Man Versus Bear

WLOS ABC 13 News :: Top Stories - Man Versus Bear

The heck with Hurricane Irene, the national debt, and earthquakes, this is the kind of news we like in western North Carolina.

Bo's Thoughts

I'll Throw In The Kitchen Sink

I've had it with our kitchen faucet. It's this fancy Kohler model that I can't find parts for. I found some generic O-Rings to fix its leaky stem, but otherwise parts are hard to find. About three years ago the diverter valve for the sprayer stopped working. Lateley the valve has caused the faucet to occasionally develop BPH (benign prostatic hypertrophy) and just go into dribble mode. Last week I was cleaning the fridge and just couldn't take the lack of spray nozzle any longer.

I went to Lowe's and picked up a cheap Price-Pfister brand one. I haven't changed a faucet in forty years and I was amazed at how easy it is now. No more pipe compound, basin wrench, pipe cutting etc. I just had to replace the original plastic pipes with flexible hoses. Everything went relatively smoothly except for having a problem snapping in the sprayer hose (I had to remove the whole fixture once because it didn't just "snap in" like the directions stated). Only three trips to Lowe's to get the job done. The replacement generic $40 single handle faucet is perfectly adequate. I'm so pumped-up I may even put a new toilet seat in the guest bathroom. I don't want to go nuts here, we'll probably sell this dump next year. Plumbing is much easier than it was in circa 1968. Plus, I have a working spray nozzle!

Vacation pix

Marianne, David and the little
woman.




















Primitive conditions; slow cable.

















David's Pork Roast











It's not the humidity; it's the
6,000 ft. elevation.















I know Mom!

















We will put the Fabric Store here.












Help, I've fallen and I can't reach my beer!














The D-Q Sandwich














A road to nowhere; another broken
government promise.



















Bar is open!


















View from the porch.
















Ice Cream for lunch.







Single Scoop
























Dam Picture













Step back a bit.










It's a tick.

















Joyce Kilmer Forest.










The time share Ben is buying for
Marianne and David.

Great Smokey Mountains

Cabin number 7 is not on the lake, per-se. However we do have lake access.

Things are real quiet here in the Smokey's. The lake is absolutely abandoned. We were here three days before we saw a boat. I think the heat wave ended when we arrived. It has been very cool and clear so far and we haven't suffered the usual onslaught of heat and insects. We visited all the usual sights and have been swimming a lot. Who wants to be sitting in a cafe' in Sorrento when you can be hiking the width of the Appalachian Trail in N.C.?

Today we crossed Huckleberry Knob, a place where a band of travelers perished in a snowstorm a hundred years ago. They were about 8 miles from Robbinsville when they were caught in a blizzard at six thousand feet. "Maybe I finally found it, way down here in the mud. Maybe from down here I can start up again, be something I can be proud of, without having to fake it, be a fake human being."