Fear of a speeding ticket

The N.C. Highway Patrol really appears to be stepping up patrols as the Memorial Day weekend approaches.
Tuesday, on U.S. 74 between Shelby and Kings Mountain, I saw an active presence. At one point, a trooper took off from the median and approached my car. I thought it was over -- I was going to get my first speeding ticket. I pulled from the middle lane to the right lane to prepare to pull over to the side of the road.
To my relief, he got the guy three cars up from me instead. I'll definitely watch my speed on Wednesday (and every day that follows). My car was absolutely packed since I'm moving stuff from Gastonia to Shelby all week. If the trooper had pulled me over, it was going to look like I had just robbed a store or something. I'm keeping my house-closing documentation in the car all week -- just in case.

I just paid what for gas?

I just paid $3.19 a gallon for regular, unleaded gas on Monday evening. It's a good thing my commute to work is going to get much shorter next week. We had a post on our message board of "Gas is $2.77 in Grover." That post was made just two days ago. I wonder what that station is charging now?

Bears, bleeding, blogging and moving

It's funny the things that happen when you're moving. As I'm dragging out stuff to the road in my soon-to-be-former residence, people are picking it up as I go.

But you actually meet a lot of nice folks. One guy, who promised to restore my grandmother's old porch furniture that I was throwing away, turned out to be someone I rode the school bus with in elementary school. We grew up in adjacent neighborhoods and he even helped me carry stuff out to the road that he didn't want.

Of course, not everyone you run into turns out that polite. You have to be careful and use your best judgment.

Also, not everything goes smoothly. The glass tabletop to a piece of furniture I own, unfortunately, is now in a million little pieces. A bad tumble down the stairs did the trick. I doubt anyone is going to want those little items.

Now I'm updating the bear story online while trying not to bleed all over my computer.

Moving to Shelby

I've been at The Star for two months now. I can't wait to get moved to Shelby. I've been commuting from Gastonia and I'm a little tired of the daily drive. If all goes well, I close on my new Shelby house/townhouse, pictured above, on Monday afternoon and should be moved in by the end of the month.

Trying to coordinate buying a new house while selling my current house is enough to make you want to pull your hair out. But the bottom line is I can't wait to get settled in Shelby.

Another World War II epic from HBO

This is way off the subject of local news, but HBO "Band of Brothers" fans will be pleased to learn the same team that brought us the first miniseries is working on a similar project focusing on the Pacific side of the war. It's expected to be another 10-hour miniseries.

Big news day on Thursday

Thursday turned out to be a big news day in Cleveland County. We sent three breaking news alerts out throughout the day to our faithful readers. The first one involved a fire. The second one involved the DA dropping a murder charge against a local woman. He determined the death to be the result of self-defense. The third involved the hospital's leader apologizing for e-mails passed on by staff that made an allegation against a local Mexican restaurant.

In addition to this, we had news on an unusual traffic stop, Alive After Five, the United Way director retiring, Shelby proposing hikes in water and sewer rates, National Day of Prayer, the hiring efforts of a local company and much more.

A great time in Shelby on Saturday

Hundreds of people came out to celebrate the 100th birthday of the courthouse on Saturday. Here's a look at the historical photo display The Star supplied. Because of their popularity, we'll be posting these online soon.