Blue Ridge blog

Astors

Astors are the final remnants of summer. We've had a couple of cool mornings this week. I've hauled out my sweaters and winter jackets. So long, Indian Summer. Enter Autumn

Annie, Armanti and Appalachian State football...

As I have complained before, it is nearly impossible to take a decent photo of Annie. She doesn't tolerate calm. Today I took her for a walk on our road. The wind and rain knocked many colorful leaves to the ground. I noted how pretty the light was falling on her and grabbed my iPhone. That was a silly idea because as soon as I did that, she had to satisfy her curiosity as to what might be in my hand. As I jerked the phone out of her reach, my finger hit the shutter and voila, a realistic photo of my Annie.
She's in the dog house tonight, though. She decided my nearly ripe cabbages were her new play toys. I walked out of the house to find several cabbage balls in my driveway.

On Appalachian State football: ASU beat a formidable Samford team 20-7. I'll post a couple of photos later, but because of a torrential downpour, I didn't use a long lens or shoot many fans. I just couldn't risk getting my equipment too wet. Still, I was awed by Armanti Edwards' magic tricks (see video link below) and delighted in seeing Jason Vitaris secure his kicking game.

Armanti scores! Edwards was in the news this week. Tommy Bowman of the Winston-Salem Journal wrote a wonderful story about our quarterback. He is much more than a great athlete. I know. He interned in my office this summer.

And here's just a taste of what Armanti can do. Watch the video and be amazed.

Daylight is a precious commodity...

After work, Annie and I picked the remainder of the garden's black beans. Later, I popped open a Sam Adams Octoberfest beer, turned on the Otis Redding Pandora radio channel and shelled beans on the deck while watching my husband drag the box blade along the road. Annie slept at my feet, but kept one eye open in case a bean dropped her way. It wasn't until well after 7 p.m. when he climbed off the tractor and we shared a 'breakfast for dinner' meal. At this time of year, daylight is a precious commodity. "I shouldn't waste an hour," he says.

Leaves are changing, but only in micro patches. If you catch a backlit tree at just the right time of day, like in the photo above, it almost appears that autumn is near peak.
Not true, though.
It is still very green up here in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
I'll keep you posted...

Coatimundi hugs...

My boss, who is Australian, came into my office this afternoon and said, "There is an anteater on Sanford Mall."
Figuring she would know, I grabbed my camera and headed outdoors to look for the anteater.
I found instead, tethered to a leash and playing with a puppy,  a South American coatimundi. His name is Mowgli and he quickly befriended my leg. Mowgli is like my Annie, he never stops moving. Ever.

Below is a photo of Mowgli. This time portraying a coatimundi Zombie:

Been a tad rainy and foggy in these parts...

When it hasn't been raining this week, it has been foggy. Not sure how I can add much to this, other than  say that most everyone I know, including me, is sick with some kinda of sore throat, headache, cough and fever crap. But it isn't anything that plenty of sleep and two fingers of whiskey at night won't cure.

Gonna go pour me two fingers of cure right now...

I needed Annie's help to make this photo...

It was pouring rain last night when I returned home. Not yet ready to settle in for the evening, I decided to spend some quality time with Annie. As we played together I noticed how our favorite maple tree is beginning to turn. The tree is ancient and for whatever reason has become our harbinger of both spring and autumn. It is the first to cast an innocent blush in March and subsequently, the first to turn orange in September.

I decided to engage myself with a photo experiment choosing the maple tree as my subject. I fished out the ol' rarely used tripod and a crazy 400mm lens and played around with some spooky long exposures. Normally during long exposures I plead with the dog to be still because any wag of her tail causes undesirable movement in an image. But last night I was curious as to what might happen if during a 4 sec exposure @ f32 I bounced a tennis ball and Annie jumped to catch it?
The result is the above photograph. Many of the images were not nearly as painterly, but damn if she and I didn't have fun making them.

The dog can't hold her licker...

When life is filled with disappointments, upsets and downright horror, dogs serve as comic relief. Annie has been an awesome friend lately and she is currently at my side, instead of my lap, as I write this on my porch.

This weekend was spotted with joy and sorrow.
My parents visited and we all went to the App vs McNeese game. My beloveds lost. At home. In the new stadium. It was quite an upset, but my parents were there, my eldest was there, 30,000 App fans were there and I saw my tailgating/twitter buds.
We shall lick our wounds and move on...

Then, when my husband retrieved a ladder from the cottage he has poured his heart, soul and sweat into lately, he discovered a water pipe had malfunctioned and the entire ground floor was flooded. We spent the entire day sucking water into the shop vac. As I was bent over a 1/4 inch of standing water searching for that elusive silver lining... my husband passed by me, winked and said, "Well, I reckon we built this place once, we'll can do it again."
<heavy sigh>
Yes. We. Will.

And sadly, a co-worker died today. He was way too young and leaves behind a sweet, still blushing  bride. This is not the forum to go into details but I will say that Thomas was an awesome friend to many and always nothing but a friendly gentleman to me. He was at work on Friday and we shared a happy TGIF moment. That is how I prefer to remember him.

It is gonna bite when he isn't at work tomorrow...

**Update**
I wrote this yesterday, but I think Annie may have eaten my blog post. I'm not sure why this didn't work when I hit the "save" button last night. Thankfully, Typepad's auto-retrieve button works like a charm.

We nearly Appalachian Stated East Carolina

It may sound lunatic, but if ever there was a "ok loss," it could be said that Appalachian State's failure to conquer East Carolina University was just that. But, I think you really needed to be there to understand.

There was much excitement about reviving this in-state football rivalry. East Carolina is a respectable FBS team while Appalachian State is a highly regarded in the FCS division. I'm not sure the point spread the bookies were allowing this game, but it was generally recognized App was the lesser team in this meet-up, but nobody but a fool would dare count App out, except unless if star Quarterback Armanti Edwards did not play.

Then Armanti went and mowed his lawn and foot about a month ago...

He's fine, but he did not play in yesterday's game leaving a huge question mark dangling in the air over  the App Nation. Who could fill AE's void?
No pressure, but we were all more than a wee bit curious and angsty.

Anyway, so 6,000 Appalachian fans and me filled a teeny tiny corner of the huge stadium covered up with zillions of purple Pirate fans screaming "Marco Polo." (I still don't understand the point of that cheer)

I ain't gonna lie. The first half of the game was horrible, painful to watch, and left me a little queasy. We had put up 7 points on the board to ECU's 24.

During halftime, I hydrated for what I assumed was going to be a very long ass whooping.

I shouldn't have given up on the team so soon.

Our defense held the Pirate's line.

And, at the end of the 3rd quarter our 3rd string QB Travaris Cadet scrambled into the game, thus answering our BIG question referred to earlier in this post. When the kid spotted holes, he ran. When he saw an open man, he passed.

We love Travaris. He belongs to us.

But the magic moment for me was seeing Jacques Roman man handle a Pirate then jump to his feet and ask the fans for their support. (photo above)  For many minutes, the 6,000 ASU fans in the stadium overpowered the vocal majority. The troops were rallied.

An electricity of hope filled the air, a feeling Mountaineers have come to know. It's when the impossible seems quite do able. It's when the name "Appalachian State" transforms itself from a proper noun to an action-packed verb.

Alas, despite the late rally, it wasn't meant to be. We came up short with the final score of 29-24, but I sure am glad I was there if for nothing else, to remember to never ever give up on our mighty Mountaineers.

And as usual, I posted a small photo album on my sidebar.

Game day stories written by professional sports writers may be found here, here and here.

Pre-game thoughts...

Walking around campus today I ran into too many sneezes. At one point, a dude sneezed in the stairwell of the library and I turned and ran. I'm sure he thought I was a complete paranoid idiot.
But Is it Swine flu, normal flu, the crud, or allergies?
I'm resolved that I have been exposed to it all. I will be sick, again.
Just please let me stave off any illness till after this weekend's game against East Carolina University.
I love me some football. And my heart breaks for Armanti Edwards who won't be starting the game. But he is a veteran team player and I have every confidence that he will handle this set back like the team player he is..

And stay tuned. You will see photos of the game here. (Unless illness intervenes--knock on wood)

Though, I may be eating Doritos and drinking G. Dickle as I post..