Posts Tagged news

Handy Hugo's in Grandy, NC during the November Nor'easter

Just a bit of the flooding that occured during the last couple of days here in northeastern NC from the nor’easter that hit us, the remnants of tropical cyclone Ida

behind the Exxon station in Grandy

A view from behind the Exxon station in Grandy, NC on Thursday November 12, 2009

Neat little iframe containing feeds and links to various pages concerning the swine flu outbreak.

More to come soon! :)

Alison and I are going to have the first of our two planned wedding ceremonies, the first one being a very romantic private service with only two witnesses attending: we have to have this service to oblige the immigration visa rules , but still we want it to be very special and it will be of course , saying I do to the woman I have loved and adored since we met on Christian Mingle Singles site 3 years back , who would have thought 2 people could fall in love without ever meeting face to face …..We did and its felt so perfect since day one.
The second ceremony we plan to hold around end of May or beginning of June , its not easy as we really would love to give the chance everyone including Alison’s relatives and friends from overseas to attend, not an easy task being across the other end of the Ocean ,but hopefully things will work out , having kids studying in different places and doing different things is one of the things to consider , and its a big expense nowadays to fly across the sky, oh to win the lottery and pay everyone’s tickets !
This is bascially a copy of what alison has on her blog, but I can say the exact same things, It really is feeling very exciting to me now , I feel like a young teenager again also, I am so in love and so ready to have Ms Markides become Mrs. Weikel ( :
this Valentines day is going to be Very Special and I cant wait.
As soon as we have the second date confirmed we will inform everyone so be ready and watch this spot… or this spot… ;)

luv ya Mrs G XXXX

Today marks one of the ‘firsts’ for us with so many more still to come. This one is very special though. We have always had a hard time being apart on holidays; Christmas being especially hard for us. Today we went and bought a tree together and some decorations. We put on some Christmas msic and had a lovely evening filled with such a tremendous happiness of sharing something we have dreamed of for quite a while. We had bought the ingredients to make mulled wine but feeling a bit worn out form a long day of shopping we thought better to pass on it tonight or we would never have got the tree done! ;)

I’ve not taken the time to post anything since Alison arrived,  we’ve been doing a lot of ‘catching up’ :) I will post a better update on things soon, but for now we are settling in just wonderfully and so very happy being together. Her flight over was good and was actually a little early arriving. She made it through immigration very quickly too. The time difference so far hasnt been too bad a problem and shes adjusting well to that , maybe wakign a bit early in the morings but usually managing to get back to sleep. the weather has been rainy but warm the first couple of days. It cleared up nice today but getting a little colder today. Just made it feel more like the Christmas season.

Ok time for some more catching up.. :) speak to you all soon and thanks for all the congratulations and comments and mails!

and nearer to 4 days now! :)

I really am just so full of anticipation of our reunion, knowings its forever is just beyond words.

Well Alison is still n Sunderland as I write this, spending her last evening out having dinner with some very close dear friends. she’ll catch the bus in the morning (Friday) to go back to Birmingham. She seems to have had a nice visit back to her hometown, staying at her folks home and even in the bedroom she had growing up. I wonder what memories that brought back! Without a pc I don’t have any pictures yet, but soon as I do I will post some. I wanted so much to go and meet up with Alison there in the UK and then us fly back home together, but events turning out the way they did it put a kink in those plans :( Well one day very soon we will take a holiday back there and I will get to see where she lived and meet all these people I have only spoke to by web or mail or second hand!

I was a bit worried this morning as when I spoke upon waking Alison told me it was snowing and then the next time we speke a few hours later it was still snowing! I was fighting this thought of her getting stranded there and missing her flight! Well i know its not that severe a snow storm, but things like that are always in the back of my mind. we are so close now to our dream I I’m wanting desperately for it to come quick! Well when we spoke tonight she said it had warmed up a bit and there was a little rain so the roads were clear. The last few mornings though have been very cold around the freezing mark so we’ll see how they are then. Well the highways will be clear I’m sure, just these smaller roads may have a bit of ice early on. I cant wait to see the pics though, I love seeing the snow, just dont care so much to be driving in it. But its fine when you are having someone to snuggle up to and keep each other warm! ;)

It really does feel strange to not be writing her a mail for this long stretch of time. We have faithfully wrote at least a morning and evening mail, if not more ,  for the last 970 days. Well i have written a couple of short ones just to have something there when she does get back online, but it been so much of our routine to write a mail for the other to read on waking and then one to say nite nite as well, although lately it had got to the point we were on the skype more of the evenings than not. So this has been a real change for us to not have that bit of communication and being able to share photos and such. We have had our times to speak on the cell though and those were the highlights of my day! well she’ll be back to Mandy’s tomorrow and we will be back on schedule :) Well i guess its all given me time to add a few things to the sight and play with that. but I still miss her madly. Until I hold her in my arms next Tuesday evening, I will miss her every minute.

Parcel from Cyprus

Another parcel arrived today from Cyprus. :) I get so excited when these come in. Its mostly her clothing she has been shipping ahead. There’s no cheap way to get her things here and though the post may not seem at first thought to be the cheapest way to send it,  it actually is the least expensive of any of the methods I have looked into.  This should be the last of them now I think. Alison has been shipping a box or two like this about once a week now for the last four or five weeks. It’s always the most wonderful feeling comes over me when I get one of these. Just having her things in the house now are making it feel more like she’s already here. With each one that comes in I get more excited and the reality of our day finally coming close is setting in on me big time! We’ve waited nearly three years now for this, and I swear this last month seems to be dragging on so very slowly. The day just cant come soon enough for us now. Actually in just 4 days now she will be leaving Cyprus and heading to the Uk for about a two week stopover to visit her family befroe she’s heading on to become Mrs. Garazon! :) Whooo hooo! its almost here! love you Mrs. G XXXX

I used to think patience was one of my virtues and that anything good was worth waiting for, I still do believe that. but I have to confess my patience is being stretched with waiting for our I-129F (K1 visa) petition to be approved. Yes I know there’s a huge backlog and we have to wait our turn, but it just puzzles me sometimes how the government can be so quick to want and demand things on a certain time from its citizens or else face the wrath of fines or threats of punishments for failing to comply and yet at the same time can bide its time in providing the the services that those same citizens view as equally important issues to them.  For example, let your tax payment be posted one day late and see what happens! Or fforget to check the little box on your tax return stating you are filing jointly with your spouse, even though you have the spouses name and social security # and W2 listed on the return, and the govt will recalculate the return as yours alone and send you a quite official sounding mail stating you have 30 days from the notice to pay the reconfigured tax amount or face penalties up to x amount of dollars, possible jail time, and confiscation of property among other things. (yes this happened to me and I of course sent them a reply straight away begging their almighty forgiveness for not checking that freaking box and for assuming they had the common sense to realise it was a joint return when both of our names were on it and both signed the damn thing. Sheesh… ) sorry its still a sore spot with me almost 15 years later…

Well is it too much to ask for at least the same consideration when we as tax paying citizens want at least an approximate date to get an answer to our petition, or at least to get some other response than “the case is ‘pending’ ” ? Now honestly I realise there is a backlog and insufficient staff on hand to handle the amount of visa requests that have been submitted in record numbers this past year. On the other hand if i owe them back taxes(which I don’t by the way) do they give a shit if i have the money or not.. NO! … sorry again, just venting… and be prepared, it likely wont be the last vent either in this post ;)

Anyway I just think we are entitled to some semblance of human compassion if they realise that for two people who are truly in love to be separated any longer than we have to be is just morally wrong, plain and simple. Its not like we can afford to fly back and forth for visits every so often, and even if we could its not what either of us want. Do any of these people have the slightest clue what its like to say goodbye to te love of your life at the airport, not knowing when the next kiss will be, or the next time you can wrpa your arms around your other half? they are clueless in that area, or uncaring. maybe you think I’m being harsh as I do realise there are plenty of fraudulent applications made and for probably nefarious reasons too, but there still ought to be some kind of method to take the obviously genuine cases and take the as priorities. No I don’t profess to say how that would be ascertained, but I’m sure with enough thought about it something could be worked up. After all the US govt already has more information on me than I probably know myself! it started accumulating the day I was born didn’t it, with the birth certificate~ then when I was old enough to work, a social security number.. they know where I live, what car I drive, my email address, any criminal record or lack there of, you name it they know it, whether they say they do or not. Oh I’m just frustrated and venting tonight, missing Alison and wanting our days together to start now. Just hate this waiting or wasting one more day apart, even though we are always in touch one way or another, its not the same is it. All i would really like to know is about when we can expect a decision so that we can make some sort of preparations and get things moving. she has her house there to rent, her job to consider, her children and family, and then the actual move. And if we had some idea of a general date it would be of some help as we could at least maybe manage another holiday together if its going to be more than a few months, Yes she could come here on a travel visa for 6 months, but still when the petition is approved she has to be in Cyprus to get the visa! And its not like she could fly back and pick it up, she has to go for interviews and medical checkups etc, so that’s a few more weeks i imagine. Just doesn’t seem right to me to make us go through all this, and they say this is the easiest way to get your foreign fiancee here to the US legally so you can get married. for what its worth to them i am married to her already, in my heart and before God. Bureaucracy … baaaaa

Like I said just venting tonight out of frustration of not having my angel in my arms yet again one more night. it does make it easy to see why there are so many illegals here in this country though, a whole lot easier to do it that way it appears than the route we took :(

so just in the event anyone from immigration should ever read this , I really don’t fault the govt (too much) , I just want my wife by my side, I miss her. please help us and HURRY!

Well i try to keep positive and keep patient , we both do. Sometimes it gets us down a bit, but never enough that we aren’t still amazed and loving each other more with what we have. We try to keep humour in our relationship too, its a large part of it. we always still find things to laugh at and lift each other up. So in that vein I thought I would post this email I got from somewhere, not sure now where it came from or who sent it, but it made me laugh and although its written from a British perspective I think you could change the particulars in it and it would sound just like it was written here in the States..

Dear Minister,
I’m in the process of renewing my passport but I am a total loss to understand or believe the hoops I am being asked to jump through.

How is it that Bert Smith of T.V. Rentals Basingstoke has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a satellite dish from them back in 1994, and yet, the Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date?

How come that nice West African immigrant chappy who comes round every Thursday night with his DVD rentals van can tell me every film or video I have had out since he started his business up eleven years ago, yet you still want me to remind you of my last three jobs, two of which were with contractors working for the government?

How come the T.V. detector van can tell if my T.V. is on, what channel I am watching and whether I have paid my licence or not, and yet if I win the government run lottery they have no idea I have won or where I am and will keep the bloody money to themselves if I fail to claim in good time.
Do you people do this by hand?

You have my birth date on numerous files you hold on me, including the one with all the income tax forms I’ve filed for the past 30-odd years. It’s on my health insurance card, my driver’s licence, on the last four passports I’ve had, on all those stupid customs declaration forms I’ve had to fill out before being allowed off the planes and boats over the last 30 years, and all those insufferable census forms that are done every ten years and the electoral registration forms I have to complete, by law, every time our lords and masters are up for re-election.

Would somebody please take note, once and for all, I was born in Maidenhead on the 4th of March 1957, my mother’s name is Mary, her maiden name was Reynolds, my father’s name is Robert, and I’d be absolutely astounded if that ever changed between now and the day I die!

I apologise Minister. I’m obviously not myself this morning. But between you and me, I have simply had enough! You mail the application to my house, then you ask me for my address. What is going on? Do you have a gang of Neanderthals working there? Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? I don’t want to activate the Fifth Reich for God’s sake! I just want to go and park my weary backside on a sunny, sandy beach for a couple of week’s well-earned rest away from all this crap.

Well, I have to go now, because I have to go to back to Salisbury and get another copy of my birth certificate because you lost the last one. AND to the tune of 60 quid! What a racket THAT is!! Would it be so complicated to have all the services in the same spot to assist in the issuance of a new passport the same day? But nooooo, that’d be too damn easy and maybe make sense. You’d rather have us running all over the place like chickens with our heads cut off, then find some tosser to confirm that it’s really me on the goddamn picture – you know… the one where we’re not allowed to smile in in case we look as if we are enjoying the process!
Hey, you know why we can’t smile? ‘Cause we’re totally jacked off!

I served in the armed forces for more than 25 years including over ten years at the Ministry of Defence in London. I have had security clearances which allowed me to sit in the Cabinet Office, five seats away from the Prime Minister while he was being briefed on the first Gulf War and I have been doing volunteer work for the British Red Cross ever since I left the Services. However, I have to get someone ‘important’ to verify who I am — you know, someone like my doctor…
who, before he got his medical degree 6 months ago WAS LIVING IN PAKISTAN…

Yours sincerely,
An Irate British Citizen.

With all the flooding of the last few days in Iowa and other midwest states, this song has been on my mind a lot. I’m sure most of my readers are familiar with the Led Zepplin cover which is probably the best known, but searching this morning for a YT vid to post, I found out that the song was originally written in 1929!  here’s this from Wiki: “When the Levee Breaks” is a blues song written and first recorded by husband and wife Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie in 1929. The song is in reaction to the upheaval caused by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.  With that information I found this recording of the original.. 

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Our thoughts and prayers go out to all affected by this terrible event.

Smoke update:  Saturday- June 14, 2008

We had probably the worst smoke from the wildfire in Hyde County than we have had since the first 2 days of it starting. You could smell the smoke inside the house this morning, and just to walk outside would leave you with burning red eyes from just a few minutes out in it. It seemed to get a bit heavier too the closer I got to work, so I used my cell to try and get a couple of pictures, and it really doesn’t do it justice but you can get the idea as normally about this time the sun has been up about an hour I guess and usually its good enough light most headlights are off, but you can see here they were needed this morning.

This next shot is just crossing into Dare County across the Wright Memorial Bridge. I fight that glaring sun very clear morning and its hell to see the traffic lights normally, even at the light. Well the smoke was  thick enough this morning to block the sun a great deal and you can see how the smoke just envelopes the whole region.

This last photo was around 5 PM this evening with me just turning down the road I live on, you can see the smoke is still heavy in the air, but decreased some. not a lot though. The smell stays with you and just hangs in the air. Thankfully the wind seems to be shifting some as I write this and its clearing off a good deal now. More pics coming if we have any more rough days like this.

Update: Pics From Saturday, June 21, 2008

On the way to work Saturday morning around 7 am (yes I am always late for work!) The smoke was heavier than I have seen it since the fire started. Thankfully its not been so bad for us here with the way the wind has been blowing but I do feel really bad for those right near it having to suffer through this for such a long time. Although the fire is well contained, about 70%, just the nature of it, being more or less one huge pile of peat, is going to have this thing smoldering for weeks. It would take many days straight of a good soaking rain to even put a dent in putting it out completely. This time of year the odds are against that happening.