I’m hot.

         Temperature hot, that is.

         I’m a certified sticky, sweaty, frizzy, soaked mess.

         I go out with good intentions, but quickly crawl (not run) back in.

Story and Photos by Mark Shaffer

I recently had a series of conversations with friends who mentioned that for one reason or another an actual summer vacation just wasn’t in the books this year. This got me thinking about the original concept for this column, essentially a local behaving like a tourist and doing things most natives and residents take for granted or simply ignore.

Margaret Evans, Editor

On my dad’s side: Thomas Jefferson Shinn of Cabarrus County, NC, had to drop out of school to work the farm when his father died young. Eventually, Thomas accumulated a large amount of property and, according to the genealogy, “a number of slaves.” (I don’t know what that means. Did he own 3, 30, 300? One hesitates to delve.)

July is usually a slower month for Vince and me. Somehow, this year, it has turned out the be the total opposite. Vince is super busy with his work and I find that I'm still slap-in-the-middle of my wedding season. On top of everything, this morning no less, it suddenly occurred to me that I had a column due – and that I was two days past deadline. Yikes! I had no ideas and didn't want to go to the grocery store.