One of Floyd's unrecognized music venues is Oak Grove Pavillion, where Zion Lutheran Church stages free concerts just behind their sanctuary on Needmore Lane just off Christiansburg Pike.
The Billy Couteau Cajun Band (above) performs on Saturday, July 8. The music is good and the atmosphere conducive to a good time. Check out more of Oak Grove's schedule here.
The sign outside the door of Cafe del Sol Monday afternoon said it all:
Sorry. We're closed for deer damage. See you tomorrow.
Deer damage? Yes. Deer damage. A wayward doe crashed through the front glass door of the popular Floyd coffee shop Monday afternoon. The disoriented animal thrashed about, overturned tables and left hoof scratches on the highly-polished wood floor.
The frightened deer tried first to jump out through one of the large picture windows on the side of the shop but then crashed back through the same door it used to enter.
Thankfully, no one was hurt. The only people in the shop at the time were staff who stayed behind the counter until the animal left. By late afternoon, shop owner Sally Walker surveyed the damage and shook her head.
"I didn't know deer liked coffee," she said.
The sign outside the door of Cafe del Sol Monday afternoon said it all:
Sorry. We're closed for deer damage. See you tomorrow.
Deer damage? Yes. Deer damage. A wayward doe crashed through the front glass door of the popular Floyd coffee shop Monday afternoon. The disoriented animal thrashed about, overturned tables and left hoof scratches on the highly-polished wood floor.
The frightened deer tried first to jump out through one of the large picture windows on the side of the shop but then crashed back through the same door it used to enter.
Thankfully, no one was hurt. The only people in the shop at the time were staff who stayed behind the counter until the animal left. By late afternoon, shop owner Sally Walker surveyed the damage and shook her head.
"I didn't know deer liked coffee," she said.
Please come and help our Democrat Party unite and participate in planning and structuring of Democracy for Virginia.
Learn hands-on details of what works and doesn’t work in building membership in grassroots organizations, funding them, field operations and what legal structures are possible;
Create a loose caucus of Virginia grassroots organizations that will coordinate their efforts and help channel additional resources into local races.Â
We hope you will attend!
Fragmented Fred First, dean of the Floyd County bloggers, is the county's latest published author. His collection of essays is out in a new volume, Slow Road Home, a blue ridge book of days.
Longtime readers of Fred will recognize the chapters in the book, either from his blog or his column in The Floyd Press (the two usually overlap).
From my perspective of one who grew up in Floyd County, Fred's combination of wonderment and bewilderment is entertaining reading. Interaction with recent and not-so-recent transplants to our corner of the world provides differing perspectives that sharpen my own.
As with most of Fred's writings -- the ones that deal with observing the world around him and not his predictions of doom and gloom from bird flu, global warming and oil depletion -- the book is a pleasant, leisurely read.
You can pick up a copy at Notebooks or Cafe del Sol in Floyd or Rams Head Bookshop in Roanoke or order online.
Over the weekend we moved to a new server.
Last night the new server crashed. It's the third new server we've had crash in less than a month.
Not sure what's going on here but they sure don't make servers like they used to.
Posts for the last three days have been lost, along with the comments. When I get time to restore them from backup I will but right now I'm more concerned about fixing the hardware glitch.
We're moving Blue Ridge Muse to a new server. During the move, comments have been disabled until we get relocated. Should be back on line by Sunday.
One of the vets from Virginia-Maryland School of Veterinary Medicine called Wednesday to report on the result of Loki's autopsy. Bottom line: They still don't know what caused the kitten's extensive brain damage but we did the right thing by bringing him in and having him put to sleep.
The masses in his brain had expanded to the point that the pressure caused pain and Loki would have died in another day or two but would have suffered much more had we not chosen to end his short life.
We still miss him a great deal, as do our three grown cats, but it helps to know we spared him more pain in his last few days of life.
Enough rain fell this week to send grass shooting up in the South 40, also known at the front yard of Chateau Thompson. This means getting the John Deere out of mothballs, sharpening the three blades on the cutting deck, and tackling the three acres of yard before the National Forest Service declares it a wilderness area.
Actually, I fired up the Deere last week, hooking up the wagon to traverse the propety and pick up branches and other debris from the latest wind storm, then loading it and the roller onto the trailer for a trip over to the St. Lawrences so they could roll the gravel of thier new driveway.
At some point, we plan to replant the lower part of the South 40 with trees, reducing the yard to a more manageable acre of so and eliminating the need to defy gravity on the 35-degree slope that cascades from mid-yard to the creek and rocks below.
Until then, however, the two-day exercises in yard maintenance begin in earnest this week. I never thought mowing the yard might generate a need for a home loan but with gas headed toward $3 a gallon, just mowing the yard requires two tanks and about $20 worth of petrol.
David St. Lawrence's gathering of area bloggers appears a success as a number showed up and exchanged lots of thoughts and ideas.
David (standing in photo), who is an evangelist when it comes to the joys of blogging, led some of the novices in the group through the byzantine world of blogging with detailed explanations of trackbacks, pings, permalinks and the like.
Others talked technical details and still others discussed reasons for blogging or not blogging or just talked about why they moved to the area.
According to Technorati, there are now more than 30 million blogs out there and the list grows by thousands upon thousands daily.
A lot of people, it seems, have a lot to say. Which begs the question: With so many saying, is there anyone left to listen?
Everyone–we’re just a couple short days from a vote on Governor Kaine’s transportation plan–and he needs your help to persuade Del. Carrico to support it!
The Kaine Plan will fund improvements for roads in Southwest Virginia.
The House Republicans plan focuses on Hampton Roads–and its up to us to let Del. Carrico know that we need funding down here for our roads!
Even if you do not live in his district, he needs to hear from you–this is an issue that affects all of Southwest Virginia.
Please, take two minutes either today, tomorrow, or Friday—to e-mail or call Del. Carrico and tell him to support the Kaine Transportation plan.
Even if you have already contacted him–please do so again, as we need as many calls/e-mails going to him as possible to show him how important this is for Southwest Virginia.
Once you have contacted him, please call me at 540-467-5968, or e-mail me at jen.tomasello@gmail.com and let me know so we can keep track.
Thank you and please act today!!! Del. Carrico’s contact information is below.
Jen Tomasello
Capitol Office
General Assembly Building
P.O. Box 406
Richmond, Virginia 23218
Phone: (804) 698-1005
Fax: (804) 786-6310
Constituent Viewpoint: (800)-889-0229
Email: DelCCarrico@house.state.va.us
Room Number: 713
Legislative Assistant: Stuart Higley
Secretary During Session: Susan Jenkins
District Office
578 E. Main Street, Suite B, P.O. Box 188
Independence, VA 24348
Phone: (276) 773-9600
Fax: (276)773-2400
Email: DelCCarrico@house.state.va.us
In recent days, this blog and website has been getting a lot of traffic. I am not really sure why, but am glad to see folks looking for news about what is going on in Southwest Virginia politics and helping elect and support elected Democrats in Southwest Virginia.
This group is still trying to figure out what it is, if anything, we can do to help Democrats in Southwest Virginia. If you are interested in helping or have some ideas, please contact us.
If you are interested in contributing directly to this site (i.e., posting blog entries, posting events to the calendar, etc.), go ahead and register and start posting.
Thanks again for being supportive of Democratic candidates and causes in Southwest Virginia.
Loki is home. Sadly, after many, many tests, the vets and students at the Virginia-Maryland Regional Veterinary Hospital at Virginia Tech say there is nothing any of us can do but try and make him comfortable for the rest of his life although no one knows how long that will be.
The MRI found evidence of two masses on his brain, both deep inside and both inoperable. At least one is affecting is balance, motor control and vision. If the masses grow, his condition will deteriorate.
Everyone who encountered Loki at Tech fell in love with him (as does all who come in contract with the extremely affectionate kitten). They were heartbroken that they could not do anything to alleviate his condition but will continue sending samples of his tests to other teaching vet centers in hopes that someone can offer help or a solution.
Someone asked me this week why we would pay thousands of dollars for tests in a long shot hope of finding a way to cure, or at least ease, the condition of a pet. I didn’t have an answer. I suppose that for those who have to ask, there can’t be an answer. Loki is a loved member of our family. For us, further explanation is not be necessary.
We will continue to care for the kitten as long as he is not suffering or in pain and hope that he can live out some portion of life in comfort or that, as sometimes happens, other forces intervene and his condition improves.
We will just take it one day at a time.