311/365 | Tuesday, November 7, 2023 | #365PictureToday
Love
312/365 | Tuesday, November 8, 2022 | #365PictureToday
W X
And since it is Election Day, here is another picture about that.
311/365 | Monday, November 7, 2022 | #365PictureToday
Fitting
I wanted to do a recap or review of my recent trip to Virginia Beach. First of all, the hotel was amazing! We stayed right on the ocean on the top floor of the Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront with a partial ocean view. The hotel has valet parking in a garage across the street, and except for one day when we drove to a lighthouse and the Eastern Shore, we left our car in the garage and walked everywhere. So the hotel is convenient to everything you might need. There's a rooftop pool and bar, and for those staying on the 18th - 20th floors there is a lounge that offers breakfast, snacks, evening dessert, and water, coffee, and soda all day, in addition to a sunset view across the city skyline. The hotel also has a fitness center and conference center. There were two conferences while we were there: a firefighters convention and a Shriner's convention. The only issue with this was the day we checked in. There was a long line for check in, and we ended up checking in using the Hilton Honors app and accessing our room with a digital key. The only issue with the digital key is that there is no wifi in the elevator so you have to have the key already up before you enter the elevator. Later in the day when there was no line, we returned to the registration desk and got two regular keycards.
Having been to other beach destinations, the Virginia Beach boardwalk wasn't what I was expecting. The boardwalk is primarily bordered by high rise hotels. There are a number of restaurants on the bottom floors of the hotels and a smattering of ice cream shops. Otherwise, all of the shopping is block off the boardwalk on Atlantic Avenue and some of the perpendicular streets. Unfortunately, both the boardwalk and Atlantic Avenue are havens for apparently homeless people. Many of them appear to sleep on the boardwalk benches overnight.
Speaking of the boardwalk, the boardwalk itself is intended for pedestrians only, with a parallel bike path. There are signs denoting this at every intersection, and the boardwalk rules specifically state that bikes, skateboards, and scooters are prohibited. However, it doesn't seem as if these rules are enforced. We never saw a single police officer patrolling the boardwalk area, and only once did I see any of the "Ambassadors."
The beach itself is nice. It is kept very clean, and there are a lot of lifeguards. There are many trash cans so no reason at all for trash to collect on the beach. There are also many beach amenities such as playgrounds for children, exercise equipment for adults, and accessible paths onto the beach.
One last issue is the helicopters and planes from Oceana Naval Base that fly over several times a day. The first few times it's interesting, but unless you're interested in trying to photograph them, it can become a nuisance. By the same token, there is a constant stream of container ships on the horizon with an occasional Navy vessel interspersed among them. Lastly, two 600-foot tall wind turbines are visible 27 miles offshore. These are the trials for up to 176 turbines that will be 800 feet tall that are scheduled to be installed by Dominion Energy.
Special thanks to this man, Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the greatest breakup letter 246 years ago.
HB 511 passed the Virginia House of Delegates by a narrow margin. The next stop will be the Senate since I haven't heard that there is a separate Senate bill this session. In case you're interested these are the delegates who voted against the bill: Adams, D.M., Bagby, Bennett-Parker, Bloxom, Bourne, Bulova, Carr, Clark, Convirs-Fowler, Coyner, Delaney, Filler-Corn, Glass, Guzman, Hayes, Helmer, Herring, Hope, Hudson, Jenkins, Keam, Kory, Krizek, Lopez, Maldonado, McQuinn, Mullin, Mundon King, Murphy, Plum, Price, Rasoul, Reid, Roem, Scott, D.L., Sewell, Shin, Sickles, Simon, Simonds, Subramanyam, Sullivan, Torian, Tran, VanValkenburg, Ward, Watts, Willett, Williams Graves--49.
This is quite interesting because I received the following e-mail message from my delegate, Elizabeth Guzman, after e-mailing her:
Thank you for reaching out to the legislative office of Delegate Guzman. We value your position on this topic and I have logged your support for HB 511 into Delegate Guzman's online system.
I am pleased to inform you HB 511 has passed through the House of Delegates and is on its way to the Senate . She will take your position, as well as all others, into consideration before she is presented with the opportunity to vote on similar legislation in the future.
Please never hesitate to reach out to our office if you have other pieces of legislation that you would like her to have your input on. Additionally, please never hesitate to reach out to us as our office handles a wide variety of constituent services and we will work diligently to solve any issues you might be facing.
Oddly, she voted against the bill but is pleased to inform me that it passed???
If you are interested in this legislation finally passing, I urge you to contact your State Senator sooner rather than later to ask him or her to support this bill when it crosses over. As of February 15, it is in the Senate Committee on Education and Health. The following Senators are on that committee:
Lucas (Chair), Saslaw, Howell, Newman, Locke, Barker, Petersen, Cosgrove, Lewis, Dunnavant, Suetterlein, Peake, Edwards, Hashmi, Pillion
Since these senators represent the interests of all Virginians, you should feel free to contact any of them, especially those who may be on the fence, to ask them to support this bill. I feel certain that Governor Younkin would sign this bill if it crosses his desk. Contact information for all senators can be found here: https://apps.senate.virginia.gov/Senator/index.php
As a recap on the issue, VAHomeschoolers has a breakdown of all of the pertinent information here: https://vahomeschoolers.org/advocacy/issues/sports-access
Once again a bill is making its way through the General Assembly in Richmond (HB 511) to permit homeschool sports
access. These bills are commonly referred to as Tebow bills after Tim Tebow, who famously was permitted to play high school sports in Florida as a homeschooler. Often this bill will make it through the General Assembly and on to the governor, but the last couple of Democratic governors have vetoed them without even researching the issue as a nod to the VEA, who remains steadfastly opposed to it. During the last session of the General Assembly, I'm not even sure the bill was introduced, and if it had been, the Democrats wouldn't even have let it get out of the education committee. This year is different though, and it has a chance to get signed into law. Read on for why this particular bill is necessary and worthy of passage.
According to a VCU Commonwealth Education poll more than two-thirds of Virginians (67%) favor allowing homeschooled students to participate on public school teams. In fact, when my son was playing baseball and was looking for a more competitive environment in which to play, his friends from church and Scouts couldn't understand why he was not even allowed to try out for the team at the local high school.
Some additional facts to consider: School-based sports teams are often the only opportunities available at the high school level in rural areas of the state, and they allow uncommonly talented athletes the chance to be considered for college scholarships. School boards should have a choice about whether or not to allow homeschoolers to try out. These bills would allow local school boards to set the policy that is right for their communities and does not place a mandate on public schools. Homeschool sports access is working smoothly in 29 states. No state that has enacted homeschool sports access has repealed it. In fact, some states have increased the scope of that access over time. HB 511 would only allow bona-fide homeschooled students to try out at the public school in their attendance zone, and the bill allows public schools to charge reasonable fees. The impact on public schools and public school students would be small. There are fewer than 6,000 homeschooled high school students in Virginia. This averages to about 19 homeschoolers in the attendance zone of each of VHSL’s 311 member schools. Most would not even try out for public school programs; those who do would be trying out for a variety of different programs. Many who try out would not have the skills to make the team.
Homeschooled students in Virginia need legislative support in order to be allowed to try out for their local high school interscholastic programs. Despite significant effort by homeschooling organizations since 1997 to work with members of VHSL to develop fair, reasonable and practical eligibility guidelines for homeschooled students, VHSL has refused to consider any change. Virginia’s homeschooled students are depending on the General Assembly for a chance to try out. Homeschooled students are already involved members of their local communities, playing recreational league sports at younger ages, participating in local Scouting organizations, and maybe even rooting on their local high schools at football and basketball games.
We homeschooled our children for 18 years. My older son graduated in 2014 and attended college at VCU, studying mechanical engineering. My younger son graduated in 2019 and is taking classes at Northern Virginia Community College and working. Even though we no longer homeschool, I still support this bill and will continue to lobby for it until it becomes law in Virginia.
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