Unexpected Blessings

We had been waiting all week for them to arrive, and today was the last day they could have made it before Christmas.  Her mother said she mailed them last week, the cookies that we love, because she loves to bake and we never do.  It is not that we can't.  It is more because they taste so much better when someone else does, and her peanut butter kiss and thumbprint with strawberry jelly are our favorites.

She sent them the week before Christmas, as is her custom, but the snowstorm struck and the mail wasn't delivered, and the days passed by.

And today they still had not arrived, and soon we will be leaving, so she called back to Nebraska, to lament her disappointment.  It was then that her mother informed her that included in the box were three large onions, that her father had added at the last minute, because they were from their garden and he did not want them to go to waste.

"But Mom," I overheard her say, with a bit of whine in her voice, "don't you think they will make the cookies taste like onion?"

"Well honey," her mom said, "I guess I hadn't thought about that."

And I thought to myself, as she fussed on the phone, maybe it is better that the postman didn't bring that package after all.

~

Post Blizzard adventures

AJ made it home on Saturday after working until 4 pm. The roads were terrible but she was able to maneuver around and there wasn’t a lot of traffic. She had to work again this morning, but my office is closed so I get to stay home.

Yesterday we shoveled out the rest of the driveway and our sidewalk. We started late in the morning and finished by early afternoon. Our house sits across from a T intersection in a valley of three hills.  As we shoveled we watched the road as drivers barrelled down the hills, either because they couldn’t slow down or thought they could drive what the speed limit sign allows – plus an additional 10, of course. It is facinating to watch people who have limited driving experience on unplowed roads filled with deep snow. Two rear wheel drive vehicles, a panel truck, a minivan, and a Chevy Silverado, which must have had it’s 4WD lock up, all got stuck in front of our house yesterday trying to turn the corner at the T intersection and head up the steepest hill.

People! If you plan on turning at an intersection to drive up a hill, slow down way in advance but don’t stop! If you were just heading down the hill at warp speed and haven’t decided in advance that you plan on turning at that intersection, then don’t!!! But if you do feel the need to turn after you have almost passed by the intersection, please turn into the skid, unless you enjoy doing donuts in the intersection. And then, when you do get stuck, don’t just sit there spinning your wheels. Get out of your vehicle, shovel a little, apply non-clumping kitty litter around your wheels, then rock the vehicle back and forth as you try and drive out of it…. What? You didn’t bring those things? You don’t own a shovel? You didn’t even wear boots or gloves?

All day yesterday there were lots of neighbors helping neighbors, pushing and pulling and chains hooked up to other trucks that could pull them out. The Charger that we saw stuck on Saturday morning came back and got stuck again yesterday, but this time at the intersection at the top of the hill! Guess he didn’t learn the first time.

There have been no plows on our street yet, so the snow that has been packed down from all of the vehicle traffic yesterday is even more trecherous and icy today. Our mailbox may not survive the antics of the non-drivers today!  AJ called and said the major roads have been plowed and the interstate is dry, but I won’t be able to get up the hill and out of the neighborhood with my car. Guess I will have to walk if I need to go anywhere today.

I walked around a little in the backyard yesterday.  The snow was up to my knees, some places higher where it drifted.  I laid down and made a snow angel, but then I almost couldn't get back up.  It didn't help that I started laughing out loud at myself and my predicament.  I could imagine the story in the newpaper:  Woman found in her backyard, buried in the snow.  She tried to make an angel and then couldn't get up!   :-)

 

 

~

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Oh yeah!  No doubt about it.... we are going to have a White Christmas in Virginia this year!  This is not just light fluffy melt by tomorrow snow.  This is heavy, wet, snowman building, igloo-fort creating, honest to goodness snowball packing snow!

C'mon down Santa.  We are gonna be able to see your reindeer's tracks this year!

Woo Hoo!!!

{Picture happy dancing by two non-Virginians - a native New Yorker and a Nebraskan}
~

Our Blizzard of 2009

Friday, 6:00 pm - AJ gets home from work (I telecommuted). She heard that radio that there should be lots of snow, maybe a blizzard, starting tonight and getting worse tomorrow. She has to work tomorrow. Her one way commute is 50 miles. She calls our friends who live closer to her office and asks if she can stay overnight tomorrow if necessary. They say absolutely.

7:00 pm – After pizza for dinner, AJ packs up her sleeping bag, toiletries and her cute fuzzy blue snowman pajamas (they just make me want to hug her). Then she starts packing her snow pants, jacket, gloves, hat, neck warmer, ski socks. She realizes does not have any winter boots that are tall enough for deep snow. She takes my Salomon’s that I have only worn twice. She says they are very comfortable. She says she will buy me new boots when we go to visit my parents next week. I find my old boots in the back of the closet.

7:20 pm – We get in the hot tub. It has just started to snow on a windless night. White powdery fluff is balanced daintily on the Nadina’s thin leaves and it’s clusters of bright red berries. Tiny snowflakes fall silently and land on our heads, accumlating on top and making our hair wet. We stay out in the warm water a long time, talking about everything and nothing. We watch the curtain of snow fall gently in front of the streetlamp’s amber circle of downcast light. When we finally decide to get out, the towels that we spread on the ground in front of the tub are covered with snow; it is a cold shock to our feet as we jump out and scamper back into the warm basement.

9:30 pm – I go out onto the front porch and unplug the Christmas lights. Maybe an inch or three on the ground. Time for bed.

Saturday, 4:30 am – AJ gets up and looks out the window. More snow on the ground. No car tracks on the road.

4:40 am – I feed the boys (our cats) and clean out the litter box. I notice blood in Cloudy’s stool. Why does he have to do this during a blizzard?

5:30 am – We both go out and push the snow off her truck. Looks like about 6 inches so far. Across the street a car is sitting crossways in the middle of the intersection with it’s flashers on. It looks like it may have spun and bumped the stop sign. Nice car – is it a Charger? It is covered with snow. It may not look so nice if the other cars can’t stop when they are coming down the hill. I kiss AJ goodbye and she pulls out of the driveway, around the Charger, and up the hill. Her tracks are one of the first on the road. I watch her drive up the hill, then I start to shovel.

6:15 am – Tell me again why we wanted a long driveway… I am not even finished on one side when it starts filling in with snow – blowing it all back into the driveway where I just shoveled.

6:20 am – I give up shoveling for now. The weather reports predict 10 to 20 more inches. I am not going anywhere today with my car. I hope Cloudy is okay. I will call the Vet this morning to see what they think. Maybe we can take him to the emergency tomorrow if AJ can get home with the truck.

7:19 am – My Superhero made it to work. She said the backroads were not plowed and the snow was deep because of drifting. Lots of cars in ditches on I95, some stalled in the middle of the road, lots of sports cars and cars with rear wheel drive that can go no further. The interstates were plowed, but the snow had already drifted back into the road. She said she heard on the radio that I95 was closed about 15 miles south of us, due to a 50 car pileup in Carmel Church. The 4WD on her truck came in handy today. She even had a chance to stop for donuts - at least someone else made it to work! Not many other vehicles at her office yet. She is hoping postal management will tell them to just case the mail and not carry it out to the street. That would be 8 miles of walking in blizzard conditions, but Christmas is the worst time of year to not make deliveries. She says she will call.

It looks like the boys and I will have to deal with this blizzard alone.

From my kitchen window - 8 a.m.

Just the beginning.

~

AJ's Office Party

This will teach me that I should not complain about my office...

AJ’s union representative came around at her work today and told everyone in her section that management was allowing them to have the office Christmas party on Saturday during work hours. It will be a potluck, and anyone who wants to participate should bring something in.

The rep also informed them that the "party" will be during, and no longer than, their 10 minute break, which the entire section will take at 8:30 a.m..

AJ plans on bringing a donut.

Slugging and Bodysnatching

I never knew about slugging until I moved to Virginia. Slugging is hitchhiking in groups and business suits. The terminology is pretty simple – there are slugs (the riders) who stand in lines at designated locations waiting for a ride with a bodysnatcher. The bodysnatchers are the people who drive their cars and need 1 or 2 people to ride with them so they can meet the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) minimum person requirement. To ride in HOV lanes during rush hours - 6 a.m. – 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., you must have 3 persons in the vehicle. The lanes are separated by the rest of the traffic in I95, so once you get in the HOV lanes, you cannot get out until you reach a designated exit. And the lanes are heavily patrolled by the VA State Police and heavy fines are involved if you get stopped with less than 3 people in the vehicle during these hours. Not that people don’t risk it, but the cost and the time involved (if you get pulled over), is added incentive to pick up a slug. This differentiation of lanes and the inability to move in and out of the HOV lanes and the rest of the traffic is what makes the HOV lanes on I95 much more effective than other interstates where the HOV’s are located within the other normally traveled lanes. This is also what makes bodysnatching slugs for the trip up I95 more attractive to drivers.

Now, however, the state of Virginia wants to hire private companies to create create toll lanes to replace the HOV lanes. If you want to ride in these lanes you will have to pay a toll if you have less than 3 people in your vehicle; you will still have the option of riding free if you have 3 or more. No one is sure yet how this will effect slugging but of course it will depend, in large measure on how expensive the toll is. Time is money everywhere, and given a choice of sitting in a line to pick up a slug or being able to hop on the toll lanes without waiting will be no choice, given the right price, especially if employees are reimbursed by their employers.

If they aren’t reimbursed, I wonder if that will be considered a tax deductible employee expense?

Also, as an added complication, a few years ago if you bought a hybrid vehicle you received a special license plate that allowed you to ride in the HOV’s for free. That incentive stopped in June 2006, however, as long as you still own the hybrid, and the vehicle has the special HOV plates, you can still drive in the HOV lanes during the restricted hours with only 1 person. And a lot of people bought hybrids between 2000 and 2006 just for that reason. Once that policy stopped, the dealerships couldn’t give the hybrids away. I got a great deal on my Prius after I could no longer get the HOV plates. Of course that was all before gas prices shot way up and the recession (depression?) kicked into high gear.

But now one knows for sure if the hybrids will be allowed to travel for free with one person or if that policy will be changed. Again, I suspect the private companies will push for a change, especially since the volume of hybrids in the HOV’s causes these lanes to slow down considerably. But the HOV-plated hybrid owners have a strong lobby and although this free pass on HOV’s was supposed to stop in 2006, it has been extended by Virginia’s legislature several times, so who knows.

But if the hybrid option goes away, the HOV lanes will probably move rather quickly. The tolls lanes are supposed to adjust the price based upon the volume of traffic. Therefore, if there are not a lot of vehicles in those lanes, the toll cost will go down. If the lanes are congested the cost will go up. So you could argue the owners of the private toll lanes will prefer to have the hybrids with the free passes in their lanes since they will be able to increase the toll prices for the other drivers. Again, who knows how that will play out.

But I wonder where that will leave slugging. I used to slug, and I did it every day for quite a few years. I would probably still be commuting this way except the bad economy and high gas prices caused a lot more people to start slugging a couple years ago. The lines to catch a ride became too long for me and I could no long estimate what time I would be able to get to work. When I first started slugging I didn’t have to stand in line so long, but I started a dozen years ago when it wasn’t so popular. Another factor was that my employer started offering subsidies to take public transportation, like the bus or the subway. After the subsidies started, the buses started running more often because there were more riders. So a combination of time and less cost made slugging almost obsolete for me, but for some commuters on a limited budget without transportation subsidies from their employers, slugging is still their only option.

But not completely obsolete for me. There are still times when slugging is faster than the bus, especially if there is an accident on I95, or my bus is not operating it’s regular route because of a demonstration or a parade. Other times I just know the bus will be too crowded and I will probably not be able to get on it. This happens a lot the day before any holiday, or during bad weather, when everyone gets released early. During those times, slugging usually works out to be the better option. In fact there are many times that I have slugged when I didn’t have any other choice for getting home within a reasonable period of time. It has been a wonderful emergency plan B.

Now the toll lanes may change all that. Won’t it be ironic if, in an effort to help citizens ease their commute, Virginia, in effect, renders obsolete the one method of transportation that is, at times, the most reliable, and also the least costly for the most disadvantaged. I guess time will tell.

Going Green with a Red Tree

In her home, my coworker keeps her Christmas tree plugged in,colored lights burning brightly, all year long. She differentiates between the holiday and non-holiday season by moving the tree from one corner of her family room to the other.

I however feel that the most environmentally friendly option is to only display Christmas cheer over the holidays – so I have only agreed to allow a blinking red tinsel Christmas tree to adorn my desk between Black Friday and the day after New Year’s.

I must admit this Charlie Brown tree has grown on me. I suspect my office will look bare after New Years...not :-)

If you look closely you will see a gold strand of beads that were my sole contribution to the tree's decorations. That strand of plastic gold was my Mardi Gras necklace in February, then reused as a party necklace for a baby shower in August, and it is now being reused as Christmas Tree garland in December.

Reuse, recycle, rehabilitate. That's my motto.

Our Office Party

I laughed when I read in the newspaper that several businesses are scaling back on their holiday parties this year because of the economy, and instead of giving employees elaborate door prizes (such as flat screen tv’s) and renting party rooms at swanky restaurants and hotels, most businesses will just have catered events at their boss’s home with less expensive door prizes.

Although I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, (because I am so, so happy I have a job), someday I would like to work at a company that throws a catered holiday party complete with door prizes.

Then again, I am thinking maybe it would turn out to be one of those politically charged forced fun things and I wouldn’t like that too much after all.

But I needn't worry. It is just potluck at our office, sometimes in the hallway if the conference room is already reserved, with whatever food the staff decides to bring in. We used to collect money throughout the year by charging a quarter for a cup of coffee and use those funds to buy a ham and turkey, but we stopped doing that last year. I am not sure why or exactly when it stopped but I never liked how strong they made it anyway, so I would prefer to just chip in for the party at the end of the year.

We have the party during our lunch break, but management gives a couple extra hours that day for set up and clean up – so this year it will be between noon and 3. We also get to dress casual that day… no slinky holiday dresses with sequins for us.

Door prizes – hah! That’s funny.

And our holiday parties have a theme because apparently “holiday” is not enough, and it can’t be anything religious because of various legal restrictions and personal beliefs. So this year our theme is football tailgating and the party decorations, games, food, etc., will follow this theme. We also play 3 or 4 team games during the party.

Last year I think I developed a bit of a reputation for being a scrooge because I didn’t appreciate the musical bells playing “We wish you a Merry Christmas”over and over, every day, from Thanksgiving to New Years, outside my office and I suggested that maybe they should be turned down a tad. Actually I think I may have been misunderstood as saying “turn those damn bells off”. I really don’t recall my exact words, but I am pretty sure I said please.   However, after I made that comment, coworkers noticed that and I had never decorated my desk, nor did I volunteer to hang tinsel and garland in the hallway. I was summarily branded a grinch.

This year my officemate took pity on me and decided she would take it upon herself to soften my bah humbug reputation and bring in decorations for me.  When I started to protest she became adamant and said that I was going to decorate this year – Dammit! I decided it was probably best to go along. A blinking, red tinsel Christmas tree on the corner of my desk is quieter than the bells, I guess.

So this year, in an effort to show that I, too, could be a team player, I volunteered to create one of the games for the Holiday Tailgate Potluck (hope no one gets salmonella poisoning) party. I decided to modify the TV game show Deal or No Deal. I am going to design it so that all teams play, one at a time.  Each team chooses a captain who, after input from the fellow team members, chooses which of the boxes to open. Like the game on TV, at certain intervals the captain will be offered the opportunity to either take the deal of an amount offered by the “guy in the booth”, or keep on choosing boxes. Unlike TV, there will be 32 boxes (for 32 NFL teams) instead of 26 like on TV. The team with the highest score will win.

Initially I was thinking I would be the “guy in the booth” and offer the amounts that the teams could accept as their final deal instead of choosing more boxes. I seriously considered whether coming up with the number off the top of my head would be considered fair and impartial. Hmmm.

Maybe not fair to the others, I decided, but way more fun for me…

Hah!  I may enjoy this holiday festivities teamwork thing after all…

So does anyone know where I can find 32 gorgeous models willing to wear cute little cheerleader outfits and open shoe-boxes decorated with NFL football logos?

~

Changing Seasons

From my kitchen window this September I saw this:

This morning as I looked out I saw this:

Winter in Fredericksburg has arrived.

:-)

~

Please read and follow the memo

What is it with some people?

As I left the gym yesterday afternoon I was walking along the sidewalk and heard up ahead the long, loud bleats of a car horn.

This is in DC, and although it is a larger city, you don’t often hear a lot of long, loud horn honking. Sirens, yes, you hear them quite often, since convoys of dignitaries are shuttled up and down Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capital on a regular basis, but horn blaring is usually reserved for those who should get out of the way quickly, like me, when I am feeling lucky and occasionally j-walk.

As I continued walking up the street I noticed the driver that was laying on the horn was an older man driving a older model dark colored mid-sized car – a blah type of car like a Caprice or an Impala. He was honking at another car that was double parked on the road alongside him, with the double parked car’s right rear bumper next to the honking car’s left front bumper.

The double parked car was also driven by an older man, in an equally nondescript mid-sized vehicle. He was looking up into the rear view mirror, at the car honking behind him, but he wasn’t moving.

Apparently the driver next to the curb wanted the double parked driver to move forward but for some reason that driver refused to budge. Of course, the driver next to the curb could have backed up because there were 3 open parking spaces behind him, but I guess he wanted to make the point that the car beside him should move forward.

The honking continued until I walked down to the next block.

These cantankerous old coots apparently did not get the memo that during the holiday season we should try and count our blessings and cut each other some slack.

Geez!

~

Commuting and Plan B

When I ride the commuter bus in the morning I usually listen to my Ipod and take a nap. Sometimes, though, I get wrapped up into reading a book and forgo the nap. That was what I was doing this morning when a woman sat down beside me. I didn’t even need to glance to my left to know who it was, and I groaned inwardly.


The bus I ride does not have assigned seats, and since morning buses run about every 10 minutes I do not always catch the same bus or see the same people. But I do know some of the regular riders, and this woman has sat beside me before on four or five different occasions.


On a scale of 1 – 10 (with 1 being the best seatmate), she probably rates a 4 on my Commuter Bus Annoying Seatmate (CBAS) scale, but that is if I am taking a nap and listening to my Ipod. She is a 4 when I am napping, because although she will occasionally disturb me, it is not usually enough to interrupt my sleep for long. But if I am reading, she shoots up to an 8.


Why?


She exercises in her seat.


She doesn’t always do the same exercises. That is why her CBAS rating has a high and low range. Sometimes her exercises only consist of hand-clenching, or neck twisting or knee lifts, and usually it is only one type of exercise a day. So if she starts hand-clenching when she sits down, she will be doing that until she gets off the bus about 30 minutes later. Also, to be fair, she is not a large woman, and she seems to try her best to be careful about not bumping into the person sitting next to her while she performs her morning routine.


But this morning, out of the corner of my eye, I saw her exercise of the day involved her stomach and hip muscles; arching them out, and then relaxing back in, while making little puffing noises in-between. So it was arch out, puff-puff-puff, relax, puff… arch out, puff-puff-puff, relax, puff…and on and on, over and over.


I tried to focus on my reading, but after a few minutes I just couldn’t ignore it.


Damn.


I understand that multitasking is a necessity in a busy commuter’s world, and barring production of dangerous weapons, what a person does in the seat next to mine is none of my business. I try my best to be agreeable, especially since I have to ride the bus with these same people every day. Consequently, I would never ask her to stop exercising in her seat.


I figure it is my hang-up, and not hers, that I find a 50ish woman performing 30 minutes sessions of natural-childbirth-breathing-type exercises in the seat next to mine annoying.


So I stopped reading, put on my headphones, and took a nap.


At least I don’t have to sit next to her every morning.

~

Priceless privacy

When I was a teenager I used to think I wanted to be famous but now when I am older I know how much I value my privacy. I am thinking about this as I am listening to yet another news story (that is not really news) about Tiger Woods.

I wonder if he and his wife ever feel like they are in a prison. I know some people crave the attention and have no privacy issues, like most actors and actresses, but I am not sure that would be true for an athlete, especially such an exceptional athlete in a sport where mental focus may be more important, or at least just as important, as athletic ability. I am sure he wants to be the best and respected for his ability, but it doesn’t have to follow that he would want everyone to watch his every move once he is off the playing field.

What kind of life would you have if you had all of the money in the world but very little privacy with respect to your personal life. If you have an argument with your wife, the public demands that they be informed.  Or maybe it really wasn’t an argument, but the public wants to think you had an argument because no one is allowed to have a perfect life, right? And maybe it was a small argument that could be easily resolved between you and your wife the next day, but you lost your temper the night before, and you hit the gas a little too hard and had a minor accident, and although you can pay for all damages with ease, the press keeps the incident alive. The rumors start because of course if no one fills in the blanks the media will just make up an imaginary story, which causes more stress between you and your wife. Wouldn’t you just want to escape from it all? But you can’t, ever, because to do that you would have to give up golf, which is your life, and what makes you happy. It is what makes you, you. And besides, even if you decided you were never going to play again, this would be even more fodder for the press, which you wouldn’t want to talk about, which would lead to more invented facts, and more stress.

What kind of life would you have if you can’t even walk around the block in your neighborhood, by yourself, without the fear of being accosted, by the media or some crazy stalker, not to mention your concern for your family’s personal safety.

And then I think about Susan Boyle, the 48 year old frumpy woman from Britain’s Got Talent (who wouldn't even be allowed to audition on American Idol because she is too old), who surprised everyone in the audience with her ability to sing, but didn’t win the contest. Did she really know what she was getting into when she stepped onto the stage that night. Should anyone be surprised that she got admitted into a hospital after having a mental breakdown. She explains that it was exhaustion. More than likely it was because her reaction to losing the contest and all of the news reporters’ inane questions about the contest and her second place finish finally made her lose her cool. And losing your cool is not allowed once you are in the public spotlight. Whereas a week before she sang I Dream A Dream she could rail and rant and no one stopped to notice, now her every facial expression has the potential of drawing the wrath of a fickle public.

How would you ever learn to be politically correct all of the time. Tiger Woods has it a little easier, perhaps, since he has been a phenomenon since he was a child golfer. So he has had time to adapt. But I think about Susan Boyle and how much harder it has to be for someone who has lived, up until now, without such restrictions.

I bought her album last weekend, and I really like it. But the song I like the most on the album is named Who I was Born to Be.

Who I was Born to Be:

When I was a child
I could see the wind in the trees
and I heard a song in the breeze
it was there, singing out my name

But I am not a girl
I have known the taste of defeat
and I have finally grown to believe
it will all come around again

And though I may not
know the answers
I can finally say I am free
And if the questions
led me here, then
I am who I was born to be

And so here am I
Open arms and ready to stand
I've got the world in my hands
And it feels like my turn to fly

When I was a child
there were flowers that bloomed in the night
Unafraid to take in the light
Unashamed to have braved the dark

I am who I was born to be
I am who I was born to be.


I wish her the best. Her story has been inspirational and moving. I have no doubt that someday her life will be a great movie.

I hope she always believes that this is who she was born to be.

Just a miscommunication

Yesterday, on the front page of my local newspaper, I read that my county government recently found several million dollars that had been sitting in it’s bank account, unaccounted for, since 2007! Apparently, in November 2007, the school system transferred payroll funds that were unspent back to the county government, but the county government never recorded them as received. So when the country Treasurer, earlier this year, said the school had this money, the school system said they didn’t.

So the country hired an auditor to look at the books, and guess what? The money was sitting in the bank, unaccounted for.

Reading further, the article explained that after this audit, all parties agreed that this situation was no one’s fault; it was just a miscommunication.

Part of the explanation for the unaccounted funds was because the county government and the school system have the same bank account but separate accounting records. This practice of having one bank account is common in Virginia, since it helps to lower bank fees and earn higher interest rates, the article explained.

The miscommunication occurred when the school system recorded a $6.2M transfer back to the county on their books, but the county refused to record the income transaction on their side, because county government officials thought this was a payroll accounting error. So the $6.2M transfer was reflected as an expense in the school system’s books, but was never recorded as income in the county government’s books. Also, the article explained, in 2007 the county government and the school system had separate audits, so neither auditing firm was aware of the missing side of the transaction.

Just a miscommunication?

And in 2008, and now in 2009, there have been layoff’s and hiring freezes in our county schools.

Just a miscommunication?

And the county saved a few bucks in bank fees and earned a few dollars in extra interest earnings because there was only one bank account, but it also had three (expensive?) audits instead of one. And the net effect of those transactions… well, no one is saying.

And how is it that a county government cannot negotiate a better deal with the bank for lower bank fees and higher interest rates. If the funds are in one account or two, they would still be in a single bank. I bet if the county decided to send some of the funds to a different account at another bank, the bank would reconsider. But maybe no one has ever asked the bank to reconsider.

Just a miscommunication?

And the missing funds were not discovered until the summer of 2009, when the County Treasurer said the school had $5.6M in surplus funds “that were being carried on the county’s books because of a school system payroll accounting error.

So let’s think about this for a minute.

$6.2M was recorded by the school as an expense in 2007. The school gave that money back to the county. How did $6.2 get reduced to $5.6 in 2009? Doesn’t that mean that either the school system and/or the county government overspent their budget by $600K?

Does the county government reconcile it’s bank account? They only have one, after all. It shouldn’t be that difficult. But then again, how do you reconcile when you are only responsible for some of the bank activity.


Don’t the auditors for the school system and the county government get a list of transfers to and from each other’s books and reconcile those transfers? Was it a case where the auditors assumed such a large transaction could not have been recorded incorrectly?

Just a miscommunication?


Miscommunication. According to Dictionary.com, the definition of this word is to communicate mistakenly, unclearly, or inadequately.

I think our county government has redefined miscommunication to mean a politically correct way for all parties to avoid responsibility and accountability.

I bet there will be no miscommunication, though, if I forget to pay my personal property taxes in December.

Giving Thanks

On eve of the first Thanksgiving holiday of my new blog, I find that writing about those things I am most thankful for is the easiest entry I have tackled so far.


Although my list is long, the majority of my thankfulness extends to the love I receive, every day, from AJ. The best decision I ever made in my life was when I decided to put aside my shyness, turn around, walk back to where she was sitting and introduce myself to her. I always look back in wonder at the first time we met; we were both at a point of time in our lives that allowed us to be together with less drama than very likely would have ensued if we met at any other time. Although it seems like only yesterday, many years have passed quickly since then. I am so very thankful I decided to turn around.


I am also thankful for all of the love I receive from my family, her family, and all of our friends.  I will never be able to say enough about all of the emotional support I receive from them.



I am thankful for my job, because although it is not perfect (like most jobs, I suspect), the people I work with are some of my closest friends. I am also thankful for technology, because today I could telecommute from home and I didn’t have to fight the traffic out of DC, down I-95, on probably the worst travel day of the year.


I am thankful for our two cats, who are both getting older, right along with us, but they both still seem to be enjoying life, and they occasionally honor us with their attention, when they have time. :-)


I am thankful for my good health (sore shoulder notwithstanding). The older I get, the more I appreciate that incredible gift.


I am thankful, too, that I was born in the United States. I am thankful I was born at a time in this country when females are allowed to vote, allowed to work in almost any profession, allowed to have children (or not), and raise them with a husband or wife/partner or by herself, and is free to live with a man, a woman, or by herself, as she prefers.


And I am thankful that I am allowed to write this blog, without government interference, or editing by anyone else.


And finally I am thankful to God, who created everything in my world, and allowed me, with all my faults, to live in it and enjoy it. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Frozen, not frigid

I have a pain in my upper arm that has been interrupting my sleep. My friends diagnosed me as having frozen shoulder. I had never heard of this but after researching it on the internet it does sound similar to my condition. Fortunately, my symptoms are much milder than those described by other sufferers on the websites. I only have problems lifting my right arm. Some of these people have difficulty reaching behind their backs, which causes all kinds of difficulties in the bathroom. I guess I am lucky I don’t have that problem. According to these online sources this type of condition will eventually heal itself after about 2 years. During those 2 years, stretching exercises and pain medication help, unless you are in a hurry or in too much pain, in which case cortisone shots and/or surgery are options.


From what I read, this type of injury is more common in women, especially as they age, and it is caused, sometimes, by how a person sleeps. I myself like to sleep (or used to before this happened), with my forearm under my pillow and my head. I have slept this way all of my life and it is a very hard habit to break. Nowadays, if I sleep like this on my right side, I will wake up in the middle of the night with a throbbing pain I feel deep inside the upper arm, from the shoulder to the elbow. And the elbow gets this funny, tingly feeling when I try to pull my arm out from underneath my pillow. Then for the rest of the night I can't even sleep on that arm at all. Since I rarely sleep on my back or my stomach, this restriction is really interrupting a good night's sleep.


But I am not convinced that it is the sleeping position that started this problem. I think that may aggravate it, but I think the initial injury was caused by the chest press machine I used at the gym at the beginning of the summer. I think I had a little too much weight on the machine one day. I felt the twinge, which was more than a twinge, but I ignored it at the time. That was a bad idea. But then I continued to use that machine with the same weight a couple times after that, until one time I really felt something sharp in my shoulder and upper arm and I couldn’t lift the bar anymore.


Sometimes I don’t know what in the heck I am thinking.


But I didn't have trouble sleeping on my side until a few weeks ago, which is a couple months after I have started carrying a laptop backpack to work. A backpack is a lot easier to get on and off the bus, but it is very heavy, especially when it is loaded down with an 8 lb laptop and battery pack, my lunch, purse, 2 pairs of glasses, umbrella, a eReader, an Ipod, cell phone, 2 sets of keys (office and car), workout clothes (not shoes, thank goodness), maps and bus schedules, sunglasses, and, when I remember, the newspaper.


And I sling this all over my right shoulder when I get off the bus. I do wear it on my back eventually, but I start by putting it on my right shoulder first. I don’t want to know how much it weighs because if I knew that it would probably make the backpack feel heavier.


I know I need to go to a doctor to have an official diagnosis, but I also suspect that eventually I will have to figure out an alternative to the backpack, load less weight on the chest press, and get used to a new sleeping position.


Just my body’s way of reminding me that age has caught up with me, I guess.

Bricks and The Blade

Yesterday I received an email from Whitman Walker Clinic, a charitable organization that provides health care and support services to the LGBT community in DC, VA and MD, and I was disheartened to learn that this informational newsletter email would no longer be sent to subscribers since the coordinator at WWC was leaving to go back to school and apparently no one else was going to fill her position.

Then, at the end of that email there was a note that the Washington Blade, which has been the free newspaper for the LGBT community in Washington, DC for over 40 years had stopped publication.

Whaaat!!

How did I miss that! I felt like I was dealt a double whammy in one email!

On Monday morning, Nov 16th, 2009, the Blade employees arrived for work and were told to pack up and be out by midday. The paper’s parent company Windows Media, had apparently been having financial problems for some time (like many newspapers) and the Blade employees knew at least since last summer (when they put in a bid to buy the newspaper) that the newspaper was in trouble. But no action had been taken on their offer to buy and on Monday they were told they no longer had jobs and that all photographs, writings and materials pertaining to newspapers published through Windows Media were under control of the bankruptcy court.

So the last paper published by the Washington Blade was dated November 13, 2009, one month after it’s 40th year anniversary.

And AJ and I were oblivious to this when she picked a Blade up last Saturday at a Borders bookstore in Woodbridge, VA. And we have it, here at home, sitting on the coffee table in the living room. We don’t always pick up a Blade, because we can never find one in the bookstores here in Fredericksburg. If they were distributed around here, they were always well hidden. So we either had to make a special trip “up north” or, more likely, I would look at it online.

But I liked looking at the Blade in newspaper form, whenever I found one. Some people I spoke to this weekend said they didn’t like the new format or the way the Blade started covering more national rather than local news. Others said hard-copy newspapers aren’t so important anymore, since there are many other online choices available now for information pertaining to the LGBT community.

But I liked that the Blade covered national and local events. I liked the “one stop” reading. And I also liked that hard-copy advertisers were willing to openly support the LGBT community. I find online advertisements to be not only annoying, but controlling and privacy invading. If I select an ad online I am either directed to a totally different website, and/or cookies are installed on my hard drive or, as generally occurs with my older laptop, the screen completely freezes up because I refuse to install the latest Java software or who knows what. Or, even worse, I could accidentally click on a malicious website and get a virus. Usually, though, I just get annoyed because I can never seem to get back to what I am reading.

A newspaper doesn’t track what advertisement you circle with a pencil, or where your eye lingers, or what page you fold over so that you can return to read it later. I know I am old fashioned, and I know anyone can find out anything about anyone if they try hard enough, but I just don’t think it is any of their business which advertisements I am interested in. Maybe I am just more concerned about privacy than most internet users.

But the other thing about hard-copy advertising is that everyone can see the businesses that support the LGBT community, not just the individuals who choose to look at a particular website. Just the act of allowing a hard-copy newspaper, such as the Blade, to be available to the public inside a “brick and mortar” establishment says a lot about the management in that establishment and, more importantly, the surrounding community where that establishment is located. So while a Borders bookstore in Fredericksburg, VA may not allow free distribution of the Blade inside it’s walls because it isn’t “appropriate” for the community, a Borders in Charlottesville or Woodbridge, VA will. Online websites cater to those individuals that choose to look at that website, but brick and mortar establishments cater to the local community.

But the good news, for me anyway, is that the fired employees of the Blade have gotten together to publish a new free weekly newspaper called the DC Agenda and last week they created a website to collect money for virtual bricks that they could use to publish that newspaper. And they have a online version too.

I am not so sure I am thrilled with the new name, but I really didn’t think the Blade was that inspiring either since it always sounded kind of violent. But that is just me.

So I can’t do anything about the loss of the WWC newsletter email, but I can help a little with the newspaper. So I gave up some of my privacy and donated, with the hope that someday more communities will be willing to accept a hard-copy LGBT newspaper, whatever the name, in their local bookstore. I hope it succeeds.

Fall foliage and open houses

Last Sunday was such a pretty day and the leaves on the trees were reaching their peak, so we decided to go for a drive.  I saw in the paper that a local builder was holding an open house for an environmentally green home before the drywall was hung, so people could see how the house was being constructed in an energy efficient way.  There were a lot of other people who are interested in green homes, apparently, since there were a lot of people walking around inside.  We listened in on some of the conversations the builder was having with some of the other couples and learned quite a bit.  We didn't talk to any of the salesmen or builders, though, since they did not appear to be very interested in two women by themselves.  But they had good coffee and cookies, and we learned a few things and got some pamphlets to read.  After looking at that house, though, I know I want the front of our house to face the north if the solar panels have to be on the south side of the roof.  I also liked the tankless hot water heater. 

Then we decided to go to downtown Fredericksburg for a walk and take pictures.  We both love looking at the old houses in town and in the spring and fall Fredericksburg is especially colorful.  While we were walking around we noticed that one of the historic homes was for sale and was having an open house.  The plaque on the front of the house said it was built in 1837.  We decided to look inside.

I always feel transported to another time when I go into old houses.  This particular house had the kitchen renovated with granite countertops, tile floor and dark wood cabinets, but the bathrooms probably had not been updated since they had electricity and plumbing installed.  The wooden floors, trim and stairway to the second floor all appeared original from when the house was built in the 1800's.   The walls were plaster but the colors that they had been painted were soft and soothing.  The windows appeared to be historical flat glass.  Three bedrooms and two bathrooms were upstairs.  It was a long narrow house.  It had a basement, which was not too creepy considering how old the house was.  It had a little porch in back and a cute little yard.  It also had a detached two car garage which was shared with the neighbor next door. That would be interesting if you didn't get along well with your neighbor.

It was interesting and fun to walk through, but I don't know how comfortable I would have felt after dark.  I don't necessarily believe in ghosts, but older houses always make me feel like there is a presence, (not necessarily good or bad), but something within the structure.  It is hard to explain, but I don't get a similar feeling with newer houses.

Anyway, there were a lot of people going through that house too, so I am sure it will sell quickly.  We walked around some more and I took a lot of pictures of downtown.  Here are a few:

And then when we finished we went to our favorite coffee shop.  I had a cappucino and AJ had a cafe mocha.

We sat outside the coffee shop and sipped our drinks and watched the people walking by.  There were a lot of people out enjoying the weather like us, and many people walking their dogs.  We decided it was perfect fall day.

A little motivation please?

Two weeks on vacation and no gym and I feel like a blob.  Last night I went downstairs to use my old Nordic Track.  Just a couple weeks ago I could ski 45 minutes with no problem, but last night I felt exhausted after 10 minutes.  My leg and back muscles felt like jelly. I didn't think I had been that bad on vacation.  It sure seemed like we did a lot of walking all over Ptown.  Apparently I didn't walk as much as I thought. 


I read in the paper today that the Airforce will be implementing new physical fitness standards standards for it's airmen and (airwomen, airpersons?) on Jan 1.  


For a 40-49 year old, the minimum standards will require a woman to run at least 1.5 miles in 18:14 minutes, perform 11 push-ups and 24 crunches in 1 minute and have an abdominal circumference of no more than 35.5 inches.


Hmmm.


For the same age range the new maximum standards require that a woman must run 1.5 miles in at least 11:22 minutes, have a abdominal circumference of no more than 31.5 inches, and perform at least 38 pushups and 41 crunches in 1 minute.

I think this weekend I will take a PT test and see how well I do.  Maybe retesting once a week will help motivate me to get back into shape.    

Back to reality

Last week we were in Provincetown, MA for vacation celebrating our 19 year anniversary and also the 25th Anniversary of Women's Week.  This is the second time we have vacationed in Cape Cod.  The first time was about 13 years ago, but we didn't  go there during a designated women's week.  Apparently there are 5 a year.  Who knew? Anyway, we were really looking forward to this trip and we had a great time.


We enjoyed the weather at the beginning of the week, but left 1/2 day early because of the rain and wind at the end of the week.  We misjudged what to bring to wear...  it was colder than we thought it would be, so we had to buy gloves, ear muffs and a jacket for AJ while we were there.  And the traffic getting off the the cape was not much fun, but we left a 5 p.m. and drove until we got home 12 hours later.  Fortunately we avoided a lot of traffic, but we probably won't be doing that again.  We probably should have stopped at midnight and stayed overnight since we were both really tired.

The reason we planned the trip to Ptown during that particular week in the first place was because AJ wanted to meet several of the authors of some of her favorite books, so while we were there we went to several book signings and readings. We both find it fascinating how different the authors are than how we imagine them to be when we read their books.   


We also went whale watching one day and saw humpback whales, mothers and their calves, feeding.  They were so close to the boat it seemed like we could reach down and touch them.  And there were so many... at one point I counted 8, and they were all around the boat.  One of the calves breached behind the boat, which made me a little nervous since I was wondering if they would ever try doing that closer and hit the boat.  I guess I am a worrier, because no one else seemed to think this was likely.  I tried to take pictures, but I didn't get very good ones.  The digital camera was so slow.  I wish I had brought my old 35mm film camera. 



A couple days later we went out on a schooner for a couple hours.  The captain of the boat said that was his last sail for the year since bad weather was expected later in the week.  I don't remember ever sailing before.  I thought the most interesting part was when the captain gave directions to his crew.  I couldn't understand a word of it.  Once the sails were hoisted and the wind was pulling us along it was all so quiet and peaceful.  I was sorry when we started turning back towards shore.  I am wondering now if I would enjoy sailing lessons. 


Anyway, 10 days away from home and things sure do pile up.  Lots of catching up for me around here and at work.   I guess that is the worst thing about taking a vacation.  But it won't stop me from planning the next one!

Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009.

Maybe, on Tuesday, there will be a bill introduced to allow same sex couples to wed in Washington, DC.  

If that happens, it is expected to have the city council's support and the mayor's approval and is also expected to pass into law easily.  Of course Congress could overturn it.  Our elected representatives really should be busy enough without poking their noses into something that is none of their business.  Isn't it bad enough that they do not allow the people of DC to have a voting representative?

Besides, don't they already have enough on their plates?



But maybe they will leave it alone. 


And my arguments for moving to DC are getting better and better...


Good Luck, DC!

For AJ - For Us

On 19


I got you when I met you,
And you got me after awhile.


And soon you were lifting me,
and carrying me into my dreams.


and the years sped by.


I got you girl, and you got me.


For. Ever.


 ~Love, Murray

Cannonball bike ride

The bike ride yesterday was absolutely wonderful.  We were kind of nervous since it rained all night Saturday and didn't stop until about 5 a.m. Sunday morning, but it was just misting by the time we arrived at the park to sign in for the race.  That was about 7 a.m..  We met up with our friends and actually started riding around 7:45.  It was cool and foggy at the start, but after we started riding we appreciated the cooler weather.  There was a rest stop after the first 13 miles.  The next 13 miles was a little more difficult.... a few more of those rolling hills but nothing we couldn't handle.  The scenery was wonderful;  lots of farms with horses, cattle and sheep, old country houses and new estate homes, open pastures and some wooded areas.  The scenery really made the ride go faster.  We have lived in this area for about 7 years, but never went on some of these back roads.  Good thing the route was well marked because otherwise we would have been lost.

AJ really liked her new bike.  This was the first time she had ridden for an extended distance and she was really coasting.  I was a little slower, and I may have slowed everyone else down, but no one complained.  After our 2nd rest stop we were on the way back to the park and the end of the ride.  It took us about 3 hours from start to finish and by the time we got back to the parking lot the sun was out and it was a beautiful day.  We all kind of wished we had chosen the 60 mile route.  Maybe next time we will try it if we are in a little bit better shape.  None of us had ridden very much since our trip to NYC, but we all agreed this ride was much more fun.  

We all went to brunch and after, for dessert, AJ and I led the way to Carls Ice Cream. Carls has been selling soft serve homemade ice cream dispensed from Electro Freeze machines here in Fredericksburg since 1947.  According to Wikipedia, this ice-cream stand, with its Art Moderne architectural facade and walk-up window, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2005.  Carls is probably the most popular spot in Fredericksburg on warm sunny days during the summer, but it wasn't very busy yesterday, so we didn't have to wait in line.  My chocolate cone tasted soooo good!

Yesterday was such a fun day, but the ironic thing about it was that we were all dreading it... thinking to ourselves that we would rather not ride in the rain and didn't think we would have a good time.  But since none of us wanted to let the other down we all showed up.  And it turned out to be a fantastic day.  Good for us!   

Gearing up to ride

Tomorrow is our bike ride.  It is supposed to be on gentle rolling hills through the Virginia countryside.  We have promised our friends that we will be there at 7 a.m.  No backing out now.  The weather forecast is for a high of 59 degrees with a 30% chance of rain in the morning.  I sure hope we are in the lucky 70%. Fortunately it is supposed to clear off by 10 a.m. and get up to 70 degrees by noon.  That sounds so much better than the 43 mile bike ride we went on in NYC in the spring of this year. 

That was the first time we ever tried going on an organized bike ride, and it rained all day.  Then, after we finished riding, we had to wait about an hour in line with thousands of other bike riders (30,000 entered the ride that day), to take the Staten Island ferry back to Manhattan.  We were all shivering on that ferry ride back.  My entire lower body, especially my hips, really started cramping up.  I had never had that happen before, but then again, I don't remember ever being that cold and miserable without being able to do anything about it, like get inside or build a fire or walk around.  I really couldn't even jog in place because my feet were so numb.  And at times the rain really poured down hard and we were soaked.  But I kept looking around me at all of the people that had ridden with me, and everyone else looked miserable too.  And even though I only knew AJ and a couple other friends, everyone else seemed friendly and we all commiserated about how cold we were and what we planned to do to warm up when we got back home.  And many of them had a lot farther to go than we did, because we were staying in a hotel near where the ferry would drop us off and they had to get into their cars or on the subway and continue for who knows how much further.  Even more incredible, many of them were in shorts and tee shirts!  I was so thankful we had worn jackets and rain pants.  Looking back, it was an incredible experience, and I am glad we participated, but I am not so sure I would ever want to try that particular ride again.

Tomorrow we may get wet, and we may get a little cold, but at least we will not have to wait in line for an hour in the rain after we have ridden for 43 miles.  This is going to be my motivation tomorrow if I wake up and look outside and see that it is raining. 

I will know it can only get better, and it could be much worse.

Heck, tomorrow should be a breeze!

Tree planting

Today the temperature and the humidity made it feel like an early fall day.  I am not much of a summer person.  I sunburn too easily, I am not much of a swimmer, and I don't like hot and muggy weather.  No, I look forward to fall.  So for me, today was just perfect.  And since it was such a nice day, and because fall is the best time to plant trees, we decided to plant our two white pine trees that I have been growing from seedlings in pots for the past 5 years.


I got these trees for free when my parents and I went to a fall festival at a farm near our house in 2004.  The festival turned out to be a bust... not much to it, but they were handing out free pine seedlings and trying to get people to plant them in their yard.  I got three. 


They were tiny little plants.  Just a little bare root and a little wispy little green ball of pine needles at the top of each.  I knew if I planted them in the ground they would probably get run over accidentally with the lawn mower.  So I put all three in separate pots and put them out on the deck.  Only 2 survived over the first winter.  I transplanted them the next year into bigger pots.  By the spring of the third year they looked like this:

They did good in the pots over the winters.  And last May they both survived a tornado and the windows of the sunroom landing on them.   They are the plants in the brown pots at the bottom of the deck.

The tree in the pot at the bottom of the picture was completely bent over.  I thought it was a goner. 

But they both survived and lived over another winter, and this May they both looked very healthy, even if every once in awhile I would find more sunroom window glass sticking out of the soil in their pots. 

But this summer they had seemed to have had a growth spurt, and their pine needles were starting to turn brown, so I figured it was either time to transplant them to a new pot, or move them to their permanent place in the yard.  Since I didn't want to have to move a much bigger pot around the deck, I decided they were big enough (about 4 feet tall) to plant in the ground.

 
We decided to plant them down the hill from the sunroom.  It is supposed to rain this week, so that will be excellent to help them get established.  They should have more than enough time before winter sets in to get their roots worked into the new soil. 

Good Luck, little trees!

Planning the future

My mother called with some bad news last weekend. My sister-in-law's sister died in a car accident last Sunday. I only met her a couple times, at weddings and funerals, so I didn't know her well at all, but she was only 38, and it really unsettled me and I felt bad for my sister-in-law and her relatives.


Then Patrick Swayze died, and of course I didn't know him either, but I grew up watching his movies and he seemed like a nice guy. At the same time I started listening to an audible book named Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder, which is a story about a refugee named Deo from Burundi who immigrates to New York City to escape the civil war and genocide in his country and neighboring Rwanda. I haven’t finished the book yet, but so far it is a very good, but so sad, especially since it is based on a true story. All of this seemed to be piling up in my mind and reinforcing the unpredictability and seeming unfairness of life. It also reinforced how little control we have, no matter our circumstances or conditions.


Even though I have know these things, I am rarely forced to think about them or face the reality that all of the planning in the world will not change fate. By nature I am a planner. Sometimes I delude myself into thinking that if I do this or that I will be able to control my future. I forget that in life all planning must be flexible and control is an illusion.


So I had a few sleepless nights thinking too hard, and a few long days when I felt sluggish and cranky from not enough sleep. I kept thinking about alternative plans depending on future circumstances. I do this sometimes and I can make myself crazy, usually because at times like this my mind tends to focus on possible bad situations, forgetting that good things will happen along the way, too. But I finally got around to happier thoughts and I feel better now.


This Sunday we are planning on going on a bike ride in the county park near home. We need to go a couple times this week to get ready for a 35 mile bike ride that we agreed to do with a friend. This ride is sponsored by a bike riding club that we joined a few months ago. We joined, but never found time to go on any of the rides, so we decided that this would be a good one to try. Of course that was a couple months ago and we had planned (that planning thing again) on riding more during the summer to prepare. The ride is on 9/27. 9 days away. We have time…

Vacation highlights

Today is the first day back to school for many kids in our area.  It is also the day after Labor Day.  But, for us, it is the day after our vacation. 
 

It was raining this morning as we drove to work, and it is expected to rain for the rest of the week.  It was really dreary this morning, and it made me appreciate the wonderful weather we had last week.

AJ was on vacation all last week, but I had to work Monday through Wednesday.  That was okay though, since she got a chance to get the house pressure-washed and the garage reorganized.  She built a lot of shelves using 2X4’s and black plastic connectors and got everything up off the ground.  It looks great.  This is something she has wanted to do for several years, but never seemed to have the time.  Last month we organized the basement using the same type of shelves, and that was something we had been putting off for several years, too. 

On Wednesday, after I finished working, we both started mowing and weed-eating the yard, so that on Thursday, when I started vacation, we would have time to paint the cement foundation on the house.  The foundation walls have needed paint since last spring but the main reason we never got around to it was because we knew we wanted to get the house washed first. 

So last week we finished quite a few outstanding projects around the house.  Yeah! 

On Friday we left the house at 10 a.m. to go camping at Belle Isle State Park in the Northern Neck of the Rappahanock River in Virginia. The camping area in this park has been open only a couple years, so all of the facilities are in excellent condition.  The park has 7 miles of shoreline, with access to the Rappahanock and Mulberry and Deep Creeks.  We camped at this park once this year already.  Last time we went was in July.  We were at the park and had the popup camper all set up by 2:30 p.m. and we stayed until Monday afternoon.  It only rained once the whole weekend, but that was right after we closed the camper up on Monday and were getting ready to leave, so it was perfect timing. 

The first night we camped by ourselves, but the second day several friends came to join us.  It was cool enough at night to enjoy a nice fire every night, but there seemed to be many more mosquitoes and other biting insects this time compared to July.   They had a feast on me until I started spraying on the smelly insect repellent.  I always wait until the last minute to spray this on, since I really don’t like it.  But the insects usually convince me, and once I put it on the first time, I don’t care too much about putting it on again.  And the smoke from the campfire helped keep them away at night.  For the fire we used charcoal as a starter and some of the leftover 2X4 pieces from AJ’s shelves, which was good since we would have just thrown these small pieces away otherwise.

We did a lot of walking and bike riding around the park and birdwatching – there were many Osprey hunting for fish on the river.  Next time I think we will rent a boat, but we were kind of lazy this weekend.  And of course we did a lot of eating, because what is camping without grilled burgers, hot dogs, baked beans and potato salad.  We also played board games, like Rummikub.  And of course I took a lot of pictures, too.

All in all it was very relaxing.  I did have one fright though, after I took a shower at the ladies restroom late at night on Saturday.  I had gotten dressed, but my hair, although toweled dry, was still wet after I left the shower room.  AJ was washing her hands in the sink.  I went into the bathroom stall and just as I sat down to use the toilet something landed hard on the top of my head.  I had no idea what it could be but when I reached up and felt the top of my head.  Even though my hair was wet it felt like there was something squishy on top and it was moving!!  I yelled “Oh Shit!” and then it fell off my head onto my right knee.  It was light yellow with green around the edges and I yelled “Oh shit!” again.  I admit my verbal skills are very limited when I am scared.  I would have run, but I was in the stall with my pants down and the stall door was closed.  Anyway, whatever it was that landed on my leg soon jumped off.   Then I realized it was a tree frog which had changed color to match the yellow walls of the bathroom.  He was starting to change back to green.  He was about an inch long and actually kind of cute once I figured out what he was.  But AJ, which was standing out by the sink when I started freaking out, had no idea what was going on in my stall, so she kept yelling “What?”  “What’s wrong?”  Not only that, but AJ said an older woman, who we don’t think understood English, happened to come into the bathroom just when the frog first hit my head, and I started yelling, so I scared her, too!  After it was all over it was actually quite funny, but I still don’t think the older woman ever realized what happened because I have no idea where the frog went so I could show her, and she didn’t wait around for an explanation.

Of course you better believe I made sure to check the wall above my head every time I went to use the bathroom for the rest of the weekend!

And here are some more pictures...

Weekend at the Falls

AJ and I left on Thursday, bound for Niagara Falls. It was about a 9 hour drive, but we timed it almost perfectly to meet my parents at the hotel (they had taken the train). They had been to the falls a couple times in the past and had wanted to make this trip with us for several years, but things kept coming up. Finally this year we made it.

We stayed within blocks of the falls on the Canadian side in Ontario. This area, of course, is crowded and very touristy, but we could walk to everything and didn’t have to waste a lot of time finding places to park. Even with all the people, we didn’t ever have to wait in long lines. My parent’s last trip had been quite a few years ago, and since that time a new casino had been built and several new hotels. None of us enjoy gambling, but the newest casino had restaurants, shopping and outside terraces with gorgeous views of the falls. There were several outdoor concerts while we were there, along with fireworks on Friday. Even though there are 2 casinos, the area seemed more family oriented with lots of things for kids to do. There was also a bus called the people-mover that transported tourists between various attractions, which is what my parents did when they visited the last time. Fortunately we had the car.

On Friday we decided to tour the surrounding area by car. We left Niagara Falls, and drove along River Road, headed for a nearby town called Niagara on the Lake. All along this road there was a paved bike trail, and many different wineries. I think I counted at least 7, maybe more. I wish we had had more time to investigate them. There was also a botanical garden, butterfly conservatory, gondola rides over the river, river rapid boat rides, etc. There really was a lot to do that AJ and I have enjoyed, but my parents were not up for so much physical exertion, and we were only staying over the weekend. So we drove to Niagara on the Lake, a cute little town, looked around a little and then did some souvenir shopping and picture taking.

On Saturday we walked around and looked some more at the falls, ate good food, visited with each other and laughed a lot. Most of all, Niagara Falls was a wonderful place for sitting on benches and in outdoor cafes and people watching. To be honest, it really was much nicer than I expected. I was amazed at how close you could get to the falls and I took a lot of pictures. On the last day we saw a rainbow over the tour boat as it was nearing the Horseshoe Falls. I guess this is a fairly common occurrence, but I am glad I got to take a picture anyway.

Sunday came too fast. In the morning, we dropped my parents off at the train and then drove 9 hours back home. We made some good memories this weekend and have lots of pictures to help us remember.

Weekend commuting

Last night we went to a dinner theater in Alexandria, VA called the Birchmere to see the Queer Queens of Comedy. This is the 2nd year for this show at the Birchmere, but the first time AJ and I have ever attended. If you have never seen this show I would recommend it. The comedians for our show were Poppy Chaplin, Julie Goldman and Vickie Shaw. All three comedians were hilarious. Julie Goldman explaining her trip to get fitted for a bra at Victoria’s Secret and Vickie Shaw’s stories about her granddaughter and her partner, Sgt Patch, were the funniest parts, I thought.

I am glad we went, but if this show hadn’t been a surprise for a dear friend's birthday, I don’t know if we would have made the trek. We have gotten into quite a rut on weekends, just hanging around the house and being lazy, and I know we should try and do more and seize the day, as the Marine’s say, but sometimes it seems to take so much effort.

Take this show in Alexandria, for example. Even with the show starting at 7:30 p.m., AJ would never be able to come home after work, shower and change, and then be able to travel back north to Alexandria to arrive in time… and that is assuming traffic cooperates… a big, big, big if.

So if we want to ride to and from the show together in one car, I have to get up early Saturday morning and drive AJ to work, (about an hour), drop her off, come back home (another hour), run normal weekend errands, return to pick AJ up from work in the afternoon (an hour), take her to a nearby friend’s house where she can shower and change, and then drive from our friend’s house to the theater (you guessed it… another hour). Lots of hours driving back and forth, which we do every day going back and forth to work. And it was raining, large heavy buckets, in the afternoon, thanks to Hurricane Bill. Ugh.

But I guess it is our fault for moving further south from where all of our friends are located and we do miss them all and enjoy seeing them. It is too easy to say maybe next weekend, or next month and soon we don’t see anyone because of traffic, weather, time, or any other excuse. And they all do make the effort to come down and see us when they can. So I guess I will stop my whining because I did enjoy myself once we got there. I will just have to keep that in mind the next time I am tempted to decline an invitation.