Land of Lakes and Volcanoes

The first of many topics to be expounded upon from the Recon Success! post. So Thursday, less than half an hour after arriving in Charlottesville, we were hit with a what is known in the meteorological world as a wet microburst .  This picture from the Wikipedia page pretty much sums it up: Imagine you are standing in the middle of this. It's an intense downward wind focused in an area of less than 4 sq km.  Basically it was sunny, and within about 2 minutes there was horizontal rain, hail, and wind strong enough to pull full grown trees up by the roots.  It was over in a matter of minutes.  Power was out in half the town, roads were blocked all over, and this morning I had to carefully drive under the edge of a drooping powerline to get out of the neighborhood I was staying in.  For the safety of all involved it was festooned with streamers of bright yellow caution tape. This afternoon there were still about 3700 people without power , and that's after...

Thursday morning I set out for Charlottesville bright and early-ish, and just got back about 45 minutes ago (it's Saturday).  I'm zonked. A recap of things that may or may not get follow-up posts as time and inclination allow: Charlottesville has microbursts.  I got there just in time for one.  It was scary. I signed a lease on a house!! The house is within 2 blocks of a regular park, a crazy water park thing, and a farmer's market. UVA was beautiful but kind of intimidating.  Dominion Southern Power and the municipal forces of Charlottesville really impressed me. Did I mention microbursts are scary? Charlottesville has 2 independent weeklies, tons of great restaurants, and booming music, arts, and literary scenes.  I'm sure I will be overcommitted a week after arriving there.  The drive isn't terrible, although getting out and taking a long lunch break is a necessity.  I already programmed my new favorite Charlottesville radio station in m...

This is the summer of Operation Fresh Start, and all I can say is, it's about damned time. At the end of July, I'm moving to Virginia. This wasn't an easy decision, as my family is here, my friends are here, and as much as people hate it, I like Columbia, *gasp*. But there's a great job there, good music, foothills, and of course, the fresh start. Columbia and I have been dancing around each other for 10 years now. I went to college here(twice), got married and divorced here, taught at 3 different venerable institutions, and lived in 5 different neighborhoods. My group of friends has changed, from undergrad to grad, from married to single, and pre and post Nicaragua. There are times I have loved my life here, and times I have hated it. These were the best of times. These were the worst of times. I think though, that it might be time to have my best and worst times somewhere else. The hope for a fresh start is always that what lies ahead is better than wha...