The View from Buzby Beach

Happy Boxing Day to those of you who celebrate Boxing Day. When I first learned of Boxing Day, I imagined it was so called because it was the day everyone boxed up their unwanted or wrong sized Christmas presents and took them to the store return desks. I have since learned that this is not the case at all. Boxing Day, for those who don't know, is traditionally the day when the landed gentry gave their servants the day off and presented them with small gifts and leftovers to take home to their families. The day became known as a time of generosity by the rich towards the poor. I've also read that Anglican churches would, during Advent - the season leading up to Christmas Day, place boxes in the entryway to the church for people to donate coins for the poor. These boxes would be opened on the day after Christmas and the money would be distributed among the impoverished members of the parish. These acts of charity were, you may have noticed, conducted by private citizens or the c...

  Back in 1979, ABC aired an Americanized version of Dicken's A Christmas Carol starring Henry Winkler. Winkler was then one of the hottest names on television thanks to the popularity of his character Arthur Fonzarelli, aka Fonzie or the Fonz, on the show Happy Days . Winkler played Benedict Slade - an American lender in Concord, New Hampshire, during the early days of the Great Depression. The movie opens with Slade traveling around the town with his assistant Thatcher repossessing items from folks who'd borrowed money. The first was a farmer who'd purchased home furnishings and a radio. The second was the director of an orphanage Slade once lived in He repossessed the orphanage's piano.. The third was a bookseller from whom Slade took all his books, including a first edition of the Dicken's book referenced above. From there, the story follows a similar trajectory to the classic tale. The ghost of Slade's former partner visits him, followed by the three spiri...

  Today is the day before the day before Christmas or, as my students would say, Christmas Eve Eve. We celebrated a mini-Christmas last night with a delicious meal of chicken Parmesan and risotto made by Son 1 and a present exchange of just the presents for and from Son 2's significant other as she is leaving today to join her family for Christmas proper. If you count the small gifts I gave each of my students and the generous gifts many of them gave me, this made the fifth gift exchange I had been a part of this Christmas Season. The first two happened on the same day, last Saturday. In the morning was our extended family gift exchange - a dirty Santa party. I got very lucky and brought home a Christmas themed street lamp decoration. Later that day, the missus and I attended another dirty Santa Christmas party for our camping club. The first gift I chose was stolen, as was the second gift. While both were nice and I would have been happy to have either, I lucked out with my third ...

  Today's post is inspired by that second generation folk sing Arlo Guthrie. Arlo recorded the iconic anti-Vietnam War protest song "Alice's Restaurant."  One of the funniest lines in the song, in my humble opinion, is "... we had never heard of a dump closed on Thanksgiving before and with tears in our eyes we drove off into the sunset looking for another place to put the garbage." This line from the song came to mind the minute I saw the locked gate and the closed sign. I had never heard of a dump closed on a Wednesday before, so I drove on wondering if I was going to have to keep all the garbage - recyclables, actually - in my truck until the next day. Fortunately, in small print, I noticed that the dump would open at 1 p.m. Thus, I returned after lunch and disposed of the plastics, glass bottles, metal cans, and cardboard we'd accumulated since our last visit.

   Winter is still technically 2 hours and 45 minutes away. Fall in this area of coastal North Carolina is ending on a chilly, wet note. Hence, winter will begin on the same note. The current forecast is for cool and cloudy days between now and Christmas. Christmas itself will be warmer, in the 60s but still cloudy. Having lived well over half of my life in North Carolina, not once in all those years have I enjoyed a white Christmas. Not while I was growing up in Wilmington and not since I've moved back and settled in Goldsboro has there been snow on the ground on Christmas Day. Due to climate change, the chances are that I will never see my yard covered in snow for Christmas. Sadly, the scene in the photo topping this post will never be recreated on my front lawn.   The rain and cold does make it untenable to venture outside for any sustained activity. This, in turn, makes sitting in front of the fireplace (electric with LED flames), watching another fireplace on TV, and...

 Today is the first day of my school's Christmas Break. Yesterday, we celebrated the holiday with a morning prayer service, singing Christmas carols, and class parties. I was fortunate to have several parents come in and help with the party for my class. We enjoyed donuts, cookies, fruit, juice and watched old Christmas shows from the 1960s. Several of my students brought gifts for the teacher. Many were what one might expect: cookies, cakes, gift cards, and such. One took me by surprise. For the first time in 20 years of teaching, I received a bottle of whiskey as part of a set consisting of a specialized ice tray made for making perfect ice cubes, a Christmas gnome whiskey glass, and a bottle of fine sipping whiskey. I was quite astounded when I opened this gift as I have never mentioned being a whiskey aficionado in class. In face, I cannot remember every mentioning whether or not I drink alcohol to my students. The missus and I have a busy day ahead of us today. Later this morn...

 The missus, the dogs, some friends, and I took a walk on Sunset Beach this morning. As you can see, the fog was thick, very thick. We started by the pier and after only a couple of hundred feet, when we turned back, the mist had already shrouded our view. It was as if the pier had disappeared. As we walked along the beach, people coming the other way would appear out of the mist like ghosts coming to life. The whole thing made us feel like we were extras in a Steven King novel and at any moment something frightening was going to come at us out of the fog. We walked about a mile through the fog and mist before turning back. Weirdly enough, it seemed to take only half as long to get back to the pier. It was a fun walk. The mist made it more interesting than it otherwise might have been. And, it wore out the dogs.

 We left home in the gloom and drove most of the way here in the dark through occasional showers. We arrived and set up in the dark with the help of the man in the camper next door and his rechargeable, magnetic, LED work light. Sprinkles sounded on the roof now and again. There was still a drizzle outside when we walked the dogs for their final nightlies. Now, the missus is getting ready for bed and I am writing this while sitting by the LED fireplace and reflecting on my day. Today was not a normal day by any measure. We had a VIP visit the school and he stopped by each class to speak with and take questions from the students. While it was a nice change of pace, it did result in no effective teaching taking place because of the change in routine, combined with it being Friday, and with Winter Break and Christmas coming soon. The break cannot come soon enough for the kids or the staff. Our week off at Thanksgiving was just a teaser. The two weeks of Winter Break will give us all a...

  This morning dawned clear and cold along the Neuse River across from New Bern. It is a beautiful day to be camping. Feeling good about the cold weather while camping is easy when one spent the night on a queen sized bed in a gas furnace heated fifth-wheel camper and is currently enjoying a hot cup of coffee brewed in a Keurig while sitting in a padded recliner and enjoying the LED fireplace with its electric heater. At my age and with my arthritis, I might not be in such good spirits after a night on the ground in a tent and drinking instant coffee while huddled around a campfire trying to avoid the smoke. Mind you, I did my time in tents when my sons were growing up and going through Scouts on the trail from Tiger Cub to Eagle.  I spent those sixteen years tent camping one, two, and sometimes three weekends a month in all seasons and in all kinds of weather. From July's insane heat and humidity, to February's brutal cold and snow, and through all the windy and rainy times i...

 The missus and I are camping on the river this week because we have a wedding in the part of the state to attend tomorrow afternoon. We are fortunate that the weather is unseasonably warm and dry for this time of year. When we arrived, we had to set up in the dark. Thankfully, the site was level and set up went smoothly. We have camped at this park many times over the years and usually reserve a choice site close to the river. We decided late to camp this weekend for the wedding and did not get one of our preferred sites. Instead, we are stuck in a spot close to the office in a high traffic area. The good news is, we don't plan on spending much time in the park. Tomorrow morning, the missus is dragging us to the PetSmart in the city across the river to shop for the dogs. The wedding is in the afternoon. Sunday morning, we will be up early and headed home. If you're wondering when we get to relax and rest up for work next week, we don't. Ah, well, that's just the way it...