Oops!
Crawled into my Jeep Wrangler this morning to find a "12" staring back at me from the Virginia Vehicle Inspection Sticker. The inspection expired at midnight tonight.
Time to check out the new owners of our local Jeep dealer, which is now called "Harveys Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep." No problem. They took the Wrangler right away. I knew a right rear tire was getting thin of tread and told them to replace it with the spare hanging on the rear deck. Turns out the front brake pads were also thin so they needed to be replaced as well.
So I walked down the hill to meet Bernie Coveney for breakfast at Blue Ridge Restaurant. An hour later, the Wrangler was ready, good to go for another year. Cost? Far less than most dealerships.
Looks like the names may change on the sign but most of the crew at the dealer are the same faces we’ve known for years and the excellent service continues.
Looked up a web page on my Verizon LG Voyager phone today and noticed something different: The page snapped into place with surprising speed. Then I saw the "EV" legend at the top of the screen.
EV-DO is the name of Verizon’s high-speed, broadband service. We had it on our Verizon phones in Washington but the high speed wireless service was not available in this area.
Until now. Verizon turned on a new high speed data switch in Roanoke Thursday and EV-DO service came to Roanoke, the New River Valley and Floyd. Both my Voyager and Blackberry now benefit from the faster service. Email loads quickly and web pages pop up quickly.
EV-DO runs at data speeds from about 640kps to 1.4mbs — about the same speed as basic DSL service. I’ll have to check with Citizens to see if this means their wireless phones can utilize the new speeds. Citizens’ wireless service is actually rebranded from Verizon but the company does not yet offer the smartphones and wireless data devices that can benefit from the higher speeds (although Citizens does market its own high-speed wireless service in Christiansburg and Blacksburg but not — alas — its home county of Floyd).
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The marquee sign for Blue Ridge Muse went up Wednesday — the first one signifying the various businesses in The Village Green. Others are slated for installation Thursday.
Owners of the Village Green concept too often faced a recalcitrant — and some might say backward thinking — Floyd Town Council reluctant to approve the designs for the project. Some council members say they fear the town will become a tourist destination (my God…imagine that). After much haggling, approval finally came but progress seldom comes easy as each step forward appears to require two steps back.
Slow in Floyd today. A few people wander in to Cafe del Sol for coffee as I write this but, for the most part, the streets downtown are deserted. At the Floyd Country Store, owners Woody and Jackie Crenshaw gave the employees the day off and are manning the shop themselves. At lunchtime, a steady crowd came through.
Didn’t expect much activity on the day after Christmas. For many, this is just another work day. Schools remain closed for the week but most working stiffs are back on the job.
At the malls in Roanoke and Christiansburg, retailers hope for a strong post-Christmas shopping spree to make up for the lackluster sales before Dec. 25.
It many ways, it seems like the entire area, if not the nation, is holding its breath.
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This photo, from Floyd’s Dickens of a Night celebration two years ago, combines the illusion and reality of the season.
From Amy and I, our best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday.
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Only 13 states allow an individual to own a fully-functioning casino slot machine. Virginia happens to be one of those 13 — an important statistic to know if you decide to give your wife a slot machine for Christmas.
Did he say "slot machine?" Yep. Slot machine: specifically an IGT Double Diamond Deluxe model.
Amy loves games of chance (which may explain why she married me). Fortunately, she is also incredibly lucky when it comes to playing bingo and slots. If she wins any more often at the weekly bingo at Hawkeye Hall in Christiansburg they may ban her for life.
Her favorite slot machine is the aforementioned Double Diamond Deluxe. She has played Double Diamonds in Las Vegas, on the riverboat casinos in St. Louis (often with her mother) and at the casino at Charlestown, West Virginia, which was only an hour’s drive from our former home in Arlington.
IGT, the company that makes the Double Diamond Deluxe, sells a lot of machines to casinos. It does not, however, sell to individuals, so we had to look at companies that take old machines, rebuild them, and then sell them back to individuals. Most are in Nevada and Ohio. Research, however, turned up a wholesaler of rebuilt slot machines in an industrial park in Fredricksburg. Yes, he had a Double Diamond Deluxe, just in from an Indian casino in Washington state. He normally doesn’t sell to individuals but said he would make an exception for us. Yes, it was in good condition and he could have it rebuilt and ready by Christmas.
Driving to Fredricksburg last Saturday to pick up the slot machine proved to be the easy part. Getting a 250-pound, five-foot high machine into the house unseen was impossible so Amy knew ahead of time she was getting the Double Diamond for Christmas and helped pick it out so I could be sure it was the one she liked so much.
The machine sat in our garage from Saturday to Monday and, with the help of Bernie Coveney, we wheeled it up the hill and into the back of the house, making torturous turns through the rear porch and mud room, through the kitchen and into the library/rec room where it now occupies a corner.
As I write this, the sounds of bells, whirling slot wheels and an occasional whoop of joy that means a win emanate from the rec room.
Sounds like my wife likes her Christmas present.
Often asked for advice on shooting sports. Three-word answer: Long, fast glass. Translation: Long-range telephoto lenses with large apertures.
For example. For football, I generally use a 400mm f/2.8 Canon telephoto on a EOS 1D, Mark III digital SLR body. Because the Mark III has a form factor of 1.3 to one (due to the size of the chip), the effective focal length of the lens is a little over 500mm. The Mark III also has low noise at high ISOs so I can shoot at 6400 at f/2.8 at shutter speeds ranging from 1/320th to 1/500th of a second. The 400mm weights 16.5 pounds a monopod is required. I usually keep a 70-200 f/2.8 zoom on a second camera body to use when the action gets closer.
The photo above was shot from the end zone 60 yards away at a Floyd County High School football game in November. The photo below is from the same game at about 50 yards.
For basketball and volleyball, I use a 300mm f/2.8 Canon telephoto or a 70-200 f/2.8 zoom. For closer shots, the 24-70 f/2.8 Canon zoom is a good choice. At a recent game, tried out Canon’s superfast 135mm f/2.0. It gave great results (left) and probably will use it again. At a street price of $900, the 135mm is the bargain of the year, especially when you consider the prices of the longer-range high-speed telephotos ($3,500 for he 300mm and $6,500 for the 400).
Drove to Fredricksburg and back Saturday to pick up Amy’s Christmas present (more about it after the big day). After the usual nail-biting tussle with traffic on I-81 and fog on Afton Mountain on I-64, turned off the Interstate East of Charlottesville for a beautiful drive through Albermarle County horse country.
Lots to see on the white-fenced estates that line both sides of the road between I-64 and Orange. Then a straight shot through The Wilderness and Chacecellor’s battlefields and into Fredricksburg.
Had time to stop at Hard Times Cafe for a bowl of Texas chili and a side of jalapeños before getting back on the road. Less fog on Afton Mountain for the return but more on Christiansburg Mountain and all along Rte. 8 into Floyd.
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Amy’s hometown of Belleville, Illinois (part of the St. Louis metro area) has a religious retreat called Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows and, each year, the shrine puts on a display of Christmas lights and decorations that brings visitors in from hundreds of miles away.
We spent Christmas 2003 in Belleville wrapping up her mother’s estate and found time to visit the shrine and drive through the mammoth display. It is something to experience.
Such displays remind us of the spirit of Christmas. At a time when the religious significance of the season can be lost amid the commercialism that dominates not only Christmas but so many other holidays.
As we head into the final weekend before Christmas, please join us in remembering the real reasons we celebrate this holiest of holidays.
Merry Christmas.
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