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UNCLE JACK'S WEBLOG
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| Saturday, March 24, 2012 | | Seagull Drive Redux | Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. went walking yesterday down around the row of condemned houses on what is left of Seagull Drive in South Nags Head. The houses look pretty much the way they did a month ago, displaying various stages of decrepitude, except for one thing. Several of them now sport official documents indicating that the owner has applied for CAMA permits to install new septic systems and driveways. This is an interesting development that should attract the attention of serious students of coastal laws and regulations in the brave new world of beach renourishment. Will the CAMA permits be issued, as improbable as that seems, and the houses repaired and returned to the rental market? Stranger things have happened in Dare County so stay tuned.
Uncle Jack was thrilled to receive his first royalty check from Amazon last week and he would like to thank all those who bought his Kindle book and thereby contributed to the Kindle Kitty. His pretty funny book is available from the Kindle library for only $4.99. Just Google "Uncle Jack's Outer Banks" Kindle Edition to get all the scoop about the book and how to order it. Thanks.
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click for larger image | Picture 1
Cottage Row in front of Seagull Drive. All these building have sported "Condemned" signs for a long time.
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click for larger image | First time Uncle Jack has seen mushrooms growing on the beach. These are down in the Seagull Drive area. |
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click for larger image | This plastic palm tree in Sonag is a creative if somewhat tacky solution to a perennial problem---how do you keep your yard looking like it is in Florida instead of on the O.B. |
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click for larger image | This flowering tree in front of Evergreen House in Baltimore where Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. serve as guides, is mute testimony to the weirdness of the winter in Charm City. Balmy temperatures prevailed through January and February. |
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posted by Uncle Jack at 10:56 AM |
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| Tuesday, March 20, 2012 | | It was the Kindle's fault. |
Uncle Jack just looked up from his new Kindle long enough to discover that it has been over a month since he last wrote a blog entry. This is more than long enough to cause some readers to conjecture that something awful, like death, might have happened to him but he is happy to report that he is not only alive and healthy and happy but also spending a couple of weeks in Nags Head at the same time. He apologizes to those readers who have noticed his prolonged absence and he promises to keep you better informed in the future, assuming that there is one the way things are going.
There are many reasons why he has been neglecting his blog lately including sheer laziness but the main one is his new Kindle eReader which he got for Christmas. Right after he got it he downloaded most of the 100 best books of all time (all free) and he has started working his way through them as fast as he can so by the time he shuffles off his mortal coil the obituary writers will at least be able to say he was well read.
Right now he is reading a novel by Dostoevsky called "The Brothers Karamazov" which most of the lists of the greatest books ever written include in their Top Ten. He has read 200 pages so far and the little counter at the bottom of the Kindle says he is 20% of the way through which suggests that he still has 800 pages to go.(It took Dostoevsky two years to write the book and it looks like it could take Uncle Jack that long to read it.)
He can already tell you that this is a very interesting book which tells the story of what must be the most dysfunctional family in all of
literature which might be hard to believe if you have read a lot of Dickens. The patriarch of the family is a man named Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov who is a drunken lecher and buffoon who has fathered four sons by three different women. He is not very likeable, at least not in the first 200 pages.
His oldest son is named Dimitri Fyodorovich (also known as Mitya, Mitka, Mitenka and Mitri). He hates his father for numerous reasons not the least of which is that they are both chasing the same woman, a semi-harlot named Agrafena Alexandrovna Svetlova (aka Grushenka, Grusha and Grushka.)
His second son is named Ivan Fyodorovich (aka Vanya, Vanka and Vanechka.) who hates both his father and Dimitri for various reasons, not the
least of which is that he is in love with Katerina Ivanovna Verkhoutseva (aka Katya, Katka and Kalenka) who is betrothed to Dimitri even though Dimitri no longer loves her.
The third son is Alexei (aka Alyosha, Alyoshka, Alyoshenka, Alexeichik, Lyosha and Lyoshenka) who is very religious and does not hate anyone, at least in the first 200 pages.
A fourth son of Fyodor Pavlovich is a bastard born out of wedlock to a street tramp with whom Fyodor coupled while drunk on a dare from friends. His name is Pavel Fyodorovich Smerdyakov and he lives in the Karamazov household as a servant. In addition to being epileptic he is rather weird and hates everybody including his father and his three half-brothers.
Uncle Jack can tell you that if the next 800 pages are half as gripping as the first 200 he is in for some terrific reading for the next few months. He has all the names straight now so he knows who is who most of the time which should speed things up from here on.
He promises to check in once in a while and let everybody know how things are going with the Karamazovs. They are more fun than the Kardashians for sure.
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click for larger image | Uncle Jack's delightful house in South Nags Head is available for rental again this season---this year beginning in April. Google "Uncle Jack's Beach Cottage" and click on the link for all the info. |
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posted by Uncle Jack at 5:51 PM |
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click picture for more | | 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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