@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
Just a reminder that as of today, Lawrence's movie, Love in Kilnerry, is available for rent and/or purchase on Vudu and Amazon Prime.
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 am hoping to rent it this weekend, and looking forward to it! Congratulations!!
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.