I was driving home from an errand and had to pull over and take a picture and share it:
Takes your breath away, doesn’t it? It’s a good time to be alive. The leaves will be changing soon (too soon since I love 65 and sunny). That’s about 3 miles from my house. Bethany is in the valley behind yonder ridge line.
And if any Juicers need a place to ride out the storm, let me know. Hell, it’s the weekend- if you can only make it out of state and are stranded, let me know and I will come get ya. All beds come with a complimentary dog.
Doug!
It’s a shite state of affairs we’re in, John, and all the fresh air in the world won’t make any fucking difference.
dnfree
My mom grew up in West Virginia and I had not been back since my grandfather died in 1958. Went back twice in the past two years and yes, it’s beautiful. I live in Illinois, where my mom moved after marrying my dad, and she sometimes wistfully said that if you had grown up around mountains, you always miss them.
TenguPhule
Who the hell are you and what have you done with John Cole, you monster!
John Cole
@dnfree: I am unnerved when I am in flat areas. It’s hard to describe, but I just feel like I am in an alien place when there are no hills and mountains.
Leto
If you had a few sheep in the picture, this would be indistinguishable from where I lived in England. I really do miss it.
germy
Butch
I lived briefly and very unhappily in Washington DC before I returned to the wilds of the frozen north, here in the Upper Peninsula. The Dolly Sods in WV was (were?) one of my favorite escapes from DC.
Alain the site fixer
Unrelated tech note: I finally finished updating the list of Rotating Quotes and Pie filter sayings. Enjoy everybody!
rikyrah
Cole…this new you does scare me at times..
but, you are still a good soul. :)
And, I can see how beautiful it will be when the colors change
dnfree
@John Cole: I think that’s how she felt. Almost like being lonely. She met my dad in San Francisco during the war–plenty of hills there! But he was from Iowa and had a job waiting after the war in northern Illinois.
Davey C
Can somebody please stop by the Cole residence and make sure that John isn’t bound and gagged somewhere deep in a closet?
rikyrah
Kay,
did you see this?
What say you, stupid Democrats on that scam commission.
…………………..
Election Integrity Commission members accuse New Hampshire voters of fraud
Source: The Washington Post
By David Weigel September 8 at 9:06 AM
Days before they meet in New Hampshire, members of the White House’s Election Integrity Commission have seized on a report about same-day registration to allege that massive fraud might have swung the state’s 2016 vote. Both voters and election experts say the allegation — accusing thousands of voters of criminal activity simply for living in New Hampshire but holding out-of-state driver’s licenses — are baseless.
The accusation arose Thursday morning, when Shawn Jasper, the speaker of New Hampshire’s Republican-run House of Representatives, released data on same-day registrants that he’d obtained from the secretary of state’s office. In November 2016, 6,540 voters had registered to vote on Election Day. As of Aug. 30, just 1,014 of those voters had obtained a New Hampshire drivers license. A few hundred voters did not obtain state licenses but had registered cars in the state.
That was enough for Jasper to allege thousands of fraudulent votes — and for Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the vice chairman of the commission, to flatly allege that fraudulent voters might have stolen the state’s four electoral votes and a U.S. Senate seat away from Republicans.
“If 59.2 percent or more of them went for (Democratic Sen. Maggie) Hassan, then the election was stolen through voter fraud,” Kobach wrote in a column for Breitbart. “That’s likely, since the surrounding states are Democrat (sic) strongholds.”
TenguPhule
@germy:
What a way to lose support for a measure.
cain
Meanwhile, the gorge is burning so what was once a beautiful place is marred by fire.. they still haven’t contained the fire yet. As soon as they release the name of the kid who started it with firecrackers and a smoke bomb, his name is mud. We should name the fire after him. Over 30,000 acres have burned thanks to that one act. If the wind changes our water supply could be affected and even Portland will be affected with homes having to be evacuated. Stupid stupid stupid, kid.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Kobach is long overdue for a nice cup of shut the fuck up.
cain
@John Cole:
You and me both.
BTW, I think I might have a job.. after over a year of searching. It is a pay cut, and it is move from my beloved Portland to Denver. I dont plan on staying there long. I want to return in a year, and hopefully with a new job in hand that pays better. That said, this job is literally being paid for what I do in my spare time, so it will be a fun year.
Laura
John, it’s almost heaven. . .
catclub
@germy: I know it passed the House, what was the vote tally?
Just checked: The final vote was 316-90, and all the “no” votes came from Republicans. The GOP split 133-90 in the vote.
so a majority of GOP did vote in favor.
LurkerNoLonger
@germy: What the fuck is Yoho talking about? It says right in the article “Mnuchin is a banker and former hedge fund manager.” That’s every Republican’s constituent.
Felonius Monk
@John Cole:
Then you will feel right at home here is eastern upstate New York. It’s West Virginia without the coal mines.
cain
@germy:
Hurricane Jose is coming, if you voted against this, you’re ass will be grass, you fuck.
NotMax
The meds which Steve has surreptitiously been spiking your food with appear to be working….
;)
TenguPhule
@catclub: 4 Texas Republicans voted against it. See previous thread for the link.
bemused
@John Cole:
I couldn’t live in an area without trees, etc. Years ago I remember a college student from a state area that was flat and treeless said he/she felt claustrophobic not being able to see the horizon, felt very hemmed in by the trees. I was astonished. I get very bored on long car trips just seeing endless corn field after corn field. Guess it’s what you get used to growing up.
Mobile
@Doug!: “It’s a shite state of affairs we’re in, John.” I’m confused. I thought West Virginia was Sunni.
TenguPhule
Some good news in a fucking awful year. Gun Sales Dropping.
But never fear, the NRA is working on raining on the parade.
catclub
@Laura:
I think it was Mark Russell who did “Take me Home, to Bayonne, to the place, I belong, Jersey City, by the turnpike, underneath, exit 13B”
TenguPhule
@cain:
Congratulations and have fun.
JCJ
@John Cole:
I had a cousin from Tennessee who felt that way about coming up to the flatlands of Indiana. He would say there was no place to rest his eyes. I have to admit that even though Pine Village, Indiana was only twenty miles from where I grew up I always felt creeped out when I was there.
rikyrah
Rachel Maddow MSNBCVerified account @maddow
Russian state media again gets word of Trump mtg w/Russian ambassador, but not US media. Not on POTUS pub schedule.
schrodingers_cat
@John Cole: I miss the ocean, I grew up a stone’s throw away from the Arabian Sea.
rikyrah
Chad GriffinVerified account @ChadHGriffin
Disturbing: Jeff Sessions’ pick to run DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has spent his career undermining civil rights.
schrodingers_cat
@cain: Congratulations!!
James Powell
Did quite a bit of camping and white water rafting in WVA back in the day. Good times. My idea was to completely shut down all coal mining and other industry and turn the whole state into a national park & recreation area. Naturally, those that did not become angry laughed derisively and offered to buy me a beer out of sympathy. Still think it’s a good idea. More jobs in that, I’d bet.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
And yet completely unsurprising.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Wait, what. Again? Now?
Please tell me this is a joke.
Eric K
@John Cole: having lived my entire 51 years in Seattle and Portland it is the same for me, plus water, in Seattle area of course bays and lakes and down here in PDX two rivers. I’m used to always being oriented by two mountain ranges and water, when I’m somewhere really flat I never have any idea where I am.
On the flip side I had a boss once who was from Nebraska and she said even after 20 years living in Oregon she would get claustrophobic sometimes because she couldn’t see for miles and miles of flat land.
Sab
@cain: We had haze and an unexplained smoky smell in NE Ohio over the weekend. Our newspaper says it’s from the western fires!
Yutsano
@TenguPhule: Kobach needs to go back to Kansas.
And run for Governor.
And lose.
Shell
@Laura: Just waiting for John Denver to whisper, “I feel a song coming on….”
Mike in NC
I read that since Trump has never had an original idea in his deplorable career(s), Kobach was the original guy who pushed for both a Muslim ban and Mexican wall.
efgoldman
@Yutsano:
Unfortunately….
ruemara
I’m that way about seeing ocean. It took a while to being so far inland. I didn’t think I’d be here for this long.
Aleta
This planet.
Interactive viewer of our atmosphere (using real time satellite data, looping). Newly developed by CIRA (atmospheric research group at CSU) and RAMMB. (“The Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch (RAMMB) of NOAA/NESDIS conducts research on the use of satellite data to improve analysis, forecasts and warnings for regional and mesoscale meteorological events.”)
You can see the hurricanes of course.
And how will the administration’s attempt to deny grants for all climate change
research affect work that improves forecasting?
rikyrah
Spicer, Priebus, Hicks among six current and former Trump aides Mueller has expressed interest in interviewing for Russia probe
September 8 at 3:27 PM
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has alerted the White House that his team will likely seek to interview six top current and former advisers to President Trump who were witnesses to several episodes relevant to the investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the request.
Mueller’s interest in the aides, including trusted adviser Hope Hicks, ex-press secretary Sean Spicer and former chief of staff Reince Priebus, reflects how the probe that has dogged Trump’s presidency is starting to penetrate a closer circle of aides around the president.
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: Check my comment at 31, I said the same thing.
Ocotillo
Why are the most beautiful places inhabited by the basest neanderthals in all of politics?
stinger
Whereas Steve provides nothing but insults….
Michael
Yeah, the parts not strip mined.
wmd
Your misanthropy isn’t well – not only are you sanguine about life in general you’re now offering kindness to strangers. I can only speculate on what happened.
Barbara
West Virginia is beautiful. It also has the best white water east of the Mississippi River, and some truly historic places like Berkeley Springs and Harper’s Ferry.
On the other hand, I just adopted a little dog and the welfare league told me that they get almost all of their strays from West Virginia and the more rural parts of Virginia. He is a chihuaha mix, and weighs 10 pounds and is really skinny, but, of course, adorable, and so far, really gentle.
Everyone, stay safe.
opiejeanne
@John Cole: I grew up in Los Angeles County and I feel the same way. Too much flat land makes me feel lost. Also feel that way about being too far inland or too far from a large city.
opiejeanne
@Alain the site fixer: The one about throwing up i one’s mouth being ok because it’s pie? Yeah, that one wouldn’t be missed by me
Others are very clever and I’ve wanted to post what I see some days but refrain because I’d have to admit that someone is pied.
catclub
@Ocotillo: You may have not been to Vermont in the summer.
TenguPhule
Sea salt around the world is contaminated by plastic, studies show
AUHUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Another Scott
@Butch: My old boss loved to go camping at Dolly Sods. He let me go with him a couple of times around 15 years ago. It is a neat place. Lots of great (small) wild blueberries up there.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget walking along a trail in the woods, coming across a sunbeam lighting up some electric green moss growing on a damp hillside and pointing it out to him. He got his camera out, bent down to throw some dried leaves on it, then took a picture. I wanted to strangle him, but he had his ideas about what an interesting ‘nature’ shot should look like and that’s the way it was… :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
jl
Wow, thanks for beautiful pix. I love that kind of countryside.
Weatherpeople on the news say it’s going to be more than averagely warm and humid here in SF Bay Area. Tropical disturbance in Pacific. So, I think I qualify for Cole’s generous offer.
I’m probably low priority, but if Cole has not takers, he can pick me up.
Say, tomorrow around noon, after I get done at the farmers market.
I don’t want to carry the bags very far, so how about waiting for me at Market and Steuart.
I’ll look for some fresh ramps for Cole. I’m always willing to pay my way.
Edit: OK, no objections from Cole. Done. See him tomorrow.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
Even better, once the leaves drop you can appreciate vistas of the fields, dotted with Subarus.
Ocotillo
@catclub: Good point, I have been to Vermont and New Hampshire in Indian Summer. Beautiful………
satby
I need trees and water. Illinois is flat, but has Lake Michigan and forests. Mountains I enjoy, because there’s usually lakes and streams and waterfalls.
opiejeanne
@bemused: My older cousins told me that when they were little kids and visited Missouri for the first time they cried because they were afraid of the big trees. Their families had moved to Montana, to a relatively treeless area to homestead in 1917. My mom’s parents moved there in the early 20s but moved back to the KC area after a couple of years.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
Even after reading about it, I still have no idea how John Cole managed to do that.
Heidi Mom
@John Cole: I understand, John. Having grown up in a valley between two mountains in central PA, in an area that looks a lot like your beautiful photo, I’m marked for life — Must Have (Geographical) Boundaries!
donnah
Lovely photo, John. My mother grew up outside of Beckley, outside of Whitesville. We kids spent our summers and most holidays there in the holler where she was raised. I’ve always loved the mountains and in spite of the terrible poverty, I love the state of West Virginia.
The fall is truly the most beautiful time of year. When the leaves are in full color, the landscape looks like rich upholstery.
The last of her sisters will be moving to Ohio next month, so we will no longer have family there and won’t be driving “back home” much anymore. I’ll miss it.
Omnes Omnibus
@TenguPhule: He didn’t. It was one of his frat kids who got driven off the road by a franking truck.
geg6
I know how you feel, Cole. I have to have hills/mountains and rivers/lakes to be truly happy in my surroundings. Plus seasons. Could never live in FL or AZ or Southern CA because of that. No real seasons. I can’t imagine how awful that would be.
cleek
@opiejeanne:
:)
TenguPhule
@Omnes Omnibus:
Ah, thank you for the explanation.
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
A franking truck delivering hot dogs. To go with the mustard.
trollhattan
@Ocotillo:
List probably begins with Alaska, and not just because of the alphabet.
cain
@TenguPhule:
Thank you! It has been a long dry season and I’m glad to be employed again and at least doing something I love. I actually have another job lined up (hopefully!) with another company doing the same thing, but will pay more and put me back in Portland. :)
Gvg
I love my Florida but I can see beauty in most places. I do not appreciate deserts or very dry lands though. Texas did not please me at all. I have noticed that different areas have a different shade of green. Wisconsin has a very dark green with blue tinges. Florida has bright green. Visiting Wisconsin it seemed a bit dreary
cain
@efgoldman:
I’d like to see him get caught in a sex scandal with a person who committed voter fraud of the male persuasion.
Kristine
@John Cole: I feel that way in the desert. Flat or hilly/mountainous, I need greenery.
Just One More Canuck
@schrodingers_cat: I grew up on Vancouver Island – mountains, beaches, ocean, forests – definitely retiring back there
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan: I am on my phone.
Tenar Arha
@rikyrah: I was thinking this AM that at this point anyone w/o a lawyer who campaigned or is working in the WH in proximity to this guy & his grifting kids is a fool.
Butch
@Another Scott: There was a small waterfall maybe a couple of hours in….probably not the best of me ecologically but I loved to hike back there with my mutt and pitch a tent next to it…..
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
You may thank your phone on my behalf for the handy opening. Almost made it though the week with nary a mustard joke [jots checkmark on to-do list]
HRA
Yes, WV is beautiful, John. I went through it to vacation in MD a few years ago and have not forgotten it.
A Ghost to Not
@John Cole:
I hear that. I sometimes feel that way living on the flats here at the base of the Rockies. Fortunately, I can get above treeline in less than an hour.
I hope all Florida juicers are getting someplace safe. Has anyone heard from Betty?
I’m waiting for the chicken evac post.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@John Cole: Yes. I feel like things are creeping up on me. I blame my ancestors; they all left the hilly (if not outright mountainous) parts of Europe, felt nervous in places like Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, and headed uphill as soon as they could manage.
frosty
@Alain the site fixer: I had an idea for a new one in the rotation: “Don’t forget to hydrate!” Too late?
A Ghost to Not
@cain:
Good luck. Denver is booming; housing is at a premium, although getting better.
Mel
@a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio):Years ago, my friend brought her two preschool aged sons back from their flat portion of Georgia to visit family and friends in our Appalachian home town (rolling hills, no mountains). We were driving on a scenic road, up a small hill with lots of trees and greenery. Both boys suddenly went grimly silent, and the youngest was absolutely wild-eyed. My friend asked what was wrong, and the oldest squeaked, “When is the car going to fall off the mountain, Mommy?” They were white-knuckling the car seats, preparing for a terrifying free-fall.
HeartlandLiberal
We are here in south central Indiana, and it looks like the latest projections for progress of the low that will remain and bring rain after land fall is headed right over Nashville, TN, and then on up into the Ohio Valley and southern Indiana. We could use the rain, but I hate for it to come as a result of the unbearable devastation that this hurricane is wreaking.
I have a good friend in Nashville, TN, I emailed him this morning with the forecast, and a reminder to lay in an extra umbrella by next Wednesday morning.
StringOnAStick
@A Ghost to Not: As a CO native, I need mountains and feel disoriented in flat horizon areas. Living on the west side of the Denver area where we can bike from our house directly into the foothills is a huge plus for us.
This week we are pet and house sitting in the forested area even further west, but we’ve realized the extra 30 miles and the increased driving hassle (plus wildfire risk) wouldn’t work for us. I am currently sitting with 2 very old chihuahuas and a 22 lb tortie cat on my lap; I think my knees are going to break!
kindness
In that picture…way out in the far green field…is that a broken down Subaru out there?
Bishop Bag
@Heidi Mom: @Heidi Mom: I live in Bishop, California in the Owens Valley. 10,000 foot mountain walls to the East and the West, the White Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. White Mountain Peak at 14,250 ft elevation and Mt. Humphreys at 14,000 ft elevation. I never tire of the spectacular skylines that surround me. I feel so lucky to live where I do.
Scamp Dog
@cain: Welcome to Colorado! Denver’s big enough to have everything you’d want in a metro area, and plenty of glorious outdoor vistas nearby.
JGabriel
John Cole @ Top:
Nice. Dictionaries should use that picture next to the definition of bucolic.
sukabi
@Sab: yeah, satellite images show smoke from western fires blanketing upper mid west as well as making conditions over here miserable. We’ve had some relief in the last 12 hours as air has moved in from the coast.
J R in WV
@donnah:
I grew up in Beckley and Harper, and learned to drive on WV Rt 3 between Bolt and Whitesville, so we share an upbringing in that country. My Grandma had a tiny farm in Harper and kept a little general store there from 1932 until the mid 1950s. I still live in WV, now on the other side of Boone county in Lincoln county.
“Oh those hills, those wonderful hills!”
“The green rolling hills of West Virginia…”
“Take me home, country roads…”
Some different songs with similar feelings.
J R in WV
Another thing about WV mountains.
Wife had a new co-worker hired from Chicago to start in Charleston. After a couple of months, she had he boyfriend come down to see the scenery and visit her in WV.
I don’t think the boyfriend had ever seen mountains. They drove south from Charleston on the Turnpike (aka I-64E and & I-77S) which travels up a watershed that started with steep mountainsides. To build the highway, they converted one side of the valley into a sheer rockcut, nearly vertical.
The new hire’s boyfriend had a panic attack, fearing the hills were going to fall down on them as they drove south on the interstate highway. They got off and headed back north to Charleston. The young woman resigned shortly after that, as her boyfriend couldn’t even visit the Mountain State. Odd to way the least!
I like mountains myself. Though the sheer rock mountains of the Front Range are different from the hills of WV, they will do in a pinch. The dry flats of Arizona between the ranges of mountains are interesting, with the only green to be had on the mountains, and sere brown on the basin valleys between the ranges. Basin and Range is what the geologists call that country.
Very different from the green rolling hills of WV, but pretty mountains in their own right.
Sister Golden Bear
Me, I need mountains and/or water, or preferably both. I grew up in the LA area, which is mostly flat, with some foothills, ringed by mountain. Oddly enough that feels far more spacious, since there’s something distant for your eye to reference. Now that I’m in the Bay Area, it’s similar thing, since bay is ringed by foothills and mountains, and you can see quite a distance across it.
I actually get somewhat claustrophobic in flat areas with lots of trees, since they block you from seeing very far. Same thing to a lesser extant when I’ve driven across the Great Plains.
That said, I also have an appreciation of the desert and its stark beauty. Albeit, California’s deserts usually have mountains, so to me there’s a sense of spaciousness. Not my first choice, but infinitely preferable to flat wooded areas of the East Coast.
@Bishop Bag: I used to drive up through Bishop in the summers for hiking and the winters for skiing in and around the Mammoth area. The twin mountain walls are spectacular, especially since there’s very little in the way of foothills, it just starts going up and up. Particular spectacular in the winter when the snowlike is almost down the Owens Valley floor. Have a pastry some sheepherders bread at Schat’s and for me. I definitely do miss it.
Jenny
+1