A much awaited entry to my blog!

Finally, this afternoon, it’s back to Surf City for the Veteran’s Day Holiday.  Maybe this little trip will cure some of the boredom I’ve been experiencing of late.  Hell, I just realized that I’ve got so much “been there, done that” in my past that the challenges are waning and quickly.  I think I’ve even read the entire Internet – twice, memorized every bar code and SKU number at Best Buy, and single handedly pumped the equivalent of ten Saudi oil wells worth of gas into my cars.

What’s next you ask?  I wish I knew but I don’t.  Maybe nothing – it’s the final challenge isn’t it?  (Truthfully, I’ve always wanted to sell hot dogs on a fishing pier.  Now where do you suppose I would find one of those?)

 

Visits to NC

Well, I guess I lied – didn’t make it for Columbus Day Weekend since Patti was in SC visiting her folks and I didn’t want to go it alone. We’ll now shoot for Veteran’s Day (November 12), and a return in two weeks from then for Thanksgiving. Hopefully it won’t be too cold by then since I’ve got a new seat for the mountain bike and want to try it out.

Weekend was a Success!

This past weekend was a success – both weather and other wise.  We arrived at Surf City Thursday evening around 7 PM so had 4 nights, leaving Monday around noon.  Warm, nice weather; some good bike rides; and all the usual stuff to do.  Interesting coincidence while we were at ACE Hardware visiting with Chuck.  Pat recognized her cousins Angela and her daughter Beth (and baby) in the store.  The coincidence comes in since Angela lives in PA and was visiting Beth.  Anyway, we were all able to go out to dinner at Daddy Mac’s on Sunday – not a bad place in my opinion, and we got to visit afterwards.  (Note: The Key Lime Pie that the Gift Basket on Surf City sells is great – never pass it up when given a chance to have some.)

When we left, the usual “I don’t wanna go” feelings set in and the gravitational pull of retirement to the beach increased a bit.  One of these days…….!

My other success while there was getting the network camera up and running once again – but for how long I wonder?  (Maybe I should be more optimistic.)

I am going back for Columbus Day weekend if I can muster the energy to make the drive – bet I will.

That’s it for now.

Brad

 

 

So, I'm coming back

Finally, after about 6 weeks I am heading back to NC and Surf City.  Seems like it’s been forever and, as you can read from some of my other postings, I’m still in the threat mode when it comes to retirement.  Maybe this trip will be the one where it finally sinks in that I would rather be there than most other places – the “Decider” we’ll call it (not to be confused with that other Decider mind you).  I’ll let you know how things go when I get there…..mood swings and all!

BQ

What Else? The Beach!

I am in VA and Patti is still in NC at the beach. Ginger arrived today and will stay until next Saturday, giving Patti some company after a week by herself.
Tonight, A. C. Flora is having a reunion for my class in Columbia SC. Too bad that I was unable to make it since it would have been fun to see all of the old high school crew. Maybe next time????
Nothing going on here. Working, biking, computering (is that now a word?). As Jackie Gleason once said "One of the days......" and I will hang it up so fast everyone will be flabbygasted.

Finally, I am there!

Finally, after a month of hearing about all the fun in the sun stuff going on down here, I made it back.  Only for the weekend (and a hot one at that so it appears), but hey, I got back to Surf City one more time during the summer.

Everyone seems to be having a good time – Jenny and Boe (Pat’s Mom and Dad) are here for 10 days.  Pat has enjoyed a steady stream of company (Ginger, Ashley; then Betsy, Austin, Abigail; then Lynn, Mark, Sarah; now Jenny and Boe; me (I feel like company anyway); the Ginger again.  Wow!  Good thing we upsized the refrigerator.

Well, I need to start the day – maybe with a nice, hot bike ride to the south end of the island – then, breakfast, or death depending on how hot it is out there.  Too bad it won’t be beer time for another 8 hours….wait!  I’m on vacation so beer time is whenever it needs to be, right?

The house is open and I am not in it - again!

Patti is back in Surf City, probably through August (and, as usual, I am here working).  It’s a busy place at the beach this summer.  Ginger and Ashley arrived Friday.  Betsy, Austin, and Abigail came Sunday so all 5 are there now.  They leave Saturday and Lynn, Mark, Sara arrive for a week.  The day after they leave, Jenny and Boe get there for a 2 week stay.  Somewhere in the mix, I am going to take some time off and go down myself.  Wow, it’s a revolving door.  The weather is good.  The new fridge is in and working.  The roses are blooming…..and Northern Virginia sucks, at least when I know I would rather be in Surf City NC.

 

Surf City on the 4th of July

It’s been a long time coming but I am finally posting again.  We have been at Surf City NC since June 29 and will be here until July 8.  The weather has been great until today (raining but will probably clear up by the afternoon).  Most days have been in the low 80s and not too humid.  We’ve had a good time so far – not eaten out too much except for the 38^th Anniversary dinner at the Atlantis on North Topsail and that was pretty good, with a view of the Ocean from their 7^th floor restaurant that can’t be beat and the food was outstanding.

The Surf City Fireworks display on July 3 was great too, dinner and fireworks watching on Bob’s deck where he also shot off some South Carolina fireworks after the town’s display ended.

Last night (the 4^th) we all were shooting off our South Carolina fireworks (mine was pretty wimpy by the way but I didn’t spend $200 on it either) when Bob’s mulch caught on fire, the cops came, and everyone ran like hell.  I hid our fireworks in the shower room until the heat was off.  Nothing but a warning but there are still a lot of fireworks (look like mortar rounds) left so I guess we’ll be seeing some more cops in the near future.

We have the Bradley Family Reunion Saturday at Cedar Island and the McEachern’s home.  I guess since I am a Bradley namesake, I will go and be happy his name wasn’t Philpot or something.  Anyway, I am back to vacationing and not blogging for now.

At the Beach - Not!

Here’s another much delayed post about my favorite subject – Surf City at Topsail Island NC. Patti is there this week, entertaining her Mom, Dad, Sister, and two Cousins. I am here as usual, doing my corporate thing and spending the week getting grades completed and posted for my graduate courses. School starts next week so even the long weekend won’t get me to NC this time. The highlight of my weekend was a bowl of Pho – go figure!

Looks like the weather will be nice for everyone at Sunkiss – I hope so. Maybe one day soon, I’ll be able to trade work for personal time and spend endless hours doing what I want to be doing. This place surely doesn’t provide any type of personal gratification, as it once did. I suppose that’s God’s way of getting me mentally prepared for retirement.

Soon, it’s gonna be my time and I can’t wait.

Weekend at Surf City

I finally got to Surf City this past weekend.  Friday and Saturday were great.  The weather was fairly warm and we were able to plant 6 rose bushes, get the beds edged and mulched, and wash the house.  However, the big Nor’easter blew in on Sunday and shot the rest of the weekend all to heck.  Between the rain and very high winds, it was basically a nasty few days until we left.  We did manage to upgrade the TV in the den and had a decent time just being down there.  One lesson I did learn was to watch out for the fire ants – ouch!  Believe me – ouch!

One big plus was finding out that we are in a more favorable flood zone, the result of that was a drastic reduction in flood insurance…lucky us!

Hopefully, we’ll return soon – before Memorial Day I hope.  I suspect Patti is planning to spend some time entertaining visitors during the summer so she’ll enjoy that I am sure.