We Love Durham NC

Ready for the Pavenator

The Pavenator

According to DurhamOperationGreenlight.org, the Pavenator will be visiting our street soon. I knew all those orange markings meant something like this. (Congratulations to De’Mar Glasper for submitting the winning name!)

School Photos

I was surprised at the boy’s school last year that they didn’t use Strawbridge. I mean, lots and lots of schools across the region (country?) use Strawbridge for school photos. They’ve been around, in Durham, since 1923. I can’t remember the name of the not-local company they did use, but the photos were horrible. He was grimacing as in pain, and they didn’t bother to crop the viewfinder to avoid the muddy shoes from earlier playgrounding. (Honey, if you read this, know that your mama thinks you are beautiful even when you are grimacing and have muddy shoes.)

Strawbridge took our photos in high school. I still remember walking to Oval Park to stand on the hill for the group photo. It was a good group photo.

I was therefore relieved that they were hired to take the boy’s grade pictures this year, and what a fabulous job they did. We delivered a copy to one of the grands today, and she was very pleased.

Public Transportation

We’ve been thwarted by transportation issues lately. True, the bus gets the kids for school each day now, so there’s substantially less driving re: that.

But, try as I might, I can’t figure out a most-safe bicycle route to our favorite park. (Most safe meaning I feel comfortable towing the girl behind in the trailer.) I can get safely to three other parks, but not that one. (I can also get to the library, three grocery stores, the post office, and a major shopping center via bike, so my whine is a little muted.)
And we wanted to take the Greyhound to my mom’s house 70 miles away, but it will take 7 hours and cost 6 times as much as gas in the car.

I’m really trying not to replace our dying car.
In good transportation news, the gas supply in Durham is somewhat restored this week.

Piano Moving in Durham

We recently had a piano moved by Henderson Moving Company, and I can highly recommend them. All the things you want… on time, professional, knowledgeable, friendly, the right equipment (like dollies and steel ramps). The elder Mr. Henderson worked for Pearson Music in Durham for 20 years before establishing his own business. The number is (919) 730-5234.

Free Furniture and Appliance Pickup

This is great news for those of us with tiny cars!

“Disposing of old furniture and appliances is now as easy as dragging it to your curb.  Effective Monday, October 6, 2008, City of Durham residents that receive curbside solid waste and recycling collection will now begin to receive free bulky item and white goods collection as well. ”

The schedule is once a month. Check the schedule and details below.

Free Bulky Item Pickup in Durham 

Parkwood Community Center? Survey Says…

Forwarded from a friend… Please take a moment to read this if you are in South/SW Durham and might benefit from a community or recreation center in your area.
~~~

Please consider filling out the survey and emailing it to the Parkwood Association office at pa.office@verizon.net

The Parkwood neighborhood has devised the survey to assess South Durham Citizens’ concerns and desires for the building which now houses the Parkwood Library (which has gone under foreclosure and WILL be sold soon). A couple of news articles have highlighted the fact that Parks and Rec may be considering this site for a rec center. It is important that they know that both Parkwood Residents and those in surrounding neighborhoods care about what happens to this building.

Especially since the library is destined to move to Alston Ave, a rec center (possibly including indoor swimming) would be a GREAT thing for Fairfield and other South Durham neighborhoods, particularly since it would engage and productively occupy S. Durham kids from pre-school through high school.

But whether or not you want to see a rec center there, please fill out the survey so that Durham does know what YOU want.

Parkwood Survey in Word Document
Parkwood Survey in PDF

When Do I Recycle in Durham NC?

Click here for an interactive map displaying your trash and recycling day. Type your address (just the number and street name, not the “St.” or “Dr.”) in the box at the upper left and click on the Go button.

Drawing Class at the Library

We were at the Main branch of the library for the Boy and some companions to take a drawing class. It was one of the library’s free programs for kids. Our favorite children’s librarian–the one from Minnesota if you’ve ever chatted with him–is also an artist, and was giving the lesson in the children’s room class area. I like that the lesson was about drawing clouds. You can’t imagine that you’ve gotten a cloud wrong (the Boy is an art-phobe). Next lesson they’ll be outside drawing trees. Excellent! Happy little trees.

The favorite librarian said most of the large drawings in the library, of book characters like Arthur, Winnie the Pooh, Harry Potter, were done by projecting the image on a sheet taped to the wall, then tracing the image. Others are done free-hand, like the dinosaurs on the back wall.

Durham Regional

Durham, I’m here for you blogging the local hospitals this week. Today we’re doing a compare and contrast with Duke by visiting the other one in town, Durham Regional Hospital. Oh, long story.

It’s quieter here, though when I said that the nurse said, “Shhh! Don’t jinx it.” DRH is not a teaching hospital, so that contributes a little to the quietness–you don’t have multiple providers poking on you.

Excellent patient care is an often-touted feature of Durham Regional, and I’ll have to agree. The facilities themselves don’t scream “money” as much as Duke’s. They’re older or perhaps not renovated as recently. The wireless works here, though.

But what’s most important is I brought my camera this time, so you get some food blogging today.

This is breakfast. I wish that had been grits in the bowl, but it was oatmeal. I like how the main plate is arranged into a Picasso-esque smile.

And, lunch. They have that cherry chocolate cake here, too. As I told the nutritionist, this cake is the bomb. I want the recipe.

Sorry, won’t get to post any dinner shots. And I’m happy to wind up this hospital tour!

More on the 95-Gallon Recycling Cart

Hat tip to dedicated reader ACW for a link to a slideshow on the Tidewater Recycling website showing how the recyclables will be sorted from the new larger bins.

[click above for the whole slideshow]

New Durham Recycling Bins

Durham wants us to recycle more, 40% of our waste. I think we’re doing at least that in our home, but I do see room for improvement. One thing that would help is if we are selected for the pilot program of 95-gallon roll-out bins. Right now, I’m coordinating 3 separate bins for mixed paper, cardboard, and cans/bottles/plastic and lugging them each to the curb. I’m using one 18-gallon bin from the city and 2 blue laundry baskets. They are not covered, so I keep the paper products inside until recycling day. It would be nice to put them all in a large covered bin and roll out in one trip.

I called Solid Waste to see if I could request to be part of the pilot program, but they are selecting entire neighborhoods. The neighborhoods have been chosen, but will not receive their letters of notification until later this fall, before the program starts in September. Fingers crossed!

Duke Hospitals

All quiet on the WLD front here yesterday because I was in the hospital. All’s well now, nothing chronic or contagious.

I don’t hide the fact that we are Tarheel born and bred in this family, but I am just as big of a Duke Hospitals fan after experiencing patient care first-hand. I kept thinking, so this is what they mean by world-class care. I mean, people come from all over to get treatment at Duke (like recently Ted Kennedy).

I found the emergency room nursing staff extremely efficient and just plain good at what they do. The RN up on the ward, again, efficient, professional, and kind.

There were residents in the team of specialists, and I’m not a big fan of having to tell my symptoms over and over, but I do understand it’s a teaching hospital, and that it improves the level of care. I did feel like the residents were helping rather than just learning, of course, and I met with the head specialist as well, who did not require a recap as she had been supervising the overall plan. They took my concerns into consideration in the treatment options, and answered my questions with respect.

The facilities were clean (well, that ought to be a given), but also comfortable. They warm the blankets for you! There are plenty of other amenities like cable TV, telephone, snacks. Dinner was roasted chicken, greens, potatoes, salad, milk, iced tea, roll with butter, and chocolate-cherry cake–tasty fare (I regret I didn’t have my camera to contribute to Durham food blogging). Maybe all this is standard, but it felt like a multiple-star hotel.

Props also to Durham EMS. We’ve had Parkwood Fire out before for unrelated EMS calls, but I think this was a different squad. When I find out which team it was, I will come back and update this. Wherever they came from, they were here in a jiffy and had me stabilized and to the hospital quickly. Exactly what you want.

A big thank you to everyone involved!

DATA Bus Service Feedback

Durham’s DATA Bus Service is seeking feedback for future planning. Click here to give feedback on Durham’s bus service.

New Dog Tags

Since the dogs came back from their walkabout missing their tags, I went to PetSupermarket at New Hope Commons and had some new ones engraved. They only cost $7 each, and I got to watch the machine engrave through a little window. Actually I got bored watching and petted the bunnies and guinea pigs instead. Should have taken the kids for it. But now the dogs have their names and our phone number on their collars, just in case. (They’re also microchipped, but that doesn’t do the average person any good in contacting you.)