Virginia Breeze

I’m in the Chesterfield Mall this morning.  The dining court has a high peaked roof and all the sound bounces around up there.  I just tried calling Beth and we had a somewhat unsatisfactory conversation because of bouncing sound.  But the WiFi seems to be working well.  Come on by if you are near here and look for the guy in the plaid shirt typing away at a table with uneven legs.  It’s difficult to type on a wobbly table.  But they fixed up the bathrooms.  Stellar B rooms.  Hoping everyone will decide the Mall is too nice to pass up even if you pay more for some things.

Look for the guy who is going to throw a chair in a minute if the table doesn’t stop wobbling.  It’s all about the details guys.  Fix the tables!

I’m not well this morning.  My stomach feels iffy.  And my brain is sleepy.  And I’m convinced most of the readers who write comments here have gone for good.  Because I’m such a poor conversationalist.  This makes me sad.  I’m sure there a few of you guys and girls still around.  Hopefully.  But some of you have run out of comments.  And that’s my fault.  I guess.

But there are many more readers here who I don’t know.  Google is up to about fifty percent now after falling to zero this past summer.  Or just about zero.  A little misunderstanding.

But no one was terminally misunderstood.  We patched things up.   And now there are thousands of keywords doing their thing.  So the blog is well.  But the blogger is sick.  And his commenters are gone.

It’s a mixed bag.  But this dining court must be for crazy people like myself because all the music and the conversation are mixed together up in the pitched roof and then bounced back down here.  It’s like ease dropping on a telephone  trunk cable.  You can’t really make anything out but it’s all there.  And I would be much more comfortable sitting at home in front of my computer.

Maybe it’s time for a Hagan Das milkshake.  I was successful in my quest to buy my lovely daughter who must not be named a birthday present.  Soon we will head up to the Northern Virginia to see her and the family and the new home.  Leesburg.

It’s supposed to be nice.  I’ve never been there.  But I have to go.  I can’t stay here.  It’s too confusing.

Bye.

Views per week/ Virginia Breeze

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

I was looking around at the crowd yesterday at the Richmond Folk Festival.

I have trouble being in crowds. It’s a lot better than it used to be and since I have started taking photos I feel practically normal in the midst of my fellow human beings.

It has reached a point where I can enjoy them and yesterday it went a step beyond that.

I was looking around and it suddenly hit me that I owe a debt to all these people. Because they form the society that protects us in many different ways from many different things.

Many of them are involved in some way or another in every thing that I have as well. And at the top of this list is freedom. I wouldn’t do well living in a fascist state and am unhappy when someone suggests I do.  Communism would not be much fun either.  In the real world.

Some I do not see as I look around. They cannot enjoy the beautiful weather and the entertainment. I cannot take their photo.

But their names are engraved on glass at the top of the hill. And when the sun sets it casts a beautiful light across them.
Perhaps I have not done that light justice in these photo. But it was there and I wanted to try and share it with you.

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One of the highlights from yesterday at the Richmond Folk Festival was the performance of the Mexican Sky Dancers, Tezcatlipoca Voladores.  This activity is a Mayan tradition going back thousands of years.  And it really gets your heart pounding in 2008 as they do this thing without safety ropes or a net.

Here’s a NextGen collection that pretty much goes through the performance from top to bottom.  They start out with a dance and prayers and then proceed to the top of the poll.  I have tried to capture some of their graceful and colorful flight to the ground.  They do look like they are enjoying themselves.

[Show as slideshow]

Click on photos to enlarge

Also here is a video taken by the local paper and an article about this event.

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

Today Beth and I spent most of the day downtown at the Richmond Folk Festival. There was such a positive response to the National Folk Festival in the past few years that the  sponsors in the area generously volunteered to continue their support.

There were some world class acts here this year and I will share some things about them in the next week. I’m pretty tired tonight but I did want to post something about it now.
The weather was perfect. People were having a great time. It’s lots of fun seeing all the old hippies come out in their wheel chairs.
Just kidding. We will have to wait a few more years for that. But there was a lot of dancing and jumping around. Shouts and applause. Didn’t smell any hemp however. Darn!

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