News and notes from the Tar Heel State, folks (like you care)
We have a lottery system down here now. YAY for us. An Educational Lottery, thank you. I know it's an EDUCATIONAL lottery because they've gone out of their way to stress this point. I guess this has been done so we would not think it was a "Satan is taking over the world and you're all burning in hell" lottery. That's how the opponents are making it sound.
What's wrong with some scratch off games and an entry to the Powerball thing? The thing launched yesterday. The paper this morning said that by 10:00PM they had sold $6.5 million in tickets and awarded out $1.3 million in prizes. So, we're looking at a surplus of over $5 million in one form or another. I know it's not all going to the schools, but at least some does. And, that "some", if you ask me, means one thing: Less of a change to raise taxes. I mean, my already ridiculously low taxes won't go down because of this lottery, but maybe they won't go up as fast. I'm all for keeping taxes down (see the move to NC as a prime example).
Down here, and here in Wake County in particular, there's a crunch for schools. As more and more people like us (and by us, I mean Yankees, not repugnant assholes) move down, the crunch gets worse. We're moving for 2 main reasons: Lower costs, better schools. The Wake County school system is among the best in the country (or so I've been told) so it's a huge draw. But, there are nowhere near enough schools. So, if this lottery means that they can build schools and NOT have to raise my taxes very much, I'm all in. (See...a gambling term...boy am I clever)
If Rachel is forced to teach classes in a trailer, maybe it's time to find a new way to fund school construction. I know that Southerners have a natural affinity towards trailers, but we don't need to teach school in them.
Moving on to the weather...
As much as I've loved the weather here since we arrived nearly a year ago, it seems I should have enjoyed it less. We're apparently having quite a drought down here. They post charts and graphs about water levels and stream flows and all shit in the paper every week. Usually I could care less. The weather is cyclical and it always figures itself out. Just last summer, they were saying that we'd be OUT of water by January. Well, I think that was water I used to flush a turd this morning, so that estimate was off by a little bit. Now, the water levels are OK up at the lake, but the in-flow is low because they didn't have enough snow up in the mountains or something. I don't know. What I do know is that they plan for hurricanes down here to add to the water supply. I find that amusing. It's good planning, seeing as this is a hurricane-prone area. I find it amusing because hurricanes tend to blow shit apart. It's like "Sorry Cletus, I know your trailer floated away in Hurricane Jezebel, but think, NoGoodDaddy can continue to flush his turds. Thanks for taking one for the team". However...this year, the drought has me very PISSED OFF. Why? Because the pool out back can't be filled. They drained the fucker after Labor Day and now we can't get it filled. FUCK! I want that pool filled. I mean, where's the kid supposed to shit all summer? In the toilet? But seriously folks...I'm mostly mad at out homeowners' association board of idiots. These rules were in place last fall. So, when they drained the pool, they knew that unless we got like Noah-esque rain all winter, we'd be unable to re-fill it in the spring. Would it have killed them to get a cover and...cover it? Then, they'd just have to top it off (perfectly legal) and we'd be all set. So, I'm ornery about this. But, I get a feeling that the pool rule may relax. There's no way they're not letting all the swim clubs down here (our Y included) stay dry all summer. Think of the crime that would ensue as packs of hot, sweaty teenagers roamed the Triangle in search of refreshment.
Moving on.
Can someone tell me how this is possible?
At 5:00PM, the kid had a juice box
At 6:00 she had milk with dinner
At 8:00, she peed...a long pee...before bed
At 10:30, her bed was soaked, so we changed the sheets and her PJ's
She also peed again
At 7:30 this morning, her bed was soaked
I don't get it. This kid is like a camel when it comes to fluid retention...right up until bed time. Then, she lets loose like a geyser. Now, the juice box at 5 was probably not a good idea. We've tried to really limit her fluid intake lately after, say, 9:00AM to prevent these accidents. We don't get it. For 5 nights in Myrtle Beach, she was wet only once. And that includes after nap time, the 10:30 check up and in the morning. Since we're home, we're changing at least one set of sheets per night...sometimes 2. Sometimes, I want to strangle the kid.
That's it for the Tar Hell news.
Otherwise, it's Friday and an interesting weekend looms. The Old Man and Miss S are here on Sunday, assuming they survive the beating from the ClaytonTwosome on Saturday. We really don't know how they'll respond to Miss S being in the picture. We just hope they behave.
Oh...here's something I've been thinking about lately as I cruise around in my car:
There's NOTHING on the radio down here. The AM side of the dial isn't much better. I have 4 sports radio stations, but at most times, 3 are playing the same thing. And the other has Jim Rome. Ugh... So, I find myself listening to CDs in the car. The only problem is that I don't like the music I have. Well, that's not 100% true. I like my music, but I'm not always in the mood for it. It's not always Buffett time for me. Sometimes, I'm just not in the mood. And, to compound the problem, my car stereo doesn't seem to like playing CD's burnt from the computer. It likes some brands of CD, but not others. I don't get why this is. The car's a 2000, so I guess not many people were burning disks back then. I think I may need to shop for a new stereo to overcome this problem. Then, I could make my own CDs. But, often when I do even that, I annoy myself and end up bored with the music.
So, I'm asking for musical help.
As we all know, I like Buffett. I also have in the CD holder right now some BareNakedLadies, some Bob Marley and Willie Nelson's Country Man album (Willie does reggae (not as bad as it sounds)). The home collection also includes an extensive collection of Billy Joel and James Taylor. Other than that, there's a fair smattering of a lot of everything else.
Based on that paltry list, who should I be listening to? I'll add that I do not like slow music. At all. Anything new? Anything old?
I blame my parents for this (as usual). My father was always listening to classic rock when I was growing up, but in typical annoying-father fashion, he's overdo it in the car and drum the dashboard and sing like a jackass. Hence, largely turning me off that genre of music. My mother taught exercise classes. So, she always was making tapes of peppy pop music for the ladies to jiggle to.
Then, I went to Snooty McPrepSchool where if you didn't love the Dead or CSN (and sometimes Y) OR be a dumbass from NJ and listen to rap/techno/MarkyMarky you were left in the lurch.
I also hate Phil Collins for reasons I don't have the time to get into right now.
These guys are cool (and I know that will not help the search at all considering their sound). I've heard them on radio Margaritaville from time to time and like them.
Someone out there's got to have something for me.
Your NoGoodDaddy is asking for help. Please donate what you can.
And...for fun, I'll be writing from NJ next time I write. Pissing and moaning for everyone!