Virginia Is For Families

Beth and I went downtown this past weekend to hang out at the Irish Festival near St. Patrick’s Church on Church Hill. It was a warm day and there were crowds aplenty enjoying themselves as they tried to get from one side of the street to the other by burrowing through some of their neighbors.

I can do this for about an hour before I start to get really, really tired and cranky. Having a camera in my hand does tend to prolong my participation in these kinds of events however. Beth was happy to find a present or two and some Brunswick stew. I don’t wait in lines to buy food (at least until the next depression). But I did get some photos!

(There’s a photo here of St John’s  Church where Patrick Henry gave his  famous speech. )

On a separate and unrelated subject I have deep-sixed the Keyword Luv plugin. I did this for a variety of reasons and none of them will make sense to some of you.

But what else is new?

Basically I feel like KWL is messing up my  entire blogging experience and my blog as well.  It draws comments based on its existence here and what it does.   It’s like free advertising.  Most of the comments drive me crazy because they are so transparently fake.

And here I am trying to create a blog that is moves to a deeper level of human feeling.  It hopes to visit our common humanity once in awhile.   So why would I encourage these comments?   My mistake.

And what must Google think?  It is trying to create search results  based on genuine interest and not commercial gimmicks.  My stats don’t look that impressive since I installed this thing and there is a gradual decrease in monthly visits.  Could there be a connection?  I don’t know but I guess we will find out.

The bottom line is that I’m losing interest in posting and wondering why?   The combination of falling stats and inane comments may be two of the biggest reasons as I try to introspect about this issue.

Beth and I will be going to Virginia Beach and Washington DC in a week or so and there will be some better opportunities to post.   I’m hoping that the vacation plus  the goodbye party for KWL will reinvigorate my desire to blog.

And, as always, I will share my thoughts and feelings here.  Because that’s what this blog is supposed to be about.  It’s a personal blog and a diary of sorts with lots of photos.

I need to do a better job and stick to the mission.

Click on the thumbnail photo to enlarge and for a slide show

St patrick day

04-jingle-bells

We are going to go over to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens and view their Christmas display again this year.  The photos I took last year seem to be very popular and they do something different every year.  So we tried to get in the first night it was open but the parking lot was full and they were diverting traffic out into the darkness.  I didn’t stick around to follow the trail.

Apparently I’m still not completely cured where crowds are concerned.  In any case here are some photos from last year’s exhibit.  I haven’t posted these before (or I don’t remember doing so…take your pick).  In fact I never really looked at them (or don’t remember etc…).  They needed some light and some cropping.

And here they are.

[Show as slideshow]

 

Click on photo to enlarge

We returned to Nassau yesterday afternoon.  After a nice dinner everyone decided to wander over to Atlantis.  The group was planning to walk over the bridge but I knew that I would be ready to crash by the time we got there so I decided to take a cab.

And guess what?  I had a lot of company.  So we all arrived there after Captain Jack’s favorite cabby “Harry” turned up.   The younger ones went straight to the casino to donate their funds to the island and Captain Jack and his wife, Beth and I went to the aquarium to see the fish.

It’s a pretty amazing place but I have seen it before and am tiring of the crowds and the confusion.  Everything about it is very expensive as well.  I prefer the solitary beaches and the star lit canopy we slept under last night.  The generator broke yesterday and so it was hot below deck.  I slept under the stars.

Today we will catch a flight home.  As usual I am up and about while everyone else is still sleeping.  There is a convenience store across the street from the marina with WiFi and Bahamians streaming in and out.  They are either up very early or have not yet gone to bed.

We really did have a lot of luck this trip and barely saw any evidence of the hurricane.  Captain Jack did an excellent job of skirting it.  We heard stories of past storms however including Andrew which leveled so many homes like the one we were invited to for a barbecue a few nights ago.  People often take years to rebuild.  This home is still not completely rebuilt.  Bahamians don’t do things unless they have cash in hand.