I'm a country boy

Through my adventures in the 757, I have noticed a few things that don't make sense to me. Things that have shown me that I am a country boy at heart. To be fair, most of these items are characteristic of cities in general, not just Hampton Roads. Here we go:

1) The country music stations (yes, I like country music) here have traffic reports. That may sound normal to you. Let's think about that. Part of every hour of country music is filled with a traffic report. That baffles my mind.

2) This one is kind of like the first. I am lucky enough to go the opposite way of traffic for my commute, but occasionally I have to go somewhere and in doing so must sit in traffic. Sitting in traffic is the one thing I have observed that drives me insane. I am a pretty easy going guy, but traffic makes me bonkers.

3) Road quality is poor. There are ridiculously large bumps and potholes everywhere despite the lack of a freeze/thaw effect here. I have always wanted to watch the guys who pave the roads when they finish a job and see if they say, "I'm really proud of the work I did today. My project looks good." I'm not sure they can honestly say that.

4) Pollution. It smells bad. I'm pretty sure my alveoli don't like it either. I greatly miss good ol' mountain air. If you don't know what alveoli are, consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveoli.

5) My garden is weak. I have 6 tomato plants, some basil and a pepper plant. I would grow a whole acre garden if I could.

6) There are so many people here I can't possibly meet them all. Everywhere I go there seems to be an inundative amount of people.

Now that that is off my chest, I went to a place I like to call "Satan's buttcrack" this past weekend. That's right. Washington DC. I went to hang out with a bunch of men from college. We went to 2 Nationals games, watched Forrest Gump, ate and caught up with each other. We even rode the metro together at 1 am. Side note about the metro: sometimes there are guys with machine guns guarding it. (Don't ask them questions. They look scary.) At any rate, a bunch of early 20s men riding a subway late at night means one thing: mischief. Mischief includes wrestling, knocking each other off of the hold-on-so-you-don't-fall bars, and swinging competitions. This was all to the delight of the other passengers. I'm glad I found something I like about DC.

Walking into work this morning, I noticed that Uncle Sugar gave me a few extra bones in my check. Instead of ignoring this and being content, my inquisitive mind had to ask questions. Apparently if the shipyard meets certain goals (I have no idea what these goals are) everybody gets a reward. So since I did nothing to deserve this, I will just say thank you and consider myself blessed.

I had an idea a few weeks ago. As I observe many of my college friends getting engaged, I consider the idea of engagement, particularly with regard to engagement rings. I do this in no way because of me getting engaged, but because I don't understand the basis for the practice and, again, my inquisitive mind must understand. Where did my research start? Wikipedia, of course. One ridiculous convention is that 2 months wages should be set aside for a ring's purchase. Who came up with that idea? Answer: De Beers, the ring people. They decided how much you should spend on their stuff. Lame. Other than this fact, Wiki doesn't provide many details about the history of rings other than it is "tradition."

Now a ring doesn't actually do anything. You wear it and I guess it looks pretty. Whatever. I propose that men instead propose through the purchase of a vehicle. Although more expensive, a vehicle actually has a purpose and looks alot sweeter. Nothing says "I'm taken" than a minivan/sportscar/suv. I could list a bunch of cool cars here but I would leave that choice up to the woman. Maybe she doesn't want a corvette or a GT-R or Ferrari. Food for thought.

I would laugh about the guy in the adjacent cube who uses his speakerphone non-stop, but he is not here today. I will have to find a way to entertain myself. I guess I'll read. By the way...18 days left until the start of VT football. I'm real excited.

A memorable trip

I know you were worried but I am safely back in the US of A. Everything came back well except my large intestine. I won't include details here. Peru is such a great place. I already have a list of things I want to go back to Peru to do. I want to hike the Andes, see the jungle, visit Machu Pichu, swim in Lake Titicaca, visit Lima, and spend more time with the people of Peru. Every day, no. Every minute was an adventure. I never knew what to expect next. If you know me at all, you know I am a terrible planner and make life up as I go along. I will go ahead and apologize for every time this has adversely effected your life.

One of my favorite parts of Peru was hanging out in the front seat of the bus we used to get around town. I hung out with the driver, Ilias, who didn't speak english. Here he is in action. I conversed with him in spanish all week. Since I learn well by asking questions, I pestered Ilias with questions about everything I could think of/saw outside. Thankfully Ilias was patient, understanding and always willing to teach. I learned alot of spanish and even more about Peru throughout our trips.

I was in Trujillo, Peru's third largest city. Trujillo has a population of a little under 1,000,000 and is located in the Andean rainshadow and is thus a desert. It was cloudy almost every day as the dry clouds from the mountains settle over the desert. So while a desert (0.5 inches of rain per year) the air is continuously damp. It was winter in Trujillo and since it is located at about 8 degrees south latitude, it never really gets below 50 F. At left is the cloudline above Trujillo with the Andes poking through. How crazy would it be to be on top of one of those mountains?

All the paper in the world couldn't contain all the stories I have from Peru. That is not true. They could. But this blog would be real long if I did that. I promise I will discuss the trip in as much depth as you desire the next time we converse. Until then, I hope you are having a great week!

All up in Peru

Oh, hello there. I am real excited because my hotel has internet. These adventures are not in the 757, they are in Peru. This has been an amazing 3 days. My buddy Josh and I are hanging out in Peru with some peeps this week and we successfully navigated Dulles, San Salvador, Lima and the Trujillo airports. My years of spanish in school are paying off. I can´t be on the internet long, so I´ll make an abbreviated list of ridiculous awesomeness:
1. Playing soccer (futbol) and getting laughed at because I´m a fat gringoç
2. Food-ceviche, Inka Kola, fried bananas, sketchy street vendor food, drinkable yogurt.
3. Taxi rides which are scary and awesome. A must do in Peru.
4. Speaking of taxis, some of them are pimped out...that means they have dvd players in the sunvisors. We call these party cars.
5. Playing basketball followed by sharing a 2 liter pepsi with a bunch of dudes
6. Shopping using my terrible spanish skills
7. Showers at 200 degrees.
8. Peruvian television.

Time for someone else to use the internet. I hope you have a great week!

Peru anybody?

Here it is Sunday and I am leaving to go to Peru on Friday. If you asked me right now if I was ready, it would be a resounding no. I have my passport and enough clean underwear and stuff like that, but am I prepared to sit and talk to Peruvians? While it shouldn't be any different than talking with people here in Norfolk (which can be a challenge, i.e. shipyard folk) I feel woefully inadequate. I guess this is where the Lord takes over. If you know me very well, you'll know I tend to forget things. Important things. I forgot that our group was being commissioned in church this morning. I forgot until today that TSA doesn't like you to bring large amounts of liquids, i.e. the bulk shampoo that I buy because it's cheap. I probably will forget something important this week. Hopefully I won't forget why I'm going on this trip. That's the most important thing.

Since it is Sunday afternoon, I am due for a nap. I hope you are doing well.

what a crazy weekend

I had big aspirations for this past weekend. A carpool to Blacksburg with my friends Jake and Amanda. I received a call on Thursday that a very close family member, Tuck Dickerson passed away. Therefore I went to Tuck's funeral instead. Let me give you some background. I was only born with 2 grandparents as the other two passed away before I was born. Both of those grandparents died when I was seven. When my dad was growing up on the farm, the folks living on the farm next door (Tuck and Mary Willie) helped dad out many times when my grandfather was in the hospital. Therefore, they naturally became a sort of grandparents to me. Please allow me to tell you a little about Tuck Dickerson.

For as long as I've known him, Tuck lived in Charlotte County, VA, near the bustling town of Phenix. Charlotte County is the only county in VA without a stoplight. That is where I spent alot of my childhood hunting, farming christmas trees, and enjoying a break from "fast-paced" life in Blacksburg. Now that I really live in the city, I realize how much I have taken the country for granted. I'm sorry, back to Tuck. There were many awesome things about Tuck. First, he married one of the most wonderful women I have ever met, Mary Willie. She is an amazing cook and a woman who is grateful for her relationship with God. They recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. That's sweet. Second, Tuck was as strong as an ox. He never lifted weights because he didn't need to. His time on the farm built him into a hoss. I only mention this because his physical strength was only matched by his willingness to show emotion. It takes a heck of a man to be able to do both of those things. Third, Tuck always welcomed me into his home and loved me unconditionally. Not many people can honestly do that.

Tuck taught me about hard work, striving after God, and how to be thankful for everything around me.

Happy Independence Day!

Nothin says summer like July 4th weekend. I am excited because I'm going back to Blacksburg with my friends, Jake and Amanda. We are going to the Floyd wine festival, an event that I have never been to despite my 22 years of residence in Blacksburg. It will certainly be a great time to reconnect with family and friends. If you will be in Blacksburg this weekend, let me know and I can see you.

My house is still working out well, except for the short ceilings in some parts. I bump my head often. My road trip to Rockbridge went really well, as I spent some time with some old friends and was blessed with the oppurtunity to hang out with some new friends. It is always encouraging when others share their lives, both the highs and the struggles, with me.

I almost forgot to mention my trip to Nags Head! I took a few days off to see my family down at the beach in NC. I have been blessed with such an awesome family and I am consistently humbled by their love.

In other great news, I leave for Peru in 2 weeks! I am excited to go to another country and share my life with the people there. I am also filled with uncertainty about how to mentally and spiritually prepare for the trip. I guess a little faith will go a long way. I am going with my good buddy Josh, who is in the June 16th pose picture below. We were originally bound for the medical team, working logistics to the doctors could be freed up to treat patients. We have been moved to the conversational english team, where we will be talking with Peruvians who know "book" english but have little experience speaking with people who primarilly speak english. I can't wait to spend a whole week away from the shipyard and invest in the lives of others.

My time at work has been a little slow as I prepare for my next phase of training. There is too little work for the large number of new hires. Hence my blogging right now. Hopefully around mid-July I will transition to new training. I learned today that there is a guy who works here named "Harry Carey". That's funny. What's also funny is the anti-terrorism training I had to take on the computer this morning. I now feel confident in my ability to ward off terrorists. Haha.

I hope you are doing well and that your July 4th will be filled with hamburgers, relaxing, friends, and rest.

Beatin the heat

Apparently I like to rhyme in my blog titles. I hope you like that. The weather started getting hot down here and June has had me super busy. Two weeks ago, I went to Lake Anna for the weekend for a reunion with my Leadership Training team from college. For those of you who don't know, I was a Young Life leader at Virginia Tech. I was responsible for helping to prepare college freshmen for their time in college, both in college ministry as well as in their personal lives. While the members of my team changed each year, the team from my last year decided it would be a great idea to have a reunion. We were right. My buddy Josh's (also a member of team LT) parents are in the process of building a lakehouse on Lake Anna. All they have so far is a garage with an unfinished loft above it, so essentially my weekend was glorified camping. We had a roof over our heads and electricity, but that was it. It turns out that was all we needed for a fantastic weekend. It was so good to catch up with, learn from, and encourage each other as we have all moved away from Blacksburg. I am truly blessed to have such a great group of friends. Here is a picture from our weekend:

This past weekend, Mom came down and helped me move. Move you ask? Yes. Two guys from church, Tyler and Jeremy, proposed moving in together somewhere in Norfolk. After realizing that I drive to Norfolk about 4 times a week already, I thought it would make more sense to just live where I'm already going. I must be honest: Saturday was hard because of rain. It was also hard because while driving down the highway, my mattress and box spring became airborne. That's right. I look in my rearview mirror, and my comfy mattress and box spring are flying away from my car. Since I'm a man, I take pride in my ability to properly load and secure goods. My pride was dashed and now I was soaking wet and trying not to get hit by highway traffic while reattaching my bedding goods to the truck. Fortunately I had bags over them so they weren't damged very much. The rain continued almost all day but mom and I pulled through. Sunday was sunny but not too hot so Mom and I loaded the last vanfull of stuff into the new house without difficulty. We went out to a nice seafood dinner followed by the standard trip to WalMart. I hope you will come by and visit this summer! Let me know and I will accomodate.

In other news, my hockey team is still not good at hockey. But after having not scored a goal in a little over a season of ice hockey, I finally scored my first goal! It didn't make much of a difference in the game, seeing as I scored with 1 minute left and we lost 8-1. It was still exciting to know that I am not a complete idiot on skates. My team is a great group of guys and I am priveledged to play with them.

I will be gone again this weekend as I take a trip to Rockbridge to visit some friends and a wedding in everyone's favorite place: northern VA. I hope you can taste the sarcasm there. I will do my best to enjoy NOVA. At least the people there will be awesome.

I hope you are well!

Shake n' Bake!

Memorial Day weekend calls for American activities. To that end, I filled my weekend with family, racing and overeating. While you may not agree that every American embraces these ideals, I decided to partake in these this past weekend.

Starting on Friday, I went to Dixieland Speedway, a dirt track in the sprawling metropolis of Elizabeth City, NC. Each Friday, the 300 residents of Elizabeth City gather to watch their friends race modified cars around a dirt track. Different heats involve different cars, each heat bringing something special to the table. The race was fun, but the activity in the stands was even better. Not only did I see mullets and a tuxedo T-Shirt, but there were even 2 fights to be observed. Let me set the stage. Fight #1: Some guy (Let's call him "Mr. Jorts") was mad about something and there was a large scrum. During the scrum, another guy (Let's call him "Mr. Wife Beater" due to his attire) decided he wanted to jump in and hit Mr. Jorts. After things settled down, I was enjoying the races when I felt some thumping on my bleacher seat. I noticed Mr. Jorts was running behind me with an angry look on his face. He ran down the bleachers and sucker punched Mr. Wife Beater. Mr. Wife Beater was none-too-pleased and the two engaged in another healthy scrum which attracted the attention of the local law enforcement. Keep in mind all of this happened about 8 feet in front of me, close enough I was able to take in all the dialogue. As Mr. Jorts was pulled off of Mr. Wife Beater, Mr. Police Officer pulled out his tazer and suddenly a red beam of light appeared on Mr. Jorts' chest. Mr. Police Officer said, "I'll taze your butt". (That quote was edited in order to keep this blog PG.) I had never heard those words uttered and since Mr. Jorts was inebriated and angry enough to require a good taze, I became excited to witness my first tazing. Unfortunately, Mr. Jorts finally came to his senses and realized that handcuffs were a better deal than handcuffs plus tazing. All in all a great week at the Dixieland Speedway.

After about 3 hours of sleep, a trip to Indianapolis was in order. So I hopped abord a plane and went there. I got my first taste of the swine flu experience as a woman at the airport donned a protective mask. I laughed to myself. Once in Indy, I soaked up some good family time as Dad, stepmom Marj, and new stepbrother/sister drove up from Blacksburg. I also got to hang out wiht my uncle, aunt and cousins which is always a blessing. My family is crazy fun and I love spending time with them. I also had the privelege of enjoying a 6 man golf game. As for the race, the first lap was as exciting as always. It is such a rush to see the cars come around turn one and hit full throttle. My dad was smart enough to capture my adrenaline rush on video and once I have that video, it will appear here. Unfortunately, during all the excitement my favorite driver, Marco Andretti (Mario's Grandson), crashed on the first lap. Boo. It was a fun race with many spectacular but safe crashes. Helio Castroneves won the race for the 3rd time and performed his traditional "climb the fence" routine. Many in Indy are skeptical of Helio due to his recent accquital on tax evasion charges. I confess I don't know the situation and Helio is always so happy and loves the fans so I'm ok with him winning. After the race, I hung out with my cousin and her friends. I got to bed around 1230, just in time to get 3.5 hours of sleep before my plane was destined to take off at 545. Now since I only got 3.5 hours of sleep, it was a shock to have a news camera shoved in my face at the airport by a local reporter looking to interview a tired traveler on his way home. I obliged and hopefully my dirty, confused face and bumbling speech made it onto the local news. I made it home at 10 am, early enough to spend the day relaxing at the beach.

Speaking of airports, I have a beef with moving walkways. They might be a huge waste of energy. I admit that I use them on occasion, but still. If normal walking speed is too slow for you, perhaps you should open up your schedule. I know you may be thinking a bunch of race cars going in circles may be a waste of energy too. Maybe you're right. If nothing else, the Indy 500 allows me to hang out with my midwestern kinfolk.