When the heat gets to you
Got overheated Saturday. Overheated big time. Too much time in the sun, too much dehydration from sweating, not enough liquids to replenish the body.
Heavy duty muscle cramps most of the night. Legs, arms, ankles, even hands. Continued even after downing several bottles of water and eating bananas.
Spent Sunday recovering, mostly sleeping, drinking lots more water, flushing out system.
Better now? God I hope so. Getting old is a bitch.
Slow down, you move too fast
Hi, my name is Doug and I’m a workaholic. It’s been 17 years, to the day, since my last vacation.
Came across an old hotel receipt in my desk this morning,. It was dated June 28, 1991 for the Lodge at Koehle on the island of Lanai in Hawaii — the day we checked in on what was the beginning of a two-week vacation for Amy and I — our most recent vacation.
Good God. Seventeen years since a vacation? Where did the time go?
From time to time, I remind myself that we moved here to retire, to take life easier, to get away from the seven-day workweek and constant pressure. Yet here we are, nearly four years later, working at hard as ever, often seven days a week and taking little or no time to relax.
Not good. Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert dropped dead of a heart attack at age 58 — two years younger than me. He was a workaholic too. I have other friends who attacked their lives with the same intensity. Many of them are dead before their time too.
Not this guy. Starting this week, Blue Ridge Muse will close at least three days a week. Amy and I will start taking some trips for rest and relaxation — not exhausting vacation to exotic places but short, relaxing trips to parts of Southwestern Virginia and the South that I have not visited for a long, long time.
And maybe, just maybe, we will take a week or two and go on a real vacation. It’s been too long since our last one.
A disaster waiting to happen
The speed limit as you approach downtown Floyd is 25 miles per hour but you wouldn’t know it based on the speed that trucks and other vehicles travel when they barrel through town.
Too often I’ve watched those huge semis streak down Locust Street at speeds well over 25 while pedestrians jump back because the monsters are traveling much faster than they should.
In recent weeks, we’ve had parked cars hit by trucks that couldn’t make the turn at Route 8 and U.S. 221 under the stop light and I’ve observed too many near misses when cars pull out of side streets and underestimate the speed of the approaching trucks.
Somebody is going to get killed if we don’t take steps to slow these speed demons down. Or do we have to wait for someone to die before action is taken?
Public outhouse watch
Floyd’s fancy public outhouse — otherwise known as the Timber Frame Public Restroom — may (and the key word here is "may") open in time for the 4th of July weekend.
Contractor Ed Irwin says the final pieces to the puzzle are in and his crew is pressing to get everything installed by the holiday period.
Of course, this is Floyd, so there are still issues to be resolved. The Town Brain Trust — otherwise known as the Town Council — is still debating over what color to paint the timber frame.
Most people leave timber frames natural. They either seal the wood or stain and seal it. But in Floyd, process often overrules logic and some want to paint cover the natural wood with paint and they are undecided about color.
We always thought nature did a pretty good job on its own when it came to the color of wood. Some people just can’t leave well enough alone.
The girl likes to fiddle around
Yes, that was Martha Spencer of Grayson County’s White Top Mountain Band jamming with other musicians outside the country store Friday evening.
Visitors to the Blue Ridge Muse studio at the Village Green know that Martha is one of my favorite subjects. I’ve photographed her many times and it was a pleasant surprise to see her at the Country Store Friday night along with Jackson Cunningham, the White Top mandolin player and, we understand, Martha’s fiance.. They played the second set with Mac Traynham and stuck around until the wee hours, playing music and dancing in the streets.
The White Top Mountain Band, which is the Spencer family’s band, will be at the country store next month for a Friday Night concert.
If you haven’t heard the band or watched this girl play the fiddle (and just about any other musical instrument you stick in her hands), you ‘ve missed watching a master musician and singer at work. She is a show unto herself and the sparkplug of any band she plays with.
She also is a bundle of unbridled energy that puts on one heck of a show that should never be missed.
Martha Spencer and the White Top Mountain Band. Be sure to catch them the next time you’re in town.
Speaking of music, if you in Floyd tonight (Saturday), be sure to catch Abe Goorsky’s Accoustic Review at Oak Grove Pavilion at 7:30 p.m. Muse is one of the sponsors of their appearance. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.
Scenes from a dance floor
A large summer crowd packed the streets of downtown Floyd Friday night. Many of them ended up on the 0dance floor of the Friday Night Jamboree
How high’s the water?
Amy and I have watched closely this week as the Mississippi River continues its rampage down through the midwest, heading Saturday towards crests in Alton, Illinois, the city I called home for 11 years and where we were married in 1979.
The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers came together just above Alton. The Illinois River emptied into the Mississippi just 20 miles north. When the floodwaters rise there, it can mean an ocean of water stretching as far as the eye can see.
We piled sandbags many times along the banks of that river in Hardin, Grafton and Alton. I often manned rescue boats as we cruised through streets turned into rivers, helping rescue trapped citizens of those river towns.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which built a series of locks and dams along the river with the claim it would help ease flooding but which actually increased the number of them, calls floods like the ones we see this week "500-year-events."
In the 11 years I lived along that river, we went through three "500 year events" and five "100-year floods." At the very least, the Corps of Engineers needs to rethink its rating system for Old Man River and its pattern of floods.
Our home in Alton sat well above the river, on a bluff overlooking that river. We learned that height is a good defense against floods. Maybe that’s why our home in Floyd County sits at 2500 feet, 500 feed above Sandy Flats Road. If floodwaters reach our house, we’re bulding an ark.
Help me Rhonda
Floyd County Sheriff’s Department Chief Investigator Jeff Dalton says I didn’t drive fast enough in trying to get from Atlanta to Floyd Saturday in time for Rhonda Vincent, the top act to crown the end of Crusin’ for Charity bike ride Saturday.
"You didn’t get any tickets so you could have gone faster," he said.
True enough but I managed to break the traffic laws in four states, averaging about 75 miles per hour in an attempt to get back in time for the show but storms in North Carolina and Virginia doomed any chance of arriving on time.
Rain forced Vincent inside to the Floyd County High School audiitorium but Jeff said the moderate-sized crowd enjoyed the show in spite of oppressive heat in the non-air conditioned venue.
Rain also caused some of the bike riders to, as Dalton described, "wimp out" and head home early, including Sheriff Shannon Zeman.
Those who didn’t let the rain faze them arrived in Floyd (below) in time for the show that included local acts Mark Lewis & Friends and Bernie Coveney & Friends.
(Photos by Jeff Dalton)
Out the door
Hardly a week goes by that I don’t receive an email or a phone call from a friend saying he or she has been laid off from their newspaper job.
Newspapers are in crisis, panicking from falling circulation and dwindling dollars from advertising revenue. Many blame people like me — those who run web sites that provide community news and information. Others blame the saturation of media in our culture today — 24-hour news networks, web sites and a general decline in readership.
No one seems immune. Even the venerable New York Times and Washington Post are laying off reporters, photographers and production people. The Roanoke Times encouraged early buyouts last year and put several on the street.
Just this week, the Raleigh News & Observer announced it was cutting 70 jobs.
The layoffs usually affect folks my age, those trying to hang on a few more years for retirement. The newspapers know they can replace those with seniority (and salaries to match) with younger, cheaper labor. It’s a trend that punishes maturity and experience.
I was fortunate enough to work for newspapers in the glory days when jobs were plentiful and talent and skill were rewarded. I got out when I wanted to leave, not when some bean counter decided it was time for me to go. I was fortunate enough to work for other publishing outlets that appreciated my craft and paid accordingly. When I left newspapers, the free lance market proved lucrative.
That was then. This is now. Now, newspapers, magazines and publishers treat writers and photographers are treated like disposable chattel .
I’m fortunate enough to be semi-retired and able to work at my own pace and on my own terms. Others, unfortunately, are not. Sad times indeed.