In trying to be heard, do we forget to listen?

As a salesman for many years, I learned to appreciate the ability to be quiet when you needed to be quiet.

Sometimes you get to a logical point where whoever speaks next loses the verbal sparring.

That may sound strange unless you have been in one of those moments but it does happen.

Sometimes I wonder if all our efforts to be heard among the onslaught of Internet media have dulled our senses of listening.

There is so much on the Internet now, the effort to be heard take a lot of work.

I am surprised at people, who have what seems like critical questions that I get by email, rarely find the time to say thanks when I provide a timely answer.

I had someone write me in panic on Monday that he just had to have a reservation at a particular restaurant that I had written about the previous year. His special occasion included his wife.

He thought the phone number had changed. I calmly sent an email informing him that the place was closed on Mondays.

Of course he could have figured that out himself had he taken the time.

He didn't, and there was no surprise that he also forgot to say thanks.

He yelled for an answer, but apparently was too busy to hear it delivered.





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The need for an audience

If you are blogging, you probably enjoy having an audience. If you make comments on a blog to a certain extent, you also want an audience.

Many blogging services are free, so it is pretty easy to make the transition to writing a blog from making comments.

Of course it helps if you have something to say, and you can find some people willing to listen.

It will be three years this November when I did my first post. In those days I felt lucky if a few people would read them in a week. It is not unusual these days to have over three thousand visitors in a day.

I have had a day or two after writing something particularly popular like my Guardian article on Steve Jobs and the iPhone when twenty thousand people have visited in a day.

There is lots of stuff on the web these days, the challenge is creating interesting content that is worth reading and connecting with the people who might enjoy it.

It is easy to get lost in the forest of blogs. I have my own Southern Outer Banks website where I do new content once or twice a week when time permits.

My original View from the Mountain blog gets the most regular attention, but I also have a Coastal NC Blog, and I have started one on WordPress and a Carteret County blog on .Mac just to try out some new forums.

I find many of those who post harsh opinions aren't willing to expose themselves to public opinion by having their own blogs. It is not easy work and most of these folks would rather be snipers.

I find topics are easy to come by, but the time to do quality writing is at a premium. If I could just write and take pictures, I would be a happy camper. Unfortunately these things don't pay the bills.

My real estate efforts at blogging are actually work, but I still enjoy the writing. Having a ready audience make it a lot easier.

Gabrielle brushes by us

As noon eastern time slides by, Gabrielle continues to amble towards the coast.

I have been watching the storm forecasts with great interest most of the week.

Though the picture to the right might look like we have a lot of water. The levels are normal and about what we would expect to see based on the tides.

Friday evening I wrote a post, Quiet Waters before the Storm. I was impressed with the peaceful waters of the White Oak River near our home which is on the water near the Silver Creek Golf course on the linked map.

Then I wrote a post, Storm Watch. At the time my favored weather service, Accuweather, up in State College, PA was making the prediction that Gabrielle was going to turn into a Category 1 hurricane before coming inland.

I think they might be better at football up in Happy Valley than they are at hurricane forecasting. Their most recent 11 am Sunday synopsis says this.

The AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center expects landfall along the North Carolina coast between Jacksonville and Cape Hatteras by early Sunday afternoon.

Jacksonville, NC happens to be almost twenty miles inland. This morning I was pretty convinced that all the weathermen (especially the Weather Channel ones) were trying to wish Gabrielle into a hurricane.

As you can hopefully see from this Weather Underground image, now it looks most of the rain will miss western Carteret County where I live.

For two days prior to the storm, predictions were that we would get three inches or more of rain with isolated areas getting over five inches. Finally the forecasters are acknowledging what I can already deduce from my slightly damp driveway.

...rainfall will range from an inch or less inland to up to three
inches on the Outer Banks and with isolated amounts of 5 inches possible.

I know that figuring out storms is incredibly difficult, but you would think someone would have been close on Gabrielle. It seems like everyone just has a slightly different version of wrong.

I guess this is just a really good example of how complex weather can be. We certainly don't know enough to predict what is going to happen a few hours from now. I wonder how good we can possibly be at predicting what is going to happen years from now.

All summer those of us on the coast have labored under the double whammy of a poor real estate market and a much hyped report that said Carteret County was the top target in the country for a hurricane this season. I just hope whoever paid for the report didn't pay very much.

Even as I finish this post the sky seems to be getting lighter. Today isn't even turning out to be a good rainy day.

Maybe it is time to point out that I have a new travel guide for the Emerald Isle Beaches which aren't far from us and are still open for business.

I suspect all that is happening from Gabrielle over on the beach is that the surfers are getting some nice waves. It is probably really nice time to take a walk on the beach since the temperatures are very moderate and there is a nice breeze.

We will have to wander over a little later in the day and take a few pictures of the waves. I wonder if the Weather Channel would like me to send them a copy?

It is nice to know that the Southern Outer Banks can get so much attention based on such a minor storm. Our first year here has been really nice. I was hoping that we could make it through our anniversary date without a bad storm. That date was yesterday.

It is nice to have a wish come true.

Maybe we will be as lucky next year.

Enduring the storms of life

There are plenty of storms here on the Crystal Coast during the summer months. You can almost count on a thunderstorm each afternoon.

Sometimes they come during the night. Last week we had one so intense in the middle of the night that you could read a book by the lightning.

Still thunderstorms eventually stop, the rain tapers off, and they move on.

Unfortunately human relations aren't so predictable especially when it comes to partnerships.

I got involved in my first partnership when I was just over twenty-one, it ended badly. The last time I tried to speak to my former partner, he would only grunt at me. The worst thing was that he wouldn't even tell me what I had done to make him so mad.

This was a guy who came to the partnership with only sweat equity. I had the money, we both worked hard, and we shared the results equally. I thought we were pretty good friends. I gave him the money for his wife's wedding ring.

When he wanted to buy me out, I only charged him what I paid for the property plus an agreed upon percent increase on what I paid. It was a reasonable price for very good coastal property.

Still he, like almost every partner, ended up feeling like he got the short end of the deal.

I guess if he was going to be mad at me anyway, I should have asked for the money I gave him for the wedding ring, but I just let it ride since I felt that would be rubbing salt into his wounds.

I think the fundamental problem with partnerships is that two people can say the same thing and each hear something completely different.

Not quite a year ago we got into another partnership. I didn't go looking for the partnership. I was actually headed in another direction when it found me. I knew it would fail as almost all partnerships do. Why did I agree to it?

I think at my core, I am fundamentally an optimist. I want to think the best about people.

Also I though maybe if I bent over far enough on this partnership, that it just might work.

This time we started with equal money, then I put lots more in and then we both put more in. I did all the work and got most of the benefit since the state reason for my partner's involvement was a long term investment and a place to have fun for a couple of weeks a year.

My new rule is the farther I bend, the quicker the partnership ends. I went to a lot of expense to make sure this partner got out with no monetary loses. Unfortunately I can't say the same for myself. You would think making sure that they lost no money would at least get a thank you, but I don't think I will hold my breath. Not losing money didn't fix the broken friendship.

At this point in my life, that's probably the last partnership that I will attempt.

Written agreements don't help either. I think the net of it is that all partnerhships are doomed to fail.

Partnerships end up being a long lasting way to mess up friendships.

Horned worms and walking the plank

I cannot imagine a good reason for tomato hornworms to exist.

They do a tremendous amount of damage. They are pretty gross to top it off.

Maybe if you were six or seven years old and wanted to hear girls scream a lot, they might be useful.

My wife, who is a few decades older than six, still hates tobacco worms as we call them. Whenever she finds one, I have to dispatch it.

They are even nastier when they are covered with the little white cocoons of a braconid wasp. However, the wasps have basically eaten the hornworm alive and it left alone will hatch and create more wasps to eat more hornworms.  

For a long time I thought white things were hornworm eggs but I was wrong so now I protect the hornworms with the cocoons.  The hornworm at that stage is already dead. This is from OSU.

Tiny wasps also help to manage this pest by laying eggs inside the caterpillar's body. A special type of braconid wasp inserts dozens of eggs into the caterpillar. Each egg hatches into a wasp larva, which then feeds on nonessential organs and tissue inside the caterpillar's body. The caterpillar starts to slow down as this happens, eventually ceasing to feed or move. Its body turns from bright green to greenish-brown, but the caterpillar is still alive.

Next, the wasp larvae chew through the caterpillar's skin to pupate. Each white object you see on the caterpillar's body is the cocoon of one of these wasps. A new generation of adult wasps will emerge from these cocoons to mate and lay eggs on the next crop of hornworms. To reduce the population of hornworms in your garden, leave the cocoon-carrying caterpillars alone. 

We have been pretty successful with our tomatoes this year. In fact they have done much better than last year's ugliest tomatoes ever.

We got our first tomato on July 5 here in the Cape Carteret on the NC coast.

We managed to hit that date in spite of a sneak attack by the Hornworms.

However, we have also been bothered by Fiddler Crabs eating the tomatoes as they get ripe.

Today when I went outside I found that the Hornworms had come after the tomatoes in force once again.

Instead of throwing them in the street and watching them explode on contact, I decided a more coastal punishment was in order.

I launched a small piece of tomato plant with the Horn Worm still attached into the salt water gut behind our home.

It was my version of making them walk the plank.

Only one of the four was able to get in position to suck in some air for a while. The others went quickly.

I have probably lost a dozen tomatoes to tomato monsters this year.

The devastation they have caused has been considerable. So far the score is Horned Worms 12, David 8.

I wonder if these worms make good Bluefish bait.

Of Walmarts, SOBX and necessity

My daughter who lives in Reston, Virginia tells me that Walmarts in that part of the country are not very nice.

In her college years at Sweet Briar, she and her friends considered the Lynchburg, Virginia Walmart one of the cleaner spots to shop.

On the Crystal Coast of North Carolina, often known as the Southern Outer Banks, Walmart is a necessity whether you are furnish a new house or picking up things for your boat.

Traveling to shop has been a way of life in remote coastal areas is nothing new.

We were shopping for both the boat and house recently. We spent a couple of hours in the Morehead City Walmart. I found everything I wanted except a boat anchor, and I think they were just out of them since I got the anchor line and chains. The store was clean and bright.

There are things that Walmart does not carry so later I still stopped by one of our local hardwares where I do most of our shopping anyway. I needed some lag bolts.

It looks like we might be getting a Walmart in Cedar Point to go along with our new Lowe's Home Improvement Store in Cape Carteret. I suspect the damage to local business will be minimal since both have been available within fifteen to twenty minutes driving for a long time.

I can only take Walmart in mid-week and only about once a quarter. My contact lens solution was $2 a bottle cheaper, and I do not even want to think how much cheaper the anchor line and ropes were than if I had bought them at one of the specialty boating dealers who get plenty of my money anyway.

I think good local businesses can survive the competition from Lowe's and Walmart, they just need to specialize in quality products and maintain high levels of service.

I'll go to a local hardware store anytime over Lowe's. Recently I was pleased to find a local Ace Hardware that carried Echo trimmers. Lowe's doesn't carry them or the freshly roasted Methodist peanuts that all of our local hardwares have on their front counters. An Echo trimmer is the only kind I will use.

The challenge with Walmart is that we didn't have anything local to compete with it anyway.

Still when I am walking across the giant Walmart parking lot, I can only think about how nice a boat ride would be or maybe a walk on the beach.

The Southern Outer Banks are no Reston when it comes to shopping, and it is going to be a long time before we get much beyond Walgreen's, Lowe's, and Walmart.

In the Emerald Isle-Cedar Point-Cape Carteret area, we do not have a single chain restaurant beyond a few fast food ones. That's just fine with me, the restaurants and services we have are just about right for someone who doesn't like to shop anyway.

I figure 17 miles is about as close as I want to be to a Best Buy anyway. Anything for my photography addiction can't even be found in Reston so there is little hope ever for it here on the coast.

I think we might even escape the iPhone hype which is good since a bunch of them would screw up my new AIBRS.

The steam is here

The first days of June have exceeded expectations for heat.

I checked temperatures for Northern Virginia on June 8.

The high temperature was 97 degrees Fahrenheit.

Fortunately I am not in the land of suits but on the Carolina coast.

I managed to jump in the pool slightly after 7 am. The air was already warm on the walk over to the pool.

By the time I drove from Cape Carteret to Emerald Isle, the temperature was already over 80.

We were lucky it did not get much hotter during the day. I am thankful for sea breezes off an ocean that has yet to reach its summer maximum temperatures.

The water temperatures of around 75 degrees and the breezes they generate help to cool us down nicely in the evenings.

The best way to tell that summer is really here is when I get out of the air conditioned car and my glasses immediately fog up. It also happens to my cameras.

The fogging of the sun glasses happened this morning, and the camera fogged up tonight, so it should be official that summer and its steam are here.

It is a good thing that my blood has thinned. Well the weather is great for growing tomatoes.