Nowhere But Here

 

I was born in Raleigh, NC but shortly afterwards moved to just outside of Alexandria, VA, then high school in Cairo, Egypt and back to Elon College, NC for college and to live until 1989.  However, there was a brief stint of 2 years in Norfolk, VA when I served in the US Navy.  In 1990, I moved to East TN where I lived in Greeneville, Morristown, Chattanooga, Dandridge, and Jefferson City...  I have been in Jefferson City, TN since 2001 and will more than likely remain here for the rest of my life...

Every morning, I watch FOX NEWS and every morning I am not just thankful but grateful for having the motivation and the good sense to move to East TN and have no desire to live anywhere else.

FOX NEWS shares with me about all the violence and crime that is taking place in California, Oregon, and Washington including Chicago, New York City, Washington DC, Baltimore, and Atlanta just to name a few states and cities.

FOX NEWS shares with me about all the LOCKDOWNS that are going on around the country and the fact that many states and cities are mandating not just facemasks but requiring people to show PROOF of VACCINATION...  now, while I have had both my Moderna vaccinations including a Moderna booster, I resent and reject the idea that I should have to show PROOF of what I have done.

 FOX NEWS shares with me about all the ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS that are coming across our southern borders, none of these immigrants are being tested for COVID nor are they being required to show proof of vaccination...  WHY NOT?  But...  I am still very much thankful that very few of these illegal immigrants  are being shipped to East TN.

As a Vietnam Veteran, I am embarrassed by the way we left Afghanistan, not just the lack of leadership that was on display but because all of our allies now question our ability and desire to protect them and stand with them against their enemies...

East TN State University

Not only is the weather in East TN very mild during the winter months, but there is no state income tax...  and, on average, East TN is 10-12% cheaper to live than anywhere else in the US...  for example, a couple can live very comfortable on $3,000 to $3,500 per month without debt, but this includes an apartment rent or mortgage of $1,200/month.

Why in the hell would I want to live somewhere else?

HOWEVER...  I do not have...

• the broadway plays of NYC
• the expensive restaurants of NYC
• the subways of NYC
• the expansive public transportation
• the volume of people of large cities
• the smog of large cities
• the crime and violence of large cities
• the cold winters of the north
• the high constant humidity of the south
• the problem that illegal immigrants bring with them

Of course...  I am retired...  so, there may not be the needs that I would have were I still working...  but, I worked here in East TN for 25 years, and while my salary was less that what I might have earned in other places, I still live a comfortable middle class existence and had very little in terms of wants and desires...

One of the key things that I encountered when I moved from NC to TN in 1990 was the fact that in NC my skills and abilities were a dime a dozen but in TN, I was in very high demand because of my skills and abilities...  that is a good feeling to have professionally.

I am glad that I want to live NOWHERE BUT HERE...

Synchronous Fireflies

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has had the market cornered on synchronous fireflies for years. But thanks to a relatively recent discovery, the Blue Ridge Mountains just might give it a run for its money.


The Photinus carolinus is a species of firefly that each year, typically in the spring, put on a synchronous light display in order to find a mate. They are the only species in America whose individuals can synchronize their flashing light patterns.

CREDIT: JIM MAGRUDER

For decades, it was believed that the Smokies had the only population of synchronous fireflies in U.S. And while synchronous fireflies were eventually identified in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and in two other parts of Tennessee, the Smokies have always gotten the glory. In fact, the annual viewing event at the Elkmont Campground in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, is so popular that the National Park Service instituted a lottery system for tickets.

So, you can imagine how surprised Dr. Clyde Sorenson, a professor of entomology at N.C. State University, was by what he saw when he spent the night on Grandfather Mountain in June 2019.

"I noticed them immediately by their flash pattern—they were synchronous. By 10 p.m. there were hundreds of them. I walked up and down the roads and they were all through the woods. It thrilled me to death," Sorenson told the Asheville Citizen-Times.  TO READ MORE ABOUT THESE FIREFLIES, CLICK HERE...

Fireflies Sync Their Flashes

Swarms of synchronous fireflies are rather like melting ice, or at least that’s how Raphael Sarfati, a physicist, sees it. Ice remains solid until it warms to a certain temperature and becomes a liquid. Likewise, a loose swarm fireflies will flash the lanterns in their abdomens randomly. But when the swarm reaches a certain density, the fireflies begin to blink in unison.

“Above that threshold, it is almost perfect synchronization,” with rhythmic, coordinated waves of light, said Sarfati, a postdoctoral associate at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

The spontaneous synchronization of certain species of fireflies, such as Photinus carolinus in the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee, has long baffled humans who observed the peculiar mating ritual, in which blinking males strive to attract the attention of ground-level females. 

Early-20th-century scientists dismissed the phenomenon as accidental or blamed it on puffs of wind or the twitching eyelids of the people who made these reports, according to one 1935 review in Science.

In the past 50 years, scientists collected anecdotal observations of these unified flashes but not enough empirical data to truly study firefly synchronization’s mechanisms.

Now, Sarfati and Orit Peleg, a physicist and assistant professor also at the University of Colorado, have filmed the mating hordes of P. carolinus and mapped their flashing patterns in three-dimensional space. 

Their research, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, adds to evidence that the insects sync their flashes, and suggests what may drive that coordination. TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE...

Back Porch Reflections

Good Morning America...

It "B" a rainy day here in East Tennessee this morning and my 3 cats are somewhat irritated that I slept in as long as I did this morning.  However, I am up now, they have been given a treat and fed, at least a little, and I am sitting on our back screen-in porch listening to the rain and the bird...

BEST DAY EVER

The bluebird house I built with old deck boards that I sanded down is the home to a couple of unknown birds, as it seems that the bluebirds I saw visiting decided to live somewhere else.

Yesterday, after mowing the yard and showering, I drove the mile and a half down to Weigle's to purchase 2 large French Vanilla Cappuccino coffees in their largest cup possible that I was planning to drink today...  which I am...  and, I got these drinks as refills, so I only had to pay $.98 which included taxes instead of the original $1.50 each.  I put clear boxing tape around the cup so that it will last longer.

BEST DAY EVER

What is great about living in this area, or at least where I live, is the fact that it is INCREDIBLY QUIET all the time.

This morning, there are NO SOUNDS from:

• unmuffled vehicles
• ambulance/police sirens
• lawn mowers, blowers, weed eaters, chainsaws
• loud music from neighbors
• barking dogs or cows
• yelling and angry neighbors

Once in a while I will see a white tailed rabbit scurrying around looking for whatever it is looking for.  The rabbit is lean and not the little fat bundle of joy that you might see at home as pets or at County Fairs.

My Magnolia trees are at least 30 feet tall and blooming but not as voraciously as I had hoped when I planted them 20 years ago as transplants from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  My rather large deck that surrounds my 26 foot round above ground pool was stained two years ago and is still holding up.

The cool morning air is refreshing and a nice break from the high humidity that we have had this previous week, but according to those weather forecasters who are seldom wrong (lol), our rainy days will be ending today and temps returning to normal...  although, no one really knows what normal is anymore.

IT DON"T GIT NO BETTER THAN THIS...

EASY RIDER

1969 was the year and it was an important year for me in many ways because a few months before I had left college (end of Fall Semester 1968), enlisted in the USNR, gotten married, and was working a year before I had to report for active duty...

I was living in Burlington, NC and working for a company called Carolina Biological Supply Company (CBS) owned by the Powell's...  paying a little above minimum wage, they were one of the largest employers in the area...

My wife and I were living in a two-story wooden house that we ironically rented from CBS but if something went amiss, CBS would fix it immediately.  The rent we paid was consistent with renting a two bedroom house or a 1 bedroom apartment...  yet, we had three times that amount of space.  There was a huge open area on the second floor that I used as my art studio since I like to do oil painting and photography and it was there that I hung this exact same poster.

Sixties Music

Music of the Sixties underscored my days in college, influencing my actions, my words, and the way that I dressed to go to class.  At my small school in NC, "Joe College" was the dress of the day and carrying one's books up in one's armpit was the style.  So, my jeans and T-shirt approach with a jacket was not that acceptable if I wanted to go out with "nice girls".  What I later found out was that "nice girls" were no different than "bad girls" other than they way they dressed.  As a result of this boycott, me and my boys would go to an "all girls" school 20 miles down the road to play at night...  by the SOUNDS OF THE MUSIC which was always in our minds, hearts, and souls.

It was not just that SIXTIES MUSIC inspired us, but its lyrics were POETIC unlike the lyrics of the 50's...   AND, never again has music had these all encompassing lyrics in just about every single musical group, duet, or individual.