Sunday's storm

A "bowed" cell came through, with strong winds that bought down trees and power lines. I could never quite get a shot of our tree in a really good windblown position.

Weekly Wrapup

On the Bank Meltdown: I can't remember who said this, and as a good journalist I should cite my sources, but then again, this isn't the N&O it's only my blog. So I'll just say the speaker was one of the government figures in this financial mess. He said, and I don't quote, because I can't . . . it is a bad idea to cap bank executive's pay and bonuses because the people who did the damage are already gone, and a cap would hinder the ability to hire new executives. I do remember he used the word "mediocre" as in, we would only be able to attract mediocre talent. I guess mediocre talent isn't as good as high-priced talent; like the high-price talent who bought the country to this brink of financial collapse in the first place? Hmmm.

New in Morrisville: Yesterday we looked at the new "urban" flats at Grace Park. The project was originally intended as condominiums, but was switched over to rentals because of the housing slowdown and a problem with obtaining permits to complete a large project in one swoop. As a result, the model suites were very nice, but, you could see where they cut back. For one thing, an elevator shaft is roughed out, but there will be no elevator. Another thing; the agent said they have the new "acid wash concrete" floors, and said it like that was a good thing. To me it was clearly a way to save money on floor covers over the concrete. It was cold, unattractive and caused her high heels to echo. But apparently it's "the latest". So when did they start acid washing concrete instead of jeans?

In Conclusion:
This is why I love my pets. They are my link to nature that I lose in civilization. Even if they understood what the talking heads on CNN and MSNBC say, the news would be meaningless. They don't need to own property and don't care about the latest upscale amenities. They don't get chewed out because they made a political judgement error at work and if they did they wouldn't need an aspirin later at home to fix the headache. Every day when I get home, I'm greeted by the same, happy, natural creatures despite what happened to me during the time I was away. So tonight, let's all drink a toast to our pets, and give them an extra treat for being nature's perfect barometers of what's really important.
(Photo courtesy of Betty France Photography http://www.mwt.net/~bbfrance/)

The State of Morrisville breakfast and other opportunities to miss work

The Morrisville Chamber of Commerce held a State of Morrisville breakfast last week. The tables assignments were pre-marked, and since Ward and I could find no sign that said Dissenters and Trouble-Makers, we sat at Open Seating. I had mini quiches and pineapple-orange juice. Ward had mini danish since real men only eat real quiche.

Here's some of the more interesting points:

Grace Park
They are holding an open house on Thursday, Sept. 25 from 12-3. They promise food, but it looks like you'll have to play hooky from work to attend. And when you see us there . . . we won't tell if you won't.

Wake County
Nothing to do with Morrisville, but interesting if you're watching the economy -- Wake County has a $45 million, AAA bond to sell, but can't sell it. No bank is buying municipal bonds right now.

Duke Health Care Clinic
The urgent care clinic is slated to open Nov 10 with 6 urgent care doctors, 6 primary physicians, 2 specialists and high-end imaging equipment. Their hours will be 8am - 8pm, but they didn't say whether they were open on weekends.

Roads
The DOT speaker spouted off a list of Morrisville projects. Ho hum, I can get that info from the web, and he went too fast for me anyway. But he said some notable things about roads in N.C. in general:

The cost of construction has doubled from 2002 to 2007. I don't know how they arrived at this number, but North Carolinians have driven 52.4 billion miles less this year. This means a $24 million bite out of gas taxes for the DOT coffers. Also, only Texas has more total road miles in their state, our infrastructure is aging, and NC DOT falls further behind each year on bridges that need replacing.

Retail
The retail speaker was a salesman who spoke twice as long as his allotted time. But I did glean these points from him:

First, a hot tip: The clothing market is soft right now. Go to T.J. Maxx in 60-90 days to pick up bargains as the unsold stock rolls over.

And on Park West: They have 60% of their space committed but can't name names yet. They promise to start road improvements in the fall. That's today; should I drive over and check?

Coyotes of Morrisville

Hard to believe, but some neighbors said they've seen a coyote in the subdivision, and not the kind that dances on bars, the furry kind. Range maps show that coyotes don't habitat east of the Appalachians but, lo, if there wasn't an article on WRAL.com back in August that says coyote sitings are on the rise all over the state. They've even been spotted in downtown Raleigh.

Wikipedia says that coyotes will mate with domestic dogs, but I don't think that's what Princess and 100Percent dogs have to watch out for.

To scare off a coyote just make a lot of noise. Don't worry. I will.

Coyotes are a much worse problem in California where people feed them, making them unafraid of humans.

Weekly Wrapup - Microsoft and Morrisville

From my workplace: The S(c)pammers are actually getting smarter. They realize now that poorly-worded, misspelled, shoddy-looking e-mails that scream at you to "send this to everyone in your address book" aren't fooling anybody anymore (or most anybody). The latest virus-generating e-mail looks like it comes from Microsoft with links to a security update. You only need to remember Microsoft does not send security updates through e-mail.

From my neighborhood: Orange, striped barrels in a flock! Surveyors, and the tattle-tale sign of disappearing trees. Construction is actually on at Morrisville-Carpenter Road and 54.

From my email: I promised an update on the newly sold (actually, under contract) vacant lot next to Morrisville Square link. Morrisville's planning Director wrote that the land is indeed zoned O&I, but will be translated over to High Density Residential since it is part of the Town Center Plan. Now get this. Only about 20% of the property is buildable because the rest is in a 100 year flood plain. Whoever spent $1.1 million for that will need to get their money's worth.

Weekly Wrapup

From the Toronto Star: A investigative report turned up complaints against a moving company that held customer's goods for ransom until they got $1500 above the original estimate. They were clearly breaking the law, but felt they could get away with it because the police said it was a matter for the courts, the courts denied jurisdiction, and the attorney general referred it back to the courts. A sidebar says if it happens to you, contact the Ministry of Consumer Services. Yeah. Call the government. That'll speed things up.

From Morrisville: See that big, red "Sold" sign by the vacant lot next to Morrisville Square? The seller had advertised the property zoned as Office and industrial, but approved for high density residential. Morrisville's zoning map has no high density res' indications there. Was it just a sales ploy? I hope so, and I wrote to the Planning Director to find out.

Michale Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma warns about industrialized organic foods. I hoped he was just being an alarmist, but last week's recall of ground beef delivered to Whole Foods from Coleman Natural Beef shook me up. I bought ground beef from Whole Foods during the recall period. When I checked the label, I found I had fortunately chosen the local grass fed stuff. In July Full Circle dairy got a letter from the FDA for an infraction discovered five months earlier, which actually happened seven months before that (or a year ago).

From the homefront: The dogs are doing a great job in Pet Therapy training, and Poochy Boy started on Cosequin to relieve arthritis. Cosequin is supposed to work gradually, but Poochy has come alive during our morning exercise time.

Weekly Wrapup - The Weirdness of US

From yesterday's NC17: Tyson Foods recalled 51,000 pounds of frozen raw chicken breast tenderloin because it may have contained undeclared soy. Are we the only country in the world whose raw chicken breast actually contains other food?

From last week's N&O: IBM received $750,000 in incentives from Durham County to build their new cloud computing network center in RTP. The Center will employ 10 people. That's $75,000 in taxpayer money per employee. Worth it? Some old time IBMers I know said those 10 employees will be offshore folks working remotely. They may have been joking, I don't know.

From last month's AP: "An AP-Yahoo! News poll found that pet owners favor McCain over Obama 42 percent to 37 percent, with dog owners particularly in McCain's corner." Before I vote, I want to know how the numbers change when you include Cyber pets and Chia Turtles.

Morrisville Updates

Rendering of Park West Village courtesy of Castro Group
Park West Village
Tenants will be announced soon. They have an anchor store but have not said who it is.



Walgreens
Davis Drive & Morrisville-Carpenter opening scheduled for end of August.

Walmart
- Hwy 54 & 540 store opening planned for January 2009 (though I wouldn't be surprised if they moved that to before Christmas).

- Hwy 54 & 540 Sam's Club opening planned for March 2009.

Land Use Transportation Plan
- Public can comment to the Planning Board at their August 14 meeting

- Public can comment to Town Council at their October 28 meeting

Weekly Wrapup

There is NOTHING NEW going on. That's pretty much summer for you.


Signs have gone up on Morrisville-Carpenter Road, just like promised.
















100PercentDog has started Therapy Dog Training (or we have, since most of the classes are to train us.)







And the new McDonald's at Davis Drive is open.

Another slow news day in Morrisville.

"Where's My Road" continues . . .

Photo courtesy of atom.smasher.org
If you look back at my original post, you'll see an update to the rumor. False, I've been told by Town Hall.

But there's good news. The construction company informed me they are ready to put out construction signs next week. After that they start clearing (land?) then the work will begin in conjunction with utility relocation.

Can it really be?

The Hick You Say

One of my Toronto friends said my blog has a very small town feel. I guess he means the kind of town that you can drive through without even knowing you left the town before it. Town Council is trying to fix that. Soon we'll be so homogenized you'll still be able to drive through Morrisville and not know which town you're in, but at least we won't be small anymore.

This is not a picture of where I live, but of where I work. Bambi can be mean if you get too near when her fawn is with her. This one was still learning how to walk.

Where's my road?

UPDATE - July 16
I have heard back through the Morrisville Commissioner whom I contacted that the money rumor is not true. The Town Manager wrote: "Bond proceeds never actually get comingled (sic) with the General Fund." He said audits were also done by the lenders.

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I probably shouldn't take it so personally, but WHEN will the town start the Morrisville-Carpenter and Hwy 54 widening project? The road bond passed on election day, 2004 and that Wednesday I was on a lawn chair sipping tea in front of Ben's Bargain Barn waiting for the first concrete truck. Almost four years later, I haven't seen construction worker one.

I know, we had to coordinate with the railroad, and move Billy's Hartness' house first, but... four years? So I did some sleuthing. First, the Town didn't even sell the bond until September, 2007. Second, there's rumors that the money isn't there anymore -- that once they did some consulting work on the intersection, the rest of the $3 million went into the general fund and was subsequently spent on buying property.

Listen, if I sent my kid to the store with $3 million and let him buy a candy bar, I expect some change back.

The sleuthing will continue. I'll keep you posted. Don't go too far.