vastateofmind

This x 1000. OBX on down to MB is best in mid-September, my .02 cents. TOTALLY worth taking the kids out of school for a week for this. Most of the crowds have left (at least until the late Nov/Dec ones start arriving), most eateries and shopping are still available, and the weather/ocean water temps are close to perfection. Assuming you're not navigating around hurricanes.

My wife thought she had a tick bite on her neck, given the round-ish, reddish rash about 4" in circumference on her neck, but there was no visible tick...and then her co-worker sent her this story. Has to be this damn mite, especially since we back to a heavily wooded area.

And this right here is why I'm happy for you and your family...and I hope it stays this way! I know you've experienced NVSL's ugly underbelly, from other convos and as evidenced here. However, on a personal note, we've visited your pool many times over the years, as competitors and guests...and ALWAYS enjoyed being there. It's always been a "comforting" and welcoming experience...which is a reflection of the PEOPLE behind the property. I sure can't say the same about some of pools we've visited in the central/western part of the county.

You make an excellent point about NVSL Divisionals -- making it to that level is an awesome achievement, but one that often gets overshadowed (my .02 cents) by the overwhelming/relentless focus on the top swimmers who will be breezing through Divisionals and heading to All Stars. But the nice thing is...standout kids from ALL divisions with the drive and talent (and often at the top of their age bracket!) CAN make it to All Stars. And those are the kids I root for the most. I know we have several accomplished NVSL coaches and/or swimmers who contribute to this sub, a couple who (I think?) hail from some of the top performing NVSL teams, and I don't mean to crap on them, their talent or their experience, or generalize about their teams. Our family has known a few families over the past 15 years from a few of the teams in those top performing 2-3 divisions in the NVSL, although I admittedly have little time nor respect for the kinds of summer programs some of those elite teams tend to run. Because to one of your bolded points above, some of those elite teams drive much of the FUN out of summer swim, instead focusing on the cutthroat, bloodthirsty competition that hones in on which team is gonna get bumped out of Division 1 to Division 2 NEXT year. But worst of all? The attitudes that some parents (AND league officials) bring to the table. I'll never forget one of the first years that our youngest son made it to All Stars in free/fly and when they announced his name/our pool, a gaggle of the obnoxious NVSL Division 1 team mommies sitting near us (mommies who showed up as soon as the grounds opened so they could stake out half of the entire seating area with their clipboards, timer watches, iced Starbucks half-caf skinny lattes and Louis Vuitton totes) contemptibly sneered, "Who the HELL ever heard of 'Hayfield Farm'??" Several years after that, our pool hosted the NVSL All Star Relay Carnival, when lots of those same parents and league officials from the "elite" teams deigned to grudgingly travel to the southeastern corner of FfxCo for the competition...and while we heard a few positive comments, there was far more negative feedback provided regarding our pool, the deck area, its parking lot, the team areas, the quality of available food, and parking availability in the general neighborhood. Our team and community families worked their asses off staging that event...and that stung. That last experience permanently soured me on all things NVSL, which is fine since our youngest finally aged out of the league seven years ago. Obviously, I don't miss any of it...but I'm always glad to hear that there's a lot of folks here who still manage to find FUN in any summer swim program, let alone the NVSL.

I wonder, in retrospect, if leagues like CSL might be a better experience. NVSL All Stars always seemed dominated by the top 5-7 teams in the top two divisions, at least a decade or so ago when our two sons were still swimming. At that time, our neighborhood pool's team typically fell anywhere in the Division 9-11 range...and when my youngest son, who was the "better" swimmer in the family, made All Stars (which happened every year in his mid-late teens), he was often "alone" when it came to his "team." Although, in fairness, he made friends from those above-mentioned 5-7 teams from year-round swimming (e.g., Curl-Burke, NCAP)...who made it a more welcoming experience for him.

Congrats to you...but kindly stay away from MY KID'S All Stars records, please.

THIS just sounds heavenly....enjoy it this weekend!!

You're correct about the quality of SXM in the car, of course...what really ticks me off is trying to use the SXM app (which I love cuz it actually has even MORE stations/content than the carbound subscription) to listen in the house. I've used it alternately with Google Chromecast speakers and Amazon Echo smart speakers (a few of which we have rival or exceed the vehicle experience), and the damn app constantly crashes or freezes or generally loses connections with either type of smart speaker. UGH.

That's interesting. I've noticed that the sound systems in theaters have really expanded in recent years, due to technology advances, etc., and are just so....booming. There were a few movies I came out of in recent years where my ears were almost ringing because the theatrical sound systems practically blow you through the back of the theater now....not unlike the feeling I've had coming out of a live concert.

Anyone catching the limited runs of first-run theatrical movies on HBOMax or Disney? Anyone a fan of that, vs. seeing them on the big screen? It's weird...we'd typically see maybe 1-2 first-run in the theaters PER YEAR pre-pandemic. This year, in the first six months, we've seen 3 already (Nomadland, In The Heights, The Conjuring 3). At this point, I think I'd only miss seeing a "spectacle" movie (e.g., Top Gun 2, a Star Trek/Star Wars movie) in the theater. On the whole, though, I don't miss traipsing to the theater myself.

Gonna check these out....and THOSE look amazing!

Yeah, have been eyeing radar all afternoon....looks like your side of the Bay was most affected so far this afternoon, and I wondered if you were getting hit in your location. GREAT pic.

So, we were texting our youngest son who lives in Arlington about four blocks south of that area when that storm hit. He asked if OUR power went out (in SE FfxCo) and I said no....but that was kind of a warning flag that Arlington was getting SPANKED at the time, and it sure as hell looked like that on radar at the time, based on my limited interpretation, and what Ian and a couple others saw and shared online at the time. Pretty impressive dynamics, for something that wasn't necessarily called for ahead of time.

As I just mentioned in another thread....Mrs. V and I are headed to Gatlinburg/Nashville, TN until next Friday, and I'm pretty damn sure that we'll have numerous "food porn" pics to share between now and then. At least, I hope I remember to take those kinds of pics while we're sampling the various food and drink while we're down there....

LOL. Yeah, I just earned, like, TEN badges at once....but I'm okay with that. I like the new "look" of the board!

Still...this sounds like SO much fun!! Enjoy, my friend! Mrs. V and I are headed south for Gatlinburg and Nashville for the 4th and the rest of the holiday week because, well, because we've never been there!

Currently 94/73, with STW just issued. Will miss a good chance to do SOMETHING, if it doesn't later. I quickly squeezed mowing the front/back yards in before the forecasted rain (and primarily because I'm traveling for a few days)...one of the worst mowing days of my life. Every piece of clothing I wore was literally soaked completely through. UGH.

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE FOR WS 331 NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 1240 PM EDT THU JUL 1 2021 SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 331 IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 800 PM EDT FOR THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS VAC001-003-007-009-011-013-019-029-031-033-036-037-041-047-049- 053-057-059-061-065-073-075-079-085-087-095-097-099-101-103-107- 109-113-115-119-125-127-131-133-135-137-145-147-149-153-157-159- 177-179-181-193-199-510-540-570-600-610-630-650-670-680-683-685- 700-730-735-760-830-020000- /O.NEW.KWNS.SV.A.0331.210701T1640Z-210702T0000Z/ VA . VIRGINIA COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE ACCOMACK ALBEMARLE AMELIA AMHERST APPOMATTOX ARLINGTON BEDFORD BUCKINGHAM CAMPBELL CAROLINE CHARLES CITY CHARLOTTE CHESTERFIELD CULPEPER CUMBERLAND DINWIDDIE ESSEX FAIRFAX FAUQUIER FLUVANNA GLOUCESTER GOOCHLAND GREENE HANOVER HENRICO JAMES CITY KING AND QUEEN KING GEORGE KING WILLIAM LANCASTER LOUDOUN LOUISA MADISON MATHEWS MIDDLESEX NELSON NEW KENT NORTHAMPTON NORTHUMBERLAND NOTTOWAY ORANGE POWHATAN PRINCE EDWARD PRINCE GEORGE PRINCE WILLIAM RAPPAHANNOCK RICHMOND SPOTSYLVANIA STAFFORD SURRY WESTMORELAND YORK VIRGINIA INDEPENDENT CITIES INCLUDED ARE ALEXANDRIA CHARLOTTESVILLE COLONIAL HEIGHTS FAIRFAX FALLS CHURCH FREDERICKSBURG HAMPTON HOPEWELL LYNCHBURG MANASSAS MANASSAS PARK NEWPORT NEWS PETERSBURG POQUOSON RICHMOND WILLIAMSBURG $$

Wow, I thought I may be one of the few folks left on earth who preferred driving stick. I learned on manual, in fact, when my siblings and I were learning how to drive (we ONLY had manual transmission cars), my parents would take us to a notorious traffic light in our town...that stood at the top of a 30 degree grade, and where 5-6 cars would stack up during a given light cycle. You can figure out the rest...lots of frustrated teen drivers and stalled manual transmission cars at THAT light. STILL love/prefer driving manual transmission...always felt like I had more control...even though I haven't had a car with one for probably almost 20 years now. Honda spits out a sport Civic now and then with a 5-speed manual that is a little tempting at times. It always amazed me how clutches were like people...SOOOO many personalities. But, driving stick is like when you learn to ride your bike as a kid -- it's a skill and muscle memory that somehow doesn't leave you.

Oh, Mrs. J....y'all stay cool!

Missed by about a day (my life story!), but I hope you had a GREAT and enjoyable birthday, @mappy!

Hitting triples in any lane used to be good for one hamburger and/or hot dog for the highly synced-up timers at Hayfield back in the day...

When my sons got into their teens, I allowed NFL fantasy football to consume my life once more (it happened in my 20s, too), but when I began part-time adjunct undergrad online instruction several years ago, I had to give up SOMETHING....and that had to be all of the FF machinations, along with pretty much all NFL-watching. I still LOVE taking in college football on Saturdays, and still follow the NFL to some extent (Go, Dolphins!), but for the most part, I stick to college ball now.

Yep. On the 4.5 mile walk with doggo this evening we saw only two live, though obviously VERY lonely, cicadas in our travels. Everything else...the cicada corpses (which were many just a few days ago), the cicada "parts" (what was left over from bird and other animal attacks), and the exoskeletons have all been washed or blown away in just a week's time. It's difficult at best to find any evidence of them around here now. I swear this is the last time I'll say it....but I miss the alien drone... #GoodbyeBroodX

Seriously. Today was a 17 on a scale of 1-10 for perfect summer days in the DMV.