Creepy and Weird (8/22/2024)

Two new words that entered our political lexicon. As most of you know, I occasionally write about politics, sometimes about what is going on at the local level here in Yorktown. Conversely, I write nationally and internationally. Note that I did not hyperlink the national in this post, but I have 102 posts (not including this one) on the subject in one form or fashion and 15 on racism. You can probably find many more posts where I forgot to add the tag. The words I want to write about are weird and creepy. I have used the word weird a total of six times and actually three of them occurred in posts where I have politics as a keyword. I used creepy once; however, it had to do with aging.

Creepy and aging that is an interesting jump. Do older men get creepier as they age? I would hope not, as I am older. However, I can think of at least one old person who is getting creepier and creepier with age; even weirder. As you know I am a liberal and was happy that at least our side of the presidential race bowed out. This was not because he became creepier, but he was just plainly getting too old. However, the candidate from the other side who is two or three years younger than the guy that was considered too old is staying in the race. You all know I am writing about tRump. That guy was already creepy years ago. He slept around while married, associated himself with abusers of minors, slept with porn stars while his wife was pregnant, and even raped women. He is a convicted felon, a criminal. His followers and he himself consider him the second coming. I learned today that he obsessed with crowd size and claims that one of the pictures of his opponent’s crowd was AI generated. Now that is creepy, and it is definitely plain weird that almost half the country would want him to become the president of this country. It has all the flavors of a cult.

Even weirder is the choice by this candidate in selecting his wing man or candidate for vice president: a self-proclaimed slum dog millionaire who went to Yale, writes a book about his humble upbringing but does not give a crap about the poor and middle class, and rages against the educated elite. He comes from an area where healthcare is lacking, where women’s healthcare and maternity support is poor, but he does not care. He seems to dislike unmarried women and calls them “cat ladies.” In addition, he is against invitro fertilization, but believes that all women should at least have three children, and all women should stay at home. Together they are for installing the government in your bedroom and in your home, but God forbid if the government tells you anything about your right to own a gun. Plain weird, if not creepy.

I was happy when Biden decided not to continue. I am happy and energized by the new candidate, Vice President Harris and her running mate Tim Walz. It was Governor Walz who described some of the actions by the opposition and even the ticket as “Creepy and weird.” I admit, I am not original here, but I would like to enforce the idea. tRump, Vance and their followers are plain weird and a lot of them are creepy as well.

Sorry, no deep message here, except the reinforcement Tim Walz’s observation about the Republican candidates and my commitment never to vote for these creepy weirdos. I hope you do the same!

From high on top of my perch (12/10/2010)

From high up my perch, there is the Amazon Prime guy, again. No, not for us. For the folks across the street. Not that we do not spend our money there. Heck, we are bleeding Amazon money, but not today. My wife even yelled to me, up the stairs: “Was that for us?” Actually, Alexa would tell us. “Alexa what are my notifications?”

However, I did not want to talk about Alexa or Amazon. I wanted to talk about my roost upstairs, overlooking the road in front of us. At times it is distracting as well as entertaining sitting here looking out of my window.

You get to see a baby blue unmarked construction vehicle with a ladder on the roof, and there goes the Prime vehicle, on its way back out of the neighborhood. People going to work, coming home. You see the regulars, walking their dogs: Bill walking Sophie; the woman walking Chaco; the guys from around the corner walking their what looks like a scotty but much larger; the big guy who collects military vehicles but actually is somewhat meek with his dog; the older lady who first walks her dog and then you see her speed walking by. You have your regular runners, the women with strollers, the groups of women trying to exercise and lose weight (I think). There is a (I think retired) couple who walk by every afternoon hand-in-hand, she is about 2 or 3 inches taller than he is. I also see people walk about 10 homes and walk back and I think: “is that all.”

You have a few individuals, but I suspect they have some social anxiety. Not bad, but it took a long time for them to even acknowledge me when I was outside and met them on my (or our walk). Especially one gal, she walks straight like an arrow, her arms cocked and really out to get some exercise. She is fun; you can sometime catch her and her husband shooting bow and arrow in their back yard. The other day I watched them throwing knives and axes.

Then there are cyclists. In the morning, there are often two cyclists on recumbent bikes. These two do not live in the neighborhood, but it is safe to bike here. I know they do not live here because they are members of the yacht club we belong to, and I know where they live. While typing this I have already seen two others bike by. The fun part is the kids from two houses down. They love to bike. But, the minute I step out off the front door, they race home, throw their bikes on the front lawn and run in the house. My wife and I are known as extremely liberal and these kids’ parents are T-party conservatives (Q-anon?). I wonder if the kids were told to watch out for us because we eat kids? I always smile at them and wave. You get the picture.

Finally, you have my favorite: Felicity. Felicity is pregnant; she walks her Great Dane: Bruce, who is a friend of our dog. When Bruce escapes from his home or yard, he comes to visit us, to play with Jasper out dog. Felicity has four kids already and you know she is coming by when you see some of her sons on a little bike coming by. They herald her and Bruce. Felicity and gang will sometimes stop over to talk and play in our yard, which is a welcome distraction from teleworking and looking at a computer screen. No cannibalistic fear here! Oh well, just some musing while looking out of the window. But now I have to go downstairs; the mail lady just delivered a (Christmas?) package.

There goes Felicity and Bruce.  I was prepared and knew they were coming by because there were little boys on small bike that  came by heralding her imminent appearance.  (photo was taken on November 16 when I still have leaves on the trees, now a month later it is all bare).

Au Naturale (10/18/2019)

The nice thing about teleworking or telecommuting is that it allows me to go for long morning walks with my dog Jake (I wrote a long post about it here). As I mentioned in my previous posts, we have cold mornings again, which knocks down the chigger, tick and mosquito population, and I can go out back into the woods again. One of my walks is about a mile and a half (2.4 km) long. It brings me through our neighborhood and then into the National Park which runs in the City Park. The City Park or Newport News Park is the woods I write about in my blog all the time. 

The look back after just entering the National Park from our neighborhood.  Don't tell anyone, but here is when Jake is off the leash and allowed to go his own pace and forest bathe as well.  He is too old to get in trouble and just enjoys smelling and looking around as much as I do. 

I noticed today during my walk that the second that I stepped over the boundary between our neighborhood and the National Park that my gate slowed down, my shoulders relaxed and even my breathing calmed down. I felt that my jaw did not clench and the space between my eyebrows relaxed. It was actually amazing. I was suddenly going for a stroll. 

Now when we walk our dog(s) (our other dog died almost a year ago now) in our neighborhood, we go with a purpose: to walk the dog, and/or to get some exercise, get our steps, raise our heart rate. In the woods, I go forest bathing, experience nature, enjoy myself and let nature come over me. I realize, when I walk through our neighborhood things have gotten slower. Jake has gotten older, and my knee has not been very happy lately. 

But it is somewhat boring walking in our development, you have seen that front yard only so many times; you meet the same people (dog walkers). Only once in the nearly 20 years that I have lived here have I been met with excitement; well actually three times, counting the other two times that I was almost run off the road, once actually breaking my ankle. The really exciting time was when I saw a well-proportioned nude lady walking through her living room. This happened about 15 years ago, so who knows, since I have been living here 20 years, maybe within the next 10 years I will be confronted with such a delightful view again (no nude guys please). I wonder if this is why I am somewhat tight when walking through our neighborhood, full of anticipation?  I just hope my poor old heart can take it when I get my next view to a nude lady in a window and that this millisecond exposure is not the end of me. While this may be the ultimate existentialist experience as I describe in a previous post <here>, I don’t want to go into cardiac arrest for something minor as that. I want to go out in a big way. 

However, it is those strolls in the woods that keep me going. Every day, I am just amazed by how the sun comes through the trees. What leaves have fallen off the trees. Yesterday, I was greeted by the call of a hawk; actually, it was probably warning me to stay away, or warning others of my presence. Today, I heard the call of birds that mimic the call of the hawk: blue jays. There was a caterpillar hanging by a thread from a leaf of a wax myrtle. There is always something to see or to explore. 

One of my favorite (small) forest trees, the sassafras is shedding its leaves.  Stay tuned, I am planning to write a post about this species one of these days.

Sunrise in the woods, I love the way the sun comes through the canopy and plays with the fallen leaves on the forest floor.

Folks it is really true, nature is not scary; it actually is good for you to go out there. Nature is good for your health and a one-time exposure can last you a week to two weeks. Just be safe and when you are a newbie to nature, go with someone you who has experience and who you trust. Lastly, enjoy and stroll, don’t be in a hurry.

Tappahannock (9/25/2014)

Today I traveled to Tappahannock to teach a class on stormwater.  I had a good time, but being the only teacher, I am exhausted.  In essence I had a good response form my students.  Interestingly, I was teaching in a church that was taken over by the county and it was interesting "preaching" stormwater.

Went out to lunch with some colleagues at Lowery's; and after not eating there for a long time, I found them average, but kind of expensive.  But it was good.  After class I drove around town and took this picture.  Tappahannock is known for its seafood, being on the water.  I think it is also famous for being the home of Chris Brown, the rap singer.  I kind of feel ashamed mentioning him as one thing this town is known for, since he is also known for spousal abuse, a thing all too common lately, as reported about in the NFL.  I just can't fathom that, and find it despicable.  A review of various websites doesn't tell me much about that town, Captain John Smith appeared to have landed in the area but was driven off by the native indians, for the rest not much.  I know Tappahannock a a place with very cheap gas, and it did not disappoint me again.  Gas was cheapest there on this short trip.

Anyway I was debating intersection with or without school bus, so here is the one with.  It gives a better contrast on a rainy, gloomy day.

Yorktown (6/18/2011)

Yes you have not gone back in time, but I have.  I am reacting to a photo challenge I saw on the one of the photo blogs I follow.  They asked for pictures with squares, angles and triangles.  Now it happened that we are working on a photo book for a specific year.  We are using blurb, and slowly working on year books for our family.  We've got so many photographs that we figured we might as well put the good ones in a book.  Working on the 2011 book I found one of my favorite pictures of June 2011 that shows all the things that the challenge was looking for and then some.  Even the bikini bottom of this (unknown to me) lady has triangles in it.  I'm sorry but I love this picture.  It also fit in to the theme of this blog, pictures from the area I live and from my travels throughout the state and general area.  But yes it is a look through my photo archives.
Summers in Yorktown are amazing.  We have a fun beach, close-by restaurants and even a dock, where you can park your boat (to go eat).  During the summer it can get really busy during the weekend, and we tend to stay away from it at that time, maybe with the exception of the farmer's market on Saturday morning.  Just in summary, this is a good place to live.

Stress free in Northern Virginia (5/27/2014)

This week I am in northern Virginia or what they call NOVA.  The trip up north was interesting as always.  The roads were crowded, and of course there was an accident on I-95.  So here I was sitting in a backup thinking about the radio show I heard this morning.  In an interview with Dr. Amit Sood about living without stress he spoke about being in a traffic jam and thinking of people you are thankful of, for being in your life.  I really think that would help a lot; why even bother yourself with people who are potentially toxic to you?  At work you already have to deal with people you cannot choose, so in your private life, concentrate on those people who contribute to your well being; be thankful for them and concentrate on what it is about them that makes you happy.  Quit obsessing about those people that bother you.  Life is too short! 

Well, in the traffic jam I was able to take this (horrible) picture by sticking my phone out of the window and shoot this image of the traffic jam, so symbolic of all the crap and toxicity that can jam up a person's mind.  To me this was particularly important, after a weekend of murders, such as the guy in Santa Barbara, California who had his mind poisoned by his inability to attract women.  As a father of a daughter and a husband I am very disturbed about the increased violence against women, but also of any other hate crime.