respect, choice, options

Senator M Warner D VA

Senator Mark Warner was in Charlottesville yesterday at the ribbon cutting for Blue Ridge PACE.
The last of seven to address the assembled crowd, following celebratory remarks, Warner spoke from personal experience about our society’s view of aging. The Senator’s comments begin at 25 minutes (see player below) . Warner spoke for fifteen minutes.

At the end of the day I think a society is judged most not by what they say but how they treat their youngest and how they treat their oldest.– Senator Mark Warner

Sen M Warner hands

Speakers at the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

“We saw lots of things wrong with the debate around health care reform. But to my mind, the single most insulting point of the health care debate was when people were legitimately talking about how we ought to allow families to have the kind of counseling that they should all go through, as an option, not forced upon anybody but as an option, and even the notion of those kind of conversations was labeled by some as death panels which was outrageous, beyond the pale… This is an issue… that is more than a policy issue, it is a personal issue, it is an issue of faith… it is time again I believe to start this conversation.”

crowd gathered, Monticello Mountain in background
Crowd assembled for the ribbon cutting at Blue Ridge PACE. Monticello Mountain in the background.

bird walk

Corvus brachyrhynchos
Went for a short morning walk along the Rivanna with people that know birds. They heard or saw white throated sparrows, carolina wrens, tufted titmouse, a fish crow, american crows, a bald eagle, mallards, canada geese, a red shouldered hawk, cardinals, mockingbirds, a ruby crowned kinglet, downy woodpecker, a pileated woodpecker, a red fox, hermit thrush, bluebird, yellow-rumped warbler, raven, sparrow, white-breasted nuthatch, goldfinch, song sparrow, Carolina chickadee, flicker, red-bellied woodpecker, catbird, robin, towhee, starlings.
I saw runners and unidentified flying objects.
The dog walkers are still leaving bags of dog dung on the side of the trail. People too precious to carry the load while they walk.

boring technology


I always call Miss Utility before I dig. Calling Sister Utility is the law. I don’t know anyone who has ever been arrested, but the State, the County, the City, they all make pretty clear:

Failure to notify Miss Utility before you dig could make you liable for the cost of any repairs should you damage a utility service.

In the picture above a concrete sanitary sewer main runs right to left, downhill, beneath Chesapeake Street in Charlottesville Virginia, headed for the sewage plant.
Also pictured, a half inch diameter, high pressure gas line running from seven o’clock to one o’clock, overtop the sanitary sewer.
Also pictured, the damage that resulted when the HDD (horizontal directional drilling) operator inadvertently steered the drilling rig through the sewer.

The benefits of drilling, no trench, less erosion, it is minimally invasive street surgery. The problem, no laparoscope.

Our City is actively pursuing inflow and infiltration of rainwater into the sanitary sewer. They cruise pipes with video cameras, find and fix damaged pipe.

under the asphalt

peebles block portsmouth ohio
Paving bricks are larger…typically 9 ” by 4 “, and much heavier.  One paving brick weighs almost 10 lbs each.  They have at least twice the “crush strength” of typical bricks, and are fired at a higher temperature, which results in an exterior coating that makes them more impervious to water.–Keith

(in the course of infrastructure changes on W Main some of Charlottesville’s old road history is unearthed, paving brick)