@jeanne-mayell I still listen to music all of the time. Music is in my genes - granddaughter of a violin maker and bluegrass fiddler and singer, I am possessor of perfect pitch. That perfect pitch got me in trouble sometimes as a youth, because I would talk like whoever I was with and they often thought that I was mocking them by speaking to them in their accents. I was not.. I am a natural mimic. I also had a good singing voice until the thyroid disease took it. Music is as necessary to me as air. A language understood by all regardless of nationality or native tongue. Music is how I heal myself. I enjoy all genres of music and know the magic of all of it.
To me? A world without music.... is not one I could live in.
There is a sacredness in the notes, and a sacredness in our everyday lives.
Can anyone help me out with some information about Virginia? I'm interested in finding out about Richmond and Chesterfield county. Schools, crime, weather, ect. I've done lots of reading but would rather get the input from people I trust who actually live there and/or know about it first-hand.
How much damage are Youngkin and his minions going to be able to do to Virginia's progressive movement? Is Chesterfield county turning blue? I've read it has traditionally voted Republican but went blue in 2020.
PS, Journey, right there with ya! My ears freak out if I don't have music going lol.
Can anyone help me out with some information about Virginia? I'm interested in finding out about Richmond and Chesterfield county. Schools, crime, weather, ect. I've done lots of reading but would rather get the input from people I trust who actually live there and/or know about it first-hand.
How much damage are Youngkin and his minions going to be able to do to Virginia's progressive movement? Is Chesterfield county turning blue? I've read it has traditionally voted Republican but went blue in 2020.
PS, Journey, right there with ya! My ears freak out if I don't have music going lol.
I am tagging @deetoo who might be able to help you out Polarberry!
@polarberry, i live in Northern Virginia which is generally blue except for some pockets here and there. Unfortunately I don't know much about Chesterfield county or the Richmond area, but I have a good friend whose brother has lived in Richmond for the past 40 years. i believe he's pretty progressive. I will check with her and get back to you.
@polarberry I have lived in Chesterfield for the past 32 years and love it here. Both my daughters went to Chesterfield schools and I was pleased with their education ( esp. being a teacher myself) There are areas of Chesterfield to stay away from and definitely stay away from Richmond. I do not go into Richmond unless I really have to go into the city. There are areas of Richmond where crime is unheard of , but those areas are very pricey. Their school system is below par so parents who can afford to send their kid to private schools will do so.
Here is the Chesterfield Public School website. If you want to know anything else about Chesterfield, just ask.
Chesterfield County Public Schools
Thanks for posting this. It feels great that Kilnerry is out. And that it will provide a lot of laughter which we all need. Have a great week everyone.
I guess this is the most appropriate space to update WHY I have been out of the loop for so long.
It's been a crazy year. I've missed everyone here, but just didn't have the bandwidth to engage much with anything online.
- Renovated old house in San Diego proper
- Engaged in a process of psychotherapy (individual & couples) to get to the root of and to try to mitigate the depression I have mostly been in since 2015. Turns out I have PTSD and ADD as possible contributors to my depression, anxiety and autoimmune diseases.
- Decided to sell old house because a) never liked it; b) bad emotional associations with living there (and some bad mojo, too); c) the neighborhood was going downhill fast and I no longer felt safe; d) house had more than doubled in value, so it made sense to get out while the gettin' was good.
- Hubby had to get 2nd & 3rd aortic stents placed
- Decided to become a dog trainer to volunteer at a higher level with my local humane society, so I've been in a hybrid program since last Fall, just finishing up now
- Moved to a McMansion in the exurbs of Riverside County (loving it!)
- New house needed minor renovations to meet our needs
- Hubby then had to get open heart surgery to replace his congenitally defective aortic valve.
- Close friends and family are also dealing with a lot of upheaval, mostly related to mental health.
Things are finally leveling out, and I am able to "coast" for a bit, so now I have time to catch up. Feel free to reply here to fill me in on anything (I am aware of Coyote's passing - so sad) or to ask me anything.
We are in process of voting here, we have our mail in ballots. The local sheriff of Riverside is an avowed, public Oathkeeper, and we'd like to get him out. On the other hand I have noticed that in areas where the municipal admin or heads of LE get voted in as progressives, the cops literally stop doing their jobs out of spite (this is what was happening in San Diego - a neighbor was almost killed with a machete by a meth head in his driveway and it took hours for police to show up, when they did they shrugged and said too bad he got away). It's very safe here, so I have to research his opponent to see if it's worth it.
My neighborhood seems purple - half of us have hummingbird and rainbow-peace flags, the other half have thin blue line and blood & soil Nazi flags. Many of the progressives like us are moving up here because of housing affordability, so we're hoping over time it will become more blue. I know for a fact the sellers of our house had to move because they were anti-vaxx, anti-mask, and the husband had a state-based job that he lost as a result. They raised their family here, were the original owners (house built in 2000). The wife was sobbing when they left (I half expected to find her camped out in our walk in closet when we got here), so I had sympathy for her, but ya know what? He didn't have to lose his job. They went to Texas (quelle surprise!). Needless to say, I got the house disinfected before anything.
Some of you may also recall that part of our plan was to take any profits from selling our old house and look to get a condo or something up in British Columbia. Well, Canada has CANCELLED any foreigners from buying any real estate whatsoever. ANY. I understand Trudeau promised to do this to ease their affordable housing crisis in their big cities, but this is not going to work. Absolutes never do. I fail to see how a couple of old Americans buying a condo in Victoria or a ski lodge in Whistler or a cabin in Saskatchewan is going to affect prices in Vancouver and Toronto, but here we are. They could have restricted it to ONE purchase. They could have also exempted Americans and Mexicans, since we share the continent. Now all that will happen is that the foreign oligarchs will launder their dirty money through shell corporations based in Canada. One of the other reasons we left San Diego was that most of the houses on our street were AirBnBs. I only had 3 sets of neighbors to say goodbye to and there were 15 houses on the block. So I get the need to do something, but this is not it.
Any Canadians here -I'd appreciate your insights on this topic. Our goal was to have a second home as a vacation spot, but also as a safer place to land when fascism takes hold here - especially for our young adult daughter. I'm trying so hard to get her to leave the US before it's too late.
Glad to see everyone back on here, I'll do my best to keep up!! Much love to all of you!!
I attended the main commencement at my graduate alma mater yesterday. The invited guests were the local Long Island Suffolk government officials and state senator Schumer. There were only about 150 graduates attending while most of the graduates were from the School of Arts and Sciences. Many didn't wear masks.
I know about 7 people in NY metro who are down with Omicron right now. All vaxxed and boosted, several with second booster, all very sick. All had loosened up on precautions, but not extremely so. One of them, a 30 year old woman with MS, had Omicron 9 weeks ago, and she is down with it again and having to go straight to monoclonal antibodies.
Here in SoCal, you'd think there never was a pandemic to begin with. Every store I go into I am the only person in a mask except in an Asian market, where many continue to do so (but not all). Even restaurant servers are unmasked and now ungloved also.
My daughter, who works in a sandwich shop, was vaxxed but not boosted. She took every precaution and still came down with Omicron a couple of months ago. It was like a bad cold for her, but still...
Fingers crossed that Moderna & Pfizer can update their vaccines in time for Fall. My understanding is Moderna is already in trials on the update.
So I was reading through various threads here and such and there is talk of aliens and also like Atlanteans and such things. And okay, I am a huge fan of Atlantis and such, but I can't really see Atlantis being a real place still surviving in the modern day. I was just curious on what people think about that.
Now I am not saying "well we can't see it so its not true" obviously, as I know there is more to this world than what we can see. More to humans then the concrete. But I do think that there is some sort of balance point. And secret atlanteans walking among us kind of stretches things.
As a note, I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this. But at least two people, if not more, in my life, at radically different times, and with no knowledge of each other said that there was something about about that stopped certain bad forces from manifesting when I was around. One guy pointed to a corner of a cafeteria and said "so there is something that inhabits there but whenever you are present it is never seen" and years later at a theater I worked with a person says "you know, its funny, but when you are in the concession stand the being that inhabits the area never shows up" out of nowhere.
So yeah, I'm just curious on what people here honestly think about such topics.
Hey there loungers!
No major things to report other than some random life stuff I'll share with you all.
Our new roof: It's looking nice, though - I'm now frustrated because it is costing an extra $5K because... you guessed it, the previous owners of this house didn't do the roof correctly. Apparently, there were parts of our roof with no roof at all (modern shingles patchwork quilted onto cedar shingles that were nailed down at the base but not to anything else!) and parts of our roof with so many shingles the contractor was surprised our house hadn't collapsed in on itself. That's now taken care of, and they say they'll finish the job tomorrow! Yay!
But seriously the metal shingles? They look amazing, and we're so happy we'll never have to worry about our roof again (70 year warranty on this, hence the incredibly hefty price tag. When the warranty is up I'll be 113 and I have no intention of living past 109.)
You'll recall that I was going to buy an eBike. Well it had been so long that I forgot all about it. Low and behold the day after spending an extra $5K on my roof that I wasn't intending to spend, I get to now spend more money. But this is exciting because I'll finance it and then pay it off in August when all the summer work I'm doing for my mentor gets paid for. And in the long run I know both the roof AND the bike will save us money.
But man, that wallet hit today! If I were still in my 20s I'd be crying right now. Those of you who haven't gotten there yet, your 40s are where things finally start making sense and you can have the occasional emergency.
Hope all is well!
@dannyboy OKay. That’s two posts in a row that made me smile tonight.
And something else, about that metal roof, I bet it reflects sunlight back into space, rather than absorbing it into the house, which, if true, is a very good and essential thing in the age of climate change. Especially if it is going going to last until 2092.
@jeanne-mayell I'm overall very excited about this new home improvement - just not excited about the extra monthly payment :-)
Glad I could make you smile! Sometimes the hits come and I get pulled under for awhile. Othertimes I'm able to see the humor right out of the gate. The words "bizarre luck magic" coming from the contractor made me giggle.
Light and love friends!
@dannyboy That's wonderful news... I am looking at getting a metal roof on my house soon too. I love the sound of rain on a tin roof!! Though vast improvements have been made in the roofing now. There is a lot of information to digest and research here!
https://www.georgiametals.com/products/metal-roofing
Who knew you could get such wide choices now!!!
First things first tho... I have to address a foundation issue and install some French drains first.
AS my Dad used to say " I don't have more... I just owe more " LOL
@journeywithme2 Ours look like shingles which was another thing we really liked about them. Really, once we priced asphalt and realized in 15 years we'd be doing asphalt again (at an increased cost because nothing ever goes back down in price) it was a no brainer to do metal now while we are still working vs being retired, and to never have to worry about this again. But that initial price tag was a gut punch. The company we went with was a little pricier but they offered a better product (and are a company that has been around a long time with excellent reviews - that was important to us too) and despite the surprises, which were not their fault, we're happy!
@dannyboy Yes.. for mine? The cost would run 7-12 dollars a square foot depending and at 1096 sq ft that's about 8-13 k. so.. bug outlay up front for security and savings down the road.
First priority tho is to address the foundation issues and the French drains here on this slope my house is on.
I'm here to work my morning shift at the Rooftop Revolving Lounge. Just wanted everyone to know that I hopped out of bed this morning and onto Artemis (my e-Bike's name... my Jeep Cherokee is Apollo so I really only had one choice in name for his sister!) and did my 12.5 mile jaunt to work. It took me about 38 minutes and let me tell you - that pedal assist makes all the difference in the world.
A few years back I drove my non e-bike to my mother in law's, about 4 miles from work and biked in. Most of that leg of the journey was fine because it was flat, but - there's a hill right before work that is obscenely steep (even though it doesn't look like it) I didn't make it, and I had to have a coworker drive me home. I haven't attempted to bike it since.
But this morning I was like - I'm doing it. And do it I did. The pedal assist on the eBike completely leveled that hill. And all the hills in from my house to my mother in law's (TO my mother in law's is about 8 miles. From there it's 4 to work) were nothing either. I got to work and cleaned up in the bathroom and now my bike is charging nicely next to me while I work.
The green panniers are great because they hold a TON of stuff. I had all my work stuff on one side (laptop in a sleeve, some files I need to work on today, and my portable hard drive with side projects) and on the other I had a change of clothes, the charger (I didn't want to risk running out of battery) and some food because I had a feeling I was going to be ravenous when I got to work.
Basically, just a post to tell you all I saved $5.19 today by biking to work. Bonus: I ate the donut in the office because... if I burned 800 calories going in as my watch suggests, it means there's another 800 on the way out :P. This bike was worth the cost and I'm hoping to bike to work every April-June, and August-November during a normal school year.