Yorktown (8/3/2015)

We are so lucky where we live.  Last evening we needed to celebrate good health and just life, so after dinner we decided to take the dogs for a walk along the York River in Yorktown and get an ice-cream cone at Ben and Jerry’s.  The walk I can do every day, but $9.54 for two ordinary ice-cream cones is a bit steep, so we do that on special occasions, or when we feel we need to celebrate something.  It is really amazing how everything is getting more expensive and our wages are not keeping up.  But, if you read my previous blog post about my trip back from western Virginia you know I had a MRI and the results came back clean, so it was a special occasion.  It was around sunset and there was a large thunderstorm to the east.

Nothing really deep today (in the far distant past I started these pages as a photo blog), but as I mentioned we are really lucky.  The planners in Yorktown did a pretty decent job in what they did, and with the exception of mid-winter, our little town is pretty crowded.  Sometimes it is so crowded that I am afraid that its success, its parking issues and the lack of diversity in restaurants will be the reason for its eventual demise, but I have not seen it yet, thank goodness; and I hope I never see it.  But yes, I have walked around town, daydreaming about what I would do to make it even more attractive and more for four seasons. 

Anyway here are two more pictures I took last evening.

Random ramblings about the Hampton Roads (5/24/2015)

The Australian kayaker Steve Posselt visited the area this past week.  He is trying to convince the world about the gravity of global warming by kayaking in 3 continents.  He eventually plans to end up in Paris for the next climate conference.   There are many ways people try to focus our attention to a (their) cause: be it dead soldiers with Memorial Day, multiple sclerosis with an MS 180 bike ride (I rode one from Houston to Austin 8 years ago), a breast cancer walk for life, circumnavigate the Americas for disabled sailors, or even kayaking the world to focus attention on global warning.

I have been interested in the issue of how to convince people that environmental responsibility is a must.  It seems that there is a group that is concerned about the environment and a whole group of people who do not seem to give a damn.  Crazy enough they seem to fall out along political or ideological lines, or even religious lines.  That's what's fascinating me.  As I mentioned in my bio, it was Stanford University's psychologist Leon Festinger who wrote the following in the 1950s:  "A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."  Call me crazy, but it still applies 60 years later.   I really wonder how to get that paradigm shift, but I'm afraid that they'll only see the point when it is way too late.

The way I see it, it was Francis Bacon (1561-1626) who reminded us that we humans had dominion over " the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ (Gen.1:28).  In the Novum Organon, Bacon writes: "Let the human race recover that right over nature which belongs to it by divine bequest."  It is scary to see that in those days we already felt that we owned the earth and that we could do with it what we wanted, with the excuse that God gave us permission (dominion).  Still now do I see Facebook posts by religious friends that tell me to trust God, and to relax because God is in control.  I find this outright scary, but it illustrates the divide that I was writing about; although as I am often reminded by Donna (my wife), dominion over nature does not mean that you do not need to take care of it.  Dominion means you have a responsibility to take care of the eartg.  I honestly do not think that any God would have a plan to let her/his creation go to hell.

Anyway Steve Posselt called our area "This is a staggering part of the world," or as I may paraphrase one of the crown jewels in God's creation.  Below are a set of pictures that I have taken over the years of this crown jewel.  Hopefully we can preserve this beautiful landscape.

View of the James River from Surry towards Jamestown

York River from York River State Park

Sunset over the York River from the National Colonial Parkway

About the cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel with my sailboat 

Norfolk (6/26/2014)

I was teaching in Norfolk on Thursday and driving back home that afternoon I had a stroll through memory lane.  See, I used to work in Norfolk and Virginia Beach and had to travel back every afternoon.  It is my understanding that the traffic in the Hampton Roads is the fifth worst in the country,  Actually we locals call it the great cul-de-sac: two tunnels going to what we call the south side and you can literally drive a circle.  In one tunnel and back through the other.
Well, the tunnels start backing up around 3 pm and going home yesterday afternoon, there was a 6.5 mile backup to the tunnel  Just like the good old days when I did this every day.  Back then, I figured out which of the two lanes goes consistently faster, and darn things have not changed there as well.  It also reminded me of the other blog post I wrote on traffic issues.
The trip home also made me think of that one time when my flight was diverted from Newport News Airport to Norfolk and we had to take a shuttle back to Newport News.  We were with three passengers: a lady 5 or 10 years younger than me, a U.S. Army soldier in his early 20-s, and me.  When approaching the tunnel and going down towards the hole the soldier panicked and actually opened the van door and was ready to jump out of the vehicle (we were driving 30 or 40 mph).  I was sitting in the front seat, so I could not do much, but the lady grabbed the soldier, pulled him back into the van and held him like a baby through the tunnel.  The poor kid had just flown in from Houston and never seen a tunnel before, and going under the water terrified him.  I still often wonder whatever happened to him.  In addition, I wondered if I should feel safe knowing he was defending our country.  Oh well.
I took two pictures going into the tunnel on Thursday.  The first shows the approach and actually a boat that was about to cross the tunnel overhead.  I love the approach when a boat or a submarine goes over the tunnel.  The second was somewhat enhanced by Google, but this was about the point where our soldier panicked, opened the door, took his seat belt off and had one foot out of the door, when the lady pulled him back.

Fort Monroe (6/6/2014)

D-day!  Actually there was a 70-year anniversary celebration concert at Fort Monroe.  In addition it was our 37- year wedding anniversary that day as well.  So what better reason to celebrate and listen to some good music, on the lawn.  It was a concert by the USAF Heritage of America Band, and it was fun.  We had a good time followed by a late dinner.

The photo below shows the Hampton Roads.  A ship is going over the tunnel while there was a guy in a fishing kayak in the foreground.  He had a hard time paddling, the current was very fast that evening.

Fort Monroe (5/18/2014)

We visited Fort Monroe this weekend for another concert by the Hampton Roads Philharmonic.  We had a nice time and the music was excellent like last time.  After the concert we took a walk through the fort, which is now a National Monument.  This was our first walk through the area and you could feel the history of the place.  The thick walls, the moat, and the old buildings are amazing.  Much different to what is outside the fort, which is nice as well.  Particularly impressive were the old live oaks; I expect some of them might have been there since the civil war. 

One issue I found was that at least one building appears to be boarded up, because of what I expect is the dismal structural shape it is in.  I hope there will be money to rehab this building and actually rehab the facility.  We could see some decay all over the place; and this is such a gorgeous historic place.  It is such a shame that we even have to play politics over a place like this.  It is my understanding that some members of congress got bend out of shape because President Obama declared “too many National Monuments.”  I find this sad, at least when it comes to Ft. Monroe, the place reeks of history and needs to be preserved and maintained.  It would be great if there was a visitor’s center and some more information for the visitors (if there is one, it is difficult to find).

During our walk on Sunday we climbed the walls and I took this picture of the lighthouse just outside the fort.  In the background you can see Fort Wool, another interesting feature of the Hampton Roads.  In all, it was a great late afternoon stroll through an historic place.

An update (5/23/2014) in today's newspaper it was reported that the state has allocated 14 million per year for the next three years for some rehabilitation work at the fort.  Naturally first on the list is the Fort Monroe Authority's own office building.