#VA Rust Removal
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katherinewade · 2 months ago
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What Details About Soft Washing Virginia Beach, VA, You Must Not Miss?
The humid and coastal climate of Virginia demands a regular upkeep of your home exterior. Various types of cleaning services, including soft washing in Virginia Beach is becoming one of the most effective yet crucial types of cleaning methods. However, from the selections of cleaning services available nowadays, such as pressure washing, water brooming, steam washing, etc., it becomes a bit typical to choose which one would be the right choice for you.
This article will let you know the crucial details about the soft washing, which will make it easier for you to decide whether it can be ideal for you.
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What is Soft Washing?
Softwashing is a cleaning method that is used where the pressure washing method is inapplicable. Pressure washing is a very effective technique that uses high steam pressure to remove tough stains easily; however, the pressure is so high that it can impose damage to some materials, and for such situations, soft washing is done.
The process involves applying a mixture of biodegradable chemicals that are safe for plants and animals. This solution breaks down grime and biological growth, which is then rinsed away with a gentle stream of water. 
What Makes Soft Washing Different from Pressure Washing?
Soft washing removes organic growth and stains without any risk of damage to the surface. PSI of soft washing is below 500, whereas pressure washing typically ranges from 1300 to 5000 PSI. Materials that could not bear the high pressure can be effectively cleaned using soft washing.
The humid climate of Virginia Beach creates a perfect ground for breeding mold and mildew. This ingrowth can be hard to remove as it can spread if there is any left over, and there is also a high possibility of it recurring. But with the eco-friendly chemicals used while soft washing Virginia Beach, VA, these problems remain no more.
Many soft washing solutions are biodegradable and environmentally friendly. This makes them a great choice for homeowners who are conscious of their ecological footprint. The chemicals used are designed to be safe for plants, pets, and people, giving you peace of mind as you maintain your property.
What Role Do Chemicals Play in Soft Washing Applications?
Effective use of chemicals in the right materials can yield the best results. Professional services provided are usually backed with this knowledge; however, having an idea on this could be helpful in case of any DIY works.
Here is the list of the ingredients:
Sodium Hypochlorite
Also known as bleach, is one of the most common substances used in soft washing in Virginia Beach, VA. Typically, it is used in the removal of algae, mold, mildew, and fungus from the surface. Also, the tough stains caused by the growth of these accumulations can be removed using this.
Caution: Sodium hypochlorite can be harsh on plants and metals, so it is crucial to use it in appropriate concentrations and take measures to protect surrounding vegetation and metal fixtures.
Surfactants
These are basically mixed with water that lowers its surface tension, allowing more effective cleaning of the stains. Typically, there are two types of surfactants: nonionic and anionic. Usually in simple washing processes, nonionic surfactants are used, whereas for stains like grease and oil, anionic is used.
Oxalic Acid
This solution is particularly used on wood items such as desks or fences. This acid helps to remove stains and discoloration caused by mold, mildew, and iron deposits. It is particularly effective in restoring the natural color of wood and removing rust stains.
Caution: Oxalic acid can be corrosive and harmful if not handled properly. It should be used in diluted forms, and protective gear should be worn during application.
Potassium Hydroxide
Some places are so accumulated with grease and oils that normal surfactants are not enough to remove them. Potassium hydroxide is a strong alkali that breaks down grease and oils to allow easy soft washing virginia beach va. They are usually combined with surfactants to achieve greater cleanliness results.
Caution: Potassium hydroxide is caustic, and it can be irritating for the skin. Proper use of gloves, kits, and eyewear is a must while dealing with this chemical.
Alternatives
Hydrogen peroxide and citric acid are two more alternatives that are used in the cleaning process. Citric acid is useful to remove stains from mineral deposits in concrete or stucco and can also be used in anti-rusting. Hydrogen peroxide is an antibacterial stain removal that is more mild than bleach. 
Caution: As compared to bleach and other acids, hydrogen peroxide and citric acid are less harsh, but still, they must be handled with care.
Conclusion
Peace of mind, health, and living standards are all connected with cleanliness. Whether it's keeping your room tidy or maintaining your yard's cleanliness, there is a huge difference in the vibe that is associated with it. 
However, keeping your room tidy can be managed in your daily routine, but for the outdoor space, especially if left unkempt for months, it can take your entire weekend to get cleaned. 
For this, Hampton Roads Power Washing LLC is perfect, as soft washing in Virginia Beach, VA. They offer to manage your busy routine effectively while getting your cleaning work completed with the best results. Learn more about their services by visiting their website and connecting for the appropriate quotations or queries.
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ledenews · 4 months ago
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The  Best Rust Removal Virginia Beach VA
Tired of unsightly rust stains on your property? Hampton Power Washing has the perfect solution! Our professional rust removal services in Virginia Beach VA, will restore the pristine appearance of your surfaces. Using advanced techniques and eco-friendly products, we effectively eliminate rust from various surfaces, leaving them clean and rejuvenated. Don't let rust detract from your property's beauty any longer. Trust our experienced team to handle the job with precision and care. Experience the transformative power of Hampton Power Washing's rust removal services in Virginia Beach, VA, and say goodbye to rust stains for good.
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mervisdiamond · 2 years ago
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Stylish Sunflower Engagement Rings for Elegant Brides
For brides who are looking for engagement rings in Washington, DC that are cheery, feminine, and elegant, sunflower rings are the ideal choice. These rings capture the beautiful silhouette of a flower and can feature smaller gemstones that blend in to create a cohesive piece.
In these rings, the center stone can be a single gemstone or most brides prefer adding a black diamond center stone with yellow gold petals and white diamond accent stones to create a lovely piece.
Sunflower rings offer a romantic and vintage-inspired vibe making it perfect for your wedding day.
Reasons to love sunflower rings
One of the main reasons why a lot of brides tend to prefer sunflower wedding rings in Ashburn, VA is that these rings can easily be tailored to meet your needs and since you are using smaller gemstones instead of one large stone, this makes it quite affordable.
Make sure you pick a reliable and trained professional that can offer you a range of high-end gemstones and craft your metal prongs properly so that they don’t snag on any soft surfaces or fabric.
Since smaller gemstones are more cost-effective look for gemstones like rubies, sapphires, diamonds, emeralds, or morganites that are tough and can easily take on daily wear and tear.
You can even opt for wedding rings in Ashburn, VAthat are set in platinum or yellow gold making it the ideal heirloom piece to pass down to future generations for years to come. Platinum not only mixes well with all gemstones but will not tarnish or rust over time.
If you plan to wear your custom rings in Washington, DC daily then look for gemstones like rubies, sapphires, and diamonds that are resilient and won’t easily break or crack.
You can also look for settings like a prong, bezel, or solitaire setting that can protect your gemstone against accidental knocks or bangs and help keep it safe and secure.
To Summarize
Just keep in mind that sunflower rings can be a tad intricate and tough to clean and so you will need to take your piece to a professional to clean, repair and maintain it so that it looks new and shiny for years to come.
Avoid wearing your ring around cosmetics as dirt, dust, lotion, or body oils can gather between the gemstone and the metal band and be tough to remove.
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Trusted Company for Wood Cleaning and Restoration in Virginia
Wood cleaning is the process of removing dirt, grime, and other types of build-up from wooden surfaces to restore their natural shine and beauty. This type of cleaning is essential for homeowners who want to maintain the appearance and longevity of their wooden floors, decks, furniture, or other features. Proper wood cleaning helps prevent rot, decay, and insect infestations by removing accumulated moisture, which is often caused by mold or mildew growth. Additionally, it can help improve indoor air quality by reducing the number of allergens that accumulate on wooden surfaces over time.
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When you need effective Wood Cleaning in Chesapeake, VA, to restore your property's wooden surfaces, all you need to do is call Hampton Roads Powerwashing Company. Our services include: power washing decks, fences, and gazebos and we also specialize in Rust Removal, Roof Cleaning, and Pressure Washing.
Hampton Roads Powerwashing is the best company of wood cleaning in Virginia Beach, VA. We can restore your property's wooden surfaces to their original beauty and functionality. Our services are designed to give you an efficient, thorough job that will leave your wood in top shape for years to come. We can also remove mold and mildew from wood surfaces so that they shine again!
Our reputed company that has been providing power washing services for over 10 years. We know the importance of keeping your home or business's wooden surfaces clean, polished and free of debris. That's why we offer all kinds of options for our customers who want to maintain the look of their homes or businesses.
Our team of experienced professionals has over a decade of experience in this field, so you can rest assured that we know what we're doing. When you need effective Wood Cleaning in Suffolk, VA, call us today at (757) 905-9274 and visit our website: - https://hamptonroadspowerwashing.com/
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hrdustlessblasting-blog · 5 years ago
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Do you know you need to consider several things while doing dustless blasting in cold conditions as it’s always a tedious task? Check out the presentation to know more.
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hamptonroads001-blog · 5 years ago
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Rust Removal Suffolk VA | Hampton roads powerwashing
Hampton Roads Power washing LLC is pleased to offer a Rust Removal in Suffolk VA administration which highlights F9 BARC, which is, without a doubt, the most effective concrete rust remover available today. The best solid rust remover accessible today. Our rust expulsion administration can clean and reestablish all your open-air surfaces. Call us today on (757) 905-9274 or you can visit hamptonroadspowerwashing.com for a free gauge and evaluation.
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Check out the video of Wood Restoration Dustless Blasting Virginia Beach. To know more, call 757-390-4397.
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kaiowut99 · 3 years ago
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Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episodes 65 and 66 Subbed (Finalized)
(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)
Hell Kaiser Ryou! Chimeratech Overdragon
Since his defeat to Ed in the Pro Leagues, the life in Kaiser Ryou has faded.  But at the invitation of a suspicious promoter, he participates in an underground duel--duels in which, crucially, one risks their life to treat their savage audience to a show.  As Acidic Last Machine Virus causes his Machine-Types like Cyber Dragon to rust, the Kaiser is not only cut off from summoning any Monsters, but it causes him to take damage.  With each drop in his LP, an electric current flows through his body, exciting the spectators...
Judai’s First Dream Duel!
Lost in the forest, Judai’s consciousness starts to fade from hunger, causing him to reminisce about his duels thus far--taking down Instructor Chronos’s Ancient Gear Golem with Flame Wingman during his Entrance Exam, battling the then-Blue elite Manjoume and his V-to-Z Dragon Catapult Cannon shortly after his enrollment, battling Misawa’s seventh deck with the right to represent the Academia on the line, and his first loss in the face of Kaiser Ryou’s Cyber End Dragon...
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*crashes onto your TL months late with non-corporate coffee*
And these two are finally up and finalized! Sorry for the wait, if you were looking forward to ‘em--as I mentioned in my post on Sunday, they were pushed back a bit while I did one final lookover on 1-64′s scripts and hardsubs so I could actually call them “finalized.” I’d started to get them out of the way while waiting for some potential editing help, then just decided to finish it after scrapping the last little thing I hoped to work on (I planned to break briefly after 66 to do these re-finalizations anyway, but the timing happened to work out).  More details there.
But leaving that aside, here we have a pretty popular episode in Hell Kaiser Ryou’s debut, as he’s pushed to the brink by Mad Dog Inukai after Monkey Monkey Mountain Saruyama invites him to his first underground duel. They do a really good job of portraying Ryou as having lost his mojo post-Ed, showing a realistic view of what the big leagues in sports are like when that happens to you and you lose out on sponsorships/etc, and so when he gets cornered and Saruyama drills into him how he never once thought of winning since that duel, wanting to just stick with his respectful dueling, a spark lights up in him and... well, RIP Mad Dog. (Also, s/o to Takeshi Maeda for really selling Ryou’s shift in mindset by the end, and to his dub VA for sounding similarly good, imo.)
66 is probably less popular in comparison, treating us to our first clipshow of the series, though 66 episodes in isn’t a bad time (could be worse, VRAINS jk).  It’s endearing enough, though--kinda nice seeing SAL again; Judai’s hunger-induced visions give us Chronos, Misawa, and Manjoume making monkey noises; and the duels featured were important for Judai early on.  I also like the bit of new animation as vision!Ryou follows up with Judai about respecting his opponents; goes with what I’d noticed before about Judai adding his Fusion Undone/De-Fusion strategy to his own dueling after losing to him. (also Judai making a signpost sweatdrop from his aloofness pls)
Part of the initial delay with these were the footage fixes I wanted to work on, as well as a couple visual translations here/there which were fun to work on.  Really want to thank @paradoxi-kay for their great work as always in helping to translate the cover of the copy of Duel Magazine that Judai comes across early in 65, and starting the one on Shou’s copy that I finished up.  List of everything worked on below the cut, as usual, if you’re curious.
Enjoy, folks! I’ve gotten some work started on 67 already, and my plan is to try and work on some double releases to make up a bit of time, lol.  I’ll be posting these two on NAC in the next couple of days along with the re-finalized hardsubs and scripts/DVDRips; while I work on getting 67 and 68 done, I’ll also start some work on prepping softsub MKVs (also to go up on NAC) for everything I’ve fully finalized, since it’s been a while on that front.
Fixes/Edits! (65)
As Judai wanders in the forest early in the episode, he comes across a stack of old Duel Magazines; the front cover shows Ryou and is an issue from his winning streak days before his more recent loss to Ed.  Thanks to @paradoxi-kay​‘s great work in typesetting my translation onto the cover I blanked (which I detailed here), you’ll see it in English in the hardsub above.  The translation was first applied to the close-up of the cover that comes after #2 below, and then I took the translated cover and made it its own image that I put into the earlier shot as Judai approaches it while they’re all still tied up (detailed here).  The text reads, “Exclusive!! Kaiser Ryou Marufuji / Breaking down his Cyber Dragon deck!!! / In this issue: / -Duelists Du Jour / -Pro League Battle Data! / -Reader-Submitted Best Duels! / -Strategic Attack Decks by Type!” (Really appreciated Kay’s input on “Du Jour” because my original translation for that, “Duelists Who Are All the Rage,” wasn’t as catchy, lol.)
As Judai picks up one of the older Duel Magazines and flips it open, we see on the back cover an ad featuring the three Phantasms--it’s actually an in-show ad for Shadows of Infinity (since the episode aired around the time the pack came out in Japan); I detailed the process in blanking and translating it here (shared above).  The ad reads, "The Three Phantasms Descend!" featuring Uria and Raviel’s names on their images.
As we go to the Red dorm as Shou narrates about the Kaiser’s slump, we see a magazine page describing what happened to him since his loss to Ed; I covered my blanking/translating this in the link shared in #2.
We then see that it’s Shou reading the page from his own copy of Duel Magazine, this one more recent than Judai’s featuring Ed on the cover, though it features the same SOI/Phantasms ad on its back cover (now showing Hamon and its name as well).  Like with Judai’s issue, I used the Japanese cover and the dub’s edit as reference to just redraw Ed and Diamondguy enough to remove Ed’s name; Kay had started the translation placement and I finished it up.  For the SOI ad, like with #2, I added in the dub’s edit in pieces, tweaking it to match the original image more (since they again oddly edited the text out or redrew Uria/et al weirdly to do so).  We do now see more of the ad which shows that the trio’s names are on each of them, the English of which I added.
As Asuka snatches the magazine from Shou to work on cheering him up, to be consistent, I also worked in these cover translations to the magazine as she lifts then curls it up, using the dub’s blanked Phantasms edit as a base that I touched up a bit while adding back the Japanese cards.  Detailed more in #2′s link.  (We now also see that the ad reads on, “New! Shadow of Infinity - On Sale November 11th [2005]!”; the IRL booster pack came out in Japan on Nov. 17th, 2005, a few weeks before 65 aired.)
Asuka then lifts the curled-up magazine into view in a close-up, with the SOI/Phantasms ad visible which I also applied my translations above to as needed, using the dub’s blank edit as a base that I redrew parts of to touch up and match the Japanese image more.  Detailed more in #2′s link.
As Ryou meets Monkey Saruyama, he introduces himself by handing out his business card reading, "Saruyama Promotion - Representative Monkey Saruyama;" as detailed in #2′s link, I cleaned it up using Photoshop’s Clone Tool, then slapped the translation on using Calibri as the font.
As Ryou contemplates attacking Acid Slime with his Cyber Dragon and Mad Dog Inukai taunts him, as Mad Dog then slides in on a split-screen to “clear his doubts,” there’s a quick frame as Inukai takes over the screen where there’s a gap between his pecs and the split-screen edge.  I fixed it by just drawing in the rest of his chest in Photoshop to fill his side of the split-screen.
As Inukai starts his turn and activates his Contingency Fee Magic Card, there’s a frame where, as he’s sliding his hand with the card into the shot, the card itself slides ahead in his hand before his hand does; as a result, you can see a bit of the background just under the card before his hand catches up to the card in the next frame.  I fixed this by just duplicating the first frame here over it in Vegas.
Two here--first, after Ryou has his Proto Cyber Dragon attack Clone Slime, as Inukai begins to explain its effect, there’s a quick frame before the shot goes from a close-up to a slow zoom as he moves where his neck vanishes (new meme format go); I fixed this by just duplicating the previous frame in Vegas, while also correcting one of his looping lip-flap frames so that the scar on his chin is above the shading under his lip.  Then, as Inukai goes into Clone Slime’s effect and the shot slowly zooms out, we see Clone Slime on his Disk in Attack Mode when it’s in Defense Mode right now; fixed it by placing a proxy in Defense in AfterEffects for a frame, then re-keyframing that frame to the zoom-out in Vegas to put it in place.
After Acid Slime slips out of Inukai’s Cemetery as Clone Slime’s effect activates, Inukai moves to grab it before the two Slimes switch out, but Clone Slime’s still in Attack Mode on his Disk; fixed by placing the Defense-Mode proxy over it in AE, then moving it as he moves his Disk and applying a brief brightness increase as the light from Clone Slime being replaced with Acid Slime grazes it.
As Proto Cyber Dragon’s attack approaches Acid Slime in a quick shot, the card under it in Defense Mode is reversed (the name box should face to the left to match how it’s placed on his Disk); fixed by first applying the correctly-facing proxy in AfterEffects and moving it as the shot moves, then masking Acid Slime back in over it, along with the light coming from the attack as it starts to shine over its card.
As Ryou explains Overload Fusion’s effect, just before it starts to zoom out as he then chooses the six Monsters he’ll fuse, there are a few frames I noticed where Ryou’s whooshing hair throughout this shot suddenly stops whooshing; I fixed it by just masking in his whooshing hair from the previous frames for a few.
As Ryou taunts Inukai about how his Acidic Last Machine Virus will bother him no more, Inukai starts to slide in on a split-screen, but until his split-screen has fully slid in, there’s no border on its edge; I fixed it in Vegas by first masking out the border once it’s fully slid in, then moving it in another video layer with his split-screen for those nine frames.
As Ryou explains Chimeratech Overdragon’s multiple attacks, we see it reversed on his Disk; fixed by slapping on the correctly-facing proxy in AfterEffects, then re-keyframing it to the slow zoom in Vegas for the 94 frames it zooms out in (phew).
One error that I hoped to fix but scrapped happens as Chimeratech Overdragon’s first attack closes in on Inukai’s Multiple Slime, where we see a Defense-Mode card under it despite it being in Attack Mode the way Inukai summoned it (and since he then takes damage from the attack); couldn’t quite figure out how to light up the floor I’d redrawn under it with the ensuing explosion, and had sought a bit of help to get it right but ultimately that fell through. (Incidentally, not only did the dub not catch this as they dubified its card, but they reversed the card, at that, lol.)
Fixes/Edits! (66)
(Note: These are all flashback-related, and I detailed most of them [including a few new ones] in my post from Sunday that I linked just under the summaries; I went on to apply the fixes I’d applied in 66 to the respective episodes, so I’ll be brief here.  Reinserted fixes from a while back are in italics.)
(Episode 1 Flashback) I reinserted the fix I did to replace the blank Normal Monster on Judai’s Disk in Flame Wingman’s spot with its card as Antique Gear Golem crashes onto Chronos.  [Ep. 1 Flashback End]
(Episode 22 Flashback) As Misawa attacks with Litmus Death Swordsman to start his flashback, I reinserted the fix I did to detail the blank cards on his Disk with Diamond Dragon and Litmus Death.
As Misawa finishes explaining Wingbeat of Giant Dragon’s effect and it zooms out to Litmus Death, I reinserted my fix to his reversed card on Misawa’s Disk to flip it right-side-up.
Reinserted my fix to the repeat of #3 as Skyscraper fades.
Reinserted my fix to another repeat as Misawa explains Spirit Barrier’s effect.
R-R-Reinserted my fix to the r-r-repeat again as we see Misawa’s Disk while Judai explains Cyclone Boomerang’s effect (gotta love reused animation!) [Ep. 22 Flashback End]
(Episode 4 Flashback) As Judai prods Manjoume into choosing a card from his hand for A Hero Appears’s effect, I fixed Manjoume’s blazer looking semi-faded for a frame on his split-screen.
As Judai’s LP take a hit from V-to-Z destroying Burstlady, I fixed the four frames where the upper part of his Disk is missing the little bottom part that extends out a bit and Judai’s vanishing Disk wrist grip.
A bit complex, but I fixed Judai’s briefly-still-missing-then-vanishing-again wrist grip, the shading near his Cemetery slot, Judai’s arm becoming part of his Disk, and his wrist grip suddenly consuming his whole wrist. (Detailed in that Sunday post)
Reinserted my fix to the Attack-Mode Winged Kuriboh on Judai’s Disk to put it in Defense Mode as he discards two to activate Evolutionary/Transcendent Wings.
As Judai swings his arm around telling Winged Kuriboh LV10 to “send [V-to-Z’s] energy right back” at Manjoume, I reinserted my fix to put its Defense-Mode card in the spot on his Disk colored like the Monster Zone it’s on for a few frames.
A bit complex again recycling the Judai shot in #9, but I fixed his again-vanishing Disk wrist grip and half-Disk arm, his wrist grip suddenly consuming his whole wrist again, and his yet-again-vanished wrist grip, miscolored undershirt, and his half-Disk elbow while restoring some previous detail to his Disk. (Detailed in that Sunday post)
As Judai summons Featherman–to Shou and Chronos’s surprise–and has him lunge at Manjoume for the finisher, I reinserted my fix to keep the black faraway box that is Featherman on his Disk both as those two slide in on split-screens and as they slide back out. [Ep. 4 Flashback End]
(Episode 8 Flashback) I reinserted my fix to remove Featherman from Judai’s Disk as his LP drop from Cyber Dragon destroying it.
Reinserted my fix to a repeat of #14 as Judai’s excited about Ryou’s Time Capsule.
As Judai draws for his turn, I added a Fusion card over the dark-orange rectangle briefly in his hand as he draws it.
After Judai’s first hit on him, I fixed the error as Ryou Special-Summons another Cyber Dragon as a Monster in face-down Defense Mode on his second Monster Zone (detailed in that Sunday post).
Reinserted my fix adding Cyber Twin Dragon to Ryou’s Disk over a yellow rectangle.
As the screen zooms in on Judai after Ryou declares Cyber Twin’s attack, I added Thunder Giant to Judai’s third Monster Zone, then reinserted my previous fix adding it as it zooms back out while Judai uses A Hero Appears.
Reinserted my fix adding a few quick lip flaps to Judai as he says, “Partner,” out loud.
As Judai thinks about how Evolutionary Wings would evolve his Winged Kuriboh and we then see Bubbleman on his field, I added a missing Bubbleman card to his Disk.
Right after #21, I revised my previous fix to replace the Defense-Mode Mudballman on his Disk with an Attack-Mode Bubbleman, after I accidentally put it in Defense Mode before.
As Ryou grabs Power Bond from his hand before activating it, I reinserted my fix adding Ryou’s two missing Cyber Dragons to his Disk and then one over the blank Normal Monster card in his left hand.
As Ryou slips Power Bond into his Disk, I reinserted my fix adding those two missing Cyber Dragons onto his Disk.  [Ep. 8 Flashback End]
For the Ep. 67 preview, I added my translation of the notice left on the Red dorm by Napoleon which I’ll be using in the episode proper.
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ledenews · 4 months ago
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Despite ‘Done Deal,’ the Bellaire Bridge Still Stands Unsafely and Unsoundly
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“You could make a movie out of this.” That’s what the director of public works and development for the City of Benwood – David McLaughlin – thinks of the ongoing debacle involving the still-standing Bellaire Toll Bridge, a span closed more than 30 years ago that is losing bits and pieces of debris to the Ohio River and the streets below it. “It was all a scam.” That’s how McLaughlin, the Republican candidate for the Marshall County Commission, sums up the situation when explaining the bridge’s current ownership, the TV show demo deal with KDC Investment and owner Lee Chaklos, and how the federal government came to be its kinda-current (pronounced “absent”) caretaker. And now that it’s been more than a year since, according to McLaughlin, the state of West Virginia disengaged on a deal to demolish the Bellaire Toll Bridge and allow Benwood to benefit from scrap sales to rehabilitate the span’s 850-foot approach on the Mountain State side, McLaughlin now is asking one simple question.   “Does someone have to die?” “For years, we’ve been trying to get answers and find a solution because this is a major public safety concern in our city,” he insisted. “We’re the smallest entity involved here and all we get told is that it’s up to us. It’s on us. The span continues to deteriorate, including along the approach on the West Virginia side. “Well, folks, we don’t have that kind of money in Benwood, West Virginia,” McLaughlin pronounced. “We can’t borrow it either, and we shouldn't have to ... especially since the State said it would.” The Bellaire Toll Bridge is a cantilever truss-designed span that opened in 1926 to establish another connection between the Northern Panhandle and East Ohio. The construction cost was about $1.2 million – the equivalent of nearly $26 million today – and seven million tons of structural steel was installed during construction. The bridge opened to the public on Dec. 22, 1926, and media outlets at the time reported at least 7,000 vehicles paid the toll and crossed the span that first day. The surface infrastructure for the bridge remains in place in Benwood, but the access ramps in Bellaire were removed during the construction of the four-lane Ohio Route 7 bypass built in the late 1990s. “It was a really popular way for a lot of people to cross the river, and the state of West Virginia must have thought so, too, because of the construction they did for it when building the new (W. Va. Route 2) through there,” McLaughlin explained. “But now West Virginia doesn’t seem too interested in the bridge, and that’s because it’s time to take care of what needs taken care of. “There are liens on the bridge, and the federal courts have the bridge in limbo,” he said. “Meanwhile, the bridge sits over top the city of Benwood, and it sits above where people walk and drive. There are city buses and school buses, and rocks have fallen from the concrete parts of the thing, and there have been chunks of metal that have fallen at the one-and-only entrance to the industrial park. If something happens to the bridge, we have a big situation.” Pieces of concrete and steel have fallen from the Bellaire Toll Bridge and onto the street down below in Benwood. Danger From Above Reporters with The Intelligencer in Wheeling penned a series of articles on the history and current status of the 98-year-old span, and the publication’s editors concluded in a March 30th editorial, “The Bellaire Bridge still stands, rusting and unused, a conservatory to wayward trees and shrubs — a testament to bureaucratic nonsense of the highest order.” Those reports, however, did not reveal the “done deal” – at least that’s what McLaughlin and Police Chief Frank Longwell thought in February 2023 – between the State of West Virginia and the City of Moundsville to finally raze the orphaned span. “We met with Charlie Reynolds when he was the state delegate representing (House District 6) this area at the time, and we reached out to our (federal) senators (Joe) Manchin and (Shelley Moore) Capito, and to everyone and anyone who would listen to us about the problem the Bellaire Bridge is to our city,” McLaughlin insisted. “Charlie Reynold got us the most action, and he told us to go get a number, an estimate, for taking the bridge down, so that’s what we did. “After working with experts in the business, we got an estimate of $3 million, and part of that deal was that we would get the proceeds from the scrap,” he said. “Charlie then told us that the Governor’s Office was on board, and I thought we had figured out how to take care of this problem. The money was supposed to be in the Governor’s contingency fund, but then we met with the officials with the Department of Transportation, and they had a completely different number for the demolition.” Benwood officials have the key to the gate that blocks the entrance to the Bellaire Toll Bridge, but McLaughlin says state officials have not visited recently to inspect the span. That number, by the way, was $10 million. “I remember me and Frank (Longwell) looking at each other and immediately asking where that number came from. They said they did a study on the bridge, but they never came to us to ask for the key to the lock on the gate. What kind of an inspection could it have been?” McLaughlin asked. “To this day, I have no idea what that was all about and how they came up with a number three times more than what our number was. It makes no sense. “It’s $3 million. At least it was when we had real experts work on the estimate. It’s not $10 million, but if they keep waiting and waiting, it will be in the future,” he said. “When they insisted back then, we knew it wasn’t coming down anytime soon. And now, we can’t get the audience, and we haven’t said much about it until now because we thought we could get the state involved again.” Reynolds, now the district manager for the state’s Division of Highways District 6 office in Moundsville, forwarded all questions to the state agency’s office in Charleston. Officials from that office have yet to return messages. “Charlie got us the audience and that’s what we needed,” McLaughlin said. “What happened after that was all Charleston you-know-what, and that doesn’t work for us. So, does someone need to die?” https://ledenews.com/an-open-letter-to-the-heroes-of-ovmc/ Read the full article
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henrycavell · 4 years ago
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homecoming
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summary: Syverson has been medically discharged from the army after a suicide attempt. He’d been able to hide his deteriorating mental health for years from the men around him, but now he has to face it head on. Hopefully not alone. 
word count: 1,426
pairing: Syverson x OFC 
*I plan on intentionally not describing the girl much, so that when you’re reading you can think of her however you’d like to!
warnings: smut later on, there will be cursing and mentions of depression, anxiety, there will be suicide attempts and self harm though i am not sure how detailed i will go into that! if things get really detailed, i will make sure to put warnings on those specific chapters.
a/n: I am not looking for constructive criticism on this. It’s been a very long time since I’ve written any fan-fiction, though I’ve been roleplaying nonstop for the last few years, I feel a little nervous posting something that’s entirely just mine. So right now, I’m not looking for any criticism, suggestions, etc. <3 If you enjoy reading though, please like/reblog! 
Also, I’m adding everyone in a tag that replied to my text post about wanting to read my stories... so if you’d prefer to be removed, just let me know! If you’d like to be added, also let me know! <3 
Taglist: @littlefreya​ @mary-ann84​ @wondersofdreaming​ @forthebrokenheartedthings​ @geralt-of-baevia​ @asylummara​ @dearlybelovedluke​ @promptandpros​ @mansaaay​ @daddys-littlewhitegirl​ @vacant-writings​  @kaatelyyynn​(i’m sorry if i missed anyone, i only tagged anyone who replied to my text post!!) oh & @80scavill​ i’m tagging you because you said you wanted to proofread, but i am just so nervous that im just posting! bahaha
PART 1 | PART 2
Being medically discharged from the military wasn’t something Syverson wanted to talk about, he sure as hell didn’t want to go into detail. He’d barely been able to admit to himself that his depression and anxiety had become so overwhelming that he could barely function. When his men had started noticing, some questioning his well-being and if he was stable enough to be in his position, he thought that had been the most embarrassing thing. He’d been wrong. The most embarrassing and shameful thing had been his suicide attempt, which ultimately led to his discharge.
The last thing he wanted to do was talk about it, so he didn’t. It was bad enough that he had to think about it constantly. Every time he closed his eyes Sy was brought back to that moment. Blood all over his bunk, smeared along the wall and staining his sheets. As hard as he had tried to convince his peers and superiors that it wasn’t a suicide attempt and rather just an unfortunate mistake, they wouldn’t believe him. And after a full psych evaluation, all hope of saving his career had vanished. Shipped home before he could even argue.
His first few days home had been the hardest, the only little shimmer lighting up his life at the moment being Aika. Sy had been able to bring her home with him and the loyal companion hadn’t left his side for even a second. Seemingly knowing something was wrong with him. But even with his dog giving him all the love and affection she could muster, he still barely left his bed. Tangled up in the sheets, dozing off and on out of sleep except for the very few times that he forced himself up to use the bathroom. Sy hadn’t eaten in what he thought to be at least four days, except for nibbling on a saltine cracker here and there between forcing down some orange juice or shots of whiskey.
Syverson wasn’t proud of the way he was keeping himself, but he didn’t know what to do. He’d been working and serving his country since he graduated high school. Being home with nothing but free time on his hands and a heavy rain cloud hanging over his shoulders, the days were beginning to all blur together. He’d been particularly dreading this morning, however, because he knew the VA was sending over some help, someone to help make sure that he was getting along okay, to make sure he didn’t need anything.
Aika put her paws up on the bed and leaned her head in, grabbing the blanket with her teeth and ripping it off Syverson, pulling it all the way down into the floor. “Okay, okay, I get it, I’m getting up,” Sy groaned, running his hands down his face before pulling himself up, swinging his legs off the side of the bed. A shower sounded nice, but before he could really think about whether he had the energy to or not, Syverson was already hearing a knock from downstairs. Craning his head around to look at the alarm clock by his bed, his face fell, realizing it was already well after noon. He thought he had more time...
ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ
Penelope wasn’t anything more than just a volunteer, a girl in her early twenties that liked to keep herself busy, so for the last few months on the weekends, she’d been donating her time to helping the VA. They’d send her to random retired or discharged veteran’s homes to help with their household chores, or to do their grocery shopping. Sometimes, a lot of them were just lonely and wanted someone to talk to. That was Penelope’s job, to just spend a few hours doing whatever they needed that was within her capability. This seemed to be a special case, though. It was different than all the others. Penelope hadn’t been given very much information on this person, other than their name and a very vague reason as to why they had been discharged. “Don’t ask about what happened,” she’d been warned, told to just leave it to be.
Tapping her knuckles against the door once more, Penelope peered in through the glass pane into the home, seeing that all the lights were off. Stepping back on the porch, Penelope looked out into the drive, seeing a rusted pickup truck and thinking to herself that Syverson had to be home. Just as she turned back around to knock a third time, her fist already raised in the air, she came face to face with the captain.
“Heard ya the first time,” he grunted, before turning in the door way and disappearing back down the hall. Penelope had only gotten a quick glance at him. His hair was short but was starting to grow out, his beard had looked a little unkempt and it seemed he had just rolled out of bed. Letting her hand drop back down by her waist, she froze on the porch, a little taken aback by his greeting. If she could call it that.
Stepping up into the home, Penelope closed the door behind her, just as a large german shepherd came running up to her. Aika panted, her tongue sticking out as she barked excitedly, nudging herself against Penelope’s legs as if telling her to follow the captain into the kitchen. If Aika could speak, she would have told the younger girl that it had been almost a month since the captain had spoken to anyone in person. “Hey there,” Penelope cooed, reaching down to scratch Aika behind her ears before tightening her grip on her purse and heading farther into the home.
“My names Penelope,” she called, just a second before stepping into the kitchen and seeing the man pouring himself a mug of coffee. There was a bit of sunlight coming through the kitchen window, brightening up the dim space just a touch. Most of the sun rays were washing over the man’s back as he fixed his coffee just the way he liked it. The veteran was large, his biceps reminding her of tree trunks, though he did seem to be getting a little soft around the edges. Penelope stood silent for a moment, waiting to see if she’d get anything from the man, but he remained silent, even when he turned around, bringing his mug up to his lips. Syverson didn’t even look at her, instead, snapping his fingers to get Aika to come to his side. His gaze was kept down, fixed on his dog. “I’ll be visiting every weekend, uhm, for as long as you’d like me to.”
“Didn’t want ya’ to begin with, don’t need no help.” The man still didn’t look up as he spoke, instead, his attention still focused on Aika, the dog seemingly being the only thing to bring him comfort.
Penelope was definitely caught off guard. She’d met some rude veterans during her time volunteering, and while this man’s words could’ve definitely been taken that way, Penelope could almost hear the loneliness in his voice. All she’d been told about him was that he’d been battling mental health issues, discharged because of depression, though she hadn’t been given anymore information than that. Letting her shoulders sag, she took a step further into the kitchen, moving towards the fridge as she looked around his kitchen. “I believe you, you look capable.” Penelope tried putting herself in his shoes, a strong man who had climbed through the ranks, spent his whole life serving his country, only to be forced home. To be told he wasn’t fit to serve anymore, that he needed help doing simple tasks. So she tried spinning the narrative as she opened the fridge, a frown making it’s way on to her face as she peered into the empty box. “Think of it as... I’m here to do the things you don’t want to. And it looks like someone doesn’t like grocery shopping,” she tried to tease, “I’ll make a list and-“
Syverson’s footsteps were heavy as he walked away, leaving the kitchen with his cup of coffee without one final word. Watching him disappear down the hall, Penelope heard heavy thuds on the stairs as he headed back up to his room. Letting the door on the fridge shut, Penelope muttered to herself under her breath, “okay...” It seemed like every weekend her job only became harder, she met veterans that were more and more reserved and closed off. But she had no intention of giving up just yet on Syverson.
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flooddamagepro98-blog · 5 years ago
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Flooding Damage Control Tips
On the off chance that you or somebody you understand experiences beginning late become the difficulty of flood hurt, you know obviously how awful such an encounter can be. Notwithstanding causing essential vivacious and mental weight, a flood makes physical evil property and can show amazingly costly.
Right when a flood strikes, the most fundamental thing that a property holder can do is to act rapidly. The cleverness accomplished by a flood can ruin at whatever point left untreated. Luckily, there are particular persuading moves you can make quickly if your home has been influenced by rising water. Holding brisk to the going with flooding hurt control tips can assist you with sparing an enormous bit of your positive conditions and help to help the course toward recovering your home Flood Damage Pro in Alexandria VA .
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• Insurance: First and overpowering, it is basic to ensure your home and your central fixations with a flood attestation structure. Home credit holder's announcement doesn't pay for loss of property by goals of flood hurt. Ignoring where you live, handle that unfathomable typhoons and sparkle floods can happen startlingly, even in zones in which flooding isn't standard.
• Carpets: If your house is influenced by flood, the attested areas will no insufficiency be the essential inspiration driving blending of your fear. This is considering the way that water that soaks covering can rapidly engineer structure and structure, the two of which can be ruinous to you and your family and are liberal to clear. Floor covers and covers ought to be dried as quick as is conceivable after riches rising water has been cleared. Open all windows in the house so as to permit speedier drying and to in like way disillusion shape progress. After the floor covering is thoroughly dry, vacuum with an essential tangle cleaner to discharge fragrances and stains.
• Flooring: If left untreated, flood malevolence to floors can finally clarification gigantic accessory issues inside the establishment of your home. Right when sprinkled for a sweeping time length, wooden loads up of ground surface can harbor doused quality for a wide time pack following the flood. Shape spores are a critical bit of the time found in concentrated wholes underneath tiles and stone deck, as these sorts of floors are hard to remove without the help of a fit ground surface expert. Take care to deplete in any case a monster extent of water as could reasonably be standard rapidly in the wake of flooding has wrapped up. Utilize a sump direct to debilitate wealth water to maintain a strategic distance from knowledge and potential insidiousness.
• Furniture: Though a colossal bit of flood hurt furniture is acceptably hard to extra, certain pieces can be spared with raised cleaning and care. Calfskin furniture is fundamentally now and again saw as a full scale trouble, yet in the event that the damage is insignificant, it might be conceivable to uproot certain parts and extra the whole piece. When treating upholstered furniture that has been submerged in rising water for a wide time task, consider the way wherein that pads and different fillings will even more then likely should be dislodged. Regardless of whether dried absolutely, this sort of stuffing can harbor endless little shape spores. On the off chance that conceivable, clear every single outside covering and wash them as enabled by the maker's naming. Utilize a quality rust inhibitor to ensure every single metal piece, for example, springs and edges. Wooden edges ought to be left outside in the sun to dry before you attempt to reassemble furniture.
• Safety with electrical machines: Electrical mechanical parties that have been submerged, in any event, for a limited timespan overseeing, ought not be utilized until they are adjusted by a drag onlooker to electrical fix talented. Never turn on electrical machines that have been harmed by rising water, as this can get overheating, fire or savvy by electric sway. A circuit analyzer ought to in like way be made before turning on fans, lights or express mechanical parties worked by a divider switch, as water can stay inside the dividers of your home and cause head glitch of wires and circuits.
• Safety with gas machines: Gas contraptions that have been harmed by rising water ought to in like way be investigated and fixed by an ensured fit before they are utilized. Regardless of whether a gas machine has the total of the stores of being working reasonably, it is conceivable that its succeeding highlights have been injured by the closeness of standing water, making them phenomenally hazardous to work. Gas spills, other than a surprising bit of the time evident by rising water hurt, can have impacts and effects at whatever point uncovered fire. Unequivocally turn off the focal valve to your water all the all the all the additionally smoking in the event that you expect a gas opening and call your gas affiliation rapidly to fix the issue.
Flood Damage Pro Phone number: 571-775-1263
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theradioghost · 6 years ago
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A Dream
There was a moment of panic that I went through when I finally got to the gate, where I dug into the deep pocket of my jacket and discovered that the key wasn’t there. For a minute, I scrabbled through my pockets desperately, my breath catching in my throat, terrified that this had all been for nothing, that I would lose my resolve, before I remembered that I had strung it on a chain around my neck for safekeeping.
I took a moment to berate myself for forgetting, and then another moment to turn back and make sure that my car was properly hidden, pulled off to the side of the ragged dirt road and a little ways into the bushes. If I didn’t come back this way, if the green of vines and creepers and long grass eventually grew up to tangle around it, no one would notice.
I was procrastinating, I knew that, but that didn’t exactly make it easier to turn again, to face the gates. They were high, wrought-iron so intricate that it looked like a living thing until you touched it and felt cold metal. Black branches and vines and leaves and even flowers twined together, asymmetrically, in their center a deceptively small lock. On either side, the fence stretched out and promptly vanished into the thick undergrowth, with no sign of where it might or might not have ended.
There was nothing else to do except turn around and run away, and despite everything, I wasn’t going to do that. I pulled at the chain around my neck, freeing the key, and with a deep breath, I fit it into place. Years of disuse hadn’t filled the lock with rust and dirt, or at least not so much that the key didn’t slide in with a self-satisfied click.
I didn’t even touch the gates. Some combination of wind and weight and gravity yanked the key out of my hand as they slid open with a shriek like a dying animal. With a muttered expletive I retrieved the key, and after a moment’s consideration, I pushed the wailing gates back into their original position and locked them again from the other side.
Beyond the gate, the path wound its way into the thick forest. It was unpaved, and my feet crunched on dirt and small stones as I walked deeper, further away from the gate and my car. On either side of me, the wall of greenery was nearly impenetrable, and after only a minute or two of walking it was knitted together into a solid ceiling not far above the narrow path. Somehow, a small amount of golden light filtered down through the stories of foliage overhead, and gave me just enough light to see by.
It was impossible to say how long I walked — five minutes, an hour. What matters is that at the end of that time the tunnel of green suddenly fell away, and I was standing at the bottom of a sloping hill.
What was in front of me had clearly once been a garden. I could see the faint echoes of the shapes of flowerbeds and vegetable plots whose former inhabitants had long ago either died away or broken free of their intended rows. Gentle terraces had been cut into the hill to create flat beds, now crumbling back into a natural slope as roots and weather tugged at them.
At the end of the broad stone steps that wound their way through the garden, there was a set of wooden steps, and then a porch. The porch was the front of what you could only call a house, although that wasn’t quite right. It was house-shaped, for sure, with proud dark Victorian angles and filigree, deep-shadowed windows and its front porch with the remnants of a swing rotting off to one side. But appearances can be deceiving. A house is lived in, and this building clearly hadn’t been lived in for a long time.
I hadn’t expected to be so struck by its sudden emergence from the woods, and so I stood there for a long moment, staring up at the ruin that loomed above me like a dragon. I had the distinct feeling that if I went any closer, it would swallow me whole.
But I had come this far.
There was no key to open the front door. The gate and the endless pathway would have been sufficient to deter just about any intruder, at least until me. So when I reached the front porch, I simply placed my hand on the cold, pitted brass of the handle, released my breath, and opened the door.
The moment I stepped inside, I found myself in another forest. Even expecting it, it took a second for the illusion to resolve into its reality - an entrance hall, with hooks and stands for coats and hats that had been cunningly and delicately worked in the shapes of tree-trunks, sprouting from the floor and spreading out over the ceiling in a mural of leaves that were difficult now to make out, under a layer of dust and shadows. Carved branches interlaced over my head, and the space seemed so real that I thought I caught the trill of birdsong just at the edge of my hearing.
Under closer inspection, these trees didn’t match the ones I’d walked under outside. They were tropical, alien. When I peered up at the ceiling, I could just make out the shapes that hid amongst the painted foliage - a crouching jaguar, a flock of bright parrots, a bright-eyed monkey. Beneath my feet, a thick carpet had once been a deep blue.
It was magnificent. A beautiful and inexplicable work of art. But it wasn’t what I’d come all this way for, so once I had looked, I gently removed my boots, placed them into one of the shoe racks, and continued on my way.
The entrance opened out into a dining room that was just as much a work of art as the first. One side was lined with tall, pointed stained-glass windows, through which rode knights in pursuit of dragons and maidens astride fleet unicorns. The table was thick, dark-stained oak, and a perfect circle, although there was only one chair pulled up to it. Bare, gray brick walls had been hung with rugs. Exiting the jungle, I had entered a castle.
I found my throat closing with grief as I stepped past the table, drawing one finger through the thick layer of dust that topped it, exposing the shine of the wood beneath. But I kept walking.
It would be impossible to describe the rooms beyond that. Tiled rectangular courtyards with reflecting pools filled with geometric designs under stagnant water. A blue-walled room with furniture in the shapes of coral reefs, their edges unexpectedly soft to the touch instead of rough stone. A room with no windows where every surface, not just the ceiling as in so many childrens’ bedrooms across the world, was covered in tiny glow-in-the-dark stars.
After four or five rooms, it was obvious enough that the house as I had seen it from the outside couldn’t have held all of these wonders. I passed through a lot more than four or five rooms.
It only took me a couple of hours to reach the library — which felt wrong, I thought, but then again, I’d started doing a few sports in college and had always kept in good shape since then. At any rate, I found it — a massive, open room, with glass panes in the ceiling above, two floors of shelving, the kind of great rolling ladders that every little kid dreams of riding down the shelf. A heartbreaking faint smell of mildew hung in the air.
I entered through a door on the second floor and walked slowly down a spiraling staircase at one far end, watching dust flicker in and out of sight in the beams of golden light that drifted down from the ceiling. You could have fit the entire outside of the house in this room; instead the floor was filled with tables and lecterns and large overstuffed chairs, all of them covered in loose sheets of paper and books still left open. Unable to hold my curiosity, I picked one up, scanning the abandoned page —
One, two! One, two! And through and through      The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head      He went galumphing back.
I immediately set the book down again, a sick coil of shame filling my gut. After that I didn’t want to stay in the library, but as I reached the giant, cold fireplace at the far end, I realized there was no further to go, no door to take; I had entered by the only door.
But that wasn’t right. A house like this, there are always secrets. Things only the family would know.
It took me a while to find it, hidden in the massive stones of the fireplace, and all the while I felt like every book in that library was a pair of eyes fixed on my back. But finally my questing hand found a spot that gave way, and I pushed, and heard a thud. When I looked up again, the back of the fireplace had vanished, revealing another spiral staircase. This one I could not see the end to. I squared my shoulders and started to climb.
About four hours into my ascent, I took a break, grateful for my foresight in having hauled a bag of water and snacks all this way. My legs ached so much that I couldn’t stop them quivering, but I couldn’t rest. Not yet. Although it had been fairly early morning when I left my car by the road, I could see through the occasional windows that the light was going thin and gold; I had at most another hour or two before I’d have to make serious camp for the night and do some sleeping.
So, once I’d massaged my calves a bit and finished off my second granola bar, I resumed my climb up the tower. It was obvious that this was a tower, at this point; the windows were too thin and too high to see into, but they were on all sides of the narrow cylinder as I ascended. But I was high, impossibly high, having walked for so many hours. Much too high for an old house in the woods. Then, the door.
The gratitude that flooded me at the sight of an end to stairs dissipated as soon as I pushed it open and saw what was on the other side. It was the top of the tower, alright. Glass walls like the top room of a lighthouse surrounded me, looking out on an endless expanse of green forest. At this impossible height, I should have been able to see the road I’d come in on, the little town with the motel where I’d stayed overnight and the diner with the awful cheesecake, the highway beyond that led off to bigger towns and then cities where there were schools and jobs and lives.
All of these things had vanished from this panorama. It made sense, somehow. They all felt so impossibly far away.
Around me, on the floor, lay the remnants of a child’s fort. A collection of pillows with a blanket collapsed on top of them, a spray of books, a portable battery-powered camping lantern. And in the middle —
I bent down and picked it up, turning it over it my hands. It was a little wooden recorder, hand-carved. Of course it was; I hadn’t passed a single thing on my way here that had the look of having been purchased. The toys at my feet, the furniture and the paintings and the stairs — all had been clearly handmade, made in impossible detail and with boundless imagination. Even the books were all bound in matching covers
That was an act of love, I thought. An act of such profound, shattering love that terror gripped my heart like a brutal hand when I thought about it. This entire house, dead and abandoned as it was, was still undeniably full of someone’s world-swallowing love for the child who had once played this recorder.
That night I slept there, far above the forest. I made use of the blankets and pillows that had been left there so long ago, but I didn’t touch the toys, or the scattered crayons and their box, or the drawings splayed out across the floor. My sleep was deep and dreamless, and in the morning, when the rising sun woke me up, I picked up my bag, and turned my focus to the other door.
The exit from the tower garret was a trapdoor, hidden in the floor. I pulled hard on the dirty iron ring handle, expecting it to be heavy, and fell over backwards when it turned out to be easy enough to lift. Muttering a few curses, I got up, and peered down.
Blackness. No stairs in sight.
So without hesitation, I jumped.
I’d been to a water park once with some friends, and they’d talked me into waiting in the excruciating line to use one of the gigantic waterslides there. It was a behemoth, stories tall, with a massive mouth like the end of an upside-down tuba. I’d gotten to the top, they’d hosed me down and handed me an inner tube, and then sent me on my way down. Inside of the closed tube of the slide, rushing uncontrollably down in a stream of water, with the bright summer sun illuminating the translucent red of the tunnel walls from behind, it had felt like being swallowed and then eventually regurgitated by some gigantic creature.
The slide in the tower was not quite like that. There was no water and no inner tube, obviously, and significantly less light. It was much twistier, and far, far longer. But by far the biggest difference was that even in the darkness, the only sound the rushing of my clothes against the smooth tunnel floor, I didn’t feel swallowed. I felt embraced.
In the end, I was deposited unceremoniously into a heap of pillows at the bottom of the chute. Once I had disentangled myself and caught my breath, I surveyed my surroundings. This room was made in the image of a crystal cave, the walls covered with strange protuberances from which spikes and globes of gemstones shone. After a moment’s reflection, I dug the flashlight out of my bag, and then continued on my way.
I found the rhythm of it, my second day in the house; the ways through rooms shaped like mazes, the way to jump from beam to beam underneath the arched ceilings of flooded vaults. My eyes grew used to picking out the signs of puzzles, of secret passageways that led me further. It was a specific logic - the work of a parent, devising games for their child. I had to force myself back into old ways of thinking, remember secrets and paths I’d long ago forgotten.
As the day grew late, it became obvious that the house was beginning to move underground this time, which was good. It meant I was getting close. Down here, this far in, the rooms grew more natural, more abstract; there was little rococo architecture, no halls of funhouse mirrors, no cabinets of wonders. Instead there were kitchens hewn from a single piece of stone, giant fungi that glowed like lamps and smelled softly of lemon, furniture of tree roots and pure gold. I slept in a secret nook of a bedroom, hidden high up the ceiling of a giant mural-painted wall, accessible only by rope ladder. On the third day I delved deeper yet, swapping out the batteries in my flashlight, wondering how much time I had left, whether this was all too late anyway.
And then, as though there had been no warning, the door.
I looked up at it. It was a big door, very big. There may have been designs on it, but they were not on a scale that my vision could encompass.
There was a much, much smaller door set into the bottom of it.
I’m ashamed to say that even then I hesitated. It had brought things back, this odyssey through the house. Guilt and fear and even long-buried anger that I was shocked to find still smoldered inside of me, deep beneath the leaf litter of my heart, when I’d thought time and distance had extinguished it.
But I thought of the little recorder, and what I owed, and I opened the door.
Big would not describe the room beyond. Cavernous would come closer, if not for the fact that this room was a marked departure from the cave-like section of the house just behind me. Instead I seemed to have stepped into some impossible Gothic cathedral, a vaulted ceiling vanishing into the dusk above, hewn stone pillars like redwood trunks reaching down to the floor below. The walls were lined with stained glass, much like the dining room far above, but behind these there was no illuminating sun - only soil and roots and worms and darkness beyond the dulled colors. Two massive staircases swept out from either side of where I stood, arching delicately down to the floor.
I couldn’t see the floor. Not because it was as distant as the ceiling, but because it was covered with the sleeping form of an indescribable leviathan. It wound through and around the pillars, in places up the walls, too huge even for this massive space, and its breath moved like the heaving of an ocean. The beast was the size of a house — was the size of this house, was this house, I knew that, or at least its architect, but what difference was there?
When the echo of the door opening rang out across the room, down below a single eye slid open, locked directly onto mine.
I felt my breath catch in my throat.
I had come this far.
“It’s me,” I said, at last. “I’m so sorry. It’s me. I’ve come home."
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hrdustlessblasting-blog · 6 years ago
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Are you looking for affordable dustless blasting, rust removal, mobile paint stripping services in Virginia Beach, VA for your residential or commercial places? HR Dustless Media Blasting offers best and professional dustless blasting service. Call (757)797-6655.
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near-newport-news-va-blog · 5 years ago
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Near Newport News VA
Newport News, VA
Newport News, Virginia is known to belong to the most populous city in the Virginia state. But even with this brand, Newport News still belongs to the widely known cities where people from all over the world always move or immigrate. I cannot deny the positive reasons why people move to this place despite knowing that the city is populous. First, you won't feel that the city is crowded. The town is bigger than in other cities in Virginia. Newport News is a very distinct place with welcoming communities and neighborhoods. If you just moved into this city, you will love the kindness of the people.
SoftWash Pros
SoftWash Pros is well-known for the quality of work; that's why no wonder if it has plenty of customers. Most of them are repeat customers. They become satisfied with the result after contracting with the company. So, they long for the same service over and over again. Its services include house washing, driveway cleaning, gutter cleaning, deck cleaning, fence painting, rust removal, and many others. The staff from softprowashing.com gives attention to details to make sure that they all leave your residence or commercial establishment unbelievably clean. They use professional equipment and have professional staff. Because of this, they produce a professional result.
Newport News police officer removes squirrel from fireplace
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — On some occasions, police officers get sent out to help in interesting and nutty situations. That's what happened to Officer Nash on Monday. A family called the non-emergency number asking for assistance removing a squirrel from their fireplace. Yup, a squirrel was stuck in their fireplace. So, Officer Nash came. He caught the squirrel, and set it free! Read more here
Do you have squirrels at home? I read the news from 13newsnow.com that police from the Newport News Police Department removed a squirrel from the fireplace. It was officer Nash that rescued the squirrel from the blaze. How can possibly the squirrel gets into the furnace. It is unfortunate on the squirrel's part if he was burned inside the chimney. So poor squirrel if that was the case. I am delighted that Police officer Nash saved this squirrel from danger. So if you have squirrel at home, please look over it and make sure that your squirrel does not go to this place.
The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, VA
The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia is the most prominent maritime museum in the world. It was in 1930 when this museum was brought to life. It is 550 acre with a 90, 000 square feet gallery and a craft center. This museum is a perfect family gathering place. This place is a very informative house museum. It has 210 tons of artifacts from the Civil War. The library and the archives of the museum has about 111, 000 books and 800, 000 photographs and film negatives. You will also find about 1, 000 000 pieces of the archive materials that make it the biggest library for maritime in the Western Hemisphere.
Link to map
Driving Direction
10 min (3.8 miles)
via Avenue of the Arts and J Clyde Morris Blvd
Fastest route, the usual traffic
The Mariners' Museum
100 Museum Dr, Newport News, VA 23606, United States
Head north on Museum Dr toward The Noland Trail
0.3 mi
Slight right toward Avenue of the Arts
413 ft
Turn right at the 1st cross street onto Avenue of the Arts
1.2 mi
Continue onto J Clyde Morris Blvd
Pass by KFC (on the right in 0.7 mi)
2.1 mi
Turn left onto Old Oyster Point Rd
167 ft
Turn right
Destination will be on the left
312 ft
SoftWash Pros
1065 J Clyde Morris Blvd Suite A
Newport News, VA 23602
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