i couldn't have known, despite my obsessive bar-study-induced-research about chatham county, what a remarkable community we were moving into.
it's hard to know where the story begins and (sigh) i don't have the time to tell the whole thing. but as you might know, last week was an anti-walmart week across the country (centered in part on screenings of the new documentary). it was particularly well-timed in chatham county, as the commissioners considered two pro-development zoning and land use regulations last night. tracy and i went with neighbors crystal and jan (yay). it was better than church (and with more whoopin' & hollarin' too!) and more impressive than court (due to the size of the crowd, they moved it to the old courthouse - yep! the old one in the center of town).inspirational. who knows where the commissioners' votes will fall, but in a way it doesn't matter: such impassioned participation from a local community may be a bit slower than a board vote, but it's exponentially more powerful. i have no doubt, after the most recent election and witnessing that meeting, that these residents (me!) will get what they want, and before long. the local press does a pretty good job of summing the rest of it up...
i came upon these two sites today and found them both worth sharing.
first, journal entries and pictures from seven minnesota high school students who are traveling with MN's governor to china. how cool. i spend a lot of time reading about dismal performance in american schools, so the quality of these students' journal entries was particularly refreshing. also quite a portrait of those good ol' midwesterners.
and on a more local note (for some of you), a chatham county site devoted to all things local, reported in the independent. cool - and useful. :)
as tracy describes it, the "thinking man's" school bus yellow.
hard to capture the color on a monitor. but much better than the blue we had before, eck.
yep, so that's what we did this weekend, homeowners we are. this working-around-the-house stuff has already taken over! and now we have a yellow bedroom. ah, the simplicity of the blog report. :)
also resulting from yesterday's local elections: a bit more security for wake county's policy of assigning students based (in part) on socioeconomic status. a second yay.
a short post with some pictures from the weekend. too tired and way too disorganized to post more. mom and ginger came down yesterday for an impromptu visit (i am seriously the luckiest daughter & sister, ever) and we mowed the lawn. all afternoon. boy that grass was long (you can see tracy nearly airborne, fighting it with our enviro-friendly mower). pictures, compliments of ginger. the lovely plant next to the front door, compliments of dad. more soon.
from the chatham journal.it may interest no one but me, but i think it's great.this one, interesting too. looks like "developer" is turning into a four-letter word in the pittsboro vocabulary. see? if i keep this up we'll all be wrapped up in small town politics in no time.
ok, ok. james is not the only one who's asked about my passing reference to marshmallow shooters. it's true, had i not seen one for myself i would have been very curious about what, exactly, they are. first of all, they are not related to jello shooters at all. these are designed for kids (really). evidently, you can shoot marshmallows from guns of all forms, but the ones we saw look like this.
you put a few small marshmallows in the long end, aim, and blow through the top pipe. i can't say for sure with what force the little balls of sugar coming flying out. but it's fun - you can even make one yourself.
as for the big hole in our yard, i also probably owe further explanation: the reflecting pool pictured below conceals a hole that's about 3 feet deep and lined with tiles. in the middle of the hole there is a very large pipe and a very important valve. the town has had to increase its water pressure recently in order to accomodate the new homes that are going in up the hill in chatham forest. the pressure necessary to get water up the hill is way too high for homes like ours back on "pittsboro-level." thus, the valve, of which we are the town's trusted stewards. if anything goes wrong with it, the hole will contain the water temporarily, and (in theory) still allow room for two people (presumably not tracy and me?) to access the pipes to fix it. thus, no dirt over the hole: it must be accessible at all times. anyone understand this better than i, to offer a more accurate explanation?
by the way, while i'm taking a minute away from work to write this post (eek?), i should mention (somewhat sheepishly) that i browsed around other blogs yesterday, and got some sense of our company here on blogger. not only do we use the SAME color format as everyone else around the world :), but i feel a bit frivolous for not using the space to analyze jihad or document worldwide travels or debate local politics. but to be sure, the purpose of this (join me, tracy?) was to provide pictures and some stories from our lives, which are refreshingly simple... hope you're still enjoying.
james, thanks for the comment. y'all post more to let us know if you're reading? :) thanks.
