We should have been camping this weekend. The weather had other ideas. All of Virginia is in a moderate to severe drought, but of course Memorial Day weekend was a washout. I cancelled camping plans last week, and instead we did a local staycation. On Friday, we had dinner at our favorite local Greek joint, followed by a movie at the fabulous Byrd Theater. The movie was The Notebook (my wife made all the weekend plans.) I was entertained, which is all I ask from a movie.

Saturday was a day of constant rain. Other than grocery shopping, we didn't leave the house until we went out for dinner at our local bar and grill. We hung out, watched some TV, and played 2 games of Wingspan.

On Sunday we went to the Virginia Capitol and took the guided tour, then wandered around the building on our own. Most of the building is open to the public, a nice change of pace from the locked-down environments that seem to rule these days. After dinner at home, we played another game of Wingspan and then did a rewatch of About Last Night.

Today is the actual national holiday. It rained most of the day. I worked most of the day. The joys of self-employment.

I went viral on LinkedIn again.

Previously.

It's difficult to photograph birds at all times; it's especially difficult when they mostly live in the leaves. I did get this one decent shot this morning of a brown thrasher. We saw 33 species, including my best-ever look at a Great Crested Flycatcher. There were two examining a potential nesting spot in a hole in a tree right in front of us. We'll have to go back in a couple of weeks and see if there is a nest there. It is right on the walking path and parking lot, so I think they'll pass on it.

Trip: 56
Nights: 187-188

And the 2026 camping season has started. We spent the weekend at Machicomoco State Park near Gloucester, VA. It's only a 70-minute drive from home. Until a few weeks ago it was Virginia's newest state park, as it opened in 2021. It is dedicated to the history of the native people who lived there for centuries before any Europeans showed up.

The park features the Timberland mansion, which was built in 1793. It was open for tours, but we had the dog with us, so we did not take the tour. It also features an open-air pavilion that highlights the history of the land and the people inhabiting it, starting with the end of the last ice age. Furthermore, it is waterfront, so there is also a car-top boat launch.

The campground has a total of 27 campsites: 13 with electric and water hookups for various equipment—tents, pop-ups, and RVs up to 60 feet long—and 14 walk-in tent-only sites. The RV sites are mostly open with very limited shade. We had a beautiful weekend, but I don't think I'd want to camp there in July and August. The bathhouse is immaculate, featuring 10 or so private, large bathrooms, a few of which also have showers. The campsites are only mowed in a 3 or 4 foot perimeter around the camping pad. The rest of the area is managed in a natural state for pollinators.

Outside the campground, the grounds are a mix of York River and tributary shoreline, large, expansive meadows, and some forest. It's fabulous birding habitat. We got 53 species on Saturday and 50 on Sunday. On Saturday afternoon we ventured into town to kick back at the Gloucester Brewing Company, where I had fine examples of a red ale and a brown ale. Our evenings were passed as they usually are, with us playing cards or board games.

It was a fabulous start to the camping season. Machicomoco State Park is a wonderful addition to the Virginia State Park system, and we will likely return in the fall.

My phone served up a cover version of this John Denver classic as I was chauffeuring my wife around yesterday. Something about the lyric hit me in a way that I'd never noticed before.

Almost Heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze

That is scientifically accurate. The Appalachians are the oldest mountain range on the planet and certainly predate human life, if not all life, by millions of years.

So now I'm wondering, was Denver taking a poke at creationism with that line? Or did the words just flow? It's from the album title, Poems, Prayers & Promises, which is a little on the nose. But Denver was way more of a liberal than his marketing, especially in the 70s, would have one believe.

John Denver original
Ghost Hounds cover

15 weeks of classes, 5 or 6 field trips, a final exam, and a practical application (I made a zine) to earn this.

After some much needed rain last night, the temps barely hit 50°F (10°C) today, with the wind making it feel much cooler. I have not left the house today. I haven't really left the computer. I had some much needed vacation research to do. I've booked a campsite for the Little World Series in August. 44 years after my playing days ended, I'm finally making it to the LLWS. We actually visited the museum and the ballpark a few years ago when passing through Williamsport, PA, on the way home from a camping trip. There are pictures, if you are into that sort of thing.

I also have our Florida birding trip this fall mostly sorted. One campground doesn't allow reservations earlier than 179 days before arrival, so I've got a note to do that on the appropriate day. It's a very popular campground on the water in Florida, so I figure it's 50/50 at best that I'll even get a site. The other three places we will be camping are all reserved. I really should buy a spotting scope before that trip. More research to do. More money to spend. If you have opinions on spotting scopes, feel free to share. The contact link is at the bottom of the page.

Yesterday I attended training to become qualified to do bird-friendly yard certifications for the Richmond Audubon Society. In doing the training, I learned I have some work to do with my tiny patch of yard before I can get it certified.

I picked up the new Drivin N Cryin album this week. It's a classic DnC album, mixing rock, country, folk, and punk into a sound that is uniquely theirs. Peter Buck of REM contributes on a couple of songs too, which not surprisingly, feature 80s college rock jangly guitars.

Speaking of music, I finished my review of the 1986 albums that I owned. Stay tuned for 1987, next year!

Only a couple of links this week, but I have finally fixed my link collecting workflow, so hopefully I'll save them more often in the future.

As a Purdue Boilermaker, it pains me to share anything positive about Notre Dame. But 100 years ago Notre Dame students literally beat the KKK out of town.

The average new car payment in the US is $806 a month. That is freaking insane. It also makes me feel a lot better about dropping $10K on repairs on our vehicle last year.

If you are a baseball nerd, this tabletop game looks fun. I'm going to download it and keep a copy in the camper for rainy afternoons.

I've spent the morning tweaking CSS for the site. Please let me know if anything is off for you. It all appears to be fine on my desktop and phone.

I keep the list of books I read at the books link above. Here are the highlights from the first quarter of 2026.

The Society of Unknowable Objects: This follow up to The Book of Doors mostly delivers.

Life After Cars: A depressing look at all the ways cars ruin everything, with some hopeful examples of places getting it right.

Automatic Noodle: This story of robots running a bakery in late, late stage capitalism is just delightful.

Dungeon Crawler Carl: Answers the question, what if aliens destroyed humanity to turn the planet into a D&D version of The Running Man that is broadcast to a universe-wide audience? And there is a talking cat. #TeamPrincessDonut

Carl's Doomsday Scenario: Book two in the series is even better. They are on level three of the earth dungeon, and shit is getting real.

Last night was the final lecture class for Virginia Master Naturalist training. 35 hours of classes, 10+ hours of field trips, and a few additional hours of continuing education since January. It was like being back in night school, except that most of us are old. Final exams are due Friday, mine is 95% done. I just need to finish up the questions based on last night's class and send it in, which I will do today. My final project is complete, I will turn that in next week in the final class / class party. I still need to complete my 40 hours of annual volunteer work to maintain my certification, but that won't be an issue. The issue is choosing among so many interesting opportunities. So many interesting and worthy places to spend my time - so little actual time to do it.

Also, good job Virginia. I knew we could do it.

I had a catastrophic OS error, probably self-induced. I've reinstalled the operating system (technically moved from Debian 13 to Linux Mint, because why not try a new OS if I have to install from scratch?), and I've learned I wasn't backing up my source for the blog. So all the HTML is safe, and ODonnellWeb is fine, but continuing to update it with Pelican will require either starting a new Pelican blog in a new directory or converting close to 1000 HTML files to Markdown.

Or I can take advantage of weblog.lol, which I'm already paying for anyway via my membership at omg.lol. I will eventually spruce things up around here, but for now, I have a functioning blog.

Thinking about blogging here. ODonnellWeb will stay as is, as archives, and I'll just start putting new posts here moving forward. Maybe.