Garbage In

| ploafmaster

I was procrastinating. Rather than write the technical documentation that is my ostensible job, I went to the kitchen to deal with a sink problem that’s been a pain in the butt for the past month. The solution was so stupid, and left me so mad at myself, that I can only get relief by sharing the story with the internet.

Some time in February my garbage disposal stopped working in the kitchen sink. Flipping the switch did nothing. Resetting the breaker in the basement did nothing. Pressing the reset switch on the unit under the sink did nothing. With the switch on, there wasn’t even a hum, nor any vibration from the disposal itself. It’s a 1/2 horsepower motor, so I’d expect *something* if there was current running through the device. So I figured I had to call an electrician.

But that meant looking into reliable, recommended contractors. Calling said contractors. Hoping at least a couple actually answered and/or returned my calls, let alone actually showed up at a reasonably near-term appointment date and time to take a look at the situation. So I put it off. Putting it off had consequences: the sink started clogging up – not because I kept putting anything in there without a strainer, but because there was probably already stuff that was unground in the disposal that dislodged and stuck in the wastewater pipe. Now I had only the left sink, and running the dishwasher would cause gross water to bubble up from the right sink (if you didn’t know, dishwashers will often feed their wastewater through a disposal) before slowly draining. This is gross, yes, but more tolerable than trying to, you know, *call* somebody.

Back to the present where I reveal a key piece of information that I left out at the top. I had read the manual for the disposal. In addition to the reset switch on the underside of the unit there is a hex-shaped nut where you can insert some key (it is literally an Allen wrench in the illustration) to rotate the grinder in order to dislodge any stuck food. Buy why would I need to try this? It’s a high-draw electrical motor! If the unit was receiving power, it would have at least hummed, right? RIGHT!?

I got down on the floor and found the right size Allen wrench to fit the hole and rotated about one full turn in each direction. It was effortless – how on earth could anything be stuck enough to prevent the disposal from starting? Just for good measure I pressed and held the reset switch for a couple of seconds (as I had last month) afterward, and stood up to give it a last ditch try. And the disposal spun to life. Immediately.

At least I don’t actually have to call an electrician.

DC With the Girl Scouts

| ploafmaster
Exterior facade of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC

This past Friday I had the good fortune of accompanying my daughter and her Girl Scouts troop to Washington DC by train. The main event was a visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall. I’d never yet made it to this museum and WOW, it’s incredible. From David Adjaye and Philip Freelon’s building design to the breadth and depth of the collection and exhibits, it was nearly overwhelming. Black history IS American history, and Black culture is a critical component of American culture (whether acknowledged or ripped off), so exhibits ranging from Black innovators to educational history, from the performing arts to the world of sports, presented a rich assortment of artifacts and informative displays.

Curving stairwell from the lower concourse level up to the entrance level in the American Museum of African American History and Culture

I really need to revisit when I’m not with a large group of largely elementary school girls. When half of your attention is ensuring that everybody stays together and behaves, you cannot fully appreciate all this museum has to offer. I could spend an entire day just exploring the exhibition hall for Black contributions to music, for example. Which is where I stumbled upon The Mothership:

"The P Funk Mothership" stage prop from George Clinton in the American Museum of African American History and Culture

I was also delighted to stumble upon a display all about Richmond’s own Maggie Lena Walker, complete with a number of artifacts and news clippings on loan from the Maggie L. Walker Historic Site, somewhere in a hall about Black entrepreneurship and innovation (3rd floor, I believe).

The weather was otherwise kind of crummy that day, so our secondary plans to have a scavenger hunt around The Mall were scuttled. But it was a great day traveling with my kid and her troop.

The Washington Monument viewed from a window on the 3rd floor of the American Museum of African American History and Culture

Practice Hikes

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My daughter jumps off a rock on the North Bank Tail

In June my family and I will travel to Maine for a week. Using the Every Kid Outdoors program as a thin excuse, we’re going to spend a week between Bangor, Bar Harbor, Portland, and a few places in between. Also, my best friend Robert lives up there until he moves down to PA for his new professorship, so we’ll absolutely hang out with him as much as possible.

Acadia National Park isn’t exactly the most mountainous, but Robert is used to hiking all over the pace doing field work. And I suspect we’ll have more fun in Acadia and elsewhere if we’re all a bit more comfortable hiking for more than a few miles on moderate terrain. I wanted to make sure that my whole family understood that visiting national parks is more enjoyable when you can venture farther from your parking spot, so I decided we should start a series of family practice hikes.

The ironic bit here, for anybody who has known me for more than a few years, is that I may previously have been the least likely to suggest hiking at all, let alone a preparatory regimen. But since I ride my bike all the time now, I’m in quite a bit better shape to wander up and down hills than I’ve ever been. And these days, it’s actually the rest of my household that doesn’t regularly get much exercise (excepting Maddie, but really only on Fridays at gymnastics).

With that, we parked by the Oregon Hill overlook and walked down the hill to the North Bank Trail, part of the James River Park system. For the first half of our adventure my daughter kept pace with me while my six-year-old hung back with Valerie, constantly talking about how “skinny” the trail was, and wondering why there were no railings. But he loves nature, so he wasn’t complaining that hard.

my son saunters up a hill with my wife climbing up behind him on the North Bank Trail in Richmond

Once we reached the fork between the Texas Beach parking lot and continuing on toward the pump house, I gave the family the choice of walking up and back via neighborhoods back to Oregon Hill, or continuing on a little further and walking back the way we came. Everybody wanted to get off the trail and walk back through the neighborhoods, hoping for mostly flatter terrain.

Some mirror-polished balls nested in rebar structures - sculptural decorations - in a front yard of the Maymont neighborhood

The walk back through the Maymont area, Randolph, and Oregon Hill was pleasant in its own way, but at this point both kids dragged behind so much that I frequently had to stop in order to let everybody catch up. I’m no athlete, but I guess being regularly active gives me a bit of a speed advantage that I wasn’t expecting.

A stone entrance pillar to Hollywood Cemetery in Oregon Hill, with the name, "Hollywood" carved in a stone plaque

We finally made it back to the car, about 3.75 miles and 2.25 hours later, and I think Valerie agreed we needed more practice hikes ahead of our summer trip! But it was a great way to spend a brisk February morning outside with the family.

Poking Around Pine Camp

| ploafmaster
fence made of tree limbs in the woods at Pine Camp in Richmond's Northside

At the suggestion of my friend Ross, I headed north to Pine Camp this morning to ride some really light, non-technical trails through the woods. I don’t typically ride single track or any sort of mountain biking (I’m more of a party pace, chill rider), but I do enjoy pointing my wheels off road and into nature. The weather was gorgeous, and I only got ensnared by thorns once, so I call it a win!

"Lolly the Bear" - sculpture made from scrap metal near a trail entrance at Pine Camp in Richmond's Northside

Fog Hunting

| ploafmaster
a small island surrounded by fog in the middle of the James river with the US-1 bridge in the background.

Today was pretty foggy in Richmond in advance of some rain, so I did what many photographers do and headed out with my camera. I got a late start, though, so most of it was cleared around my neighborhood by the time I hit the bike. So I headed south toward the James River where I was rewarded with an entire river of fog!

people and bikes cross the T. Tyler Potterfield Bridge in the middle of morning fog

The T. Tyler Potterfield bridge gave me the perfect vantage point for some exciting views up and down the river. I would have loved some foggy scenery in a few more places, but I’ll take what I can get these days.

the Richmond city skyline above the foggy James River
old rail bridge piers robed in fog in the James River with the Manchester Bridge behind it
the T. Tyler Potterfield bridge extends into the fog toward the southern bank of the James River.