Fallen colors
Where most of the fall colors ended up this year. Leaves on a pond near U.S. 221 in Floyd County.
Best laid plans
Weather, construction delays and other factors add up to one word in plans to open the Blue Ridge Muse studio and gallery at Village Green in Floyd on Nov. 1:
Delay.
New anticipated opening date: Nov. 15.
Fallback date: Dec. 1.
Stay tuned.
A hard-fought loss
Floyd County lost a hard-fought game against district leader Giles Monday night in Pearisburg, dropping the Buffaloes to a 6-2 record. Still, the 35-20 score was closer than some expected against a team that has dominated opponents this season. (Photo of FCHS quarterback Luke Harris from an earlier game this year)
Mixing fun and fundraising
Local musicians donated their time and talents Saturday night for a benefit concert to help the Floyd library raise enough money to qualify for matching funds for their expansion project.
Those who shelled out $10 apiece saw and heard music ranging from blues, country rock, bluegrass, old-time mountain, jazz and easy listening from groups like Accoustic Review (above) and Mac and Jenny Traynham (below) while M.C. Rob Neukirch (right) kept the audience in stitches with a collection of jokes and constant patter (that’s bass player Chris Luster in the background).
Bernie Coveney put the show together at the Floyd County Store where owner Woody Crenshaw donated the space.
It was, by all accounts, an evening with just the right mixture of fun and fundraising.
If you missed the show you can still help the fundraising effort by getting out your checkbook and dropping it by the library in Floyd.
Here comes the Guv
Gov. Tim Kaine is bringing his statehouse road show to Floyd next Friday (Nov. 2) complete with Senatorial wannabe Mark Warner, for a visit to the Country Store and a tour of the downtown rehab project (which the state is financing).
The Friday Night Jamboree will interrupt its usual schedule to accommodate the governor’s scheduled arrival at 7 p.m. (which will probably be closer to 7:30) and the arrival will, no doubt, be accompanied with the usual pomp and bluster.
No doubt he will throw in a plug for the Democrats running for local offices. The opportunity will be too good to pass up.
Going for the spike
Molly Brown of Floyd County High School’s varsity volleyball team goes for the spike.
Raindrops keep falling on our heads
That steady, soaking rain we’ve been praying for for several months arrived in buckets Thursday and we’ve got the swollen creeks, overflowing storm drains and lawns covered with soaked leaves to prove it.
We’ve needed this rain since last Spring: Not the hard-driving storms that ran off quickly but a sustained downfall that has time to soak into our parched ground.
The forecast says rain will continue, heavy at times, through Friday before clearing for the weekend.
Good. We needed it.
Up yours, Wal-Mart
Something to think about the next time you’re tempted to shop at Wal-Mart. Courtesy of our friends at JibJab.
When the bill comes due
A high-living couple at Smith Mountain Lake walked away from their home recently, mailing the keys to the house, along with the keys to two luxury cars, to First National Bank of Christiansburg, the holder of the mortgage and the loans on the fancy cars.
The cost of living the high life came due when their adjustable-rate mortgage payment tripled and they couldn’t pay the bills.
For too many years, too many Americans lived beyound their means, using easy credit to buy things they neither needed nor could afford. Now the piper comes to call and he demands payment.
Part of the blame lies with the banks and mortgage firms that made it too easy to buy "McMansions" and expensive homes through jumbo, 100 percent loans and no-interest mortgages. Part of the blame lies in an economy that flew too high for too long before plummeting to the ground in a long-overdue crash.
But those who made the choice share the blame as well, chasing the high life without regard to the cost. When the bill came due they couldn’t pay it and their pursuit of the good life also brought the walls crashing down on many who were just trying to achieve the dream of home ownership. We have friends who weren’t really living beyond their means but who now face negative equity in their homes because the housing market went South.
Like too many Americans, we chased that illusionary good life for too long, living high, driving expensive cars, buying fancy clothes and taking fancy vacations. Luckily, we escaped before the crash, cashing in and moving to the simpler life in the country.
I’d love to say we managed this through sound planning but I can’t. It was luck. Blind luck. Nothing more. As my granddaddy liked to say, even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while.