Could Have Been Worse
“We seem to have a problem in the kitchen,†Amy said. “There’s a bulge under the linoleum.â€
Uh-oh.
I stepped on the section of flooring and felt it give. Grabbed a flashlight and headed for the crawlspace under the house. As soon as opened the door that led from the garage I heard water dripping on the plastic that covers the dirt floor the crawlspace.
Uh-oh, uh-oh.
Nature’s Wrath
We ready ourselves for the remnants of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated parts of the Gulf Coast but should bring little more than some heavy rain to Southwestern Virginia this afternoon.
Ohmigod!
Stopped off for some groceries at Food Lion in Floyd late Sunday night.
Ohmigod! Did he say Food Lion? Quick, somebody call the political corrrectness police!
You see, in Floyd, is is not politically correct to shop at Food Lion. It’s one of those dreaded “chain” stores. Same goes for munching on a pork chop bisquit at Hardees for breakfast. God forbid that we stop to pick up something necessary at the new Dollar General when it opens.
Music Maker
Arthur Connor (above right) of Copper Hill has been making fiddles for as long as anyone can remember. The legendary fiddlemaker turned 81 last week and Floyd bluesman Scott Perry threw a party for Connor at his Pickin’ Porch shop on Willis Street. While Perry cooked hot dogs, area musicians jammed and the sounds of music filled the dirt-lined street in front of the Pickin’ Porch.
"I see the camera you’re using is a Canon," Connor said as I took his picture. "Did you know that Paganini had a violin called a Canon?" I didn’t know that and one doesn’t often expect to hear historical lore about an classical composer from a fiddle-maker but Connor’s knowledge of all things music is vast and listening to him tell his stories is like a college-course in musical history. Connor’s detailed hand-made fiddles often feature elaborate carving like this Ram’s Head (right) but the decoration is just an addition to the sweet sound of his instruments.
Other long-time musicians and instrument makers like Stanley Lorton joined Connor to celebrate a life dedicated not only to making music but also to making the instruments that let others make music.
The Old High School Try
For a while, it looked like Floyd County High School might upset the heavily-favored Carrroll County Cavaliers Friday night. The Buffaloes led twice but fell behind early in the third quarter and never caught up. Carroll County won 31-22. Still, the team looked better against Carroll than they did in a pre-season scrimmage against Hidden Valley last week.
‘Tis the Season
High school football season begins tonight across Virginia and I’ll on on the sidelines shooting photos for The Floyd Press when FCHS takes on Carroll County.
Coming off a strong season where the team lost only one regular season game, the Buffaloes have a lot to live up to if they want to match last year but I’ll be there to watch as both an alumni and a photographer for the local paper.
The Big Lie
The huge sign towers over the trees along Interstate 81 just south of the intersection with I-77 near Fort Chiswell, claiming a factory outlet mall with 36 stores.
But the sign is a lie. Fort Chiswell Outlets is a dying mall of just 10 stores and some of the few surviving merchants admit business is so bad they expect the place to close in the near future.
Home
“You write a lot about what you call Chateau Thompson,” an old friend emailed the other day. “How about a picture?”
Fair enough, I suppose. We put a lot of time and effort into the house over the past nine months and, yet, we’re only about half way there. Lot of boxes remain unpacked, rooms not yet complete and still no room in the garage for cars but everything is coming together.
Perspective
I sit in our front-yard gazebo and watch night turn into dawn, sipping coffee and listening to the surrounding sounds of birds, bugs and whatever. Chewy, the puppy who is all-too-quickly growing into dog, searches the two-acre front yard to just the right place to deposit her morning’s offerings.
Nature has a way of giving those of us who get lost in our own self-importance some much-needed humility. Nature goes on, despite our best efforts to interrupt its flow and balance. We keep animals as pets yet those same animals are better equipped to deal with nature than we.
Free at Last! Thank God Almighty I’m Free at Last!
My Blackberry went into a desk drawer today, deactivated, never to vibrate on my hip again. In its place is an old-fashioned wireless phone, the kind that flips open, has a normal dialing pad and doesn’t get email instantly or alert me when war has broken out in some far-off part of the world.