The Stewart Blog

Well, I’ve dilly dallied long enough and it is time for me to head out for the annual cub scout camping trip. While I’ve really enjoyed it the past two years, I’m just not excited about it this year. I think that is mainly because it is sure to rain. But since it has already rained today maybe tonight will be dry. I’ve checked the radar yet again and it looks like we’ll be in the clear.

John and Scotty went down this morning and I’m following this afternoon with the camping gear. Scotty doesn’t actually camp - he just hangs out during the day and drives back when we go to bed.

Much has been written about the overwhelming win of Creigh Deeds in last Tuesday’s Virginia democratic gubernatorial primary and how he managed to pull it off. He’d gone from a forgotten candidate six weeks ago to an almost 25 point win in a three-way race. I’m one of those who’s giving the Washington Post a lot of credit for making up peoples’ minds.

We’d been leaning towards Moran. But not with any strong feelings. While he is a nice guy and has good ideas it was more an anti-vote against money bags McAullife who has the cash but not the experience to make a good governor. I’d been planning to research Deeds who only in the last month or so had registered on my radar when I noticed that the blizzard of election fliers we got each day included a third guy.

Then last Saturday the Post wrote a follow up editorial to the one it had written earlier (which I missed) supporting Deeds. Now, while I love the Post, I told myself not to let it make up my mind for me. So I found the endorsement editorial, I reviewed Deed’s website, I read other articles, and came to the same conclusion the Post did: Deeds is my guy.

Then I told Scotty he needed to do the same. I started by telling him the quote from the Post editorial that really meant a lot to me:

“A gentleman from Lunenburg County called me up to say, ‘I don’t want my taxes to go up so they can build roads in Northern Virginia.’ I said, ‘Who do you think is paying for your schools?’ Right now, the economic engine that has been driving Virginia has serious transportation woes. It’s in the interest of every single Virginian, no matter where he or she lives, to fix that problem.”

We in Northern Virginia appreciate a downstate guy who understands that while we are happy to support the rest of the state we do deserve some credit and payback for it. Another really important thing for me was that Deeds voted for the gas tax. This is my main issue these days because I see it as the path to a real decrease in the reliance on foreign oil.

By the time Scotty was done with his research (which included asking Don Beyer for his opinion) he was sold too. So Tuesday night that is how we cast our votes with the help of John and Anna and Evie. Then we were pleasantly surprised to see how overwhelming the results were. Deeds had almost 50% of the vote in what had been a tightly contested race between the other two.

My sugar snap peas are over 5 feet tall. Unfortunately my support for them is only about 4 feet tall so they are tipping over at the top. I keep leaning them back towards the support and encouraging them to hang on more, but they say, “The sun is that way.”

So far we are still at the stage of just a few peas a day and we prefer to eat them immediately off the vine after first checking to see they are properly plump. They are delicious and John who disdains green beans loves them. I had expected by today to have a sizable amount of ripe ones, but the neighborhood kids got to them yesterday and ate them when many were still fairly flat.

So today I put up a, “Please don’t eat the peas” sign. I can’t really blame the kids because they all know they can eat my raspberries. Even with them eating raspberries, by mid-summer we can’t keep up with all the ones that my bushes produce.

While John and I only got one pea pod a piece tonight we did have the first round of handfuls of raspberries for both of us.

Question of the day: Dead mouse in the toilet – flush or retrieve? (It was floating on the top.)

Scotty’s answer - “Flush and I’ll plunge it out if I have to.” – had too much more potential ickiness than the original problem to contemplate.

Google’s answers focused on septic systems, which we don’t have. “Flushing to a septic system is okay because it will just decompose, but watch out for screens which might trap it in the pipes,” left me thinking I’d lie awake at night wondering if it made it all the way through.

So I double bagged my hand in Safeway bags and plunged it in to retrieve the mouse. It was nothing! My hand didn’t even get wet. I got it on the first try. Piece of cake. Next time I won’t even hesitate.

I just hope there is no next time.

Andrew Sullivan posts views from readers’ windows. Here was the view from my window yesterday.

It looked, as Caitlin pointed out, as if we were preparing for trench warfare.

Well, peace was restored and our flat front lawn is back and it now covers our nice new 1″ copper pipe that doesn’t leak.

And for only $3,545! I go back and forth between feeling like I’m out $3,545 or I have saved $1,500 because it wasn’t the $5,000 I expected. Either way, our travel fund it seriously depleted.

Make no mistake, I had a great time at the Nationals game on Sunday. But that was due to who I came with - all of us, plus Granddad, Uncle Bobby, and Calvin.

My grade for the Nationals product was a D+, okay, I’ll be generous because it is a beautiful ballpark and bump it up to a C+, but no higher.

Things cost too much and the lines were too long. Crowds have been running small this year so I don’t think they expected so many people on Sunday. By the 7th inning the lines were manageable, but we stood in one early on for almost 15 minutes. The wait didn’t make my Italian sausage taste any better - it was dry. But at least it was a generous size, although for $7.00 it should have been.

Moneywise we got off to a bad start. Online I reserved a $15 dollar parking spot and the Nationals tacked on $7.50 in fees to go with. When I arrived at the lot there were plenty of spaces. I chatted with the parking attendant and he said his lot never fills so next time I’ll skip the reservation.

I had preordered the parking because the plan was to drop Granddad and his escort at South Capitol to meet Bobby, buy the tickets, and make their way to the seats while I parked. That worked out better than expected because a wheel chair magically appeared and he was taken to his seat.

That was just one example of how everyone working there was extremely helpful and friendly. With the one exception of the security lady who told me I couldn’t hop over the back of the chair to get in my seat. She swooped down on me just as I sat down and since everyone else was so nice I refrained from pointing out to her that I was merely trying not to disturb Dad on the end. Expert Jim Cammisa recognized the usher just by the description of her actions and reports that she is well known. And not in a good way.

And then there was the game. The Nationals really do stink. Still, it was a good way to spend an afternoon.

I’m a week behind in writing about my Mother’s Day breakfast in bed. I hadn’t had one of these in years, and the years improved it greatly.

I had a flower, pancakes, fruit, and a little cup of water to dump into my tea to cool it down. My Caitlin knows me well. But the best part was not being stuck in bed waiting for it long after I was wide awake and ready to go. Caitlin delivered it and the newspaper at the perfect time - 6:45. While I ate and read my newspaper, she went back to bed.

Our water issues started Tuesday morning with yells from the shower and Caitlin emerging to complain that there was no hot water. By Thursday we had a new hot water heater, but not before a corner of our basement rug was soaked.

But that was our easy water problem. Also on Tuesday we started noticing an odd puddle on the front sidewalk. By Thursday I was convinced something was leaking - the puddle wasn’t just excessive rain. Pondering what might cause it I decide Hank would know and I would just keep an eye out for him.

Hank who is over 80, hard of hearing, and the victim of a mild stroke in the last 9 months, walks his dog past his house on a regular basis, and most importantly is a retired engineer. Retired engineers never really retire and are always happy to solve a problem. Friday I stopped him and he quickly diagnosed it as a leak in the water pipe to the house which since it was in my yard probably meant we would have to pay the plumber to replace it. But I should start by calling Fairfax County Water and let them diagnose.

Hank was right. We are leaking a gallon a minute. Since the leak is between the house and the water meter we get to pay. And have our yard dug up. The water guy emphasized get three estimates, make sure the contractor does his own work, and asked for a warranty. So Monday morning the phone calls start.

Today is almost perfect for soccer - all players available, temperature in the low 80s, perfect blue skies, lush green fields. Well, actually the fields are lush with standing water so we can’t play. After a week inside because of all the rain I’m sure everyone is really ready to play, especially because the weather doesn’t get any better than this.

However, I wasn’t really looking forward to having all my players present. Not that I don’t love each and every one of them, but they all tend to want to play as much of the game as possible. With a full roster I would have multiple kids at my elbow asking to go in. Three on the sidelines is about perfect. Today I would have seven which would mean too many “Sad eyes on the bench,” as a softball coach once put it.

We also want to play because we are on a two game winning streak. Traditionally my team has been at or near the bottom of the league so this is new for us. Well, most of us. My brilliant coaching strategy this season was to combine forces with another coach since in spring many players leave soccer for lacrosse and baseball. He had some really good players and one player had an excellent soccer playing neighbor so now we are competitive at the top of the league. We like it here. Too bad we aren’t playing today.

Did you know that if you have been out of the country within the last two weeks and you have “flu-like” symptoms, your doctor doesn’t want to see you; instead he sends you straight to the ER?

And when you get to the ER they slap a mask on you and admit you right away. You don’t even sit down in the waiting room.

And the bed they put you in isn’t on the main drag with curtains around it; it is an actual room with a door.

And the doctor comes pretty much as soon as all your vitals and information have been entered and of course gives you a swine flu test.

The test came back negative for Caroline so don’t look for her to pop up as a number on a map.

She just has a low grade fever caused by a yet unknown infection. An infection had been my guess and we’ll see if something specific gets pinpointed when the rest of the blood work comes back in three days.

While hanging out with Caroline is always nice, this wasn’t really the way I wanted to spend my day, but we didn’t want to ignore the fever and nausea.

Without swine flu in the news we probably would have waited another day and her regular doctor would have seen her. But with Caroline’s health history she would have had much of the same blood work done so what seemed like a lot of extra medical tests weren’t that unusual for my girl.