"No News Is Good News...?"

At least that's how the old saying goes...and some would have it apply to the business of news as opposed to waiting to hear from someone...today's post had me re-reading some quotes I rather like, and mentally reviewing daily 'life' and how it can get in a rut if you're not paying attention.

All too often we are bombarded with stories and situations that breed negativity and fear; in fact, many people and business use those very things to make money off of other people, preying on their insecurities. The recent Virginia Tech massacre was an attrocity, yet it happens daily in Iraq...and Africa...and how many of us turn our heads and hearts the other way when it happens to 'somebody else' far away? We do it daily. We all must start realizing that what happens to our Brothers and Sisters around the world is happening to a part of ourselves. We are One.

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.
The opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.
- Elie Wiesel

And if indifference and complacency hasn't entwined us, some degree of fear and unease probably has. I well imagine another type of "9/11"will happen again on US soil...seems folly to think of ourselves as insular and untouchable, no matter what efforts we put forth. That doesn't mean don't put forth the effort. That also doesn't mean shutting down and living life always afraid of what might happen. As Neale Donald Walsch so appropriately writes, fear is really an acronym for "False Evidence Appearing Real".

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
- Helen Keller

Security is when everything is settled.
When nothing can happen to you.
Security is the denial of life.
- Germaine Greer

Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death.
- James F. Bymes

Things that make you go 'hmmmmm...'

I always get asked about the name of my flutes, "Ugly Boys". I suppose I should show a picture of that first flute, one that I never intended for anyone to see as it is so crude...or shall I say primitive and aboriginal, that it is a flute (actually 'whistle') only because of the way it produces a sound. It's terribly crude, disproportioned...and it plays loud, strong, and fun. I called it "Ugly Boy" that first day, and found the name amusing...as time quickly passed, I realized there was a greater lesson to be given to others by keeping the name...

After any concert or lecture/performance, after all have seen and heard the variety of flutes and voices I create, I pull out Ugly Boy. I expect the laughter and chuckles. I proudly show the string used to hold the block on, the way-oversized fingerholes that I always say spawning salmon could swim through...and last but not least the square of duct tape near the mouthpiece where I accidentally cut into the slow-air chamber. And then I play it. There is not another sound to be heard. Jaws drop. Folks are usually speechless. Here's why the name stuck...

In the silence after I play Ugly Boy...I speak to the rapt attention and remind people to 1) NEVER judge anyone or any thing by what it looks like on the outside, and 2) like that original 24" piece of knotty yellow pine, it had a music inside of it that was released...each of us has a huge box of 'music' inside that screams to be let out into the world. Our responsibility is to go Within and find that inner 'music', what it is that stirs our soul so much we can't wait to wake up and get to it...and let it out wildly and often.

Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
- Mark Twain

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.
-Issac Asimov

By the way, I don't write all of this for just your benefit - I write it to myself, as well.

Early morning STORM TOTALS

Holy Toledo, Batman...a monster of a thunderstorm blew up over NW Guilford County in the wee hours of the morning, causing a flash flood warning for the Summerfield-Stokesdale area. Rockingham County picked up a lot of rain as well, but the biggest problem was clearly the aforementioned area in Guilford County. As I write, the storm has significantly reduced itself and spread rains east and south into Alamance County. Thought you'd like to see my radar grab of the storm totals (Doppler estimated only; no actual figures have come in, yet.) Click on the image to enlarge (rain scale to the left).

"Message In A Bot-...er, uh, Blog"...

This past Saturday morning, when I should have been doing other things, I was scrolling through the cable menu and happened upon the late 1990's movie "Message In A Bottle", starring Kevin Costner, Robin Wright Penn, and Paul Newman.

I'd never seen it...from the info screen it seemed like a good ol' love story of one sort or another, big names, and touted as being about a story of a lost love from the Outer Banks of North Carolina...

Fair enough, I thought. I like watching NC-based flicks to see if there are any other characters or movie extras from the region that I may have worked with before...I myself had nothing to do with the project, but anyone living near where film was made is usually proud to be associated with it. Usually.

And so the movie plotted along. Chicago journalist finding a heart-wrenching love letter in a washed up bottle on a beach, spurring her to find the author of the letter...which she does in Coastal North Carolina...the luck of it all.

They are of comparable ages. Both become smitten with one another. Little quirks start popping out of the story line, and good ol' Paul Newman is there to toe the line with his 'son' Costner...lots of little skeletons in the closet that good stories make use of as they need to...

And just as things were kinda sorta heating up between the two salty dog love birds, knots began to fray...

Guess I'd better not discuss how it all came together in the end. As far as love stories go, it sucked eggs, for me....

And the point of all this? I realize that "Hollywood" has to change things up as they convert a written story to film. I understand that there is no one best location to film in...heck, "Cold Mountain", NY Times bestseller of a true NC mountain, most of it was filmed in the Transylvania region of Romania...still burns my butt, but it happens a lot.

And so even this movie was to prove no exception, of setting something in North Carolina but using scenes that were, oh, mere hundreds of miles away. Near the end, especially, when Costner was heading out on his ill-fated trip...they began cutting and pasting in even more stormy coastal scenes...from MAINE!

In college I was well-schooled in geomorphology of the U.S., and let's just say that outside of man-made jetties like those around Oregon Inlet, THERE AIN'T NO STINKIN' NATURAL ROCKY COASTLINE FORMATIONS IN THE CAROLINAS!!!!! I had not seen the movie and had no idea what was coming...I saw the shots with lighthouses and hills made of stone, and waves rolling against patterned rock formations...and I could only shake my head, wondering what viewers were buying the rockiness of coastal New England being passed off as coastal North Carolina. Submerged glaciated terrain is what the gorgeous Maine coastline is all about...around some of the dock scenes, look for lobster pots. Ah, nothing like fresh cold-water NC lobsters dipped in drawn butter...that's right, nothing like it.

It was simply SO far from the truth I was laughing when I should have been on the edge of my seat given the ominous music. Hollywood, give me a great movie, twist things around if you want...but don't ask me to overlook ill-chosen scene selection that destroys your game of smoke and mirrors. We just aren't that stupid. OK, maybe some of us are. If you wait through all the movie credits you will see toward the end that, sure enough, there was a film crew that worked scenes from Maine.

Sadly, so many buy Hollywood as "real", which includes all the unsavory violence, guns, crimes splattered across the silver screens...only the foolish among us think such media has no impact on our young people, especially. And little did you know the negative impact a simple, beautiful rocky shoreline would have on this ol' itinerant weatherman...

"Why We Do..." Part 3: More art 'stuff'

(click on pics to enlarge)

(NOTE: my new "Fried Fridays" returns next week...wanted to finish up the series I started this week with this last installment)

Pity I can't find other computer files of my older art things, albeit they would be primitive digital files of limited quality...I have an old external hard drive that whines endlessly and quit booting up some 3 years ago, and I suppose a lot of old files are on that and basically toast. And so I spill the beans and show you the rest of the limited images I have of other unusual things I used to do with my spare time. Who knows if I'll ever revisit them...or do something totally new and different...as the wonderfully true saying goes:

"The Joy is in the Journey."

Like the Sun Table I posted about 2 days ago, below is another faux mosaic painted with those same simple acrylics...I call this one "Angel Dog"...I've never owned a Golden Retriever, but that's the dog I chose. Go figure. As far as I'm concerned, they're all Angels...

This pine round I'd thought about making into a 'lazy Susan' and never got around to it (gee, imagine my surprise!). I had a fish outline I'd cut out with my scroll saw for another purpose, and then montaged outlines onto the wood. I then used a woodburning knife for all the lines and painted away with whimsical colors. You can't see the edge, but I took pastel tissue paper, tore it into irregular pieces, and decoupaged them on...looks neat, but you'll just have to take my word for it! By the way, all the pieces except the "Dog Table" below are somewhere stashed away at home...really ought to go dig 'em out and hang 'em up!

I had the most fun with this old clock...I like taking old things and doing funky things with them, and what better to do that on than an old Seth Thomas clock that runs! When I was a little kid, there was a funny TV show called "Love American Style", and I just had the idea come out of the blue to make this folk art style of clock in honor of that show...complete with butts coming out of the sides!

I have lots of scrap wood that can't be used for flutes...and I had this idea to create an animal-esque miniature table I called my "Dog Table"...and if that dog had a name, I would have called it "Tripod"...! The flat part is plum wood, and the legs/ears/tail is Bubinga, FYI.

Lastly, way back in 7th grade, I started drawing mazes, and the style wasn't much more simple than it is today. I've gotten more complicated in the outer designs I put them in, and you can add words and messages within the mazes, but the basic technique is pretty much unchanged back from those days where I should have been paying more attention in class...!!

They are solvable, but very difficult as I work from both ends (start/finish) as I go along. Paths constantly fork and split, some loop into one another, many end up being dead-ends...interestingly, drawing these is like a meditation of sorts as you go into another mental zone, almost like alpha waves. Now for the extra credit question of the day: what is the phrase that serves as the title of the bottom center maze? It's a great philosophy to subscribe to in life, by the way.....give up? "Color outside the lines!"

Just don't run with scissors, okay? Have a great weekend, Saddle Pals!

"Travelogue: Mato Paha (Bear Butte), SD"

Before I begin with pictures, let me direct you to some information about "Mato Paha", which is Lakota (loosely) for "Bear Butte" NW of Rapid City. This mountain is far more sacred than other sites, full of historical significance within the Native Nations, and site of "vision quests" for some of the greatest of tribal leaders that lived...a special location where the Teton Nations had gathered at times, with tens of thousands from various tribes surrounding the convening council...and I'm glossing over the major points of importance...


Contrast that with the annual decadent and massive Sturgis Motorcycle Rally which is centered a stone's throw away, and you have your classic conflict of Tradition vs. Society...complicate that even further with 'developers' who want to buy land as close to Bear Butte as possible and put in "bars with a view" and you have a real railroad crash of principles that know no middle ground.

The site is actively used by Native Americans for their ceremonies and rituals...luckily, one attempt to put a shooting range right beside the State-owned property was itself shot down...

And so I share with you pictures from my hike up Mato Paha on a February day in 2005, where on the sunny side it reached near 70, yet on the shady side was decidedly colder...and I met no one until I ran into some Lakota folks heading up as I reached the bottom on my return hike...which being 'alone' was all helpful in taking in the views, recalling the history I read, and honoring the numerous prayer cloths tied to vegetation, prayers of those gone before me...


God has many names and definitions. Most of us accept the power of a supreme being whose infinite handiwork created the Beauty we see all around. It's all Good and Appropriate...the Lakota, like all Native Nations, hold sacred personal experiences known as 'vision quests', which among other things involves time alone with Nature and the Elements for several days, fasting and praying, 'questing for visions' that will guide them through the rest of their life...Mato Paha was and continues to be a classic destination for the above.

The brightly colored cloths seen tied to vegetation are associated with prayer ties, which as their name implies are basically associated with prayer and mindful attention to Spirit in general. A few traditionalists argue that they are personal and shouldn't be photographed...my take is I am sharing with you something positive, beautiful, and something sacred, whose explanation serves to enlighten us all...giving attention to things Spiritual in our lives is extremely important, and Mato Paha is such a sacred destination...


And so you see the beauty as you climb the heights of Mato Paha, aided by beautiful winter weather that was anything but...it was a peaceful and introspective hike, as well it should be...the energy is very different there, and is best 'known' through being quiet and listening to the wind and the rocks speaking.

Here is a link to the Video Postcard I made for it back in 2005. FYI, the closing words "Pilamaya ye, Wakhan Thanka" basically means "Thank you, Great Spirit" in Lakota.

Quick RAINFALL post and picture

click on pic to enlarge for better view

My blog entry today follows this short post...in getting ready to head in, I thought I'd take a look at the running storm total for rainfall, save a snap of it, and post it for you...sure, it's only a radar estimate, but it gives you an idea of the 'haves' and the 'have nots' in the rain department lately. Yesterday's and tonight's overnight rains have been 'training' over the same path/areas, hence the SW-NE obloid rain fields. The red dot near the Guilford-Forsyth border is just west-northwest of Oak Ridge where Monday morning's storm sat and dumped torrential rains...of additional note is the excessive rain on the Ashe-Watauga line up in the mountains, where the heaviest of rain has fallen thanks to orographic effects. Just FYI.

Your regularly scheduled blog post follows below...

"Why We Do...", Part 2: The Sun Table

Just showing you something has limited value...telling you how it came about definitely adds a little bit of interest to the mix.

Keep in mind the bigger picture...through my blogs, there are many large nature shots, none of which I've copyrighted or watermarked...I want you to enjoy and share them. There are art ideas and techniques that I freely talk about...I have no other desire but to share and maybe inspire someone else to reach deep within their creative Soul. Even with flutes, I will tell anyone everything I know if they are truly wanting to know...you see, I figure one of the main purposes on this planet for ALL of us is to give something back to others and to this ol' world...when I'm dead and gone, what good are all these files and images if they're locked up in a cyberfolder?

And so, for today, here is my one and only "Sun Table". A bit of background is in order...my dad used to call me "OOAK" (OOOH-ock), an acronym for "One Of A Kind", which was more than appropriate. When I began creating artistic things, I called my works "OOAK Art", because the overwhelming majority of my artistic creations were one-of-a-kind, rarely duplicated/copied. This table is no exception...

It started out as an 18" pine round from Home Depot or Lowe's....I sanded, added primer sealer, then sanded and added primer sealer again...then penciled in my faux mosaic design of a sun face...as I drew a basic design, I added in penciled lines that would serve as my mosaic base...as you can imagine, just the drawing and designing took a good bit of time and planning...

As I started painting the little pieces, I determined the colors I wanted only as I went along...I used the inexpensive bottles of acrylics from art stores, which if you wait for the right time can sometimes get them 3 for a buck, and load up on all sorts of colors. I made sure to leave a little bit of the primer showing for a faux grout appearance...and after the colors were added I had to take a little brush and go back in to the primered area and touch it up with white paint.

If you look closely at the purple sections on the left of the picture above, you see a sort of pattern...after putting on the acrylic, I placed a paper towel over it, dabbed it, and pulled it up, leaving the little pattern in place. That's the fun of art, experimenting and seeing what works...and just as often what does NOT work! In total, with the designing, painting and touching up again and again and again, I estimated about 54 hours of my time was in the table top alone.

For a base, I found some dead rhododendron in Tryon, NC where I was living when I made this table...brought several pieces to the house and sat and played with them to see which ones might go well together to make an unusual off-centered base. Ultimately this unique table sold to a dear flute friend in Pennsylvania, where it graces her renovated school house home, if I'm not mistaken. Like each of my flutes, these art pieces are like kids of mine, and it's always important that they find good homes.

More later, of course. I see more rain again in the northern and western reaches of the Triad even now, so it's time to head 'em up and move 'em out....mooooooooooo!

"Why do we do what we do?"

The quintessential question. Lots of people don't do much of anything, so it seems. Others do such mind-boggling things that I can't fathom how one would take a first step down their Journey's path. And it doesn't have to be the creative arts...it can be through an entrepreneurial business acumen, it can be through literary efforting of myriad books in no time flat...the list is endless.

As we all look back on where we've come from, most of us can see periods where we got really interested in this or that, pursued it heart and soul, then left it for something else, or changed our schedules which changed our interests, etc. So many factors, such unlimited possibilities...and time marches on, changes or not.

And so I 'visited' a limited computer folder of much older small digital images of that which I used to pursue: whimsical, creative art (mixed media) as well as gallery photography. Most of my images are on slides or negatives, pre-digital in creation...but they will at least give you a flavor of my other interests...or what were interests...and could be again in a perfect world where I had unlimited time to create and unlimited funds so bills could be paid without my worrying about them...! As you know from following this blog, if it's not the weather, then it's my Native American style flutes I pursue passionately, along with my nature photography for diversion. At this time, I simply haven't the time or creative space to do all my heart desires, so I carefully pick and choose my options for now.

Today, I'll share just my older photography that I happened to have a digital form of, primitive as it is...I had a studio for a while, shot lots of weddings and put on my own exhibitions of my 'gallery' fine art photography, etc...but the expense of having so many works show-ready, along with serious storage issues for them, I set it all aside years ago...

Above is one of my favorite photographs of all time: an embedded leaf in a spider web with raindrops from an evening storm, a photo taken at Heggie's Rock Preserve in Georgia. Handheld, probably 1/8th of a second shutter speed with probably f/11 or f/16 aperture...squatting, holding my breath and squeezing tightly to be still for the shot...can't see it in this little version, but in the raindrops you can see my hunkered down reflection...

And this balloon, being inflated in Tryon, NC on "Tryon Day" in 1986, I think...early morning, the balloon stretched out, the blower torching hot air into the balloon, which starts to rise...and I held my old Canon out at arm's length and just 'guessed' where to point the camera to get a view inside the balloon...

I hoisted an old Omega View 4x5 camera to the top of Table Rock Mountain in Linville Gorge to take this B&W shot of some of the rock textures at the crest...I call it "Raging Bull" as it kind of looks like one snorting hombre...got rid of all my large format equipment years ago when digital exploded and I no longer had darkroom access.

This was a rare photo in that I planned for it...years ago I was working a 3-month stint doing daily shows for Volvo/GM Heavy Truck in Greensboro, and in driving by these large petroleum storage drums I realized that in the late afternoon the sun would create a wonderful shadow play with the stairwell...so I waited for the right conditions one day and stopped to make this image.

Lastly, I have a few special shots tucked away of scenes you will no longer find...in the above case, layers of peeling paint on what was an old gas station, long since sandblasted and converted into an ice cream parlor in Columbus, NC. I shot it with an old Burke & James 8x10 view camera, a 14" Commercial Ektar lens, and had it printed on Ilfochrome in a 3 foot x 4 foot print...this little snap doesn't do it justice, but after it kept sitting in closets and attics for years, I recently gave it to my sister to hang in her office at Hospice of the Carolina Foothills in the Tryon/Columbus area. The detail from that 8"x10" transparency is surreal.

I'll save my other 'art' for tomorrow or another day. Looks like nice storms are alive and well in the far NW Triad at this hour, so will head on in to the salt mines to keep the peace. Ciaou!

"Two More Denizens To Share...And A Baby Update!"

As if I didn't shoot and share enough "Denizens of the Daisies" with you two weeks ago, I did get a couple of more that are worth a look and admission to the grouping.

First up is a spider I've not really seen the likes of, not up close anyway...revealing 'spikes' and spots all over the legs, munching on a common house fly...eat away, my friend, eat away!

Next, the patterning on this butterfly looks like it has been air-brushed on...couldn't resist throwing in the secondary shot with the daisies in the background either. As always, you can click on any pic to enlarge it for better viewing and detail.



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Mom is flying up today to lend an experienced helping hand with her newborn grandchildren up in Massachusetts. "Floyd and Eunice", aka William and Ellen Grace, are doing swimmingly. I can only imagine the innate connection twins have...


I would love to get up there myself, but our hands are greatly tied at work for the next couple of months. We just got the August schedule which reflects the absence of Jess Torpey, my former compatriot AM meteorologist in Raleigh who left a week ago for a private sector job. As yet, not a public peep from management on a replacement after 6 weeks of 'looking'. And with that I'll sign off before brutal honesty takes over...hope you are enjoying this incredibly dry and cooler weather!

"Fried Fridays: Rockets' Red, uh...Glare?"

I was musing out loud to my self just the other day about how I've let Thursdays be my "Travelogue" day dedicated to some hiking or driving destination where I share some of my nature photography with you...and in the very next breath I came upon the idea of "Fried Fridays" - after all, it's the end of the work week, most of us 'fried' as a result...and so I thought I'd present some ideas or news stories that seem a little 'fried' in their own right.

---------------------------

This inaugural "Fried Fridays" post goes to the Chinese government for promising a rain-free Olympics in Beijing next summer...doing so during a pretty wet time, seasonally. How? By firing rockets into developing storm clouds. I kid you not. Click HERE for the wire story.

Weather modification efforts are not unprecedented, of course, even in China where they have historically manipulated storms to make rain...but never to disperse it. I remember reading about other such efforts years ago in Moscow, their government meteorologists trying to limit the city's rainfall...and they actually did lessen it. Keep in mind matter is never destroyed, simply displaced or reformed in some way...per the Russian story, their intercity efforts ended up increasing crop-killing rains 30 miles around the city's periphery. Peasant farmers lost most of what they had because of the excessive rains. As the old saying goes, you don't get something for nothing.

And so Beijing authorities are going to blast boiling storm clouds to fulfill a dry-sky promise while bringing in world class athletes with world class crowds and world class numbers of media, all for the sake of ego and honor and money...in a land with a highly disputable environmental and socio-economic record to begin with. The spin is always how this boosts the economy - but that is only one side of a very large coin.

(Beijing, China)

Even as a meteorologist, I'm not interested if it will actually work, said rocket experiment. I'm far more concerned about mankind's attitude that such large-scale modifications of Nature are harmless and without consequence, and should be done at all. So what if it's damp for the 440 relay...isn't this about the best athletes at that time, coming together in whatever the conditions, to compete for #1? You mean that if you pay $200 for a ticket you should be exempt from getting wet in an outdoor arenas? Or is it also part of our artificial narcissistic pursuit to keep setting records under ideal conditions to the point of making it somewhat artificial? Ethics are a personal thing, but I know enough to know that when you start impacting Nature on such a large scale, there will be a reaction...just what and to what extent is the great unknown.

Now, if only I could find a way to bottle our weekend weather coming up....enjoy!

(all photos from Reuters and AP wires)

"Travelogue: The Cathedral Trail (SD)

Probably the most prominent geomorphic feature in the Black Hills of southwest South Dakota are The Needles, of which the Needles Highway (SR 87) is a must-drive. En route to the crest, one particular horseshoe curve has a limited parking area for this week's travelogue: The Cathedral Trail.

From afar they look like needles...this trail lets you get up close and personal to a part of them, hence being aptly named "cathedrals". The trail is not long at all, and not a strenuous grade...if you go to the ridge line saddle and turn around, that is.

You have the option of going further up into The Cathedrals, which is more of a scramble and less of a trail. Technical rock climbers flock to the permanent climbing routes throughout these formations, so you can see lots of 'rabbit trails' throughout.

It was not the sunniest of days...well, one minute it would be, and the next minute low dark clouds would come overhead and threaten rain drops, giving a mystical feel to an already mystical feeling place...

Native Americans refer to these as Grandfather Rocks, honored ones who know all and have seen all through the ages...just looking at this picture below, you can see many faces...in person, they shifted as I moved...as if they were watching over me...

Unless you are a technical climber, there is a practical limit on how high up you can clamber...the very thrill of the rock energy and being on top of the world there makes you look for one last place you can ascend....

...and lo and behold you'll come upon these lush green pockets of thick grass that beckon a nap in the cooling breezes...or just lying there and watching the clouds pass overhead along with a circling Golden Eagle from time to time...

And so you relax, take it all in, check out all the nooks and crannies, and feel the sudden chill from your sweat with a rush of cool mountain air, even in the heat of summer...

...and then one very dark cloud moving overhead telling you this is NOT where you need to be should lightning start to pop! Luckily it didn't. Before you know it, 30 minutes becomes 3 hours, and you hardly realized it. That's what it's all about.

"We too should make ourselves empty,
that the great soul of the universe
may fill us with its breath."

- Laurence Binyon

"Of Storms and Rain..."

(Cloud Peak, Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming)

"Climb the mountains,
and get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow into you
as the sunshine into the trees.
The winds blow their freshness
into you,
and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop off
like autumn leaves."

- John Muir

Good ol' John Muir...I have been trying to get some woodworking done this afternoon, ultimately realizing this just isn't 'one of those good days' to get stuff done...and have been glancing at Triad radar scans and watching storms bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...even if fires don't burn and cauldrons don't bubble (apologies to Willie Shakespeare...).

(remember you can click pics to enlarge)

It started out rather typically, with storms first forming in the mountains and moving east into the Foothills....

...with some nice cells developing in the NW Triad area, and the first warning (Surry County)...hail markers on any of these images mostly fell in the 0.25" to 0.50" range, FYI...

As they spread eastward, they got pretty feisty up towards the VA border...

Just north of Greensboro proper was some very heavy rainfall rates around 3:40pm...

And this nice linear feature surely packed some strong winds, as well, around 5:34pm...

And such was my afternoon of cyber storm-chasing. What reports come in to the National Weather Service will take a while, so off to slumberland I went, leaving the storm dregs to do their thing and wind down after sunset.

Joy of joys, we get to do it all again today...!