Recap of the 2019 UVA-Virginia Tech Game

(This is another experiment of using Spooler to take what I write on Twitter and capture it in a different place, less ephemeral) 

I'm catching up on the news while watching the UVA - Virginia Tech football game. This is the most football I've watched all year. I don't like the sport anymore, really. But growing up in Virginia kind of compels me to watch this.

Who to root for? In another thread I'm doing news stuff.

For some sort of "balance" this is the article on the game from today's @DailyProgress

They write a lot of sports stories I don't tweet, but glad that they do for those who want them. (bit.ly/2DvF91E) The score is 13-13.

The game gets more intense with every passing second.

I graduated from Tech in 1995 and that time contributes to my affinity for Southwest Virginia.

I have lived in Charlottesville area since 2002. My first time visiting was 1990 for a show at Trax. So, I'm torn.

But in the past year and a half, I've been able to say my opinion.

Shouldn't I make one here?

I know that if UVA wins, it will be a very happy town tonight, just like when UVA Men's Basketball won the national championship.

That might be nice to see. I have spent an adult lifetime rooting for Virginia Tech to win. It's hard not to get excited when they make advances.

But I've lived most of that lifetime in Charlottesville, and I know so many people who want to see UVA win.

Frankly, this is why I don't follow sports. I've spent most of that lifetime being "neutral" as a journalist. When I did that work, I wanted to try to get a sense of what all of the arguments were.

These days it seems many of our important arguments are played out as just another sporting event.

VT goes ahead. Sports, though, is about emotion.

When UVA is down, and then make a good play, I get excited. I want them to get another touchdown.

I want them to make good arguments in this arbitrary debate about which team is better.

I lean in their favor because they are the underdog. The tie takes place!

This makes the contest more interesting. I lean closer and closer to wanting them to keep the momentum.

This is a year in which both sides are evenly matched. I've not watched the games directly, but I'm aware they are both 8 and 3. Then Virginia Tech responds with an amazing play. They go ahead!

I spent so many nights being excited when plays like that happen. I always wanted them to go ahead.

Today, I don't feel that way. I admire that pass, perfect football.

But today I hope UVA comes back. UVA responds with two great plays, one of which may be taken back.

This is exciting.

I feel like I'm at the 14th Street Bridge again, waiting for the victory that may not have come in those moments I was standing there.

The UVA victory would be very exciting. And then UVA scores a touchdown and then ties!

It's an exciting game!

We don't know what's going to happen! It's up to the people on the field who have trained to score points, and to stop others from doing so! And now Virginia Tech goes up with a field goal.

I've not been back to Blacksburg since 2012.

I live here all the time.

And will keep doing so.

Then UVA advances in a play. I still don't feel the same emotion in the past when Tech would do the same thing.

Still glad. UVA ties it up, again.

This game is being played less than a mile from my house.

I've heard the Rolling Stones play there. From my old house nearby.

I heard U2 play there in 2009, the night of an Albemarle Supervisor candidate forum.

My training in Blacksburg got me here. Here we are closer to the end of the game. I'm hoping UVA wins, but I'm not standing in front of the television watching every detail.

It's difficult to root against Virginia Tech,. I have an affiliation.

It's also totally and utterly arbitrary.

Do I just lack passion? Then UVA intercepts and then comes close to a first down. There are four minutes left.

Suddenly, the idea of a deadline comes up, and I remember all those nights I helped publish a twice-weekly newspaper, and spent so many overnights.

We never lost one.

Paper always got out. Now I am standing up watching the game. Two minutes left.

I know which way I want this go, but there is nothing I can do to control this.

As such, I'm cautious about investing any of my emotions. Then a field goal is kicked, and UVA goes ahead with less than two minutes left.

I smile this new smile that's new to me.

I hear in the background the music for Auld Lang Syne, which UVA uses for their alma mater. I can't grok that but salute it anyway. Virginia Tech quarterback goes down in a first down with a defeat on the line.

This is weird, because I have always rooted for Virginia Tech.

I hope UVA wins, but so many nights were spent rooting for Virginia Tech.

I smile, though, and prepare to go out and celebrate. But then... I see people cheer about something like this and... maybe it's not the time to bring up the struggles. /

It's clear UVA is going to win now, but I don't feel any real emotional connection despite living here for a third of my life.

I'm happy for people. We have so much work to do to fix the struggles in our future.

Virginia Tech trained me for the public service that I've done my entire adult life.

I dislike when we become "us versus them."

I like who we are as individuals.

Torn. 

Ending tweet:

Ut Prosim.

"That I May Serve"

That's what I'm here for.

Congratulations, UVA.

News Round-Up for November 29, 2019

I am still trying to figure out how to turn my news round-up tweet threads into blog posts. This blog is hereby returned to its status as a staging post for things. None of this is intended as professional. 

• In a sign of how much Crozet has changed, in terms of population and culture, the volunteer fire department is seeking professionals to ensure the station is staffed. @craftypanda wrote this important story (bit.ly/2L70N0n)
• Virginia's hemp industry went legit this year, but its in its infancy. You can learn about hemp's presence in southwest Virginia in this @roanoketimes piece by @ReporterToniaM (bit.ly/2qXfcFI)
• The Joint Legislative Audit & Review Committee has issued a report giving the Attorney General's office a good review. Story is on A3 of yesterday's @DailyProgress but this link goes to the report (bit.ly/37RKmyH)
• A U.N. report released this week said countries need to cut greenhouse gas emissions now or global temperatures will continue to rise. Story is on B1 of yesterday's @DailyProgress (bit.ly/35PBl7N)
• One of President Carter's last acts was to create the @GraysReefNMS sanctuary off the coast of Georgia. The protected space is healthier than much of the rest of the warming ocean Story in @DailyProgress (bit.ly/2DsBykX)
• This @AP story on the business practices of a major online shopping retailer highlights one reason why I will never give them a penny of my money. Story on B3 of yesterday's @DailyProgress (bit.ly/2OAA12V)
• An annual Thanksgiving tradition in Charlottesville's Black community continued yesterday at Venable Elementary School. @nstoutDP has this story on the Turkey Bowl in the @DailyProgress (bit.ly/2XZk7BV)
• A historic survey of the 10th and Page neighborhood is on hold due to some concerns. The main feature of this @nstoutDP story is the details about how many homes have been demolished since 2000. (bit.ly/33Do2py) 
• Charlottesville's tax collection software had a data breach that was discovered last Friday. Here's a story in the @DailyProgress Were you affected? (bit.ly/2R4GRPQ) 
• Judge Norman Moon has set an October 2020 for the community lawsuit against the organizers of the Unite the Right rally from August 2017. Story in today's @DailyProgress (bit.ly/34xVj6N)
• Today's @DailyProgress editorial recommends dramatic action in the United States to reduce plastic pollution. The bottom line is we have to change the way we consume products. (bit.ly/33tPl5n) 
• There is a popular women's volleyball league in Orange County, and there's a good write-up in the Orange County Review that's been republished in  the @DailyProgress (bit.ly/33zrhOq)
• A gun fell out of a man's pocket at Wal-Mart near Richmond this week, and a bullet was shot. The man walked out of the store without reporting the incident. Tracked down, he is now charged with misdemeanor of reckless handling of a firearm. (bit.ly/2Y1FRgt) 

I'm still not sure the formatting works, but I'm going to keep trying this. I made a lot of edits to cvillepedia. This is all part of what I do when I'm alive. 

Rest in Peace: Rick Sincere

I learned today about the sudden passing of Rick Sincere, someone I first knew about through Charlottesville blogging, back when that was a thing. This little data collection is part of that, and you can learn all about me by reading what came before. 

You can go learn all about Rick Sincere, too, on his blog. He last updated us on Sunday with a post about Gerald Baliles and the film industry in Virginia.

I barely knew him but I know he was here living in this space at the same time that I was. He posted that yesterday, and now he is gone.

I don't have much I want to say publicly. I only know that I need to make changes. 

News and information for November 14

Here are some links to articles from the @DailyProgress e-editions I was catching up on this morning. 

• Just learned from this article that the Albemarle School Board wants the Board of Supervisors to transfer county-owned land for the next "high school center" - read the story from @Knott_Katherine and @craftypanda (bit.ly/2CHBw8H)
  
• Lots of things catch my eye in this @Knott_Katherine story about legislative discussions between @CreighDeeds @SallyLHudson and the Charlottesville School Board (bit.ly/376Y4gK)
  
• In this @AP story, it is reported @SallyLHudson will re-introduce legislation to allow localities to remove Confederatre statues. Learn more in this @sarah_rankin story: (bit.ly/2XePXKB)
  
• Navarre Bartz won election as write-in candidate for one of Charlottesville's seats on the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District. He has a lot of good ideas. Here's the @DailyProgress story (bit.ly/2CF9cDQ)
  
• Maryland and Virginia have agreed to proceed with a public-private partnership to upgrade the American Legion Bridge across the Potomac. The goal is to have no public funding, and the private keeps the toll. Details in this @AP story from yesterday's paper (bit.ly/2CMmKx6)
  
• The Charlottesville Planning Commission has deferred consideration of a rezoning for a portion of the Strategic Investment Area. @nstoutDP has this account (bit.ly/2CKSwLe)
  
• Updating my notes on Greene County to reflect the changes made on Election Day. I count on @TerryBeigie to keep me informed through the @GreeneCoRecord and articles like this one: (bit.ly/2NL6cfw)
  
• Yesterday's E-Edition of the @DailyProgress also contains an edition of the Rural Virginian. In this I re-read the @craftypanda story about @PiedmontVaCC request to sell land on Avon Street Extended (bit.ly/2NpC5d8)

All of the above pages at the links above been been used to add citations to @cvillepedia - take a look at the recent changes (bit.ly/2MWlU5o)

Sitting Outside on Different Bricks, Part Now

A couple, possibly father and daughter, begin their meals which have just been delivered to them by Felicia. The couple is talking about logistics related to a procedure the man is having in the morning. The work will be done by 9:30 tomorrow morning, he says, and I'll have forgotten about it by then.  

The man won't, though. I've just heard this is his last solid meal for a while. I hope that he will be okay, in that vague way I want everyone to be okay. Inside of me is a desire that our civilization finds a way to last. I am hoping that the rest of my life will be spent on brushstrokes to try to bring that canvas to life. 

There are a lot of people in front of me as I type these words upon a metal round table, halfway up Charlottesville's Downtown Mall. I came here because it's possibly one of the last times in a while I can have my Sunday brunch here outside, sitting outside watching strangers walk up and down. Many of the passerby are tourists clad in nice clothing, and I'm glad they are here spending money. 

The older I get, the more removed I am from any of their lives. I fade into the background, despite wearing terribly mismatched clothes. I look up every now and then to see if there's anyone I know, and if I need to keep my head down to avoid someone who might know me. I'm hopeful this won't be the case.

Then I see someone coming up the mall in clothes that are more garish than mine, and I put my head down hoping he'll just pass on by. He does. The person who walked by owns a lot of property around here, and sees the world from his perspective. When I speak to him, he's always complaining about how the local government has messed him over this time. I've written stories about some of these incidents. 

Now I don't write as many stories. I'm in a different role than I was in two years ago, or whenever it was I last wrote a public journal with my feet on the bricks of the downtown Mall. The last time I wrote a public journal, my feet were on bricks on a different shore.  A lot happened on that trip, but I lost the notebook in which I wrote it all down, just a few days after arriving back home. I'm not as upset about that as I should be, but I'm learning to let things go.

Before I got here, I was at the book sale for the Friends of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library at the Gordon Avenue Branch. In years past, I would have gone there excited to get a lot of books for my children and family. I missed the one this spring because of the adjustment in my life, and I definitely got more things because the adjustment has already happened. 

Today, though, my spirits blossomed seeing all those strangers looking for bargains, looking for deals. I wanted to interview all of them, find out their stories.  I wanted to understand who they all are and how we all fit together in this fragile world. I spoke to the guy who runs the book sale, Pete, and he seemed in his element. He's had the position now for a few years, corralling the thousands and thousands of donations into a steady stream of people and donations. 

The couple have now left, and I'm not still sure if they were a father and daughter, or a husband and wife. I didn't have the courage to ask them, and it doesn't really matter. She had a dog, a small poodle, who looked like my last dog, the long lost Billy. Billy was in my dreams again last night, as he so often is. I'm beginning to think I'll never have another dog again, and that he'll be waiting for me when I die on whatever happens when we stop. I don't know what will happen when we stop, but I won't give in to this notion that we're nothing more than temporarily animated meat. There's something else going on.

Or there isn't. I don't know. I feel compelled to write down the mundane and trivial, throwing word after word in the pursuit of sentences that may lay down foundations through which something might grow. 

I watch Frank walk up the mall, carrying his stick. He stops and talks to the man outside who is selling some sort of pictures. Frank doesn't see me and keeps on moving. The selling man talks to him. 

Another man spots me, sees my computer, and spends several minutes telling me about the illicit activities that used to take place 50 years ago in a neighborhood in my city. I want to write it all down to document it, but I'm not sure I have the energy to get all of those pieces in place at this time.

As I type this, I'm about 60 feet away from planters that were illegally installed on steps outside a fancy steak place. Someone asked me about if they were allowed, and I referred them to someone else, and that person is doing something about it, maybe. No one will get murdered, unlike in the illegal activity that Hawk told me about in the past.

Hawk is now drinking a beer by himself in the island. I would go over and talk to him some more, but this is a day I need to get my own foundation secured. I'm not really doing that as I sit here. The energy that existed at the beginning of this entry not fades and I find myself thinking these words are just the ones they were when I wrote them. There's nothing special about them, but they are who I am and who I was.