Yorktown (4/23/2014)

We had dinner at the Water Street Grill in Yorktown last night (see my Yelp review here).  It was my wife’s birthday and we had a nice dinner with her father.  My review of the restaurant would be the same, except that the service was a little slow; the place appears to be understaffed; I expect that the owners are trying to save money on wages, and hire the bare minimum, not to get bad reviews.  The food was good, and the beer selection is great, but having to wait 20 minutes for a beer was a bit much.  If the owners don't watch it, it might become a victim of its own success.

We went for a brief walk along the Yorktown waterfront after dinner.  It was breezy, and the river was angry.  Being around sundown, I decided to test my cell phone camera and took these two photos in the night detection mode, and I was somewhat impressed.  It gives you a great rendition of what it looked like out there.  A group of young adults were playing some medieval game with swords, shields and jousting spears (or whatever you call these things) in the field where we usually have a farmers market.   Interesting to see and just a wonderful evening to be out and about.

Yorktown (4/19/2014)



This is what I jokingly called leopard water.  Early spring we have a lot of pollen, and in particular the loblolly pines are going crazy.  Everything out-doors (and in-doors) is covered with a yellow dust.  In the morning you have to run your windshield wipers to be able to see.  Rainwater runoff becomes a stream of yellow water.  This is the only place where I have lived that I have seen it; but then I only lived in North Carolina in the fall.  I have many pictures of the ponds out back with a yellow film on them or even rings of yellow pollen on the trees in the pond that are left there once water retreats.

It was raining outback the day I took this picture and the solid sheen of yellow pollen was broken up in this leopard type color.  Really neat.  You can see the water drops.

 

 

Richmond (4/17/2014)

Had a great walk during my lunch half hour today.  I walked down to the James over 7^th street; and once at the river I went right instead of my usual left.  Near the Belvidere Bridge I walked up the hill to the Virginia War Memorial  and then over 2^nd to Main and then back to the office.  A nice invigorating 35 minute walk.  My FitBit told me that I climbed as much as 20 flights of stairs, just what the doctor ordered I guess.  Took some nice pictures of the river etc, but this one stood out to me.  I just like the colors, the composition and just the feel of it.  It was taken near 2^nd and Main.  They are paving all over town for the collegiate world bicycling championships in early May.

Library of Virginia in Richmond (4/16/2014)

An article in the newspaper got me steaming today.  It was about how conservative USA (read Grover Norquist and the Koch brothers) are trying to stop the use of alternative energy and selling back of home generated energy back to the power companies.  Honestly, I think the newspaper was trying to fill some space, since this appears to be old news.  A simple search for Koch and renewable energy or solar energy shows their opposition to it for at least the past two or three years.  Guess they don’t like the government subsidies and the fact that there are laws requiring energy companies to buy back the excess energy that is generated at home.  I’m really nor that sure why they are against renewable energy.  Is it affecting their income as share holders in energy firms?  Or is it a principle, in that, energy conservation has been championed by more liberal thinkers and democrats, so it must automatically be bad and opposed?  I am still confused why those people who want to protect our children from a future deficit, have no problem in saddling those same kids up with a warmer planet, more polluted air, energy shortages, rising energy costs and a higher cost of living. 

So I was still steaming during my lunchtime walk in the sun (it was a great day to harvest solar energy).  It was abnormally chilly today, but it actually felt invigorating.  Walking up the hill at the capitol I noticed a saying on the Library of Virginia: “Reason and free inquiry are the only free agents against errors, …”  This saying is attributed to Thomas Jefferson, and it rang so true this afternoon.  We hopefully will use reason and inquiry before accepting everything that we are told, be it from conservative or liberal pundits. 

In full disclosure; I am the proud owner of two solar arrays that I will be installing on my sailboat, partially as an experiment, but also to be more self sufficient and less dependent on an outlet to charge the batteries on my boat.

Richmond (4/14/2014)

It was nice and warm in Richmond.  After helping a friend load her car with her personal items after she quit our place of work and after hearing of the death of one of my wife's close relatives in Norway, I decided to go for a walk to clear my head.  As I often do, I end up at #Starbucks, and outside was this couple with a huge Great Dane.  The animal was so friendly and wanted to great everybody that walked by, naturally all the business men in suites and business women in fancy dresses.  Funny to sit there and watch.  This is one of my favorite Starbucks because there is such a great opportunity to people watch; moreover it is only a ten minute walk from my office and a great place for a break.