We got to head out to the dump in Fairfax County a week or so ago to bid final adieu to a couch that had far outlasted its meager existence. It was just $5 to drop the couch on the cement slab and watch as the awesome garbage hauler equipment just smashed up all manner of trash and shove it down into was appeared to be an endless pit of forgotten furniture, and various other bulk trash.

They’re very meticulous about how you get to dispose of things, there’s a man at the booth where you pay who makes sure it’s the right kind of thing to go to the dump, or whether or not it’s household hazard waste and belongs in the special part of the dump where they store those fluorescent tubes and bulbs, or if it’s a dead refrigerator, what they do with the coolant tanks.

I caught this sign and started to wonder…what sort of citizens can you dispose of at the West Ox Road Facility? Do they have to be Fairfax County citizens? Can I pay extra to drop off Arlington County citizens for proper disposal? Do out of state citizens cost extra?

Citizens Disposal?! — Originally uploaded by tbridge

Sure, it’s chilly out today, and maybe it feels more like late March than it does late April, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a little chilly in exchange for some free ice cream, does it? Ben & Jerry’s is giving out a free scoop of ice cream, for as long as their supply holds, in the greater world today. There are five B&J’s Scoop Shops in the District. Click on the pretty map for all the details.

There are a few outliers as well, including Old Town, Bethesda, and Fairfax, so zoom back if you’re out a bit further so you can get the ice cream love, too. Scooping starts at noon, be prepared to wait in a bit of a line.

(photo by bcostin)

So as previously mentioned, my wife and I had determined now was the right time for us to look for a home in Northern Virginia. (Considering my decades-long “dislike” of Maryland, it was automatically disqualified.)

This past weekend was our first outing with our Realtor to see what the area had to offer. We stuck to Springfield this weekend; no need to rush hither and yon right out of the gate.

We saw about 8 houses over the course of the last two days. Four were flat-out clunkers, two were ‘ok’, and two were outstanding! So much so we were hard-pressed during a late dinner at Mike’s American Restaurant to decide between the two - supposing we would place an offer so quickly from the start.

Needless to say, I’m amazed - and appalled - at the selection, even within a small five mile radius. Certain neighborhoods seemed to have ‘foreclosure’ or ‘for sale’ signs up nearly every other house. Others, you’d have a hard time finding even one.

A couple of the homes we visited were what I call “tired.” Scuffed walls, small holes, beaten appliances. Lived hard, then left vacant. Homes like that, I assign about $20K of additional “fix-up” money in my head - I’m no handyman, I’m gonna pay some guy to do it for me.

One home in particular you could tell was “rooms rented” - every door had a separate key, the carpet was beat to hell, and it LOOKED like a flophouse on the inside. You’d never know on the outside, though. We ‘passed’ on that one.

There was one place we went to that was still occupied, sorta. The house was a disaster; the two lower rooms were being ‘rented’, and it was just a sad testimony to the overeagerness of some people who bought over their heads and couldn’t keep above water.

Though I will pass on advice to this homeowner(s) - if you’re going to try selling your house, it would *probably* help if you, you know, CLEANED IT UP first. I know you’re supposed to look at the house and not the stuff, but geez! Nothing says “no way in hell” like old food along the baseboards, dirty clothes everywhere, and piles of junk “hidden” in the garage.

Bottom line? This first outing I’d give a B+. Two great possibilities, 4 disappointments. Prospects are looking good, though. I am really encouraged regarding the homes available for our projected price range.

Next week: the I-95 corridor (unless plans change).

Virginia House Repeals Driver Fees

The Virginia House of Delegates voted 95-2 yesterday to repeal Virginia’s Bad Driver Fees. Smart, boys, smart. Get on it, Virginia Senate!

Supreme Court to Hear Gun Ban Oral Arguments on 18 March

Mark your calendars, in about 8 weeks, the Supreme Court will hear the Oral Arguments in D.C. vs. Heller. It’ll be good to hear Nina Totenberg’s dulcet tones tell us exactly what happens during this particular case.

Students Get in Fight on Metro, Put it on YouTube

Gotta love it when breaking news like this happens on YouTube. How dumb do you really have to be to post a video of your friends beating up a kid on the Metro and not expect to get caught? Really?

Angry Phone Call Takes on New Life

Yeah, this one’s a bit of a stretch, but it’s worth a look. A local student called an administrator at home and asked why school hadn’t been cancelled due to inclement weather. The administrator’s wife responded. It wasn’t pretty. Then the response got posted to the web. Then it got really, really ugly.

Has your neighbor been tooling around in a recently acquired Model T Ford? If so, you might want to alert him as to the cost of his environmental footprint and then give the cops a call. No, it’s not illegal to own such a contraption but there’s a hot one floating around the area somewhere, along with some police model Harley Davidson motorcycles.

The Kena Shrine recently lost some vehicles when someone made off with a couple trailers from the Shrine on Rt. 50 in Fairfax. Likely the offender(s) did not know what they got until they got it home but they sure got something worth a few pretty pennies.

The Model T is one thing, but the other trailer had four Harleys in it. So if your neighbor has a Model T and four Harleys, you might want to drop a dime and let someone know. $1000 reward - not too shabby, although you should do it out of your sense of civic responsibility, not just for the beer money.

From a listing in the Craigslist Free Stuff section:

Baby Donkey for to good home (sic)

Can you resist this little guy? I wonder how long I could hide him from my lovely wife. I think he would be a fine house pet except for the whole crapping everywhere thing.

Have you ever owned a donkey? How do you care for one? Will he eat my cat?

Thanks, Fairfax County, for
this disturbing picture.

Neat stuff going on in Fairfax this Saturday and Sunday from the Fairfax County web site:

Find old-fashioned country fun at Frying Pan Farm Park with games, rides and exhibits from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Watch the Fairfax County 4-H exhibitors prepare their project animals for the show. See antique equipment in fields and the barn. Get involved by trying your hand at milking a cow or goat, shelling corn or other farm chores. The fair is free for all. For information, call 703-437-9101.

Just remember - if you are milking anything, be sure it’s an animal with more than one udder. Otherwise it’s not milking; it’s a hand job. Seriously, get on out this weekend, cross the river into VA and get all Eddie Albert in Fairfax County.

Every time I look at the Fairfax County web page, I see a link titled “Ending Homelessness.” I never looked at it until now, figuring it was another community essentially saying that “someone needs to do something.” I have heard this before - a mix of vague instruction and diffusion of responsibility. It makes me cringe to hear folks say that, knowing full well that they aren’t going to do anything.

So today I clicked on the link and found that Fairfax County actually has a plan. The last place I lived, Crap City, MA, had a plan as well - to make the city less attractive to homeless people so they would go somewhere else. That was both a bullshit strategy and an ineffective one.

Here is Fairfax County’s strategic plan to fight homelessness (PDF). It lays out the scope of the problem, a way of dealing with it and seems somewhat realistic. People have actually put thought into this, not just hot air.

Something that impressed me about Fairfax’s plan is that there is a section for what you can do to fight homelessness. It isn’t much, but it’s something. I think we should all spend some time working directly with or otherwise supporting homeless or low-income people to help them better their lives. There are plenty of opportunities - food banks, soup kitchens, shelters, education programs and more. Having worked with homeless folks and at-risk youth for more than two years, I can tell you it’s an incredible and very humbling experience.

What do you currently do or plan to do in this effort? Can you commit to helping others even a few hours per week?

IM IN UR SHLTR
ADOPTIN UR KITTENZ

Come to the ExtravaCATza! event.

This is the prime time to adopt a cat or kitten and to help you with that, the Fairfax County Animal Shelter is open four Sundays in July with kitties galore who need new homes. As a bonus, “The first 100 cats adopted in the month of July will receive a free spay or neuter, a potential savings of between $70 and $100.”

It’s already well into the month, so they may have adopted out the 100th cat already, but a discount castration is something you’d want to stand in line for, if you have to.

Be sure to check out the Shelter’s online animal viewing station as well. The pictures aren’t the highest quality but they are cute nonetheless. Fall in love with your new feline companion before even leaving the door. The one thing that could make this process even better is if they had home delivery and could swing by Akbar and Jeff’s Castration Hut on the way.

Go check it out and give a little creature a new home and the warmth of your love.

As we enter our first spring like week of the year I am starting a series of profiles of area bike trails. I begin with my personal favorite, the Washington & Old Dominion Regional Park trail. In 2005 I rode the length of the trail from west to east in one afternoon.

An early example of the “rail-to-trail” phenomenon, W&OD was simply known as the “bike trail” to me and my friends when I was growing up. Now forty-five miles long, the flat, straight trail starts in Arlington, near Shirlington, and extends all the way past Leesburg to Purcellville. In actuality, the trail is part of W&OD Regional Park, which is the old railroad and current Virginia Power right-of-way (hence the high tension power lines), giving it dimensions of about 45 miles by 100 feet. Those 100 feet provide a buffer of nature through the most populated region of the commonwealth. Much of the Arlington portion traverses Four Mile Run Park while it parallels the windier Four Mile Run trail. Think of W&OD as I-95 to Four Mile’s US 1 and you get the idea of how the two trails exist together.
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