outskirts: life and times in charlottesville

OK..Fins are now 0-8. Half way to the first 16 game winless season in history. Ugh. At least Ginn caught his first touchdown in England (first regular season NFL game outside the US).

Just before the 2nd half kickoff an event of interest occurred that they wouldn’t show. They just focussed the cameras on fans up in the stands and said, “We won’t show you what is happening, but I thought this went out of style in the states a few years ago.”

Someone had a camera Definitely the highlight of the game.

Has Atomic Burrito served one too many? Chatter around the fire pit seems to indicate they are getting ready to close up shop. I wonder what will move in there in 2008. Liquid? Oh wait…that was before AB.

As Samuel L. Jackson might say, “I think I see mother f*cking food in a mother f*cking store.” It was first mentioned on outskirts back on September 7^th that a supermarket may move in to the old A&N slot.

That rumor has finally made it to an official news site (although I’ll be honest…outskirts is currently crushing WCAV in my poll). Will this really happen? Can Samuel L. Jackson possibly deal with food in a store in Charlottesville?

PS. As usual, thanks to the tipsters that pass along these great scoops months before the ‘real’ news sites hear about them

It is a bit amusing that the police are going to start cracking down on drivers that don’t yield to pedestrians.

Drivers certainly like to mow down people around here. I even got grazed by a school bus that didn’t seem to notice the light was red yesterday morning.

Of course, pedestrians aren’t the only thing local drivers target. Some do a few drinks in the morning and then head out to run down pregnant women in SUV’s.

I am somewhat amazed at miserable driving in this area. As I jogged up Main Street yesterday I watched a car stop at a red light during rush hour. For no reason at all it suddenly decided that the light had changed and it pulled right out in to traffic. Horns blared, brakes squealed, and vehicles stopped.

Nothing touched. The car that had migrated through the red light decided it had started crossing so it might as well continue. It quickly sped ahead. One minute later I passed the car since it was at the next light (rush hour you know) where it was stuck behind someone that didn’t feel like driving through the red light.

OK…are all of you drivers ready to go mow someone down tomorrow morning? I’m sure you are all good drivers. I think we just have a Christine here in town. Yep. That’s it.

Still trying to catch up to the new shows of the year. Long live the Tivo. OK..here are a few more.

Cavemen: A sitcom based on a commercial? Can things get any lower than this? Brutally sophmoric humor that probably has an 8 episode half life.

Carpool: Pretty much a mirror clone of Cavemen, but the people have less hair on them. I am truly boggled by the decisions made by TV executives.

Viva Lauglin: Umm…and the point of this one is…??? This one is really whacked. CSI + Dallas + Cats (yes…the broadway musical). A disaster from the start. This one won’t make it past 8 episodes (they should really just can it now).

Note: Viva got cancelled today. Seems as if someone read this blog On the other side of things, CBS has picked up Big Bang for the rest of the season. What imbeciles watch that show?

What do you think the downtown mall will look like after all the trees have been removed to reduce the cost of construction? Perhaps a bit like the renovation they did in the historic courthouse area just up the hill from NBC29.

Remember the lovely trees that used to be in that area? Now…lots of bricks. Or when the big tree in front of the federal courthouse what chopped down to add some 9/11 bricks around the perimeter. I’m guessing the bricks couldn’t be added unless the tree was first removed. That intersection is now just an ugly paved wasteregion. I’m sure they have learned from that. Right?

Anyway, can you picture a lot of stumps in the new mall?

OK…I’m still trying to catch up on the new shows of the 2007 season. At this point there are only two worth watching this year as far as I’m concerned. The listing below is unedited and are just my notes on things, so take them for what they are worth (is anything on this blog worth anything?).
Read the rest of this entry »

Yet another loss for the Fins. 0-6. If they didn’t play the Jets later this year I’d be willing to be my life savings that they won’t win this season. Every week there are glimpses of potential, but it is equivalent to finding a diamond in a coal mine.

The day I moved to this village is the day the Fins started becoming a bad team. They have continued to get worse and worse as I have lived here. If they lose next week (against the best team in the NFL) they will establish a new record for the club by starting out 0-7. The worst start in the 50 year history of the team. Truly sad. Watching the Fins in the past three years makes me feel as happy as these locals. At least guns are easy to buy in this state. Waiting time….0 days. What you can do with the gun…priceless.

Next up…unbeaten New England. Prediction for game: NE 73, Miami 17. Of course, the last time the Fins won was against NE in December 2006 (that’s right…the Fins haven’t won in ten months). Is that a 400 carat diamond over there in my garbage can?

Yet another day where we set a record high. There is a rumor that Thursday might finally cool off. 95 in October is just not fun. Neither is 90…for the past three weeks. And we are still waiting for our first raindrop since July. Not looking good.

The heat clearly brings out the entertainment in the local community. One local decided to go on the run (not good in this heat) to avoid getting arrested for a bit of sodomy. Another took a more relaxing approach of sitting inside with air conditioning while downloading pics of some kiddies.

There is a rumor going around that someone drove right through the Mono Loco patio on Saturday morning during that pointless city market thing the other day. Can anyone confirm that? There seem to be no news postings related to it. Perhaps it was a former UVA football coach out driving around a bit after a bit of the schnapps and the news story was just scrubbed away to nothing.

OK…be honest…how many of you out there are taking the bus to work this month? All of you who commute in your SUV every day…have you jumped on the bus this month?

How many of you even know that the local bus system is free all month? My guess is no one, since I have seen no evidence of increased riders as I jog past 30 bus stops.

Now that you know it is free will you jump on it and use the system? My guess is no.