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Northern Neck CommentaryCommentary Topics David Mower - 7 July 2009 Irvington – My kind of town! I love it when the first week of July rolls around. Irvington Virginia is the place to be at that time – The Air Force Heritage of America Band concert on the Green, The Irvington Farmer’s Market, the Irvington Fourth of July Parade and great fireworks from Tides Inn on Carters Creek top off the festivities. This week was blessed with great weather to just make everything extra special. For almost twenty years the Irvington Village Improvement Association has been hosting the Band's pre-Fourth of July appearance on the Village Green to the delight crowds feasting on the hot dogs, burgers, Fourth of July cake and drinks provided by the Chesapeake Bank.
Of course, it's actually more like a big tailgate party as various groups break out fine china, crystal, silverware and patriotic centerpiece displays to enliven an evening's mood that already is alive with much merrymaking.
We have a group of friends - two old soldiers and the Wichita Lineman - we join on the Green for the concert every year. As we are usually late arrivals, it’s always a challenge to find them in the sea of concert goers. Someone came up with the idea of tying balloons to the chairs or a cooler so we could spot them more easily – red or blue seemed an appropriate color given the occasion. Ah, the “Where’s Elmo?” challenge.
Among the audience enjoying the evening I spotted Congressman Rob Wittman hanging out near the food court. Mr. Wittman was in town to be a participant in Irvington’s Fourth of July parade to be held on Friday.
Not everyone was focused on the patriotic music of the concert. Liquid tattoos and playground equipment caught the attention of the youngest crowd members.
And I hope to see all of you for next year’s Twentieth Anniversary concert!
Debi Johnson - 27 May 2009 Care Package Special Request – US Army So, how was your Memorial Day holiday? Did you stay home, drink a few cold ones and have some friends over for that neighborhood BBQ? Every day should be Memorial Day….here is an opportunity for you to provide a living memorial to our military still in action. This request comes from St. Marks Lutheran Church in Springfield, VA who have been very active in providing troops with care packages.
Debi received this note from the unit for which the effort is being made to obtain the shirts. We have removed the officer's last name and unit for privacy reasons.
Katherine J. Cross - 7 March 2009 A CANDLELIGHT VIGIL. The morning of April 11, 2005 started much like any other day… but little did I know that soon my heart would begin breaking in two…and our family’s life would be forever changed. Why do you ask? Because our twenty – seven year old youngest son Paul Martin Cross was found dead in his own back yard. It was later discovered he had died of a drug overdose. Just forty-four days before that on the chilly Saturday evening of February 26, 2005 our son Paul was shot twice as three men tried to gain entry into the home of Lloyd Gorham “Frog” on Ferry Landing Road in Oak Grove Virginia. Paul was flown to Fairfax Inova Hospital with gun shot wounds to his chest and arm. Emergency surgery was done and our son survived this horrific act of violence.
It is hard to face the fact that our big strong healthy son lived his last forty - four days in constant fear for his life. But he did…. Paul stayed on alert and on guard around the clock. When he did try to sleep he would have nightmares of feeling trapped and unable to get out and the very last five days of his life he went with out any sleep at all full of anxiety, paranoia and constant acid reflux. This violent crime that was committed against Paul has never been solved. We know that nothing can bring back our son but we do not want him to be forgotten and we still want justice to be served. We want to offer our support to victims and their families in their time of need. Thus, In Remembrance of our son Paul Martin Cross and the growing number of victims of violent crime and the families whom have lost loved ones to violent crime we would like initiate a support group. Future plans are to have a center where crime victims can come and receive counseling and feel safe with the growing number of home invasion’s in our community and the surrounding communities we must address the needs of the whole family. We must remember that in many instances there have been small children in these homes invasion where violence has occurred. There was a little girl in the attempted home invasion the night our son Paul was shot. These children’s lives will be affected forever. Our homes should be safe place not a place of violence. If you or someone you know has been a victim of violent crime please come out on Thursday April 30, 2009 at 6:30 pm at the Old Westmoreland County Court House in Montross for a “Candlelight Vigil” If you or you know someone that has been affected by violence please come. Please bring a picture of your loved one to share with us. For further information please contact Katherine J. Cross at (804) 493-8539 or you may email her at katherinejcross@gmail.com
The Henderson United Methodist Church is offering a Grief Support Group for those who have lost loved ones, or are struggling with grief after another loss issue. The group meets every Thursday at 2:00 PM at the church located about 2 miles west of the Callao traffic light just off Route 202 at the intersection with Route 617. If you have a question, please call Pastor Sue Ann Salmon at 804-529-6676. DMower 19 March 2009 - CHANGE YOU CAN BELEIVE IN. This financial crisis stuff has always puzzled me. It always seemed weird things were happening that defied explanation - like the Fed lowering interest rates month after month without waiting for the previous action time to take effect, and then whip sawing around and raising interest rates the same way. And this was declared at the time pure genius. It always seemed to me that for genius to be involved, some known out come would have been proven. Now the explanation has finally been given the light of day, and I must say genius has been proven in an evil sort of way for the purpose of the unending undulations of the financial markets has the "purpose to take down the United States and the U.S. dollar as the stable datum of planetary finance." You can read the full story here: "The Financial Crisis: A look behind the wizard’s curtain." by Bruce Wiseman, Canadian Free Press, Thursday, March 19, 2009. I must warn you it's a long article, so hang in there to the end.
DMower 2 February 2009 - ROPING A DEER. A relative emailed me this story which I Googled to determine its validity - which is still of unknown origin, but has garnered much discussion on various site linked to at the end of the story. Enjoy. Roping A Deer (Names have been removed to protect the stupid!) Actual letter from someone who farms, and writes pretty well! I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it.
Well, I filled the cattle feeder, and then hid down at the end of the feed bunk, with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up -- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it...it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope and then received an education. The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on the rope. That deer EXPLODED into action. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope, and with some dignity. A deer-- no chance. That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined. The only up side is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals. A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me, when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope. I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in, so I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand...kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back. Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head -almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts. The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective. It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose. That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day. Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp. I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -- like a horse -- strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape. This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down. Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head. I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away. So now I know why people who go deer hunting bring a big rifle with a good scope to sort of even the odds. (To cat lovers - kinda sounds like trying to give a cat a pill.)
Below are a few additional observations on the story, including the fact that this version is a shorter version from the original. SNOPES - A site that attempts to debunks urban legends; has interesting additional info about the article. Darwin Awards - "The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it..." Mississippi Wildlife Forum - another long version of the story with forum reader comments.
DMower 28 December 2008 - New Years Day isn’t what it used to be. Nope. While throughout record history there has been a new years day, a day marked by both reflection on the past and festive celebration of the new year, the day we know as New Years Day - January 1st - wasn’t always new year's day. The celebration of a new year day is one of the oldest festivals (or more commonly in today’s culture - “holidays”). The earliest documented New Year celebration occurred in Mesopotamia around 2000 B.C.E. The celebrations typically occurred in the middle of winter in an attempt to ensure the return of spring and fertility. It marked the first New Moon after the Vernal Equinox - sometime between mid-March and mid-April. So how did New Year's Day get moved from summer to winter? In Babylonia the new year began with the new moon closest to the spring equinox, usually mid-March. In Assyria it was near the autumnal equinox in September. For the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians the day was celebrated on the autumnal equinox, which now falls on about September 23. For the Greeks it was the winter solstice, which now falls on about December 21 or 22. In the early Roman republic March 1 began the new year, but Roman emperor Julius Caesar, in correcting the old Roman calendar in 46 B.C., made January the first month. The historic problem with ancient calendars was keeping them in sync with the equinox. Some calendars are based on the movement of the moon, others are based on the position of the sun, while others are based on both the sun and the moon. Consequently, each year, slippage in the calendars due to inexact calculations of lunar and solar cycles, caused serious problems in keeping important festivals dates appropriate to their season. The solution was to manually add or subtract days, weeks, months, and other assorted periods of time to existing calenders at periodic intervals to bring them back into proper lunar or solar relationships. During the early Roman republic era, this was a function of the government priests. However, events or crisis caused the government to miss making annual adjustments (like during the Civil War), or the priests in the Roman Empire exploited the calendar for political ends, inserting days and even months into the calendar to keep the politicians they favored in office. Consequently, the calendar would become significantly out of sync causing confusion as to when various festivals were to be properly observed. In fact the last years of the Roman Calendar are referred to as the "years of confusion". (I guess the Roman gods became upset when festivals dedicated to them were skipped.) Before Julius Caesar introduced [what became known as] the Julian calendar in 45 B.C.E., the Roman calendar was a mess. Originally, the year started on 1 March and consisted of only 304 days or 10 months (Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December). These 304 days were followed by an unnamed and unnumbered winter period. The Roman king Numa Pompilius (c. 715-673 B.C.) allegedly introduced February and January (in that order) between December and March, increasing the length of the year to 354 or 355 days. In 450 B.C.E., February was moved to its current position between January and March. In order to make up for the lack of days in a year, an extra month (allegedly with 22 or 23 days) was introduced in some years. Consequently, the Romans were the first to get serious about establishing a “self-regulating” calendar. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar replaced the Roman Calendar with a new verison that had a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months, and a leap day is added to February every four years; the year is on average 365.25 days long. This "Julian" calendar remained in use into the 20th century in some countries as a national calendar, but it has generally been replaced by the modern Gregorian calendar. We have the Catholic Church to thank for our modern “Georgian” calendar. The Gregorian calendar was proclaimed by Pope Gregory XIII and took effect in most Catholic states in 1582, in which October 4, 1582 of the Julian calendar was followed by October 15 in the new calendar, correcting for the accumulated discrepancy between the Julian calendar and the equinox as of that date. The Gregorian calendar is a minor correction to the Julian. In the Julian calendar every fourth year is a leap year in which February has 29, not 28 days, but in the Gregorian, years divisible by 100 are not leap years unless they are also divisible by 400 [and Pope Gregory didn't even have a computer to figure all this out!] During the early Middle Ages, March 25 (the feast of the Annunciation) was celebrated as New Year's Day. January 1 was restored as New Year's Day by the Gregorian calendar, which was adopted by the Roman Catholic church in 1582. Over the next 350 years other countries followed. Russia, in 1918, was the last major nation to adopt the practice. In countries that still use the Julian calendar, New Year's Day is on January 14 of the Gregorian calendar. Christian nations did not agree in the date of New Year's Day. They were not opposed to 1 January as the beginning of the year, but rather to the pagan extravagances which accompanied it. Evidently the natural opening of the year, the springtime, together with the Jewish opening of the sacred year, Nisan, suggested the propriety of putting the beginning in that beautiful season. Also, the Dionysian method (so named from the Abbot Dionysius, sixth century) of dating events from the coming of Christ became an important factor in New Year calculations. The Annunciation, with which Dionysius began the Christian era, was fixed on 25 March, and became New Year's Day for England, in early times and from the thirteenth century to 1 Jan., 1752, when the present custom was introduced there. Some countries (e.g., Germany) began with Christmas, thus being almost in harmony with the ancient Germans, who made the winter solstice their starting-point. Notwithstanding the movable character of Easter, France and the took it as the first day of the year, while Russia, up to the eighteenth century, made September the first month. The western nations, however, since the sixteenth, or, at the latest, the eighteenth century, have adopted and retained the first of January. The U.S. Government currently uses October 1st as the start of its new year because previously they were too busy partying on the traditional New Years Eve when it was December 31st to get all the taxpayer’s monies spend before the stroke of mid-night. Since September 30 is not a party day on anyone’s calendar, this no longer a problem to work right up to the 12th stroke of mid-night. The celebration of the New Year's holiday begins the night before on New Year's Eve, when Americans gather to wish each other a happy and prosperous coming year. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, people cheer and sing "Auld Lang Syne." The song, which means "old long since" or roughly "the good old days," was written by Robert Burns in 1788. It has been said that Auld Lang Syne is the most popular song sung, thatnobody knows the words too, so follow along below:
Google Count down to the New Year.
Going Partying? Check out these AOL Health hangover preventions and cure suggestions.
DMower 10 November 2008 - Difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day Many people confuse the purposes of Veterans Day and Memorial Day seeing them as duplicate events. They actually serve two different purposes, to put it bluntly ...
...the living and ... the dead Memorial Day Veterans Day is anchored in an event - the end of the War to End All Wars - WW I. It more has evolved from a rememberance of the end of the Great War to the rememberance of all wars and engagements America has fought over the generation with recognition to the sacrifice and valor of the participants. The day is the opportunity to give thanks and honor to living veterans who served honorably in the military in peacetime as well as those who served in wartime. It is a day for celebration, parades, speeches and rememberances. The holiday now celebrates the approximate 26,403,703 (2000 census) U.S. veterans with parades and ceremonies among other events. Veterans Day is traditionally celebrated with parades which include current and past service members. It is a day of celebration to honor America’s veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good. The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11:00 AM. Veterans Day is normally identified with Town Squares, veteran parades, patrotic politcal speechs, and celebrations. Memorial Day, (also known as Decoration Day) is anchored in the ultimate sacrifice of the soldiers and sailors participating in the Civil War (or War Between the States) . Memorial Day as evolved into a focus on all participants in all conflicts who have given the ultimate sacrifice - the men and women - who died while in the service of their country - especially those who died from injuries sustained from actual combat and hostile action. Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared it should be May 30. It is believed the date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country. The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.. The ceremonies centered around the mourning- draped veranda of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Various Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremonies. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home and members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns. To ensure the sacrifices of America ’s fallen heroes are never forgotten, in December 2000, the U.S. Congress passed and the president signed into law “The National Moment of Remembrance Act,” P.L. 106-579, creating the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance. The commission’s charter is to “encourage the people of the United States to give something back to their country, which provides them so much freedom and opportunity” by encouraging and coordinating commemorations in the United States of Memorial Day and the National Moment of Remembrance. The National Moment of Remembrance encourages all Americans to pause wherever they are at 3:00 PM local time on Memorial Day for a minute of silence to remember and honor those who have died in service to the nation. As Moment of Remembrance founder Carmella LaSpada states: “It’s a way we can all help put the memorial back in Memorial Day.” Memorial Day is normally identified with military cemetaries, memorial ceremonies, and thanks giving for those willing to put duty, honor, country over self interest. 9 October 2008 - Shoreline Solutions. In a front page article I discussed housing developments planned for the Kilmarnock area. One of the more intriguing developments is focused on Bluff Point where a Charlottesville develop has quietly acquired over 1,000 acres in the past few years. A large chunk of this is fronted on the Chesapeake Bay and experiences very aggressive erosion problems. Over the last 2 decades various developers have successively purchased the acreage of Bluff Point with the intent to develop the property. Each has faced the problem of controlling the Bay-side erosion problem. During this period, and despite various attempts, Bluff Point shoreline has lost approximately 100 yards facing the bay. Consequently I have seen this parcel on the market listed as 400 acres, 350 acres and most recently 300 acres. Maps drawn by Captain John Smith during his explorations in the 1600’s show this parcel over 1 mile more extended bayward. That, folks, is a serious erosion problem. Previously attempts have included the use of old tires to trap sand on the beach and a breakwater of boulders. The tires didn’t work and are still found scattered all over the property, while the boulders were too small for the job and are now a feeble, broken line of about 100 yards off shore. Recently the Northern Neck Buyers Guide ran an article on a new shoreline erosion control system that caught my interest. It seems that a whole new generation of shoreline erosion control systems are now being marketed. Locally, Seament Shoreline Systems, Inc. appears to be leading the way with an fascinating variety of erosion control options. No longer is it old tires, wood groins, or large rocks. According to Seament Shoreline Systems, their system “uses precast concrete components for site specific solutions to preserving, utilizing, and beautifying waterfront properties. They can prevent erosion, provide better access from the land to the water, and create an attractive, stabilized, accreted beach. The concrete components don't require harmful chemicals to extend their useful life.” Here are just some of the types of shoreline control components they make available.
Seament Shorelines Solutions has been using these products in various project along the Potomac, Rappahannock and York Rivers. You can view their project portfolio on line. After searching the Internet for other solutions providers, it seems that Seament is almost alone in this area. Here are two other companies working on the problem, but they don't seem to have the range of products being offered by Seament.
Wave Dispersion Technologies, Inc. (WDT) developed the WhisprWave® floating articulated breakwater erosion / wave and wake control technology to afford protection to marinas, beaches, and private property subject to destructive or annoying wave / wake forces. Reef Ball Foundation provides "Reef Balls." Reef Balls can be used as submerged breakwaters to protect a beach from erosion or even to build up a beach that has already eroded. They can also be used in a variety of erosion control applications such as creating a wave fence for marinas or as red mangrove "pots" for shoreline stabilization. Shorelines can also be stabilized using Reef Balls as a near shore breakwater or to grow oysters to create a protective near shore oyster bar. However, all these applications for Reef Balls require specific engineering because erosion control requires detailed, site specific planning, to avoid unexpected results. Shoreline erosion control technology appears to be making big strides in recent years. Quite possibily Bluff Point could reclaim some of that missing 1/2 mile of acreage from the Bay through the use of these new products. PS: Seament subsequently provided these photos of its HEX system.
17 August 2008 - It's been forty years. 17 August 1968. Where you on that date? Of course you don't remember. But I do. Standing at the Altar at Grace Lutheran Church in McClusky, North Dakota. -- McClusky, not unlike Kilmarnock 40 years ago.... McClusky, population about 950 in the heart of North Dakota. I married the Mayor's daughter. Everyone one called him "Bud", … well everyone except me ...I call him "sir". I was a junior in college ... North Dakota State University - (Moo U according to our rivals from that uppity University of North Dakota, in Grand Forks) the year I first met her. I worked my way through college as a part-time employee of a plumbing shop and later as an American Standard Plumbing Supply warehouse employee. Bud, I found out, was a no nonsense type of guy. Welcoming me will open arms, he mentioned as an aside that Irene (his wife, my future mother-in-law) was highly desirous of a new kitchen sink - did I know if she could get one somewhere. Needless to say, on my second visit, the dream was fulfilled and Bud was assured that the suitor of his oldest (and only) daughter was probably capable of supporting her in the style he was expecting. Being the mayor's daughter in a small town, of course, meant that everyone knew her (and instantly, now, me). As I initially drove into town on US Route 2 in my slightly used black 4-door 1950 Dodge sedan
Grace Lutheran was a typical rural America small town white clapboard church with tall steep and room for about 200 parishioners. The guests of the bride sat on the right side pews, while the groom's family and friends sat on the left. Both my parents were only children. I only had one sister. Consequently, my side of the church actually occupied only about one pew. Everyone one else took up the remaining space. For years afterwards, people would stop me on the street in McClusky and say... "Hey, remember me, I was at your wedding". I didn't doubt it for a moment as just about everyone in town either came or thought they came to the wedding that day. I know I thought I was there, so if they thought they were there too, that was good enough for me. Hey Jesus fed the Five Thousand from two loaves and five fish. What’s not to say that a 200 seat church didn’t actually seat 956 people that day? You gotta have faith! Now it’s forty … that’s 4… ZERO, 40 years, three children, three grand children and 15 moves later and here we are on the shores of Barnes Creek outside Kilmarnock in the home of our dreams. Who knew? 40 years ago we didn’t say, “let’s move to Kilmarnock when we retire”. We didn’t even know the United States had an east coast back then. In fact we didn’t even know there were such things as trees or hills.
Forty years. I avoided the draft by taking ROTC in college. Twenty years later, I retired from the Army. It’s funny how things work out. I tried to avoid being drafted, but wound up in the Army via ROTC. I tried to avoid Vietnam by gaming ROTC, but wound up in the Americal Division, Chu Lai, RVN because that’s where “Mother Brown” – the patron saints of all Army second lieutenants in my branch negotiated my assignment in return for my PG wife to be able to return home to ND while I was “away”. I tried for twenty years to draw an assignment to Europe, where at any given time over 50% of my branch was assigned, but never made it…made it to Fargo ND, (my home town), made it to Korea were East meets West and our youngest daughter was born); made it to Fort Huachuca AZ; and made it to Fort Leavenworth, KS, but never to Europe. Never in our wildest dreams did we want to go to Washington DC and the Pentagon, but that’s were we did go there - for 10 years. And that’s how we ended up here, in Kilmarnock. Well, sort of anyway. You see 40 years is a long time – in earthly terms. One thing I learned is that I’m not in charge. The Lord gives us what we need, not what we want. I (we) wanted to avoid Viet Nam, but that tour gave Nancy a precious year with her parents and them a precious time with their only grandson. We wanted to go to Europe, but went instead to Fargo ND where our second child (Susan) was born – our next door neighbor was the attending nurse. We wanted to go to Europe, but went to Korea where our third child was born (Kathryn). We wanted to go to Europe, but spent 10 years at the Pentagon, so our kids all grew up in one place and went to schools in Fairfax county VA. If you don’t really care where you go, but accept what you are given, all things work for the best. We went were the Army said with the attitude that we would make the best of it, and had a great time in every assignment. 40 years. Attitude is vital. 40 years. I have a degree in Economics and my wife has a degree in Speech Therapy. Life is not about what degrees you have or about what position you hold. Life is about what you do with what you have relative to the situation you are in. Both of us have learned you can have very excellent careers pursuing challenges that everyone else wants to avoid. You know those jobs that no one else wants to do - Do them.
So that brings me back to forty years from 17 August 1968 – its about commitment, respect, sharing, give-take, responsibility, love and understanding. Every relationship has its ups and down … but enduring relationships weather the adventures and build on the shared experiences and memories… "To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish 'till death do us part." “I Do!” We did. Happy Anniversary, Nancy! Visit North Dakota State University - Sports School 9 July 2008 - It was an all-American small town evening on the green grass commons of Irvington in Virginia’s Northern Neck where the United States Air Force Heritage of America Concert Band came for an annual tune-up preceding its Independence Day celebration performance. It was 6:42 PM. The food line finally ushered me to within two steps of getting a hot dog when the cooks announced, “That’s if folks. The last dog is now being picked out of the pan.” A glance at the now empty pan and the vacant grill confirmed that the crowd far exceeded the 1000 dogs, 500 flags and 4 sheet cakes the sponsors has estimated sufficient for a weekday audience. With that sad news delivered to my spouse that we would have to beg elsewhere for food if we were going to eat, cheeses and crackers were graciously offered from nearby friends. After a long day at work, cheese and crackers were a feast. With the Band tuning their instruments and the overcast sky threatening, Mayor Alexander Fleet stepped to the microphone to open the event. A splatter of sprinkles could be felt. “This is the 19th year that the Air Force Heritage of America Band has come to Irvington,” he announced, “And in that time, the event has never been rained out.” As if on queue, the sprinkles stopped, the clouds lightened and eventually the sun came out. The Mayor was off to a good start. “We are celebrating our country’s birthday, but it’s also the 100th birthday of our very own Zoe Nelson Stancer. Please stand up.” Surely this is an extraordinary Mayor, for not only he can get the rain to stop, he can a 100 year old woman to stand up in front of a crowd of 1000. Isn’t America great! Turning the microphone over to Captain Matthew J. Reese, tonight’s conductor, the concert got underway with the announcement of the promotion of Technical Sergeant Bob Newlin to Master Sergeant. Newlin had appeared on the Irvington Commons just days before as the head of “Vector” a new 6-8 member brass quintet making its inaugural appearance. Many in the crowd recognized the new Master Sergeant from the earlier performance with a strong round of applause in recognition of his future potential evidenced with increased rank. Fittingly, the presentation of colors followed - the crowd giving strong voice to the words the National Anthem. The initial music was a piece that has been played at every Presidential Inaugural since Richard Nixon in 1972, (unfortunately I didn't get the name of the piece). As the Band played a fare of patriotic music and songs, I surveyed the crowed. It’s always fascinating to see the extent that groups prepare for the pre-concert “tail-gating”. I was told the first spots were staked out in front of the bandstand around 2:00 PM. Wandering around one had to be aware of assorted ropes, poles, flags, blankets, yellow & black barricade tape, and small fences that event goers had used to stake off their party’s reserved space. I think in the 20th year, I will get there the night before with some of that florescence line paint from Miss Utilities and claim a location before dawn. There were tables with crystal, patriotic flag and flower arrangements, linen table clothes, silverware, and catered fares. All that seemed to be missing was recognition for outstanding initiative: Most Colorful, Best Table, Most Sophisticated, Most Patriotic, etc.. After missing out on the hot dogs, I volunteer next year to be the judge for Best Feast, which, of course, will require sampling all the contestant offerings. My wandering eye also spied a clearly marked Village Cleaners van strategically placed on the street in back of the band stand. Obviously they had come early to claim a prized advertising spot for their employer. All eyes focusing on the bandstand could not help see and read "The Village Cleaners" emblazoned on the van in the background.* As the evening drew to a close, the concert finished with the Band's traditional recognition of the Services and Service Veterans in attendance. Each Service’s song was play in order of linage with the Army’s leading the way. David Mower (69-89), was the Army flag bearer; Pete Ginocchio (62-70) presented the Marine Corp Flag; Greg Kirkbride represented the Coast Guard; and Paul Lassanske (67-92) and Larry Elston (60-64) both held Air Force flags. As we folded up our chairs and picked up our packs, an Army vet, Joe Davis, 304th Signal Battalion from the Korean War stopped by and shook hands. Thanks USAF Heritage of American Concert Band; Irvington Development Association; and Thanks also to all who have served in the Military Services and did their part for preserving the Day we call Independence. POSTSCRIPT: I got this note from the Village Cleaners. “Thanks to all of the northern neck and the Air Force for the great concert in Irvington on Tuesday. I am the driver for The Village Cleaners and was invited by several of my customers to come and check out this wonderful event. My daughter came to work with me that day and when we finished my route we stopped to pick up some snacks at Wal-Mart and then parked near the
1 June 2008 - ADVICE FOR GRADUATING STUDENTS. I was recently pacing the lobby at my tax attorney's office frustrated at the fact that the Federal and State Governements wanted more of my hard earned money. It seems like all they do is take, take take. It just didn't seem fair when my eye caught an article posted on the lobby bulleting board. Here what I read: "Bill Gates once gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teaching created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world. RULE 1. Life is not fair - get use to it. RULE 2. The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself. RULE 3. You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be vice-president with a car phone until you earn both. RULE 4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. RULE 5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity. RULE 6. If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them. RULE 7. Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room. RULE 8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resembalance to ANYTHING in real life. RULE 9. Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time. RULE 10. Televsions is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. RULE 11. Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one." I don't know if or how recently Bill Gates actually gave this speech - car phones haven't been around for a few years - but the advice is as good today as the day it was supposedly given to those High School graduating seniors. Good luck to you all and enjoy the challenges of real life with a positive attitude and a willingness to bounce back and learn for the pitfall that you will surely encounter.
NEW LOCATION FOR 2008 KILMARNOCK CRAB FESTIVAL- 5 March 2008 by David Mower I L-O-V-E crab, especially when it's local fresh caught crab. I've been keeping an eye open for this year's Kilmarnock Crab Festival. Now comes a "press release" that has everything falling into place. "The Kilmarnock Crab Festival Committee is happy to announce that the Kilmarnock Crab Festival is moving one block south on South Main Street in Downtown Kilmarnock for this years festival. The Specific Festival location is between Irvington Road (Route 200) and the ABC Store." (This is excellent news because now all I will have to do is walk across the street!!) "This year's site is much more friendly for our vendors and festival goers. We are freeing up the municipal parking lot so there will be more parking for local business and people attending the Crab Festival." "Kilmarnock provides public parking on Route 3/South Main street. Specific public parking lot locations are behind Nobletts on Augusta Street with a second public lot located behind Lee's Restaurant on Waverly Street."
"This Year's Kilmarnock Crab Festival is Scheduled for Friday May 16th, 3:00 to 7:00 PM and Saturday 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Many of your favorite crafter's are returning to this year's festival along with many new ones. The popular Crab Soup Contest will be run again on Saturday May 16th. So don't forget to purchase your tickets early since it was sold out last year and limited to 150 judges. In addition to the Crab Soup Contest we will have several other fun contests, great food, shopping, kid friendly activities, LIVE ENTERTAINMENT and more. On behalf of all returning vendors, new vendors, entertainers and the Kilmarnock Crab Festival Committee and all of our volunteers we can't wait to see you." Well, the feeling is mutual - I can't wait to eat more crab. I just may buy a dozen of those crap soup judging contest tickets myself. Isn't summer in Kilmarnock great! P.S. Subsequently, I received a map of the Crab Festival Area and Parking areas. Just click on the map to enlarge.
DMower 13 March 2008 - DC vs Heller. I own a 1832 Henry Nock .52 caliber Percussion Fowling Rifle.
It hangs over my fireplace. I never really thought much about it before. Obviously, early in its life someone used it for hunting. I'm not sure if I could find the necessary ball, power, and cap to fire the weapon, even if I want too.
WINNIE THE POOH - 20 February 2008 by David Mower It’s a long sordid tale. I guess you could say it was the proverbial dark and stormy night. You see, it was my birthday. Folks were to be arriving momentarily at our house when the phone rang. My daughter called in a panic, “Winnie is missing! We don’t know how long. The gate got open. She may have been gone for several hours. We need help looking for her.” So what’s a dad to do? I glanced outside at the snowflakes fluttering down and at the thermometer that was registering something around freezing. Winnie, a wirehaired Jack Russell Terrier outside for hours in this weather? She must be half frozen by now. Probably huddled and shivering under some shrub or vehicle. Must be lost and can’t find her way home. Yep! I had to go search. A man’s gotta go when duty calls. “Put the birthday party on hold”, I called to my wife. I’m outt’a here. Driving at legal speed limits, I whizzed by the arriving in-laws who had yet to learn of the fiasco a distance short of my driveway. Pulling up at daughter’s house, I parked my 4x4 Off Road Ford Ranger in the front yard and quickly took in the situation. After all I’m a retired career military officer, trained in escape, evasion survival and tracking, etc. and etc. and etc.. Lost dog, no problem. Just tell me where she went and she’s as good as caught. Oh, you don’t know? Well the impossible just takes a little longer. Not to worry. I pulled the collar on my jacket up a little higher to fend off the snow flurries and tugged my stocking cap down a bit farther over my balding head and ears. Seemed like 31 degrees is a lot colder now in my senior citizen years than I remember it as a kid. Surveying the lawn, there were no signs of paw prints in the snow. I had on occasion previously witnessed Winnie make a bolt for freedom. Given an open door, she was like a streak of light, only faster, headed diagonally east toward Chase Street every time. Always before she had been stopped in the first 100 yards so anything beyond that was a new world for her. But at least my search would start in an easterly direction toward Chase Street. Reaching the corner of Cedar and Chase, I decided if I was Winnie I would go south along Chase – I rationalized that its warmer the further south you go. I walked down the middle of Chase street peering into each yard for tale tell signs of recent animal trespassing, but not a single patch of snow appeared disturbed. Reaching Hatton Avenue, I turned right and headed for Main Street. Still no signs of a miserable, freezing, skinny little white dog looking for warmth and safety. At Main Street, I turned right and wandered on the sidewalk toward Waverly Avenue. No dog sightings. I passed the sad sight of the old Henderson house, sitting deserted this year, forlornly awaiting a buyer to take it off the market and give it a little TLC renovation. Last year at this time, it was all warm and aglow as we rented the first floor while our creek house was rebuilt. Now the house sat dark, cold and lonely…and the yard was barren of dog tracks as well. Moving on, I passed the Bank of Lancaster and approached our store front office next to the Rappahannock Hang Ups.
Since the dog search was obviously going to be fruitless, I decided to pop into the warmth of the store and catch up on my e-mail before resuming the search. This just goes to show you that under Heaven, everything has its time and purpose. My idle in the store provided the necessary time for some concerned citizen on Chase Street or Hatton Avenue to call out the National Guard, the US. Marines, and alert the town and county constables that a “suspicious person” was loose in the neighborhood. I’m disappointed they didn’t also set off the town siren, but maybe it was because I wasn’t exactly searching like a ball of fire. Presently, I exited the store by the rear door, cut across the parking lot, and turned east down Waverly Avenue. By now reinforcements had arrived at Winnie’s home on Cedar Lane. The wife and the in laws had joined the foot search. As I turned from Waverly on to Chase and headed back to Cedar, I could see at the distant intersection a car stopped in the middle of the street and the driver chatting with a really old guy – the father-in-law. Suddenly the really old guy backed away, and the car sped toward innocent little ole me. I could see the really old guy stare down the road in my direction and surmised that the car was coming for me. Notwithstanding, I continued to walk toward the car with the nonchalance born of 20 years soldiering. “Yes, officer. Can I help you?” Maybe he was lost too. “We have a report of a suspicious character walking the neighborhood streets.” “Really? Who?” “They said he was wearing a stocking hat. What are you doing.” Imagine that, its winter, 31 degrees, snowing and I’m outside wearing a stocking cap on my bald head. “I’m looking for a lost dog.” “That would be a white dog that has been missing for several hours?” he asked. “Yes, officer. A Jack Russell that got out about 4 hours ago.” “Okay, that’s what the very old man up the street said also; that there were a bunch of people out looking for a lost dog.” It was comforting that my story was confirmed prior to my explanation. After all they could have said they were out looking for a suspicious character in a stocking cap. The story could have ended there, but turns out it was only the beginning of a very strange tangle of events. As I approached the amused crowd of relatives, they all wanted to know what the patrol officer said to me. A midst restrained laughter that the birthday boy was now a “suspicious character”, they admitted there were no signs seen of Winnie. My daughter handed me a leash to use if I found the dog, and I turned to resume my search. I hadn’t gone more than 50 feet, when a truck coming down Chase Street pulled up beside me and stopped. The driver asked if I was looking for a lost dog. The dogless leash in my hand was his clue. Turns out he knew where the dog was….it had wondered around the corner on to Hatton Avenue and was discovered by my daughter’s backyard neighbor (his daughter) cold, wet, and shivering under a bush in the yard. Because the dog rarely got out of the yard, the neighbor had rarely seen the dog before and didn’t immediately recognize Winnie. Now this wouldn’t seem so strange except for the fact that the neighbors were in a rush to get to the airport in Richmond to catch a flight to Green Bay Wisconsin. Seems the neighbor was a big Packer’s fan and had managed to acquire ticket over the Internet to the NFC Championship game at Lombardi Field. (Temperature in Kilmarnock: 31 degrees. Temperature in Green Bay at game time: ZERO). (My wife is a big Packers fan also. She even owns a share of stock in the Packers – the only publicly traded NFL franchise, but not even she would go sit in the bleachers at this time of the year.) Consequently the neighbors had passed Winnie off to the care of some friends while they hurriedly finished packing and rushed off to catch their plane. Their friends happened to live on the west edge of town down Irvington Road, near the Back Inn Time Inn and across the street from “the very old guy” – my father-in-law. Winnie had traveled around the block, then down the road only to wind up across the street from the very in-laws who were out looking for her in a different part of town. Meanwhile back at the truck, the driver was explaining he too was looking for a lost one. His granddaughter had gone to a friend’s birthday party, but had not come home yet and they were getting worried. Unfortunately they did not have the name or phone number of the friend and the granddaughter had not taken her cell phone along. But in a night of coincidences, my daughter was aware of the party, knew the birthday girl and had the phone number, so the lost was also found. Yes, I may be a suspicious character, but it seems far more suspicious to me as to how all these threads could be woven into a single real life fabric purely by chance. I once read a book by R. C. Spruol called “Not a Chance”. I think I know what he was referring to now. Lesson Learned: Don’t wear a stocking cap on a balding head in Kilmarnock on a cold, blustery, snowy evening while walking in the street looking for a lost dog unless you too want to be a suspicious character in a series of curious events.
PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY OF ALASKA’S BERING GLACIER DISLPAYED AT RWC Local photo journalist, William (“Bill”) R. Reckert is exhibiting his collection of dramatic photographs of Alaska’s Bering Glacier at Rappahannock Westminster Canterbury during the month of February. Bering Glacier is the largest temperate glacier on earth covering approximately 2,000 square miles. It originates in the mountainous region of eastern Alaska and western Canada; and flow to sea level near Seal River and the Gulf of Alaska.
Bill Reckert now lives with his wife Betty in White Stone.
Northern Neck Radio. 7 January 2008 Occassionally I receive a solicitation that merits passing along to you, the readers of this commentary. Northern Neck Radio is a unique offering that appears to be worth your attention. NNR describes in extended discussions and interviews many of the fine up-coming events that make the Northern Neck special."My name is Mark Huffman and I'm on the board of the Northern Neck Tourism Council. We have developed something called Northern Neck Radio, which is a 10 minute or less mp3 radio show promoting things to do in the Northern Neck. We're trying to put together a "network" of local Web sites that will promote and link to it, expanding the base of listeners beyond those who just go to the NNTC site. You have a great Web site, [of course] which is a terrific resource for an area that lacks a daily newspaper. We're hoping you will consider becoming a Northern Neck Radio "affiliate." Once you add the link, nothing else is required, as we will keep the program updated and current." Here's the link: Northern Neck Radio
Christmas. 18 December 2007 - Every now and then I get a "spam" message that, while still technically falling into the category of a virus-like messages because the reader is urged to send them to every one in their address book, really ought to be send to everyone.
This one probably was started at 10:48 AM 14 November 2006, by "proudseabeewife", the left-behind wife of a Reservist Seabee recalled to active service and sent to Iraq. We don't know if it's her husband who is the responsible author or another member of the 30th Naval Construction Regiment, but "A Different Christmas Poem" is certainly worthy of passing along as is requested at the end. Read it for your self.
A Different Christmas Poem The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift, No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright, Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
PLEASE, Would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people
LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
Thanksgiving. 22 November 2007 - I drive a Ford Ranger. I have for decades. The only complaint I have about them is the windshields seem to crack with the slightest hint of an impact. Sometimes I think even the break of day is sufficient to start a running crack thru my windshield. With my last Ranger, I was even getting volume discounts from the merchant due to the frequency of my visits.
Now I have a new Ranger, and figured the problems was with the old truck and windshield design. Wrong. Nothing had changed in the decade between truck models. It only took about 8 month for my new truck to demonstrate the same susceptibility. Today I had the windshield replaced by River Glass in Kilmarnock. As I paid for the replacement I met Josh Gedney, aka "Capt'n Glass" according to the business card he handed me. Josh informed me that if it was made of silicone and you could see through it, he could fix it, repair it, or replace it. No job too big or small; too easy or too hard. If it was made of glass, there wasn't anything that he couldn't service. Josh, er... Capt'n Glass made my day - the day before Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving. That day out of the year when we take a few minutes to remember the blessings we received in the year past and to give thanks to God for those resources entrusted to our stewardship. I recount a lot of "Joshs" this year. It's been an extraordinary year, but let me point out a few I met along the way.
Mark Curran and Wayne Penick with Northern Neck State Bank brought back memories of what I know to truly be "home town" banking.
Bill Smith of TSL Property Maintenance who went out of his way to make sure we satisfied recently enacted changes to the Chesapeake Bay Act that seemed to ensnare our new home's occupancy permit.
John & Susan Browne, David & Barbara Fuller, and Sara Holland, aka 3 Studs and a Hammer, & Northern Neck Tongue & Grove, who volunteered time and energy in the closing weeks to paint and floor our home.
"Don" at the Gloucester Home Depot flooring department whose advice, counsel, and active interest was invaluable.
Keith Neff, Coan Electric, master electrician, which says it all. Glenn Pinn of Pinn's Roofing - The man who the experts turn to when they can't figure out what's leaking.
Jack Hurd of Hurd's True Value in Deltaville - if the dictionary used a picture of a hardware store for the definition, Hurd's would be that picture and Jack would be the Handy Hardware Man.
And Christina Koroulakis, Lindal Cedar Homes, who oversaw the construction of our fabulous new home in a mere 8 months from start to finish.
Then there is James M. Alga, CPA. He stopped in this afternoon asking if we could print a flyer for him - The Red Devils Singers "Song of the Season" concert announcement. James typically comes in with a flyer print request for this event or that worthy cause. I think he must really be a part time CPA and a full time Good Samaritan. As usual, he offered to pay for the flyer out of his own pocket, but as luck would have it, today we were running an unadvertised Thanksgiving special on Red Devils Singer flyers with the first 30 flyers being free which, coincidently, was exactly what he requested.
You see, Thanksgiving isn't really about all the things you manage to collect during the year. It's about the people who enter your life and leave their mark in ways that are truly gifts of God.
DO YOU YAHOO? 8 November 2007 If so, you may be a "yahoo". At NorthernNeck.com we offer free email. So does YAHOO.com The difference is ours works and if you do have problems you can call us and we will get it fixed.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for YAHOO.com. About 75% of all the trouble calls we get from our NorthernNeck.com users is related to sending and receiving email to or from YAHOO's free email accounts. The problem almost invariability is with YAHOO and their spam filters, blacklists, and other assorted schemes to control traffic volume.
If you use or depend on YAHOO email as your primary business email or for important personal mail purposes, you may be a "yahoo" in the old vernacular that we used the term when I was a kid.
Here are some explanations for YAHOO mail problems. If you are having a problem with YAHOO mail, please consider these before you call and say you are having trouble sending mail or are missing mail from a YAHOO account. Better yet, get a dependable free email account from NorthernNeck.com.
http://www.emailbattles.com/2006/04/12/email_aaddhghiad_ih/
Here is YAHOO "ANSWERS" Site for people with problems: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/original/technical/index.html
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/original/mailplus/pop/pop-30.html
Who You Gonna Call When ….? GhostBusters of course when the problem is ghosts in the attic. Or, Red Adair if your oil well is on fire. Or, the United States Marines when you want to send a strong message. Well, when the Forest Service said we had a dangerous community fire hazard from accumulated jackstraw from Hurricanes Isabel and Ernesto, and subsequent growth of impenetrable thickets and overgrowth encroaching on our road shoulders, we called Phogg Brothers to help reclaim our road. I talked to Steve Barksdale, Phogg Brothers specialist in “Land Grooming”. After inspecting the situation, he said, “piece of cake for the BULL HOG!” No hauling. No chain saws. No piles of debris to deal with. Unlike conventional clearing operations, Phogg Brothers offers (I like this part) a “more gentle, environmentally friendly approach – a machine that chips and shreds brush and trees up to 6” inches diameter, leaving behind a protective mulch layer.” Yeah, right. Sure. Yabetcha …. Sounds too environmentally correct to me to be much more than a weak handshake. But what to my wondering eyes should appear, but Steve Barksdale and his FECON-enabled GEHL "Bobcat" with the toothy Bull Hog up front and drooling at the prospect of feasting on the veggies that crowed our road. Granted some of the old blowdown was double the 6” Steve said his machine would eat, but it still gobbled up 10-16" trunks, limbs, and tangle without even a burb. Here are a few pix of Steve and his faithful Bobcat … before and after. Yep, when the going got tough, we called Phogg Brothers. You can too at 804-694-6269 or 804-504-5815.
FIFTEEN YEARS. 070908 - It’s been fifteen years today. Seems like yesterday. Seems like a lifetime. Our son, Michael died on this date in 1992. He was 21. It was no one’s fault. Mike had an undetected heart condition that caused a heart attack and killed him in mere moments from the on set. Mike is our only son.
When Mike scored very well on the Army’s aptitude tests, and they offered him a huge bonus to enlist for one of the “spook” job fields, he was hooked. So off he went to join the Army and see the world that fall day in 1990. He took basic training at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. The First Gulf War was just winding down. Mike as allowed to switch job specialties to work on Apache Helicopters, spending Advanced training at Fort Eustis learning to repair the armament systems. He graduating first in his class, Mike was assigned to Fort Campbell, Kentucky – Home of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) “Screaming Eagles”. Unexpectedly, Mike arrived home on a 3 day pass on that 5th of September – Labor Day Weekend in 1992. We had not seen him in over a year. It was a huge surprise to say the least. We went to “Mike’s Restaurant” in Springfield which is known for its fabulous food, and besides we like the little irony of taking Mike to “Mikes”. We stood on the lawn that Sunday evening as he was preparing to drive back to Ft Campbell. Both my wife and I remarked to him how great it was to see him, how good he looked in his uniform and what great shape he appeared to be in with all that Army PT. He got back to his unit just before mid-night and was sitting on the floor with his roommates all discussing their 3-day pass adventures, when he suddenly announce that the “those lights are absolutely beautiful”, fell over and died.
Medics were there within 5 minutes, but it was too late. Later we would learn that Mike suffered from a congenital heart condition that was never detected even during the very thorough Army Flight Physicals which he took. The heart walls were enlarged eventually causing the heart valves not to close properly. Many people may be familiar with the term “sudden death syndrome” usually associated with an athlete in seemingly perfect heath dying on the ballfield. Ft. Campbell was Mike’s ballfield.
Thank God for the 3-day pass. We got to see, talk and touch him for those fleeting moments 15 years ago. It seems like yesterday. It seems like a lifetime ago.
[You can read a little bit about how we have delt with the loss of our son, Mike, HERE] WAL-MART SATELITE SHOPS. 070831 - Time to check out Wal-Mart site progress, now that they are actually hiring. The exterior, of course is about done with the parking lot paved and landscaping underway.
The satelite shops don't have an anchor store at the moment of this writing. May be they ought to go talk to the Kilmarnock Postmaster about room for a new post office in the 28,000 square feet. The post office could be a long term anchor tenant which would very nicely compliment the open area, spacious parking and traffic controls recently installed.
WAL-MART HIRING. 070729 WAL-MART HIRING CENTER is open for business beginning Monday, 30 July. They are looking for Supervors, Cashiers, Greeters, and the following types of folks they call Associates: Grocery, Meat, Deli Seafood, Maintenance, Instock, and Overnight. To apply either visit the hiring center in the Chesapeake Commons Courtyard (next to Peebles) at 465 North Main Street, or call them at 804-435-3769. Of course you can apply on line at WAL-MART HIRING CENTER.
STEVIE'S ICE CREAM. 070730 Thursday, 26 July 2007, a new and long anticipated enterprised opened on North Main Street adjacent to Farm and Home Supply -- an ice cream stand, Stevie's Ice Cream. Owner Steve Billmeyer, says it is a life long dream come true. I think its a life long dream for a lot of people who have always talked about the need for an ice cream stand but have lived with the disappointment until Steve undertook to fulfill his dream.
Stevie's Ice Cream is accessed by entering the Chesapeake Commons parking area, then going to the far northwest corner of the lot, and entering the gravel parking stand where many people are familiar with the seasonal vegetable stand's location. Stevie's has solved the grass and mud problem by constructing a wonderful ground-level deck with convenient bench seating. Prehaps some tables with umbrellas will be available in the near future. Stevie's Ice Cream is still in the process of ironing out the start up details such as hours of operation which initially are 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM Monday through Saturday and 1:00 to 9:00 PM on Sundays. That's a lot of hours to spend in the small stand in a hot sunny spot. Steve's wife, Maxine, says they have not decided on the specifics of their annual operation, but as of now it looks like they will close after Kilmarnock's Christmas Parade on or about 15 December and reopen the following 15th of March. In case you are wondering why it is called Stevie's - "Stevie" is what Steve's grandmother called him when he was a kid. I guess now that Steve is in the ice cream dispensing business he is feeling like a kid again. Congratulations, Stevie! Kilmarnock has long awaited your arrival. If you need to call Stevie's, they can be reached at 804-435-2252. I have posted a copy of their menu for your hot summer daze enjoyment.
YOU BE THE JUDGE. 070417 I was at the post office the other day. When I came out to get into my vehicle, an individual had parked exceeding close to the driver’s side so that, slender as I am, I could not gain entry. I thus waited the return of the driver, who, as the individual approached, assessed that I was waiting for them. In a defensive mood, the individual asked if I had a problem. I pointed out that I was a hostage to their parking proficiency which denied me access to my vehicle. The individual said they were “forced” to park close because of surrounding vehicles. In amazement I surveyed the parking opportunities both east and west of where our two vehicles were parked. When I arrived, the spot I chose was unencumbered on either side by several spaces. As we stood there the same situation existed except for this individual’s vehicle. The individual said that they were “forced” to park there because, in my absence, the entire parking lot had filled up (and emptied) so that this was the only space available. I noted the license plate bore the “H” symbol entitling this individual to the always available (in my experience at the post office) opportunity to park next to the building versus across and down the lot with the common folk. The response was: “Where is your Christian charity? I parked here so that someone more in need could use that (useless) spot.” Images of lightening bolts striking the spot I stood instantly flashed through my mind, but then the Holy Spirit (well, it seemed like the Holy Spirit), brought me back to my senses (or did the devil make me do it)? I pointed out that the Lord had made the United States Government enact laws creating that Handicapped parking spot just for them, but that they had decided to reject the gift of God, and instead, steal the gifts God had given me in terms of time and space. Was I correct or did the devil make me do it? You be be the judge. (Disclaimer: "Judge not least you be judged." Is there a Pastor in the house who can help sort all this out??)
AUCTIONS – A BEST KEPT SECRET (070307) I can tell spring is near. I just received an auction bill in the mail from the Callao Auction House in Lottsburg. Frankly, Grayson Smith’s Saturday morning auctions are some of the best entertainment and frequently rewarding activities in the Northern Neck.
Nearly every Saturday morning beginning at 10:00 AM sharp, a bit of Northern Neck history and heirlooms are put up for bid. He usually starts outside with “box lots”, and items to rough, big or inappropriate for in door display. I love the box lots. Its like playing one of those TV game show where you try to guess what’s behind the door and would you be willing to buy it. Of course a lot of other folks are playing right along also. Some raise their hand, some give a nod or wink that only the auctioneer can detect, some try to dive in at the last second. Fascinating. People arrive early to inspect the auction lots, to chat with friends they have made in regularly attending these exercises in artful negotiations – the Auctioneer trying to get the best price, the bidders trying to guess how they can get an item cheaply, everyone offering opinions or displaying amazement at the bids and bidders.
Need to furnish the second house, a couple of trips to the auction ought to do it. Need a gift for that birthday, anniversary, or special event, look for hidden gems or unique items among the boxes and shelves in the auction house. Need tools or guns or riding lawn mower but don’t want to pay retail price, then come to the auction. Just want to have a great time? Then I will see you at the Callao Auction House or at some estate in the Northern Neck were Grayson Smith, former VA State Champion Auctioneer, is passing a bit of history from one generation to the next. The next opportunity to come to the auction is Saturday, 14 July at 9:30. Here is a MAP and the auction BILL. Other auction date and time opportunities are 5 May and 12 May.
FOR Taylor (my 14 year old mutt) and I do a lot of walking around town for exercise. I’m not sure which of us needs it more. One of the byproducts of our travels is surveying the goings on in the area. “FSBO” caught our attention a few weeks back. Have you noticed the signs recently – For House #1 is on House #2 is on House #3 is on House #4 is my favorite; You might call it a classic doll house. Here the seller has taken a novel approach of putting a large sign on the roof of the house. The owner is using a non-realtor “broker/agent” who has placed the house in a prime viewing location on If that price is still too steep, check out the unfurnished “Spiderman” mansion. It’s on the market for only $200. Of course, you will need to move the houses if you buy, but the prices are right and you can always say you bought it for the kids.
Of course Houses 4 and 5 really ARE doll houses, but they are FSBO. You can see more pictures of them in the NorthernNeck.Com Photo Gallery, or you can drop by and view them at Kilmarnock's very own: The Doll House Be sure to visit our Real Estate Classified Ads feature premier properties from the best Realtors in the Northern Neck.
Lawn Deer & Pink Flamingos - 061228 At this time of the year I like to drive around and look at all the Christmas decorations. A lot of people have put time and effort into yard decorations and lighting visibly celebrating the anniversary birth of the Christ child. I muse over how much impact the light shows have on the East Coast Power Grid. The house on Route 200 in Burgess is always an interesting spectacle that requires at least one trip this time of year to witness. It could be in the running
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