Tim Barry at Dogwood Dell Dogwood Dell is a 2400 capacity amphitheater in the middle of a city park owned by the City of Richmond. Every summer Richmond does free shows just about every weekend as part of a summer long Arts Festivals that has been happening longer than I've been alive. Tim Barry is a local musician probably best known as the lead singer of Avail. But he has also released about 10…
Vibe Coding... Sing it to the tune of the Bee Gees Night Fever . I mentioned last week that I was using the modern incarnation of Mozilla Livemarks. It works okay, but it creates a bookmark for every blog post, which caused my bookmarks folder to balloon to over 1000 bookmarks quickly. Also, the limits on number of bookmarks per site did not seem to be operating properly. As I thought about it, I…
Big Meadow Campground - Shenandoah National Park Trip: 60 Nights: 198-199 Look at that. 60 camping trips at $82.66 per night. Buy a camper they said. You'll save money, they said. I'm kidding. I knew buying a camper wasn't going to save money. Anyway... we had reservations for Loft Mountain Campground but I wanted to go to Big Meadow because we like birding at Big Meadow. The NPS saves a handful…
I quit RSS. Kind of. A month ago, I read an article from someone who had quit RSS and gone back to visiting blogs one by one. It stuck with me. A little poking around revealed that the old Live Bookmarks feature of Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox lives on as an extension. I imported my feeds into the LiveMarks extension. So now I'm using RSS to see when new posts are available on a blog, but to read them…
The Dave Kline Band with Senator Tim Kaine After Friday night's less-than-stellar experience, we tried again. Yep. It was a two-concert weekend for us. The day got off to a good start as I completed my first Bird Friendly Habitat Certification (not counting my own yard). So now we have two certified yards in Sandston! We got whacked by a severe thunderstorm around 4 PM and lost power around 4:15…
Robert Jon & the Wreck at The Tin Pan I have lived in RVA, and before that Fredericksburg, for over 20 years. I have looked at shows at The Tin Pan on multiple occasions. Every time I passed, because the idea of seeing a loud rock and roll show in a dinner club atmosphere just didn't appeal to me. A couple of months ago, Robert Jon, one of my favorite artists, announced a show at the Tin Pan. He…
My last 5 books - July 2026 edition This is a new feature in which I will copy and paste my recent book reviews from my books page These are the last 5 books I have read. I will update in a month or 2 when I've read 5 more. I'm Starting to Worry About this Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin Rating: **** Uber driver and terminally online gamer Abbot gets offered $200K to drive a woman and her large…
Grayson Highlands Camping 2026 Trip: 59 Nights: 194-197 A heatwave hit the east coast just in time for the July 4 weekend. It was over 100F (38C) in RVA. Luckily we were 240 miles away and 1 mile up camping, where the 80F (27C) temps also constitute a heat wave, but one I can handle. We arrived on Thursday, July 2, meeting up with friends for the weekend. After our traditional arrival night dinner…
WTF is up with sugar allergies? Friday evening we were on the patio at our local brewery when my wife overheard a young person expounding to his two friends about how people wear CGMs to manage their sugar allergies. My wife wears a CGM because she has Type 1 diabetes. Sugar allergies are not a thing. That would be like an oxygen or water allergy. My wife was not drinking, which is probably the…
We can't fix society with tech Just capturing this thought from an online friend. You are not going to fix anything, until we find some other core principles to build on. Like cooperation and collaboration rather than competition. Like community rather than individualism. We are all in this together, and none of us is getting out of here alive; but some billionaires are going to get to live in a…
Laurel Hill State Park Trip: 58 Nights: 191-193 Last weekend was the annual Aliner Ascape rally, which has settled at Laurel Hill State Park near Somerset, PA. We missed last year when my career blew up 3 weeks before the camp out, so it was great to get back this year to see old friends and a make new ones. The park is kind of in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive 40 minutes to find a…
Teddy’s Last Selfie Teddy Ballgame, aka Ted, aka Teddy, aka Theodore J. Dog, crossed the rainbow bridge yesterday. We found Teddy at Petsmart where the Orange County Humane Society was running an adoption event in 2017. One of our senior dogs had recently passed on and the other was really struggling without her partner. So we adopted Teddy. The shelter told us he was six. Our Vet at the time…
Sunday Steamy Sunday I was supposed to get up and go birding this morning, but it was going to be 87F (28C) and very humid by the time we finished, so I'm here blogging from the comfort of my air-conditioned home instead. We planned on heading into Richmond for Sailfest today, but that same weather issue is making it increasingly likely that I'll spend the day on the couch. As I get older, the…
Weekend at Loft Mountain Campground Trip: 57 Nights: 189-190 It was 92F (32C) in RVA. It was 75C (23C) and breezy two hours away in Shenandoah National Park. We chose wisely. It was a very chill weekend. We arrived around 430 PM on Friday, and after setting up camp, we did some birding in the campground. Dinner was our traditional arrival night meal - sandwiches from WaWa. We had no cell service…
Memorial Day Staycation We should have been camping this weekend. The weather had other ideas. All of Virginia is in a moderate to severe drought, but of course Memorial Day weekend was a washout. I cancelled camping plans last week, and instead we did a local staycation. On Friday, we had dinner at our favorite local Greek joint, followed by a movie at the fabulous Byrd Theater. The movie was The…
Viral on LinkedIn again I went viral on LinkedIn again. Previously.
Birding at Dorey Park It's difficult to photograph birds at all times; it's especially difficult when they mostly live in the leaves. I did get this one decent shot this morning of a brown thrasher. We saw 33 species, including my best-ever look at a Great Crested Flycatcher. There were two examining a potential nesting spot in a hole in a tree right in front of us. We'll have to go back in a…
Camping at Machicomoco State Park Trip: 56 Nights: 187-188 And the 2026 camping season has started. We spent the weekend at Machicomoco State Park near Gloucester, VA. It's only a 70-minute drive from home. Until a few weeks ago it was Virginia's newest state park, as it opened in 2021. It is dedicated to the history of the native people who lived there for centuries before any Europeans showed…
County Roads, Take Me Home My phone served up a cover version of this John Denver classic as I was chauffeuring my wife around yesterday. Something about the lyric hit me in a way that I'd never noticed before. Almost Heaven, West Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River Life is old there, older than the trees Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze That is scientifically…
That's a lot of work for a name tag. 15 weeks of classes, 5 or 6 field trips, a final exam, and a practical application (I made a zine) to earn this.
Sunday Dreary Sunday After some much needed rain last night, the temps barely hit 50°F (10°C) today, with the wind making it feel much cooler. I have not left the house today. I haven't really left the computer. I had some much needed vacation research to do. I've booked a campsite for the Little World Series in August. 44 years after my playing days ended, I'm finally making it to the LLWS. We…
I've been tweaking the CSS for the site I've spent the morning tweaking CSS for the site. Please let me know if anything is off for you. It all appears to be fine on my desktop and phone.
Q1 Books I keep the list of books I read at the books link above. Here are the highlights from the first quarter of 2026. The Society of Unknowable Objects: This follow up to The Book of Doors mostly delivers. Life After Cars: A depressing look at all the ways cars ruin everything, with some hopeful examples of places getting it right. Automatic Noodle: This story of robots running a bakery in…
35 hours of class...done! Last night was the final lecture class for Virginia Master Naturalist training. 35 hours of classes, 10+ hours of field trips, and a few additional hours of continuing education since January. It was like being back in night school, except that most of us are old. Final exams are due Friday, mine is 95% done. I just need to finish up the questions based on last night's…
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