Lakeside frivolities

We moved to the Charlotte area not knowing where exactly our new home would be. Turns out it was by a popular lake formed by the damming of the Catawba river which flows north to south in the Carolinas.

Local electricity generation utility built a series of dams along the waterway for hydro and couple nuclear plants as well to supply the state grid. The lake our house butts into is Lake Wylie.

While tract home build has picked up in the Carolinas the developer often carves out parcels that they can get their hands on leaving behind privately owned lots that the individual owner may not want to sell.

Our house is part of a subdivision but backs into actual lake front yardage that has always been part of legacy family owned properties who chose to build a cabin or getaway and did not sell to a corporation wanting to build in the hundreds.

As such we can see the water through the year but it does not afford actual water access. That privilege is to our neighbors who still maintain their living quarters on the shores. One of those neighbors had after a decade of living on the lake decided to up stakes and move. Family and health were factors wanting to be closer to their kids in the city. So another lakefront neighbor, whom we consider friends decided to host a pot luck dinner to gather some of us in the hood and celebrate the friendship we had built in the course of past few years.

It was a wonderful affair, the temperamental weather of the Carolinas notwithstanding. Many families that own lakefront property are either septuagenarians themselves, being second or third generation in line to have inherited or are retired executives from their jobs who found the right mix of social life and solace to spend out their golden years.

Our friends leaving the area and the host family have known each other longer than we did them since we are relative newcomers. But it feels like we have known them for years. The evening began with the boiling of crustacean (shrimp) along with some sausage and the bounty of the earth (corn, potatoes and okra) with a spice bag for flavor.

Cooking begins

The Backyard Boil prep

Our backyard neighbor has the process down and the tools and wherewithal to go with it. It is a simple process but requires the right tools like a high octane burner to crank the heat on the tubers and corns and sausages.

About half hour of roiling boils later the basket gets pulled (water drains off) and its poured onto a sheet to enjoy.

the spread

Families along the lake came. They each brought a treat to enjoy from bacon wrapped dates to mozzarella sticks to a delectable chili (the American version which is a mash of meat, beans and spices). Desserts were banana pudding and cobbler. Also wonderful.

We hung out on the back deck watching the sunset, the rain coming in sheets and yet had the most amazing time yammering about our stories from days past and what we all looked forward to.

It was relaxing and enjoyable all around.

I got a chance to send my drone out and take pictures of the gang that gathered as well as the lake and its surrounds (it never ceases to amaze me how lucky we are to be living here) which look pretty at all times of day.

But What If We're Wrong?

I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language. Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds. The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic. Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'. This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...

You are important to us

Followed by piano music. Followed by 'we are experiencing heavier than usual call volume'. Sounds macabre like bleeding during menstruation or after a ghastly attack with a weapon on a hemophiliac. Sorry Mrs. Johnson but it appears little Gertrude here has been bleeding heavier than usual what with her night time activities competing with the woodchucks in your neighborhood. Some services even go as far as to pick a random day to say - 'if you were to call us during the Chinese lunar month when the moon is axiomatically hugging the polar star with Jupiter intravenous when call volume is light'. Well I will be damned. I thought I had checked with my astrologer before I placed this well focused call but I guess this is what you get for listening to a quack. Umph! I am not sure which marketing genius came up with this personal touch concept of informing the caller that you are really a jackass for actually calling the customer serv...

Peru, South America - Week well spent

Growing up in India the only Peru I knew of was a tropical fruit (Guava for those whose lingua is English). Not until high school did I discover that it was also a country in the South American continent. So it was this early April week that we decided to hit up Peru - the land of the once glorious Inca people that lived 500 years ago. Today Peru is the third largest country on that continent with a diverse geography that stretches from the drier Pacific coast plains to the high mountains of the Andes and the Amazon river valley to its east. Our trip was primarily a pilgrimage of sorts to visit the last remaining, lost (now found and documented), large scale, mostly undamaged, city of the Inca nobility, called Machu Picchu (MP). The Inca were great architects and builders. MP is a UNESCO world heritage site affording it high visibility to the tourism trade and therefore crowded year round. Our timing was not quite high season allowing us...

Brown Motion

Search This Blog