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UNCLE JACK'S WEBLOG
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Summer in February
       Uncle Jack's house in South Nags Head was rented every week from June 1 through the middle of October last year so he and Mrs. U.J. missed out on all the summer weather----until this week, that is. When they arrived from Baltimore on Wednesday it was 74 degrees in the shade and they had to turn on the air conditioner as soon as they got in the house. You would not think that the first week of February could qualify as prime time on the Outer Banks but that is what it has been. It may not last but they are enjoying it to the hilt while it does.
       He is hoping for a rainy day so he can get back to his Kindle eReader which he has loaded up with free books he somehow never got around to reading even though they are generally considered to be some of the best books ever written. So far he has read "Pride and Prejudice" and two other books by Jane Austen which has already helped him answer two questions on Jeopardy. Also he has read "Middlemarch" by George Eliot and "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy and "The Red and the Black" by Stendahl and "Madame Bovary" by Flaubert and he has to say they are very good books even though they were all written more than a hundred years ago. The basic theme of all of them seems to be that marriage is a crapshoot and that doesn't seem to have changed much if you look at the divorce statistics these days.
       As a kind of palate cleanser from all the 19th century familial turmoil he has just started reading Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" which is a lot more interesting than he thought it would be. He had never thought much before about the complex interrelationships among separate species such as cats, mice, bumblebees and clover but thanks to Darwin he is a wiser person that he was two days ago.
       Uncle Jack read in the paper that some 25 million people will buy Kindles and other eReaders in 2012 and he is not surprised. He doesn't think the old-fashioned printed book will disappear any time soon but he is already convinced that for many kinds of reading the digital readers are vastly superior to books and will eventually supplant them. The vast wasteland of the "best-seller" epitomized by the ephemeral products of fiction factories like Tom Clancy, James Patterson, Clive Cussler and their female counterparts seems to be particularly ripe for change. Why lug around a three-pound paperback with minuscule type when you can read the same words on a six-ounce gadget with adjustable type that you can slip into your purse or pocket when you're not reading?
       And why spend a lot of money on an out-of-print copy of Uncle Jack's funny book about life on the Outer Banks when you can download the new, improved version to your
Kindle or computer for only $4.99? Google "Uncle Jack's Outer Banks" Kindle Edition to find out how easy it is to do that.
       And now, back to Darwin until it stops raining.


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Looking north toward Jennette's Pier at noon on Saturday February 4. Temperature 58F. Wind 5 mph from the east. Cloudless sky. Gorgeous waves. Surfer's paradise.

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There's one now, trying to paddle out to the break but not making much headway. The paddle is something new in Uncle Jack's experience and it doesn't seem to have caught on with many surfers yet either.

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This bunch (in the "no surfing" zone just north of the pier naturally) eschewed paddles and got to their spots in the old-fashioned way.

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Like this.

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The pier itself was less crowded than the water next to it. Judging from the number of gull plops decorating every surface the gulls have decided to turn this elegant structure into a magnificent outdoor toilet, at least for the winter.

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The air was so clear that the Nags Head pier was clearly visible several miles up the beach. A glorious day in every respect.

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The end of the pier is a wonderful viewing platform from which to watch the passing parade of dolphins who swam past, heading south, in a seemingly endless stream.

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Uncle Jack's Beach Cottage is available for weekly rental again this season beginning April 1. Great rates and wonderful location. Check it out at http://www.obxcola.com/details.asp?unit=UJ (or Google "Uncle Jack's Beach Cottage")

posted by Uncle Jack at 12:05 PM

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After retiring in 2005 after 35 years as owner/operator of Yellowhouse Gallery and Annex on the Beach Road in Nags Head, Uncle Jack, accompanied by Mrs. Uncle Jack (a.k.a. Susan), commenced to travel extensively. This blog is a chronicle of their ramblings around the U.S. (in their redoubtable Mini Cooper convertible) as well as visits to England, Ireland, France, Italy, and Malta, interspersed with lengthy stays in South Nags Head and Baltimore between trips. He took a lot of pictures along the way, many of which are posted along with each blog entry.
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