were 18 days with no Spectrum internet. All minor inconveniences compared to many. There's a presidential election in 3 wks. VP Kamala Harris and Donald Trump (again). The MAGA's are already claiming election fraud.

Life Update October 20, 2017

Blogger is still a thing. Wow.

This is a really sad life update. Lisa ended her life October 10, 2016. I will live with that sadness the rest of my life as will Lucas. It's a year on from that horrible day now and the pain is numbed out but the scar in my soul is still raw and red. So sad. So very, very sad.  Per her wishes, her body was cremated.  We had a memorial for her at Granny's Beach and scattered her ashes in the South Toe River.

We are born from our mother's waters, and today we return Lisa to the great current.
She will be hurricanes
She will be white water
She will be slow dark rivers searching for the sea
She will be clear cold mountain streams falling over ancient stones.

 Despite losing his mom, Lucas graduated from Carolina this May with degrees in Astro-Physics and Math. Sarah also graduated and was selected for a 2 year fellowship at the NIH in Bethesda, MD. She and Lucas moved up to Rockville,MD after graduation. Lucas is currently working for the Georgetown Learning Center, tutoring STEM courses. He has a conditional offer from a govt agency, though he's not 100% sure he will accept if he passes the extensive background checks. He recently said that he's realized he wants to teach Astronomy. I've given him my 100% support if he wants to pursue that. I told him if he has any sense of something he WANTS to do, then he should pursue that. 

I'm seeing Lisa Taylor Rose and that is a very good thing. She is very loving and incredibly understanding and patient with me. After searching nearly 2 yrs, she recently bought a small home in Burnsville and I've been helping her install hardwood floors. We work really well together.

 I opened the door to Lisa DeHart's room this week, just to get comfortable to seeing that space. I will probably start removing her things soon. I sold the Houston Street house in September. The Celo house is rented and the Mitchell County house still sits empty though I've contacted an agent to put it on the market once I get some cosmetic things finished.

I'm still with Buncombe IT.  I do almost no programming any more and it's been a long, hard, adjustment.  I'm not a manager.  I want to make and build things yet we are very focused on creating policies and road maps.   I attended MS Ignite in Orlando back in September.  Everything is moving to the cloud.  I'm trying to imagine the role of traditional Buncombe IT 15 yrs from now.

Mom and Pop got us tickets to see Willie Nelson last Friday night, a real treat.  Willie is 84 but still put on a good show.  His lungs were gone but he can still play the hell out of that old guitar.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

I turned 48 yesterday. I ran 200 miles in September, my most miles ever in a single month. I'm running my first 50K in two weeks. Luke is 19 and in his 2nd year at Carolina; studying Physics. Lisa's health continues to be poor. Still with Buncombe IT. One foot squarely in public safety, the other in custom apps which is comprised of defining our SharePoint presence and evaluating Office 365. Kathy Glass, Pat Cowan, and Debbie Smith all took Buncombe's early retirement option and their last days' were this week. I'm listening to "Hatching Twitter" via Audible, which brought me back to this site as I listen to the story of how Ev Williams built Blogger to be 'push button publishing for the people'.

Sunday, May 18, 2013

Reading through these pages is time travel. Luke was 13, he was 10, he was 8. The US was at war then. We are still waging war in Afghanistan.

Luke is now 18. Yes, 18. He's getting ready to graduate from Mountain Heritage High School as Valedictorian. He's been accepted into Honors Carolina at Chapel Hill and right now he wants to pursue Biomedical Engineering.

Lisa's health continues to limit her. She spends the majority of her time in bed.

I'm still with Buncombe County IT. I'm doing more project management than coding these days. I continue to enjoy running. Pushing myself. I've had a full spring in that regard. I ran the Asheville Marathon in March, the Dupont State Forest Half in April, and the Cradle to Grave 30K yesterday. I'm sore and beat up but I had a great time. I won my age group at Dupont, and if they had done 5 year instead of 10 year age groups, I would have won the 45-49 group yesterday.

We bought a house in Asheville, on Houston Street back in November, 2012. However, none of our Mitchell County property has sold and Luke isn't getting any financial aid, so we're put the Houston Street house back on the market. It's under contract right now. I hope it closes. I want to get rid of it all. I'm sick of being responsible for so many houses and for three mortgage payments. The Mitchell County houses are sitting empty; un-rented.

Feb 2010 Update

Wow, had almost forgotten this blog exists. Wonder how many of these blogger accounts have become idle with the meteoric rise of Twitter, Facebook (400M users), and now Google's own Buzz?

Snowpocalypse is in full swing for the 9th weekend in a row (I exaggerate, but only slightly). #avlsnomg

Lisa's busy making funky earrings, paper beads, and being generally awesome.

Luke's not had a full week of school since Xmas break. I gave him his first driving lesson a couple of weeks back.

I'm still coding along at Buncombe County IT. Teaching myself PHP (see the CFU calendar at www.welcometoburnsville.com/cfu .

What I'm reading:
"Daemon" - by Daniel Suarez

What I'm listening to:
nothing new

Podcasts:
TWIT
TWIG
FLOSS
SecurityNow
MacBreak
Cranky Geeks
Fresh Air
Wait Wait Don't Tell me
Escape Pod
World Football Daily
EPL Radio

Life Update May 3, 2008

Went to Obama rally on the town square today. Pretty good turnout - (see "free barbecue"). Voted via One Stop Voting at the courthouse. Good turnout (see "Bush has lowest approval ratings in history")
Went to Jade's open house for her acupuncture/massage/body work clinic. Good time talking to Rhea about Senegal and "pagan fertility rituals" (she got written up by Mayland for organizing a May Pole on May Day..Mitchell County (see "backward ass ignorant Christo Fascists")

Luke's track season is over. That kept him pretty busy. He ran the mile for the President's Physical Fitness test and ran a 7:20. Not bad for the little guy!

LUKE TURNS 13 ON WEDS!

What I'm up to:
Playing the mandolin
Twittering
WarrenEllis.com
Twitlive.com
Working on Case Management (asp.net) app for work.
muxtape.com


What I'm Listening To:
Tonight I watched a ton of Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Tool videos on YouTube. Vedder, Staley, Cornell, Keenan. {GODS}

Sacred Bones (via Warren ellis)

What I'm Reading:
Lord of the Barnyard

Life Update April 25, 2008

Lisa just got back from two weeks in Mexico with Judy Conrad. A good time was had by all. She's filed a grievance with Hospice Board. She has a hearing on Tuesday.

Interact closes its doors as of May 1st. There's a going away party this Tuesday night at Barley's.

Last Friday, Stephanie's ID played the Burnsville Town Center. Great Show.

July 4th, The Black Angels play the Grey Eagle.

I got a raise today as the County has instituted a new Consumer Price Index based raise system.

Kathy says I will become a permanent employee in May (and I'll get another 4% bump!)

Luke did make the Drama team for next year.

He ran at his first track meet yesterday. Details in the previous post. He did great. I ran on that same track years and years and years ago.

Luke went to Cocoa Beach, Florida for Spring Break with Heather, Kenny, and Dalton. They had a blast. Airboat ride, Merritt Island, laser tag, he went SURFING! Wow.

I started using Twitter last week.

Barack Obama is a frigging ROCK STAR!

What I'm Reading:
Lord of the Barnyard - Tristan Egolf

What I'm Listening To:
Stephanie's ID - "Grus Americana"
My Morning Jacket
Son Volt
Radiohead

Podcasts:
Same as before.

Luke's First Track Meet 20080425

Mile: 7:46

400M: 1:27

800M: 3:54

Location: Mtn Heritage
Teams: East Yancey, Cane River, Harris, Bowman