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Showing posts from June, 2009

Downtown Mall as Community Front Porch

I really enjoy when I get to spend spending the last hour of my work-day here on Charlottesville's Downtown Mall . If I'm not at a government meeting, I'm likely in my office. So, I like to come down, get a cup of tea at Java Java, and sit here and type until my battery runs out. This beautiful evening I'm adding some items to cvillepedia and breathing in the moist summer air. As this is one of my nights without the kids, I'll go home, cook dinner, and then work a few hours before going to bed. Thankfully, I'm getting to spend a little time in this little oasis. I just came across an article from the Lexington Herald-Courier on Charlottesville's Downtown Mall. The writer, Tom Eblen, was just here for Bike Virginia, and wrote something that appealed to me: "The mall has become a big tourist draw and economic engine. More importantly, it has become Charlottesville's community front porch. Most of the people we saw there seemed to be locals. Some sa

A shout-out to my ant friend

I'll say this about my friend, the black ant. She is totally and utterly persistent. I've been sitting in the waiting room at Edgecomb's for the past hour waiting for some work to be done on my car. I put my laptop down on the table they provide, and suddenly, this little black ant crawled across the top. I brushed it away, thinking she was a spider. And then she came back. I brushed her away. And then she came back again. And again. I ate a banana about half an hour ago. She came over and sniffed it. Her little antennae shimmied with glee. I picked up the peel to put in the trash can, and she dropped off back to the table. I think she wants to keep me company. A minute ago, she crawled up my hand while I was typing. Now she's crawling on the phone. What is she searching for? Why doesn't she appear to have any other friends here? What will happen to her when I leave here? Will another person getting their car serviced have less patience? It would be so easy to pound

A training update

Last night, I was incredibly worried my exercise habit was going to crash and burn and that I was going to stop running forever. I had not run since Saturday, when I stopped myself after about five miles because I did not like running on the side of the road in rural Bedford County. I was out with my brother-in-law Scott, and he was showing me the ropes, telling me what he's learned in his years as a runner. I'm not used to talking while running, and I think that interfered with my breathing quite a bit. It was not a good run, and was also blazing hot despite being just after 8:00 AM. My knees are beginning to bother me a little, too. While mountain biking the day before, I took a small tumble while exploring an old logging road in Smith Mountain Lake State Park on a cheap bike my father bought from Wal-Mart years ago. I don't think anyone has ever taken it out on a trail. I hadn't planned too, either. I had to get out of the house. Everyone else was sitting around wai

The horizon

The best thing about my house is that I look out over a huge field, and can see the entire sky as I work in my office. I've just put the kids to bed after a long struggle, and I suspect my son is going to start crying out at any minute to be rocked to sleep. I've got several hours of work ahead of me before I can go to bed. The dishes aren't done. Toys are strewn everywhere. But, I can stare out of this window, and see the clouds drifting across the sky. That allows me to take a deep pause and inhale a deep breath so I can get going with what needs to be done.

What would I do without Dan Deacon?

(note to Facebook friends: This post is better seen on my blog , where the YouTube embeds work) As I type this, my friend is at the Dan Deacon show in Baltimore. I had hoped to go, but this is my night with the kids and nothing is more important than them. I wish him well and hope he has one of the best times of his life. He just texted me to tell me the show's underway, and I wish so much I could just teleport there for a few minutes. Dan Deacon is a master of showmanship, something that can be evidenced in all of the reports I've read about how he can transform crowds into dancing machines. I first heard about him thanks to a track played on NPR's All Songs Considered that I heard while at the gym. Bob Boilen sang his praises, and then I heard this track which definitely piqued my interest as I did my leg exercises. You have to understand. I have been interested in the composition of electronic music since learning that Raymond Scott , who directed the CBS Orchestra in th

Six months later

Six months later, I'm still at the gym, still running, and now planning on how to make this last for the rest of my life. I don't want this to be a fad. I want this to be what I do, who I am, part of my identity. At the gym today, I went on a treadmill for the first time in six weeks or so. I'm tired of riding a bike for 7 minutes, so I decided to run for 5 minutes instead. Such a strange feeling now to be on a treadmill, but feels good to ramp up to 7.5 miles per hour at the very beginning. Of course, it was a warm-up, not a sprint, so I calmed down and just watched Ellen for a few minutes. Via the closed captioning, I learned that some 9-year-old kid was hawking a book on " How to Talk To Girls ." I smiled, but didn't worry too much about it. Right now, I'm focused on running, and after 5 minutes, I'd "run" half a mile without breaking a sweat and moved on to the weight machines. I won't go into those details, except to say I definitely

Quitting coffee, day four

I went to the Blue Ridge Country Store this morning to get a biscuit. On days I have the kids, it is very difficult to get out of the house with them and also feed myself. So, after dropping them off with their mother, and after walking my dog (who had snuck into the car demanding a walk downtown), I walked the two blocks downhill. Usually, I'd get a cup of coffee. Blue Ridge Country Store serves Greenberry's Coffee, and it's usually absolutely delicious. I'll get at least one a day, plus two refills. But this week, I've decided to cut back. I've been relying too much on coffee to get me started. The money adds up after a while, and I feel more skittish. Being over caffeinated is not a feeling I enjoy. Neither is being tired, but switching to water has seemed to help. When I get the craving, I fill up my glass and swig it down. And you know? I find I'm not missing it. Instead, I bought a Coke Zero (my new fixation) to go with my delicious egg and cheese. Of

The training has begun

My iPod sounded a loud alarm at 5:30 on Saturday morning. I'd gone to bed only six hours before after an evening at Court Square Tavern. I'll be changing my schedule around a lot in the next five months as I prepare to do something I've always wanted to do - run a marathon. I only hit snooze once. I had to be at the track to do a two-minute time trial so the coach would be able to prepare a personalized training scheme for me. The terminology is all new to me, but I'm approaching this training program with an open mind. I had to be at the University of Virginia track by 6:15, but they recommended that runners do at least a mile warm-up. Fear tried to keep me from going. I'd not run on a track since high school Unanswered questions crept through my mind like kudzu, trying to find some purchase in my resolve to show up on time, ready to compete. How many laps would I need to run? Would people laugh at my clothes? What if no one wanted to talk to me? Would I be laughed