Neighbor’s dog

Just because.

Classy commenters

Imagine you see a guy in a park painting the scene in front of him. Maybe he has a few more paintings propped up nearby.

You don’t think he’s doing a particularly good job. But can you imagine going up to him and saying, "You know, your paintings aren’t very good."

What would you think of a person who went up to strangers, unrequested, and told them that she didn’t think much of whatever they were doing?

And yet, the first comment to this blog from someone I don’t know does exactly that. "This blog reminds me of your new neighborhood, Short Pump," writes ‘Flop Sweat Sally’."They’re both mundane, clichéd, and a little depressing."

My first thought was to quote James Bond from Casino Royale, when asked if he wanted his martini shaken or stirred: "Do I look like a man who gives a damn?"

My second thought was that there are always people who like to insult other people just because they were raised that way. It never worked for me, but to each her own. Thanks for the welcome, Sally. Good to see there’s class everywhere.

Photo store

All right, so used bookstores are off the list. How about photography shops? I have no desire to shop at Best Buy — stores that try to pull fast ones on their customers don’t appeal to me — and I always prefer to support the local businesses.

So Richmond Camera it is, a local shop. Good news: It’s local and it’s close by. Better news: A very friendly staff who also seem to know what they’re doing. (Contrast any big-box shop where all the sales drones know how to do is recommend something pricier.)

Bad news: Limited selection, at least in the West End branch. There’s a whole wall dedicated to darkroom stuff, but only three or four tripods (and no monopods, which is what I was looking for). I asked about the darkroom stuff — does anyone buy it? Yep, but almost all of it’s sold to photography students and their teachers these days, where "darkroom" means "Photoshop."

Which begs the question: Why are they still teaching darkroom techniques? The basics in photography are in the exposure — learning how shutter speed and aperture affect things, how to make a good composition, working with light and color, etc. Darkroom work is strictly chemistry; you don’t really learn anything about photography by doing it. (Well, you do learn why Photoshop uses certain terms, like "dodge" and "burn.")

I’d've loved to see a whole wall dedicated to light meters, studio equipment, reflectors, bounce boxes, and so on — stuff that aspiring photogs can actually use and that teaches them the science behind the images. Maybe another time.

Mundanely yours,

Andrew

The bitter cold

There’s something satisfying about talking to your family in New York and Boston about the weather — that is, when it’s 65 degrees (or even 55) in late December, while they’re under a blanket of snow and ice.

Of course it’s a bit odd to be able to take The Boy for a ride in his new wagon on Christmas day without more than a light sweater. Someday I’ll be telling him about how we used to get snow….

Used book store?

Apparently there isn’t a used book store anywhere around here. Sheesh, Roanoke had two that I knew of. A sad thing.

My congressman

I realized it was time to check out who my congresscritter is. In Roanoke it was Bob "How can I kiss your ass today, Mr. President" Goodlatte.

Here it’s Eric "My last name is spelled wrong" Cantor. He’s neither very bright nor very nice.

First of all, the latest news on his site is from Feb. 2007, where he praises the President’s budget, saying it "will help contain Washington [sic] runaway spending." Perhaps he missed the line on the budget funding the war in Iraq.

And writing in January about "End of the Democrat’s ‘100 Hours’," he shows an incredible lack of intelligence and decorum.

What was Cantor’s most important note about the 100 Hours?

“The 100 hours was not a productive time for America as evidenced by Pelosi exempting her hometown company, Starkist Tuna, from the minimum wage increase.

First of all, Eric, it’s not "Pelosi." Out of general respect for your fellow representatives it’s "Ms. Pelosi," "Rep. Pelosi," or "Speaker of the House Pelosi." Be a grownup.

And don’t you feel just a tad hypocritical complaining about Starkist Tuna? (Starkist Tuna?) Billions to Halliburton? No problem. Millions for a bridge to nowhere for a repub in Alaska? No problem.

But give health insurance to poor kids? No way.

[sigh] I hoped to have a congressman with at least a shred of intelligence, but instead I got Eric Cantor.

Delivery by PODS

We got our PODS pod delivered today (that’s Portable On-Demand Storage). Let’s just say that although nothing appears to be damaged, it wasn’t exactly the best service around.

Read the story on my main blog.

45

More things I’m learning: Every road has a speed limit of 45 MPH. That includes roads that should clearly be 30 or 35, as well as those that should clearly be 55 (and on which most people drive that fast anyway).

Long morning

This morning my water went out again. First thought: Did the frakkers at the water company turn us off again? Nope. Water main broke — the water line into the house, that is. The water line isn’t a copper pipe, but a hose. The connection from the hose to the PVC pipes cracked and split.

Valve was right there so there wasn’t too much water in the crawlspace. Shut it, called the landlord. Left a message. Hmm… I’ve worked with PVC before. Went to look at the pipe, and realized I just had to replace one PVC elbow joint.

Quick drive to Patterson’s Hardware, got an identical joint and a can of the right PVC cement for about $6.00. Cut off the old elbow, glued on the new one, waited half an hour and turned the water on. So far, no leaks. Called the landlord and suggested he inspect it just to be sure.

Meanwhile, I set out to extend the cable to the TV that Daryl and Daryl had left too short. I bought the right connector at Patterson’s, so I just needed a piece of cable and a coupling. Cable I had, and coupling I found in the crawlspace.

Presto, change-o and the cable is long enough.

Went upstairs to write this entry, but the network was down. Realized that the coupling I took from the crawlspace was actually in use. (Most stuff down there is from the old cable system.) Searched and found another coupling, connected the network again, and all is well.

I say that like it took 10 seconds. In reality it was a good 45 minutes of figuring out why the network didn’t work, which cables I had disconnected, and where another coupling was.

Bottom line, though, is that the water works, the TV works, the Internet works, and the landlo’ is supposed to install the new dishwasher today.

Daryl and Daryl install the DirecTV

The DirecTV installer guys came: Daryl and his brother Daryl. At one point in the 15-minute process (there’s already a dish, so they only needed to run a second cable) one Daryl says to the other, referring to the cable and the wall, “You durned pulled it through the hole!” That’s an exact quote.

But they got my system working the way it should, so I’m happy.

One problem: There are two cables to the receiver, the original and the one they installed. And the first cable is too short. They didn’t bother to give me an extension. There’s enough cable laying around the house that I should be able to cobble something together.