A Three Dog Night

Well, here the three of them are, in their favorite spot, this time of year.

Somethin'

Oh, and
Merry Christmas!

Mountain Adventures

With that Young Daughter off visiting family for the Holidays, The Fuzz took His Sweetie to the mountains.This place may be familiar to some.

When they got into town, it was a bit early to check into their hotel. So they headed over to King Street.
One of their first stops was this place, The Art of Oil. All those tank things were filled with different kinds of Olive Oil, or Balsamic Vinegars. There were little cups that you could use to sample them.
Here's one of the customers doing just that.
The Fuzz and Sweetie poked around in the various shops until it was time to head to their hotel. That was when they saw this.

It seems there was a bit of construction going on. They could see the hotel, but the driveway was impassible! Finally, the cellphone, and The Fuzz's Sweetie's sharp eyes, figured it out, and they made it into the place. After checking in, They made a stop at Cheap Joe's (getting lost in the process) before heading off for some supper.Here's a view from the hotel that night,
And in the morning.

They want to take good care of you at the hotel.

They don't want you to forget anything.
The Fuzz didn't, as you can see.
After checking out, The Fuzz and His Sweetie headed back over to a combination bead-store, coffee-shop, they had seen the night before. Alas, it was closed.
And so, they took off, back down the mountain. And after a few more adventures, arrived safely home.

Doing It Up BIg

This past weekend The Fuzz , His Sweetie and that Young Daughter went out of town to help celebrate a Birthday! This was officially known as Doing it Up Big! And it was done up big.
But as part of the festivities, Our Fuzz was required to wear a necktie. The Fuzz has not been subjected to this sort of thing for a number of years. In fact, the last time was at a wedding*. It was hard enough for him to remember just how these things work. But in The Fuzz's case, merely seeing the thing was difficult enough. But our Resourceful Fuzz came up with the ideal solution to this dilemma.
The party was BIG. And just to put everyone at ease, The Fuzz did not attempt to drive home.

*(Not the one in the previous post)

39 Years

39 years ago

Secret Greek Grocery

The Fuzz and His Sweetie made a foray into the Big City once again. This sometimes happens at this time of year. There are some things that just aren't available near our Home in the Woods. Some of the things they were in search of might be found at some sort of Greek/Mediterranean type grocer.
In this 21st Century, we have the internet, even out here. A search reveled a couple of promising leads. The 1st investigated led them to an upscale shopping area as large as a small town. This ended up as a washout. So they went in search of their next option. After a bit of driving (Sweetie at the wheel, Fuzz on the map*) they arrived. There was a sign at the street. But no market. But then, behind some other buildings, they came upon this mysterious door.

And there, in tiny letters, written with a marker, they read-
"Minos"

This was the place!
Minos Imported Foods got it's start as a wholesale grocery. But fortunately for The Fuzz, as Serafim Makas explained**-

"We deliver to restaurants across the Carolinas. That's our real business. But since I'm here anyway, I thought, 'Why not open to the public, retail?"

Once The Fuzz and His Sweetie found the secretive little doorway, they were welcomed inside. And truly welcomed. They were asked to sample delicious bits of feta, cut right from huge hunks floating in wooden barrels. There were casks of olives, also sampled.
Needless to say, they did not leave empty handed.
If anyone has the opportunity to visit this place, do it. It is located at 11016 Monroe Rd Matthews, NC. But you'll have to look hard. The Fuzz promises, it will be worth it.

*The Fuzz is a small town boy, and does not handle Big City driving very well. His Sweetie, however, grew up in a major metropolitan area. It is best for her to be under the wheel in these situations.

**Quoted from charlotteobserver.com- "Greek grocery in Matthews is a well-kept secret"

Construction Update

It appears that it has been some time since The Fuzz has given any updates on this Shed Project.
Things are progressing, if slowly.
This first pix was made a few weeks ago, shorty after our last post on the subject. Here part of the ridge board has been assembled.
Below is another view of this phase of the construction.
Well The Fuzz has continued to work on this since, a bit at a time, on the weekends. The next step was to finish up with the ridge.
This was slow work, with Our Fuzz (who is not as young as he once was) working precariously high on wobbly walk boards, with little to hang on to!Here is where we are today. The Fuzz was able to get most of the rafters up this past weekend. But before we can get to the roof itself, he still needs to frame up the area over the open space. ("carport"? for lack of a better word) After that we will get to some tin.

But alas, The Fuzz has been having a bit of Back Trouble again, and might not get to this right away. We'll just hope for the best.

But, things have come a long ways.

70 Years

A few years ago, The Fuzz and Family, had the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor. It was a gloomy day, with a bit of rain, when we were there. Much like here today.

It is good for us to remember that Sunday morning, 70 years ago, when the world changed for America.

Bit Of A Bummer

"Fleet of Ferraris Ruined in Sports Car Freeway Pileup in Japan"
(From Fox news)


"An outing of luxury sportscar enthusiasts in Japan ended in an expensive freeway pileup -- smashing a stunning eight Ferraris, a Lamborghini and two Mercedes likely worth more than $1 million together."

"...a used Ferrari in Japan can fetch $100,000 or more..."

Oh Well.

They're Back

See all those little white things out there in the landfill?

They are a sure sign of Winter. The Seagulls have returned.
Every year these things fly in from the coast to spend the winter here. It seems like an odd thing to do.
You can see them around town, hanging out at Micky Dee's filching french fries and stuff.
But mostly, they hang at the landfill. Apparently, life is easy out there.
Well, just so y'all know about this important event, The Fuzz has included a couple of poor quality pix of our feathered friends, a sure sign of Winter.

The High Road

This is something you do not want to see.
Particularly, if you are in The Fuzz's line of work.

This is a look into the hopper of one of our Ultramodern Garbage Trucks. This trash can should not be there. But things like this do happen.
December is here, and it was a frosty morning here in Beautiful North Carolina. Now, the frost can add a touch of beauty to our lives. But it can create problems as well. Especially when it coats a trashcan like this.

In these conditions, the suckers can get a bit slippery. In this case, the evil little thing slipped out of The Fuzz's mechanical grasp, and dropped into the hopper.
Now there are a couple of ways to handle this. One is to pretend it wasn't noticed until too late, and just pack the sucker up. The other is to climb up over the side of the ice encrusted truck, into the hopper, and throw the bastard out.
I am happy to report, that in this case, Our Fuzz did take the high road; and mumbling curses about getting too old for this s%!#, retrieved this valuable receptacle. And, he made it back to solid ground without breaking his neck!

Blue Is Green & So On...

In regard to our "Recycle (Blue)" post, Woodie had this to say-

"...The carts allow for more privacy, IE less people commenting on how many liquor, wine and beer bottles are in your bin, which DOES happen, sometimes. :-)"

Actually, this can be an issue.
Back in The Days, The Fuzz used to "Pull Garbage" in little orange carts from behind the houses.
There was one fellow who used to carefully wrap his trash up in paper bags. The Fuzz and his coworkers, in an attempt to maximize the space in their buggies, would sometimes rip open bags like his to better pack the garbage in. This fellow would get pretty upset when all his liqueur bottles were suddenly exposed. Back then this was a dry county!
Of course now days, this isn't much of an issue with all this automated stuff.
When The Fuzz was asked how he got into this line of work, he finally admitted that it wasn't really the money, but the prestige that attracted him.

Chimneys Series #18 (b)

(Flip side of #18 (a))