After a seventeen-hour day driving to and from Washington and Thursday, and facing a football game to shoot Friday night, the day after became an R&R time, sleeping in, posting late on The Muse and writing only a little for Capitol Hill Blue.

However, forgot to put a do-not-disturb notice on the phone which started ringing shortly after 8 a.m. Between the house and cell phones, answered a half-dozen calls by 10. Oh well.

The last call came from a friend from Northern Virginia, down for the week to work on their property in Wythe County. He was at the Jacksonville Center. Where, he asked, was I? We agreed to meet at Cafe del Sol for coffee in 45 minutes.

That meeting turned into a day-long series of encounters with friends at Frank and Sally Walker’s coffee shop. Dennis Ross, a surgeon from Winston Salem who, with wife and photographer Suzi, spends half his time at their home in Floyd; David and Gretchen St. Lawrence, Charlottesville residents who are building a new home and moving to the county and several others.

Took a break at 4 p.m. to run up to The Jacksonville Center and sign payroll checks and then back to the coffee shop until the Floyd-vs-Radford football game at 7. After a dozen or so cups of coffee, I was sufficiently wired to cover the game. Unfortunately, the Buffaloes were not, losing 23-7 to the Bobcats in a Three Rivers District game.