Welcome to the fallout

Looks like the non-toxic fallout from the big Apex EQ plant explosion is finally settling out. A federal judge gave the ok to a 7.8 million dollar settlement between EQ and those affected by the resulting evacuation. The Dolberries share of this fortune is expected to be a cool $750. Sheesh, I got out of a day of work ... I should be paying EQ.

Other stories from Apex lately have not been nearly as pleasant. This one (about 1 mile away) and this one (about 1/2 mile away) are unpleasant reminders about the transient quality of life.

On the brighter side, Forbes magazine voted Apex the third best place to move to in the U.S. Presumably, the voting closed before people started shooting and running over people.

Sarasota landed the Orioles for $31 million of public money ... to be funded by a tourism tax. Great ... so when Dolberry comes down for Spring Training he'll be taxed to see the team that replaced the team that he started coming down to see in the first place. I'm staying in Manatee county.

Things are ok w/ Dolberry and his affiliates. APD got scalped and is no worse the wear for it. tbKMD has been running a whole bunch and is also no worse the wear for it. This week Dolberry worked a five day week for the first time since the Taft administration and am the worse for wear. And I wore the worst.

It's time for softball to start.

Small wedding

The Dolberries had a great time out in Asheboro on Thursday night at the Small wedding (Shelly and Cleve). Always great to see the Asheboro kin. It was a really nice ceremony ... held under a big tree just off the 9th green at Tot Hill Farm golf course. Interestingly, the THF course is rated the 7th hardest in the whole country by Golf Digest. Dolberry estimates he'd shoot about a 140 there.

Anyway, here are some pictures ...

This needle in a haystack life

Great time yesterday w/ the youth group up at KingsFest at Kings Dominion. Conversations w/ good friends, wooden roller coasters, and the refueling of my soul that is a Switchfoot show ... that's a great day. (Even if it takes being awake 26 hours to get all that done. Then my 6 hour nap has me up at 12:30a)

Here's the highlight of each of those 26 hours (approximately):

4a: Waking up to tbKMD accidentally dropping a boisterously noisy dish on the kitchen floor.
5a: Getting a free water from Enterprise when renting the "sketch van"
6a: Heading up to Virginia basically on time
7a: Picking up the awesomeness that is Suzy Q in Durham
8a: Listening to Skillet and Fireflight on the drive up.
9a: Seeing blue lights in the rearview and having VA State Police nab someone other than me.
10a: Getting pics of the youth group in front of the KD fountains and Eiffel Tower.
11a: Riding the Log Ride w/ Chowda & JR32
12p: Getting soaked on the Whitewater Canyon (but not as soaked ...)
1p: Seeing Chowda's face when his uncle & cousin met him for lunch.
2p: Riding the coasters and chatting w/ the crew in the lines.
3p: Watching John's $4 103 F "grape"drink melt a cup of ice in around 90 seconds.
4p: Getting a thumbs up from Jon Foreman and Drew Shirley outside the indoor coaster*.
5p: Being able to get tbKMD into the pavillion despite her having lost her ticket**.
6p: Soaking in Hawk Nelson while lying on cool grass under partly cloudy skies.
7p: Really good talk from a pastor from Queens. Learned a lot about Rdy2Ride.
8p: Am starting to like Skillet more. Adding the violin & cello were a great call.
9p: Switchfoot's Beyonce/Rhiannon version of "Gone".
10p: First ever listen to an incredibly uplifting song "Needle and Haystack Life" (see left)
11p: Watching 9 hungry youth try unsuccessfully walk-thru McDonalds drive-thru.
12a: Drinking 2 X-large diet cokes to stay awake for the drive back.
1a: Finding a open reststop to pee.
2a: Getting back to church safe and sound.
3a: The world's groggiest Monopoly game ever w/ Ry, APD, Chowda, and JR32
4a: Trying to stay awake and be banker at same time.
5a: Getting the rental van back & finding our car in the RDU lot.
6a: Returning to church for 120 minutes of sleep before pickup.

* - Dolberry conducted one of his famous interviews of Switchfoot's guitarist Drew Shirley who was wearing the same shirt I was (a lowercase people shirt). As always, Dolberry interviews are not a lot of fluff.

Dolberry: Hey Drew! Nice shirt.
Drew Shirley (pointing at my shirt and giving a victory hand gesture): "Awesome!"

** - It should be noted that she successfully managed about 1000 other things throughout the course of the day.

Switchfoot introduced their new song "Needle in a Haystack Life" w/ a quote from Einstein: "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. This is a song about being that second type of a person." Check out the song to the left. It's better than "Hello Hurricane" ... which held the title best song ever for about a week and a half. We are all "once in a lifetime" people.

Back from vacation

Great time at Emerald Isle w/ the folks, Lallys, and G'ma Fitz. Only thing that kept it from perfection was absence of Boards and Harley's owner (& maybe a nightime t-storm).

Only took one day at work to re-realize how great vacation was.

Here's a few pics. APD did a fine job manning the camera.

Hello Hurricane - Best song ever!

OK ... hyperbolic much, Dolberry? But this song rocks. Can't imagine the studio version being better than this initial live effort from Switchfoot. I've listened to it 10 times here this evening (still on Mountain time). Check out the You Tube link to the right if you're reading from Blogger.

I've been watching new skies
They've been turning blood red.
Not a doubt in my mind anymore.
There's a storm up ahead.

Hello Hurricane.
You're not enough,
Hello Hurricane.
You can't silence my love.
I've got doors and windows boarded up,
All your dead fury is not enough,
You can't silence my love

Everything I have becomes lost
Everything I have has been stripped away
Before I started building
I've counted up these costs
There's nothing left for you to take away

Hello Hurricane.
You're not enough,
Hello Hurricane.
You can't silence my love.
I've got doors and windows boarded up,
All your dead fury is not enough,
You can't silence my love

All this time fighting for control
All this time fighting for my soul
Everything inside of me surrenders
You can't silence my love
You can't silence my love

Hello Hurricane.
You're not enough,
Hello Hurricane.
You can't silence my love.
I've got doors and windows boarded up,
All your dead fury is not enough,
You can't silence my love

From thunder to tundra

After the presentations today, Dolberry headed northeast to Rocky Mountain National Park. Just like last year, there was a little bit of squally sun-rain heading out of Boulder, but by the time I hit Estes Park, it was basically broad blue sky.

Drove up the Trail Ridge road to the Tundra Nature Trail. It starts at 12, 115 feet and climbs another 250 feet on the 1 mile walk. Wow, the air is thin up that high. Hard to breathe and walk at the same time sort of thin. And despite being pre-hydrated to past flood stage, I had a bit of a headache as well getting started. Thankfully they have little information signs every 50 yards or so that you can stop and read (e.g., "lichen is a fascinating example of tundra adaptation") ... while not betraying you would have had to stop to catch your breath anyway. It was a wee bit chilly up there ... maybe mid-50's and breezy. Unlike the other trail folk, Dolberry was dressed uncomfortably in a t-shirt and shorts.

I'm not sure if it was the oxygen-deficit or natural goofiness, but I did the last stages of the "out" portion of the trail as Gollum ... cursing the nasty hobbitses while searching for my precious. You had to be there. At the end, you can climb up these rocks and cast a near-sunset shadow about a quarter of a mile down and maybe 200 yards long.

Sitting up there ... saw a herd of elk cross the road and head across the snowfields below me. Beautiful glacier lakes, humorous-looking marmots, and even higher mountain tops shining in the sun were no match for the best sight of all ... the restrooms at the trailhead. I probably peed for 3 minutes.

Anyway, great day. Wish you guys were there as well. Am guessing that Dolberry was the only person in a 50-mile radius w/o a camera, but these ones off the interwebs were pretty much what it looked like (except w/o the hunched over hobbit-like creature skulking up the trail). Thanks to the photographer at the interwebs for making them available.

Votto, part II

It turns out ... and this happens very infrequently ... that I was right about what was bugging Joey Votto. He returned to the Reds yesterday after missing three weeks. It sounds like after his dad died last August at the young age of 52 ... the sadness of that coupled w/ a realization that "we are not infinite, we are not permanent" ... pretty much got him in a bad state. At one point while on the DL, he called 911 at 3am fearful he was dying,

"I could not take it," he said. "I thought I was going to die."

So glad he's doing better and hope he realizes that it's a really a perverse sort of gift to know that life doesn't last forever.

A life spent chasing tornadoes?

So, I'm out here in the foothills of the Rockies ... attending the WRF workshop. Some of the talks were interesting; others were not (to me anyway). Coming out of the meeting after the last presentation, I was reminded of why I got into meteorology in the first place ... the sky was darkening to the north and thunder murmured from above. Having no real plans for the evening (other than to skip the conference reception) ... I decided to chase the storm like all those cool dudes and dudettes on the Discovery Channel. The radio indicated that it was severe, was over the airport, and was heading northeast.

At the beginning, it was more of a drive than a chase. Drove east through the towns of Dacono and Fort Lupton seeing only one (very cool) bolt of lightning. But as I merged onto I-76 East and could go the 75 mph speed limit ... there was a rapid narrowing of the gap between Dolberry and the darkest skies. Frigthening pulses of lightning surged from cloud to earth at 15 second intervals just to the south of the highway. I was trying to get out ahead of the storm ... to get to a point where I could watch it roll in.

I stopped in Roggen ... on a little hill ... but it was clear that the real action was further south and east. Got back on the interstate and sped on to the little town of Wiggins CO. Several miles before the exit, I saw a small shelf cloud off to the left. Called my radar back in NC (thanks Kyle) who confirmed what was becoming apparent ... I'd gotten right in the path of a big storm. Drove south down a narrow road, just like the one you see real StormChasers drive on all the time ... finally stopping when I saw some clouds lower than the rest.

I watched them for a while ... they seemed a long way off at first ... but then they seemed really close. The wind started to gust ... maybe 40 mph ... and then the rain began blowing sideways. I'll admit I was a little scared even though there was no real hints of a tornado ... just a nice sized Great Plains thunderstorm. I did a U-turn ... really a sideways T-turn ... and headed back to the interstate in a driving rain.

(There eventually was a tornado from the storm ... 80 miles downwind.)

When I was scared there ... for those first adrenelin-fueled seconds that accompany any good downdraft ... I wondered why in the world I'd driven some 70 miles to get in the path of a storm. Driving back to Boulder, wondered further if the evening was a little metaphor for life on Earth ... and whether one should chase highly-transient objects that can be both really cool (popularity, success, wins, wins, wins) yet are often suddenly destructive.

It'd be cliched if it weren't true ... but I saw a beautiful rainbow on the way back ... heading away from the storm ... heading back to a temporary home.

Dolberry Doused in D.C.

Got to go to D.C. last week ... fun experience. Honors award ceremony was nice. Got to shake Lisa Jackson's hand. (Will post picture when I get it.) Afterward we were eating lunch outside at a restaurant on Pennsylvania Ave. when numerous Homeland Security cars came racing by w/ sirens blaring ... for the Holocaust shooting less than a mile away. (I seriously don't understand how somebody can hold that much hate for that long. At some point don't you have to find something better to do w/ your life.)

After checking into my hotel, rode the Metro over to the new Nationals Park to see the Reds play the Nats. Very cool place. Right along the Potomac.

Caught a lot of BP and caught a ball on a carom. Some pre-game pics of the park.



Not many people at the game ... maybe about 30% full. Got $29 tix on the street for $20. It was a hot day, but as game time approached it started to get darker and darker.


The Reds only got two hits through the first 7 innings, but fortunately one of them was a 2-run bomb from Jay Bruce. Even better, Aaron Harang was pitching a gem and the Reds led 2-0 going into the bottom of the 9th. It had been raining off and on since about the 4th, but it got serious by the end w/ lightning and torrential rain eventually chasing everyone off the field.


I stuck around for about 45 minutes, but because I had been up since 4:20a ... had a train ride back to the hotel (in Virginia) ... and an 8:30a meeting the next morning ... ... I decided to bail before the end of the rain delay. They started baseball again a little before midnight and the Reds blew the lead, only to win it in the 12th at 12:45a. Apparently, less than 100 fans were left at the game's end.

My meeting the next day was good and I got back home in time for a softball DH in which the second game was postponed due to lightning (that was about 30 miles away).

Busy week next week (big briefings on Mon and Thurs) ... then the travels continue: Louisville, Colorado, Emerald Isle. Should be fun. Life is good.

Thinking of Joey Votto

Joey Votto is the offensive firepower of the Cincinnati Reds. He's only 25 years old and he's having an exceptional season ... maybe one of the best in the league. He's hitting .357 and has an unbelieveable OPS of 1.091. Everything you read about the guy is that he is a gamer ... the first to arrive for a game ... takes the most infield practice ... works hard to get better everyday.

OK ... quick question ... what does he have in common w/ Dolberry?

(Yep, we share the same birthday ... September 10th.)

May has been a tough month for Votto. Not hitting, but health-wise. He's had to come out of the game three times this past month because of dizziness.

The first time he was diagnosed w/ the flu. When he'd ostensibly recovered from the flu, it happened again and nobody knew what was wrong. The team doctor checked him into a clinic in San Diego and put him through a battery of tests. Eventually, they concluded he had an inner ear infection and cleared him to play. In his first game back, he mashed two homers, but then was in and out of the lineup over the rest of the week. Finally, on Friday he came out of another game in the 2nd inning.

After the game, the Reds put him on the 15-day DL w/ stress-related issues and noted that Votto asked for privacy as he worked through returning to help. Here was a quote from Votto last week:

"After all the tests I went through, it's been pretty scary the past few days,"

I really have no way of knowing, but I think Dolberry and Joey Votto have one more thing in common ... not sure what the medical term would be ... or if there's even a real medical condition like this ... but I think we both came down w/ EAFA (early-adult finiteness awareness). Simply put, it's when you go through the first 20 years of your life pretty much w/o any significant hardship and then one day ... all of a sudden ... you don't feel very good and you realize that one unknown day in the near or far future ... you are going to die.

It was the day of the OKC bombing that I had to go home from work early and see a doctor. I had been feeling progressively worse over the previous month ... basically having no energy. The tests showed high counts of mycoplasma and a case of pneumonia. I got antibiotics and you'd figure that was that. But it wasn't. I didn't really feel any better over the next two weeks, eventually getting to the point where I couldn't walk around our appartment building complex w/o becoming exhausted (& this was when I was in shape). Over time, my fingers and toes started to go numb from time to time. The doctors did more tests (EKG type stuff), but didn't really see anything wrong. I went to the ER one night w/ absolutely nothing wrong w/ me ... aside from a certainty that I was dying of something. One doctor prescribed some Xanax to reduce my anxiety and while that helped temporarily ... I started really getting worried about getting addicted to them ... think I had 1-2 refills. Many a time during that stretch I felt like I couldn't go out of the house w/o a Xanax. In the end, I never took the last 5-6 pills I had ... very strange ... but I couldn't bring myself to throw them out in case I ever needed them again. I finally pitched them one day down here a few years ago ... figuring they were probably expired anyway. The whole episode probably lasted 3-4 months before I broke out from the spiral down.

Four things helped me get out of the undertow:

1) tbKMD (& my family) were unfailingly w/ me every step which had to be hard, because I went from carefree Dolberry to neurotic Dolberry pretty much w/o any warning.

2) I eventually got routed to a great doctor in Naperville who just let me talk one time for about 45 minutes. Not a psych doc, but an internal medicine guy. He somehow made me feel better about myself in one appointment ... saying 'hey, stuff like this happens'.

3) Mary B (tbKMD's mom) gave me a prayer card that said "Lord, help me remember that nothing will happen today that You and I can't get through together." While I did throw the Xanax out eventually, I've kept that card on my desk ever since.

4) Softball. Eventually, when the weather in Chicago got nice (you know that one week every year), I remember thinking finally, I don't care if I am dying, I'm going to play some ball today.

So, I don't know if this is what's bothering Joey Votto or not. Either way, I just hope that people come alongside of him that care for him, let him talk it out w/o pressure, remind him that his life is part of something way bigger, and let him get back on the field doing what he loves. Hang in there Joey.

Just a Shadow

Good day today.

After interminable rainouts and conflicts ... got out on the ballfield tonight and went 3-3 w/ three doubles. (Their LF plays me too deep.) Also, threw a guy out at 2nd from LCF. We were down 7 zip early but rallied to win 15-12. Last game of the Apex season is tomorrow and the tournament starts Friday ... hopefully at 9pm. We're probably looking at the #3 seed.

We had our church car wash today and it wasn't a disaster. We only washed about 15-20 cars in three hours, but it was a lot of work. Last night, we had about 50-60 people in for our "Trinity Rocks" event. That was kind of a leap of faith ... not knowing two of the three bands ... but everyone was supernice and aside from the mild hearing impairment for three hours of 105 dB, there was no major damage to personnel or property. The last in the trilogy of church events of which Dolberry is at least partially responsible is next Friday (hopefully done by 8:30p ... see above) when we're having a chicken BBQ dinner to support a cool charity. Hoping to sell 200-250 dinners, but that may be wildly optimistic. After that ... a break. Looking forward to a workbreak at the end of June at the beach w/ the D'berries and Lalliberries.

APD is done w/ school. He went to a 5 hour end of school party yesterday at a classmates house. Crazy social skillz. Tonight we watched probably half of Monty Python and the Holy Grail via YouTube clips and were both laughing until we had to catch our breath. Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti.

Going back to basics for my lyrical encouragment these days. Nobody does it better than the kilt-wearing men who invented the seagull.

It went so well for you
With a place right where you wanted and the ones to fill it to
But some blows break the spell
That it hits you every day until you need to hit as well

It's just a shadow of the man you should be
Like a garden in the forest that the world will never see
You have no thought of answers only questions to be filled
And it feels like hell

It all seemed fine for you
Till the struggle of ambition turned in violence upon you
Sometimes a landslide comes
If you're hiding in that avalanche you need a place to run

It's just a shadow of the woman you should be
Like a garden in the forest that the world will never see
And you have no thought of answers only questions to be filled
And it feels like hell

I know there is no need for what's been done
I know there is enough for everyone
Frustration brings a heavy hand to bear
And there's never been a hand

Did we ever have it good
While we lived in Eldorado did we find the gold we should
If it really was the truth
Why are faces filled with anger that should only shine with youth

It's just a shadow of the people we should be
Like a garden in the forest that the world will never see
You have no thought of answers only questions to be filled
And it feels like hell

I know there is no need for what's been done
I know there is enough for everyone
Frustration brings a heavy hand to bear
And there never is a hand outside that cares
Still the promise comes of living fit for all
If we only get our back against the wall
I look at backs that pushed the wall for years
Scarred by many knives and too much fear

Dolberry makes a clown out of himself

There's a picture of APD's (from the school newsletter) getting ready for a vocal performance. They were really good this year. Probably did 6-8 performances. Not sure where his bow tie is there.

Ugh. Awful night tonight. I had a church commitment that I couldn't get out of and thus had to miss most of APD's game. Got through that meeting w/ a bad attitude on the inside ... rushed to the park ... catching every red light on the way ... to get there w/ APD up in the top of the last. Down 5-3, runner on 1st, one out. He fouls off three pitches and then gets called out on a pitch that was at his eyes. His coach got thrown out for coming out of the dugout and arguing the call ... the only ejection I can ever remember seeing in 6 years of youth baseball in Apex.

I was in a spectacularly foul mood at that point & yelled out from the bleachers ... "Blue, there is NO WAY that is a strike. NO WAY!" The game was over 4 pitches later and I managed to compose myself when the ump walked past to head to his car.

So now I guess I'm one of "those parents". After years of never criticizing umpires, always encouraging kids on both teams, thanking scorekeepers, deruffling other parents ... I feel like I ruined it all in 3 seconds.

I don't like who I'm becoming ... things have to change.

The Blog is Back (& more boring than ever)

Hey, sorry I've been out of the blogosphere for so long. Like most of you all, I suppose, Dolberry's has his arms full keeping up w/ things in the troposphere. Here's a update ... more like an upmonth ... for those of you who care at all about Dolberry and his crazy shenanigans.

Travels w/ Bono, pt. 2: APD's school had their awards program last week and he won for the 6th grade in the categories of Math, Science, Computer, Bible, and Christian Character. The last one is like the Heisman for GCS. There was one winner for each grade and the principal announced the winners from 11th, 10th, 9th, 8th, and 7th grades. Then he started to close the ceremony down ("There is cake along the wall ...) Dolberry didn't hear anything after the cake announcement ... what w/ the jostling for position and all, but tbKMD said that someone from the back of the stage came up and reminded the principal that there was a 6th grade winner as well. So, he announced "the 6th grade Christian character award goes to Alexander Dol ... which?" It's easy to stay humble when your last name is Dolberry.

My life as Stuart Adamson: Just as Big Country was forever in U2's shadow ... so it goes for Dolberry who won a gold medal for something this year as an EPA drone. I think it was for most improved worker or something like that. I do get to go up to DC for the awards ceremony. There had better be cake. And Administrator Jackson, if you are reading the DCV it's "DolBERRY".

Softball upmonth: Teams are doing fine. One is 8-4 and one is 7-3. Dolberry is actually having one of his better campaigns. Been hitting the ball well for the last couple of weeks. We ran out of outfielders one game a couple of Sundays ago (due to injuries ... i play w/ a lot of old fat guys) and in my first inning out in RF, I totally ran over the RCF who was attempting to catch a ball hit right to him. Ha. I still have a bump on my knee some three weeks later.

Life in General: Is really tiring me out. Yesterday and today were the first days in I can't remember how long that there were two consecutive days on the calendar w/o any obligation. Nothing's on the calendar for Monday either, but I have work stuff to do. (Sunday's are the busiest days of all ... which I don't think is the way it's supposed to be.) I've moved into climate stuff now ... w/ the new administration ... and it's a bottomless pit of activity. Oh, and I've gotten horribly out of shape. Haven't been to the gym, rode my bike, or ran in probably two months. I get winded simply running over fellow outfielders anymore. It's pathetic.

Ah, there's probably other stuff, but I'm getting grumpier and prumpier trying to recall this last month, so I'll stop there. Hope all is well for you.

Thoughts on Taxpayer Day

OK, obviously I'm hugely biased, but please indulge a Dolberry rant here. Last year, I payed roughly $10K in Federal income taxes. I feel like I get quite a few tangible benefits from this outlay, including but not limited to:

1) having the privilege in a country that does the right thing and provides health care and assistance to the elderly and others who cannot afford it (roughly 2K of my money)

2) getting to live in a country that is safe from outside interference & one that has the ability to promote better living conditions worldwide via an excellent military (roughly 2K of my money)

3) being part of an effort to do what I believe to be the moral obligation to provide financial assistance to the poor, elderly, and unemployed via Social Security ... and theoretically this assistance will be made available to me when I reach a certain age (roughly 2K of my money)

And then for $4,000 dollars I get everything else the Federal government does (in descending priority order): accurate weather forecasts and warnings, increasingly clean air to breathe, supporting local/State education efforts, safe roads and skies to travel, beautiful parks to visit, exploring space, supporting scientific research, assistance to disaster areas, keeping criminals off the street, etc., etc., etc.

There are not many things that Dolberry spends money on that return that sort of value:

We spent over $4,000 dollars on insurance (car, home, health) ... when we had no wrecks, fires, or major illnesses. This was a complete waste of money.

We donated roughly $4,000 dollars & while I feel very good about where we put that money, I'm not sure that money created more "good" than what our taxes did.

We spent about $7,000 dollars to educate APD. He's getting marginally smarter, so we'll call that a decent investment. When he becomes a successful golf course architect and builds us that house on the 17th green then I'll be feeling even better about that one.

We spent $129 dollars on Guitar Hero. Easily the best value-to-expense ratio for the year. I kicked Isaac Miconi's butt this weekend ... & almost kicked Gracie's ... until she narrowly avoided it at the last second ... w/ an extreme amount of luck.

We gave a ton of money (~ $9,500) to a bank to repay a loan to live in our house. Over the life of the loan we will pay for our house something like two times over in interest. I'm grateful to live in a house, but the interest we all pay on these things is ridiculous.

We spent roughly $4,000 on vacations. Wish we could spend more on this.

We spent about $1,000 dollars to keep our car running. Another $1,000 to keep hot water flowing out of our faucets. An outrageous amount of money to feed, shelter, & care for our dog (who i think returns the investment w/ how happy she gets when I come home). And I'm afraid to even guess at how much money I flat out wasted on temporary pleasures or some other foolishness.

I spent $14 for the new House of Heroes CD. You should too!

Yes, there are wasteful Federal government programs. No, I don't agree w/ everything the Federal government supports. Yes, we should do everything we can to make all levels of government as efficient as possible. The way to do that is to engage in honest, open discussions about how we spend our money. Vote for representatives who share your values and respect the rights of others to do the same. If you want to posture w/ tea bags and what not, that's fine. Maybe that can kickstart more dialogue. But incendiary dialogue about revolutions and secession, and whatnot exposes a certain lack or realism and shallowness ... if you ask me (which i don't think you did, so sorry for going on like that).



I respect the right of others to see this differently.

Dolberry in the town of beans

Well, it started a day later than expected. Got to the airport on Monday night for my 7:50 flight. But American canceled that flight and put me on a 6a flight the next morning. Then they canceled that one too. (I think AA is running some sort of Ponzi scheme now rather than an actual airline ... because they did offer me lifetime distributor rights to sell AA tickets in the E. Apex area ... so if anyone needs a flight ... let me know ...) I was about to punt on this whole trip when AA said they could reroute me thru NYC, but the people in front of me caused a stink and got on a Delta flight at the same time. The lingering bad smell must have caused the gate agent to make me the same offer.

Got to the conference only 45 minutes late after all AA's shenanigans and it was a good conference. I took copious notes, but I'll spare you blog readers that. Here's a picture from somewhere on Harvard's campus.


Because Marriott is running a double miles promotion, I stayed at a hotel 1.5 miles away from the conference. After some of those cold walks, I'm just glad they didn't have a triple miles thing in Worcester, or I'd still be out there no doubt. Here was the view from my hotel room.


There were lots of crew teams out in the Charles River in the morning. Seems like a weird thing. You have 8 rowers, 1 person who sits in the boat doing nothing apparently, one person who drives a motorized boat beside them, and one person on the motorboat w/ a megaphone yelling at the 8 rowers in the boat. So, to recap there's three cushy jobs and eight hard ones.


Yesterday, I walked over 6 miles, back & forth to Harvard (see above) and back & forth to Fenway Park (see below). You cross the Charles at the BU bridge & you get a really good view of downtown Boston.


As expected, Fenway was really cool. You come around a corner & then you see the back of the Monster and your heart skips a beat. You follow the mass of people in their Papelbon 58 shirts onto Yawkey Way, inhaling the swirling scents of hot dogs, sausage and pizza. The inside of the park is very clean and it sure doesn't look 97 years old.


The fans there are equally as impressive as the architecture. The Sox were trailing 6-1 in the 8th and not a person had left. They were on their feet when the Red Sox started to rally (YOUUUUUUUUUUK!), even before the tying run even got to the plate. They still expected to win even down 5 w/ 6 outs left. It didn't pan out that way. Scott Kazmir pitched a great game for the Rays ... shutting down the BoSox the same way we saw him shutdown the Reds last month in Sarasota. The Rays can beat you via small ball (hit & run and a safety squeeze in the same inning) and the long ball (Longoria and Pena both homered). Rays 7, Red Sox 2. They play a lot of good music at Fenway. Here's a bonus countdown for ya: top 3 songs played when Red Sox batters come to the plate:

#3 Jason Varitek: Kryptonite (3 Doors Down)
#2 Jason Bay: Alive (Pearl Jam)
#1 Jacoby Ellsbury: Cherub Rock (Smashing Pumpkins)

I headed back today and American still didn't want to take me. They said when the agents switched me to Delta on Tuesday, they switched my return flight to Delta as well (w/o telling me). Eventually, they took me though and I was glad to be home. Looking forward to the day off at home tomorrow.

Dolberry is headed to Harvard

On Monday, for a work conference. Should be interesting. The Red Sox are in town & I'm thinking about trying to get a ticket from a scalper on Wed. night. $50-60 is as much as I think I'd pay.

Speaking of work (briefly ... you might have missed it), one of the rules I've been working on quite a bit was in the news this week. See here, or here, or here. Think this has been my favorite project in my time at EPA ... should do some real good for air quality.

We finally had a softball game tonight. 4 of the first 5 were rained out. We were down 9-3 at one point but rallied to win 18-10. My last AB I hit a ball as far as I've ever hit one. It short-hopped the fence (ok, maybe long-hopped the fence) which is 310'. Very surprising. The time before, I hit a triple and the 3rd-base coach waved me home. About 3/4ths of the way down the line, I saw the catcher catch the ball. So, I braked to a stop and headed back to third. They threw to third, so I headed home and scored. I was out of breath for the next 3 innings. I am not in shape for rundowns. My 3-4 tonight was much better than my 0-3 in Game 1.

Congrats to Chad who won the DCV bracket challenge. At some point in your life you will be getting a pizza gift card from Dolberry. It will be a surprise.

Friendly DCV reader ... you need to join Lala. It's my favorite part of the whole Interwebs. Basically, you can listen to your music from any computer via the internet w/o having to cart along an IPod. You can buy web songs for ten cents a shot which is awesome. And you can listen to any song once for free. Works best at office or sitting at home. Let me know if you want me to invite you (then I get 5 free songs).

Chairman's Cup

Over the weekend, I was unexpectedly invited to fill in for a late dropout in a charity golf event for APD's school that was held at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary. It was probably the most prestigious course I've ever played (they hold a Senior PGA event there) and the event itself was a few notches classier than the usual Dolberry golf outing (i.e., Pirates' Cove mini-golf).

I played w/ a really great group of guys. Two of the four (not me, obviously) were good golfers which always makes the superball format fun. Golf is infinitely more enjoyable when you can hit your tee shot into someone's backyard pool and then ride your cart 250 yards down the center of the fairway where a teammate hit one. My best shot of the day came on the one hole where our "best" tee shot was in the rough of an adjacent hole in a swampy area (we had to jump a 3-foot creek to get there). I cranked a 4-iron over some trees for a good 180-190 yards to about 15 feet from the pin. I told my teammates I was much more accustomed to these scenarios than the whole middle of the fairway thing.

My other good shot was on a par-3 where if you hit the green you were eligible to participate in a putting contest for some fancy TaylorMade driver. I hit the green and actually didn't embarass myself in the putting thing (4th out of 14 or so). Unfortunately, on the $25,000 hole-in-one shot, I missed the green by about 20 yards to the right.

Besides being a super nice guy, the person who invited me was a former chairman of the board at APD's school. Unbeknownst to me, there was a competition among the teams that had former board chairman & we won that. Here's a picture of the team and our trophy. (Dolberry is the short one in the purple (?!?) hat.


Anyway, after Sunday's debacle this was the perfect remedy. A day away from work ... under one of God's bluest-ever North Carolina skies ... inhaling the sunshine ... whacking a golf ball around w/o any accountability ... followed by free barbeque ... pretty nice.

In at least one way ... I am still an 11-year old

So ... as you might imagine I did not enjoy yesterday's UL-MSU game at all. It reminded me of an incident when I was probably somewhere between 9 and 12. We were watching Louisville play and they lost and I made a big grumpy fuss about it and El Cueto sent me to my room for the rest of the night.

I had to send myself to my room yesterday at halftime.

I was close to out of control (yelling at TV) ... had to sort of step out of myself and say ... "Is this who you want to be? Is this really how you are?"

It was just tough, because (like many) I was sure they were going to win. The hardest time to maintain composure for me, is when you are suppose to prevail and you don't. Anyway, after halftime I made some adjustments ... resigned myself that they were going to lose ... really you could tell about 5 minutes into the game ... and it was much easier to take ... like when that guy banked in his 3 pointer I barely even grunted in disgust.

Anyway, I had a great day today to cleanse the mental palette from yesterday & I'll blog about that tomorrow (or 4 weeks from now ... whenever ... you know how it works)

Spring training trip recap

Sorry that the blog has stagnated here. Life has kind of gotten away from me. There are so many things I'd like to spend my time doing & in worrying about doing them all ... not sure I've done many of them very well. Hey, there's always tomorrow ...

Anyway, earlier this month we had a great trip down to FL for Spring Training w/ Los Cuetos. We left on Tuesday evening drove to somewhere in South Carolina. Wednesday, we met up w/ Gma and Gpa at the Orlando airport. That night we ate the world's best pizza, then headed over to Pirate's Cove where Gma and APD dominated at putt-putt.

Thursday, tbKMD & I went running around parts of the Disney neighborhood in Orlando covering around 4-5 mi in all for probably my longest run in a year or so. T'was fun. That afternoon we watched the Nationals-Braves game at Wide World of Sports. Nice enough stadium ... very clean. While watching the game, we listened to U0fL beat Providence on the satellite radio.Swam in the pool w/ APD in the morning on Friday, then we drove over to Clearwater to watch the Phillies play the Pirates. After the game we headed down to Sarasota for the evening. Watched UofL beat Villanova in the hotel room.


Saturday morning was another run w/ tbKMD, then a trip to Siesta Key. Found lots of good conch shells. Soft sand and warm sunshine. Too nice. Saw our last game ever at Ed Smith Stadium that afternoon. (Reds lost ... which was fitting.) That night we ate some awesome seafood then watched the CARDS win the Big East tournament title at the Baker-Fitzgeralds. What a great team. Need three more wins for the whole enchilada.


Sunday was another early morning swim, a big breakfast, and then to the Field of Cheesesteaks (Clearwater). Oh, they were so good. Words cannot describe. We watched the St. Louis Cardinals take BP and Albert Pujols put on a show ... at one point hitting one entirely out of the facility. Breaking news ... he's really good. Then the sad goodbyes and the long drive home where we listened to the NCAA tournament draw.

Simply a perfect vacation. Thanks to all who were a part of it.

DCV Challenge

Group: DolberryCheeryVanillaBlog
Password: gocards!

$25 gift card of winner's choosing to the champ. (Note: prizewinners may have to wait up to 12 months for prize shipping due to laziness of Dolberry!)