Landscape of Virginia

In talking to a local gentleman here in Charlottesville, I found out that what is now a mountain biking trail on Observatory Hill use to be an equestrian trail that allowed bikes to be ridden on it back in the day. Now, it's a fun spot that's nearby town's folk go to for a cheap thrill and the enjoyment of a little mountain biking. The trail is up a tough climb from any newcomers experience, but it's worth the climb for the sake of getting away from the city grime, and traffic noise. I've often ridden it for the fun of it, and it's a quick ride thru the woods on a good sized hill. Some people go a breakneck speeds on the trail itself but I enjoy taking a look around so I'm more inclined to take my time. Thinking back, I've ridden from Philadelphia, Pa. to Mt.Vernon along the eastern shore and back again during the hottest part of the summer of 1972. I lost a lot of water-weight on that ride but I was memorable 9 to me at least) as a feat not easi...

Going on a bike ride up to O-Hill isn't that far to go geographically but more of an elevation climb until you reach the trail. Once your their it's an easy around some curves and over some rocks and roots then head on home. The thing of it is that it seems so far removed from what this city has: sidewalks, buildings, cars, trucks and such that it feels like a touch of the country. Half way around the "Rim Trail" is a park bench with a table next to it just for folks to relax and drink in the beauty of the woods, sky and distance seen thru the trees. It's not that much of a secret to people who live here, it may be to some, but it seems most people seem to know about it, it's just whenever I've been up their, I don't run into all that many people who know about it. But when I am riding up on the Rim Trail I might meet one or two people but it doesn't seem like that much of a bother, but I guess to some it maybe. It's not to me. I kno...

I was at the U.Va. vs James Madison U. baseball game last night. It was a long drawn out event but it was really interesting. The game had a good deal of strategy as a lot of games do but it really was a struggle for these guys to get a run for fourteen innings. Then at around 11 pm it broke loose with JMU scoring five runs, and we had to answer for them all or the game was over. My friend and I witnessed many fans packing it in for the night and going home. But, we decided that it's not necessarily over until the very last out. I'm glad we did that, because the Cav's came back into the next at bat scoring two or three runs really quickly. We got excited! Then with two men on base Sean (or Dot as he seems to be called) Doolittle came to bat. With a mighty swing he hit the ball, all of my hopes flew with that ball when it headed up into the night sky. From where we were sitting it was hard to see what kind of arch the ball had, and it looked like it might go over t...

A nice peaceful day with a good dose of physical fitness at Gold's Gym, that's how today worked itself out as being: it just doesn't get any better, no amount of money could buy it and no one else could live it and enjoy themselves as much as I did today. I had time to read the book Chesapeake by Mitchener, and listen to music I love, and to be with a cat who's company I am enjoying and learning about at the same time. Her name is Oreo. I had time to pray and I took advantage of it and did just that. I also had time to talk to a young man at the gym, his name is Matt and he graduated from Va Tech last year. He knew the young Koren man who shot all those innocent students from classes he took at Tech last year. He talked about the way that man never acknowledged people who tried to talk to him or teachers who tried to involve him in class by asking him questions. Whenever he was asked a question he would look away or not verbalize any answer of any kind to his f...

What a beautiful day for a Parade, and there was one afterall. The Dogwood Parade was one of my first good impressions of this community back when I first arrived to this fair city. Everyone put aside their differences and problems for a day of celebration and pride in our community by walking down the Main Street of our city. I met one of our students and a teacher at the Parade route and sat with them. It was the students first view of a live parade so it was fun to see joy showing on his face. I could tell he wasn't too too involved in watching the dignitaries but he sure enjoyed the old cars and pretty princesses. Much like me actually, I enjoyed having a reason to see it.

What's nice about having a digital camera is being able to photograph anything at all without waste such as having wasted a shot on film. I still like analog film but it's so much better to use a digital camera because of the simplicity and the overall better features on a digital camera. I like fooling around with the image using photo-shop software. With an analog camera such thing were possible but you would need a darkroom and all that equipment in order to do it. It was all very cumbersome to fool around with the image once the picture was taken. All in all, these new digital cameras that are using SLR form as by-far better than anything analog cameras can do or be. Around here, some camera shops that dealt with analog items like film developing and sales of equipment well they have gone out of business. Such is the survival of the technology once the new form arrives on the scene.

It's a day to be remembered in sorrow, after getting back from my job site for the afternoon, I got the news of the shootings at Va Tech in Blacksburg. The wind was very severe today with dark dark clouds moving fast and low in the sky. I stood in the wind with my student for fifteen minutes waiting for the school bus, the wind was horrific and the sky was foreboding. I did not know at that time about the tragedy. I found out when we got on the bus to go back to Post High. It's hard to believe that it happened so near to here, I will pray for all those killed by the gunman at Va Tech today. Peace be with you all....

It really rained today, it was a heavy down pouring at times when I was driving and when I was out walking from my car to the gym. I was told by a professional biologist that weather would become more and more severe as the globe warmed up. It seemed that way today. It's only water though and I could deal with a few wet clothes, but my friend mentioned that the water in the rivers and creeks, streams and so on would crest and most likely go over it's banks tomorrow. Most people don't build in a floodplain but some do. This is when it pays not to build in one. The mountains really collect the water and send it downstream quickly yet still the effects of a heavy rain aren't really felt until the day after a storm. The rain hasn't knocked off much of the tree pedals from the dogwood or other currently flowering trees. They are heartier species of flowering trees that have their flowers out right now around here, because all the earlier flowering trees have los...

It's raining today, I haven't done any artwork in a good while but that is about to change. Artwork can take many different mediums and different activities in my estimation in order to qualify as doing"art". It may be that taking photos is the artform of the day or posting photos of my artwork on a website may be the work on art that I do for the day. Lately, I've been out taking photographs with a Nikon SLR D-40 of snow upon Cherry Blossoms. That was truly an artistic expression even if it wasn't in paint on canvas. I enjoyed seeing the results and I was able to work on photos of my cat in Coral Paintshop in the same weekend. I can find many different outlets for my creative enjoyment when I just use my time for my own purposes. Art is unlimited in it's scope and it has varied outlets in my life.