Nomads, Day 7 and 8 (9/9/2023)

We continue our trek up the great Missouri River, and it is time to report on days 7 and 8.

Day 7: East Totten Trail Campground – New Town (SD) – Belfield – Medora – Theodore Roosevelt National Park – Miles City (MT)

Day 8: Miles City – Pompeys Pillar National Monument – Billings – Lewistown

It was a cold morning when we woke up. It was about 43 degrees (6 C), at least that is what the Weather Channel told us. One thing that had been pretty surprising to me was that all through Nebraska and South Dakota we had great cell phone coverage. This was somewhat amazing to me but every little hamlet and even along all the roads we had traveled, my phone told me it was mostly a 5G service. Even in North Dakota where we were on day 7 and for a large part during day 8, we were never without cell phone coverage. Some of the posts up to now were written when my wife, Donna, was driving and I used the hotspot on my phone.

To continue, that night at the East Totten Trail Campground we used our small space heater, the night sky was amazing, and we even heard a group of coyotes howl, which greatly amused our dogs. It was interesting to watch the folks next to us trying to level their huge camper; it took the guy at least a half hour or longer. We have Camco leveling blocks, which look like giant Lego blocks, and I just had to drive one side of our van on to them to sleep somewhat level that night.

The next day it was through the North Dakota prairie, we go! This part of the world was a mix of corn, sun flowers and native short grass prairie rangelands. We did drive a number of fields that appear to be alfalfa. Amazing were the oil rigs or pump that were littered throughout the landscape. We had heard of the North Dakota oil boom and here it was! Most towns on the road were small, except the town of New Town, which appeared to be a tourist resort and oil town. Being from our area, New Town is a development in Williamsburg where we used to work.

After lunch in Belfield at a very interesting restaurant, we toured the southern section of the Theodor Roosevelt National Park. It was a pity that the sky was so smoky; however, the park is definitely worth visiting. We were off to Miles City (MT), after a brief visit to the park. In Miles City we experienced a true camping site, a gravel lot with plenty of RVs, including folks that live there long-term. It was located next to a feed lot and here we came up with notion that SD, ND and MT were dominated by flies. The owner of the RV site was a riot and we enjoyed interacting with her. Bathrooms were clean and it felt great to take a shower.

The trip next day was fairly uneventful. The visit to Pompeys Pillar was fun and warmish. Pompeys pillar is the site where you can find the only real evidence of the trip that Lewis and Clark made. Clark carved his signature into the rock. It was a shame that they were doing some heavy work there and had a huge crane set up. But after inquiry, I found out that the pillar was slowly coming apart, courtesy the weather. As I used to teach, water is the strongest force in breaking rocks apart. Combine that with frost, and Clark’s signature was in danger. It was interesting to see how the entire pillar was being monitored. The crane was there to assist with a stabilization effort.

After lunch and groceries in Billings it was on the road again to Lewistown. This town is the central point in Montana and a cute town. We quickly found out that microbreweries in Montana do not allow dogs, something that we are accustomed to in Virginia. In other words, my dream of doing a microbrewery tour of Lewis and Clark was dashed. We again stayed at an ordinary camp site, this time without feedlot and great owner who talked our ears off, but still with a lot of flies and folks that do not clean up after their dogs next to your camp site. Oh well. That night we were hit by more rain, which sounds great on the van. Overall, a fun two days. I cannot get over the fact how much I missed this type of landscape we have been driving through. The prairie is amazing. A second observation was that it seems that the country in this area is littered with casinos. Every small (and large town) in SC, ND and MT seem to have a casino in it. These are combined with local bars or liquor stores.

On a sad note, it was around this time that our good friend Vaughn Deel had passed away. The news affected my wife and me greatly. Vaughn was a great person and wonderful musician. He always remembered us and had a kind word for you whenever you met him. It was shortly after we moved to Virgina that he had a stem cell transplant what kept him alive for at least another 22 years. It were these years that he did not take for granted. Rest in peace Vaughn and do some jamming up there with Jerry and the bunch.

Breakfast at the East Totten Trail Campground

North Dakota Prairie with its windmills

National Grasslands

In the Theodor Roosevelt NP, showing of our camping van.

In my classes I used to tell folks about rocks as mulch and the pedestaling you can see in the dessert.  Here you can see where there were rocks there was no erosion.

Pompeys Pillar.

The view from on top of Pompeys pillar: the Yellowstone River (Clark's return route).

We made it to Lewistown and it's time to relax.

Bonsai lessons (8/7/2023)

I had the pleasure the other day to have a grandmother and her grandson over to look at my bonsai trees. The grandmother is a friend from the yacht club, and she had heard that I grow bonsai. Her teenage grandson had tried to grow a bonsai from seed; however, it never germinated. We had already made two appointments, but they never panned out, and this time they were 30 minutes early.

It was fun to be back somewhat in the teaching mode. We started out looking at my 35-year-old Siberian elm, this is one of my favorite trees and it is in quarantine. The quarantine is not because of disease or something like that, but somehow when it is on the tables where I keep my trees, the Japanese beetles find it and it seems that only hit my three Siberian elms. I have a stand of canna lilies nearby and they are a favorite of these ferocious insects in my yard. But somehow when I move them away from my tables and the lilies, these elms are more or less safe from these bugs.

Walking around the tables and showing them my little trees was a lot of fun. The kid was very inquisitive, and grandma could not get him away from the place. He seemed particularly impressed by the tree (cherry) which I had to go at with a saw-saw or hacksaw. The root was simply too big. Grandma was impressed with my American hollies; she hates those prickly leaves. Fun was talking about my citrus trees that I grew from seed. As I told them anything is possible, with a little knowledge.

We talked about styles; how to miniaturize the leaves; root pruning; best time of year to work on them; pots; and of course, soils and fertilizer. I have written about this before, but it seems that everybody wants to buy a bonsai tree or has bought one once in their life. I think at least 95% of them invariably die within the first few months.

Most of this is soil related, the trees at the big box stores usually come in crappy soil in pots that don’t drain very well. The result is root rot when the temperatures rise in the pots, and they do not drain. Plants die or at least get weak. What to do? Repot? If you do that, you kill the poor guy. No, we just need to make sure we do not over or under water too much and we might want to protect the container from overheating. Additional issues seen is the lack of light. Folks put their first bonsai inside on the coffee table. However, it was an outdoors tree that likes full sunlight. Death is imminent. Finally, folks may start pruning or shaping to quickly and weaken the tree.

We talked for over an hour and a half. It was fun talking about my trees and what I do with them, my plans and more. It was just plain fun interacting with someone who was interested in my hobby and sharing these things with him. It made me feel good for the rest of the day.

The lower trunk of my Siberian elm.  It is approximately 35 years old and was developed from seed.  In the soils post that I have link to above, there is another picture of it.  This tree has gone all over the country with me and has been ignored for a while.  It is finally on a decent trajectory.

This is the cherry that I got earlier this year.  It was a thick stick in a pot with a horrible root.  I used the hack saw to cut 2/3rds of it and planted in an Anderson flat.  It seems to be doing well.  I have no idea what styling decisions I will make in the near future but will probably have to cut it shorter.

One of my hollies.  Maybe not really visible.  It has been in a pot ffor at least 7 years, I dug it up in my yard.

The citrus plants grown from seed.  This is their second summer, and they are enjoying themselves.  I have a few oranges and lemons, all grown from seeds.

Why am I here, revisited (6/20/2023)

This past week or so I had a relatively large number of hits on my blog. While this is of course very pleasing, I also wonder what folks are reading and one of the posts that received a lot of the attention was titled: “Why are you here? … On Training and Teaching (Part IIX).” The post was from July 2017.

The post starts out by describing my honest request for critique for a new course I started to teach, and ended in my musing on why I do what I do. I never received much of a review from my students, but that seems par for the course. I used to be an assistant manager and acting manager of a public radio station, and we always reminded ourselves that if we did not get anyone complaining, no one was listening. In other words, maybe my classes put them all to sleep.

In the same blog, I also introduced you all to my favorite saying that I like to pay back (or maybe award) the community willing to put up with me. I have always wanted to volunteer and contribute to the society or even the group (my work place) that I am involved with.

Rereading the blog made me think about my current stage in life, almost exactly six years later. I started my retirement life less than a month ago. Where am I now in this big picture of life? The republican elected officials in our county successfully got rid of me from the committees that I volunteered on and replaced me with their conservative cronies, so my payback stopped. I could of course join other not for profit groups or volunteer more for my church. But let’s take a step back.

I described in my 2017 post that a questionnaire that I answered which asked me what was important in my job? I could now twist that a little and ask what I would think would be important in my retirement life, or better the rest of my life, whatever there is left? Was it:

• Money
• Benefits
• Freedom
• Research
• Teaching, or
• Perceived contribution to society?

Yes, money is important; however, we get our social security, pension and whatever we eventually dare to pull out of our savings or investments. Am I going to try to make a few extra bucks? Yes. This week I am doing a little extra teaching for some beer money, and a friend has asked for my resume for some extra consulting work. A headhunter was looking to get me a fulltime job for double the salary that I had been making, but I am just not sure if I want to keep working in a stressful job. Altogether, while money helps, it does not seem to be the direct route to happiness or better contentment or fulfillment.

In a previous post I already complained about the tardiness in getting my medical insurance squared away. But yes, health insurance is very important especially when you get older. So, continued benefits are important, especially when you get older and your health might start failing. Thank goodness, I feel great.

Ah, freedom. I addressed some of that in my previous post. No more alarm clocks, and we now have a clock that tells us what day it is, not what time it is.

The next three points somehow blend together. I am no academic, and since I graduated with my doctorate at an advanced age, I was 37, I was never able to get an academic position. In other words, research is what I make it to be. Most of the stuff I look up is for personal interest (which you all should be familiar by now) or related to my work (teaching, past and future). I am also researching some future road trips. Some of the research has been successful, and I have been on the winning side of lawsuits as expert witness. Most of these wins were the result of my research and a very skilled lawyer. Obviously, those days are over, but I still research items for my writings and for some of the teaching that I will continue doing during retirement. I already had a teaching gig the first 15 days into my retirement.

This teaching (and this blog, I hope) assist me in what I perceive is and can be my contribution to society. Giving you all a look at the inner workings of my brain as well as maybe teach you a little, convey a little of what I learned over the years. Hopefully this can be my legacy to society at large. Something to be remembered by, like my past students who during my retirement tour told me that they always learned something from me and my lectures. I have no large sums of money to start endowments or foundations, so this will have to do!

Now you know, why I think I am here, in life and on this blog. Again, if you are a regular reader, by now you know me and my interests. If there is an item you like me to research, discuss; let me know in the comment section of my posts and I will entertain it. Otherwise, I will just keep writing and updating you a few times per month.

Our friend Mason took this photo of me as part of a birthday celebration for a friend and me last week.

Our new (retirement) clock

Retirement, trolling and boycots (5/25/2023)

Oh crap, I had 190 views of my blog yesterday! The previous week I had none, zero. What happened? Here I just read a few minutes earlier that Russia put a restriction or boycott on 190+ U.S. citizens, mostly enemies of tRump. Had the Russians been trolling my pages and have they been trolling me and put a boycott on me?

Nah, on further research on the announcement from Russia, I am not on the list (yet?) and I am still free to travel. This despite I have been strongly opposed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and been even more critical of tRump in the various blogs I have written. I have had a lot of visits from the Russian Federation, but no, I have not been blackballed, yet.

Honestly, I do not think that black balling would stop me from criticizing either tRump or Russia and Putin. Moreover, I will always continue fighting for the environment and against global climate change. Yes, it is amazing that already from a distance, Putin is trying to influence the 2024 election by putting a boycott om tRump enemies, instead of only boycotting folks who have to do with trying to stop his crimes in Ukraine.

But this still makes me wonder why for a week or maybe a couple of weeks I have a trickle of visits to my blog and then all the sudden I get 190 hits. Crazy, but of the 199 views this past week, 100% were on Chrome, 189 were from Windows machines, nine Linux and one Mac. Most of my visitors were from Russia (190), eight from the U.S. and one from somewhere else. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it! The posts being viewed are all over the place, maybe I need to give better key words to some of my posts so my Russian friends can see where I talk about him or that twice impeached, recently indited and convicted sex offender who claimed to be a president was discussed in my blogs.

No, my blogs are varied but my retirement will be soon, and I can finally be let loose. I can do more for the environment and write more about my more liberal leaning politics. However, as I have been hinting at, during the past 5 or so years, I have been working on what might eventually become a book on stormwater. I am planning to publish some of my writings from the draft of this book idea that I think might be useful to my general readership and the public. Don’t worry, there will be occasional political, social, and environmental commentary peppered into my posts. Stay tuned. I will try to keep writing and continue being opinionated at times.

I took this photograph on the day before the last day of teaching.  I taught a photography class and showed the folks how to use the timer on my cell phone.

The End is Near (5/17/2023)

I guess I will be reporting on two weeks of my farewell tour. Two more to go! The past two weeks I spent in Norfolk (week one) and in Richmond (week two). Crazy enough, I was teaching the same classes at each location, in exactly the same order.

Items to report are that things are getting closer as I go, and more emotional or nostalgic and the end is getting nearer and nearer. In Norfolk, one of the members of the Virginia Beach gang started sending a retirement card around and everyone wrote something nice. It was very moving. Then, around the end of everything one of my students came over and asked if she could have her picture taken with me as a memory of taking my classes. Also, on day two I had lunch with the Virginia Beach gang.

In Richmond, I had another selfie taker at the end of day two. Furthermore, a lot of handshakes, well wished, going out to lunch as a group on day one and folks interested in my reading list (mostly or all my natural history books). At the end of day 2, I actually walked around a stormwater BMP with one of my students to evaluate it for potential maintenance issues. In addition, all four days ended in a standing ovation for me and a thank you for your service. I almost felt like I was coming out of the military service.

Food and drinks were somewhat uneventful these two weeks. The newest microbrewery on my visit was the Veil in Norfolk. The beer was good and the homemade pizza as well. Richmond was just in and out with a quick lunch.

A quick hotel review, In Norfolk I taught and stayed at the Delta Hotel, by Mariot, near the airport.  The only thing I can say is, that it was not bad.  Breakfast was better than most.  I was given the smallest room a king-size bed could fit in, but then, I paid State rate.  State rare is about a quarter of the going rate.

Things are getting more nostalgic and sadder. I am not sure if I am ready to call it quits. I enjoy teaching and working. As one of my colleagues mentioned, it seems I affected a lot of folks in our business. This makes me happy and maybe I should go out on top, when I have a lot of friends or folks that seem to respect me. But it is difficult to do. It was a good ride.

The next two weeks I am looking forward to a webinar and a trip to Abingdon before it is over, and I start the next phase of my life. Reading the obituaries, I am watching those ages of death creeping closer and closer. I am going to need to fight depression, loneliness and get a hobby. But then, I already have one and up to this writing I was not depressed! The unknown is both exciting and scarry.

Me with one of my students who wanted a selfie with her teacher.  It was so humbling! 

Hopefully this will be in my future.  More hiking outside.  During this hike, this past weekend, we actually saw a cottonmouth. 

December 2022 (12/15/2022)

December: it is that time of the year again. Many of the “How to blog” websites tell you it is time to write a year in review post. Should I, or shouldn’t I? I am writing this as I am sitting in my hotel room in Lynchburg, under much better circumstances than my last visit to the area around the end of March. It was the same day we put our dog Jake to sleep, and I had a rough time driving and staying here. I drank and ate too much that evening, and it wasn’t even satisfying. Oh well, isn’t that the case that many drunks or overeaters feel afterwards? Did I learn anything from that? Tonight, I did, I just had one and a half beer and some nice Japanese food. Back in my room before 7 and now behind the keyboard.

While I am not sure if I will publish this post tonight or even during my stay here in Lynchburg tonight or tomorrow evening, I do feel compelled to write a little bit about the year and about life in general. Life this year has been good. We are back from COVID (although I read it is back in an upswing); we are wondering at times if we had it in June when we suffered from a summer cold but tested negative, once. I decided to take part in a medical experiment and took an experimental RSV vaccine. Our daughter got married and we are still paying for it. Oh well, it was worth it and fun. A week before the wedding we moved my 95-year-old father-in-law from independent living to assisted living. In other words, July was an absolute blur. It was an insane three weeks for us, but it was Nietzsche (I think) who said, “What does not kill me, makes me stronger.” We definitely gained a lot of strength in July, and we are still drinking wedding beer, or better I am using it as the liquid in some of the bread I am baking, in particular my rye bread.

From this year’s posts you can see that I still travel for work and teach. Again, today my supervisor wanted to know how long he can still rely on my or in other words, when I will retire. Loyal readers know that I struggle with this. I enjoy teaching, but then I feel I also need to spend more time with my bonsai trees. I have a greenhouse now, and it looks like that I am getting more serious about those darn little trees. Yes, I have been dabbling around with them for the past 34 years, and in a way, so little to show for. For all those years, I should have had some magnificent trees; but I have ignored them for extended periods during those years. They were pot bound and that does not help their development.

So yes, I am still kicking and screaming, working, complaining that I am getting old and decrepit, politically active, baking bread, hiking, forest bathing, and bonsai growing. I love my beers, although it seems that my taste is changing from IPAs to black lagers. I am getting bored with American restaurant food (I assume that this is because I am eating out so much during my travels) and I am starting to like Japanese food best.

While not a true a look back on the past year, I hope this is somewhat of a review of my life to-dated. As I alluded to in a similar post last year, maybe it isn’t very Buddhist to look back (and live or dwell in the past). It may be better to live in the present and prepare for the road ahead. As I recently mentioned, I am in a good place mentally, I have been feeling happy lately. Hopefully 2023 will be as good or even better. But who knows, I might get inspired to write another post this year. Cheers!

Having breakfast at the hotel (The Virginian by Hilton in Lynchburg).  This is absolutely a nice hotel.  I visited two microbreweries: 3 Roads which was OK and Star Hill, a satalite brewery from the main one in the Charlottesville area which was great.  Lunch was in Rustburg and dinner at El Jefes Tacos (good) and Mizumi Japanese Bistro (absolutely great). 

Half Full or Half Empty (11/18/2022)

Is the glass half full or half empty, that is something I sometimes ask myself. Regular readers of my blog probably know that I can be either a pessimist or an optimist or maybe both, at times. A friend of mine who read some of my posts called them scarry (I think). Now, he is a foreigner, as I am, so maybe he meant ominous. Honestly, I don’t intent my posts to be negative, as such. A lot of them are biographical, telling you readers about my past or my current life. Some of my posts tell you about my thinking and quite a few about my political and environmental leanings. They are not intended to upset you (maybe except for one or two); however, the teacher in me wants to challenge you, my readers to critical thinking at times. Yes, I would not mind persuade you to change your minds, my way.

As I mentioned just now, I encourage critical thinking, not necessarily my thinking. However, what has been upsetting me most, is folks that just accept everything that is being handed to them on a platter, or told to them without questioning it, investigating it, and just taking it as the new truth. This is what I started seeing with a lot during the past 5 years of the conservative MAGA folks. While a lot of us progressives will take everything that folks tell us with a grain of salt, even if it is from the mainstream media, our political leaders, or even our churches, it seems that the MAGA folks close themselves off from all alternative thinking. The latest example is the Arizona republican candidate for Governor Mrs. Kari Lake, who told the press she would only accept the election when they were in her favor.

So, why am on this soap box today? My recent posts have been so non-political, so non-controversial. Why now. The elections are over anyway. The big red wave did not happen. It seems that most election deniers were denied elected offices by the public. Voters voted with their brains. The glass was half full after all. My wife saw the glass as half empty going into November, I predicted it would not be that bad. Did I win? Who cares? Often, I needed to remind my wife that this was not the end of the world we are living in, but we need to fight, our way. That it would all come out OK and it did! The elections are behind us. Or are they?

One of the principles from my Unitarian Church tells me, I am free to independently search for my own truth and meaning. This applies to religion, society, and life in general, as long as it does not hurt anyone else. To me this applies to everything in my life. I am seeing that the American electorate did the same thing, they did not sheepishly follow the directions of the red-haired biggest looser who seems to want to try to lose again.

I agree, this year started out poorly (or the glass emptied) with the Supreme Court decision on abortion. We were all angry. In my wife’s eyes this was the end of the world. I agreed it was terrible, I demonstrated with her and agreed we needed to do something about it and work to defeat the conservatives. She is a woman, who was much more affected by that decision than I as a guy; I understand that. I wrote a couple of posts about it, we sent money to political candidates, and the Planned Parenthood. We made an informed decision to do these things without being encouraged or almost forced to do so. We did not roll over because our politicians or religious leaders told us to do so. I am neither an optimist, nor a pessimist. Am I a realist? I don’t even know that. In the past I was a pessimist for sure, most of my life. Old age is mellowing me. Maybe I’ve become a fatalist, but then I do believe we can change our fate, instead of just sitting back an taking it as it comes. That is what I try to do here and in life in general, and in my job; all in the hope that I create a few extra critical thinkers before I leave this earth. I try to do that overtly in my classes, in my sermons, in my interactions with people and here in my blog posts. Because that is what we need to do to make a better world, and this is the only way I think I can make a contribution to that.

A mushroom?  How does this fit in with what I wrote in this post.  A mushroom is the fruiting body of thousands of mold threads that are growing underground and that we cannot see, When the time is just right (the right temperature and humidity), all the hyphae get together and decide to for a mushroom to have "mold sex."  They do very well on their own without sexual breeding, but this mixes the chromosomes which is good for future evolution etc.  To me it shows the importance of the unseen, the undercurrent, being able to subtlety work on blogs like this hoping to come to fruition and help change the world a little bit.

October travels and what's next (10/24/2022)

While I have been (or will be) teaching three different weeks this month, I only had one overnight trip. One trip was to Hampton, approximately 20 minutes from my home, and I am going to Richmond this week. Richmond is my home office, and although it is an hour and twenty minutes’ drive, I am not allowed to stay overnight, at least not on the boss. However last week I spent some time in Portsmouth, which is technically closer to home, but further away from the office.  Moreover, the traffic here in the Hampton Roads could make the commute 2 hours although it ordinarily may take only 35 or 40 minutes.  Hence, the need to stay overnight at that side of the tunnel. 

The Portsmouth class was not scheduled. We had some turnover at work, and I needed to pinch hit as you might call it. So, I spent 3 days helping to teach Erosion and Sediment Control Plan Review, a course I used to teach a lot, seven or more years ago. Naturally at the end of the day I need to come down and try some of the microbreweries on the path to my hotel, the Hilton in Suffolk. Both breweries were new to me.

On the first day I tried the MoMac brewing company. The beer is decent and the guy behind the bar was talkative which was great. I really enjoyed their Schwartz Beer. Their IPAs tastes good. All fine. It was here that I received the word that the assistant brewer from MoMac will becoming the brew master at one of my favorite microbreweries in my area: Capstan.

The second day was at Harbor Trail Brewing Company, not far from MoMac. Harbor Trail seems to be a very young establishment (3 months old), but boy, I love their black IPA and their regular IPA was good too. The girlfriend of the soon to-be new Capstan brew master was behind the bar, and he popped in as well, so I had a great time. Having to drive to the motel after teaching a full day, I don’t dare to drink much more than one beer and a small taster of the other.

This post serves a quick update on two breweries and my travels this month, so no literary masterpiece again. I have three more trips planned for November and December. Next month it will be Winchester and in December I will be going to Virginia Beach and back to Lynchburg. That will do it for the year. I am looking forward to Winchester. I have not been there since before COVID and I love strolling downtown and eating at some of the restaurants. Pre-COVID (four or so years ago) there wasn’t really a nice microbrewery with a good atmosphere in town (or at least I don't remember them). I remember two pizza joints with their own beer, but hopefully they have gone up in the world. I will report out.  Weather permitting, I tend to stop for a walk/hike either at Sky Meadows State Park or the State Arboretum, on the way out there.  I really love those two places.

At least there will be plenty to report about the other two towns. So, stay tuned my friends, the quest for the perfect microbrew, restaurants and just travel will continue.

The Schwarz Beer at MoMac was really tasty.  The had two IPAs that they would like you to compare.  Skeeter Juice and one for the Aussie name of mosquitos (Mozzie Juice).  Interestingly for me, I could only taste the Mozzie Juice which is made with Australian Hops on the tip of my tongue and no where else in my mouth.  I never had that with any other food or beverage.  A strange experience.

A view from the bar at Harbor Trail Brewing.  I really like this place.  Google maps had a difficult time putting me here since it is on a corner of an intersection.  Again some good beer here!

Stormwater, soil, and bonsai, part 1 of 2 (9/19/2022)

The past week I was traveling again to train the folks in the state of Virginia. This time my travels were to Wytheville (look in the labels section), a town I have done some extensive writing about in my blog, and I might do some more in the future. However, that is not the subject I would like to tackle today as you can probably surmise from the title of this article. Now at the beginning of writing this article, I expect that I will break it into at least two parts, so this will be part 1.

What do you do after class?  You stop at your favorite microbrewery in town.  As I mentioned in a previous post Wytheville has two, and during my previous visit this was my favorite, and it remains in the top spot!

Most of you know that I teach subjects related to stormwater management and erosion and sediment control. One important item that factors in this, of course, is soil. For one, during construction soil is laid bare and becomes very erodible. Streams and creeks downstream from a construction site receive a lot of sediment from that site. On top of this, once construction is complete, we need to grow plants, a lawn or whatever. Here again, soil plays the star role. As I tell my students, a crappy soil gives you shitty results, while a good soil will give you great plant establishment. In other words, “you are what you eat” also applies to the vegetation we are trying to establish.

The current paradigm in stormwater is that we want to infiltrate as much of the stormwater that is being generated on a site as possible. We call this runoff reduction, or also low impact development or LID. The philosophy behind this is that all the roads, roofs, parking lots, sidewalks and alike, create more runoff than a virgin site, because they do not allow water to infiltrate. This has lowered the already declining groundwater table and is drying up of springs and the hydrology of streams and rivers. Of course, this was also partially caused by all the pumping of groundwater that our increased population pressure is doing. As a result, streams are becoming flashier and more polluted. Over the years, I have written about this; just look under the “Labels” column and click on stormwater. Now, runoff reduction and LID would help recharge the groundwater. In addition, it would allow some of the pollutants or contaminants to enter the soil and be broken down and cleaned up.

Well, this past week in Wytheville, I taught two soils courses, it got me thinking, and inspired to write this post. I work daily with soil as a bonsai enthusiast, I have realized that bad soil choices are probably why probably so many of the trees of the beginners die. I plan to reserve that for part two for my discussion.

I taught three continuing education courses in Wytheville. My Soils Concepts class is a full day course that goes from 8:30 to around 3:30/3:45 with an hour lunch. The next day I taught a Soil Amendment class from 8:30 to 12 and a Photography for Inspectors class from 1 to 3:45. Now, if you are going to ask me if I am a photographer, the answer would be no. However, I do have some formal training in photography and worked as a photographer for a bit. Some 45/46 years ago I did some work as a wedding photographer and a semi-professional photographer in the Army. But that is water under the bridge.

How about my soils background? How can I sell that? Well, I have an Agricultural Engineering degree, with some emphasis on soil science. I did an internship on soil fertility, and then in Yemen we did a soil survey and a soil hydrology study. During my MS study I studied a lot about soil/plant water relationships, while during my Ph.D. studies, I renewed my studies in Soil Morphology and Soil Identification. So, while my degree does not tell me that I am a soil scientist, I can fake it with the best. It is nice to be multifarious, especially when you are teaching. Although my mother always accused me to be a master of nothing (see also <here>)!

In my soils class I give my students some of the basics of soil, from an agronomic perspective, after which I go into how to handle soil on a construction site and how that soil handling impacts the soil. The afternoon is spent on talking about soil hydrology and on how engineers look at soils. Engineers have a very different way of looking at them versus the folks that grow plants and food on them. I tell my students engineers see soil as something to:

• Build on
• Build with
• Build in
• Support our buildings

While agronomists have words such as Alfasols, Histosols, Inceptisols, and Vertisols, just to name a few the engineers use the Unified Soil Classification System. Engineers may describe a soil as an organic silts and organic silty clays of low plasticity.

While this post is not an area to rehash what I tell my folks in class, I really try to push the idea that soil is one of our most important resources when it comes to plant establishment and infiltration of stormwater after construction (or what we call land disturbance). Often what happens is the compaction of soil, which does not allow for the penetration of roots and the infiltration of water. The topsoil is often removed and not replaced, making it even more difficult for plant to become established, and bare soil means erosion and less infiltration. Taking care of the soil is one of the most important things you can do as someone who is into construction, or as a homeowner. This is even becoming more and more important in these times of climate change.

Well folks, this is usually the length of my posts. In the next post I will try to elaborate and bring this around to growing bonsai. See you soon!

Another thing that my regular readers should know is, that a trip the Wytheville is always accompanied by a walk on the New River Trail.  The fall flowers were already in full display.

August travels or Hotels 12, 13 and 14 (8/31/2021)

Wow, yes I have missed reporting on some of my travels. It should not come as a surprise if you have read my last post. A move of my father-in-law, followed by the wedding of our daughter. Almost immediately I had to pack up get on the road, and travel for work.

• Hotel 12 was in Herndon at the Windham near Dulles Airport.
• Hotel 13 was a week later and I stayed at the same hotel again, the Windham, near Dulles.
• I stayed the week after that in Hotel 14 at the Renaissance in Portsmouth.

All three hotels were by the Marriott chain, a new experience for me. I frequent the Hilton and Holiday Inn chain, so this was new and honestly I was not disappointed. Maybe except the price of meals which was above my state per diem rate. But times both locations had so much going for them so I could go out and find something to my liking. I was lucky, the Renaissance gave me state rate, I booked in June, but a colleague who booked in July could not get the same rate and had to stay in a second rate hotel. This was no fun, in particular since we were teaching at the hotel. This will certainly be the deciding factor for us in booking future training locations now we have been stung once.

Great room and view at the Renaissance.  It's a shame that we might never stay there any more because of their treatment of State employees.

Only the second Herndon stay was I on my own, I traveled with a colleague the other two times. Knowing that my readers like to see my microbrewery and restaurant reviews, here they come.

During my stay in Herndon I visited two microbreweries: The Aslin Beer Company, downtown Herndon; and The Beltway Brewing Company in Sterling. A favorite between the two, I don’t know. They are both different and both very good. Aslin has a corner brewery vibe with a pizza shop attached to it. They make some good beer. Beltway is slightly more industrial and speaking with one of the managers the do some contract brewing for others. Beltway makes some mean empanadas, which tasted delicious, as long as you are prepared to wait and drink another beer. But then, the pizza at Aslin was great too. There are some other eating places around both breweries, more around Aslin and the second time around I ate at a Korean/Japanese restaurant (Red Kimono) nearby which was absolutely wonderful. Lunch places galore, I ate Thai, Indian, and Vietnamese. In other words I was in Asian heaven.

Just a shot of a beer at Beltway while waiting for my empanadas

Downtown Herndon in Fairfax County.  That evening there was a gathering of cyclist.

In Portsmouth there were no brewery visits, but we stopped by the Bier Garden, a German Restaurant and had some delicious German draft beers and food. I highly recommend it. There is a Legend brewery near the hotel, but I have visited the original Richmond location enough that this seemed redundant. We also ate at Fish and Slips a restaurant at the marina in the Portsmouth harbor. Last time I ate at this place as in August of 2000 when I was house hunting in the area. I could not help myself but I ordered a Manhattan. Food is good but deep fried thus not the healthiest. Other lunch places included a down town Mexican joint and a Thai place. Both great.

So now you are up-to-date!

Walking back from the Bier garden I saw this in the harbor and had to take this photograph. 

My August Sermon (8/30/2022)

I am sorry, but I have not written much lately. I have all kinds of excuses for this; they are all listed here in the following sermon I was asked to do in August. Now I am not horribly religious as some (or all) of you may know, but I am a decent public speaker and I do have a spiritual tendency. So here it is:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Introduction to the topic:

I was asked today to be part of the team that discusses the subject of “Care of the Soul” or simply put: Self-care. Now I am not a therapist, and as many of you all know from two months ago, I am a trainer. One thing I learned from being a trainer is that to be the best you can be, you need to be clear and not speak over people’s head, you do not only need book knowledge, but also life skills, experience. In addition, you need to be full of passion for your subject, compassionate and not condescending. How can I do that every time and how do I get ready and prepare to teach week in week out? Some of us call it Groundhog Day. Well, I get to the room a half hour early to set up. I sometimes talk with a few of my students that wander in, but mostly I just need to be there, absorb where I am, take it all in, relax and go through that ritual of setting up and getting ready. I center myself.

In the same realm, our UU principles tell us that we have to show compassion in our relationship with others and help our fellow human beings. Boy that can be difficult at times, don’t you all agree? Here too, it will be a heck of a lot easier if we would be able to center ourselves and take care of ourselves first before we set out to help our fellow human beings, the environment and all other things we are passionate about.

Today we will be talking about that. How by helping ourselves be centered, or in other words, by helping ourselves first, we can help others more effectively and potentially make the world a better place.


Homily (or Sermon):

This talk today will be very autobiographically, so hold on to your horses.

As I mentioned in the introduction selfcare is very important to us all.

My wife Donna and I take our dogs Jasper and Radar out for walks at least three times per day. Jasper sometimes acts like he needs some selfcare and does not need a walk, but as soon as we open the door and are ready to leave with Radar he is at the door to tell us: Hey aren’t you forgetting somebody?

We both have a Fitbit and for the past seven years or so we have been in a friendly competition on how many steps we can get per day. It is hardly ever less than 10,000 steps. We tell each other that exercise is good for us, even if our ankles, knees and hips are hurting that day. We claim that it is good for our body and our soul. We have to make those 10,000 steps, darn it.

The story that Patricia just told us shows that while walking may be a great tradition, it may not be taking care of yourself, or helping yourself. Noodles the dog in our story decided he needed a break and wanted a rest, a no-bones snack day. He just wanted to laze around and together with Johnathan his owner they had a peaceful, meditative day at home where they were able to snack and get mentally charged for the next adventures on the road. They just needed to center and by doing so they helped each other.

In the introduction this morning I told you a little bit about myself and how I prepare for my classes. I teach 2 classes 1 to 2 weeks a month at different locations throughout the state. Yes, I had a colleague who called it Groundhog Day, since it we only have 7 or so classes in our portfolio. It would be so easy to start droning and make it boring for the students. But that isn’t helping my students who are required to take those classes. I ask my students to tell me when I start getting boring, because at that point I plan to retire. This is the reason why I have my centering or selfcare ritual at the start of each class. I don’t rehearse my classes, to me that makes it boring, but that mental preparation is important. Donna knows it, there are many times when I come home or call home and tell her: Wow that was a great class, we had some great discussions. In essence it was great for my and hopefully for their soul as well.

Looking through the literature what are some of selfcare category we need to consider? Some psychologists suggest there are five:

1. Physical

2. Emotional

3. Psychological

4. Spiritual

5. Professional

Take these for what they are worth, I really don’t want to go into horrible bosses and obnoxious co-workers. I still have trouble dealing with those at times. The best thing to do there in my eyes is take a that no-bones 15 minutes, remove yourself from what aggravates you and center yourself. I do that by going for a brief walk.

This ties into taking care of our physical self doesn’t it. Yes, we all should take care as much as possible of our physical self. Some can do more, some less. That’s OK. For myself I know that very strenuous exercise gets the endorphins flowing, which gives me that runners high and makes me feel good; although I might have felt like crap when I was exercising.

But what can I or we do for our soul?

Personally, we have had a rough but fun July. Arthur, my father-in-law needed to be moved from independent living to assisted living. Although stressful, that would have been ok by itself, were it not that our daughter was getting married the weekend after. So, we had a very intense couple of weeks. How did we take care of ourselves, how did we center, take care of our souls?

Walking to the front to give my daughter away on her happy day.  We had a wonderful few days and are so happy for the married couple.

We exercise or walk, we have our hobbies, and we have our community, our friends. In other words, we take care of our physical needs, our emotional, spiritual, and psychological selves. Let me explain.

You might have missed us in church. All these activities took place on the weekends, and we were crazy busy, so the UUFP was out. We had our daily walks, one of which is usually around 10 in the evening (a great time to debrief).

Donna has her knitting. As I understand it knitting, depending on the pattern, involves counting and sometimes intricate maneuvers tantamount to meditation. You have to pay attention. During easy projects she listens to knitting podcasts or watches knitting YouTube videos. We obviously do not watch TV. There was a period where Donna was not able to knit and after three days, she was antsy and told me she missed it.

If you have been to a previous talk or sermon by me, you know I am a huge fan of forest bathing. No, that is nothing indecent, but it is just lingering in the woods without a place to go. It is almost the same as meditative walking in the woods, taking in the views, smells, and sounds. Nothing better than forest bathing to recharge the soul.

I also grow bonsai, the other day I counted my trees and I have somewhere around 105 or so trees in various stages of training. I have had some for close to 35 years.

Working on my trees, from watering, fertilizing, the clipping branches, repotting, analyzing them, just talking to them and just being with them is pure meditative to me. In the evenings I watch bonsai YouTubes. Those videos were how I could and can escape at night, center and heal from a day’s work and stress. As Joanne once told me, you have given some of them 33 years of care and they are taking care of you, your soul, every time you are among them.

Other things we do as couple include biking and being on the water like kayaking. At least for us, the minute we are out there, we cannot think of what is going on in the world, our jobs, or in our lives, we can only just enjoy where we are and be in the moment.

Being in the moment is what centering is all about. Being in the moment takes care of yourself, your soul and forgetting about the things around you. Of course, without getting into physical harm. A lot of people use meditation or yoga to be in the moment; when I go to a concert I am in the moment.

Now based on what I told you here this morning we prepared a number of wondering questions for you. Questions to meditate over for a little while. I will ask them and give you a minute or two to meditate over them, to be in the moment with. You do not publicly need to answer them, but if you have the desperate need to tell them in public, I will allow you to do so.

After that we will sing a hymn and then Tara J. will lead us in a short session of chair yoga where she will help us to center ourselves and be in the moment.

I will preface the questions with a short anecdote about myself.

Question 1:

I have already told you some of my practices from Forest Bathing to working on my bonsai:

• Think about what spiritual practices you've found helpful in your own life.

Question 2:

Don’t tell him this, but ever since we moved my father-in-law to assisted-living, he is receiving more care from the facility. I have heard Donna tell him NO over the phone a few times now. Like NO the nurses or help are right there, ask them to help you. I know that in the past I have had a lot of trouble saying no to requests but in my old age it is getting easier.

• I wonder how we can find the balance between saying "yes" and saying "no".

Question 3:

This is what my whole talk has been about so without further ado:

• I wonder how you take care of your own needs so that you can then help other people with their needs.

Question 4:

This and the next question go hand-in-hand so hold on I will ask them both at the same time:

• I wonder how we can best serve others.
• I wonder what else we can do to center the people we want to help.

And Question 6:

• I wonder what other care my soul needs; do you know what care your soul needs?

Conclusion:

I realize that what I told you today was somewhat auto biographical, and as I mentioned, in no way am I an expert in centering myself or even being a balanced person. But boy do I try. Over my life I think I have gotten better at it, mellowed somewhat. But you better ask my wife privately if that is really true.

My philosophy of life is that as a human being we should try to help to make everybody’s life a little better than it was before, regardless of who they are. Very much like what is reflected in our first, second, third, fifth and sixth principles. We can only do that by being at peace with ourselves, and we can only be in peace with ourselves by centering ourselves and taking care of our own soul first.

Blessed be.

Hotels 7 and 8, Boy what a shower. (4/21/2022)

Traveling doesn’t stop. Ever since I wrote about my last visit to Lynchburg, I have been in Fredericksburg and the Blacksburg area. My observations are interesting; while the places are great, the hotels are marginal. But let me go into more details.

I stayed at two different chains in these two places. I stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn in Fredericksburg and a Holiday Inn in the Blacksburg area. Both rooms were clean, the beds were good, and things were fairly good. It surprised me initially that there was no room tidying any longer during the day in any of the hotels when you stay more than one night. In the old days, you came back from a long day and the trash can was emptied, the bed was made, and you had new pods for the coffee maker. Now, I am no slob, and I can use my towel two days in a row, so I am fine. However, a clean waste basket would be nice. Another thing I noticed, and this was at both hotels, the restaurants were closed on Monday night. This was not a huge thing since both places were located in an area that has a lot of restaurants nearby.

Breakfast at the Hilton was a bit below par, so much so that I skipped it the next day and went to Panera. It was just too expensive for what you got. With the current economy it saves the hotels money on staff and hopefully keeps the prices low. Thank goodness indications are that unemployment numbers are low and there seems to be a dearth of hospitality workers.

At the Hilton Garden Inn.  This time I had a better view from the 5th floor.  I actually got to watch fireworks one evening.

I had a similar experience at the Holiday Inn. Not that I ever eat there at night, but the restaurant was closed on Monday night, and the for-pay breakfast was expensive and self-service. The scariest part was getting in the shower. The floor around the down drain was soft, so soft that standing in the area made me fear that I would sink through the floor to the room below. Actually, my room was above the pool, and that would have been a riot, a nude, soapy dude falling through the ceiling in the deep end. What an entry!

Looking out of my second-floor window from the Holiday Inn in Christiansburg.  In the background you can see the Huckleberry bike trail.  I did not bring my bike because the forecast was for very cold weather.  Both photos were inspired by the Hopper exhibit I visited a few years ago

Concluding things in both hotels looked a bit run down and not maintained. Yes, I am sure that Covid is partially to blame for it, including the lack of available personnel. Overall, the visits to the localities were great. It was nice to visit areas I had not been to in 2 to 3 years. Great to try old and new restaurants, see students I had not seen for 2 years and to see spring in the mountains of Virginia. Overall, things have changed a bit, but not for the worst, just different in some places. Fun to see, as long as you don’t sink through the shower floor.

Spring 2022 part 2 (4/7/2022)

As the pandemic winds down, and I whole heartedly hope it stays down, I am reminded that this is my third spring of teleworking or working from home. My department has decided that May 1 will be the date that things are going to go back to “normal.” Normal means working at least one day at the office and the other days are still allowed to be telework days. For me that means that on weeks that I do not teach or travel to teach (in May I teach in Williamsburg which does not require any travel), I need to show my face in the office one day a week. Our supervisor told us that if this would be the reason for one of us to quit or start looking for a different job, to let him know and we could talk about it. There is obviously some flexibility in the new rule. 

Working from home has become the new normal for me and I like it. While working I can bake bread, do the laundry, do some writing, explore the news, make dinner, and spend some time outside either looking at my bonsai or just looking and walking through the woods behind our home. Many of you know, I am a huge believer of the concept of forest bathing.

Forest bathing or regularly spending time outside in nature lowers the blood pressure and the general anxiety one has. Just looking around, spending time outside, and breathing in the smells of the natural world increases your immunity to diseases and most likely fight cancers as well.  Research in Japan showed that the volatile compounds or aromatic compounds released by the vegetation, called phytoncides, are responsible for all this and the effect of a one-time exposure to these compounds can actually last up to two weeks.  Naturally, movement itself strengthens your immunity, skeletal and your cardiovascular system.  I get a lot of creative ideas for new classes, for changes to my current classes or to the way I teach by simply walking outside in the woods meditating and thinking. This is where I get my inspiration. Thank goodness, my supervisor know this and he encourages this.

One of my more favorite areas in the woods behind our home.  Just past this crossing is a grove of very large yellow populars (or tulip trees).  I just love it here!

During these two years working from home, I have been able to come much closer to the natural cycle of nature and how it affects my bonsai trees, my yard, the natural area and the woods out back. It has helped me to become calmer and more accepting of who I am and everything going on around me. I would say that I have become more introspective. More and more do I realize that I am me and no one can take that away from me. I have gone through a lot of tough times in my life (personally and with or because of my extended family), some of which I have chronicled in these postings; someday I will post some more. However, I am happy with where I am and where my life is heading; I would not want to change a thing right now.

As I write this the redbud in my backyard is blooming profusely. The honey bees that we keep in the back yard are all over it and so are the chickadees. The chickadees are eating the small pink flowers which must be loaded with vitamins, flavonoids and all kinds of micronutrients. Or are they eating insects that feast on the flowers? Those small observations are so enjoyable and keep me going, that sapsucker I can see working the tree right outside my window, the lemon tree seedling in my office that are rapidly growing towards the light. It is almost time for the tropical to go outside and make an attempt to rig up that irrigation system. Summer is rapidly approaching.

The view from my home office window.  You can see the redbud in its full glory.  Other trees are starting to leaf out.

Return to the scene of the crime - Hotels 6 (3/29/2022)

It was almost exactly two years later, actually two years and nine days that I returned to the scene of the crime. On my drive into town, I dove down Concord Turnpike towards downtown. Nothing much appeared to have changed during the two years that I had been away. When the road leveled out I passed a number of cars and trucks seemingly parked on the side of the road and then I discovered my mistake, the railroad crossing in the industrial area just before you hit downtown. While turning around and pulling up behind the last vehicle was an option, the line I had passed was long and the train appeared to be just going back and forth as in it was maneuvering or adding carts. Google told me there was a work around and I went back up the hill at the crossing on Winston Ridge Street to Winchester Street. This was an adventure in itself. It was an area I had never seen before, hilly, woody and as some may describe it, definitely on the other side of the tracks.

But finally I made it downtown. Not much had changed there either. The perpetual construction was still ongoing as I made my way to the hotel. Then I noticed that one of the restaurants changed from Mexican to Japanese, interesting. Arriving at the hotel I also noticed that the road that was previously one way was converted to two way traffic, again. So things do change over time. Parking was still valet but now there were plastic sheets at the check-in counter between the guests and the persons that check you in. I do not think it was bullet proof, and not even sure how virus proof they were; when I hung my clothes hanger on it with my shirts, the darn thing moved a few inches.

I had a rough time that day. The morning we had to put our dog to sleep, after he had been my (our) faithful companion for over 13 years. Then I had to drive to this place, at times tearing up or at least with my eyes still burning. Then to think this was a two year’s anniversary of sorts; a return to the scene of the crime. So I needed to celebrate or was it commiserate? At least one microbrewery had sprouted up in the two years I had not been in this town. It was within walking distance, so here I went!

Three Roads Brewing Company in an old car dealership.  They had some decent beers a gal behind the bar who was a good listener and a puppy that came to visit that I was allowed to pet.  It was within walking distance from my hotel.

Ok, ok, what place am I writing about? Lynchburg! It was two years ago, when I came out of Lynchburg when the Governor told us that we were going on a 30 days quarantine for COVID. Yes, I have been teaching in the classroom since early February, this return after almost exactly two years felt so auspicious. I was troubled by the death of Jake, my trusty dog, and it still bugs me. I have Jasper and I love him to death, but still. I guess I am just getting old and sentimental. Oh well.

Despite all its faults, like Liberty University and its related conservatism (every Republican wannabe presidential candidate will visit that university), I really like the area, the downtown, etc. It is pleasant to teach there together with a colleague who lives in town and to meet old friends who I have taught and interacted with for 13 plus years.

In the two years Liberty has had some fun. I have written a lot about the sexual repression at the university, about my secret voyeurism when sitting at Starbucks watching young girls studying the Bible, and of course about Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s escapades in cuckoldry (at least that is what I think it is). I understand he is currently suing the University, or maybe it is settled, I am really not following it that much. I am just amazed or fascinated by the fact how hypocritical a lot of the conservatives and religious folks are. I guess they are human too.

As you can see, a lot of thoughts and feelings came flooding back to me two years after my last visit. My return to the scene of my “last crime” was not as much fun as I had hoped it would be, because of my depression about Jake, I explored too little and drank too much that first day (my poor liver and brain). But still, it is worth documenting.

The Virginian Lynchburg a Curio Hotel by Hilton.  Here I am in the lobby and you can see the plastic sheets.  Very friendly staff, I really like this place.  The doorman told me I looked like Einstein; what else do I want?  All hotels photos were taken to mimic Hopper's work. 

Me in my room.  My only complaint was the view: walls and a tiny sliver of sky and across the street.