Not camera shy

We've been taking pictures of the chalet for the sales listings. My dog Guppy keeps showing up in the photos. Here he's partly obscured by the couch. And below he's just taking it easy on the floor.

These pictures won't be in the listing. Not everyone loves dogs. And those that do might think he conveys with the house.

No calls yet on the house

Listing our chalet in the No. Va. Multiple Listings has gotten us zero calls so far. I also listed it on CraigsList.com. They link to Google maps and Yahoo maps. The former can't locate us but Yahoo maps gets it right except they are using an old (unglamourous) name for Lake Birdhaven.

Guppy the Flying Dog

Guppy has gotten more accepting of my fastening the Lift-N-Aid harness around him. Still, once he feels airborne he acts a bit panicky.

Since he is unable to go down steps without falling and afraid of the little ramp we built him, this harness is the only way we can safely get him down to the ground for his walk. Frank carries him down this way twice a day. Once he reaches the ground he tries to runs in circle until I unfasten the harness.

Snoopy he's not! Well, in a couple of weeks we will move to a house that has just one short step to the ground.

Mushrooms with Petals

These mushrooms came up in the mulch after some rain. I'm not usually into mushrooms but I think these are pretty. They are about 5 inches tall. I made an effort at identifying them but gave up when I saw that there are hundreds, maybe thousands of mushrooms in the Eastern US. AmericanMushrooms.com has an interesting overview.

Updated Bryce Home Sales Page

I added the sales price and some photos to BryceHome.com. This is Lake Laura.

I made a logo using FlamingText.

Window Replaced at the Chalet

Today we had a window replaced. It was the upper window on the left. The seal had broken so it was fogged. Looks great now!

Slow going on ebay

My ebay auctions are not attracting many bids. The audio course on Robert E. Lee and his generals has a bid, but the other audio books (Lincoln at Gettysburg, BLOOD Stories of Life & Death from Civil War, and Gods and Generals) have zero bids, and the three Civil War books have no bids either.

I'm not surprised about the books, but I thought someone would have eagerly bought the audiobooks.

Chalet for Sale $187,650 Basye, VA

Our current home is now listed for sale, competitively priced at $187,650. It has 3 BR, 1 BA, great room with wood stove, large deck, and level lot.

It is convenient to the core area of Bryce Resort in western Shenandoah County. You can see the listing at HomesDatabase.com - look for MLS # SH6188396, or click here for the Realtor.com listing. The latter doesn't show as many photos.

Our page: Bryce Home

This picture shows the house in ski season -- after all, Bryce is a ski resort.

This weekend the resort is having a golf tournament and a "fly-in" at the airport, which I suppose is intended to encourage people with small planes to visit the resort.

Garage full of Stuff

Here's some more pictures of the garage. Frank counted five snow shovels!

Below we are looking up at the ceiling. Note the skis.



Here's another view of the apartment over the garage. It has a full bath.

To see a larger version, click on a picture.

Pre-stereo antique

Well kids, a long time ago before Ipods and even way back before stereos, we had hi-fi's. Hi-fi was a short and cool-sounding way of saying high fidelity audio equipment.

And among the furnishings at the house we are moving to is this hi-fi console. I have no idea if it works. I remember these from when I was a kid.

I took two pictures because the doors slide so you can only open one door at a time.

Everything conveys

The house we are buying is not only furnished, it has art, knick-knacks, and dishes. I am working on a photo inventory so that family members can put in requests for items before we have a yard sale or charity pickup.

I took the photos during the home inspection, basically recording the contents so that we can plan what we are going to do with them. We already have two housefuls of furniture, the stuff from Montross being in storage.

We're really buying a house

We finally have a ratified contract on the home we're buying on the other side of the resort.. It took a while to reach agreement on who is paying for which repairs. We should settle at the end of the month.

The house has a better location than our current home. It is close to a fairly level state road and it has a view. It also has two bathrooms plus an efficiency apartment over the garage.

Rock's Grandpuppy

Lynn sent me these cute pictures of her dog Rock with a little puppy. At first Rock did not like the tiny creature but as you can see, they made friends.

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COMMENT: Lynn writes

She is the offspring of Timber, his daughter by Jade. He now lets her do pretty much whatever she wants. Its not uncommon to see them trotting along together, then notice that she is sort of hanging from his face, neck or chest by her teeth. She just grabs a mouthful and doesnt let go. I don't know how he takes it, in the middle of a nap she grabs a mouthful and will twist, pull and play tug of war wit a big hunk of skin fat and fur... When she gets on his nerves he just kind of smacks her with his whole head and knocks her four or five feet across the room. Guess he has it under control (?!)

Mosby Cavalry Monument in Front Royal

A man in New Jersey emailed me after seeing my page on the monument in Front Royal commemorating members of Mosby's Rangers who were executed during the Civil War. He is giving a presentation on Civil War prisons and wanted a photo of the monument without people in it.

I was able to locate this closeup view on my Year in Photos CD from 2003. The inscription reads “In Everlasting Honor of Thomas E. Anderson, ______ Carter, David L. Jones, Lucian Love, William Thomas Overby, Henry C. Rhodes, Albert C. Willis,
43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry, Mosby’s Command, C.S.A.”

John Singleton Mosby was a fascinating character. Famous as a daring Confederate guerilla leader, he became a productive American after the war, serving as a campaign manager in Virginia for President Grant, a U.S. consul to Hong Kong, a lawyer for the Southern Pacific Railroad, an employee with the Department of the Interior, and assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice. He died in 1916 and was buried in Warrenton, Virginia.

Five Years ago today Sept. 11

On the morning of September 11, 2001, we left Montclair early to meet a home inspector at the chalet we were purchasing in Basye, Virgnia. When the initial reports about a plane hitting the World Trade Center, we wondered if it were a terrorist attack. The second plane crash made it painfully obvious.

By the time we heard that the Pentagon was attacked we were already out of Northern Virginia, heading into the Shenandoah Valley. I called my daughter Lynn to tell her that we were not in the DC area so not to worry. And I felt grateful that my other daughter was in Africa instead of New York, where she normally lived.

Marie's post from Zanzibar on 9/11/01.

Unity Prays for World Peace.

Allison's School

We visited Allison at the school in Fairfax where she and Dave are teaching. This is the first year for this small school but the parents and staff seem very enthused.

Guppy Fears the Stairs

My dog Guppy has a problem. He is afraid of the steps going down from the deck to the yard, and he is even afraid to go down the doggy ramp. I think it's because a cataract clouds one eye so he can no longer judge distance and depth. He has fallen on the steps several times and when we get him on the ramp, he tends to leap and tumble. I worry that he will get hurt.

We have tried various approaches. I've tried a couple different halters thinking that I would have better control of him. I've tried bribing him with treats, and Frank and I have tried pushing, pulling, and blocking him. Nothing works.

The other day he got away from me twice! In the morning, I used a new halter on him and was able to get him down the ramp with difficulty. He was very upset and wiggly, and after we were on the ground he wriggled out of the halter and ran across the court, through Don's yard, and into the next yard. It is downhill, however, and to get there he jumped off a retaining wall, about a 3 foot drop. This startled him and he halted in their driveway long enough for me to catch up and put a leash on him. It was only then that I noticed that my left knee was hurting. I must have twisted it a bit running after him.

For his evening walk, I decided to tempt him onto the ramp using pieces of meatloaf. He crept onto it, grabbed the meat, and then made a huge jump so sudden that the leash flew out of my hand. Again he ran off, this time circling around our shed before pausing. I managed to catch him in spite of my sore knee.

At age 14, he is practically deaf and does not hear me when I call. I don't know how long he could survive in the woods with his limited eyesight and poor hearing,

This morning we tried a new vest that has handles so that you can carry your dog like a suitcase. Guppy did not like being carried and wiggled frantically. Frank got him downstairs and walked him without further problem. But tonight we were unable to get the vest back on him because he jumped and twisted and acted like he might bite. So I bribed him onto the ramp using a piece of meatloaf but then he panicked and jumped, hitting the steps. Luckily, he bounces pretty well.

He comes up the ramp just fine. If we don't get the other house, we will have to hire someone to build a long gentle ramp, or maybe a series of steps and landings.

Neighbor's House is Under Contract

Don and his family cleared out their vacation home today. It is on the corner of our court. They finally have a buyer for the house so they are moving their furniture to their ski home in West Virginia.

This is good news for us because if we put our chalet on the market, their house will not be competition.

Dik-diks done

I finished reading Marie's book about traveling in Africa and I enjoyed it so much I wished it would go on a little longer. She writes very well and the book is about more than exploring African countries. It is about going through the world alone versus being with others, a struggle that many single people will recognize.

She called the book Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik although the dik-dik, a small antelope, stalked her. Near the end she was allowed to hold a pet dik-dik, so I guess she forgave the species for frightening her when she was camping in lion territory.
I hope someone will review the book soon on Amazon because Marie will probably feel embarrassed if her Mom writes the first review.

New Site: BryceHome.com

If we buy the house on the other side of Bryce Resort, we will probably sell the one we have now. Therefore I have purchased a domain for www.BryceHome.com which we can use for marketing he house, much as we used SunnyHarbor.com when we were trying to sell the house in Glebe Harbor.

Right now the page for BryceHome is just a placeholder. We'll add more pictures and information soon.

It's not expensive to get a domain name if you use a service like Namesecure and they will even redirect to a page on your current website (if you have one).

Speaking on redirects, I also have one for ChemSense.com which I updated this week for Dr. Plumlee to list an upcoming meeting near Baltimore. David Shostak, PhD will speak on "The Effects of Toxic Chemical Exposures on Brain and Behavior."

Whitetailed deer

Today we saw at least three groups of deer while we were driving around Bryce Resort. They are, of course, Virginia white-tails. The family in the picture below is crossing a driveway, moving from one front yard to another. I imagine they were looking for some tasty plants to munch on.

Garage with Apartment

The house we are trying to buy has a garage with an efficiency apartment.


We are still negotiating over the home inspection items. An estimate for a new roof for the house came in at over $4K.

As far as Ethiopia

I am almost done reading Marie's book about her travels in Africa and it is a great read. I've gotten as far as Addis Ababa, having followed her adventures through South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia. Armchair travelers will really enjoy this book.

Update on Silver Fillings

While the FDA continues to claim that silver fillings in your teeth are not hazardous, evidence to the contrary continues. (Note: These fillings contain mercury, the second most toxic element on earth, exceeded only by plutonium. Where is the common sense here?) A New Zealand study summarized in PubMed states that mercury in fillings can cause fatigue, memory problems, and depression:

Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2006 Aug 5;27(4)

Mercury toxicity presenting as Chronic Fatigue, memory impairment and depression: Diagnosis, treatment, susceptibility, and outcomes in a New Zealand general practice setting (1994-2006)...

"In a group of 465 patients diagnosed as having chronic mercury toxicity (CMT), 32.3% had severe fatigue, 88.8% had memory loss, and 27.5% had depression. A significant correlation was found between CMT and the Apo-lipoprotein E4 genotype (p=0.001). An investigation into an additional 864 consecutively seen general practice patients, resulted in 30.3% having evidence consistent with CMT, and once again a significant correlation was found with the APO-E4 genotype (p=0.001). Removal of amalgam mercury fillings when combined with appropriate treatment resulted in a significant symptom reduction (p< 0.001) to levels reported by healthy subjects."
PMID: 16891999 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Pictures of Intended Home

We are still in negotiations to buy this house. The sellers are deciding how to handle the repairs found by the home inspector.

All furnishings convey. Obviously, there are some that we don't want. One of the local charities will be invited to bring a truck and take away 90% of the furniture. We may sell some of the smaller stuff.

Deck with a view

Here's Frank on the deck of the house we are trying to purchase. We had a home inspection on Don from Blue Ridge Home Inspections took his time and did a careful job. He said that the roof is old and some of the electrical work is not to code. So we may seek out more information and an estimate from an electrician.

As you can see, the house has a nice mountain view. Not as spectacular as one house we toured on Supinlick Ridge, but still lovely and the house itself is more practical for us. It's on one level except for the garage apartment, and the price is reasonable.

Have you seen my glasses?

I lost a pair of prescription eyeglasses a few weeks ago. I've no idea where I left them. It's not a big problem though - I have another pair, plus numerous pairs of reading glasses from the dollar store. Funny thing, the dollar store glasses sometimes seem easier on my eyes.

My eyes are weird anyway. I have holmes-adies syndrome, in which one pupil stays large even in sunlight. This can be painful, so the opthalmologist prescribed Pilocarpine eyedrops to make the pupil small.

Here's an official definition of the condition. I also have the lack of reflexes in my right leg, and sometimes that ankle goes weak on me.

Adie's Tonic Pupil
A physical finding of a dilated pupil that reacts poorly to light but better to accommodation. The residual reaction of the pupil is sluggish and "tonic". Adie pupil is usually unilateral and is most often seen in women. It is commonly associated with a loss of knee jerks. Extra-ocular movements are normal and there is no ptosis. Localization is to the third nerve cilliary ganglion and is usually due to a virus or other inflammatory processes. The relatively spared response of the pupil to accommodation reflects the much higher percentage of fibers from the ciliary ganglion that innervate the iris for accommodation than for constriction to light. The "tonic" nature of the pupillary reaction reflects denervation hypersensitivity. Adie's pupils, but not normal pupils, will constrict to dilute solutions of pilocarpine.

Early 1970's Pictures

Left: Marie with Spotsy

Right: Marie (on stairs) and Lynn