Small Thoughts for Small Minds

On Saturday, April 21st, we (including Donna) took the kids to Blacksburg for the "Hokies United Community Picnic and Reflection Gathering". We met up with Kel & Donna’s college roommate, Cathy and her S.O. Suzanne.

Kel has such a strong connection to her alma mater (unlike me) that the tragedy impacted her almost as much as if she was still a student. It was important to reestablish that connection to even start the healing process.

First we checked out the mementos, photos, and personal objects brought by the students and people that knew the victims of the slaying. (Kel, Donna & Cathy are on the left.)

It was a beautiful day and Dyson’s spirits were too ebullient for such a somber occasion. Since I have no direct connection to Tech (other than Kel, of course), I took Dyson where he could clown around without annoying those in mourning…

We got there pretty early. Like students everywhere, the bulk of the crowd didn’t show up until towards the end of the event. But, even while we were still there, the crowd started to dramatically grow.

After Kel and the gang (including Keira) checked out the memorials and some other stuff, we got back together to grab a bite from the tents set up by the local Blacksburg restaurants. Keira was ready, by then, to put aside the seriousness. So she & Dyson played a wee bit of football…

I saw this sign on all of the entrances to the dorms and classroom buildings. I think it is a sad and ugly statement about our society that such an obvious courtesy needs to be so explicitly expressed. Sigh…

I’m still not sure why this bothers me, but the only news agency that I saw grilling students and other mourners was from KBS, a Korean TV network. I certainly don’t hold the actions of a deranged individual against the country of South Korea, not even slightly. But KBS, by flying the news crew over from Korea, seems to be taking claim of the shooter (if you didn’t know, he was ethnic Korean, born in Korea, raised in the US since age 8) on behalf of their audience. It seems even more vulture-like than most TV news crap. (And, yes, Kel is unfortunately associated with our local vultures. Until she makes it big as a writer, of course…)

After a quick perusal of the food stands, we decided we could afford going to a restaurant where the lines weren’t so intimidating. We met up with another of Kel & Donna’s college friends (now on the staff at Tech) and had dinner. (For some reason, Keira didn’t feel well and I jumped on the opportunity (I was feeling crappy) to go sit in the car…)

(All images are linked to a larger version - just click…)

I was in Charleston, SC, a few weeks ago. We (myself, a coworker, and a Swedish colleague) were there to show off our operator’s training simulator, along with a few other pieces of demo equipment, packaged in a 40′ container.

Here’s the container set up at the Wando Welsh terminal in Charleston (actually in Mt. Pleasant, but who’s being picky…)

Anders (my Swedish colleague) and I had a meeting in downtown Charleston. After the meeting, I took him on a quick tour of the city and surrounding environs.

Of course, we started with the big ol’ houses in the ritzy part of Charleston (below Broad). Here’s one example highlighting the sprawling live oaks that are so prevalent in that part of town…

As shown in a previous post, here’s a view of the Cooper River Bridge as seen (this time) from Patriot’s Point.

The aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown, is permanently docked at Patriot’s Point (in the news today for the inauguration of the Congressional Medal of Honor Museum). This is a panorama of three pictures stitched together.

On the way back to the terminal, I took a quick detour to Sullivan’s Island. We found a public beach access, parked and walked out to see the beach.

Not really a sunbathers-kinda beach, but I still was glad for a break (albeit momentary) in the work flow…

I thought it was interesting that this container ship was in the background of both this shot and the shot of the USS Yorktown.

Just to prove that I was there, Anders took a shot of me and gave me a copy when I was in Sweden…

This house was immediately adjacent to the beach access. I now know what kind of deck I will build on my next house…

Of course, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a shot or two of the flowers growing in the scrub at the edge of the dunes…

As we left the beach, we got a call from my colleague, Tom (also based in Roanoke), saying that he couldn’t get the simulator to work and there were people waiting to try it. Instant guilt trip. (Tom had never started up the simulator on his own. Since I hadn’t heard from him, I assumed that things had gone well. If I knew otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken Anders on the whirlwind tour…)

And, just to show that I do actually work while traveling for business, here’s a picture of me and a few of my colleagues in Miramar, FL, for the conference we put on. (And, yes, I’m actually working. At that point…)