I woke up early because I went to bed early. These days I'm ready to sleep pretty early. Sometimes I sleep in, though. An older person may need more time to avoid risk.
I did not see one today but saw a lot of memories of stories gone by. I remember the time before Water Street Extended when the area was overgrown and was somewhat wild. Bad things had happened at the Coal Tower. Riverbend Development tamed the spot as did whoever developed City Walk. I don't really remember anymore but I wrote about it all including the addition of a historic protection at the Coal Tower.
Unlike most Saturdays, I got to work getting the podcast version completed. The reality is that the podcast gets many fewer listens than the newsletter gets reads. I continue to do the work anyway because so much of my history as a journalist relies on audio work. Since 1995, I've transcribed voices from tapes.
So I got the podcast posted at 7:30 a.m. The original idea was to go for a nice long walk, but it is a humid day and I was inclined to rest. I had drunkenly told a friend I'd look after her dog. Sherri offered me $50 and I said I didn't want any more. She gave me a $20 anyway.
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| BB (Beautiful Buford) looks up at Bowser as Karen retreats in disgust that there's a dog in the house |
After finishing the podcast, I promptly went back to sleep. That wasn't the intent but I was tired so I laid down for a few minutes and was immediately back into dream world. I don't remember what I did there, but I didn't want to leave.
At 9 a.m. I finally left to go pick up Bowser. The idea was to go to the two markets that operate on Saturday but I always feel like an outsider at those places. I also worry about money because as an independent journalist I don't have any and have so far not figured out how to make a vast sum of money.
Sherri lives at the eastern end of the downtown area in a condominium that at one point was potentially going to be purchased up for a hotel project that never materialized. I wrote stories about the opposition to a parking garage. I could go into more details but that is not going to happen.
I've been walking a lot more and I was a bit cross at myself for not getting downtown earlier so I could get four miles in. I need about an hour and a half for that and I didn't have it. I don't think Bowser would want to make it that far at this point as she's ten or eleven.
I opted to not go to the market, even though I had a $20 in my pocket. I always imagine I'll be the sort of person to enjoy shopping at such places, but I don't like to be in a crowd anymore unless I've got someone to share it with. And these days I don't have anyone to share my life with. I'm not sure if I can change that and I don't know how. I would like to have the opportunity to meet more people my age but I don't want to sign up for a website. I don't want anything inorganic.
So I walked to the east into the Little High neighborhood. There's a neighborhood walk there tomorrow and I wrote about that in yesterday's newsletter. You can take a look here on Information Charlottesville. I didn't take a picture today but I did just now go through some photos I took back in April for a C-Ville Weekly story.
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| 1011 East Jefferson Street photographed by me in April 2026. Why? Go look at the article I posted just now. |
I decided not to walk all the way to the bottom of East Jefferson Street and past 13th Street NE where I lived for just under a year. It was not a happy experience as one marriage ended and another one began to form. I don't really like to go past it anymore as I don't really remember who I was then.
I'm sure I could look back, but I'd rather move forward. Instead I opted to walk down 10th Street past Market Street and to Water Street Extended. I don't often walk in that area and it's always such a surprise to see the gigantic mansions. I don't know anyone who lives in any of them, and likely will never be invited into any of them. Maybe that will change, but sometimes I wonder if living here so long has just perpetuated the bad energy that started when I moved here.
I chose to walk that way because I was looking to see if any of the railcars on the Buckingham Branch Railroad had a "Tubby" scrawled on it. A friend of mine who lives in Waynesboro and I take pictures and send them to each other.
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| A "Tubby" spotted on June 16, 2025 crossing Carlton by Beer Run |
Seeing no prize and running out of time to pick up the dog, I turned south onto Carlton and walked past that strange shopping center that used to have a small grocery market. I wrote about closing but if I go to look up that story I'll likely lose focus. I want to get to the end of this post so I can get back to work I want to do.
* Several Hours Later *
I've spent the day crunching real estate transactions for the month of May. I'm so far behind on this task but I love doing it so much. Especially after walking around so much lately in the mornings trying to understand more about how the place I live fits together.
I took a brief walk today and took some snaps, but all of them are things I need to research. It was in a section of town I don't go to very often anymore, and I need to do work on about five photos I took. Maybe I can work that into a segment for the newsletter rather than put it out here on a social network that chokes free expression through the use of selective algorithms.
That's the way it is for me here. Everywhere I look, I see stories about buildings, and I see things that happened in locations. Sometimes I see ghosts.
I've thought about leaving but since coming back from Pennsylvania this last time, I've felt this real sense that I need to dig in a bit more before I do. There's a reason I'm here, even if I can't see it. Even if I can't believe most of the people who tell me they're glad I'm doing the work I do.
I'm still hungry. At 53, I'm still hungry to get even better at what I do to explain this place to itself. I live in a world where journalism as a force in people's lives has simply disappeared, replaced where a world where everyone has the power of the printing press at their own fingertips.
But that press is controlled by forces whose missions are not always transparent.
Me? I'm writing up property transactions from May 2026 to try to inform the overall work I do to educate people about growth and development. I'm not advocating a point of view. I'm using a philosophy that worked well in the years after the Second World War.
To conclude, I'm going to give The Paper on Peacock another try.
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