Crash

Strange fender-bender outside my office window just now... Looking down on it, for the life of me I can't figure out exactly how it happened. But that won't stop from speculatively blaming it on the guy in the Mercedes with the Bluetooth in his ear.

Happy Father's Day. To Me.

It's now been (more or less) a year since we moved to Asheville and much like when I lived in New York City and never went to, say, the Statue of Liberty—we live mere minutes from several access points to the famed Blue Ridge Parkway, yet never use it. When I first toured the area last year when interviewing for my job, I took the Parkway back to the airport, and saw I families piling out of the car to enjoy the many trails and figured we'd be doing the same thing if we moved here. Um, notsomuch.

Anyway, I've been working on my photography of late, and decided I need to get up early and grab some sunrise pictures in the mountains. I've tried to get up, but could never rally, and get my ass out of bed.

I knew I'd have some more opportunity in July when Mrs F and the kids are away, but when I read that the Rhododendron are in peak bloom NOW, I figured I'd use the Father's Day Trump Card to take off in the morning and hit the road—with any luck I'd be home before anyone else was up. I set the alarm for 5:45, but Baby set hers for 5:10—I was good and awake now. Once Mrs F got her back to sleep, I made my escape. The weather was less than ideal, but around here ten miles one way or the other can be whole different scene (more on that later).

It's a slow and steady climb from Asheville's 2,300 foot elevation up to the Ridge. My first stop was at about 3400 feet, I'd missed sunrise, but it was pretty overcast so it didn't really matter. I had the the dog with me, the windows down and was really enjoying the drive. A little way further up, there was some okay visability, so I snapped off a few shots (the panorama upthread), but it was beginning to feel like the photo part of the trip was a bust, and this was turning into merely a scouting trip for a return with the family.

As I got up into the 5,000s and Craggy Gardens and the visibility was anywhere between a few miles and 30 feet. I shot some Rhododendron, and decided not to go any further ( I had hoped to make it to Mt. Mitchell). When I got back in the car, I took my first real look at the dash and about crapped my pants—the gas gauge was below empty.



For those not familiar with the Parkway, it can be miles between exits (30 or more) and even then, it's not like an Interstate with an Exxon at every ramp. It was 7:00 a.m., I was in the middle of nowhere, and the last thing I wanted to do was call Mrs F to come get me.

I could swear I had a quarter-tank when I left, and that should have been plenty, but I must have misjudged the gauge and then the long climb took its toll on fuel efficiency.

I then realized, "It's all downhill!"

I pulled out and began my descent. Cruising down the mountain in nuetral at a low idle, I decided I better kill the engine until I need it. It cost me the power brakes, but the slope, curves and banks made controlling the car a breeze. It was pretty fun actually...

My silent running had a completely unexpected advantage—the rabbits, wild turkeys, etc that had run for cover on the way up were all along the side of the road. Kinda cool. And then...along the bank I saw what I never dreamed I'd see...




I have a serious thing for bears. I love em. Everything about em. If there was Bear Week on Discovery Channel, you'd know where to find me. I have never seen a bear in the wild. Ever. My parents have a roll of film of a full-grown black bear in the yard at my childhood home—taken twenty years after I left for college. I've waited my whole life, and there it was: right at the side of the road. I coasted silently up, and stopped not twenty feet away.

Clearly a juvenile, I was more worried about the dog spotting him and barking before I could grab my camera. I still had my wide angle 17-35mm lens mounted, so he looks even further than he was, and it was set for my manual exposures in the fog at the top, so the photos are disappointingly blown out, and through the window glass (it was freezing at the top), but I managed to squeeze off six clean shots before he noticed me and took off.

I was positively giddy. I didn't care about the gas anymore, no matter what happened, this trip was a success.

I successfully conserved my fuel and made to a gas station at the bottom and returned home where everyone was asleep and there was no one to share in my glee. I climbed into the only available bed—Baby's toddler bed, and crashed.

Kid and Mrs F greeted me with iced coffee and donuts an hour or two later and at last I could show off my trophy.

All and all, a fantastic morning. I was ready to take the rest of the clan up there for a picnic when it cleared up in the afternoon. Or so I thought...

[to be cont'd.]

How I Roll...

You might recall that I was selling my car a few months back...Well, after weeks on craigslist and slowly lowering my asking price I finally sold it a month ago—and for the same price I cursed and mocked that guy for after all. It just took me another six weeks to accept that nobody's willing to pay for a nice car in Asheville—but they're perfectly willing to jack people up for any old diesels (to convert to bio) and for Subarus.

Seriously. Every third car in Asheville is a Subaru. New...from the 80s...it doesn't matter. It's the car in demand and they are completely overpriced. And of course my short list was Subarus or an old Saab 900. Well there are no Saabs south of Philadelphia apparently, and any Subie in my price range had serious problems: blown engines, sideswipe damage, missing glass, you name it—and these hippies still wanted $2,500!

Well, I'm the luckiest guy in town, because I found this mint little Impreza (and I DO mean MINT—check that paint job—like a pack of Orbitz!) for book value—$1,800! Turns out this woman needed to unload this car in a hurry and just asked what KBB.com told her to. Any other person in town would be demanding 3 grand. For real. It gets better—she ended up being a neighbor, and turned down more money from other buyers to sell to me at her asking price.

It's bare-bones: crank windows, no stereo (yet), but it's a 5-speed, in great shape, a blast to drive and I'm getting 26 mpg around town and 32 on the highway! Mrs F was mortified when I brought it home, but I'm smitten.

Behold the new Furymobile!



NOTE: It's not QUITE as obnoxious as my High Dynamic Range photography makes it look...but almost.

Palin To Visit Fake America

This is a pretty shocking development. North Carolina is a state where the McCain/Palin camp appears to be making a stand, but I didn't expect them to spend time or resources in a town where they will lose—and lose heavily. While western North Carolina certainly has its share of rural, Republican areas, Asheville is pretty much a Green Zone of liberal, progressive hippiedom. They should be doing this in Hendersonville or some other "pro-America" venue.

They'll be lucky to attract as many attendees as protesters here in Asheville. So much so, that I almost have to wonder if that's the idea...baiting to capture some ugly liberal crowd video. I actually hope DEms and libs here just ignore the whole thing rather than feed the beast. Eyes on the prize, Asheville—ignore this sideshow, and just GOTV.

Naturally the McCain site has no information for the media, so I am unclear whether or not I will be covering this.

Sweet Caroline -- UPDATED, AGAIN

So far, so good...

[AP] NORTH CAROLINA

Early voting opened Thursday and drew some 214,000 voters to the polls in the first two days, leading to hours-long lines in parts of the state and lengthy schedules for poll workers.

In the first few days, the balloting clearly favored Democrats, with those registered with the party making up 62 percent of those who had voted. Only 22 percent of the voters had been registered Republicans.

North Carolina has 15 electoral votes.

HOLY SHIT UPDATE: Well, THIS is not good news...

NC is one of two states in the country where straight ticket voting does not count for President. This unusual exception trips up tens of thousands of voters every 4 years.

North Carolina lost 92,000 votes for President in 2004 due to straight ticket confusion. Our state has one of the highest undervote rates for President in the Country because of this.

Voters have very little reason to know about this exception, since it is not intuitive, and it was not even mentioned in the 3 million + voter guides mailed to households all over North Carolina.

What fucking genius came up with that shit? (Answer: probably a Republican) I can only hope that this is pant-soiling news to me since I am new to North Carolina—the only reason I know about this is the Obama campaign sent a mailer to my house yesterday.

Here's my double-edged take on this: Hundreds of thousands of new voters have registered in NC—most of them Dems. Hopefully the fact that they are so motivated to cast a vote for Obama means that they zero right in on that choice and don't miss it. On the other hand, they are all first-time voters, so the likelihood of confusion or error with the ballot is high.

Fuck.

UPDATE 2— Double-fuck:

My mother has been working the polls in North Carolina for early voting [...] she says that in the last few days alone, she has personally seen at least 200 votes intended to go to Obama that were not being counted (in other words, people telling her how excited they are to see Obama elected, only to find out that by selecting the straight democratic line, they never even cast a vote for him).

Smitty, Bob—hold each other.

UPDATE 3—BETTER NEWS: If that shit has you down, this should help...

I squeaked in just before the 7pm deadline to find two very frustrated poll workers and a line of a couple dozen people, due to problems with the computerized voting system not accepting people's driver's licenses. It was taking about 7-10 minutes per person just to get the computer to accept them as valid and to print out their ballot, causing very long delays.

For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she made it about halfway to the door before collapsing in a nearby chair, where she began weeping uncontrollably. When we rushed over to help we realized that she wasn't in trouble at all but she had not truly believed, until she left the booth, that she would ever live long enough to cast a vote for an African-American for president. Anyone who doesn't think that African-American turnout will absolutely SHATTER every existing record is in for a very rude surprise.

There were about 20 people in front of me but remarkably not a single person left the room without voting over the 2 hours it took to get through the line.

GTFOTW

People in Asheville do not know how to drive.

Specifically? They don't follow some key universal laws of the road—such as:

1. When there is a fire truck coming down the road—lights ablaze, siren screaming and massive fucking airhorns blowing the glass out of your car windows—you should pull over and get the fuck out of the way! This happened again today downtown and makes me want to take a bat to the offending car(s). I can see when there's a cop who is using their weak-ass electronic siren intermittently to cut through traffic, that there might be some mystery where it is in relation to you, or possibly even inaudible over your radio, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm seeing people take their sweet-ass time down the road, making their turns or doing whatever the hell they want with 30,000 loud, in-a-hurry pounds of truck on their ass.

2. Merging in traffic means taking turns in a simple every-other-car technique. Even people in NYC understand this shit.

3. When I am crossing the street with one little girl in my arms and the other one holding my hand, and I have the walk signal and you want to turn right, you fucking sit there and wait until I am out of your fucking way, you stupid Land Cruiser driving jackass.

Media Elite

Put some pics up on my Flickr page. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get to a Georgetown cocktail party...

UPDATE: 28,000.

On the Ground

I just checked to see if there were any Obama campaign events happening in Western North Carolina anytime soon...


Seems there are 44 events within a 50-mile radius of Asheville. Now, I know Asheville is a liberal zone (for the South) but that's pretty good. It gets rural in a hurry around here, and there are probably plenty of areas that lean Republican.

What's coming up for local McCain supporters?


That's what I like to see.