Good morning! Oh god, it’s Monday. Oof. Okay. I can do it. No problem. LFG. No problem.
Had a lovely weekend in Wilmington, where we visited our friends Nick and Meghan and their son Henry for Nick’s 50th birthday. Our friend Sean came down from Boston for the affair. Lovely time. Nick and Meghan’s house is awesome, built in the 19th century, well-updated to maintain its character but bring it all mod cons. They have a lovely guesthouse and their RV trailer and everyone had a nice place to sleep and Nick makes the best breakfast tacos.
Wilmingon is a very interesting city. It’s gentrifying and has a bit of an Austin-in-the-90’s feel to it, but there is something different about it. Maybe because it’s a beach town. Maybe because it’s not the capitol of the state. Maybe because its university isn’t the main branch. But something is a bit different, even as it slowly gentrifies all its old factories and car dealerships into breweries and galleries and really delicious taco restaurants. Part of it might be the geography — it’s less of a NSWE grid than Austin, and it seems to be gentrifying everywhere all at once instead of on an axis, like Austin did with Congress and sixth. Maybe this specific type of gentrification has become somewhat formulaic. Oh, I know, one thing that is definitely different is… there’s no rock and roll? No live venues, not even that many punkers or tattood people. Just normal young people living in a place slowly getting nicer around them while the older black residents that have lived there forever seem to slowly disapper, but not completely. Another thing about Wilmington compared to Austin, on that point, is that it actually does feel pretty integrated, gentrification not withstanding. There were definitely good neighborhoods and less nice ones, but they were right next to each other, none of them more than a few blocks big, and all of them shoulder to shoulder. I kinda liked that about it.
Oh and Wilmington has a gas station that has a bar in it, which just seems like a terrible idea but also part of me has to acknowledge it’s also pretty great.
Saturday we went to Walmart and Harbor Freight man I love Harbor Freight. I also love that two of my best dude friends consider a trip to Walmart to be as exciting as I do, that’s real friendship right there. Wilmington has a hammer factory, American Hammer, and I was devastated to learn that they do not have a showroom, so we could not go there. That put bit of dent in things, but, you know. It was still great. We wandered around downtown and did the waterfront and went to a weird Asian treats store and a candy store and our friend Jessi’s store, Edge of Urge.
We went to the beach Saturday evening which was also hella diverse. There was a 200-or-so strong national gathering of a women’s christian sorority, families of all colors. Cool beach. I liked it, as much as I like beaches which is, oh, I don’t know, third tier. Really beaches are best when you’re alone, in full goth garb, in the winter, taking serious black and white photos for your album cover. But Jane liked it, sort of. She did not like the water but she liked the sand and the seashells.
Sunday we went to a gallery opening, we went to a pride day celebration, we went to a really nice park and saw turtles and alligators and took strolls, man that park was really nice.
In the evenings we drank fake beer and watched movies we’d all seen a million times on mute to make fun of them and talk while Nick and Henry DJd a lot of Gary Numan. Nick has an amazing Fender acoustic bass that was super fun. We watched two Indiana Jones movies, first time I’d seen Crystal Skull since it came out. And I think that might legit be the first time I’d ever seen the original Little Mermiad in its entirety.
We forgot to sign the guest book. I didn’t know there even was a guest book so it’s not my fault. Meghan said she’d add this entry to the guest book to mark our place. So here I am saying Emma and Jane and Rick of Chapel Hill, NC stayed here, June 2-4, 2023. Thank you for the hospitality.
It was all just lovely.
We took the Lightning there. It was 160 miles or so. We got there with 49% charge, which was really impressive. Plugged in at Nick’s and could have easily charged it enough to make it home just from his home 110. Except we kept driving it around to Walmart and the beach and things, because it had Jane’s car seat in it, so it was easier than moving the car seat. Wilmington has two free DC Fast Chargers run by the city in a parking garage downtown, so I went down there at 7:30 in the morning Sunday do charge up for the trip. I charged it up to 80%. But then we drove it around some more. I think we had about 70% when we left to return to Chapel Hill.
But on the way down we took the slow route, country back roads for the scenery. Which was really love. And kept our speed below 75. On the way back we took the interstate, and we went about 78 mph, which just chewed through the battery. Eventually I took it down to 74 mph, and that was much better, lost a mile of charge for every mile, instead of the 1.5:1 or so ratio we were experiencing at 78 mph. Really a huge, crazy difference. We still woulda made it home, but only with about 10 miles of charge, and I had forgotten that I have to help Emma get her car to the dealer today for a recall repair, and that’s about 40 miles between the two trips there and back.
So we stopped in Cary at a mall for some DC fast charging and found ourselves parked next to another Lightning, only the second other one I’ve seen in the state since I got mine eight months ago. That was exciting. Cary is such a hoot so many young, fashionable parents and hip Asians really does seem like a pretty amazing place if you can stomach living in a full on suburb. Except the Aldi charges a quarter to get a cart. I mean, you get the quarter back but wtf. Cary’s like the lowest crime city in America and you gotta pay a deposit on a cart.
So now we’re home and our AC on the main floor and basement broke while we were gone and man you really can’t leave the house for ten minutes without something breaking. Thank you Grammy for taking care of our cats and getting our packages and putting the Hello Fresh in the fridge. Let’s face the week we can do it. No fear.
Okay I confess I have only listened to some of the songs on today’s mix once, but they seem all right. We are through all the new albums for the first time in weeks and now get to give things a second listen — sixty-three hours of music. This is gonna be an undertaking.
Talk tomorrow! Hope you’re coping with this Monday situation. Doing our best that’s all we can do.