Landscape of Virginia

The time goes on. I use to be one to go out for the Sunday Morning Buffet with the all you can eat portion being one of it's main attractive features. I'd load up my plate and sit with my buddies and devour the Sunday papers with my eggs, and stuff of all kinds until I was stuffed. I enjoyed doing that after a night of partying but that was thirty or more years ago, now I just sleep late. I don't party either. But the tradition of Sunday breakfast and the paper goes on despite me not being a part of it. It was fun. I got to have a few laughs with my friends and I think that meal helped me survive my drinking and partying back then with some good food and reasonable conversation. The other Sunday morning, I was able to draw this group at their Sunday breakfast tradition happening across the street from my drawing pad.

With all this rain , you'd think all of our problems would be solved. But no, the creeks around here have risen, the tree limbs are falling all around and we've gott'n our first dose of cold wet weather for the season. But that's ok. We needed it after-all, water is a necessity and having it fall and replenish the land and it's creeks and tributaries is a wonderful gift. It simply can put one in a down mood and as long as the creeks don't rise all too far as they did here in 1963 with Camile well we'll be ok. I wasn't here then but I do know how it hurt people and their families in Central Virginia. The good thing for us is that the worst part of this storm of Ida has past and we have a sunny warm day ahead this weekend. I'm looking forward to a day of sunlight and seventy degree weather. It's be rare that we've been able to enjoy such a day this month so far. I think we've had one, maybe two days such as those this month....

Expression is one of the Constitutional beauties of our country. Today, at the Writing Wall just outside of our City Hall is our place of group conscious our place of democratic chances and proverbial "shout outs" where we met this morning and placed a drawing with meaning on it. Ours was a statement of an upcoming film event that features people of all ages with disabilities called "The Sprout Film Festival'. Here one can see we students of Post High putting the final touches on our visual expressive statement. Too bad not everyone I met agrees with our ability to do so, but what are ya gonna do?

I often wonder where and what my brothers from the early days are doing or thinking and the internet has been wonderful to be able to grant me answers to finding some of those guys and women. It all changes. That's what keeps it all so interesting. Many friends from that period of my life are in the west or on a island of one kind or another. The thing is I remained nearby. I'm not sorry for doing so, because I'm able to know where things are and how to get to them. The enjoyable event for me is having learned how to put together a decent painting. I really don't need to go anywhere else in order to do this little miracle. I'm thankful to my teachers for this wonderful ability. I may not be the very best at doing so but I am able to please myself at times... and I'm a tough critic of the visual arts.

The day ended itself with a meal in a Asian Restaurant which was really out of sight, which might have been my best meal in many a days, all to help a still suffering addict get clean. I hope he does, but we did have a great meal with another friend at the table. Many towns don't have the competition for the meal out buck that this town does have going on here but Charlottesville does have a lot of good places to eat out. This restaurant was one of the best I've been to , and it's right across the street from the downtown police station. It's called Asian Specialty and it is special because of it's quality of the food they served. Some of the best oriental food I've had here, it was all made on the premises and not frozen food heated up in a microwave before reaching us. This guy will return.

Autumn is here with a touch of winter to boot. It's come a little bit early for this part of the country but it's here none the less, its just not expected that's all. We're having a day of overcast skies with the promise of snow showers tomorrow and snow coming on the other side of the Blue Ridge which is only about a fifteen minute drive from where I am. The chill in the air made one of our students shout out "I smell snow" yesterday morning, and while I couldn't argue with the fact that one could detect the chilly moisture in the gray skies , it still was only forty some degrees outside. I think we just aren't use to the cold yet. This year the summer jumped directly into winter with nothing much in between. It's quite something to behold, one day seventy degrees and clear blue skies and then forty the very next day with heavy rains. One never knows, this sort of thing keeps life interesting at least and I am thankful for t...

We have ways in Virginia, we educate our students with the best demands on their performance and then we hardly pay their teachers for that favor. Our schools of higher learning have some of the best reputations in the nation and the world for that matter. And I rarely get that general minded because I know the world has their ears up whenever that word comes from US (A). But it's true, and our political season is one where the people of Virginia are able to elect the leader of this state one more time. I'm hoping they won't be swayed by talk of lowering taxes so people's votes depend only on having a few more dollars in their pockets. It's happened before with ending our car tax, and sure people got a lower bill but at what expense. Look at what bad shape Virginia's interstate roads are in and look at how paralyzed we are at taking new initiatives in transportation we are as a state. Look at what we get from not paying our fair debt, we are pay...