Toast of Durham

King for a day

Toast — Sun, 01 May 2011 20:17:16 +0000

Yesterday, the Coalition to Unchain Dogs unchained its 1000th dog. I’ve got a bunch of pictures and a video from the occasion, which had around 75 volunteers and visitors from Durham and beyond. I want to share those, but I’ve got one perfect picture of the celebrated canine, and it deserves its own post. This is King.

Snow (belated)

Toast — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 17:21:11 +0000

It’s 60 degrees and rainy now, but one week ago, Durham was getting around seven inches of snow, and I drove out anyway to go to Charlotte.

Full album of pics

Home, 5:44AM

H looks around, 8:30AM

Back alley

Heading out around 9AM…notice the snowman at the intersection of Green and Onslow

Duke East Campus, heading West on Markham

Ninth Street

Durham Freeway, headed North toward I-85 South

Accident on I-85 South in Hillsborough; conditions began to improve shortly thereafter, for me, at least (not sure about the driver of the truck)

Another victim of the economy

Toast — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 01:38:22 +0000

(also a victim of sucking for many years)

The Durham Fuddruckers off MLK…

Tipping point at the Broad Street Whole Foods

Toast — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 23:32:07 +0000

Everyday, some manager at the Broad Street Whole Foods in Durham must ask, “How many more displays can we add, and how much can we expand the endcaps today?”

You cannot walk from Point A to Point B without bumping into something or someone.

I remember, years ago, you’d walk into Whole Foods and smell flowers and other pleasant aromas. It was a relaxing experience to shop at Whole Foods, even the small Broad Street location.

Now, it’s like a crowded subway station. You can’t stop anywhere. You’ll hear “excuse me” non-stop. The shopping experience, from beginning to end, is one of constant stress.

If you want some pasta salad from the salad bar, good luck…

I wish there was a convenient alternative. I can’t say I’m going to boycott the store. But I’d certainly buy more there if I weren’t constantly trying to get exactly what I came for and get the hell out of there. And then there have been plenty of times when I have walked in, seen the madness, and walked right out.

It’s clear I’m in the minority here, because business appears to be booming. I don’t know how people can stand it.

P.S. – And now they’ve got the Thanksgiving order table, too, just smack in the middle of everything.

39 months

Toast — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 03:29:03 +0000

Now that the weather is cooler, I leave the windows open some, and so I hear Jade barking. She has been in her pen since late June 2007. Durham County’s landmark anti-tethering ordinance (which also requires dogs to be placed in adequately-sized enclosures) has been in full-effect since July 1. Or has it?

Moving back to Raleigh

Toast — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:40:29 +0000

Bob Schmitz/Duke frat house a few doors down already gets police on their second night. Drunk freshmen run past my house, aimlessly into the scary Walltown night, presumably so they can escape being written up and preserve their chances of running for Congress, or, more likely, to avoid upsetting Mom and Dad, who just a moment ago parked the Lexus LX570 in the Greenwich, CT garage after the grueling drive back up from Durham. I’m too tired to be annoyed. Hope there’s no broken glass for H to step on tomorrow.

No, I’m not moving back to Raleigh.

Best Petsitters in Durham

Toast — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 04:51:13 +0000

H, A, and Z don’t agree on much, but they are unanimous in praising Bull City Pet Sitting for providing the best, funnest, most loving care when daddy has to go somewhere. Heather and Jen treat them all like their own. H needs belly rubs, A needs lap sessions, and Z needs head-butts, and they all get plenty of TLC from Bull City Pet Sitting. A and Z have both had special medication and food needs over the years. H has special needs just in his social ineptness around other canines. Heather and Jen always do a tremendous job with my critters. I’ve been using them for nearly six years, and I recommend them whole-heartedly to the pet-owners of Durham!

Ikea and the local progressives and metablogging

Toast — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 05:41:53 +0000

I blogged via iPhone Thursday night and didn’t post it. It’s probably just as well, but, at 2AM late Saturday night, it’s Ambien time again, and my self-censoring doesn’t work well right now.

I’ll block-quote this in case I have any observations 48 hours later.

New bed sheets! Rarest of occasions. From IKEA. I love IKEA. written by iPhone, got some ambien going on so there are my excused for a disjointed post.

Today, I assembled my big purchase from IKEA–a new chair. Maybe I’ll have a Pulitzer-winning post about that in the days to come. Here’s a spoiler: it’s a POÄNG. (For some reason, the website fails to list the combination that I actually got.)

Dialysis still a pain in the ass. No one left to blame. Garrulous patients, waking up to sweats, waking up to frigid air, being paralyzed in deep sleep after coming home, feelin feverish the entire time i am at work…no desire to do anything productive after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

No comfort to be told that my “numbers are great.”

I’m getting lots of advice regarding whether I should have my kidneys removed. It’s seeming like the doctors are going to leave this chilling decision up to me.

What good will having the surgery or the transplant do me?

A nephrectomy post is in order for someday soon. Nephrectomy…what a lovely word. Oh, and I’d be getting a double-nephrectomy.

Tonight, the Durham young progressives who go by that name that I will not explicitly address had what was probably a pretty neat confluence of the local progressive intelligensia (word?) I long ago decided I felt isolated from this group despite numerous attempts to assimilate.

Too many grad students and post-docs and artists and community organizers and bikers and tri-athletes and assorted hip people of the world…I feel like a NOTHING around these people and when I do go to something, I leave the gathering prematurely .

I have yet to find a way that would let me stay. I reached out a couple of times trying to get the magical answer from the wise oracle of community organizing. Too busy or my problem is too intimate for an answer to be provided.

These kinds of thoughts related to feelings of alienation occur whenever anything is happening around town that I think I’d be interested in if not for the feeling that I just don’t quite fit in. Unfortunately, this means I don’t go out and try new things. I become more and more isolated from people. I live, if I am to believe The Independent and Bull City Rising and Barry’s blog and other exceptional sources, in a progressive, smart, vibrant, fun city. But I stay in my house.

Tonight, I have found myself with writer’s block, obsessing over the point of this site. I am reminded of a post I made back in September 2008 called Block.

My WordPress admin page to Add New Post…I have a blog…what do I want to do with my blog…

I star dozens of Google Reader articles every week, ostensibly because I want to share them with people…but I usually don’t…because I don’t know if I’m preaching to the choir…or trying to grab the attention of people who might not otherwise care about something..and am I really making anyone care who didn’t before…or is it ok to just post something to make the point that I care about something…

I have more lousy experiences at dialysis than I chronicle in here…but everyone gets the point that dialysis sucks…what good does it do to chronicle it in detail…especially because I’d truly prefer not to think about it when I’m not actually there…

The occasional ramblings about feeling like a failure…Feelings along these lines bubble up far more than I choose to write about them in here…I don’t know what I am accomplishing when I publicly write about these feelings.

Pet photos…I keep taking ‘em, and I keep posting ‘em…the world must see my pets…

And why I’m reeling off thoughts about blogging tonight? I just noticed it’s been a week since I posted anything.

But I’m digging up what I had saved on my iPhone only, and you’ve read that. So this is sufficient for tonight.

It’s 2:35AM now. Sleep very soon…and likely sleep until I convince myself that it’s ridiculous to remain in bed any longer (likely 11 or 12:00).

Where’s the requisite pet pic?

Happy Fourth

Toast — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 02:47:18 +0000

H was absolutely thrilled to spend a couple of hours at American Tobacco tonight for some music and people-watching. He just loves people. Other dogs, not so much, but there were only a couple of them. I don’t know how he feels about fireworks. I have a feeling that, unlike a lot of dogs, he wouldn’t mind them, but we left before they started. I’m content to watch A Capitol Fourth on PBS. This year: Jimmy Smits! Watching the D.C. Mall show and fireworks is one of those experiences that really looks great on a high-def TV. It’s all great in person, too, except for the waiting five or six hours in the shade-less Mall heat for everything to start.

Durham water bill

Toast — Mon, 03 May 2010 02:01:03 +0000

I opened up my Durham water bill, which I generally don’t pay much attention to because I just pay a flat rate each month and hope I don’t fall too far behind. I was surprised to see that I had a credit for $16.95. Yippee! I had read there had been billing errors (see BCR), and that people had been charged more…though that was supposedly after they were charged less. Oh, well, I won’t worry about what’ll be next time until it is next time It was nice to cancel my auto-payment scheduled for a few days from now.

Durhamites–read your water and sewage statement if you haven’t yet.