NEWFAZE

Prediction is very difficult…

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Jay McLaughlin

6 April, 2014 Prediction is very difficult…

…especially about the future. – Niels Bohr

Colors are out now, lots of yellow, daffodils and forsythias and of course a few dandelions. Plus other colors. Next – in a week or so – comes pollen and smells, smells, smells. Of course there are already smells, at least at home, mainly hyacinths. But soon it will be lilacs, honeysuckle, multiflora rose, those little waxy white ones that I love, love, love. Inchworms appear soon too, and the buffleheads are already gone.

I have a few pictures of the bright colors. More soon, but here are a few to begin April.

I took this picture early in the morning on Wednesday, March 26, just as I was leaving the house to visit a buddy of mine. Not a colorful picture, but fun. This was at 6:24 AM, standing on my front stoop, facing almost directly east. It’s not a great picture, but neat in its way. The moon is the brighter object, near the middle of the picture on the right. It rose at 4:02 that morning. If you look almost directly in the center and lower down there’s another bright spot; that’s Venus. Sunrise that morning was at 7:06. Tomorrow morning (I’m writing this on Sunday, 6 April) the sun will rise here in Richmond at 6:46. It will rise earlier each morning until mid-June when it rises at 5:48. Venus and the moon:

Venus (bottom center), the moon (right center) about 1/2 hr before sunrise

I zoomed in on the moon at that exact time; this is how it looked:

Waning moon, 25 days old, 24% illuminated

I tried zooming in on Venus but my camera doesn’t do it any justice.

Spring is coming along quickly. I notice the changes with each visit to Pony Pasture. I saw male and female buffleheads on March 27 and a few more on the 28th. I’ve been there several times in April and never photographed one so they’ve headed up to Canada for the summer.

This was a sharp looking male:

A distinguished male Bufflehead on the James

And a nice looking female just downstream; it’s difficult to photograph them together. It’s difficult to photograph them at all, they dive so swiftly and with so little warning. I believe she’s preening in this picture (she’s facing backward) but I can’t say for certain:

A beautiful female Bufflehead. She’ll be many miles north by the time you read this.

If you want to photograph ducks and not have it be a huge challenge, take my advice and stick with mallards. They pair off regularly, especially this time of year, and they dive only rarely. And the male’s green head is hard to miss. The females are graceful and elegant as well. Of course, this is not a great example of a mallard pair. There’s a blur from a slender twig between me and the male. The female’s reflection on the water is pretty:

A pretty pair of mallards.

We made it down for a few minutes on April 1; the flowers are blooming like mad. So far only the non-smelly variety. The good smelling ones will be out soon. Multiflora rose and honeysuckle when they come out will be overwhelming. In a good way. After you begin to see tons and tons of pollen (anywhere in Richmond) you’ll begin to see (and smell) the beautiful smelling flowers. Now in early April we have mostly beautiful looking flowers. In my yard we have hyacinths which are beautiful looking and beautiful smelling but no hyacinths at Pony Pasture. There are violets everywhere:

Prolific AND elegant

And these lovely little yellow flowers carpet the ground:

Petite and yellow and charming. Beyond that, I do not know. The name.

And these delicate little beauties:

I wish I knew the name! But seriously, do they really need one? It’s enough to see them.

If I sound like I don’t know what type of flowers those are, that’s because I don’t know what type of flowers those are. If anyone can enlighten me, I am as always eager to learn. I will make every effort to credit you on my next blog post. At the foot of Charlie’s Bridge is a signature spring flower:

Few flowers proclaim spring as boldly as daffodils:

We all know what that one is! A daffodil, just in case you don’t. Some of my friends call them jonquils.

And I believe we will not run low on Pony Pasture’s most prolific reptile anytime soon:

I automatically assume it’s a wise male. The truth is it may or may not be wise or male. Handsome though. Or pretty, if you prefer.

Any morning at Pony Pasture is the best morning to be there and spring comes up quick. We ducked in for a few minutes again on Thursday. This (I believe) is vinca. It’s invasive, but like many invasives (honeysuckle, my favorite) it’s very lovely. Evelyn thinks birds spread it. Which doesn’t really sound “invasive” but I am not an ecologist:

Vinca

Our first Virginia Bluebells of the season; they are wildly prolific and soon they’ll be around every corner at Pony Pasture. Birds didn’t spread these; I watched Ralph White and friends plant them. But they’re a native species, so I suppose that makes them not invasive:

Virginia bluebells. Is that a little bug on the second one from the left? I think it is.

Virginia bluebells. Is that a little bug on the second one from the left? I believe it is.

There was even a swan on Thursday! This was way on the other side of the river so the picture is not lovely. But the subject matter is, and we don’t see swans very often at PP. It’s possible they’re invasive. This is not an area of expertise for me, obviously. I’ll read up on it. Meanwhile, enjoy:

A single swan. I am ill-informed about swans.

Turtles of course wherever we looked; sorry if this is too many. I like this look with the big claws and bright green moss. Plus they seem to have a little bit of attitude. That may just be me:

Can you detect an expression? I think I detect a bit of a swagger. I've been wrong before.

Can you detect an expression? I think I sense a bit of a swagger. I’ve been wrong before.

I took a picture of Turner seated politely on the trail that morning. Look how handsome and gentle:

He looks so elegant. Do not for one moment be fooled. He is very, very silly.

He looks so elegant. Do not for one moment be fooled. He is extremely silly.

Later that day I was looking at the Richmond Police K-9 page on facebook. This picture was on the page and I showed it to a buddy:

Do you think that looks like Turner? Not in my worst nightmare.

My friend didn’t hesitate for an instant and said “Turner!”. Fortunately I have never seen Turner make that particular expression.

Yesterday was April 5, the 26th anniversary of my accident. Mom was on her way to visit Kevin and the girls and she stopped here on her way. She and Evie and I got together for brunch at the Westbury Pharmacy. It’s always a pleasure.

I didn’t take any pictures, but I did take advantage of the nice weather and squeezed in a pleasant twenty mile bike ride. There were forsythias and daffodils everywhere I turned. Spring rides are hard to beat.

This post is overrun with pictures (although under-run with writing, oops). So I’ll close now and put up another post soon. But this morning when Evie and Mackey and Turner and I were enjoying our Sunday river walk, we saw our first redbuds of 2014. Redbuds are my favorite early spring flower. Though they’re really a tree:

Redbuds on the verge of opening

Until next time, enjoy the weather (even when it rains tomorrow!). All best,

Jay

PS I learned yesterday that my favorite author died yesterday at the age of 86. His name is Peter Matthiessen and though he was extremely prolific, my lifetime favorite was The Snow Leopard. If I started a religion, that would be the bible. I may write about it in my next post.

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, People, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged Dogs, Flowers, People, pictures of the moon, Pony Pasture, Rivers, smile | 5 Comments

Easy to be happy

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Jay McLaughlin

25 March, 2014 Easy to be happy

Sometimes it’s easy to be happy. Other times you can’t imagine you’ll ever be happy again. I started this post walking the dogs on a Sunday evening. Ev and Turner and Mackey and I had recently (w/in the last couple hours) returned from a flawless weekend in Blacksburg with my brother Shane and his wife Kristin and their dog Tara. The weekend before I’d spent the entire day Saturday visiting the Highland Maple Festival in Monterey, VA with Wren, one of my five lovely nieces. I was getting ready for bed Sunday evening thinking about how easy it is to be happy. At 10:10 PM my phone buzzed and I got a text from my oldest and dearest friend. We met four decades ago this September. We’ve been through a lot, lot, lot together. A member of his family has cancer. Another has dementia. He’d just learned a second family member was diagnosed with cancer. He has another family member with a significant disability. I was thinking that if I’d drafted my “Easy to be happy” blog post on paper, I’d have crumpled it up and thrown it in the trash. We had a long talk on the phone the next day, when life felt less overwhelming. No one’s path had changed. But he sounded better.

He’s happier more consistently than most people you know. It’s not because he’s lucky. Luck makes people happy for a brief time, but not consistently. It’s my observation that he’s consistently happy because he’s consistently nice to people. Being nice to others is a choice 100% of the time. Since he’s consistently nice to people, people are consistently (more often than not) nice to him. So when he walks into a store or an office or a home or anyplace where people know him, people are happy he’s there. Which makes him feel good every time. He gets used to people treating him that way, and it gets to be his routine, and he begins to feel that way even when he walks into a place where people don’t know him.

So today – and tomorrow – and next year – he will have family members with cancer. If they live that long. He’ll have a family member with dementia and one – minimum – with a disability. He’s not happy about it. But he’s still nice to people. And people are nice to him. And he’s happy about that. Because he’s made choices. That any of us can make any time.

Oy. Way too preachy. Please see this picture for a much needed change in tone:

Boy did I ever need a smile! And boy did Wren ever deliver!

That’s me with Wren at the Maple Festival. Behind us is a table full of “Pecan Yummies.” The picture was taken by Amy Yule, the “Yum Master” of “Pecan Yummies.” She has graciously photographed us every year at the Maple Festival. She always does a great job, but when your subjects are as pretty as my nieces, it’s easy to take great pictures! On the label of the Pecan Yummies it says: ingredients: pecans, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla extract. They are beyond delicious. Their slogan is “Like Love, Best When Shared.” True story – we walked around the corner and saw this bumper sticker on a car:

A caption is obviously unnecessary.

I got out of order on those pictures. First, a picture of Ms. Yule (from their web site):

The Yum Master! Best job title EVER!

And since I’m really out of order, I have to backtrack – to breakfast. Our first order of business on arrival each year is walk to the century old Highland Inn for pancakes with delicious maple syrup. Casey (I hope I spelled her name right) was our waitress last year and we were fortunate to get her again this time around. She took our picture last year and she took it again this year – just me and Wren!:

I hope Wren was having fun. I KNOW I was!

I’ve been encouraged to do more “real” writing. Or anyway I think of it as “real” writing. My take on “real” writing is that the flow is, like life (and like the river) more linear. E.g. you don’t put the breakfast picture after the pecan yummy picture since that’s not the order they happened. But the flow of this writing is more like thought, which is non linear, than it is like life (or the river). Because in ten seconds you can think about something that you’re planning for tomorrow, and something that happened when you were twenty-seven (if you’re old enough) and something that happened when you were thirty-four or eight or sixteen.

So here’s a picture from Ev’s and my most recent weekend – March 21, 22 and 23 in Blacksburg. This is Kristin, Shane, Ev and me standing in front of the Next Door Bake Shop (it was superb) in Blacksburg after brunch:

Kristin, Shane, Ev, me

I don’t have any pictures (incredible, I know) but the evening before we had an equally superb dinner at Lefty’s Grille in Blacksburg. If you get to Blacksburg at all, go to both places. But if you really want to eat right, finagle an invitation to Shane and Kristin’s humble abode and talk Shane into making you a fresh veggie and pesto omelet. If I could choose to repeat just one meal from that entire weekend, I’d have that omelet again in about a second. No pictures of the omelet either, unfortunately. We did have dogs on the deck at one point, and I did get a shot of that:

Mackey, Turner, and their gracious host Tara - all waiting for me to stop taking pictures.

Mackey, Turner, and their gracious hostess Tara – all waiting for me to stop taking pictures.

Pardon (please) besides the non-linearity of this post, the bloated size. Hopefully no one has fallen asleep reading it. If so, I suggest you bookmark it and put it to good use the next time you have insomnia.

We’d had a first world problem or two on our weekend in Blacksburg, something to do with the toaster or coffee maker or whatever it was, all of our problems that weekend were of the first world variety. Then I got home and talked to my buddy who although he lives in the first world was having problems that are more universal. I have another niece with the Peace Corp in west Africa (Guinea). Guinea is most decidedly not in the first world – it’s practically a poster country for the third world, which I suppose is why the Peace Corp is there. And we got word not long ago that although she is happy and healthy, she’s being evacuated from the region due to an outbreak of ebola. While reading up on it, I learned this:

“Guinea has banned the sale and consumption of bats to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus, its health minister has said…

Bats, a local delicacy, appeared to be the “main agents” for the Ebola outbreak in the south…”

Part of living in a first world country means we can choose – having the choice is a luxury – to live in a less luxurious fashion. Like I doubt if you know anybody who has eaten any bats recently or in their entire lives. I don’t have to heat with firewood, but I choose to. If I’m too lazy or cheap to buy firewood – I don’t even cut it myself, I’d like to point out – I can always just turn the heat on. One person we met at the Maple Festival was making wood implements by hand. He made these spoons, and I’ve been eating my oatmeal and my soup with them since we got home:

I think of the Maple Festival every morning at breakfast.

Not far from Ms. Yule and her divine Pecan Yummies, Wren and I met a guy named Nathan Jenkins operating a spring pole lathe. He was among the nicest people we met all day and the three of us had a long chat. He was the one who made those spoons.

After we got home I googled him (of course) and read this in the program from the 2013 Treasure Mountain Festival in Franklin, WV:

“Nathan Jenkins – Raised in Page County Va., [that’s where our cabin was!] son of White Oak Basketmaker Clyde Jenkins, Nathan Jenkins is no stranger to keeping alive folklife traditions. As a young boy Nathan developed interest in working the wood for making his own white oak baskets. Using wood that was discarded by his father Nathan learned the art of working the wood.

Traveling to 17th century market fairs at the Claude Moore Colonial Farm Nathan crossed paths with a volunteer there who demonstrated the spring pole lathe; Tom Kluwen. Tom introduced Nathan to the art of the spring pole lathe. Nathan is an avid reader. He read books on the art of turning the wood and Tom’s encouragement and basic hands on approach helped Nathan to further his interest in wood turning.

As Nathan has become more intrigued with all varieties of wood and what wood is best for what purpose his accomplishments include hand hewn dough bowls; chairs with white oak split bottom seats; hand turned goblets; bowls; etc.

There is no electricity to run the spring pole lathe. It is powered by the up and down motion of Nathan’s foot on the lathe’s pedal. This is an art that few people have ever seen demonstrated. This way of working the wood is awesome to see. It offers a real appreciation of times past.”

If you google Nathan and Treasure Mountain Festival, you’ll find that article and a picture of him. I hope he won’t mind but I took a picture of him later that afternoon and he didn’t know I took it and I didn’t ask his permission to use it here. But he was a singular human being, and I was in awe that his ease in communicating with my ten year old niece was as effortless and graceful as the way he turned wood on his primitive lathe. Here he is, with his lathe:

Nathan Jenkins – as skilled and kind and graceful and down to earth a human being as you’ll ever encounter anywhere.

This post has gone on far too long but it’s been an exciting couple of weeks and I’m not quite finished. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for bearing with me, I’m nearly done. Each year after we’ve eaten and made the rounds of all the sights in town, we head to “Duff’s Sugar House” about three miles away to watch maple syrup being made “the old fashioned way.” The sap (they refer to it as “sugar water”) is boiled in a huge iron kettle and the steam goes out of the top of the building. We always like it because it’s cold in Highland County in March and it’s warm in the “Sugar House.” This is what it says in the festival guide:

= = = = =

Duff’s Sugar House

Located southwest of Monterey (3 mi. south on U.S. 220 and 3 mi. west on Route 84), Duff’s Sugar House is a small, family-run sugar house where the trees are still “opened” by hand and the sugar water collected in buckets. Cooking is done in a wood-fired open pan and finished in an iron kettle. Hands-on participation is encouraged. Maple tours all day.

= = = ==

This is what it looks like from where we parked on the side of Route 84; I cherish this view:

It makes me calm just looking at it.

To the left is an enormous old “Sugar” as they call the big sugar maples. The sheep barn is the white building directly in the center at the top. Just below is a small gray building, the “Sugar House” proper, I suppose it’s called. The sugar house (the whole farm, really) is owned by Tim and Terry Duff. One of the reasons we like to go there last is because it’s usually quite cold at the Maple Festival and it’s always warm in the sugar house. Here’s a picture of Mr. Duff explaining the procedure:

Mr. Duff explaining the syrup making procedure.

Mr. and Mrs. Duff’s entire operation was fascinating. They had an explanation of the farm (Fair Lawn Farm) and of the Sugar House (Duffs Sugarhouse) posted outside. I took a picture of the signs and they’re here. I highly recommend reading them. Click on the images to make them larger so you can read them:

Explanation of the farm

Explanation of the Sugar House

Enough already! I’ll say goodbye by with a picture of Wren saying goodbye to their adorable pup – whose name I didn’t get!:

Farewell!

If there’s a theme in this post – there’s not, but hypothetically – it’s that if you’re nice to people, you’ll be happier. If you live long enough you’ll go through tons and tons and tons of crappy stuff and you’ll feel horrible sometimes. But: if you’re nice to people, you’ll be happier.

Posted in Dogs, Fun, People, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | 6 Comments

Early Spring at Pony Pasture

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Jay McLaughlin

13 March, 2014 Early Spring at Pony Pasture

I had a catchier title in mind but it drifted away. Hopefully next post.

I first drafted this post and took some of the pictures on Tuesday, when it went up to 80º and actually felt like early spring. I saw my first snake and first turtle of 2014 at Pony Pasture on Tuesday. When reptiles begin to appear it’s always a sign of spring being right around the corner. Today I don’t think the temperature went above 40º and with the high wind it felt distinctly less spring-like. But Spring is inevitable – it’ll be here soon. Also, spoiler and/or phobia activation alert: there is a snake photo in this blog post. I’ve been informed (via facebook, of course) that some people are unfond of snake photos.

The dogs and I managed a quick loop at Pony Pasture Tuesday and were surprised at the outburst of early Spring. I hadn’t planned on a post but the light was so nice and there were so many animals around (some crawling) that I thought I’d pop out a quick post. The high temp in Richmond Tuesday was 80º.

So March came in like a lion, then turned into a lamb, and as of today (Thursday, 13 March) it has turned back into a lion. Looking at the weather forecast, it’s going to turn back into a lamb Saturday (high of 67º) then into a lion again Monday (high of 35º with an 80% chance of “ice pellets”). At some point, though, it will turn into a lamb for good – you have my word on it.

Tuesday, when it was warm, I got this chickadee picture. They’re great looking birds. At this time of year they’re the #1 bird on my feeder but I like to take pictures of them in a less contrived fashion. This was of course at Pony Pasture:

Nice looking bird in nice light on a nice day

I got another nice picture of a Red-bellied Woodpecker the same day. I’ve had them on this blog before and I’ll probably have them on again. They’re quite striking. This handsome male was also in good light:

There are several birds I don’t tire of. Red-bellied woodpeckers are one.

Birds are out 365 days/year but it takes 80º (or close to it) to bring out the reptiles. I’ll open with a picture of my first turtle of 2014 but snake-o-phobes be forewarned, this is the beginning of the reptile section:

First day in the sun this year, I suspect (look at those claws!)

Some people who watch this blog are Pony Pasture regulars. I got a picture of the same turtle from the other side and it has a very distinctive piece missing from its shell. You can see it here, and watch for it if you’re hiking at Pony Pasture. This is the same turtle as above, in the canal in the middle of the park, about ⅓ of the way down between the very wide bridge and the river:

See the crack in the shell? At about 8:00 if you were standing above it? Very recognizable.

OK snake-o-phobes, I hope you got while the gittin’ was good; here is another handsome reptile taking the air (and water). I believe this is a garter snake, but please correct me if someone knows different. There was nothing there to compare size to; one person told me it looked big and another told me it looked small. I guess it was 22” long, give or take. Maybe half and inch thick or so. Wikipedia says that “It is the single most widely distributed genus of reptiles in North America.” A very handsome animal, although still a little muddy:

Snake-o-phobes, don’t say I didn’t warn you. So handsome.

The change yesterday evening from a balmy spring afternoon to today’s blowy cold was abrupt; a storm blasted through around 6:30 PM. I stood on my front steps facing east and took a picture of this rainbow. It’s a double. The first, on the left, is obvious. The second one is to the right and it’s more faint but you can see it. Also, if you look closely, you’ll notice a feature common to every double rainbow – although I am currently uncertain of the reason. Notice that the main rainbow starts blue on the left and goes to red on the right. The secondary rainbow starts red on the left and goes to blue on the right. So fascinating:

I wonder if this means there are two pots of gold. I’ll have to consult with the rainbow coalition. They’re the raining authority on this subject.

For a “transition” picture, allow me to present a lovely bouquet of small daffodils from my driveway. Nothing says spring like daffodils. They’re popping up like mad at PP now too:

Gracing the side of my driveway

Also – think of this as an intermission – I took a cute picture of a junco eating bird seed out of the snow outside my front window last week when March was coming in like a lion. I took this through my office window (it was nice and warm in here) so the resolution is less than perfect. Look at the way the snow sticks to its bill:

Junco with a beak full of snow! And bird seed!

A chunky mourning dove hunkered down in the same place a few days later to pick up dropped seeds:

A very peaceful looking dove

So anyway, this afternoon, March was in every way returned to lion-mode. It was clear and windy and very, very cold when I went for a hike at Bryan Park with a buddy. We saw some birds flitting around in the mud and I couldn’t tell what they were but I hadn’t photographed any before. I managed to snap a few pictures before they took off. And still didn’t know what they were. I got home and looked at them on my computer – and they were Cedar Waxwings – the first I’ve ever seen! This background is dreadful, but I’m happy to get the picture:

Cedar waxwings! Isn’t that great? My first ones!

And there is a very, very healthy population of bluebirds at Bryan Park. I’ll never tire of bluebird pictures:

A bluebird in the sun always looks cheerful:

Soon I’ll do a little bit more writing on this blog, I have some fun (in my opinion) stories to put up. But I’ll do that when I’m less tired. For now, I’m going to post this. Until next time, have a great day,

Jay

PS Mackey and Turner were looking very handsome on Tuesday when we were enjoying the warmth at the river. The light was kind to them:

Best buds in their favorite place

And while I was looking around for dog pictures I found one of Mackey doing his signature “lean” on Evie at the river on a recent hike:

Mackey loves to hang out with Evie

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, People, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged bryan park, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, nature, outdoors, People, Pony Pasture, Rivers, smile, Smiles - human AND dog smiles! | 1 Comment

Harbinger

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Jay McLaughlin

2 March, 2014 Harbinger

harbinger n. One that indicates or foreshadows what is to come; a forerunner. tr.v. harbingered, harbingering, harbingers To signal the approach of; presage.

The American Heritage Dictionary (2011. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.)

= = = = = = =

harbinger |ˈhärbənjər| noun

a person or thing that announces or signals the approach of another: witch hazels are the harbingers of spring.

• a forerunner of something: these works were not yet opera, but they were the most important harbinger of opera.

ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French herbergere, from herbergier ‘provide lodging for,’ from herberge ‘lodging,’ from Old Saxon heriberga ‘shelter for an army, lodging’ (from heri ‘army’ + a Germanic base meaning ‘fortified place’), related to harbor. The term originally denoted a person who provided lodging, later one who went ahead to find lodgings for an army or for a nobleman and his retinue, hence, a herald (mid 16th cent).

= = = = = =

I began putting this post together a few days ago when it was warm and sunny and there were robins and crocuses and harbingers of spring everywhere I turned. Now it’s Sunday evening and the temperature’s dropped 15º in the last hour. The dogs and I hiked at the river today at 70º; tomorrow it won’t get out of the twenties! Tomorrow night it’s supposed to go down to 6º! They’re calling for 4” of snow tomorrow! But never fear. Spring will arrive.

The quintessential “harbinger of Spring” when I was growing up in Maryland in the 1960’s and ‘70’s was the robin. Here in Richmond in the early 21st century we have plenty of “overwintering” robins, that is, you can see them all year round. But they’re out in droves now. I saw this handsome fellow at Cheswick Park (<1 mile from my house) on Friday:

A handsome male robin at Cheswick Park

When you’re looking for harbingers of spring, you would be hard-pressed to improve on spring peepers. They’re quite difficult (for me) to see. But boy do I hear them. They were out in force at Pony Pasture earlier this week. Here’s a little video I did. Spoiler alert: you can’t see any spring peepers. Only hear them. But try it out: Spring peepers

This is funny (to me) – I was looking for a link to put with the peepers. And I found the National Geographic link above. And when I clicked on it (you can click on it yourself and see) the caption under the picture was – I kid you not – “Harbinger of spring, calls of male spring peepers fill the evening air to entice females.” And the first sentence of the text was – again, I kid you not – “Spring peepers are to the amphibian world what American robins are to the bird world.” I just realized as I typed this that perhaps this is a reflection of being raised on a steady diet of National Geographic magazines. My father had a life subscription. Back when they used to have life subscriptions. That distinctive yellow border and square spine was a regular feature in our house when we grew up. I digress.

Mallards, as noted in previous posts, are prolific at PP. I was at the river earlier this week sans dogs; they’d just been to the groomer and I was trying to keep them clean. But I had to get my river fix so I went by myself. The mallards are much calmer when I don’t have dogs:

Don’t those two look great together? It looks like they’re standing on Astroturf.

Today I took Mackey and Turner plus I took another pair of sweet dogs who often visit the river with us, Lola and Luna. A fellow dog walker obliged us by taking our picture.

Mackey on the right. Turner under my left hand. Lola with her back to the camera. Luna between Lola and Mackey. The photographer’s sweet dog in the foreground. So much fun.

This isn’t a great picture, but it’s certainly a harbinger of spring. All winter long the ground is frozen like a brick most of the time. As warmer weather comes it gets softer and the moles begin tunneling:

I don't see many moles. But they make themselves known.

I don’t see many moles. But they make their presence known.

A few flowers in the beds, but no wild ones yet, or none that I saw anyway. Some buds are showing though:

I am unable to identify this one. If you can, please enlighten me. If none of us get it, I’ll photograph it again when it develops something recognizable like a flower or a fruit:

I don’t know what it’s called. But my it’s graceful.

This one is (to me) marginally less graceful. Part of the reason for that is I took such an awful picture – my fault. But I know what it is, because I know how this bush buds out every year. It’s a multiflora rose and in May it will compete with the honeysuckle for the best smelling flower in the park:

Just add a few more daylight hours and some warmer weather and this will be a fragrant multiflora rose.

I may have mentioned in an earlier post (last year or so) reading a book called Look at the Sky and Tell the Weather by a favorite author of mine, Eric Sloane. I’m not always able to tell the weather, but I look at the sky a lot. Sometimes it’s obvious like this. The blue on the left is cold air. The cloudy part on the right is warm air with lots of moisture:

Front coming in:

A final harbinger of spring is the Iditarod, held the first Saturday of every March since 1973. It’s a 1,000 mile sled dog race held in Alaska but watching it is certainly (at least for me) an annual rite of Spring.

Never fear – we’ll all make it through this last blast of winter. As soon as this snow melts the flowers will bloom like mad.

An aside – today marks three years since I began this blog. This is approximately my 120th post. You can click on the links on the side and see what was happening in March of 2011, 2012, and 2013. I hope this blog is slowly improving.

Enjoy this last (hopefully) burst of winter and enjoy the wonderful weather that will follow. All best,

Jay

= = = = = =

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, People, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | 4 Comments

Flowers and dogs and birds, oh my

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Jay McLaughlin

27 February, 2014 Flowers and dogs and birds, oh my

And trains too, it’s been a while for trains. I’m not overjoyed with these pictures either but what the heck. I’ll get better pictures soon. I always hope to get better pictures soon, no matter what I’m photographing. In better photography news, I’ll be getting a new camera soon. I haven’t completely decided yet. But in a couple of months.

Meanwhile, my last post was on 11 February, and since then it’s snowed! A lot! A lot for here, anyway. And since it’s only late February, I would be unsurprised to see more snow. I was out and about before it snowed and I enjoyed how excited everyone seemed to be, everywhere I went. A lot of anticipation, a lot of smiling faces, a lot of people talking about the same subject – that’s always fun. The dogs and I got out in it the first morning. Mackey headed out on the rocks the moment we got to the river:

Mackey exploring the snowy river’s edge

Turner has two settings: 1) Wildly enthusiastic, 2) Asleep. He chose Setting 1 for this fine snowy morning at the river:

Not letting sleeping dogs lie:

Red-bellied woodpeckers are thriving this winter. We saw this one at PP the same morning. I wouldn’t say this one was thriving; the snow had gotten damp and he was looking bedraggled:

Red-bellied and damp-bellied

There are a lot of cormorants around now too. They are in a sense striking because they’re large and they normally hang around in big flocks. But they always strike me as greasy and thuggish. A reflection of my personal biases, no doubt. This one is handsome. Possibly even elegant:

Possibly somewhat majestic. Enjoying the rising sun.

Often when I don’t care for a person it’s because I don’t understand them. Possibly that’s the case with cormorants – I don’t understand them. When I use words like “greasy” or “thuggish” I’m not considering the possibility of a captivating cormorant personality. This one appears to have recently told or heard a hilarious joke, so perhaps I’m missing something:

The most expressive cormorant I’ve encountered:

I took another picture of a ring billed gull the same day. Here’s a nice specimen:

Ring-billed gull, floating high in the water. They photograph well, don’t they?

A couple of posts ago (Veering slightly, 2 February, 2014) I included a picture of a flying gull and ID’d it as “a ring-necked gull.” My sharp-eyed friend Kim is a long time and loyal blog reader (and professional wildlife illustrator, go figure) and she pointed out that was a Ring-billed gull, not a ring-necked gull. She went on to note that we do in fact have Ring-necked ducks at PP, though they’re not as numerous as the gulls. I even took a decent picture of one just about a year ago. You can see it in this blog post from March of 2013: Bliss.

Crows have been easy to photograph this month as well. It must be because the leaves are off the trees. Few people consider crows beautiful, but they have a certain stately elegance. When they’re alone and polite:

Alone, polite, even stately in all black:

This one too was alone, but whatever it was saying, it doesn’t look polite. In my opinion. Or perhaps, like the cormorant, this is an expression of mirth. Interpret as you see fit:

Raucous.

I’ve seen more Red-bellied woodpeckers this year than I’ve ever seen. They’re very noisy too. I saw this one at Bryan Park:

Red-bellied woodpecker in Bryan Park (female)

This is a smaller one from PP:

Small and graceful (male)

That’s a good demonstration of how you tell a male from a female. The first picture on this blog plus the one directly above are both males – see how their heads are red over the tops of their eyes and all the way to the base of their beaks? The one two pictures above this is a female. Look around her eye – all grey. They’re nice birds to watch.

The forecast for Richmond is for a low of 18º tonight (!) but I’m already seeing the first flowers at PP, in the little bed at the north end of “Charlie’s Bridge.” There are some pretty orange-yellow crocuses and some sort of bright yellow ground cover flowers that I’ll find in other parts of the park when the sun begins to hit just right:

Warm, bright crocus

Cheerful ground cover

I opened with a bird and there are lots of birds on this post and I’m going to close with one. But first, a CSX locomotive, since I haven’t put up a picture of one in a while. This is far below the quality I like, but it’ll do. This is an ES44AC, the main coal-hauler I see here in Richmond. #549 is just behind it, an AC44CW, a little bit older and perhaps a little bit less environmentally friendly. “ES” stands for “Evolution Series” which means they emit less pollution. I was with my buddy Clark and we couldn’t see what was behind the locomotives, but it is always coal. We leave there and get on the expressway and cross the river a mile or so upstream on the Powhite Parkway (Route 76) bridge. Today as always we drove over the back end of that train, sitting on the tracks beside the river. Here’s the front:

ES44 followed by an AC44

And since I opened with a bird I’ll close with one, this time a bright male cardinal from Pony Pasture. Because most people enjoy cardinals:

Handsome guy

Sunday (2 March) will be the three year anniversary of this blog! I hope to put up an anniversary post. So, until then, or until my next post, have a great day and all best,

Jay

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, Rivers, Trains | 5 Comments

Rules are made to be broken

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Jay McLaughlin

11 February, 2014 Rules are made to be broken

When I was young and foolish I rode my bicycle in any weather. Rain, snow, cold, it didn’t matter. I turned 50 a couple of years ago and now I’m old and foolish and decided I won’t ride my bike if the temperature is lower than my age. An easy rule to stick to when you’re training for fall triathlons. This year I signed up for a May race. Meaning I began training in February (I started at the beginning of this month) and lots of bicycling when the temp is <50º. I am unfond of indoor cycling. So I ride outdoors. I was driving home from work a few mornings back and when I stopped at a light this guy passed in front of me:

When I was young and foolish I did this. Now that I'm old and foolish, I don't.

When I was young and foolish I did this. Now that I’m old(-er) and foolish, I don’t.

I am still totally too much of a wimp to ride when the weather’s like that. Plus my bikes are nicer these days and I’m reluctant to trash them. But when I got out to West Creek to ride earlier this week, this was my car thermometer:

I never thought I’d ride this temperature again. But it was only 1/2 hr and not awful.

Fortunately I only had to ride for 30 minutes. I can stand it for that long. “Running” for me in the cold is never a problem, and the pool at the Y is pleasant in any weather. The race I’m doing in May is in a lake near Charlottesville. I’ve been racing for the past several years in the ocean in October so I’m sure the temperature will be fine.

= = = = = = = = = = =

Speaking of “Made to be broken,” this blog post is broken into three parts. That’s the end of part one, this is part two:

= = = = = = = = = = =

Turner, as some of you are aware, hurt his right hind foot a couple of weeks ago. After hurting his left hind foot around Christmas. So that kept us away from the river some. We got back down there today for a low-key walk; it was nice to be back. Limited trips to the river means limited pictures but I have taken a few.

I was hiking by myself at Pony Pasture one morning last week and saw a Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) in a tree, close to the parking lot. I don’t usually get very close to them but this one stayed still. Plus no leaves on the tree, so pictures are easier. I’m sure their mothers love them but to me they are not appealing. Check out the mug on this one:

They reproduce. So some bird finds this attractive to look at. Who am I to judge.

These are his (or her) feet:

These make me think of Baba Yaga.

Does my mention of “Baba Yaga” resonate for anyone? If you’re interested, click on that link. When we were growing up we got a children’s magazine called Jack and Jill. They often had Baba Yaga stories there.

I’d always assumed (never a good idea) that like a hawk or eagle, vultures find food mostly by sight. After reading more about them, it turns out they have a very, very keen sense of smell. It makes sense if you think about it – because they’re looking for dead animals. That may be another assumption on my part, though.

I was hiking around Bryan Park with a buddy last week and I missed several otherwise decent pictures. My hat is off once again to professional wildlife photographers. I miss a whole, whole, whole lot of otherwise great shots. It’s fine to miss twenty and get one good one. But I go out plenty of times and miss twenty and get zero good ones. I missed a nice bluebird at Bryan Park and I almost missed some Juncos but there was one salvageable image. There were Juncos by the dozen at the cabin when I was young but I don’t see as many around here. This is the one I saw at Bryan Park:

Dark-eyed junco

Another regular winter bird from the cabin was a nuthatch – and they’ve just begun coming to my feeders here at the house, although not in droves. I don’t love taking pictures of birds on feeders – it’s too contrived – but if I get a good one I’ll put it up. Nuthatches are nice looking birds.

Always an early sign of spring is when the mallards start milling around together and pairing off. They were flocking up on one of the canals this morning. They do that every February. Pileated woodpeckers are drumming in the woods too. They are really hard (for me) to photograph, but I expect I’ll get one sooner or later. Hopefully sooner, because photography is much easier with no leaves on the trees. Here’s a bunch of mallards from PP this AM, sorry about the wire:

6 pairs of mallards.

On the Cornell Ornithology Lab web site under “Cool Facts” it says: “Mallard pairs form long before the spring breeding season. Pairing takes place in the fall, but courtship can be seen all winter.” I read elsewhere that a female typically lays 12 eggs per clutch. So that could potentially be 72 ducklings you’re looking at, and there were several more pair just upstream and a lot more downstream. I think we won’t run out of mallards soon.

= = = = = = = = = = =

So, part three:

= = = = = = = = = = =

My final blog post in January of this year was the apathetically titled “It’s hard to come up with good titles…”. Toward the end of that post I wrote “A friend sent a package recently. His name is Gus and he’s been my friend longest of anyone. We were in the same homeroom in freshman year of high school, close to forty years ago.” In May of 1991 Gus had some free time and most of the dust had settled from my accident. So we grabbed our sleeping bags and mountain bikes and hopped in my car and headed west for some visiting and camping and biking. I spoke with Gus earlier this week; he lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and three kids. Hard to believe we took this trip twenty-three years ago. And that we graduated from Gonzaga thirty-five years ago. Wow.

Anyway, we visited friends and family and went to national parks. We visited the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. We even stopped at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, IA.

BarbeQlossal

The Pork Expo was a singular experience. A blog post unto itself. But currently, words fail. Have a delicious barbecue sandwich and close your eyes and visualize.

Gus at the entrance to the Grand Tetons:

Gus welcomes us to the Grand Tetons:

At Mount Rushmore:

It's safe to say we won't be the next two heads carved out of that South Dakota granite.

It’s safe to say ours won’t be the next two heads carved out of that South Dakota granite.

When we pulled into Yellowstone, this sign greeted us:

Notice the shorts and the flying hat and camera. There were no iphones back then.

Although I wore shorts, I prudently removed my hat and camera so he wouldn’t charge:

We visited Jackson Hole while we were in Wyoming:

Oops. A little bit warped. It says “Jackson Hole Welcomes Our DESERT STORM VETS.” Kind of cool.

If you’re car camping, these are great conditions: mostly empty:

Roughing it easy:

So, that’s the end of this long and convoluted post. Those were obviously the good old days, but it’s abundantly clear that February of 2014 is also the good old days.

I hope you’re well. Have a great day,

Jay

= = = = = = = = = = =

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Endurance, Flowers, Fun, People, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | 9 Comments

Veering slightly

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Jay McLaughlin

2 February, 2014 Veering slightly

This is the best picture I’ve taken recently. There’s a lot I’d improve about it but it’s a pretty picture of a Barred Owl. It was bitter cold at Pony Pasture that morning and he (I’m pretty sure it’s a he) was soaking up the sun while watching for his unsuspecting breakfast to move through the brown tangles of honeysuckle below. The only way to tell the difference between a male and a female is the males are a little smaller. That’s the way it is with most raptors. Look at those talons. If you were a field mouse or a chipmunk and looked up and saw those coming toward you, yikes:

Barred Owl staying warm in January

After eleven Ironmans in as many years, I’m veering slightly from my routine. My chosen multisport event for 2014 (to begin) will be the Monticelloman Olympic distance triathlon. Sunday, May 4, 2014 at 9:10 AM at Lake Monticello, Charlottesville, VA. With a 0.9 mile (1,500 meter) swim, a 24 mile (39 km) bike and a 6.2 mile (10 km) run, this is slightly less than ¼ the distance of an ironman. Training begins tomorrow with a 30 minute swim and maybe a 30 minute “run.” I’d like to squeeze in a 30 minute bike ride but given the weather forecast I think that will wait until later in the week.

Speaking of unfavorable weather for bike riding, Mackey and Turner and I were at the river last Tuesday, January 28. My car thermometer said 20º when we got there, which isn’t frigid by recent standards. But the wind was gusting above 20 mph and standing on the edge of that river I felt as cold as I’ve ever felt at that place. So when this bluebird puffed itself up on a branch at the edge of the water I took my camera out for about two seconds before I put it away. My hands were frozen solid. I like this shot though:

Puffed up to keep warm. It was so, so cold.

Puffed up to keep warm. It was bitter, bitter cold.

Later in May I’ll be doing my favorite 5k ever, the Autism Society of Central Virginia 5k Run/Walk. The race will be on Saturday May 24 at 8:00 AM at the Innsbrook Pavillion, 4951 Lake Brook Drive. I’ve done it every single year since it began in 2003. Last year they had over 1,500 people and it was outstanding. I know it’s going to be great again this year.

Yesterday Ev and I headed downtown and stopped for the first time for coffee at Black Hand Coffee Company. The coffee was out of this world and the bagels were the best I’ve ever had in Richmond. It turned out the bagels came from Cupertino’s New York Bagels right here in Richmond. Great, great find and I can hardly wait to return.

Black Hand is right at the corner of Patterson and Belmont so we walked just a few blocks to the Belmont Butchery, my first visit (unbelievable) and what a choice. We picked up a pound of Sage Breakfast Sausage and a dozen eggs. It all comes from farms in Virginia. We made breakfast from the sausage and eggs this morning. It was the best sausage I’ve ever had from a store. The eggs were local too. The perfect pre-hike breakfast.

I boiled half a dozen and marked them so we’ll know they’re cooked:

Happy Half Dozen

My triathlons for the last eleven years have been 2.4 mile swims, 112 mile bikes and 26.2 mile runs. A total of 140.6 miles. I have never finished faster than fourteen hours, and several times slower than fifteen hours. This year’s event will be a much abbreviated version of that. I don’t have a good feel for it yet, but I expect I’ll finish in 4½ hours, give or take some minutes. For perspective, I do bike rides longer than that when training for my normal races. Also for perspective, I’ve never finished a bike or a run – one segment – in that amount of time so far. So this will be a relief. And so will the reduced training load. The down side is, I love to train. And it’s usually around the twelfth hour of my big races that I begin to enjoy myself most. But I’m looking forward to finishing while the sun is still up.

I only have a couple of good pictures for this post. I was fortunate that my brother Shane joined me for my first Iron Distance (140.6 miles) in Durham, NC in October of 2003. I’d turned 42 a couple of months earlier. He took 28 pictures and put them together on this little web site. If you click on this link it opens up a page with 28 thumbnails. You can click on each one and get a better view. I’m about ten years younger and about ten pounds lighter. Maybe that’s why I’m so much slower… But it’s neat to see. He did an excellent job. Take a look at the pictures here: The Duke Blue Devil Iron Distance Triathlon

I also have a couple of old race reports here if you’re interested. They’re from Beach2Battleship, my favorite race, when I did it in 2011 and 2012. I did it last year too. It’s the race I’ll be missing this year 😦

Look at these two race reports and you’ll see how much fun I had and why I’ll miss it so much. They’re loaded with race pictures. Beach2Battleship Race report B2B 2011 and Beach2Battleship Race report B2B 2012 .

All for now. I’ll put up another new post before long. If you’re so inclined, I recommend participating in the 2014 Autism 5k in May. It’s very, very fun. Have a great day,

Jay

PS Here’s a ring-necked gull that was flying at Pony Pasture when Ev and I took our hike this morning:

Graceful gull

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Endurance, Fun, Rivers | 2 Comments

It’s hard to come up with good titles…

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Jay McLaughlin

26 January, 2014 It’s hard to come up with good titles

Subtitle “What a copout”. I mean, seriously, was that the best I could do? Unfortunately it was. They say that good titles attract viewers and I’ve noticed they do. But some days are more creative than others and this day is a little bit less. Fortunately, I have a handful of good pictures. Another item that attracts viewers.

Also since the last post (“smile”, 19 January) didn’t use any outdoor pictures, I have a few to spare. I saw some ducks way out on the river and they looked like buffleheads so I snapped a few perfunctory shots on the off chance I’d get a winner. Buffleheads are hard to photograph because they stay way offshore and they dive all the time. When I looked closely at the pictures at home – they weren’t buffleheads! I still wouldn’t know what they were but I used a superb app from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology called Merlin Bird ID. The app calls them “uncommon” for this area. They turned out to be Lesser Scaup. Here’s a picture of a little flock I took at PP:

The mystery was solved. Look at those beautiful yellow eyes.

Mystery solved. Look at those beautiful yellow eyes.

I was hiking at Pony Pasture a week or two ago with the dogs and heard a wren chattering away near the parking lot. I finally saw it flitting around the ice near the base of a dead tree. I was fortunate to click the shutter when she was coming out from under the ice!:

Refrigeration and A/C are strictly optional.

Clark and I were at the train tracks the other day. There are lots and lots of seagulls way up here on the river this time of year. They can be noisy and inelegant (like me) but occasionally graceful:

My sentimentality reveals my age; I was brought up in the “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” era.

I’m on facebook with a bunch of sled dog drivers in Alaska. They’ve been getting rain in parts of Alaska – in January. Meanwhile, here in the sunny south, when we got to the river on a couple of mornings last week it was 9º! No rain here. Mackey and Turner were happy to be wearing toasty fur coats. They were even happier when the lame photo shoot ended so they could start running!:

They’re very expressive. About not wanting to sit still on cold, snowy granite.

Another cold river image, but isn’t this beautiful?:

So cold and so blue but SO spectacular

I haven’t put up a movie lately. I took this brief (11 seconds) video at the river on Sunday morning. You can’t hear it in this video, but it was so quiet standing frozen in the snow on the riverbank you could hear the drifting ice scratching past the still ice. It was a singular experience:

A fun thing about this time of year when taking pictures is no leaves on the trees. It lets in lots and lots of light and you can see the birds more quickly. I heard a woodpecker last week but I couldn’t see it to save my life. Luckily my sharp-eyed buddy Ethan was able to see it – long before I was – and pointed it out. I finally managed to snap this picture an instant before it flew off. Ethan used Merlin Bird ID to make a correct ID even from this barely-fit-for-publication image. I’ll allow you to figure it out for yourself:

Can you identify him (or her?). Ethan did!

I’ll close (this part) with a picture. A friend sent a package recently. His name is Gus and he’s been my friend longest of anyone. We were in the same homeroom in freshman year of high school, close to forty years ago. He has two daughters and a son and he was at the post office with his oldest, Veronica. It was a big package and he handed Veronica his phone with a tiny picture of my family from Shane’s wedding. He stretched the picture out and said “that’s Jay right there, put a quick sketch on this package.” He said this took her “about twenty-eight seconds.” Pretty fun. All best,

Jay

She is so talented. The ability to draw is one I am without.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

My last blog post was called “smile” and it got a lot of views and a lot of nice notes. Including one from KD’s Mom! I’ve been very fortunate to know them for many years. I’ve spent time with lots of other people but never included a photograph. But I’ve written several brief stories about and included them on old blog posts. This blog is three years old and I’ve done a hundred posts. Here are a few that have stories about other people I know. You’ll have to go to the bottom of the posts to see the stories. There are great pictures too. If I do say so. I just (this moment) realized I’ve done over twenty of these little end-of-blog-post blurbs. So let me put the first five here. More on a future post:

I’d been blogging for a year before I did my first “add-on” or however you want to refer to it. The first one was about meeting people in the hospital, and my hazy recollections of my own view of the world from a hospital bed and an ICU and a wheelchair. And it was about working with other people with disabilities for the first time. I called it:

A lot of life 13 January, 2012

Remember – you have to scroll to the bottom of the posts to get to the “story” part.

Next I spoke a little bit about the first person with a disability who I ever regularly spent time with. That was in 1994, roughly twenty years ago. Evie and I had a nice visit with him and his family only last month! I mentioned him at the end of a post called:

A perfect day for a lot of things 22 January, 2012

The second person I met on this portion of my journey I spent time with regularly for fifteen years. He’s moved to NC to be closer to his mother but we cross paths a time or two every year. I mentioned him at the end of this post:

Day tripper 26 January, 2012

He too had a profound impact on me and I wrote more about him at the end of my next post. I see now by the date of that post that I wrote it one week before his thirty-third birthday. He’ll be thirty-five in about two weeks. When we first met he was fifteen. I’ve got a great picture of us at his sixteenth birthday party. My how time flies. The second post I wrote about him was called:

We didn’t see our shadows 2 February, 2012

The next post was less about people I spend time with from day to day and more about people who influence me in other ways. None more of course than my mother and late father, but also an old (93 years at last count) buddy from the Y. That post is:

Don’t fence me in 11 February, 2012

I’ll continue this in a future post.

Have a great day,

Jay

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Fun, People, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged Autism, cerebral palsy, cp, disability, tbi, traumatic brain injury | 1 Comment

smile

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Jay McLaughlin

19 January, 2014 smile

“That young man has the nicest smile. Always so sincere. We can all learn from that.” – a comment from a member at the Y

We were just walking around at the Y and a person walked up to us and said that right out of the blue. You can see why he said it.

My blog says it’s about “people unlike anyone else” but I don’t often take the opportunity to introduce anyone. Allow me to introduce my old and dear friend KD. He is unlike anyone else:

We swim at the Y every Friday:

KD has many favorite places. The pool is only one of them.

That is an enlightened smile if ever there was one. KD’s Dad introduced us when we were much younger:

Many years ago!

We’re not so young anymore:

He used to look UP to me!

We first met in 2000, when KD was eleven. He’ll be twenty-five this summer. This was KD helping me put gas in my car when he was thirteen. He helped me put gas in my car the day before yesterday; he was this happy or happier:

February of 2002 – notice the smile?!

In 2000 KD went to R.C. Longan Elementary in Richmond’s West End. In 2011 he graduated from The Faison School near Willow Lawn. Did you smile like this at your graduation? I smiled, but it wasn’t like this:

Everybody’s happy to FINALLY graduate…

We worked for a few years at the Positive Vibe Cafe. We cleaned tables and swept and vacuumed and took out the trash and the recycling and cleaned the restrooms, you name it. I wish I had pictures from back then but oh well. If you’ve never tried Positive Vibe, you owe it to yourself. The food is top-notch, the service is second to none and I promise you’ll leave with a greater appreciation of fine dining than you had when you arrived. That place is a treasure.

KD has a lot of favorite things. Listed in no particular order he likes: swimming, 5 Guys, riding in the car, listening to Paul Simon, putting gas in the car, Starbucks, Bubba’s Barber Shop, Pony Pasture, hiking, most music, the list is endless.

He loves to get his hair cut at Bubba’s:

Haircut first, then head for the pool

I’ve spent lots and lots of time with this guy. We’ve been together fourteen years, that’s a long time. I probably have a hundred great pictures of him. This blog is three years old and I’ve done over a hundred posts and normally I have some goal or idea of how to wrap up. This one I don’t. Just to say that, in fourteen years, in a zillion hours together, I have never heard him judge anyone. He’s never said an unkind word. He’s never complained in some situations where, believe me, I complain. He’s not fabulously wealthy, he’s strictly middle class like most of us, but everywhere he goes, people are happy to see him. Without fail. I’ve got a lot of education and I’ve been a lot of places. But I still have a lot to learn from him. I can hardly wait to see him next week!

Posted in Fun, People, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged Autism, smile, tbi, traumatic brain injury | 19 Comments

The Art of Transformation

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Jay McLaughlin

7 January, 2014 The Art of Transformation

On Saturday Evelyn and I went to the Smithsonian to see Yoga: The Art of Transformation. The whole trip was fun; we rode Amtrak from Staples Mill Road to Union Station. Then a short ride on Metro to the Smithsonian to see the exhibit, it was a ton of fun. After we left we took Metro back to Union Station and had dinner at the Center Cafe Restaurant. Hopped back on Amtrak and came home – a great day!

If you’re interested in learning about the exhibit, it’s up there for three more weeks. Here is one article from the New York Times: Eons Before the Yoga Mat Became Trendy

And one from the Washington Post: Sackler’s ‘Art in Context’ lets participants practice yoga in the gallery

And a piece from CBS: The art of yoga

This was our train just before we boarded in Richmond:

Amtrak locomotive #87, a P42DC

When we got off in DC this old Amtrak switcher was shuffling cars around in the station. This one has 1,000 horsepower. For comparison, CSX regularly runs coal trains with single engines that have 6,000 horsepower. But this guy’s not moving any coal and there are no mountains in sight:

EMD SW1000R locomotive

Another Amtrak P42DC, with a little snow, in Union Station in Washington:

Amtrak has canine units as well. I don’t know if these are bomb dogs or drug dogs or both. Hard to imagine they would do much in the way of crowd control. Ev’s friend with the German Shepherd wrote “What’s happened to the K-9 unit?… is that Lab an empathy sniffing dog?”:

Sniffs anything from methamphetamine to empathy, and anything in between.

Sniffing for methamphetamine or empathy, and anything in between.

Perhaps the Amtrak officials looked at my name on our tickets. This was our departure gate:

Included in the price of Business Class tickets is personalized service:

When we walked out of the gallery and on to the mall, three high school students were sliding on the ice. We asked them to take our picture before it got dark:

Amateur photographers are the best!

= = = = = = = = = =

This is a blog post in three parts. Since my last blog post (December 31, 2013), I’ve taken a few pictures. As you may imagine. Evie and I went to Pony Pasture on New Year’s Day. There wasn’t much going on but it was pretty and we did see this cute pair of buffleheads doing synchronized preening:

Synchronized preening:

Also this week I got a picture of a pretty female flying:

Beautiful flying female bufflehead

Turner, as some of you are aware, had stitches in his foot for some time. He got them out last week (by himself as it turned out) and the wound looks good. Today I let him off the leash for the first time. I think Mackey was more excited than Turner:

Hot dog on a cold day

But Turner was happy too:

ANOTHER hot dog on a cold day!

The first ten years I hiked at Pony Pasture I saw zero bluebirds. Now thanks to the efforts of Ralph and Nathan and the James River Park Service and many others, there are dozens. It’s just amazing. This one was puffed up on a branch:

Toasting in the sun on a chilly day

= = = = = = = = = = =

Better than most – starting at the cabin

From time to time in the past I’ve put blurbs on the end of blog posts. I’ll resume that in the new year. Starting with a vignette or two (hopefully more) about growing up with our cabin in Page County in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Open letter to my brothers and sisters and Mom and any family friends who read this and have been to the cabin and would care to contribute: send me a note about something interesting or fun that you remember from the cabin. Pictures are great too. I’d love to expand this.

When (in my mind) you begin a long story, you have to find a place to begin. The choices are unlimited, but I decided our cabin was “better than most” when it comes to places to begin. So here we are.

We bought our cabin in April, 1974. I have a few pictures – and more than a few stories. My youngest brother Shane was five, my oldest sister Katie was fourteen, I was twelve. There were five kids in our family. All in school. And my Mom and Dad were in their late thirties. Amazing. We had the cabin for over thirty-five years and we never had a television there. Books everywhere but never a TV. There was always something to do outdoors, winter and summer. Since it’s winter now I’m thinking of this:

Our family’s first woodstove

It doesn’t look like much in this picture but wow. When we had that thing going full blast the sides would get pink from the heat and you could hardly stand near it. We bought it at an auction for $20 and fixed it up. It was amazing.

I’m also thinking of this:

Sledding down the driveway

That’s the cabin in the background, we’re sledding down our steep gravel driveway. I think that’s me on the front, then Sheila, then Kevin. So this is maybe 1975 or 1976? Or 1977? In that era.

We hiked a lot and hunted a little and fished a tiny bit in the summer. We rode bikes up there from time to time and my sisters rode horses a lot. It was close to the South Fork of the Shenandoah River and our property had a common border with the Shenandoah National Park. We went to auctions and we raised our own hog and we slaughtered it with people who lived up there and raised their own. And we ate the ham and the sausage we made from it when you’re up there you eat it all. The lard and all the organs and the cracklins and what an experience.

This post is morbidly obese so I’ll need to stop until next time. If you’re here in central VA, enjoy the cold. Wherever you are, have a great day,

Jay and others

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Fun, People, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Leave a comment

NEWFAZE

Prediction is very difficult…

Easy to be happy

Early Spring at Pony Pasture

Harbinger

Flowers and dogs and birds, oh my

Rules are made to be broken

Veering slightly

It’s hard to come up with good titles…

smile

The Art of Transformation

Recent Posts

Archives

Email Subscription

Categories

Blogroll

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Recent Posts

Archives

Email Subscription

Categories

Blogroll