I just received an email from Caroline Dailey at UVa Parking and Transportation alerting me (as a permit holder) that:
“The University is preparing to host the Virginia High School League AAA Group 5 and Group 6 Football Championship games at Scott Stadium on Saturday, December 11. The first game will begin at noon, and the second game will begin at 4:00 p.m. Gates will open at 10:30 a.m. Ten thousand to twelve thousand fans are expected to attend this event.”
Since this is a fraction of the traffic generated by a regular football game (50k+ fans), the impact should really be minimal.
“Traffic will be controlled at several intersections. Several parking lots in the immediate vicinity of the stadium will be affected; however, students and others who park in the lots around the stadium will NOT be required to vacate.”
If you’re jonesing for a ballgame, I’m sure they’d love more spectators. The weather is supposed to be warm – relative to the recent cold snap – and the freezing precip isn’t due to arrive until after 10PM.
A few more decorations have turned up…I always love the topiaries at this house, and they’ve adorned those for the holidays:
I went back and forth a bit on this one, as these lights appear to be a more or less permanent installation, though I believe they were originally intended as a holiday display, and though they’re somewhat the worse for the wear, have remained up since some previous Christmas.
Arrested Development: I can never get enough of machines.
There is something powerfully appealing about just being able to vacuum up the yard. I’m sure it’s an anti-environmental atrocity of some kind, but how great is it to just tidy up like that? I just mulch mine in with the mower. It’s not quite as satisfying.
The Chabad folks have up a Menora…this posting is a couple of days late, we’re on the fourth day of Channukah already. The signs of Christmas are impending, but I’m looking forward to the students adorning St. Thomas’ statue with his beard and cap.
So, really I suppose it was a November thunderstorm, or one that ran into December (overnight), but the weather was surprisingly unlike the beginning of winter…more like the beginning of fall. It dumped nearly 2″ of rain, but evidently most of that in a very short window, creating quite a bit of runoff…the water cleared a nice path through the new carpet of fallen leaves.
But it also took down these two trees up on Poplar Ridge – one of these struck a third and broke it off at about 4′ up the trunk – and blocked one of the paths.
I haven’t heard any news lately about the future St. Thomas priory so I was kind of excited when I saw these guys and their equipment lined up. I thought perhaps the work was beginning on some of the site prep. Given that they were tearing into the street, and that we’ve had a lot of Miss Utility marking on the roads, I thought perhaps this was work related to that.
The flagman told me they were just doing an inspection of the large storm drain that collects water from the lot and the stretch of Midmont Lane that runs alongside the lot. I speculate that a lot of the runoff from the eventual site will get directed down this drain, as well as the culvert that runs under the road from a ditch at the back of the lot.
I’m always impressed by these pavement saws – I sort of cringe at the idea of a steel blade hitting rock – the way hitting a nail with a circular saw makes me feel
Evidently the last repaving was pretty good – they had to pull out the heavy instruments.
Looks like one guy has an unfair advantage…I guess the new guy got the shovel.
When I came back at lunchtime, they were wrapping up and putting it all back. Seems like a lot of work to check out a pipe. I wondered why they couldn’t go in through the grate.
The fungus are amungus…I saw this clump of I don’t know what kind of fungus coming out of a stump on O-Hill…the orange popped out at me. Anybody know what kind of ‘shroom this is?
I guess practicing maneuvers by prowling around suburban neighborhoods is somehow fitting for the Legal Corps, but it’s one of those unique sounds of the neighborhood: a running or marching cadence as student service members keep in shape.
Sorry for the terrible quality of the pictures, but these folks insist on doing this kind of thing at O-Dark-Thirty and I haven’t mastered this little point-and-shoot in that light (that, and I’m still scrambling to get out of bed to try to catch the shot). They look like a fearsome pack of ghosts running by in a blur in this shot.
A day later they seem to have regrouped and decided that early AM is not great – either that or the guy with the camera is creeping them out. I hope I haven’t put them off their dawn migration, because I do like the wakeup call. In any case, I caught a rare daylight shot of the mysterious pack in motion.
I referenced this in an earlier post. Last week I noticed a crew building a very nice new deck on the front of the Chabad House. It’s constructed of cedar (it was amazingly fragrant when I walked by after they had just cut a few boards) and quite nicely put together. Here’s a closer shot (complete with a plug for the builder).
It seems like an elegant solution. I saw it decorated with lights as I passed the other night, and it was quite festive.
I’ve seen this shelter-like structure up on O-Hill before, but didn’t have my camera handy. It looks like the frame of a lean-to shelter – the kind of thing we’d try to rig up for those “overnight survival” challenges at Boy Scout camp. It isn’t too durable, and I saw a family picking through the bamboo ‘remains’ the last time it was up. Now it’s back. Any guess who and why? It looks like fun to me. Here’s another shot.
