Morning light streams through the trees along the Little River near Bethlehem Church Road in Floyd County and water flows over the rocks in one of the many streams that feeds the river.

The thermometer hovers near 50 as I set out on my morning walk along the ways and byways near out house. My arthritis tells me rain is coming. No need to consult the talking heads on the tube.

Guess we’re official residents of the county now. The new phone books are out and there we are in the listings, right above “Doug & Dawn Thompson.” Yep. Two Doug Thompsons in one small county. The other one teaches and coaches at Floyd County High School.

David and Gretchen St. Lawrence hit town this week to start prep work on their newly-purchased property near the Parkway (perc testing today). We headed for Roanoke last night for sushi and an evening of pleasant company and fascinating conversation. David’s sage advice on surviving in a post-corporate world can be found at Ripples, a fine example of what blogging can, and should, be. They’re relocating from Charlottesville to Floyd County and will be a welcome addition to the area’s ever-expanding pool of creative resource.

Talking with David reminded me of my lame attempt once to be a “suit,” a five-year stint at Vice President for Political Programs Administration for the National Association of Realtors. Although I made (and spent) and obscene amount of money and we lived the high life in the nation’s capital, I was never really comfortable in the job. Hated it in fact and used a reorganization of the association in 1992 to write myself out of the job and go back to doing what I loved.

I realized life is far too short to spend one day of it doing something you hate. So when I started Doug Thompson Media later that year, the motto of the company became “Determine What Sucks…Don’t Do It.” We’ve tried to live by that motto ever since.