Category: Daily Life

Ramblings, often stream of conscious, journaling the events of my life.

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Knoxville’s First Racetrack Still Exists

Knoxville is so full of interesting secrets and amazing history. Today I had the pleasure of driving on Knoxville’s first racetrack. The story was explained to me that after the civil war, an ex-slave [Cal Johnson] was awarded the gruesome contract to collect and bury the dead Union soldiers. That ex-slave became a millionaire and with his fortune created the first thoroughbred racetrack in Knoxville, TN. The field in the center of the racetrack is also known as being the location of the first airplane landing in Knoxville. This racetrack exists today and later this week, I will upload a video of a drive around the track.

Knoxville's First Racetrack Still Exists

On an unrelated note, I learned that the animosity between South Knoxville and Downtown Knoxville is rooted in history even if today’s Knoxvillians do not know why they detest each other. Apparently when the Great Depression hit, many Appalachians left their mountain homes seeking prosperity elsewhere. Naturally, many found the "big city" of Knoxville. Blue blood Knoxvillians did not appreciate the influx of foreigners to their fair city and took a dislike to the Appalachians. While the blue blood Knoxvillians primarily resided to the north of the river, the Appalachians took residence to the south of the river known today as South Knoxville. The Appalachian influence in South Knoxville is the reason for South Knoxville’s uniqueness and eccentricities.

n.b. None of this has been fact checked and was conveyed as an oral history.

tl;dr: Knoxville’s first horse race track still exists and was also the location of the first airplane to land in Knoxville.

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18 hours of ice

So in the past 18 hours:

  • My wife couldn’t get off our street due to ice
  • Our friend managed to get onto our cove returning our son 11pmish but couldn’t get out
  • My neighbor had to use 4 wheel drive to escape the ice
  • The postman slid into a neighbor’s yard
  • My father-in-law had difficulty leaving the street
  • My 17 year old daughter slid her car into our retaining wall and had to climb out the passenger side
  • My 17 year old daughter took our van to pick the 5 year old up from school

Waiting with bated breath to hear that the 5 year old makes it home safely and that the van survives.

Oh, and btw, secondary roads in Knoxville are still precarious. This is why schools get canceled.

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Groceries and the Snopocalypse

I get a giggle out of Knoxville’s typical overreaction to bad weather. We use a gallon of milk every day or two so I’m often buying milk regardless of weather. When the forecast is doom and gloom the milk and bread shelves are barren. Coincidentally, our pantry ran empty in sync with a predicted 2-5 inches of snow so Cathy and I joined in the madness at the grocery. After spending $150 on essentials and a few day’s meals, we arrived home to hungry children only to realize we hadn’t purchased anything for a quick meal for that night!

So, after getting the droopy, "we’re hungry" eyes from the children last night, I got the same thing from the dogs this morning. Apparently in our effort to feed the humans, we failed to notice the dogs were scrapping bottom in their food supply too. So, now to brave the snow covered roads before tonight’s ice storm comes to get to the pet store for dog chow and a rat (hungry snake too).

Tl;dr: On Sunday, we bought meals for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and neglected to bring home dinner for that night and failed to buy dog food.

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I am the gas fairy, goo goo g’joob

When I notice the van running low on petrol (gasoline), I attempt to secretly refill the tank so that Cathy is frequently surprised with a full tank of gas. Yesterday she found herself stranded at the mall because the van refused to start. She claims she was out in the cold for an hour and a half. I arrived and after some futzing with the van the engine roared albeit roughly and with a warning light. Eventually we found our way to Autozone whose computer reported that the MAF/MAP sensor was overloaded. Great, sensor replacement time. Wait a minute! Hadn’t seen this before? Oh… yes. I walked out the door to the van, removed the gas cap, and replaced the gas cap, the warning light faded away, and the engine ran smooth. See, in modern vehicles, the fuel system is often pressurized so if the gas cap is not sealed well, like it’s crooked, then the engine has problems getting fuel.

n.b. The gas fairy does indeed sound like a walrus.

Tl;dr The van wouldn’t start leaving Cathy was stuck in the cold for an hour and a half because I put the gas cap on crooked.

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2011 – Day 3

The bed beckons but the computer wins. Choices: client’s office or home office; warm and quiet or cold with relaxing incense. The home office computer whines in complaint after a week of disuse. Naturally the programming finds monkey wrenches and takes three times as long as planned and delays other work. The evening ends with Torchwood and insomnia. Bizarrely, the wife finds sleep before me.

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2011 – day 2

And on the second day, he overslepthtttt. For he was tired although the year had just begun. And on this same day, he finished watching The Inglorious Bastards wondering right up until the end when Brad Pitt and George Clooney would make their appearance and perplexed as to why Quentin Tarantino went so far out of his way to make the movie appear like it was filmed in 1978. And then there was coding. Bits and bytes and programming. And night felt, with a coldness that left goosebumps on top of goosebumps.

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2011 is upon us

The year was 2011. And on the first day, the rains were heavy. The basement fortitude breached by water. A collapsed wall and a deflated basketball formed a dam in the trench intended to divert runoff away from the structure turning the ditch into a basin. Hydrostatic pressure built and the ancient concrete block gave way to seepage. $17 in new boots, $20 in slitted pipe, and much time spent sinking shin deep in a cross between quicksand and wet cement instead of typing ones and zeros, the water flowed freely away from the wall and God willin’ and the crik don’t rise, the basement will stay dry until 2012. As night fell, my body and mind shook with exhaustion and I did all that I could…I watched Torchwood.

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Weekend Project – Day 25

I had hoped to have the clubhouse finished by Christmas. We are so close! I have a new obstacle; One of the dogs has taken to chewing the extension cords. I lost a 100′ extension cord that had served me well for 20 years. And yesterday, I lost a 50′ extension cord that I had used once. Looks like I’m going to a totally 18v rechargeable workshop.

We are now officially done with step 16 of 27. Count Amy’s wardrobe changes.

Weekend Project - Day 25Weekend Project - Day 25

And a brief night time attempt that failed to accomplish anything.

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I do dance with the Devil in the pale moonlight

I know some of you get twitches in your toes with the weather is changing, or migraines when the storm is approaching. The full moon sets me off. Perhaps there’s a little werewolf in me. As Luna grows large, I am struck with insomnia, passionate energy, and animalism. Tonight promises to be quite sleepless.

This lunar eclipse falls on the date of the northern winter solstice. How rare is that? Total lunar eclipses in northern winter are fairly common. There have been three of them in the past ten years alone. A lunar eclipse smack-dab on the date of the solstice, however, is unusual. Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory inspected a list of eclipses going back 2000 years. "Since Year 1, I can only find one previous instance of an eclipse matching the same calendar date as the solstice, and that is 1638 DEC 21," says Chester. "Fortunately we won’t have to wait 372 years for the next one…that will be on 2094 DEC 21." [Source, NASA Science, Solstice Lunar Eclipse]

Blessed be!