Don't be this turkey hunter.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!   I'll actually be eating turkey here late since my brother is at his girlfriend's parents house for dinner and won't be over until later.  I'm usually not in any hurry to eat...I can wait.  There's always football and hockey to watch until then.   Hopefully, the Carolina Hurricanes can play much better tomorrow against the Boston Bruins than they did their last two games.  The one last night was real dismal.  It looked like a bunch of grandpas skating.  Maybe they can get it together next game.

Below is a picture of my brother and his new daughter Samantha, who was born about eight weeks ago.  She weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces at birth.  We have a closer photo of her, but I'll have to scan it into the computer.  Right now, I don't have a working scanner at home since the color laser printer replaced the previous printer/scanner combo.  At least I can print better quality photos though.

As for me, it'll probably be quite awhile before I have any kids.  Hehe, I had a girlfriend in over ten years.  That's mainly because I work a lot, and don't have much free time.  Secondly...with being on the fire department, it may be best for me not to begin a family in case something should happen to me in the line of duty.  Although the remark may seem farfetched due to other harmful possibilites, firefighting and hazardous conditions are more frequent dangers within this service.  Anyways, as just mentioned, time is something I don't have much of right now.  Our town's Christmas Parade is coming up next month and I'm helping with preparations for that.  In thinking, maybe I should find a job which pays more than chicken feed although it'd be hard for me to get a second job with all the other things going on.  Hmmm...we'll just have to see how things go.  

I was able to visit Hanging Rock State Park a couple weeks ago, which is located near Danbury, North Carolina not far from Winston-Salem.  Unfortunately, we got there late in the day and didn't have time to hike the trail to the summit of Hanging Rock.  Instead, we took a trail to a couple of different waterfalls around the park.  I'm going to wait on posting any pictures on my website until I can go back and get to the top of the mountain for some summit overlook photos.  More forthcoming...

The weather has been cold, wet and windy the past few days.  Luckily, no serious localized flooding occurred around here unlike down towards the coast and further north.  This storm was nothing like the one the week before where a number of tornadoes touched down in many of the southern states.  Eight people were killed near Wilmington when an F3 tornado hit a rural mobile home park early in the morning.  Damage in that area was extensive.  Sometimes, stuff like that makes me wonder what the winter is going to be like down here.  Three feet of snow maybe?  Unlikely, but I've seen stranger instances.  The quiet Atlantic Hurricane Season would be one of those, although it's not over just yet.  Nature is unpredictable.

OK, I'ma done yapping for now.  Everyone can go back and get stuffed with turkey.   Until next time...sail on.