The thing that I miss about living in Virginia…
5 minute read
July 25, 2025, 12:45 PM
Recently, someone on Threads made a post about spending the day on a rooftop, and that her expectations did not line up with reality. She was hoping for something that felt a bit magical, but instead, she felt kind of lonely. I responded by saying that I liked going up to high-up places and just looking out, because it’s often quite peaceful, and allows me to zone out for a while, and also giving me an opportunity to do some good thinking.
Then while I was doing my next trip on the train, I realized that I missed those kinds of moments, and it’s because I don’t have the access to high places like I used to. When I lived in Stuarts Draft, I had easy access to the mountains. I could go up to the Blue Ridge Parkway just about any time that I wanted, and I could just kind of unwind up there. It was nice. I would typically go up there late at night and just unwind. Staring out across the piedmont or the valley at night was very peaceful. It was so quiet up there, too. Just me and my thoughts. My mind could wander all it wanted, and then after a while, I would go back home. I liked it where I had a big view of the surrounding land below, and where there was some evidence of human activity, i.e. I could see the lights of houses and the occasional car moving down below. It was just enough stimulation to allow me to relax.
Now, mind you, not every visit to the Blue Ridge Parkway was as peaceful as the next, because not everyone that was up on the Parkway late at night was there to just unwind and relax. There were a few occasions where cops came by looking for someone and asked me if I saw them, and there was another time where the cops and a drunk guy made a lot of noise on one of the overlooks. And then there was the time when I was sitting on the tailgate of the Sable at Afton Overlook (the northernmost overlook, steps away from the Parkway’s northern terminus), just relaxing and enjoying the view, when another person came to the overlook. I wasn’t able to see them because it was dark, but I heard their voice. A man’s voice said hello, and I responded in kind. Then they asked me, “You want some dick?” Um, no. That was the end of that particular evening’s relaxation, because I wasn’t comfortable with that at all, and didn’t know what this man who just propositioned me was about. All I know is that I will never forget that moment for as long as I live, because that was something that I never expected to have happen to me, and that I hope will never happen again.
Continue reading…Categories: Blue Ridge Parkway
Remembering retail and respecting copyright…
12 minute read
July 9, 2025, 9:35 AM
Recently, while I was browsing Facebook, I found a post by a page called Remembering Retail, which focuses on retail-related nostalgia of various types. I have been familiar with this page for a while, as Facebook serves it up to me on a regular basis, despite that I have never formally followed it. In this particular instance, the post discussed Ames, a now-defunct discount store. The photo that accompanied the post was this one from my visit to the Gordmans store in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania on August 20, 2020:
Categories: Copyright infringement, JMU, Retail, Social media
A bus that works and a car that doesn’t…
12 minute read
July 1, 2025, 12:03 PM
It’s funny how things work. This week, one vehicle went into the shop, and the other came out. First, the HR-V went to the body shop to fix the damage after that run-in with the deer in Stuarts Draft, and I’m now in a rental car. That came a bit more quickly than I expected. Recall that I was on a trip when the accident happened, and after a quick assessment of the damage, we continued the trip to Roanoke, as the car was still drivable. I put almost 700 miles on the HR-V as part of that trip, and everything was just fine. Then I got home, parked the HR-V in its usual parking space, and all was well. Then when I started it the next day to go to work, the parking brake didn’t want to release, and I quickly learned that there was no way to manually release that electronic parking brake. The HR-V was clearly staying put. I ended up having to call out of work to take care of this, as the assessment was this: I could book a ride to work and back, but that would cost me a lot of money, and wouldn’t solve the problem of the car’s not wanting to start. Taking the day off meant that I could go down to Enterprise and get a rental car. And at that time of day on a Saturday, the only Enterprise location that was open was at National Airport. Fortunately, my friend Aaron Stone happened to be in town that day, so he was able to give me a ride to the airport. The plan was to deal with the rental car, and then get AAA to tow the HR-V to the body shop later on. However, once Aaron came, I decided to fire up the HR-V again and see what would happen. Of course the parking brake released then. So rather than get a tow, the HR-V went to CRG under its own power, and then I put the key in their drop box. Good – that saved me a lot of hassle, though I would have preferred to go to work.
I stopped by CRG the following Thursday to make sure that everything was good with the repair and to retrieve a few items from the car that I had forgotten. That was an amusing visit. This is the new HR-V’s third visit to CRG for body work, and we all got a laugh when one of them joked that I should get a punch card. I remarked, with a laugh, “Four body repairs and the fifth one is free, right?” I mean, it’s not like I’m deliberately bashing it up. One time, I got rear-ended. Another time, I inadvertently backed into a fence post and put a nice little scratch in it (I paid cash for that one, since that was minor, and very obviously my fault). And now the deer.
Categories: Frederick, Honda HR-V (2023), New Flyer D35HF