nascar: america's gift to the world

wilbur jeffers somehow suckered me into spending 100$ on a ticket to bristol motor speedway to enjoy a nascar race. up to this point in my life i have despised the "sport" and pitied anyone who watched it but because of will's persistent badgering and my curiosity i found myself in tennessee one weekend in august.
after a sleepless night in asheville we piled into the rental car (ford tempo with new jersey plates) and immediately delved headfirst into the nascar experience. you begin to notice youre getting close by seeing the odd truck with a dale earnhardt jr flag and a rather large man driving while sipping a 86 oz diet mtn dew. then it turns into every other car (truck) carrying heavily intoxicated, sunburned, tank topped "race fans" yelling out the windows their favorite drivers beer sponsor and requesting that any females (or males) in your car expose themselves. meanwhile as far as the eye can see the once peaceful rolling hills of east tennessee have turned into a sea of RVs surrounded by a "staggering" amount of shirtless and tattooed fans from every fishing hole and NRA clubhouse in the neighboring states.
the afternoon is spent drinking, betting on the winners (whom ive never heard of) and absorbing the scene. we tailgated with some very nice folks who allowed us to partake in their plush setup. 36' motorcoach, big screen tvs, grill, games, food, alcohol, but they themselves dont go to the race, in fact they go to sleep before its over which struck me as strange.
the time to head to the track is upon us and as we enter i let out a big "rebel yell" which i thought would be welcomed but apparently thats not cool. make mental note. we rent headset/earmuffs which allow you to listen in on the drivers communication w their crew chief, and find our seats. just in time for the intros which start with a rousing singing of the country song about "do you remember when those towers fell.....america is really awwwwesome duh hickey" or something like that, accompanied by a video montage of firefighters, policeman, and a dog catcher or two. then 3 fighter jets flew over, which was really neato. next came the pledge of allegiance lead by kids dressed up in uncle sam outfits, and jets flying over. then came the prayer which included phrases like "may god refuel the racers," and "may jeff gordon spin out in the bottom of turn 4" then the jets flew over. finally the national anthem was sung as a parachutist dropped in with a huge american flag waving behind him and dragged it as he landed. and the jets flew over.
RACETIME!!!!!!! vrrrrroooooommmmmm off they go and immediately the spectator sport becomes just about you as the noise is so deafening that communication is rendered useless. for four hours you live in your head, inhaling high octane fumes and drinking the beer and liquor which you are allowed to bring in.
i must admit the experience at the track itself is indescribable its a complete sensory overload. you can feel the power of the cars, the visual spectacle of the lights, the bright cars whipping around the corners within inches of each other is amazing, the intoxicating smell of rubber and fuel and the anticipation of a wreck is remarkable. but i would have been satisfied with them running the bristol 40 rather than the required bristol 500 laps. it is truly a "once in a lifetime" experience that will stay a "once in a lifetime" experience.

the volume wont transfer on the video for some reason

mountain city living

im buying a house in mtn city, tennessee. here are the rough photos of the lot. its 3.2 acres with a "house" without electricity or water but its all mine

this is looking nne so the solar aspect for photovoltaic is good. it overlooks a valley from a great porch. the sq ft is around 800 with kitchen, living room with woodstove, bedroom, walk-in closet, and loft over the living room. it needs love but it will be a great project to implement the things im learning in school.



kitchen with propane stove

living room with large windows and woodstove

porch looking north

porch looking northeast

porch looking west to flat "garden/yard"

the yard

looking out over the valley from the porch

i gorged myself on venables

the venable kiddies graciously invited me to go camping into the linville gorge in pisgah national forest. we hiked in from the north side of the gorge on the bynum bluff trail (4) down into the bottom then along the river bed on the linville gorge trail (7) to the first night camp.

john russell, elizabeth lindsey, clifford blair, andrew quincy. before we headed out it was really cute to see how anxious john was to try his very first "sleepover" outside without his "binkie blankie."


for dinner we were treated to lindsey's gourmet beans and rice burritos (don't worry mrs venable all that NOLS money was worth it), as we were about the eat the skies opened to welcome us to "the nature." we huddled under the tarp to enjoy the beer we found generously left by previous campers and discussed how the solve world poverty and the like. we retired to the tents put john to bed in his "big boy power ranger sleepie bag" and fell asleep to his muffled whimpers as lindsey sang lullabies and slowly rocked her brother to sleep.


these boys aint only pretty theyre smart too


on the second day we made it less than a hundred yards before stopping to swim and drink beer.



life is hard



a stowaway that was hitching a ride


the last nights campsite in amongst the boulders. everything was going well through the night until i apparently left the zippered door open and woke to the tippy tap tap of soft feet on my face. i bolted upright the see a blurry clifford staring back at me. we turned on the flashlights to find a small furry mouse crawling up the mesh of tent wall which we girlishly flick out the door and squealed in relief. turns out cliff had had the visitor walking over his face all night and had repeatedly swatted it away without waking. by this point we'd awaken everyone else who apparently hadnt slept well either. the sentiments were roundly expressed with johns "i love civilization."

america is good

heres a look @ my drive to washington state to start a job working with the dept of fish and wildlife doing marine bird surveys. the drive started in late april as i slowly made my way across staying with friends as much as possible. it was fun but im not sure i want to do it again. especially after a rush hour incident in chicago. on a 5 lane highway i turned to grab the atlas and when i turned back the traffic in the left lane had stopped. i cut the wheel to avoid and ended up spinning 180 degrees and then back 90 degrees and stalled out untouched. i remember seeing the traffic behind bearing down on me and thinking "im going to be late to minneapolis tonight."
enjoy!!

the building of a log bed

while in morocco i had grand ideas of building a rustic log bed, unfortunately i didnt get around to it, but as you may know ive had some free time lately (as in the last year). recently i slept on a crappy college futon mattress @ a friends house and my back felt really good. so i decided to build my own bed, i searched online and found nothing so heres my addition to the world.

the clearcut where i saved the logs from a certain death

part 1



part 2

the year of the chicken foot

as most of you may know my life is on hiatus, im living in the basement of the family's house, unemployed, and still struggling with my back problems. so i have decided to occupy my time and brain by taking chinese (mandarin) language classes at the local community college. the makeup of the students of my chinese class differ from that of my earlier spanish class. who when asked their motivation for learning spanish responded (in a thick southern draw) "cuz i wurk wit a bunch of 'em n need u tell 'em wur to putt tha drywalllll" or "so i can talk to the hired help". where this class consists mostly of hickory "businessmen" which means they likely grew up here and are middle management at a textile manufacturer with a plant in china, but not to say they are especially worldly.

my favorite moments during class are when we take a break and our teacher leads us in tai-chi, a form of aerobic martial arts. I wholly enjoy watching these "corporate businessmen" balance and pirouette around the room all the while cussing under the breaths about "crazy chinese... blah blah blah... egg roll... blah blah... im missing the ball game for this crap... blah blah blah..." i love it!!!

anyway we were invited to a chinese new year party at a local chinese buffet out in the country. i brought my friend, thom, along to share in this once-in-a-lifetime experience. we were under the impression that there would be fireworks, those life-sized dragons, and copious amounts of egg rolls. au contraire mon freir. we arrived late and snuck into a booth across from a older white man and a 30ish chinese woman. the group of 50 people, mostly chinese, were going around introducing themselves in chinese and wishing happy new year. they came to thom and i, so i stood and said my name and thanked them for having us and began to sit but they stopped me and asked for me to say something in chinese. i told them it would be ugly but counted from 6 to 10 on my hands, which they represent in a more creative way than we do. the introductions continued around the room, i turned and quietly asked a man if i did the hand motions correctly. apparently i chose the man with no kind of auditory volume control as he loudly explained that i was signing some sort of drinking game. we were suddenly aware that the entire room was looking at us and the head woman said "hey animal shut up" (i dont know) because there was a small girl being encouraged to speak chinese to the crowd.

after the introductions we filled our plates full of noodles, shrimp, dumplings, pork knuckles, and all-you-can-eat chicken feet. yummmmy. we began to talk to the couple across from us. which started like this "where did you meet?" "i got her on Yahoo, yeah you boys should do it, just type in 'asian brides', and bam you get em. hell the first day i had a hundred hits from thailand, taiwan, phillipines, all over." "wow" "yeah i goed ov'r ere and picked lil binny here right up, you boys wouldn't believe but they got cities n cars n tvs. they re dumb but boy they sure lik to smile." his wife all the while is running roughshod through a pile of chicken feet, chewing them whole and letting the bones dribble out of her mouth onto the table. he would occasionally turn to her and ask something and it would appear she would respond either "yes, no or chicken." with a limited vocabulary i can only imagine their discussions on existentialism and quantum physics.

the man pointed out another older american gentleman at another table and remarks "well ol darryl o'er there is going to jfk to pick him up one next week. you boys really oughta get you one." to each his own.

gator catchin

i got the opportunity to go out with the biologist at the refuge to capture 20 gators (from 2ft to 7ft) one night. there is a group of paleontologists from england studying taxonomy and muscular build of gators and a grad student doing blood work. it was a crisp night in the 40-50's and in a matter of 2 hours met our quota.

first you spotlight the gators, made easy because their eyes "glow" red, then ease up and throw a modified dog-catching pole with a noose around the head and yank them in. pin them down and a couple of rubber bands later you have docile gator. the majority go into a crate, but the large ones (6ft+) go into a burlap sack and are tossed into the bottom of the boat to squirm and roll.

WARNING: if youre epileptic dont watch as my camera work is still rather rudimentary!!

it ain't all shrimp jambalaya and Étouffée

here's the "real" look @ cajun cuisine, the gas station is an often overlooked oasis of unhealthy, strangely textured regional delicacies, as you will soon learn, such as boudin, cracklins, and tasso. so next time you pass through the local convenient store dont be so fast to overlook what may be lurking under the high wattage heat lamps. just think there might be a two or three day old livermush sandwich waiting to give you giardia. happy trails and good luck!!!

morocco

heres some videos i put together for class

the first is the wheat collection process in morocco



the second is the traditional rammed earth construction of a house i helped with

spielberg watch out!!

heres a look at what im doing, its not pretty. the first part is of catching the birds in the middle of the night from airboats and later its a day in the life of. enjoy!!

hello from the bayou

okay, you see where there ain't no cities thats right near where im at. im on a small wildlife refuge below grand lake and white lake in the southwestern corner

i started a new job in southwestern louisiana at rockefeller state wildlife refuge with THE university of arkansas-fayetteville. the study is investigating king rails (rallus elegans), a chicken-sized marsh bird, and their winter migration movements. little is known about the migrating populations in the mississippi flyway, other than that there are two populations, residents and migrates. my work is a preliminary study on how to attach VHF radio transmitters to rails to determine how they will adjust before we permanently attach costly satellite transmitters. we are trying two different harness methods (dywer and thigh) and materials.

dywer sits higher on the back with two straps, it crosses the esophagus which may interfere with swallowing large prey ie fiddler crabs.

thigh harness sits lower on the back with two leg straps and another around the chest.

this a dummy of the actual solar powered gizmo that will be used in the longterm study


the good docs explaination of the harness setup

to capture these boogers we take airboats into the marsh in the middle of the night and drive around with huge flashlights looking for these little cryptically colored “chickens.” when you spot one you keep the light on him and motor up and either grab them with your hands or with a small dip net then stuff them in a cage and keep looking for the next one.


recognize those sexy legs?

we caught 17 in the first two nights and spent the day attaching the harnesses and releasing them

the man himself

dr krementz with soon to be released bird

i will be tracking the birds to determine whether they are feeding and moving “normally.” hopefully after a month we will recapture the birds, remove the transmitters, check for chaffing and wear, and look for weight changes.


FREEDOM...almost

my encounter with a real Dick

this area is the mecca for duck hunting, in fact the most recent survey found 175,000 ducks in the 85,000 acre. wow, right? anyway this past sunday I was driving the usgs 15 passenger van (yeah I get a lot of second looks from the ladies) to a hunting lodge to see the hunters bring in their ducks. i was traveling at a safe but efficient clip down a 2 lane country road when i saw a police car coming in the opposite direction. instinctively i slammed on the brakes to come to a more socially acceptable operating speed and waved to the officer nonchalantly as we passed and i continued to watch for his sirens or brakes in my rear view. "whew" i thought and continued on my way down the road, when around the bend came another policeman on a motorcycle this time lights aflashing, sirens ablaring, and swerving into my lane and motioning to slow down, “oh boy” i thought “just what i need another speeding ticket.” but he continues on by me, at this point im going 35 in a 55, when i see another two bike cops coming “ok, let me think I dumped all the bodies in the marsh, cleaned up the meth lab, and no way, mr kim jung ill would have given me up for those little secrets I sold, they got nothing on me” but they also motion to slow down. “do you want me to walk” i politely mouthed through the windshield. behind them comes a motorcade with state police, black suburbans, and interestingly an ambulance. when i arrived at the lodge and asked my refuge friend, she says “it was dick cheney, he hunts here every year.” “ah ha that’s why they brought the ambulance” i thought to myself.

the moral of the story “when you see a Dick, go slow and duck!”

IT'S A GIRL!!

a new addition to the spees family



notice the hot, small, brown babe provocatively faced away like in those hot rod magazines


andrew brought her home on oct 11th, shes a healthy one ton station wagon and is she ever CUTE!! its hard being a young male and whenever i show the car to people the first words are inevitably "oh its so cute." needless to say, these are not exactly what i want to hear.

ive been holding out, keeping the idea of returning to peacecorps, but with my back not recovering ive begun to make more permanent adjustments to life in the states. you dont realize the "things" that have become "necessary" for life stateside. health/car insurance, phone bills, rent, etc... they all hit me abruptly upon return. but as ive come to grips with my situation ive started my adjustment. heres my first tangible purchase: a '98 subaru impreza sport. i bought it for $2900 with 158K miles. it is in good condition, some little problems but it gives me something to do. i had the rotors smoothed (turned) which solved the wobble in the braking. and am looking at replacing the abs sensor but its kinda expensive. hopefully i can make something back for my efforts, is that slimy or what; flipping used cars. gross.


oh yeah i got a cell phone too

battle for sympathy

disclaimer: this may be the strangest posting thus far but it wont be the last!!

so as you know im already gimping around the house recovering from my surgery but what you dont know is my father is equally pitiful and sad. pops had his fourth retinal detachment surgery yesterday and arrived home today to steal some of my sympathy show. so now its up to the adoring public to decide who is deserving of more love from my mother. now you understand where i get my stunningly good looks!!! wow that is the funniest looking halloween costume ever.


heres after the third surgery that happened the day before my brothers wedding in austria luckily it was sawed on in time and he was able to make it to the ceremony


this is from today (8/8) after the fourth and this time he got a rubber band holding his eyeball in place, hes so lucky not everybody gets eyeball rubber bands!!


heres my 6 metal staples, as they say when life gives you staples and rubberbands make an office supply company.

andrew gets house broken

i had back surgery yesterday (sunday 8/5) and everything went well. ive tried with some difficulty to understand what a ruptured disc is and what the procedure was. the easiest analogy ive found is that the disc is like an italian sausage stuffed between the spinal vertebra. in my back, the casing of the sausage split and the sausagy goo stuff squirted out into the space where the nerves run around. so the surgeon vacuumed out all the squeezed out sausage and pickles and relish, then sawed on the bone around just for fun to give me some more room back there. then he sealed me all up and sent me on my way. i woke up some hours later to the smiling faces of the hospital nurses and my mother. as the anesthesia wore off i realized how hungry i was. with the the snap of my finger a steaming tray of soggy fried chicken, a leaky cup of green beans, and sad pile of broccoli were dropped into my lap, yum hospital food my favorite. hunger satiated, next on my list of things to do was relieve myself. standing was out of the question this early after surgery so i was told to use the bedpan. they also failed to tell me that this "area" is last to come to in the awakening process. i waited and waited thinking maybe the doctor accidentally nicked something that shouldnt be nicked, finally i was rewarded a little for my patience. the rest of the day continued in this manner, eating weird cafeteria food, trying to pee in a cup, watching sunday morning tv evangelists all from the comfortable confines of my hospital stretcher. i could get used to this lifestyle being waited on hand and foot. you know being an invalid isnt so bad.

bad news

as some of you know im back in the states now. i have been hampered by back pain during my service. we (pc med staff) decided i should return to dc for physical therapy which wasnt available in morocco. upon arrival MRIs showed a ruptured disc in my lower back, so i was medically separated by peacecorps and i returned home to hickory. now i have the option of surgery in hopes of a quick recovery and return to my site. inshallah (god willing)

prime real estate

so ive found a mudhouse to move into, its an existing home that is being rehabed. its attached to a larger home with a shared covered courtyard. i spend most of my days helping the two builders, i feel like a contractor inspecting the work and tweaking plans like installing a shower and hot water heater. im excited to move into my first house and have the time to build my own furniture, i already have plans to install hand hued cabinets and selving under the kitchen countertop. i also want to build a rustic log bedframe and waste oil furnace. ive imagined a hanging garden in the interior courtyard and hammock, tell me what you think. but as many of you know im completely inept when it comes to interior design. short of yall coming over to help, which youre invited of course. ive decided to take a vote you can write in the comments what color i should paint the house. and of course youre invited to the house warming party.

nate and alex wedding

congrats big brother and new little sister, im so envious of everything that you two have i only wish to find something close to what you share. its been a tough day, not being there but know i thought about you all day. im sure the ceremony was amazing and the bride was beautiful. know i was there in spirit.



ps Alex are you sure you want to be part of the "addams family" theres still time to turn back!!!!
welcome youre the littler sister i never wanted

more than you ever wanted to know about wheat

i never really knew what i was getting into when i agreed to help my family with the wheat harvest this summer. it all began with me walking with my father through the fields in the evening helping him irrigate by way of releasing water through an intricate system of channels and dams. not realizing the amount of wheat and the process it takes from start to finish i unknowingly signed my sentence. beginning in early june i started to see the preparations being made for the upcoming onslaught, but thought "oh boy ive never done this before." first it begins with the preparation of the grinding yards. a flatish patch of hard packed dirt with a vertical pole in the middle which is used to tether a team of mules/donkeys/dogs/children whatever is available. this area must be swept/repacked/smoothed before the years' harvest arrives.











meanwhile the wheat in the field has turned yellow. now its time for BIG FUN!! threshing may sound like some new fangled skateboarding move to you youngsters but it aint. its waking up at 5 and cutting acres of wheat by hand all day, uphill in the snow. wow i sound like a geezer huh. anyway it really is a good time, you spend all day in the fields with the family, taking tea breaks in the shade, eating lunch in the fields with neighboring families, and all the while listening to the work songs and banshee cries of the women working around you, its fantastic!!! i really feel like i live in another century, its wild.








next its piled and loaded onto mules or donkeys and carried to the grinding yards



once its piled in the yard you can barely see the tops of the posts (4' high) the teams are brought in to run over the full grains which cuts and grinds the straw from the grain. very effective



last but not least is the separating of the chaffe from the grain. with only the use of homemade wooden pitchforks we gently tossed hundreds of pounds of straw and seed in the air and let the wind carry the chaffe into pile which is used for animal feed and the grain is ground into flour for the ever present staple: bread. this harvest God willing will last us the whole year and maybe a little to sell.

oops

heres a little story to illustrate how moroccan approach to life and construction intertwine. the village is currently building a 3-floored, concrete mosque and the entire community volunteers labor to finish building of the ceiling. on a recent sunday i went down to help, after the cement mixer broke down a couple times and was quickly fixed with a combination of bubble gum and clothes hangers, the wheelbarrow's wheel fell off for the 51st time, and the shovel i was using bent completely backwards, i peered inside the mosque to see that the entire multi-ton cinder block ceiling was supported by arm-thick wooden poles precariously balanced on piles of randomly gathered rocks. i heard a loud crash and everyone rushed inside to see that a 90 sq ft section of the roof had collapsed and a worker had fell 25 ft through the void onto a pile of rebar and cinder block. as the semiconscious man lay in the corner mumbling in pain and clutching his back the other 30 men decided that a good argument would be appropriate. after everyone had voiced their opinion 10 minutes later, the mixer was fired up again and everyone returned to work, seemingly unconcerned with the tremendous structure failure that had just occurred. meanwhile the man who had fell was loaded into the one transit van in town and carried off, but as they drove to the hospital i saw the driver stop every time he saw someone to say hello and exchange pleasantries. quite moroccan of them i thought, no need to rush and deal with problems (extremely!!!!) pragmatically.