those who were seen dancing

I went out and cleared some walkways (until I realized that clearing the snow just exposed the ice... not so handy). And took pictures!


Next time I go out I'm putting on extra pants so I can make snow angels. And maybe some form of snow sculpture.

My across-the-street neighbor, Mr. DV, is planning a run for the district's expected vacant council seat. The neighborhood is demonstrating its diversity of opinion and intelligence in reaction to the news.

I would be in favor of that plan. Good reminder to switch the my voter registration from district 6 to 7.

Best political feeling ever: in my 90 year old house in my 150 year old neighborhood watching my city, this state and this country elect Obama.

80% of eligible people in Richmond voted, people. EIGHTY.

I don't care who you voted for (but I'll lay odds if you're on my friends list and in the city): that thrills me with hope.

The rest of y'all, non locals, whatever your political persuasion: you're pretty awesome too. I've loved reading your words through this.




Now. Californians? What happened with Prop 8? Please tell me no.

[ETA: John McCain, you, too, are awesome and beautiful. Thank you.]

This morning my smoke detectors LOST THEIR COLLECTIVE SHIT. 15 solid minutes of FIVE SMOKE ALARMS GOING OFF FOR NO REASON. On the upside, I now have a working conceptual model of ionic radiation smoke detectors and can even correct my dad who thinks most smoke detectors still have optical sensors.

So I needed 9-volt batteries. Which meant going to the brand new Ukrop's here in the east end! Brand new! With a rare-for-Ukrop's self checkout. And perplexingly giving out free bread. [Non-Richmond flisters, Ukrop's is the local family-owned grocery store that is now a ginormous business that has made them very wealthy without selling alcohol or tobacco. People have very strong opinions about this store, and mine are positive.] It's in an equally new suburban shopping center that I didn't know about. While I love living in the city, I also like things like Target. And I've been griping since I bought Willie that these things would all be so far away. They're not! They're like 5 minutes from the house!

Well, 10 minutes if there's an INSANELY AWESOME SHRINER & MASON PARADE on the way. Which there totally was. LITTLE ORANGE SHRINER CARS.

East end Richmond, I'm sorry I ever doubted you.

At the furniture store this afternoon, Tim the sofa guy's cheery response to Willie's address was "Oh, you're a colonist!"

Me: perplexed look
Me: Oh, you mean that I'm gentrifying North Church Hill? [While I didn't say this, I like to think that Richmond's neighborhoods are in a different cycle (NCH 50-100 years ago was a predominantly white merchant class suburb), and I like the idea of living in a mixed-race, middle class part of the city proper. They are rare, these parts.]
Tim: But it sounds so bad when you say "gentrifying"! You're an adventurer! An early adopter!
Me: Right, cause "colonist" brings to mind such wholesome images of smallpox-infested blankets and wholesale slaughter!
Tim: Everyone has their own perspective!

Tim, by the way, got more exclamation points than I did when they were handing out punctuation.

I do dig the neighborhood in NCH. It's definitely urban, but peppered with people who really care [Possibly to the point of fabulous insanity - their house is kitty-corner to mine, btw. Yay, neighbors.] in a way that evokes the military burbs of my childhood if they'd been populated by the sort of historians who own broadswords. In a word: awesome.