January 12, 2010 by Joel.

OK, so it’s already January 12th…it’s still early in the new year! 2010 is off to a good start. We’ve got both kids back out of the house again, off at their respective schools, so peace and quiet reigns. I’ve been trying to keep on top of communications and planning for my new BSA role as District Chairman. I think that the key is to do what I need to do right when I think of it; if I let it sit, too much time will pass and I’ll also stand a better chance of dropping a ball. Electronic communication will be important, and I plan to try to use Skype for conference calls, and also leverage either the current Yahoo site or a Google group. We’ll also make use of collaborative editing with Google Docs. I’m gearing up to teach at UNC-CH again this semester in my role as an adjunct in SILS. Last semester was the first time in 10 years I’ve not taught a class, and I feel energized to do it; it’s been good to take the time off. I’m working on getting my vacation schedule set up and coordinated with my colleagues at UNCG. I want to be sure that I get some time for shad fishing in March, Bassclave in June or July, and beach time in August. Time flies, and the cold weather we’ve been having will be gone soon, and the fish will be biting. I do plan to try for some trout in early February. There’s a local pond/lake that gets a trout stocking during the winter. I’ll be giving that a try this year. What’s that whooshing sound? Time rushing by

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July 19, 2008 by Joel.

A while back, probably sometime in late 2006 or early 2007, I uploaded pictures to Picasa from my July 2006 canoe trip into Quetico Provincial Park with my scout troop. It just sat, and I’d not done anything with it. However, earlier this summer, a colleague sent me a Picasa album link from a conference he was attending, and he had used the map tagging features that Google has added. This got me to thinking that I ought to, before my memory completely passes on that trip, try to tag locations on the map for this set of pictures. That’s what I’ve done in this Picasa album. I’d done a fairly detailed writeup of this trip back in 2006, but it was fun to try to tag exact picture locations. I’m close with a lot of them, but some are a bit of a WAG ;-). It’s an interesting feature. Now, hmmm…seems like that thinking about my last blog post on MobileMe, and the galleries, that an iPhone could get GPS info and automatically tag a picture in a map overlay…heck, maybe this feature is already there! I dunno…no iPhone for this boy for a while…about 6 months left on my Alltel contract with my current phone and while $200 for a termination fee isn’t a lot, it irks me to pay that, so I won’t!

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January 1, 2008 by Joel.

The time between Christmas and New Year’s day is a great time to get out and enjoy the outdoors. Here in the Southeast, the winters are relatively mild, and though it can be pretty nippy it’s often a very nice time to be out, and with the leaves off the trees, the views in the mountains can be quite spectacular.

I took my scout troop on a backpacking trip in the Shenandoah National Park, hiking the 28 miles from Thornton Gap to US522 (the northern section) from 12/28/2007 through 12/31/2007. There were three adults with eight scouts — the leaders were Carlton (1st pic in the slideshow), me (2nd pic in the slideshow) and Dave. Dave’s two boys were there, as well as Carton’s son and my youngest son.

We left Orange County NC around 8:15AM on the 28th and drove to Thornton Gap, where US211 crosses the Skyline drive. Dave took the scouts down the trail about 3.5 miles to the first campsite (Beahm’s Gap) while Carlton and I shuttled cars to have one at each end of the hike. It was cool & overcast, but not raining. The scouts got to the campsite around 3PM, and Carlton and I arrived about 4:30PM. It was a good thing I’d stopped at REI to pick up some tarps, since it started raining about 4:45…we cooked and sat around under the tarps. The guys seemed to have a great time hanging the food up a tree in the “bear bag”, given the laughter, despite the rain.

Dawn Saturday broke to overcast skies, but with the promise of clearing. It was a very nice day, no rain, and temps pushing into the low 50’s. Met some PATC trail workers who told us of a forecast for freezing precipitation on Sunday, so we started gearing up. Hiked to Gravel Springs shelter for the night, about 11 miles. That “vitamin I” (ibuprofen) is a good thing ;-). Made camp about 3:30PM. A nice night, mild, no rain, and plenty of room in the shelter.

Sunday started cool and cloudy, with the promise of rain. It was a great day for hiking, with temps in the upper 30’s and just a few spits of rain, never enough for raingear. Made the 10 miles to Tom Floyd wayside by 3PM. This was a small shelter, and we crammed our group in like sardines ;-). The freezing precipitation never materialized at our lower elevation, and we just had rain on the roof.

On Monday morning (New Year’s Eve), Carlton and I got out early, about 7:15AM, to go to US522 and shuttle the cars. There was a little bit of ice on the road, but the VA DOT had been out and salted and sanded, so things were fine.

We got the cars back to 522 by 10:15, and we loaded up and headed for home, not before eating out the buffet at Golden Corral in Charlottesville.

A great time was had by all!

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December 23, 2007 by Joel.

Glad to have some time off! I don’t have to be back at work at UNCG until January 2nd; am looking forward to some time off to recharge. Family holiday stuff early in the week, and then taking the scouts on a winter backpacking trip in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. We’ll hike the northern section of the park, from Thornton Gap to US522 near Front Royal. It’s about 30 miles; we’ll spend 3 nights on the trail, getting back on New Year’s Eve…

Look for some pictures in a couple of weeks!

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December 23, 2007 by Joel.

Jeff, my youngest son (17 now) had a big week. On Saturday the 15th, he passed his karate Black Belt test, and then on Tuesday the 18th he received his Eagle Scout award. Jan and I haven’t seen him at karate much since he started driving himself, and we were pretty impressed with his skills. His Eagle award is the culmination of several years of hard work (but a lot of fun too!). Only about 2% of boys who start in scouting get their Eagle. Jason, my other son, received his Eagle award as well, back in 2002.

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October 3, 2007 by Joel.

My youngest son, Jeff, passed his Eagle Scout board of review Tuesday night, 10/2, and has now joined both me and his older brother in achieving Boy Scouting’s highest rank. I’m quite pleased! I was Jeff’s scoutmaster for much of his scouting career (I’ve just passed that on, as I “retire” from scout unit leadership). Scouting, Marching Band, and Karate have been big things for Jeff. Now, he can focus on trying to finish his black belt in karate.

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May 27, 2007 by Joel.

Wanted to get out of the house and enjoy some of the nice, summer-like weather. The dogs love to go swim in the lake, so Jan and I loaded up the boat with lounge chairs, the back of the truck with the dogs and headed out this morning. Just a quick trip, since there is so much boat traffic at Jordan Lake on holiday weekends, I like to get out early and back early. This is the first time out with the boat this year, and I had to work on some problems yesterday. The steering mechanism was rusted, so had to take it apart and grease it up. The biggest problem though is that the power tilt relay to move the motor “down” has failed. It was failing last summer, but would always work after hitting the switch a few times. I was actually pretty pleased with my outboard mechanic work, figuring out that it was the relay and not the tilt motor itself. I read a bit, and swapped the relays, and then the motor went down, pretty as you please. I just have to get a new relay by next weekend when I go to the lake with the Scouts. Today, I raised the motor up for trailering, then swapped the relay at the ramp to lower the motor, and then swapped them back so I could raise it when I got back to the ramp. The skeg cleared the ramp down, so it was OK. Worked, but a bit kludgey. I just need to find a PTT relay for a 1999 Tohatsu 40Hp outboard now

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March 27, 2007 by Joel.

So, back on Feb. 21, I lost my cell phone at scouts.  I was pretty hacked with myself, but hey, I’ve flushed a pager, so what’s dropping a phone in the woods.  I went to the cell phone store, bought a new one, and went on about my business.  So, today, Mar. 27, we were cleaning out the scout hut and sorting gear.  Apparently I did not drop it in the woods, it was in the hut, and was actually still powered on (albeit very low battery).  What makes this really funny is that today, my younger son forgot to take his phone out of his pants pocket before mom threw them into the washer.  Killed that phone, and I was heading to the store to buy him a new one tomorrow.  So, manna from heaven.  I will get this one reprogrammed for him, as it’s a nicer phone anyway.

WooHoo!

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January 15, 2007 by Joel.

Troop 449 took advantage of the 3-day weekend and traveled to Washington, DC to do some sight-seeing and work on Citizenship in the Nation Merit Badge. We started with a Saturday night tour of the Mall with the lights on the monuments. This ranged from the silly antics of the scouts at the Washington Monument to the spectacular fountains of the WWII memorial, to the eerie glow of the Korean War Memorial. Saturday, we scattered around the Mall, visiting the Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Air & Space, among others. Stopped briefly at the capital for a picture of your correspondent. Had dinner Saturday at Ben’s Chili Bowl, a piece of Washington History! Drove back Monday, after visiting Arlington National Cemetary. All in all a great trip!

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January 12, 2007 by Joel.

From the pause of the holidays, to full speed ahead! Things are really getting in gear at work and at home. It’s time for a new semester, which is always fun. I’ve always enjoyed the sense of a new beginning, both as a student and as an instructor. I’ve got another small group (15 students) for my systems analysis class, which is a nice number. Enough for good group dynamics but small enough to really engage everyone. It’s a busy time at my “day job” at MCNC as well, as we are in the throws of a strategic planning process, as well as getting ready to enter budget planning season.

On the home front, Scouts are busy (heading to Washington, DC on a trip tomorrow), though I’m stepping down as scoutmaster after 6 years to hand the mantle to one of my compatriots. After being a scoutmaster and a cubmaster for several years before that, I’m ready to step back from the “front-man” role. My youngest son, Jeff, is working on his Eagle project, restoring parts of an old cabin at Moorefields Plantation near Hillsborough, NC. Hope to finish by early February.

High School band is still moving on (I’m president of the band boosters) but as Jeff is not in the winter club ensembles, my personal involvement is not as great as in marching season.

Nothing of great substance here; just wanted to post a few fresh bits…

CYA!

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