Carolina vs Dook

My meeting was running long and I was getting antsy. Finally I interrupted the conversation saying, "I'm sorry but I'm guessing my father is in the driveway at this time."

"Go."

I did. Dad and I got to a very cold cottage around 1:30am, flipped on the heat, bundled up and went to bed. That morning I got up and began taking stock of the cabin. My dad is watching the news and starts joking about that BYU player, "I could have taken the team deep into the NCAA tournament, signed some big NBA contract for millions of dollars... but it was worth it!!!" I burst out laughing.

There's always something to do but since we're down here only for a few days, big projects are not practical. So I pass on the downed grape vine and hope I'll be able to use my neighbor's serious tractor when I'm down here later to rip out fifty year old vines. Instead we decide to take down one Martin house that was bent when my uncle accidentally backed into it. We then modified another house and add the gourds from the old house to the other one, creating ultra-mega-Martin-house! I made the required trip to Walmart, picking up some food and a new weather station.

Game day. Dad and I decide to burn the brush pile that's accumulated over a few years. We get that going and I stroll over to look at this million-five dollar cottage that's going up. Three chimneys, two stories, it's going to be a nice place but kinda big for these parts in my opinion.

We're sitting on plastic chairs simultaneously watching the fire burn and this dude approach us while he's walking his dog. He heads our way and I'm figuring he's just trying to be sociable but about a minute into the conversation I reevaluate him as one of those folk who live year round at the lake going quietly insane. His big issue, when he's done badmouthing some other neighbor I don't know, seems to be the dropping aquifer due to all the people living in the area and how soon we'll be in dire need of either water or dysentery treatments. He wants me to sign some paper and kick in $125 so that we can get a county line run into this area. If the application doesn't go through I get my money back. I take the form, I'm not sure I'm gonna sign it.

My father refuses to head into the lake and get a part of the dock I need if I'm going to repair it when the weather warms up. What's up with that? Yeah, the greatest generation my ass, and yeah the water was cold! So I measure it and it's 39 inches long, huh? Oh well. I take a nap and then we get ready for the game.

 We head down to Chapel Hill and visit some relatives. We eat some excellent Chinese food and I help my cousin and in doing so I get an opportunity to torment her granddaughter in facebook, my second cousin twice removed or third cousin once removed depending on which common ancestor you take through my inbred family tree. I've never met this granddaughter.

My cousin, whom I'll refer to as 'cougar' (since she's intrigued with the concept) is trying to see some pics of her granddaughter who is, simply put, beautiful. So I'm on cougar's account, root around granddaughter's photos a bit but can't figure out which ones she's talking about so, with cougar's permission, I show her how to post on her granddaughter's wall, "Where are the damn pictures?!"

She posts back on cougar's wall, "Go to my page and click under my profile picture under photos and scroll down and you will see them. Learn how to work facebook!"

Cougar is miffed and mutters something about a graduation present... so I post, "How badly do you want a graduation gift you PUPPY?! ::how to work facebook - sheesh::"

She replies with a URL to the pics and instructions, "click there and keep scrolling right and you will see them."

So we click there and scroll to the bottom where we find a picture of her acting goofy with some other girl kind of like they're kissing (they're not) so we comment on the picture, "OK I scrolled to the bottom of your profile pics and found you KISSING A GIRL! OMG"

"I dont think this is me kissing a girl. haha. this picture is 8 years old!"

"HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A LESBIAN?!"

"who has hacked into my grandmas facebook? she doesnt talk like this......."

Cougar's phone starts ringing. It's her granddaughter, cougar promptly rats me out to her. I sent her a friend request, what do you think my chances are? I hug cougar goodbye. My dad and I go to the game.

Going to the Dook game is such an awesome experience! Around halftime they begin showing former Carolina players saying, "I'm Tyler Hansbrough and I am a Tarheel!" There were a bunch of them but it closed with, "I'm Dean Smith and I am a Tarheel!" with Dean looking out of one of those huge TV screens giving off that Emperor from Star Wars vibe as he gazes down on the ferret Krzyzewski with malevolence. The crowd goes wild. The t-shirts are also a hoot. This game was the loudest Carolina game I can recall and a whole lot less tense than the 2005 game which I was also lucky enough to attend, thanks to my dad.

The next day we go over to my uncle's to play scrabble.

What a great trip! ::happy sigh::