On September 11, 2018, we heeded the county’s mandatory evacuation orders and headed west from our home along Raymond’s Gut which flows into the White Oak River just three miles upriver from Swansboro, North Carolina. The garage of our house is just twenty-five feet from the water but we have never suffered water damage from a storm, even Category 3 Hurricane Irene. Florence looked like it was going to be very different. Read more.
Author: ocracokewaves
A now sane individual who escaped the world of selling technology, now living in the rolling hills of the North Carolina Piedmont. I have been at one time or another, a farmer, a director for Apple, and a vice president at Wideopen Networks. I continue to pursue my love of photography and writing. I have great memories of boating, fishing, kayaking, swimming, and hiking the beaches along North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks where we lived for fifteen years.
Fourteen years of posts
On the Friday after Thanksgiving 2018, the View from the Mountain blog will have its fourteenth anniversary. It was not my first adventure on the web but it certainly has been my most persistent presence. There are close to fifteen hundred posts at View from the Mountain. Read more
Florence Stayed Too Long
It did not take us long to make the decision to evacuate for Hurricane Florence. The potential for damage was just too great to stay. Read more
Summer 2018 Update
There is nothing like finishing the evening fishing in the surf. A good summer on the Crystal Coast and the weather looks like it is headed in the right direction. Read more at this link.
Elusive Good Weather
Coastal weather is complex and ever chaning. Sometimes uncooperative weather can make it hard to enjoy our beautiful, sandy shores. Take heart, this 2018 streak of showery weather is not nearly as bad as some we have seen over the years. In spite of forecast of 60% chance of wet weather, we have had three sunny days in a row. If you pick your time, you can still enjoy some nice times at the beach. For more info, click this link.
Peace in the Inlet
Kayaking is one of the things that makes living on the Crystal Coast so special. The challenge is that we live on big water and you have to pick the days when you venture out into the river. Sometimes the inlet is a good choice. For more click here.
Escaping the Heat
The heat has found us on North Carolina’s Crystal Coast. It is part of life here. This time of year, taking three showers a day is not unusual and those of us who manage to get really hot, do not even bother to turn on the hot water in the shower. For more thoughts click this link.
What Makes Me Proud?
When we look back over life, a few important things stand out. It is an exercise well worth doing. Read more…
Overcoming Technology
As is often the case, technology is wonderful when it works and not so much when it does not. My problem started when I tried to use the automatic backup software from my hosting provider. It failed in mid-backup and left lots of strange files and destroyed a few files. I got the site back up but my email quit working. I talked to the technical people to resolve the email issue and in their infinite wisdom they decided my site had been hacked and took it down. They offered me a solution, which would have cost $600 a year to fix the problem which their backup software inflicted on me. I declined their solution. Eventually they gave me a list of over 500 PHP files that they wanted removed. I removed them all but of course WordPress depends on PHP to run and I have been unable to get my hosted WordPress site up and going again. Fortunately this site is fine. While I continue to work on the other site in my limited spare time, I have brought back a number of posts as flat HTML files. They can be found at this new landing site for my Crystal Coast Life blog.
Better Internet Is Not Easy
We set out to lower our cable bill but it ended up being a complicated process because of how everything is tied together. The biggest challenge is that we have no real choice in Internet service providers so even if we cut the cord, we would still be stuck with Spectrum. Read more about out challenges.
Our technological infirmity 
