2 August, 2020            It’s hard to build with no foundation

And I hardly took any pictures this week – the foundation of my blog posts! But I’ll make do. And hope for more pictures next week. 

Personally I’m always happy to see dog and river pictures. We had the great good fortune to bring our old friend Luna with us this morning. Left to right it’s Turner (brown), Mackey (foreground), Yuki (unmistakable white dog) and last (but in no way least) Luna (little black and white dog). Luna doesn’t strike me as being that small but she runs right under Yuki and comes out the other side and keeps going – true to her Border Collie nature: 

L-R Turner, Mackey, Yuki, Luna

Of course you’ve seen a million pictures of Dash (our little orange cat) sprawled in the sun in the summer or near the fire in the winter. He’s been a sprawler since Day 1. I just found an old (and old quality) picture of him from when he first arrived here in early 2008. He’s shown with his big buddy Handsome. In the summer of 2008 Handsome slipped out of the house and got run over by a car on Three Chopt Road. Dash mourned – or at least missed – Handsome for 48 or possibly 72 hours. Then he turned his affection to the dogs and he’s loved them ever since. Dash and his buddy Handsome, January, 2008: 

Dash with his old buddy Handsome (RIP), January, 2008

Here’s a dragonfly I saw this week: 

Dragonfly this week

And Luna the following day! Here she is when I came over to take her for a walk yesterday afternoon: 

Does she look like she’s ready to go?

Well, I don’t have a ton to write or photograph. I began a quick story last week – I may include it here – 

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Okay – this just started – at 8:35 Sunday evening. I found an email I sent to myself at 3:37 PM Tuesday just after I finished riding at West Creek. The email’s subject says “People being kind for no reason”. In the contents of the email it says “Bright view landscaping 

Salute w leaf blower 

Sand leaves pine needles grass clippings dirt dust, always a cloud”. 

The story was – I was riding my bike at West Creek. And I could hear the whine of a leaf blower ahead and as I came down the hill a guy was out there in the heat – according to my bike computer it was 100.3º that day – blowing leaves and sand and pine needles and grass clippings off the road. Remember – it was a hundred degrees. And this guy is wearing long pants, a long sleeved shirt, a hard hat, holding this blower, the whole thing. I practically feel like I’m suffocating just remembering it. Anyway, he’s in there in his little cloud of smoke and dust and flying debris and he sees me riding toward him and he raises the blower and points it straight up in the air until I pass by! Just to keep from blowing stuff on me! He had zero to gain. His boss wasn’t going to see him. He had zero idea who I was – not that it would have mattered. He was just kind for no reason! 

I was so moved by his gesture that I came home and wrote a note about it to one of my riding buddies. So I wrote a brief version of that story. As I was about to hit “send” I took a peek at the NYT. And after observing and writing that very story and experience, I see this on the digital “front page” of the NYT: ”The Cult of Selfishness Is Killing America”. You know, seriously. Look what just happened – to me, in my real actual life – as opposed to what’s being blared in the press. My experience might as well have happened on a different planet, or at least in a different country. But it didn’t. It happened on a weekday afternoon on the outskirts of Richmond, VA. It’s not a perfect world (yet) but please take my word for it – the cult of selfishness is not killing America. 

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Come back next week! I know I say this every week but I hope the pictures/post will be better! All best, 

Jay