Election Follies

OK, so on the appointed Tuesday in November I dutifully trotted over to my local fire station cum polling place to vote for the US Representative candidate of my choice.  And as we all know the Good Citizens of this country pretty much told the Current Prez that We Are Not Amused.  Not that he’s listening, but we told him anyway.  For whatever its worth. 

Be that as it may, if you will think back to voting day, the weather was not the best.  Overcast shy, snow predicted (which did not materialize here at least), breezy and damp.  Not the best day for standing outside a polling place with candidate literature for the still undecided.  Plus there just the one item on the ballot, the US Representative post.  So I expected the League of Women Voters with their coffee pot inside the fire hall and a field of campaign posters outside the fire hall.  Imagine my surprise to find 4 separate tables with coffee, donuts and volunteers campaigning for their candidate.

That’s right folks, 4 tables of folks braving the cold to boost their candidate for County Treasurer in a Special Election to be held on January 11th.  Candidate #5 just had signs.  When candidate registration closed the following Friday there were 7 candidates for the illustrious post of Greene County Treasurer.  Who would have thunk it.  One candidate was actually a CPA, one was the current acting Treasurer, and the other 5 – well they could do arithmetic.  The Stay-at-Home-Mom promised to get “whatever training it takes” to do the job, the High School Math teacher held up his success in teaching algebra & geometry, 2 ladies offered their business management experience  as credentials and 1 women lauded her ancestor Gen. Robert E. Lee.  Near as I could tell the CPA and acting treasurer were serious contenders while the other 4 ladies and 1 gentleman were looking for a good paying job that lets you know a lot about other peoples business. 

Greene County wasn’t fooled by any of it.  They elected the CPA who currently is the assistant comptroller for the UVA Darden Business School’s Bequest Fund by 60.5% of the votes.  The Acting Treasures came in second.  Hopefully the treasurer’s office can now be capably run.  We’ve been plagued for the 18.5 years I’ve lived here with treasurers who refused to install computers, were constantly behind on required reconciliation statements, had tax mailing addresses and records that were 3 to 4 years out of date, and been audited by the Commonwealth Treasurer.  All in a county of less than 18,000 people with very low home ownership turnover.  Maybe we can get it done the right way now. 

November a Time of Quiet Rest ?

Has it really been 3 months since I've blogged ? Awk, so much for the idea that winter is a time of quiet rest.

The switch to an all digital phone & interwebs hookup has worked out just fine. I did get a Bluetooth hands free thingie so I can answer the phone in the car without needing to actually touch & hold the phone. I really really like being easily able to locate someone I'm out & about with by calling them. Makes getting separated while shopping, getting delayed on the road there etc. only a minor event. The plain vanilla basic phone I bought is wonderful. It has nice big number buttons I can see even with my glasses off, a camera and MP3 player. I've used the camera a time or two when my purse carry camera wasn't on me & plan to put Morning & Evening Prayer on the MP3 player. It gets charged at night when I sleep. I signed up for 600 anytime minutes, unlimited night & weekend minutes, 2 Friends links (unlimited calls to 2 numbers) & no outgoing text or internet hookup. I also get unlimited calls to other nTelos customers. This is proving to be plenty of phone time for my needs.

The Franklin interwebs connector from nTelos looks like a jump drive & plugs into a USB port. Its actually a cell phone for the 'puter. It works wonderfully well at the house and equally well when I've used it with my laptop when I'm out and about. Obviously it won't work well somewhere with poor cell coverage. The unit has am expansion slot for a micro SD card and I got an 8gb card for it. This allows the unit to function as a jump drive, which has proved to be quite useful. I've had no problems with it either up or down stream with the net.

November was a month of free music & trips to the local Goodwill store. UVA's music department continues to be an excellent source for free classical music, I was able to go to the Flute Student Recital and an All Mozart Chamber Music concert. Many of the department's offerings are on week nights, which is wonderful since I'm at work every other weekend. The local Goodwill got 3 boxes of clothes & 1 box of bed sheets etc. from my house. It took a couple of days to sort through my closets and various boxes from my Urchin's Chatham days, wash everything, inventory it for tax purposes and take it away, away, away. I also got 4 boxes of the Urchin's things to her apartment, books mostly.

I also decided not to send any Christmas cards out this year, the cost of posting the cards is just to high. I will be writing my friends letters instead, not a Christmas letter but personal letters on this and that as the new year unfolds. Sorta spreading the joy out as it were. I did go to the OVPR in October and various Wonderful Gatherings in December, but more on that when I have the pics to post. May you all have a joyous 2011.

October Musings

Me at My Rendezvous Lodge

October has kinda snuck up on me – I’ve been busy trying to get as much done on my house & yard as possible ever since the weather became reasonable in late August.  The storm windows are off and I’m painting the window frames that are behind the storms plus the storms themselves.  Both doors to the house are painted as well as the front eve.  The back eve needs one more coat.  I’m out of paint now, so further painting is on temporary hold.  My Harley is finally fixed & road worthy, but the rain has prevented me from picking it it as yet.  Oh well, this weekend should be warm & sunny.

Fall has always seemed a time of beginnings – the legacy of starting school for either myself or my urchin for 38 of my 59 Septembers on this earth.  I actually feel at rather loose ends to not be buying textbooks and all that.  And I miss the excitement of learning with other folks in a group instead of just reading things on my own.  I suppose this joy of learning with a group is what drives the various lecture series etc. aimed at retirees. 

I have had a beginnings of one sort at least.  I’ve gotten broadband interwebs at the house and gone cell only for my phone service.  By terminating my relationship with my Century Link landline I also stopped their annoying buy-this-service calls.  Which is wonderful.  nTelos  does not call its customers unless its a bill payment issue.  Which is how it should be.  I now have a nice bright red Samsung cell phone with nice big buttons and a thingie the size of a jump drive in a USB port on my computer.  WooHoo !  I can actually download sizable updates etc.  I am a happy camper.

I’ve also changed primary banks.  The automated telephone customer service used by Bank of America has failed to serve me for the last time.  BB&T offers a much friendlier telephone & website interface.  The local branch employees are friendly too, but then the local Bank of America branch wasn’t the problem.

Sorry, no fall rendezvous pictures yet.  The fall SLR event was fist cancelled due to open fire restrictions at the site, then rescheduled an hour farther away.  I had thought to go to the local BMW rally but the Harley had some lights that weren’t lighting and a bad manifold seal – both easy enough to fix but not in time for the rally. 

Its mid fall here at the house.  The lower story in my woods is beginning to die back and the leaves are just beginning to fall.  The evening woods are still full of little critter songs but they quiet down well before midnight.  The dry summer meant the creeklet went totally dry for about a week, but the recent rain has put it back into service.  Their have been several light frosts but no killing frost as yet.  It seems the woods is just going to slide into winter by small little steps.  Which is not a bad thing at all.

ALBA 2010

August and its time for A Laid Back Affair motorcycle rally.  I admit I had been looking forward to this year’s Affair all summer.  I had the time off to go, the Harley was in the shop my mid July to get its fluids changed & tuned,  Urchin had the time off to go &Urchin’s fella was coming too.  Way Cool.

Enter Reality.  The Harley needed a new coil along with fresh fluids and new plugs, points & condenser.  It wasn’t ready to roll until Thursday morning of the ALBA & it still needed insurance, registration & an inspection.  Scratch the HD for the rally.  Urchin had developed a nasty cold/sore throat/whatever & wasn’t in any shape to ride her Ninja anywhere.  Scratch Urchin.  No Urchin also meant scratch Urchin’s fella. 

OH well, its going to be a very different rally than I had planned, but my friends of many many years will be there so off I went Thursday noon in my truck to ALBA.  I went over Snicker’s Gap to Elkton then up the valley along the Blue Ridge on US 340 to Greenville near my parish.  From there I cruised on up US 11 to Lexington, hung a left onto US 60 over to Buena Vista, picked up food at the local grocery & then cruised into the Glen Maury campground.   The drive was beautiful & the temperature mild.

I entered a crowded Glen Maury campground.  OMG.  A very, very crowded Glen Maury campground with only 4 motorcycles in sight and many many tents, trailers and one massive class A RV parked right where the ALBA camps.  People everywhere.  Kids everywhere.  There were more bicycles than motorcycles in camp.  ?????  Seems the campground had double booked the pavilion & camp area with a family reunion, a very LARGE family reunion.  Mind you, they were nice, shared the pavilion with us, invited us to their big dinner at the event pavilion down the hill, played cool  music live in the evenings.  But it made for a very strange Affair. 

JP & Serena were there but sans bike – JP’s trike ate its transmission 60 miles from his house Wednesday morning on the way to the Affair.  Paul had double booked himself & had to work the weekend.  Mikey came but left Friday afternoon.  Jo has been tied up with her new house all summer & was still too tied up to come.  Several regulars hadn’t planned to come this year, they were on their way to Sturgis.  Several more got delayed by in the truly awful thunderstorms & wind that hit the Washington-Baltimore area Wednesday & Thursday, then decided to just skip it when they heard about the Family Reunion Hoard.  (A polite Hoard but still a Hoard.)  About half a dozen other riders arrived, saw the super crowded campground and headed on down the Parkway for their own Affair.  Can’t say I blame them.  All in all we had 20 registrants & 15 motorcycles, 5 of which arrived Friday evening late.  Well there were plenty of door prizes for everyone.

This year was a Black Tie Affair, we all got black ties as Rally pins.  Some of us were more inventive than others in wearing our ties – yes friends, this man keeps the interwebs running in a big way.  I went swimming in the Maury River, took a nice ride in the country Friday and caught up on all the news from the folks who were there.  I do think we should consider a change of venue though – this isn’t the first time in recent years the campground has “forgotten” about our reservation until we actually arrived. 

The lemonade was excellent.

Life’s Little Detours

August is the season of A Laid Back Affair motorcycle rally.  Usually Kat & I head off on our respective rides to Buena Vista, hang out with our friends all weekend & cruise around the Blue Ridge.  This year Kat’s fella JR was going to come too.  I’ve been looking forward to this weekend all summer.  Enter some pot holes in the road of life.

Kat is sick so she can’t make it.  No Kat equals no JR either.  No Affair for them this weekend.  My bike is still in the shop.  Its engine oil, trans oil, primary oil, condenser, points & spark plugs are all new.  But its plugs aren’t firing.  So now it has a new coil too, but its not yet registered, insured or inspected, so its not going to the Affair either.  Phooey.

Oh well, I’m going anyway, in my NNMC truck (that’s No Name Motorcycle Club).  I can take pictures, go swimming & maybe ride on the back of someone’s bike.  JP’s trike died on the way to the rally yesterday (Jim Post, the father of the Affair) so I’m not the only one who found a pothole or two.  Viva La Affair !

A Quiet Day of Rest

Since I was given this extra day of rest, I decided to rest.  The various projects on my plate right now could just stay there for one more day.  So after breakfast at noon – I do need to go to work tonight – I put a few stray things away around the house & then headed out to my lawn chair near the woods line to see what was to be seen. 

Its clearly mid summer in my woods.  The cardinals, titmice, wrens, nuthatches, thrushes, finches, pine siskins & various sparrows are all busy calling out to one another while they hunt down this or that tasty morsel.  The honeysuckle are about done blooming but the little orange flowered perennials are just starting up.  The shallowtailed butterflies and bumblebees are busy checking out the flowers, waiting for their feast to begin in earnest.  Various insects are calling one to another but not many this early in the day.  The world moves as it will & the wheel of time turns in its circle of life.  It has been a good day off. 

Life’s Wonderful Little Gifts

For various reasons I ended up having  tonight off.  Given I’m currently harboring a cold, this was rather nice.  So as twilight moved over my house & yard I built a small fire in my fire ring (wasn’t cool enough for anything larger) and let the smoke carry various troubles off into the darkening woods.  The fire flies were rising, two different kinds from here & there in the yard & the woods alike.  A humming bird flew along the woods edge, stopped & chittered at me & then flew on its business.  Paws-in Trouble hopped into my lap & got his tummy rubbed as we watched the green of the woods darken into green-gray backlit  by the setting sun.  The day birds had quieted & the night insects were beginning to take  their place in the cycle of sound.

I’m not sure whether it was sound or a touch of movement but I turned slightly to my right as I was watching the fire flies in the yard – to see a nice 4 point buck saunter into my yard between my chair & the tulip popular.  He totally ignored me & Paws from a distance of less than  twenty feet.  As near as I can tell he never even saw us, the sound of the weed wacker  across the street had his attention.  He nibbled his way across my yard, around the honeysuckle bush, along the pines between my yard & the neighbor’s yard & then walked alone the woods edge for maybe 20 yards before moving under the trees & back into the woods.  For slightly over 20 minutes this handsome fella was never more than 50 feet from me.

Now in the almost 18 years I’ve lived here I’ve seen several deer in my yard.  For the first 8 years there was a magnificent 10 pointer that showed up every October.  Various smaller bucks & does  have walked along the tree line & once I saw a fawn resting under the forsythia.  But I’d always seen them from inside the house through the kitchen or back bedroom window, never when I was outside in the yard.   I feel honored to have been able to enjoy this buck’s visit.