Sky Meadow State Park

Today I checked out Sky Meadow State Park. It is about an hour South West of here in Delaplane, Virginia. The park boasts "incredible blend of pasture and woodlands" overlooking farms on hills. For a jaded person like me, there's nothing remarkable about this park or the view. Still, if you like to get out in the nature and want a change of scenery, it's not a bad place to go. The entrance fee is $4 per car on weekends.

There are several short trails in the park that you can piece together for an easy to moderate 2-3 hour hike. We chose to take North Ridge -> Ambassador Whitehouse -> Appalachian -> South Ridge circuit. Yes, you get to hike a piece of the Appalachian Trail. There are even signs pointing you to either Shenandoah or Harpers Ferry, depending on which way you are going. Made me think about doing that through-hike again. The only thing I have going for me is will power though. I still can't imagine having to hike while lugging all kinds of crap.

Gotta Swing

Since I'm not able to call myself a nomad lately, I thought I'd at least add dancing back into my name. So Friday night I attended hula night with GottaSwing.com. I got my first taste of swing dancing back when I lived in NYC in 2001 or so. I enjoyed it a lot back then, though I never actually took any lessons. As long as the guy could lead good, I could somehow manage - at least basic stuff. While I loved swing dancing, the crowd was always "older," so I never got into it too much. The crowd was the same last night - mostly older, with a few young folks about. Still, dancing is dancing. It's fun. Swing dancing events are always nice though, cuz it's so easy to ask people to dance. No one ever says no. They're not there for hook ups - they're there to dance. Having said that, I think there are quite a few singles there.

The venue that hosted Friday's event hosts a swing dancing event every Friday night. I think I may start attending them if I have nothing better to do. They also give lessons right here in Reston, so I might start taking them so I can get better....

Yard Work

I thought I would be doing a lot more home improvement type stuff after moving in, but I've been quite lazy about it over the summer. Now that fall is approaching, I am giving more thought to it. More specifically, I need to do something about my not-so-pretty yard. An initial quote from a landscaper was a whopping $4000!! Of course, this was going all out with nice flowers and shrubs on top of the general fixer-uping type stuff. Still, the estimator clearly did not realize that I don't live in a house that warrants a $4K yard. Anyhow, since he gave me some good ideas during his visit, I thought I would try some of this myself.

Last week was weeding and pruning of the backyard. My flower bed were full of weeds. It took me 3 hours!! While I was crouching-tiger-weeding-dragon, a friend of mine started sawing off branches and nipping bushes. Lucky for me he enjoys this stuff and was going all-out. I could see the sky out of my backyard again. Definitely a man's job. It would've taken me 3-hrs to prune one tree.

Today was mulching. I found out that a nearby park has free mulch! I was really excited about this, until I realized how much effort was required for mulching. Initially I grabbed couple of trash bags, filled it up with mulch, and stuffed it in my trunk. When I got back and dumped it out, it looked like nothing. When I had heard a friend of a friend had a semi-junk truck for hauling stuff, I managed to borrow it, along with my friend, to pick up the mulch. This was definitely a two-person job. You can't just dig into a pile of mulch with a shovel, so one person had to rake the mulch into the shovel which was held by the other person. It was a bit of an effort, but we filled most of the truck bed in about 20 minutes. Once home, we dumped the mulch in my yard and I spread it around. It still wasn't nearly enough mulch :( It covered one area, but I still had 3-4 more trees I had to mulch around. I reckon I'll need couple more trips, but I'm not so sure I can convince my friend to do this again, much less twice. I didn't mind getting sweaty and dirty since I got a good upper body work out. The truth is, though, that he did most of the hard work. Plus, it's my yard. I might have to suck it up and call a dump truck to deliver the next bunch of mulch.

On my list next is pruning of the front yard. Then maybe plant some ground cover in the front yard and some flowers in the back yard. I really should do something about the weeds on my lawn too. And redirecting the drainage. The list never ends. My advice to everyone: don't buy a house with a yard!

My 9/11 Story

Many people have not forgotten the tragedy that occurred in this country 7 years ago. Neither have I, and I don't think I ever will. I lived in New York City on September 11, 2001.

I got into the office at 9 am that morning. By then a few of my teammates had already heard about the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center. First thing they said to me when I walked in was "have you heard about the plane crashing into the World Trade Center?" At the time I kind of shrugged it off as an "accident." Nonetheless, we all congregated to the conference room to watch the news. As we're watching, the second plane hits the World Trade Center! It is obvious it is not an accident.

Shortly after, I returned to my desk to get the first of many phone calls that day. The two I received that morning were my friends from Japan asking me if I was okay. I was working in midtown, so I was nowhere near the area. I wasn't actually overly concerned for my safety at the time, and I continued to chat with my friend as if everything was alright. During the second call, I was interrupted by my manager who told me that we had to evacuate the building. They were sending everyone home. I didn't really give it much thought, just glad I got out of work that day. However, the enormity of the event came crashing down on me as soon as I stepped outside the office.

All around was caos. Everyone was in hysterics. A girl walked by me, talking on her cell phone about a "bomb" exploding. There was people everywhere - more than you would find on a typical day in the city. Except I felt so alone.... I had left the office on my own and now I wished I hadn't. Still, I continued to make my way down to 34th street to catch the train back to Bayside where I lived. As I walked down Broadway into Times Square, I saw a crowd of people watching the news live on big screen TV. I stopped and watched too. Then the first of the towers came crashing down - as if it were right in front of me. Holy shit was all I could think.

After a few minutes I continued down to Penn Station. Not surprisingly, all subway and train services were suspended. I walked back outside and could see every cab that went by was full. I was stuck in Manhattan. I tried to make calls but my cell phone wasn't working. Too many other people trying to make calls was overloading the networks. Now I really didn't want to be alone. I went back to the office to see if anyone was still there. No one from my team was around, but I did find someone I knew on the otherside of the floor. We decided to make a walk for it, together. Luckily, I had my gym bag with me that day so I changed into something more comfy and we headed out into the street.

I had no idea how far Bayside was from Manhattan, but I knew it was far. I didn't seem to have much choice tho, so I thought I would walk over the Queensboro bridge for starters. My friend was going to walk up North to catch the trains up there. We're not the only ones with the idea - everyone is walking. We stopped at Applejack diner for lunch, and then continued on. At around 60th Street, I realized that I had a friend on 86th Street. I decided I'd take the chance and walk over there to see if he was home. Better there than 12 miles, not to mention I didn't even know how to walk home. I parted with my companion and took off to my friend's. Lucky for me, he was home.

When I arrived my friend was watching the news. After a bit of a chit chat about all of this, he suggested we go play tennis. It was a nice day, weather wise, and there didn't seem any point in being glued to the TV. We went into Central Park and found a court pretty easily, although many other people were also playing. I was thinking "what a gorgeous day..." and then the Navy jets flew overhead, reminding me of what was going in our very own city.

We managed to kill couple hours on the courts. By the time I got back and showered, some of the trains were running again. I bid my friend good-bye and headed to the train station. I got home about 6:30 that night. Another colleague who lives near me said that he had just gotten home to after attempting to walk back. He ended up having to get picked up after half way through. I was glad I didn't try to walk home.

When I got home there were many messages on my answering machine. Several family and friends had called, sounding very concerned about safety. I finally realized after returning the calls that my company had an office in the World Trade Center. Apparently there were scrolling messages on TV giving viewers a number to call for each of the companies that had offices in the building. Ours was one of them. No wonder everyone was so freaked out. I felt bad that it took me so long to get back to them.

The days following the attacks were worse. As I stayed glued to the TV, I realized more and more the meaning behind all of this. Things were very wrong. Things were going to change. There was no work for us the next few days. The following week, I had a strong urge to be with family so I took some time off to head down to Virginia. People there had their concerns too, with the attack on Pentago and all.

While I had been very fortunate that I had not known any of the victims from that day, others weren't. A friend in the office had lost a good friend of his. Many others lost loved ones. Even worse was that some victims suffered in the burning buildings. Others jumped to their deaths. Many on the planes must have felt the similar fear of death also. For at least a few weeks the mood in New York was a solemn one. Morale remained low for a long time afterward. The country would never be the same again.

Here is my moment of reflection on the events of the day as I recall. May we never forget, and may such catastrophe never happen again.

Book Review: The Judas Strain

I'm getting into fiction a lot more lately. The latest is The Judas Strain, by James Rollin. It is like Da Vinci Code and Outbreak combined. The lead characters are agents of a covert organization and a secret organization, and then you have the man from Vatican City for a touch of faith. It's science meets religion but the world is at stake while a deadly virus spreads through the world. The good and the bad and the man in the robe must work together to solve a series of riddles following the path of Marco Polo. From the beginning to end, the story is action packed. I'm not so sure I'm satisfied with the ending, but when is anyone ever satisfied with an ending?