Springtime and Old Glory

A few years ago, my parents gave my wife and I one of those sets with an American flag and a mounting kit in it.

At the time, we were living in an apartment and really didn't think A> That they would let us mount a flag on our deck, and B> That our neighbors wouldn't say something about it. So it stayed put up, until just recently.

When we moved into a house a few months ago, one thing that I was actually excited about was the fact that it had a flag mount already attached near the garage door.

(The cooler thing is that the flag mount actually has room for two flags and allows one to fly higher. So I already know the lower one is going to be put to use this fall with a brand-spanking new, bright orange Clemson tiger paw flag that I need to go buy)

About two weeks ago, I decided since the weather has gotten nice that I would finally put our flag up. It has been displayed proudly since.

I want to get a light with a photosensor and put it outside, so that when the sun goes down it will shine on the flag. You know you're not supposed to ever fly the American flag at night unless it is properly illuminated in such a fashion that the light is focused on the flag? Well... that was one of the first things I learned in Scouts.

Read more about the U.S. Flag Code and flag etiquette

I used to enjoy doing ROTC flag detail in the mornings and afternoons in high school - getting to go put the colors up and then, later in the day, take them down. It one of those things that until you do it, you just don't fully appreciate the honor and tradition of it.

I'm sure the neighbors think I'm weird because I take it down each night as the sun is setting and the first thing I do after I have dressed to go to work in the morning is go put the flag out. I take it down when it rains like you're supposed to, also. That's their prerogative.

The son of a friend of ours who crashes with his sister here at our place when their mom is out of town asks when they're over if he can put the flag out in the morning. I think that's awesome that he wants to do that. He's in JROTC and plans to go into the military, so it's good to get him in the practice of doing that anyway.

But a few days ago - I can't remember where my wife and I were coming from -- we got home and noticed that the neighbors beside us have put an American flag out also.

I don't know why they put one out -- whether out of pride, or to keep up with the Joneses, or because someone new on the block has one out and they feel comfortable having one out now to - or if it's some sort of contest... I have no clue.

But either ignorantly or lazily they don't take it down at night. I'm not going to go point out to them that they're supposed to. I may discuss the points of flag etiquette on my blog ... but don't want to start arguments in a new neighborhood or make our neighbors feel stupid. There's no point.

People can respect the flag or disrespect it all they want. But to love it is a different thing altogether.

I know why I fly it and why I treat it with respect and love. I fly it for our soldiers. I fly it to show respect for our nation's leaders, regardless of whether I agree with their politics or not. I fly it in honor of the people who founded this country, fought for it, and have died for it.

I have grandfathers who served this nation proudly -- fighting in northern Africa, Italy, and the shores of Normandy. I fly it in honor of them.

Alot of people are fairweather patriots. About mid-June you'll start to see some flags pop up here and there along Main Street or on other neighbors houses and they'll stay out through mid-July, and then be put up in closets until the same time next year.

Mine's going to stay out though. Until it gets tattered; then I'll probably take it to one of the local Scout troops and let them dispose of it. And then I'll buy another one.

Win, Win

Where we live

Where we woke up

The snow totally missed us. Or we missed the snow. Depends on which way you look at it.

I'm not sure if I'm disappointed or not. Having grown up in western PA, snow ain't that big of a thing to me. But we get it so rarely down here in Upstate SC, that it is nice to see.

Then there is the flipside. Snow and Upstate SC is generally a pretty descriptive situation, from bad to amusing to good to dangerous - because we do get it so rarely.

I'm pretty sure that I won't get to take a makeup snow day for not having been at home to not go into work on the snow day we had today.

But either way, I got some vacation this week. Win, win.

Snow at the Beach?

It had already been raining for more than a day when my wife and I started following the winter weather forecast yesterday with both excitement and concern.

They were calling for snow at the beach -- our Sunday destination.

We woke up Sunday morning to the sound of a steady rain outside our house and puddles throughout neighborhood yards. No snow -- yet.

I had to go down to the conference at the beach this week, regardless -- it was already paid for and plus I'm on the board. So as my wife, who had taken the three conference days off for her own vacation time, debated whether or not she was going to go, I finished packing and loaded up the car.

OK, decision time --- are you going or not?

She really wanted to see snow. Even as time to leave the house neared, they were predicting heavy snow for our region of the state and some down at the beach.

So we hop in the trusty Honda and head off in the rain to pick up the rental car. We spent up until the Florence area in on-and-off rain. But as we neared Myrtle Beach we saw the sky and clouds turning a friendly color and the sun begin to poke out.

Apparently there is several inches of snow on the ground back home. And none here. In the past few hours, several hundred miles away, I've had to call TV stations back home and log on to websites to update them with the fact the college I work at is closed tomorrow.

We're still waiting to see whether that snow is going to hit down here. They say there is still a slight chance of precipitation tomorrow here.

She's on her computer right now, sighing and giving the TV a look of disgust as they talk about all the snow we got back home.

But as I sit here on the balcony blogging and looking out at the ocean, feeling the crisp winter wind, and listening to and watching the waves roll in -- there's a chill in the air. Slivers of moonlight are casting down through the slightly overcast sky onto the waves which seem to be reflecting back a message of "bring on that snow, buddy. We'll just wash it away."

It's not your typical coastal night. It's a weird feeling. Of course there's no precipitation coming down right now in any form, but I just can't help but wonder what snow at the beach would be like.

Looks like either way you cut it, we have the option of either making a snowman or a sandman tomorrow.

The Last Hurrah of the Rabbit Ears?

My wife and I have never had our cable TV or internet with our current provider go out due to an electrical storm. On the random occasions when it's been out, they've never really given us an explanation.

We had gotten out of Praise Team practice at our church this evening about 8:30 when it started to thunder and lightning pretty intensely. We hadn't eaten dinner so we decided to stop by our favorite local meat&three/grease joint. As we were eating, the lightning was getting closer and the thunder was getting louder. Then here comes the local fleet of fire trucks barreling down the road past the restaurant in full response mode.

"There goes Scott," I said to my wife. Scott is a friend of ours from church who is a member of the local fire department.

Knowing some nasty rain was about to start dropping, we hurried up, got in the car and headed home. It poured for about half of the way home and then stopped, along with the lightning and thunder.

"Crazy Upstate storms," I thought.

When we got in, we turned on the TV to check the local weather -- and we saw snow. I went into the office to check the Internet connection. Nothing.

Called our cable provider's service line. They said the electrical storm had knocked out service for a large part of the county, and they would call us when it was restored. I still haven't received that call.

Top Chef was about to come on, which we both wanted to watch. Now we couldn't. Neither of TVs were picking up any air signals on their own.

Then my wife asked, "Don't we have a box somewhere of all kinds of wires? Can't you rig something up?"

Yeah, sure. I'll McGyver something together. So as I hunted through our storage closet, I found the box I was looking for --- and inside was the set of rabbit ears that that my dad had bought probably 20 years ago or more at Radio Shack and I had taken to college. Sweet, let's give these a try.

I was hoping they would come out of the box with a coax adapter attached. No such luck. I did some more rummaging and found one. I did a little bit of repair work on one of the wires, crossed my fingers, and connected the rabbit ears to the TV.

Snow.

Ok, time to pirouette with the antenna, bend over backwards, point my finger in the air like John Travolta and see what we get. After some manuvering of the antenna to and fro, turning of its dial back and forth, and bracing one of the ears on the window curtain, we were set.

They picked up pretty good -- all of the immediate local channels and even, to a degree, the ABC signal coming down from the mountains of North Carolina.

"Enjoy it while it lasts honey," I said, "Next year this time, this isn't going to work."

H-Day. Feb 16, 2009. The day when all the TV stations are to have stopped broadcasting analog signals.

Maybe the the first electrical stom to take out our cable will end up being the last time I take out the rabbit ears. If that winds up being the case, they just got their last 75 minute hurrah.

I'll keep them around until then. But I'm not sure if after that February day next year I'll keep them stuffed in that box or throw them out. I really would have no reason to keep them around, other than as a prop for a forthcoming "When I was your age, I didn't have millions of little 0's and 1's coming down a beam of light into the TV. I used this baby right here to pick up TV signals" anecdote to be told to my yet-to-be-born children.

The "S" Word

So it happened last night.....

The dreaded "S' word. Snow.

I grew up in a part of the country where snow really isn't that big of a deal. In Western Pennsylvania it snows quite frequently during the winter. It's not an every day occurance, but it does happen several times a winter and, when it does, it can be several inches at a time. So people are used to it. And kids go to school while it is fresh on the ground.

Snow is an awesome thing under the right circumstances. And it's magical when you're a child.

I clearly remember many times in elementary school when there was snow on the ground and we were at school. One year, we had a snow sculpting contest in lieu of several hours of class. Some friends and I piled snow together and carved out a sports car. We lost.

There was a rather large hill overlooking the neighbrohood where I lived in Pennsylvania. After a good snowfall, you could often find my friends and I barreling through trees on our sleds and racing down the hill. We would build snow forts in our front yards and throw snowball across the street at each other.

Okay, so that's my memory lane trip for the day.

Now as an adult, I still find snow pretty awesome. We were watching some neighbors' kids this morning taking advantage of the snow day to build a snowman and have some snowball fights. We even took our cats outside and let them walk around in the snow. They didn't like that too much and went right back inside.

But as much as I love snow, it's a pain in the ass -- well, it's a pain in the ass when it snows in the south.

If you have never been down south when there is a prediction of snow, you wouldn't believe this. You may have heard stories. If you're a transplanted Yankee you most certainly were amazed at this when you first saw it happen. And if you're a typical southerner, you may be guilty of this --- but when there is a even a prediction of snow around here, the first thing people do is go raid the groceries stores and buy all the milk and bread and all the schools are immediately cancelled for the next day.

I went to our local Bloom grocery store about 8 pm to pick up some odds and end last night -- not emergency rations by any means. But I laughed when I saw there were only three gallons of milk left -- all skm -- and four loaves of bread.

Seriously, people -- do you really think that you're going to be stuck at home for days on end just because of a inch of two of snow, even if it does fall? Come on. The average family of three or four can consume a gallon of milk within 3 days. That same average family can probably go through a loaf of bread in 3-4 days. If you're at home that long during the snow, it's more than likely because you're too scared to go out.

Granted since this area does not get snow or ice that often, it's not as experienced in preparing the roads, clearing the roads, or driving on them. But the crews around here do a pretty darn good job. Even with 2-3 inches on the ground, most of the roads around here have been drivable all day long.

The drivers on the other hand are a little crazy. Most people around here are scared of driving on snow or ice and tend to stay home, which is good because if you don't know how to drive on it, you shouldn't. But there are some that don't even know how to drive when the roads are dry that go out and make things dangerous for everyone else by driving on the snow/ice.

Either leave the driving on ice and snow to the people that know how to do it correctly, or take some time when it does snow/ice to go somewhere where you can practice driving on it. Do that as much as you can. That way you can build up that skill for the next time this happens.

Still, snow around here is pretty cool. It got me out of work today. Although I had the standard 5:30 am call to tell me to let the news media know our college was going to be closed today. So in the predawn hours I was on the phone and on the internet updating our website to reflect that, and letting out local TV stations know. Fun way to start off the morning, but at least I got to sleep in afterwards.

It's Finally Fall!

This year, Fall arrived late around here, comparatively -- the weather and fall foliage.

I don't consider it Fall until people start to ask me why I'm not wearing a jacket.

Some of my co-workers started asking me that yesterday. I'm not big on wearing a jacket though -- or long sleeve shirts. It's weird to explain -- I just don't like the feeling of my arms being restricted.

Being originally from Pennsylvania, I have a totally different take on what is cold down here in South Carolina - not necssarily on what is hot though, because I think everyone can agree when it starts to get hot around here.

Fall to me is when the cool weather feels crisp... when it's an invigorating kind of cold. Highs between 50 and 60, I'm there. I can put up with colder temperatures -- yeah, when it drops below 40 it's rather cold, but still bearable. Once it gets below 30, the jacket is on.

Fall cold is exciting. It's that weather that when you experience it, you can't help but think about it being Football game cold. Some of my most favorite memories are hanging out watching football games, whether in high school or college, and not having to necesarily have a jacket on when the game starts but before it's over, you're like, "Yeah, I think I'll put it on." Something about that Football game cold just makes you want to scream louder for your team, and pull your girl closer.

Yet, you still want to hang around and watch the game because no cold can drive you away. Football games in 90+ degree heat suck. You just sweat.

Thankfully the cool weather has arrived. If it could stay this temperature year round, I'd be happy. But I like snow too, so bring it on!