Trails and Tales

Still Hanging Around Silver Spring. Yes, Still Here. In Silver Spring. Still.

[Silver Spring, MD]

It was a nice coincidence. Kelsi had to spend some time down here in Silver Spring Monday, I was still hanging around Silver Spring instead of the cabin, and Ari wanted to see "To Fly" at the Smithsonian. So we all met (including Abby), drove to Silver Spring, parked, walked to the Metro station and took the subway to the L'Enfant metro station We walked a few blocks to the Air and Space, had lunch, and Ari got to see her movie.  We all did.

It brought back a lot of memories of when Kelsi and Jeff were kids and we saw he same movie together, 20 some years ago.  Now a third generation joined Kelsi and me.  Only a parent gets misty over things like this...

Tuesday, I drove Angie to Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County's county seat.  The court was meeting to appoint someone to take responsibility for closing out her sister's estate.  They appointed Angie.  This will require a lot of her time, and it will be complicated by the fact that her sister was divorced but her ex- wants custody of their three kids, and the money from the estate.  Could get tricky.

Wednesday I attended the retirement part for one of my former employees.  Roger had spent time in the Navy and Coast Guard before retiring and coming to work at NOAA in the Coast Pilot Branch.  All told he had 53 years of government service!  It was nice to see all my old Coast Pilot friends again.

Last evening I took Angie to her tennis lesson.  It started at 8:00 and ended at 9:30. It was held at the DC tennis complex next to the Carter Barron theater. It was on a lighted outdoor court.  The weather was perfect and the surrounding park was packed with families enjoying the weather.  Give kids a big park, a playground, and nice evening weather and watch them have fun.  Makes me wish I was a kid again!

Tomorrow morning we're leaving for the cabin, just for the weekend.  The electric bill for the cabin just came.  It was just $23 - for two months.  I suspect either the hot water heater or the refrigerator has failed since we were there last (5 weeks ago). If it's the refrigerator, we might be back in Silver Spring sooner than planned!

Have a great 4th!

[Silver Spring, MD]

Tuesday I visited the butterfly house at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton for the first time.  I've been meaning to take my camera there and see if I could get any good pictures, considering that butterflies don't stop for very long in one place.  I took about 200 pictures in an hour and a half, and when I downloaded them later onto the computer at home I was surprised how many came out so well.  My camera, a Canon Powershot S3 has a zoom telephoto lens with a macro setting so some of these were with the zoom and some were with the macro.  Some are also cropped.  Here are a few of my favorites.

A Weird Summer So Far

[Silver Spring, MD]

This has been a weird summer so far.  Angie and I spent Memorial Day at the cabin.  After we returned I planned to stay a few days in Maryland and then go back to the cabin for a week or so, in fact we left some steaks in the fridge thinking I would be right back.  It never happened.  A dump truck backed into me the day after I returned and that started a series of events that has prevented me from leaving Maryland.

The damage to the Jeep was relatively minor.  But the owner of the truck refused to cooperate and I had to spend a week tracking him down.  Then we had workmen come and replace the rotted wood on the front of the house, and stain the deck.  That took four days.  The body shop told me it would take about four days to fix my car so I took it in Monday, June 9. expecting to pick it up that Friday.  It wasn't done Friday so I had to keep my rental car over the weekend.  My insurance company then informed me that the truck that backed into me was not insured so I had to pay the $500 deductible AND the rental out of my pocket.  Now having to keep the rental over the weekend was costing me.  Saturday the workmen returned to finish painting the new wood facing on the house and install a new storm door, so again, I was stuck at home.

Monday I expected to pick up the Jeep and head to West Virginia.  It wasn't done.  Tuesday.  It wasn't done.  Wednesday.  It wasn't done.  Thursday. It wasn't done.  Friday.  They said they were waiting for the painter to paint the two tiny pinstripes on the front, but finally at 3:30 they called and said it was done.  The four day job took almost two weeks.  So now I have my Jeep back and I'm out $1,500 (including the cost of replacing my badly cracked windshield as long as it was in the shop).  Tomorrow I begin my fight to recover my money from the truck owner.

Last Sunday the weather cleared and cooled a bit so I drove downtown to take some pictures,  I parked at the Tidal Basin and walked around it, past the Jefferson Memorial and the FDR Memorial. Then I crossed Independence Street and walked along the Reflecting Pool to the WWII Memorial, then walked to the Smithsonian Castle Building and the Ripley Garden next to it.  The garden is breathtaking and few people even know it's there.  Here are some of the pictures I took.

Friday night Angie treated me to an Earl Klugh concert at the Strathmore Concert Hall, our first time there. Angie has been a big Earl Klugh fan for 30 years!  He's a jazz guitarist and composer.  Accompanying him were 2 keyboardists, a drummer, a saxophone player and a bass guitarist.  The performance was tremendous. One of the keyboardists and the drummer had separate solos that brought us screaming to our feet.  It was a  wonderful performance.  After the show, five of the musicians, including Earl Klugh, sat down at a table and chatted and signed autographs.  We weren't expecting that and by the time we worked our way up to Earl Klugh Angie was as giddy as a school girl, and when we got to Earl, Angie told him how long she has been a fan, he got up and put his arm around her and I got my cell phone out and snapped a picture.  Angie still thinks she died and went to heaven.  What a great guy!

 I'm not quite sure of my plans this week.  West Virginia?  Sophie wants to have a birthday party for Perry and Bradley this week.  Angie wants to spend the July 4th weekend at the cabin, but that would only be for a few days.  The workmen are coming back to do more work on the house the weekend of July 12th, further complicating things - and gas keeps going higher every day.

[Silver Spring, MD]

Today the handymen came back to do more work on the house.  They're still not done. They're coming back July 12 to do more to the trim around the chimney.  All the houses in our subdivision were built at the same time and the windows need replacing and rotted trim needs replacing and painting, and leaky roofs need fixing.  It's funny, as soon as people leave for work the worker's trucks arrive and the ladders go up!

I had to stick around all day to move stuff and answer questions, etc.  During breaks I worked on Angie's family history, searching the census records online and entering data into The Master Genealogist database I maintain for both families.  Today I was working on Angie's great-great-grandparents, Philip and Maria Holt.  The first thing I noticed was that they had a total of 15 known children.  But even more remarkable is the fact that of these 15, 10 were twins.  Maria gave birth to five sets of twins!  I checked and it's not a record - there are cases of as many as 8 sets of twins by the same woman, but there have probably been less than 25 occurrences of 5 or more sets of twins on record in North America.  It might also offer a hint as to where Maria, born in Maryland but of African descent, was from because women from the Yoruba tribe (Nigeria) and the Hausa tribe (Ghana, Ivory Coast) are noted for having twins.

Genealogy never ceases to amaze!

[Silver Spring, MD]

After spending four days trapped in our house while the carpenter ripped all the rotted wood off our house and replaced it, the weekend brought a release.  Saturday morning I hauled all the old rotted wood to the landfill and then ran errands.

After lunch I drove over to the Eastmoor house where I got to visit with Ari.  We looked at her now Tinkerbelle book.  She got it as a graduation (pre-school) present from her Granma.  It came with a picture viewer and a kaleidescope too.  Then Ari taught me how to play Dora Uno.  We played that a lot.  Then we made funny faces at each other.

Today I had breakfast at Mayorga's and ran a few more errands.  Then Marge dropped Ari off at our house and we drove her home.  When we got to Kelsi and Chucks, we all decided to go out to eat and then hit the ice cream place for desert on the way home.  After the ice cream, we had to go to Kelsi and Chuck's and sit down for awhile to recover.  It was the first time Angie had seen their house.  Ari gave Angie a guided tour of the whole house (especially her bedroom!).

Tomorrow the car goes in the shop to get fixed it will take all week I'm told.  I'll have a rental.  Next weekend we have workmen coming to paint the trim and stain the deck, and do some work inside, too.

Look what I found in our porch light. A bird nest with some little eggs!

The Joys of Owning a Home

[Silver Spring]

Last year we had to have our crappy, drafty windows replaced.  It set us back a bit but it was worth it in energy saved.  Last fall we discovered a pillar and a corner of our front overhang was badly rotted and needed to be replaced.  The carpenter did a nice job but told us a lot more wood and molding needed to be replaced this spring.  So now he's back and we found a lot more wood in the back that had also rotted so he's going to replace the bad wood and cover it with coil facing to protect the wood from now on.  While he's here he's going to power wash the whole house and deck and seal and stain the deck plus some drywall work inside.

A house is wonderful thing to own, and brand new houses look great. But no matter if it's new or old, houses rot and materials deteriorate a little bit every day and it all adds up.  When the carpenters or plumbers or electricians hand you the bill, those are the days that renting doesn't sound like such a bad idea!

Speed Traps and Dump Trucks

[Silver Spring, MD]

Wow. It's Saturday already.  This week went by fast, partly because it was a short week due to Memorial Day on Monday, and partly because the world is picking on me. Again.

Like all good things, the three days we spent at the cabin came to an end Monday and we had to return to Maryland so Angie could go back to work Tuesday.  We threw everything - including the cats - into the car and started for home.  We got as far as Wardensville (near the West Virginia border) and we drove into a speed trap.  Right outside of Wardensville the highway goes down a steep mountain and partway down the speed limit drops from 65 to 50.  It's a little hard to brake down to 50 while going down a steep hill and evidently the State Troopers know it because he was set up right where the speed limit drops and he probably ticketed every car coming down the mountain. Including me.

Let me digress a bit here.  I drive a lot every year and in the past 30 years I've gotten just 3 speeding tickets...all in this one county in West Virginia!  The first two I got there upset me a bit, but this one was the final straw.  I'm going to fight it. I know I'll lose but if they are going to get $260 from me I'm going to make them earn it.

Okay, back to the story of my week because it gets even more interesting.  The next morning I was driving to the park where I walk.  I was following a gravel truck. The truck driver missed his turn, stopped, and backed up into my car.  I couldn't back up because there was a car in back of me.  It took me all week to finally track the owner down and find out if he has insurance (answer: probably, but not certain).

Other than that my week was quiet.  I was able to get in some good walks because the mornings have been quite nice.

It looks like I'll be spending the coming week here in Silver Spring because we have a handyman scheduled for two days this week plus my car will probably be in the shop most of the week.  This means I'll get to attend Ari's graduation Friday! 

Barfing Cats, Sleeping Racoons

It looks like spring has finally come to Canaan.  We (Me, Angie and the cats) drove out Saturday morning in perfect weather and the blue skies and cool temperatures have hung around all weekend.  Mercator kept his record intact by barfing even before we got off the highway and onto the winding, mountain roads.  Other than that it was a very pleasant trip.

Skipper was born up here and we used to let her roam outside during the day.  She loved catching mice and voles and just exploring her domain, but last summer I saw a fox lurking in our meadow and since then Skipper has been a house cat.  It breaks our heart to watch her sit at the door the we used to let her out and just look at us with those pitiful eyes.  She's so sad.  I keep telling myself, "She's just a cat and cats don't feel sadness, right?"  It's not working.

Sunday morning I got up early to see some wild turkeys parading through our meadow.  I made some coffee and took it up to the top floor (where I now keep my computer to force me to get more exercise) and low and behold, there was a raccoon asleep on our roof, anchored by our chimney.  When Skipper came up and looked out the window she really freaked out, back arched, tail thickened, and she started a low moaning.  How dare a raccoon invade her territory.  It stayed up on the roof all day, sleeping.  At dusk we saw it get up stretch, climb down onto the deck and saunter off for a night of foraging.

This morning I have a meeting about our roads in the community (they need a lot of expensive work it seems), then around 1:30 we have to leave for home because Angie has a dance class at 7:00.  (I'm betting she decides to skip it...)

Snow on the slopes and rain on the window

[Canaan Valley, WV]

Friday morning I finally made a break for the cabin and enjoyed a sunny drive through the mountains with the sunroof open and the radio blaring.  I think I scared some cows.

There's still snow on the slopes across the way and the trees haven't even started to bud out here yet, but the temperature yesterday afternoon was in the 70s and the countryside is starting to look green. 

Once here I grabbed a novel and read for the rest of the day.  This morning I vacuumed up the dead flies  and  scrubbed the tub and kitchen sink, made some coffee and sat down to the computer to check the news and maybe write a post for Neon Gods.  Before doing that I casually checked my blog readership stats.  A few days ago I had a one day spike in readership with about 50 readers and wondering if that meant anything, but since the day was still young I was expecting 7-8 readers so far.  When the page opened it said I had 90 readers already.  Had to be a mistake so I refreshed the page. This time it said 93 hits.  I found out later that one of the major blogs had linked to one of my posts and these were the people who had followed the link to the post. Some even stuck around and read some of my other stuff.  Looks like I'll have a total of about 450 hits today.  Felt good to get some exposure.

Finally this afternoon I tore myself from the computer and drove into town for some groceries.  I was going to work outside when I got back but the rain moved in and alas I found myself stuck inside.

I brought the kite the Nibbanas got me last year to the cabin.  I'm hoping one of the days this week will be dry and windy and I'll see if I can figure out how to fly it.  It's been a long time since I flew a kite, but my favorite kite was a kite that never flew very high.  It was one Kelsi made one weekend that we stayed in Cape May, New Jersey.  We had a lot of fun running on the beach with it flopping behind us, but it never quite got much altitude.

I'm planning to stay here at the cabin until next weekend.  Hoping for a few days of dry weather next week.

Evening in DuPont Circle

[Silver Spring]

Yesterday evening I attended a book signing downtown.  The weather was spectacular so entire experience was a real pleasure.  I parked in Silver Spring and took the Metro to DuPont Circle.  DuPont Circle on a cool spring evening is almost magical.  So many interesting people, so much going on.  The four block walk to Olsson's bookstore was a pleasure.  I arrived at the bookstore an hour and a half early so I could be sure of getting a copy of the book (Glenn Greenwald's Great American Hypocrites which was released just the day before).  Good thing I did because it quickly sold out.  Then I walked across the street to Baja Fresh and had the best taco I've ever had.  Really. It's the first time I've been there.

I returned to Olsson's and got a seat in the from row where I was able to get some good pictures for Neon Gods.

Glenn is a blogger like me. Well, not really like me, because he has a very popular blog with tens of thousands of readers every day (I'm averaging slightly over ten a day!).  Glenn talked about his book and then took questions.  Every question from the audience was intelligent and probing (usually there are a bunch of flakes with weird political theories who try to impress the author, but not last night).

C-Span's BOOK TV filmed the talk and it will be televised in a couple of weeks.  Well worth watching.

I'm really beginning to appreciate living in a city like Washington.  The new downtown Silver Spring, the Metro, Congress, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonians: all open to the public for free (well, not the Metro).  After years of working 8-10 hours a day and coming home to chores and bills, finally I can have time to enjoy this city.

Believe me, I realize how lucky I am to have a decent pension and good health (fingers crossed).  I know it must be hard to read about my hikes in West Virginia and my trips downtown when you are going through what I spent 32+ years doing (not to mention the years in the Air Force and college).  Just remember, the downside of retirement is that being 60+ is no fun.  I'm like a car with 200,000 miles on it, the transmission or engine could go any day, and the rust is starting to show.  But I'm not complaining.  Yet.

Tomorrow I plan to drive to West Virginia for a week or so.  Eeeeee-Ha!