The final game of the season for Aycock Middle School's football team was tonight - a make up game with cross town nemisis Kiser Middle. Aycock's offense was awesome. The front line - anchored by offensive tackle Josie Hoggard kept Kiser's defense off balance the whole night.
Final score: Aycock 22 - Kiser 8
Daughter Josie calls it the last game of her football career... we'll see.
My Dad is an email forwarder. The one he sent to me today will now be adopted as the Hoggard credo:
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand - a Bourbon in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "WOO HOO - what a ride!"
He sent it with "martini" where "Bourbon" now resides. Just a difference in taste, Dad... not attitude.
N&R reporter Mark Binker, on his personal blog, was chiding a small "local daily" for delivering their Sunday edition wrapped in a plastic bag that extolled Richard Burr's Republican senate campaign yesterday. Mark didn't like it:
"...as someone who works in a newsroom, this paper’s news product is literally wrapped in a campaign ad. What are readers who don’t favor Burr to think?... Is this a whole lot different than running a candidate’s ad in the paper?...if my paper were to have done this ... it would trouble me a great deal."
Then, this morning, Mark picked up his copy of his employer's product off the lawn at about the same time I retieved mine and saw the same thing I did. Mark had to update his post: "Update (11/1, 7:15 a.m.): My own newspaper came wrapped in one of those Burr ads today. Boy, that just makes me unhappy."
I, too, thought the practice to be questionable.
In any case, that finally seals it for me. The N&R is an arm of the vast right wing conspiracy. (Note to the un-initiated, the last sentence was meant to be funny.)
I'm with Ed Cone when he laments: "I am so over this election. Is we done yet?"
I enter the frey tomorrow filled with trepidation but also full of hope that we will all come out of this with an electorate that is more alive and more involved than we have been for many, many years.
In years past I have scorned the body-electorate for being uninvolved and uncaring - so how can I bitch when the tables have been so wildly turned?
District 7 County Commissioner candidate Mike Barber stopped by this morning and we talked about the real costs of such a high level of involvement. He has spent over $35K in an effort to beat out his Republican opponenent Mike Winstead, Jr, who, Barber said, has spent over $110K as of the last reporting cycle. Said Mike B, "All of that for a little District race.That's a guy who really wants a seat on the commission."
State House candidate Pricey Harrison's sister Susan Edwards stopped by for chili last night. She reports that her sister's campaign has spent in excess of $350K to unseat Republican Joanne Bowie. Susan told me how much Bowie has spent in defense of her long-held seat, the number has escaped my feeble mind - but it was also a pot full.
In case you are wondering, I'm here until Wednesday.
Today I just have to catch up on some things and try to go to lunch with 10-year-old Jesse over at Jones Elementary. Other things are pressing, also.
Tomorrow, well... in case you didn't know... we're gonna have ourselves an election. I'm going to take a few hours today and make an heroic effort to transfer my blog over to my laptop. I'll be working the polls over at First Lutheran on Friendly and really want to blog the activity. Candidates say the darndest things at the polls, and I want to try and capture some of it.
Tomorrow night - I'll be mixing it up at the Old County Courthouse - laptop charged and typing away. I wonder if the WiFi that was installed a few blocks away at the new park is available from the Courthouse? Maybe I'll give it a test run today.
Halloween here in Aycock is rich in tradition. Last night was more of the same.
Tom and Renee Franklin's pre-trick-or-treat party for the kids. Miki and David Moore's old P.A. system scaring the crap out of unsuspecting passers-by. Cobwebs hanging from every porch. A jaunt to Fisher Park with the kids to get some serious candy. Scary music coming from every porch who has installed stereo speakers that normally play rock or bluegrass music. On and on.
This was my first year that all three of my kids were old enough to strike out on their own. All except for 15 year-old Jackson who spent the night upstairs and only ventured down when some of his friends came calling - and then only to eat chili.
The night always ends with lots of folks in my kitchen and on our porch eating Jinni's Three Alarm Chili and chugging down a beer or two. There's also plenty of Bourbon for the rest of us. I stoked my old front porch fire pit even though the weather was balmy. Tradition is not dependent upon the weather.
Also, it is like old-home night. Old neighbors, who for whatever the reason, have moved to other parts of town come back to take it all in. Ex-neighborhood children, some of whom now have children of their own, return to Aycock to re-live what they grew up with.
Next year, come on by - we'd love to have you and yours.
