A quick day trip to Harper's Ferry regarding the recent fire there; local volunteerism; an unusual police incident; a new note about privacy policy (mainly EU visitors)

Today, I did a little field trip to Harper's Ferry W Va, and did look at the damage from the widely reported fire.  One of my favorite spots, the Coffee Mill, is a couple buildings down toward Shenandoah St and seemed unaffected and was open. 

  

No one would speculate as to the cause of the fire, other than old electrical wiring sounds likely to be involved.  There were “Go Fund Me” posters all over the area for the restoration, link. But you would hope everyone had adequate property (and business interruption) insurance.

Then I hiked up to Jefferson Rock, behind the Catholic Church and ruins of an old church, about a 300 foot climb.

On the way back, I picked up a local Martinsburg W Va paper at the “Tri-State” Exxon, and found an interesting article by Jenni Vincent about the volunteerism commitment of the entire congregation of a local Independent Bible Church, on the front page of “The Journal”, link here.

There’s more to my saga.  Last night, after returning from Baltimore Pride, I snuck out to see “Paper Towns” at the AMC Courthouse theaters in Arlington.  After dinner at a local Irish pub, I came back and found my car blocked in by unusual police activity.  Two males and one female, all African-American, were detained as police searched the car next to mine.  After about an hour, the police let me drive my own car away.  I suppose the police have to be slow and methodical and not let anyone touch the evidence nearby, a sort of “car lockdown”.  I did not see any abuse like what has been reported in the news (and discussed on the Issues Blog). 

  

It was legal for me to record the entire event, from a safe distance;  I took just one cell phone photo, but I did pass a detailed news tip to WJLA.

  

One other item:  Google has added a notice for users in the European union about incidental cookie use, as explained here. In general, this seems to be the same provision as the Privacy Policy that I already have at the bottom of each blog.  You will see the new notice if you go to the blog with a EU TLD (like “co.uk” instead of “com”).  In general, I don’t add cookies on my own, unless they are there from advertisers incidentally.  I don’t add cookies on any of my sites, although it is possible that could change in the future. It if changes, I will inform everyone.