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Old friends from France hit health problems and headed home --
never
made it here, just as Virginia hit her peak autumn colors.
We took these photos for them.
Friday was overcast (above, below). Brilliant sun followed on Saturday.
![Friday, 2 Nov 2018 was overcast - top of Deer Drive, McLean, VA FallFoliage2018-02-Robin-DeerDrive-800.jpg](FallFoliage2018-02-Robin-DeerDrive-800.jpg)
![A modest house on Deer Drive. FallFoliage2018-03-ModestHouse-perhapsDeerDr-800.jpg](FallFoliage2018-03-ModestHouse-perhapsDeerDr-800.jpg)
![Looking down Blue Star, eastward to Rupert FallFoliage2018-04-Downhill-BlueStar+Rupert](FallFoliage2018-04-Downhill-BlueStar+Rupert-1000.jpg)
![Spreading mapel at Blue Star & Rupert Streets FallFoliage2018-05A-HugeMapleAtBlueStar+RupertStreets.jpg](FallFoliage2018-05A-HugeMapleAtBlueStar+RupertStreets.jpg)
![Robin Nelson, Autumn 2018 FallFoliage2018-05B-RobinAtHugeMapleAtBlueStar+Rupert-800CROPPED](FallFoliage2018-05B-RobinAtHugeMapleAtBlueStar+Rupert-800CROPPED.jpg)
![Buy the lot (house included) for $850,000, build a McMansion $1.7 million dollars big, and double your money. The house is trash. FallFoliage2018-06A-HouseAwaitsDemolition-1814RupertStreetNearSouthridge-800](FallFoliage2018-06A-HouseAwaitsDemolition-1814RupertStreetNearSouthridge-800.jpg)
![The first story windows of the McMansion box which will replace this 1959 home will soon stand at the roofline height of neighboring properties. FallFoliage2018-06B-DestructionOf1814RupertStHouseBegins-1000](FallFoliage2018-06B-DestructionOf1814RupertStHouseBegins-1000.jpg)
![A skillful loader operator can get a wall or the chimney to fall in one place for easy loading free of wood debris. FallFoliage2018-06C-DestructionOf1814Rupert-HouseFalls-800](FallFoliage2018-06C-DestructionOf1814Rupert-HouseFalls-800.jpg)
![The skillful front loader operator is laying down an entire side of the house where the bricks can be loaded separately from smashed beams, flooring and wallboard. FallFoliage2018-06D-Destruction-ShovelUpDebris-1000](FallFoliage2018-06D-Destruction-ShovelUpDebris-1000.jpg)
![My German house (masonry, clay construction blocks) used wood only where most vauable--roof beams and attic floor. The USA has run out of wood but doesn't know it yet. FallFoliage2018-07-McMansionGoingUp-DeanDrAtOpalocka+THINBEAMS-1000](FallFoliage2018-07-McMansionGoingUp-DeanDrAtOpalocka+THINBEAMS-1000.jpg)
![Opalocka Drive, McLean, VA 22101 FallFoliage2018-08-ModestHouse-1828 Opalocka-800](FallFoliage2018-08-ModestHouse-1828%20Opalocka-800.jpg)
![On an overcast day, looking down the Opalocka hill to Lemon Road, McLean 22101 FallFoliage2018-09A-OpalockaAtPanoramaLookingDownToLemonRd-1000](FallFoliage2018-09A-OpalockaAtPanoramaLookingDownToLemonRd-1000.jpg)
The next day was brilliantly sunny -- out we went again, and I stood a
little further down on the right for the following alt view.
![Same street as previous -- sunny the next day. FallFoliage2018-09B-OpalockaLookingDownToLemonRd-Sat3Nov2018-1000.jpg](FallFoliage2018-09B-OpalockaLookingDownToLemonRd-Sat3Nov2018-1000.jpg)
![A skillful remodelling jpb. McLean, VA FallFoliage2018-10A-R'sFavRemodellingAtPanorama+Opalocka-1000](FallFoliage2018-10A-R%27sFavRemodellingAtPanorama+Opalocka-1000.jpg)
![The squirrels eat ours, and bury the pumpkin seeds for winter . . . except that Spring comes first and pumpkins grow everywhere. FallFoliage2018-10B-1830-Opalocka-HalloweenPumpkins-800](FallFoliage2018-10B-1830-Opalocka-HalloweenPumpkins-800.jpg)
![A let's pretend world . . . Lemon Road, McLean, VA FallFoliage2018-11-ChildhoodPretendTree-LemonRoad-1600](FallFoliage2018-11-ChildhoodPretendTree-LemonRoad-1600.jpg)
![My childhood home up the street went in in 1957. In 1958, 1959, Dad and I walkd down here to collect firewood as the land was cleared for the first round of houses. FallFoliage2018-12+13-McMansionCOMPOSIT-1000](FallFoliage2018-12+13-McMansionCOMPOSIT-1000.jpg)
![She died, he buried her. He died, no obituary, no house. FallFoliage2018-15A-TeardownAtDalmation+Strata-ComingSoon11Nov2018-1000](FallFoliage2018-15A-TeardownAtDalmation+Strata-ComingSoon11Nov2018-1000.jpg)
![This kitched was smashed and loaded onto dumptrucks the next day . . . along with the rest of the house. FallFoliage2018-15B-TeardownAtDalmation+Strata-Kitchen-800](FallFoliage2018-15B-TeardownAtDalmation+Strata-Kitchen-800.jpg)
It's curtains for this home, while
elsewhere, 533,000 Americans are homeless --
on the streets, not even a
rental (National Public Radio, statistics for 2018).
![Geraldine and Capt. Pehr H. Pehrsson FallFoliage2018-15C-TeardownAtDalmation+Strata-LifetimeTinOfShellsCollectedTogether-1000](FallFoliage2018-15C-TeardownAtDalmation+Strata-LifetimeTinOfShellsCollectedTogether-1000.jpg)
![The house next door. FallFoliage2018-16-NeighborsHouse-LianLing+ZhuHei-Frank+Judy-800](FallFoliage2018-16-NeighborsHouse-LianLing+ZhuHei-Frank+Judy-800.jpg)
![End of walk, home again. FallFoliage2018-17-Home-6926EspeyLn-2and3Nov2018-800](FallFoliage2018-17-Home-6926EspeyLn-2and3Nov2018-800.jpg)
Home again! 6926 Espey Lane, McLean, VA 22101.
I did not dream when I walked to high school across weedy pastures with my friend Reid in 1959
that I would some day live in a house built upon them. Now it too must be torn down, the McMansions are coming!
What is the future of a country with no past?
![McLean, VA 22101-5454 FallFoliage2018-98-MapOfNeighborhoodCROPPED-1000](FallFoliage2018-98-MapOfNeighborhoodCROPPED-1000.jpg)
Few of the many places on three continents where we have lived still stand today. This McLean place will surely fall.
Germany/Europe is the most stable. I remember a remembrance tour of the provincial German town where we lived.
The house with the oldest recorded Jewish residents dated their ownership and occupancy to 300+ years ago,
more than the entire age of my own country, but not enough, it turned out, to make later occupants "German enough"
to avoid arrest and extermination after a pro-homeland, anti-foreigner party came to power in the 1930s.
--jerry
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