We drove to Chapel Hill and had a look at the very pretty campus of the University of North Carolina. We saw a preponderance of women students, and the internet told us that they make up 61% of the student body. The days of male dominance in this country appear to be merely a fond memory (of mine).
We also checked out the nearby town of Apex, which is recommended by one of the services as a great place to retire. Indeed, its downtown is wonderful, with beautiful buildings, shops, and restaurants, and the residential areas we saw were very attractive. An appealing community.
This part of the country is quite beautiful. Everything - the lawns and pastures and the trees lining the freeways - is lush and green. There are lots of great restaurants. However, the weather tends to be hot around here, and humid. Here we are in early May, and the high the past two days was 86 degrees. I'm not sure that's going to work for Nancy and me, but it might be perfect for those with different temperature preferences.
And the traffic we've encountered has been rather horrible - comparable to many California cities, including Santa Cruz. That's another strike against this region of North Carolina. If it weren't for the weather and traffic, it would be a contender.
The North Carolina Museum of Art is fairly near our campground. It has a fine and amazingly extensive collection of art and sculpture through the centuries - from ancient Egyptian objects through Roman and Greek sculpture to paintings of medieval, Renaissance, and modern times, and a large display of sculpture by Rodin and other artists of the prior century. There was also a featured selection of contemporary art. Call me conventional, call me bourgeois, but the contemporary stuff displayed was boring to me, and I preferred the exhibits from the ancient world, the Renaissance, and the turn of the century.
But to demonstrate that we are not hopelessly provincial, our favorite section was something called You Are Here: Light, Color, and Sound Experiences. It was a collection of room-sized work by artists of today using three-dimensional displays and audio-visual effects. In some cases the experience was somewhat psychedelic.
In our row in the RV park is a motorhome with California plates. We learned that the couple are retirees - younger than us - who still live in Corralitos, California (just down the road from Santa Cruz). Small world, and a long way from home. They do a lot of traveling in their unit, accompanied by their two cats. We'd been to many of the same places, and it was fun comparing notes. They also are thinking about relocating out of state in the future - to an area with cheaper real estate prices and lower taxes.
Most importantly in our lives, beloved family member Sophia had dental surgery today. The vet did a cleaning and pulled nine diseased teeth. That's similar to what was done to Tammy Faye several months ago. I suppose its very common for older dogs to develop significant dental disease that is not always obvious.
Originally a shelter dog, some months ago we tested Sophia's DNA and learned that she is a Coton de Tulear (the national dog of Madagascar). I think that suggests that she is of royal parentage, and she tolerated the procedure like a champion. Here is a post-op photo of the patient - bedraggled, with post-anesthetic stupor, spilled pink liquid medicine in her chest hair - but determined that tomorrow she'll be the best dog she can be.
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