MAY THE HORSE BE WITH YOU by John P. Flannery

Former Marine and expert rider, Dru Lucia Roia, owns the Lucia farm where she boards,

trains and rides the year round.

When our so-called winter is warm and balmy and the ground firm, you can hack your horse across fields and dirt roads near Lovettsville.  But when the unpredictable Arctic winds and rain and snow chill the air and turn the ground to stony ice, your horse grows his winter coat and turns his butt to weather the north winds.

That’s why we’re lucky to have one of the largest indoor riding arenas in the County at Lucia Farm on the Berlin Turnpike South of Lovettsville.  This past Saturday, Dru Lucia Roia, the owner, had just finished teaching a group lesson in her lighted indoor windless and fairly warm arena, and was about to tend to a favorite horse.

 “We are training and boarding all year round,“ Dru said, “we have plenty of stalls in here, 21 in fact, and provide private and group lessons.” There is an outside arena, equipped with jumps, but there were no takers that chilly Saturday.  The horses were in the fields at the hay bales and the stalls awaited them.  There are eleven separate paddocks.  There is also an array of cross country obstacles to train for hunter jumper courses, as well as for fox hunting.  For those who would rather watch, there are picnic tables but, alas, they won’t see much use this time of year.

Dru is always faithful to her equine charges as you’d expect a former “semper fi” Marine to be.  After 4 years of military service, and winning her BA in Equine Education from Salem University in West Virginia, Dru studied dressage and eventing at the Westmoreland Davis International Equestrian Institute at Morven Park.  She trained with the Olympic Gold Medalist Tad Coffin as well as Tad’s former coach, Raul de Leon.  Dru was so accomplished that she taught at Morven Park herself when she finished her studies.

For those who prefer the school of “natural horsemanship” – the Parelli method – Dru has special classes one can attend.

“We opened this facility in 1997,” Dru said, “and it’s been a great ride.  After I tend to my horse, I’m having dinner this evening with one of my newer students, and she’s doing quite well.”

So, if you want a warmer venue to keep you and your horse fit, you might take a look at Lucia Farm.

 

CUB SCOUTS, “START YOUR ENGINES” by John P. Flannery

Doug Matyas, in the foreground, setting the contesting cars, Steve Krise (facing the anxious scouts and parents), all waiting for the next race - score board to the right, finish line (straight ahead).

On February 9, 2012, Cub Scout Pack 962 gathered at the Lovettsville Fire Station on the Berlin Turnpike for their annual Pinewood Derby.

Scouts build cars from wood, often from a kit with a block of pine, attach wheels and metal axles, and follow special rules.

We’re not talking soap boxes on roller skates going down huge hills where you usually get hurt.

We’re talking about miniature cars that run on gravity down an inclined track and, if designed well, your car comes out first.

Those of you who may not feel rule bound should appreciate that there is an official kit with official wheels and axles placed in standard axle grooves – and the axle must be visible from the underside of the car.

One parent asked if a battery on one car was there for weight or did it provide power.  As that “car” slipped to last place, the concern evaporated.

Of course, each “car” is inspected and approved or not – good practice for emissions tests yet to come.  No liquid lubricants, thank you very much.

Only authorized persons, den leaders, are allowed on or near the race track – oops, should have read that beforehand.

Parent Brian Stearn, trained as a civil engineer, discussed whether it was best to have the weight at the back of the car given the curve to the straightaway.  Evan, 10, his son, had made his vehicle into a Star Trek Starship.

Doug Matyas, a Den leader, and one of the official starters, placed the cars at the top of the track and, when they were ready, they were simultaneously released, racing down the curved track to the flat, passing the assembled cub scouts, scouts and parents cheering, waving, shooting pictures, and celebrating the winners. 

Doug’s son, Nicholas, said, “I got first.”  What kind of a car do you have? “It’s a Bat Mobile.”  It turned out that Nicholas was the Pack 962 Grand Champion.  Holy Jeepers Batman!

Steven Krise, another Den leader, was maintaining decorum and stoking enthusiasm, as if the latter was much of a chore.  His son won as well.

This is our biggest event of the year, Steven said.  Judging by the smiles and energy, it really was.   

Detroit watch out – here they come – well here they come, maybe twenty years from now.

 

BELTWAY ATHEISTS AT ST. JAMES by John P. Flannery

Beltway Atheists - Larry Mendoza (l), Rick Wingrove (c), and Stephanie Ragusky (r) - at St. James Church, in Lovettsville

Last Sunday, at 11 AM, Pastor Don Prange hosted atheists at St. James Church for a dialogue with his congregation on “evolution weekend.”

You may fairly ask how one can reconcile an atheist who does not believe in God attending a church where the congregation does believe in God.

Pastor Don explained where he thought there was common ground. 

He preached, “Jesus and his followers were among the first A-Theists, challenging the Theistic claims of Caesar and religious collaborators … affirming a way of life built around the principles of compassion, justice mercy and peace.”

“Collusions,” Pastor Don said, “between religious and political forces have too often created oppressive realities that abound in the world of today … sometimes contributing to a contemporary spirit of Atheism we acknowledge today.”

Stephanie Ragusky, from the Beltway Atheists, explained she “lost religion at 13” and she tried to find faith but she could not get any clear answers as to “which was literal and which was metaphor in the Bible.”  When she studied biology, Christians were “discounting what we were learning in school.”  Stephanie needed another way to talk about these things.  She found Nobel prize winner Bertrand Russell’s philosophy instructive.  Among other things, Russell found that religion impeded knowledge and fostered fear and dependency.  Stephanie said now, “I’m responsible for everything I do.”

“Atheists have been misunderstood,” Pastor Don said, “and have faced hostility in society including right here in Loudoun County, just as Darwin and the science of evolution have been misunderstood and maligned by reactionary religious forces.”

Rick Wingrove, the founder of the Beltway Atheists, said, “Some of you may have heard of me.  Because of the religious displays on the court house lawn in Leesburg, I am either the most evil or most hated man in Loudoun County.”

Rick criticized those “special rights and privileged access granted to religious displays on the court house lawn in Leesburg.”  He said, it was “granting special privileges to adherents of a specific religion, but denying those privileges to non-adherents” and “is fundamentally unfair and patently unconstitutional.”  He made it clear that there must be a separation of State from Church.  The congregation appeared to agree when Rick said, “no one likes having someone else’s religion shoved down his throat.”

Finding a welcome for his sentiments, Rick said, “So this is a great honor for me and a new personal best for irony.”

Pastor Don said, “Science and religion ask and answer completely different questions about the natural world.  There is no reason for them to be in conflict … and we have no reason to be in conflict with those who publicly call themselves atheists.”

 St. James Pastor Don Prange

Rick said there was a “concerted attack on the science of evolution.” He was talking about “the most adamant of biblical literalists.”  He was quick to add, talking to the congregation, “Not you guys, you guys are awesome.” He asked, “if Genesis is taken literally, and if you do, ask yourself where Cain got a wife.”  Rick also underscored how to reconcile these matters: “Many people of faith do recognize that Genesis is allegory and not a Science book.”

Stephanie told how one Loudoun County Biology Teacher was told by a student that “only atheists believe in evolution.”  The teacher explained that was not true, that there was a clergy letter project in support of evolution, and, otherwise, that the student was attending “a science class not church.”

Larry Mendoza, of the Beltway Atheists, explained he “never felt a spiritual or supernatural connection.”  Larry read a lot about reptiles and brought lizards home, he got interested in biology, had a passion for it, thought everyone accepted evolution, and then he realized “there was a movement to discredit what didn’t fit with the theology.”

“I found not every Christian was the same,” Larry said, “and, if every church was like this one, there wouldn’t be any need for an atheistic movement.”

“I’m told I’m immoral because I have no belief in God,” Larry said, “but morality doesn’t require a belief in God. “

Rick charged, “There is an ongoing and determined effort in this country to remove all teaching of the science of Evolution from the public schools, calling Evolution myth, calling science ‘lies from the pits of hell,’ and replacing it with the biblical creationism story …”

When Rick finished these last remarks, he asked if he could get an Amen – and he did.

The ground common to those of belief and unbelief, from the vigorous discussion that followed, was that the State shouldn’t impose itself on either by establishing a belief system, and that any legitimate belief system had to accommodate science or it was suspect.

 

JIM CROWLEY - LOVETTSVILLE STAR GAZER by John Flannery

Jim Crowley at his backyard observatory

Astronomy began for Jim Crowley, of Lovettsville’s Quarter Branch Road, when he was 13, with a toy spy glass that he took on a trip; his interest persisted and grew because of a loving grandfather in the space age 60s who was active in a local astronomy club.

Everyone looks up at the night sky to explore the surface of the moon, to watch that bright spot many can identify as Venus, and to marvel at the billions of blisteringly hot stars with coronal temperatures measured in millions of degrees as they speed through dark empty cold space emitting all manner of exotic and life-threatening radiation. 

We look in awe and curiosity at what’s beautiful and we learn about what’s past as the light of these stars has been traveling for millions of years and we discover laws of physics that help us explain and sustain our unique life on this blue cat’s eye marble called Earth. 

But few of us are caught to explore the skies through an eye piece – at least not as Jim was caught.

“I was more gung ho than the average person,” Jim said, “and I made my first telescope mirror from a kit I bought at a drug store.  You couldn’t find one in a drug store today.”

“Today, I have a whole bunch of telescopes – dozens I’ve made myself,” Jim said, “one in my back yard observatory.  It looks like a little shed, the roof rolls back, but this time of year, I’m not so brave to go out there, as it’s extremely cold.  I have another in West Virginia.”

“I grind all my own mirrors for my reflecting telescopes,” Jim said.  “I capture pictures electronically, although I can observe the sky in real time.”  Jim has a catalogue of impressive space shots he’s taken of the craters of the moon, the planets, spiral galaxies and more.  He has arranged for viewings by friends and neighbors.

“We have a guy out at our place in West Virginia,” Jim said, “a little asterisk community of amateur astronomers that came together by chance.  He’s discovered an asteroid using his completely motorized observatory.  He doesn’t even have to be there.  He analyzes all the data at a distance.  That’s what amateurs can do.”

Jim said, “There are so many who are doing it every night. Hubble wastes a lot of time looking at the same thing over and over.”

But what was it about the times when you were young that got you interested this way?  There was the Russians’ Sputnik circling the earth, and then President Kennedy said he would get a man on the moon by the end of the 60s.  Jim thought to be an astronaut, answering the call of his young age, applied to become one, but it was before he earned his PhD in Geology and you had to have an advanced degree in those days to qualify.  Jim attended UVA undergrad, earned his Masters in Geology from GWU, and his PhD in Maryland, and then went to work for the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

While Jim didn’t get to travel in space, after he joined USGS, he got to study space from earth. 

There was a Mars research proposal funded by NASA and the objective was to compare terrestrial analogs of what we have here on earth with what the NASA space missions were finding on Mars.  “I traveled to Western Australia,” Jim said, “where the salt lakes are acidic and the NASA team thought that might be comparable to the surface of Mars.”

NASA also sponsored the Galileo mission, two spacecraft kicked out of Earth’s orbit by an inertial upper state rocket.  “They didn’t know how to interpret the salts they found on that mission,” Jim said.  But Jim had done a lot of research on the spectrums of light that correspond to minerals.

Jim said, “the way it works is the earth reflects light at different wavelengths, and that’s characteristic of what the earth’s made of.  You can measure these things from an aircraft or space and make maps of mineral compositions on the ground.   It’s a form of geological remote sensing.  When I got into it in late 80s, it was just beginning.  I watched the technique evolve.  Sensors got better. That’s where it is now.”

Finally, there was Beatriz Rivero de Luz, a PhD candidate from Brazil, focusing on the spectroscopy of plants.  Jim’s retired mentor from USGS had written on the spectroscopy of plants.  When Beatriz found Jim’s mentor in Florida, he told her to talk to Jim.  “I realized that ‘Rivero de Luz” meant ‘river of light.’  Just by her name, I was looking forward to meeting her.” 

Apparently, she shared Jim’s interest, and they were married a year later.

 
But the more things change, the more they remain the same.  “When we traveled to South America,” Beatriz said, “he took a hundred pounds of equipment with him.”  Beatriz blogged about their telescopic adventures (http://astrobananas.blogspot.com/ ).

The Moon as Jim sees it!