Grab the dogs, laptops and run

Friday night we invited a few friends over to watch a low-budget horror film at our house. Two made it, two did not. Because of the zombies! No, not really. There was a storm that night which I heard knocked out some power in Chapel Hill. The lightning around our house was definitely close enough to make you hide under a table with a flask and a handgun, because that's how I roll. After about the 20th time a fire truck went screeching past our house, I tore my attention from celebrity gossip for a minute to wonder what was going on. Then we noticed that all the flashy lights didn't seem to be moving away so we went outside. Our road was blockaded at both ends by fire trucks, so the latecomers (that'll teach you, slackers) had to turn around and find entertainment elsewhere. We assumed every fire truck in Cary was at the scene about 200 yards from our house, but we were wrong. It was every fire truck in Cary, Holly Springs and Fuquay, according to the paper the following day. I still cannot believe a lightning strike did this:



I have never seen a house burn before. We got there just as the whole front section collapsed in a ball of fire and it was a sobering experience. I'd say it was about an hour from the time the lightning storm started until the house was a total loss. This is a 10,000 square foot, $2.4 million house that I'm sure has a kick ass sprinkler system. No amount of preventative measures could have saved it. That's the weird thing. Usually you walk away from something like this with an object lesson in mind, like "If only they had...I'm definitely going to...." whatever. The truth is, someday it's going to hit the fan and there's nothing you can do about it, so don't waste time getting bunched up about things you can't control.

It could have been worse. No one was home at the time and no one at the scene appeared to be the owners, so I'm guessing they were either out of town, or the house is so new, no one was living in it yet. Still, what a loss. This isn't the actual house, but this one is nearby and looks similar:



Somewhere, an actuary is calculating how much to raise the rates to recover the insurance payout.

Fast Forward

Lot's of other things have happened. Things not involving travel. Last night we went to a Regency Park concert, the Vivaldi one. I think they do Vivaldi every summer, but I never get tired of it. I was also excited about this one because William Henry Curry was conducting. I know Grant Llewellyn is considered the shizzle around here just because he's more educated than five ordinary geniuses, but I think WHC brings a little extra warmth to his performance. You can tell Phillip is feeling the warmth:



It was also fun to do the people watching:

Notes from the road: Part Lowell

I've been to Lowell a total of eight times in three months. On my first trip I wasn't very impressed with what I saw.


The above picture is the view from the office. It's clear that some of these old buildings are run down and the conversion from late 1800's factory floor to mixed use office isn't complete.
On my first couple of trips I didn't venture out much. The hotel was right across the street from the office so all I saw of Lowell was that little stretch of road and whatever I could see from the fourth floor windows. During the day the traffic is loud and sirens are a common punctuation. There are enough transients hanging around the waterway that runs through town that I didn't feel safe going far from the hotel by myself at night.


Further into the mission I had some company on these trips. Business travel is onerous for everybody, so I tried to lighten the daily grind by taking the group different places at night. My intention to give them something fun to do made Lowell a lot more palatable for me as well - literally. There is a restaurant on Merchant street called Friends that everybody agreed had the best food in town. Our walks to find different restaurants took us to parts of town where the refurbishment of the old mill city showed charm while retaining it's sense of history.


It was fascinating to see faded logos on the sides of buildings. Most of us didn't recognize them, but someone in our party always dug up a long forgotten association passed on from a grandparent or an early childhood memory.



We couldn't imagine what kinds of things used to go on in those buildings. It was evident from the size of the doors and windows that the activities involved big machines and lots of people. Now they are offices, condominiums and a few are museums. Some are still boarded up.



I'm glad I got to see enough of Lowell that it has a real personality in my mind now. This is a city that's seen a lot and is trying to gracefully enter a new era. In some areas it has done so successfully. People like to honk their horns, but that tendency to be direct shouldn't be mistaken for rudeness. Every person I met, without exception, was kind and helpful. I'll even miss the view from the top floor office a little bit.
My travels to Lowell are over for now, but it isn't necessarily the last time I will see it. In any event, I'd like to see it again in ten years when all the mills have been renovated. Until then, I will still hold out the hope that my business travels will take me someplace where there's a beach!