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Ben Wilson

Ben Wilson

ben wilson This is the blog of a one Ben Wilson, a Louisville, Kentucky native who enjoys baseball, beer, music, bikes, things that fly and good food. By day he pushes pixels and makes the Internet happen for a local advertising agency. His wife, Kelly is an Ironman, and his baby Amelia is the cutest thing ever.

2003.09.21 – Sunday

At 8:30AM, we got up and out of Botetourt County after a great breakfast with Cindy and John. It was incredibly foggy for the trip through the James Valley, but this eventually subsided. By about 2PM, we had made our way to Glen Burnie, Maryland (southeast of Baltimore, a little). Danielle and Chuck were a bit surprised to hear that we would be arriving this early, so apparently a hurried atte
mpt at cleaning was had in advance of our arrival. Danielle and Chuck greeted us well — Chuck still wearing his pajama pants (“Sunday Best”, methinks).

There new house is cozy, and certainly better off than the photos I had seen shortly after the moved in. Originally, in some rooms, it looked like the 1970s had moved in, got drunk, and threw up on the walls. Odd textured wallpaper, shaggy carpets and strange, strange paint colors. They’ve gone a long way to remove these 70s remnants, but that stuff is tough!

Anywho, we shortly thereafter headed to Arundel Mills (whom some of you may remember as Kelly’s “Mecca” from our February 2001 trip to Baltimore), and Kelly and Danielle cut Chuck and I loose to “shop”. This involved trips to most of the video game stores (and a “Wizards of the Coast” shop). We also played some air-hockey at Jillians, and I kicked a little ass on the Sega Airliner Simulator. My landings were a little rough, but hey, no one died!

We ate a nice little joint called “Fuzio’s” in the mall there, and the food was tasty and prompt, despite the lack of calamari (“on account of the hurricane”). Hurricane damage in Baltimore and the surrounding areas was quite minimal, but according to Danielle and Chuck, it was no worse than a “Kentucky Thunderstorm”, which caused Marylanders to run about like scared chickens, or to make things relative to home — like when we have a snowstorm in Louisville.

We returned home, but Kelly and Danielle wanted to go to Target. Chuck and I hung back, where he tried out the new Tron 2.0 game. It was pretty nice looking, and the light cycle portion of the game was nicely done (but, it’s still just light cycles. which are very fun, but these kids these days need giant guns to have fun). I read through a book they had there called “Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands – A Guide to Doing Business in [Many] Countries”. Now I know that you should never give a white flower with a kimino wrapped around it right over left to a Japanese recipient. Also, the Russians bottle vodka with the intent that when it is open, its entire contents should be drank then and there.

I should note that I called Patience in Cape Cod, and everything is set up for us to stay with her on the Lower Cape (Yarmouth Port, to be exact). What an awesome turn of events! I hear-tell that Cape Cod is quite beautiful, and this time of year it is nice and calm.

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Sep 21 2003 ~ 9:46 pm ~ Comments Off ~
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2003.09.20 – eagle rock, virginia (Saturday)

Woke up this morning to a house deserted, so so far we hadn’t actually *seen* my relatives who live in this house. Around 9 am, we awake to find a note from my Aunt Cindy (written in crazy calligraphy) saying that we should call up my great-Uncle Joe (brother of my grandfather), as he’d like to take us out to breakfast. A quick call to Joe, who was ready to go, and he came “up the hill” to get us. Joe took us into Clifton Forge — a town with a paper mill that wafts over the entire James River valley, making it smell like… well, it really has to be experienced. A funk. “Sulphur mixed with cooking pork” says Kelly. I think that’s just about right. Anyway, we ate at a little joint called the “Bullpen”.

Aptly named as back in it’s heyday, much like Clifton Forge itself, it used to service all the railroad crews that made frequent stops in this town. There was once a large railyard here, complete with an old-timey (by our standards) railway platform, but that has all gone by the wayside. Clifton Forge still retains a bit of its pride, though, as evidenced by it’s newly installed brick-like cross
walks (“not real brick,” Joe informs us). The food at the Bullpen was served by a “woman and a half” as I like to refer to her, and it was certainly home-cooked. Kelly didn’t want any meat on her “Bullpen Special”, and Jodene (named for the sake of this two-sentence anecdote) inquired “Why not? It /comes/ with your breakfast!”. Damned hippies. Well, the food was unspectacular, but it was certainly filling and the coffee was hot (and tasty).

After Clifton Forge, we headed back towards Cindy’s (Clifton Forge is north of Eagle Rock), and Joe wanted to take us by Bethel Cemetary, a cemetary which houses the Buhrman family plot, and which Joe has spent a good deal of money and time
upkeeping. After “minding the goose” that had been recently killed on the road in front of the cemetary, we pulled in and did a once-over. Joe detailed all o
f the work he’d had done (a good deal of which he did with his own late-70s hands). It was nice to see that this little rural plot was being cared for. I don’t know what will happen to it after Joe is gone.

We then headed further south, taking a short detour around the “Gala Loop” — which at one time surrounded the small town of Gala. After taking in another cemetary that Joe keeps up (the Galatia Presbyterian Church cemetery), we headed through a gate, into a field (with cow) that eventually connected to the rear of Joe’s property. Oh, by the way, we were in a Cadillac. Not a Cadillac truck, a “Cadillac car”. Joe takes that thing everywhere, and I must say, it performed beautifully.After winding our way down from the field where, many years ago, my brother and I had shot cow-flops with rifles, we arrived at Joe’s farmhouse. Joe detailed a list of things that he’d been busy doing this year to his property an d surrounding area — and let me tell you, I only hope to be half as active as he is at his age. He’s talking about moving entire sheds, attaching pulleys to trees to lift water tanks, dredging ditches and fixing roofs. Crazy. Joe showed us his antique restored tractors — large John Deere vehicles from the 40s and
50s, well kept and almost brand-new looking. He also had a set of three small John Deere lawn tractors. I guess that’s for the John Deere collector without enough space! He also had three Lincoln Continentals. I tell you — if he loves
something, he’ll have it in threes. Unfortunately, we didn’t really have time to stop in this museum of Buhrmanology that is Joe’s house as he was headed to Richmond that afternoon, so we chatted a bit, and he then took us down to Iron Gate, another small town in Virginia.

Iron Gate, so named not so much for a real Iron Gate, but for it’s large iron-ore smelting furnaces built into the hillsides. You can stop off on the side of the road to check out tall, tall furnaces, if you’d like. We didn’t. Iron Gate is one of those towns where if you blink, you’ll probably miss it. I wouldn’t say it’s thriving by any means, but it’s getting along just fine, nestled into th
is little canyon.

The real pride and joy of Joe’s area is Eagle Rock. It’s no Clifton Forge, mind you, but it certainly has it’s own charm. Eagle Rock is located in Botetourt County — so named for “Lord Botetourt”, apparently a very well-to-do man in the 1700s. So well-to-do that Botetourt County originally enveloped most of Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia. Now, it’s much smaller. Joe showed us around all four blocks of Eagle Rock, and pointed out the house where he bought one of his prized Lincolns. Joe used to be the caretaker for the Boutetourt County Museum, which I believe was in either Eagle Rock or Clifton Forge (can’t remember), and he also is a member of the Eagle Rock gardening club, as well as being a trustee for those couple of cemeteries. Its safe to say this place has a special piece of his heart.

I should mention what beautiful country this is. Large, rolling mountains frame either side of most roads here, and in some cases, large rainbows of rock strata come jutting out of the sides of these mountains. Eagle Rock is so named for one of thsese large outcroppings, and it keeps watch over the town from the west. The James River winds its way through these valleys, every once in a while flooding and returning tons of silt to the many farm fields that follow its banks.

After Eagle Rock, Joe returned us back to Buhrman Road, and Mount Buhrman, where upon John and Cindy’s house sits. Joe had been a most gracious and entertaining tour guide (to me, anyway. and by all accounts Kelly was even entertained), an
d we said adieu for now.

A note about towns:

There are, in my estimation, one half-billion small, fading towns in Virginia — and they all had their own churches and mills and what-nots. It’s odd to me to see a part of the country where now less people live than they did before. That in itself is an oddity. The grass grows high, and the roads wash away, and here is Joe trying to hold it all together.

We headed back to the mount, and then disembarked for the Roanoke market. The Roanoke Market is a fiercly local farmers market — fresh produce, flowers, wines
, cheese, arts, crafts, etc. There is but one “chain” restaurant there, and from what I understand, it was vehemently opposed. It’s a cool, but ultimately small area of town. We stopped and shopped in a couple of places, but in an hour we were done. I stopped into the Roanoke Weenie Stand for a quick hot dog (if you go to the Roanoke Market, you have to get a hot dog from Johnny Liakos. he’s been slingin’ dogs for 40 years. the hot dogs aren’t really anything terribly special, but they are good…) I didn’t get a chance to stop into the Texas Tavern this trip to Roanoke, sadly. After the breakfast we had at the Bullpen, and then the hot dog I had at the weenie stand, I was in danger of “being a pig” (to quote Kelly). We drove past and gave our respects.

There is a big star on a mountain in Roanoke. It’s called the Mill Mountain Star. It’s something like 50 feet tall, and lights up at night. We decided to fumble our way around to get up there, and in doing so, we found ourselves on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a nicely maintained scenic parkway that runs along the southern outskirts of Roanoke city proper (on the ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, no less). There were a couple of nice scenic loops, one of which goes up to the top of Roanoke Mountain. On one side of the mountain, you can see the city, and on the other, it looks like the sort of Germany/Austria that you’d see in “The Sound Of Music”. Little tiny houses with little tiny cows in a nicely rolling valley. We never did find the Mill Mountain star — but we certainly saw it from the valley below. The Blue Ridge Parkway is a wonderful drive with some great scenery (and a LOT of hard-core bikers doing those mountain roads).

We found our way back to Cindy’s afterwards, and Cindy had prepared us a wonderful dinner. It was enjoyed by all. I hadn’t had a steak in a long, long time, but Cindy was offering — so who am I to turn that down? It was good stuff.

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Sep 20 2003 ~ 7:32 pm ~ Comments Off ~
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2003.09.19 – kentucky

oddly misty dark and dreary out here in eastern kentucky. following in the wake of a wake, really, what with Isabel having moved on through.

I was looking through the road atlas, and as i was trying to make a decision to either stop in Huntington or Charleston, West Virginia, i noticed that West Virginia has a wonderful array of odd town names. There is Left Hand, War, Coco, Enon, Bim, and Hix. I know a lot of immigrants moved into West Virginia in the late 1900s, and I can only assume that Russian immigrants founded the town of Czar, which lies quite close to Volga. (Czar being the name for a class of Russian rulers, and Volga being the river in Moscow). Now that I say this, I remember that ole’ Matty Rasnake (ne’ Rashnik) and his kin hailed from West Virginia by some way. Hmm. On a similar note, and one that should make Matt smile, there is in fact a town called “Pie”. just “Pie”. I would like to get some pie in “Pie”.

I’ve travelled this way quite a few times in my past — many times during my youth, and each time I remember thinking about the gap between Kentucky and Virginia the Appalachians. That was the boundary of these United States for so long, something imposed by King Chauncy of England (oh, like you know). Now we stretch from east coast to west, north and south, and now even upwards into space. Is that for the good? It’s hard to say sometimes. We, as human beings, can now experience so much that often we end up experiencing less in the way of minutia.

You can fly over these mountains in less time than it takes to cook a frozen pizza — a journey that once took us weeks to cross. Yes, I realize that driving at 70 miles per hour doesn’t exactly afford you the luxury of smelling the roadside roses, but I’d like to think that we are experiencing this country in a more natural fashion. Seeing the change in foliage, the changes in scenery — thats what makes it for me.

more later…

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Sep 19 2003 ~ 7:21 pm ~ Comments Off ~
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Kelly and I leave on our road-trip through the North-east today after work. First stop — ole’ Virginny to see mah kinfolk. Then, on to Baltimore to see Kelly’s extremely-distant kinfolk. (I’m fairly certain they are related). After that, Cooperstown, New York for the Baseball Hall of Fame! After that, I haven’t a clue. All I know is that Red Sox tickets are sold out through the end of the season, so it’s hard to believe we’d get tickets. Anyway — the idea is to check out Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and all points Northeast (save New York City proper), and then return home through Canadia and down through, like, Ohio or some such. The Dayton Air Museum will be a stop, I say!

In short, watch this space!

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~ 8:44 am ~ Comments (5) ~
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i just realized that we moved into this house one year ago last week (or so). so far, this home ownership thing isn’t too bad. it’s quite liberating, as you might imagine. no upstairs or downstairs neighbors, and more room. i enjoy room. not just room for stuff, but room to move.

whilst on the home-ownership note, i’ll note that kelly and i just sealed the driveway. it was ridiculously easy, and quite fun. the driveway sealer is like this liquid rubbering stuff that makes amusing noises when you push it around the driveway. it was fun. thpppbt! now our driveway is black black.

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Sep 6 2003 ~ 4:11 pm ~ Comments Off ~
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Birthday Gallery is up! Pics of Kelly’s cake for me (tasty!) and pics of Kelly, mum, brother Nick and I at the Bats game!

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Aug 20 2003 ~ 10:54 am ~ Comments (2) ~
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Well, today is my 25th birthday. I am now firmly rooted in my mid-twenties, and no rounding error will say otherwise. I’d like to thank my mom, Holly and Geoff for wishing me a Happy Birthday, as well as Jeanette (step-mum), my father Neil, my brother Nick and sister Kristin for wishing me well on my birthday (we went to the tasty Thai Smile 4 for dinner). (Kristin — the Family Guy DVD set was sold out at Target, we have come to find). Even my grandmother called me at work today to wish me a Happy Birthday!

For anyone who didn’t know it was my birthday, that’s cool, because I know I’ve not known/have forgotten plenty of birthdays in the past. I now keep a big list of birthdays (something that everyone should do, but usually rely on their parents for when they are younger). Eve’s birthday was back on the 13th of August, my Uncle Jack’s birthday was yesterday, and Nick Smith’s is the 21st of August, and Jackson Cooper‘s birthday is the 23rd of August.

Oh, I must give a boatload of thanks to my dear, beloved Kelly. She baked me a cake (strawberry cake with cream-cheese icing and blueberries), played “Happy Birthday” on the piano at midnight, and mowed the grass for me yesterday. She left me a message in lip-stick on the mirror this morning, and she also left me a voice-mail exactly at midnight today that I did not notice until just moments ago (I saved it for future playing). She’s so nice and pretty, I do declare.

I get to take a half-day from work today, and I’m going to eat tasty sushi at Bendoya for lunch, and then Mom, Nick, Kelly and I are going out to the Louisville Bats game tonight, and that should be lots of fun…

(11:01:56) jacksoncooper: damn dude. happy birthday! (thanks, jackson)

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Aug 18 2003 ~ 9:59 am ~ Comments Off ~
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if anyone is still having problems with their e-mail, websites, etc, feel free to give me a call (you should have my number), IM me at “benATthelocust”, or shoot me an email.

Oh, and if anyone (either yourself or a friend) needs reliable web-hosting for cheap, let me know! This new rack has plenty of space and bandwidth, and you know the admin, what more could you want?

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Aug 10 2003 ~ 8:15 pm ~ Comments Off ~
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Well, as many of you know, I’m leaving my job here at Corvus at the end of the week. That also means that the server on which thelocust[dot]org rests is also leaving Corvus! But never fear, I have entrusted in RackShack.net to provide me a dedicated rack server and have already started moving over content! Anywho, more later…

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Jul 30 2003 ~ 8:13 am ~ Comments Off ~
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(in no particular order)

(and these albums are new to ME this year)

1. The White Stripes – Elephant

I think this is pretty much self explanatory. This album rocks from the outer to the inner. Jack White is a genius — $10,000 on pre-1963 equipment, and turns out an album that sounds like Zeppelin in their prime. I’ve been kicked in the chest by rock.

2. The Postal Service – Give Up

Deathcab for Cutie frontman gives up the electronic emo lovin’. Now, I fully realize how weird “electronic emo” sounds — but this actually works. I’m serious. Shut up.

3. Bobby Bare, Jr. – Young Criminals Starvation League

Fantastic country-core sort of stuff. Something like Palace, but with more of a sense of humour, and a more of a sense of rock. Thanks, Jackson.

4. Spoon – Kill the Moonlight

Regarded as one of last year’s best albums, I finally found it and listened, and I have to agree. Tight musicianship with good beats and a little of the Elvis Costello thrown in with maybe a touch of Billy Joel.

5. David Cross – Shut Up, You Fucking Baby

It’s not music, but David Cross (from HBO’s Mr. Show, if you remember that) is a funny, funny man with a sense of humour like an encyclopedia dropped on your hand. Everyone who has listened to this is legally bound to quote it whenever and whereever. “You been CROSSed, mah-man!

Thats all for now… perhaps more later.

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Jul 24 2003 ~ 9:34 am ~ Comments Off ~
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