Southwest Virginia Blogs

We all have something in us that makes certain settings very comfortable mentally.  To me having water or mountains creates that virtual space which lets my mind wander beyond the physical boundaries of real property. 

Having mountains and oceans both is pretty special, but  not many places are that lucky especially if you want your water to be  warm salt water.

I have enjoyed living on the side of a mountain overlooking Roanoke.  I have taken many shots of the sun coming up over the mountains or the evening light sliding away from downtown.

The inspiration that you get when you look across a wide valley or a wide open expanse of blue water keeps the wheels under the human spirit turning.

The first step in dreaming is to see beyond your space.  It helps loosen the bounds on our minds.

It was a strange experience for me, the few years that we lived in Columbia, Md.  Our house in Columbia was surrounded by huge poplar trees.  It wasn't long before I felt smothered.  When I got to our home on the side of a mountain in Roanoke, I felt liberated.  In  fact each time I went back to Northern Virginia, I would feel the land closing in on me.

As soon I would cross into the Shenandoah Valley, I would feel like the whole world was spreading out in front of me.  Now that we get the chance to spend some time near open water, I can feel my mind racing across the water.

I feel especially lucky to have lived in so many wonder spots from the coast of Nova Scotia to Roanoke and North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks.

Views inspire us but they can also provide a great feeling of peace as the day closes.

For thee seventeen plus years we've lived in Roanoke, we have taken part in a few peanut discussions.  Among those who really love peanuts, the debate as to which are best usually ranges from Virginia Diner to Hubs.

Once in a while another name slips in, but mostly since people started caring that their peanuts were something other than Planters,  Hubs and Virginia diner has set the standard.

About three years ago, we started visiting Beaufort, NC and were introduced to peanuts sold by local church group under their own label.  No only were they good, but they also seemed better than the Virginia peanuts we were used to eating.  Pretty soon we had brought some back for neighbors.  It didn't take long before we were getting requests to bring back some more of those church peanuts.

They come in glass jars that say approximate weight 8.5 ounces and sell for $3.25 these days.  The thing is that they just seem like fresher and better peanuts.  Perhaps they're done in small batches, but for whatever reason, they're the peanut for us and some friends who have shared our secret.

They have one other advantage, you don't have to go to an expensive gift store to buy them.  In fact yesterday I was headed to Wilmington from the Cape Carteret area at around 7 am.  One of my unfulfilled chores was to pick up peanuts before heading home.

There is not much open at 7 am in the Swansboro area, but the Ace Hardware on Highway 24 was shining brightly at that time of morning so I pulled in and sure enough they had plenty of church peanuts that I could haul back to Virginia.

There was an added benefit.  When I mentioned that we had a lot of rain the previous night, I was quickly told that their rain gauge had shown two inches.   Early morning shopping and some weather information is hard to beat.

Another coastal tradition that we have carried back to Virginia is the Core Sound "Crab trap" Christmas tree by Neal Harvey in Davis, NC.

I think it is a great idea.  It's made from PVC coated crab trap wire.  It folds up easily in a very small size.

Of course the tree won't cause as much controversy as NC peanuts being labeled as better than Virginia ones.

For thee seventeen plus years we've lived in Roanoke, we have taken part in a few peanut discussions.  Among those who really love peanuts, the debate as to which are best usually ranges from Virginia Diner to Hubs.

Once in a while another name slips in, but mostly since people started caring that their peanuts were something other than Planters,  Hubs and Virginia diner has set the standard.

About three years ago, we started visiting Beaufort, NC and were introduced to peanuts sold by local church group under their own label.  No only were they good, but they also seemed better than the Virginia peanuts we were used to eating.  Pretty soon we had brought some back for neighbors.  It didn't take long before we were getting requests to bring back some more of those church peanuts.

They come in glass jars that say approximate weight 8.5 ounces and sell for $3.25 these days.  The thing is that they just seem like fresher and better peanuts.  Perhaps they're done in small batches, but for whatever reason, they're the peanut for us and some friends who have shared our secret.

They have one other advantage, you don't have to go to an expensive gift store to buy them.  In fact yesterday I was headed to Wilmington from the Cape Carteret area at around 7 am.  One of my unfulfilled chores was to pick up peanuts before heading home.

There is not much open at 7 am in the Swansboro area, but the Ace Hardware on Highway 24 was shining brightly at that time of morning so I pulled in and sure enough they had plenty of church peanuts that I could haul back to Virginia.

There was an added benefit.  When I mentioned that we had a lot of rain the previous night, I was quickly told that their rain gauge had shown two inches.   Early morning shopping and some weather information is hard to beat.

Another coastal tradition that we have carried back to Virginia is the Core Sound "Crab trap" Christmas tree by Neal Harvey in Davis, NC.

I think it is a great idea.  It's made from PVC coated crab trap wire.  It folds up easily in a very small size.

Of course the tree won't cause as much controversy as NC peanuts being labeled as better than Virginia ones.

For thee seventeen plus years we've lived in Roanoke, we have taken part in a few peanut discussions.  Among those who really love peanuts, the debate as to which are best usually ranges from Virginia Diner to Hubs.

Once in a while another name slips in, but mostly since people started caring that their peanuts were something other than Planters,  Hubs and Virginia diner has set the standard.

About three years ago, we started visiting Beaufort, NC and were introduced to peanuts sold by local church group under their own label.  No only were they good, but they also seemed better than the Virginia peanuts we were used to eating.  Pretty soon we had brought some back for neighbors.  It didn't take long before we were getting requests to bring back some more of those church peanuts.

They come in glass jars that say approximate weight 8.5 ounces and sell for $3.25 these days.  The thing is that they just seem like fresher and better peanuts.  Perhaps they're done in small batches, but for whatever reason, they're the peanut for us and some friends who have shared our secret.

They have one other advantage, you don't have to go to an expensive gift store to buy them.  In fact yesterday I was headed to Wilmington from the Cape Carteret area at around 7 am.  One of my unfulfilled chores was to pick up peanuts before heading home.

There is not much open at 7 am in the Swansboro area, but the Ace Hardware on Highway 24 was shining brightly at that time of morning so I pulled in and sure enough they had plenty of church peanuts that I could haul back to Virginia.

There was an added benefit.  When I mentioned that we had a lot of rain the previous night, I was quickly told that their rain gauge had shown two inches.   Early morning shopping and some weather information is hard to beat.

Another coastal tradition that we have carried back to Virginia is the Core Sound "Crab trap" Christmas tree by Neal Harvey in Davis, NC.

I think it is a great idea.  It's made from PVC coated crab trap wire.  It folds up easily in a very small size.

Of course the tree won't cause as much controversy as NC peanuts being labeled as better than Virginia ones.

For thee seventeen plus years we've lived in Roanoke, we have taken part in a few peanut discussions.  Among those who really love peanuts, the debate as to which are best usually ranges from Virginia Diner to Hubs.

Once in a while another name slips in, but mostly since people started caring that their peanuts were something other than Planters,  Hubs and Virginia diner has set the standard.

About three years ago, we started visiting Beaufort, NC and were introduced to peanuts sold by local church group under their own label.  No only were they good, but they also seemed better than the Virginia peanuts we were used to eating.  Pretty soon we had brought some back for neighbors.  It didn't take long before we were getting requests to bring back some more of those church peanuts.

They come in glass jars that say approximate weight 8.5 ounces and sell for $3.25 these days.  The thing is that they just seem like fresher and better peanuts.  Perhaps they're done in small batches, but for whatever reason, they're the peanut for us and some friends who have shared our secret.

They have one other advantage, you don't have to go to an expensive gift store to buy them.  In fact yesterday I was headed to Wilmington from the Cape Carteret area at around 7 am.  One of my unfulfilled chores was to pick up peanuts before heading home.

There is not much open at 7 am in the Swansboro area, but the Ace Hardware on Highway 24 was shining brightly at that time of morning so I pulled in and sure enough they had plenty of church peanuts that I could haul back to Virginia.

There was an added benefit.  When I mentioned that we had a lot of rain the previous night, I was quickly told that their rain gauge had shown two inches.   Early morning shopping and some weather information is hard to beat.

Another coastal tradition that we have carried back to Virginia is the Core Sound "Crab trap" Christmas tree by Neal Harvey in Davis, NC.

I think it is a great idea.  It's made from PVC coated crab trap wire.  It folds up easily in a very small size.

Of course the tree won't cause as much controversy as NC peanuts being labeled as better than Virginia ones.

For thee seventeen plus years we've lived in Roanoke, we have taken part in a few peanut discussions.  Among those who really love peanuts, the debate as to which are best usually ranges from Virginia Diner to Hubs.

Once in a while another name slips in, but mostly since people started caring that their peanuts were something other than Planters,  Hubs and Virginia diner has set the standard.

About three years ago, we started visiting Beaufort, NC and were introduced to peanuts sold by local church group under their own label.  No only were they good, but they also seemed better than the Virginia peanuts we were used to eating.  Pretty soon we had brought some back for neighbors.  It didn't take long before we were getting requests to bring back some more of those church peanuts.

They come in glass jars that say approximate weight 8.5 ounces and sell for $3.25 these days.  The thing is that they just seem like fresher and better peanuts.  Perhaps they're done in small batches, but for whatever reason, they're the peanut for us and some friends who have shared our secret.

They have one other advantage, you don't have to go to an expensive gift store to buy them.  In fact yesterday I was headed to Wilmington from the Cape Carteret area at around 7 am.  One of my unfulfilled chores was to pick up peanuts before heading home.

There is not much open at 7 am in the Swansboro area, but the Ace Hardware on Highway 24 was shining brightly at that time of morning so I pulled in and sure enough they had plenty of church peanuts that I could haul back to Virginia.

There was an added benefit.  When I mentioned that we had a lot of rain the previous night, I was quickly told that their rain gauge had shown two inches.   Early morning shopping and some weather information is hard to beat.

Another coastal tradition that we have carried back to Virginia is the Core Sound "Crab trap" Christmas tree by Neal Harvey in Davis, NC.

I think it is a great idea.  It's made from PVC coated crab trap wire.  It folds up easily in a very small size.

Of course the tree won't cause as much controversy as NC peanuts being labeled as better than Virginia ones.

If ever there ever was a sign of global warming, it has to be that it is the middle of December and two Nova Scotia golf courses reopened this week according to a story in the Chronicle Herald.

That's definitely not the Canadian winter weather that I endured.  Seems like I remember some Nova Scotians once painting their golf balls orange so they could play in the snow.

All  golfers get a little desperate in the winter.  Few of them need much of a reason to abandon even Virginia and head to Pinehurst or Myrtle Beach this time of year.  Now maybe some of them can add Nova Scotia to the list of places where they can do winter golf.

I am sure the province could use the tourism dollars.  It would have the added benefit that the golfers once they got home would really appreciate their home weather.  They probably wouldn't even need to turn up the heat in their houses.

It has been unseasonably mild except in the Northwest corner of the country.  I know Roanoke was in the mid-sixties today and here on the coast, it was near seventy degrees.  I snapped today's sunset picture between the two bridges over the White Oak River between Cedar Point and Swansboro, NC.  That's close to Emerald Isle for those of you not familiar with North Carolina coastal geography.

As far as I am concerned the Nova Scotians can keep golfing in December.  I found plenty to do outside myself today.  There nothing wrong with fishing in short and sandals in December.

Actually the weather is almost springlike along much of the east coast.  Even my buddy in Halifax, Nova Scotia has temperatures above freezing.  The weather in Roanoke has been pretty nice and might even cause your mind to wander to the beach.

Actually the beach weather has been pretty good also with temperatures approaching seventy degrees Fahrenheit some days.  Still we all know in our heart of hearts that this cannot last and that we must have cold weather so the greedy oil barons ( I will leave coal out of this since I don't want to be lynched) can have their pound of flesh.

When we lived in Atlantic Canada, usually about this time of year, the temperature would start falling.  A huge dome of cold air would slip relentlessly south and east.  Each day would be shock to the senses.  Today's low temperature would end up being tomorrow's high.  Sometimes the cycle would continue for a whole week.  One of the worst episodes that I remember was in January 1982.  I actually looked up some weather records and found that on January 17, 1982  it dropped to one degree Fahrenheit in Augusta, Ga. and in Philadelphia.  In that particular episode of cold, seventy five cities in the eastern US set record lows for the day.

That day on our farm (now a B&B) twenty miles north of Fredericton, New Brunswick, and 1100 miles north and east of Roanoke,  the temperature bottomed out after a number of days of steady drops at minus forty degrees.  I actually remember the day well since our youngest daughter was born then.  It was so cold I actually hung blankets over the windows.  Though minus forty was very unusual, even more unusual was the snow and high winds which were said to have gusted to over 60 miles per hour.  Normally when it got that cold the winds became silent and there was no precipitation.  That day was different.  We had a near blizzard in arctic temperatures.  In fact the next day, something that rarely happened took place.  Schools were actually closed in our snow belt district. (The first year we lived there, we had three feet of snow) Officials were worried that students might touch power lines because in some places the snow piles had gotten within touching distance of the wires.

It's hard to say what kind of winter Roanoke will get this winter.  Mountain weather is a huge challenge.  USA Today had an article yesterday, "El Nino promises warmer, drier winter in north."

I haven't noticed if Kevin Myatt has issued his annual winter weather forecast for the Roanoke area, but I did notice he mentioned in his latest post, "Winter weather a matter of ups and downs," that Roanoke and Blacksburg were among the spots that did not have record lows late last week.  I picked up from the weather service that North Myrtle Beach, Charlotte, and a number of areas on NC's Crystal Coast recorded record lows in the seventeen to twenty one degrees Fahrenheit.

I am ready to put in my request for a winter weather Christmas present.  I would like one snow storm to come Christmas eve and be gone by Boxing Day, the day after Christmas.  That should do nicely.

If you are interested in deciphering the winter forecast for you area, here is a link to NOAA's final winter 2006-07 forecast.

The best I can tell Roanoke has an equal chance of being wetter or drier and cooler or warmer.  Just pick the weather you want and wish for it.  That will probably work as well as anything.

The North Carolina coast looks to have a fair chance of normal temperatures with the odds being favorable for a little more moisture. 

I guess we'll just have to see how all this plays out since there is no predicting it.

Actually the weather is almost springlike along much of the east coast.  Even my buddy in Halifax, Nova Scotia has temperatures above freezing.  The weather in Roanoke has been pretty nice and might even cause your mind to wander to the beach.

Actually the beach weather has been pretty good also with temperatures approaching seventy degrees Fahrenheit some days.  Still we all know in our heart of hearts that this cannot last and that we must have cold weather so the greedy oil barons ( I will leave coal out of this since I don't want to be lynched) can have their pound of flesh.

When we lived in Atlantic Canada, usually about this time of year, the temperature would start falling.  A huge dome of cold air would slip relentlessly south and east.  Each day would be shock to the senses.  Today's low temperature would end up being tomorrow's high.  Sometimes the cycle would continue for a whole week.  One of the worst episodes that I remember was in January 1982.  I actually looked up some weather records and found that on January 17, 1982  it dropped to one degree Fahrenheit in Augusta, Ga. and in Philadelphia.  In that particular episode of cold, seventy five cities in the eastern US set record lows for the day.

That day on our farm (now a B&B) twenty miles north of Fredericton, New Brunswick, and 1100 miles north and east of Roanoke,  the temperature bottomed out after a number of days of steady drops at minus forty degrees.  I actually remember the day well since our youngest daughter was born then.  It was so cold I actually hung blankets over the windows.  Though minus forty was very unusual, even more unusual was the snow and high winds which were said to have gusted to over 60 miles per hour.  Normally when it got that cold the winds became silent and there was no precipitation.  That day was different.  We had a near blizzard in arctic temperatures.  In fact the next day, something that rarely happened took place.  Schools were actually closed in our snow belt district. (The first year we lived there, we had three feet of snow) Officials were worried that students might touch power lines because in some places the snow piles had gotten within touching distance of the wires.

It's hard to say what kind of winter Roanoke will get this winter.  Mountain weather is a huge challenge.  USA Today had an article yesterday, "El Nino promises warmer, drier winter in north."

I haven't noticed if Kevin Myatt has issued his annual winter weather forecast for the Roanoke area, but I did notice he mentioned in his latest post, "Winter weather a matter of ups and downs," that Roanoke and Blacksburg were among the spots that did not have record lows late last week.  I picked up from the weather service that North Myrtle Beach, Charlotte, and a number of areas on NC's Crystal Coast recorded record lows in the seventeen to twenty one degrees Fahrenheit.

I am ready to put in my request for a winter weather Christmas present.  I would like one snow storm to come Christmas eve and be gone by Boxing Day, the day after Christmas.  That should do nicely.

If you are interested in deciphering the winter forecast for you area, here is a link to NOAA's final winter 2006-07 forecast.

The best I can tell Roanoke has an equal chance of being wetter or drier and cooler or warmer.  Just pick the weather you want and wish for it.  That will probably work as well as anything.

The North Carolina coast looks to have a fair chance of normal temperatures with the odds being favorable for a little more moisture. 

I guess we'll just have to see how all this plays out since there is no predicting it.

Actually the weather is almost springlike along much of the east coast.  Even my buddy in Halifax, Nova Scotia has temperatures above freezing.  The weather in Roanoke has been pretty nice and might even cause your mind to wander to the beach.

Actually the beach weather has been pretty good also with temperatures approaching seventy degrees Fahrenheit some days.  Still we all know in our heart of hearts that this cannot last and that we must have cold weather so the greedy oil barons ( I will leave coal out of this since I don't want to be lynched) can have their pound of flesh.

When we lived in Atlantic Canada, usually about this time of year, the temperature would start falling.  A huge dome of cold air would slip relentlessly south and east.  Each day would be shock to the senses.  Today's low temperature would end up being tomorrow's high.  Sometimes the cycle would continue for a whole week.  One of the worst episodes that I remember was in January 1982.  I actually looked up some weather records and found that on January 17, 1982  it dropped to one degree Fahrenheit in Augusta, Ga. and in Philadelphia.  In that particular episode of cold, seventy five cities in the eastern US set record lows for the day.

That day on our farm (now a B&B) twenty miles north of Fredericton, New Brunswick, and 1100 miles north and east of Roanoke,  the temperature bottomed out after a number of days of steady drops at minus forty degrees.  I actually remember the day well since our youngest daughter was born then.  It was so cold I actually hung blankets over the windows.  Though minus forty was very unusual, even more unusual was the snow and high winds which were said to have gusted to over 60 miles per hour.  Normally when it got that cold the winds became silent and there was no precipitation.  That day was different.  We had a near blizzard in arctic temperatures.  In fact the next day, something that rarely happened took place.  Schools were actually closed in our snow belt district. (The first year we lived there, we had three feet of snow) Officials were worried that students might touch power lines because in some places the snow piles had gotten within touching distance of the wires.

It's hard to say what kind of winter Roanoke will get this winter.  Mountain weather is a huge challenge.  USA Today had an article yesterday, "El Nino promises warmer, drier winter in north."

I haven't noticed if Kevin Myatt has issued his annual winter weather forecast for the Roanoke area, but I did notice he mentioned in his latest post, "Winter weather a matter of ups and downs," that Roanoke and Blacksburg were among the spots that did not have record lows late last week.  I picked up from the weather service that North Myrtle Beach, Charlotte, and a number of areas on NC's Crystal Coast recorded record lows in the seventeen to twenty one degrees Fahrenheit.

I am ready to put in my request for a winter weather Christmas present.  I would like one snow storm to come Christmas eve and be gone by Boxing Day, the day after Christmas.  That should do nicely.

If you are interested in deciphering the winter forecast for you area, here is a link to NOAA's final winter 2006-07 forecast.

The best I can tell Roanoke has an equal chance of being wetter or drier and cooler or warmer.  Just pick the weather you want and wish for it.  That will probably work as well as anything.

The North Carolina coast looks to have a fair chance of normal temperatures with the odds being favorable for a little more moisture. 

I guess we'll just have to see how all this plays out since there is no predicting it.

Last year, I took the dangerous step of posting pictures of where I went shopping for my wife's Christmas presents.  The post, "Tale of shopping two cities," was about my experiences of shopping in Tyson's Corner, Va and Lexington, Va. 

The Tyson's area is home to every conceivable store including all of the top end stores.  There's even a LL Bean's, an Apple Store,  Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Tiffany & Company, Gucci and everything in between.  A list of the malls in the Fairfax Virginia area confirms that Northern Virginia is shopping utopia.

That is if you can get through crowds.  It's possible if you know the area well to shop, get in and out of the malls without too much hassle.  My daughter, Erin, once took me on a highly successful holiday dish shopping trip to one of the malls.  She knows the area like the back of her hand so it was painless shopping.

However, it can be intimidating for us rural types not from Northern Virginia.  That being the case, last year, I reached a tipping point and gave up shopping in Tyson's and headed down Interstate 81 to the quiet streets of Lexington, Va.

I have a history of shopping in out of the way places.  One year I went up to the Homestead.  There are plenty of interesting shops in Hot Springs, and it is only an hour and half from Roanoke. 

Another year we took a trip to Charlottesville, Va. which happens to be a hot spot for unique retail stores. 

In one respect I have been fortunate to travel up and down Interstate 81.  Those trips gave me access to Rocky & Brenda's Gold and Silver Shop in Weyer's Cave, Va.  I think it must be the only place in Virginia you can find a silver asparagus server in any pattern.

Another year I bought some antique salts in Blacksburg, Va.   I have also had great luck tracking down Vera Bradley and other gifts in Mount Airy, NC which happens to be the location of the Sobotta Manor which is the wonderful bed and breakfast now established in our former family home.

The Roanoke area has some interesting shops outside the mall areas.  Over the years I have enjoyed shopping in Provisions Gourmet and Countryside Classics in Salem.  At one time I was even brave enough to shop in  the Roanoke branch of Salem Creek.  Last year my wife found "Ladles and Linens" which has some very interesting items.

My friend Stephen pointed out that Middleburg, Va. is a neat spot to shop.  Based on my one visit there, "Middleburg, Dog Days, and The Red Fox Inn," I would have to agree.

I guess the reality is that every area has some neat spots.  You just have to find them.  I know that both Beaufort, NC and Swansboro, NC have plenty of neat stores.  Unfortunately my wife has seen them enough this year to know almost every item on the shelves.  That left me on the coast of North Carolina looking for interesting and inexpensive gifts.

It did not take the "Holiday traffic headache" article in today's Jacksonville Daily News to convince me that 60,000 cars a day go down Western Boulevard where most of the shopping is located.  I was trapped there much earlier in the year one Saturday afternoon. That being the case, Jacksonville was ruled out as a shopping location.

Fortunately my trips to Wilmington led me by the Blue Moon Showcase.  I managed to spend some time there, and I think I have hit pay dirt.  It is nice to be out of the danger zone since I have found most of those all important Christmas presents for my wife. 

Thirty three years and fortunately I still haven't run out of unique spots to buy my wonderful wife a few tokens of my love.  Of course she might argue about the gifts she got from the Salem Northern Tool & Equipment one year.  Then again she now seems to respond quickly to the annual Christmas gift list request.

I once consider writing a travel book of the new south, something like "Burgers, Barbecue, Bagels, and Beans."  I decided that the research would do be me in before I could finish the book.  Bagels do not seem to be as popular as they were a few years ago so I am not sure they would be a good topic these days.  Beans are a far too complicated, but I do claim to have one of the best baked bean recipes around, "The Best Baked Bean Recipe ever."

I will remain content trying to find the best burgers while sampling some great barbecue when I am fortunate enough to run across a true barbecue joint.  My gold standard is the burger my buddy Stephen cooked me a couple of summers ago in Northern Virginia.  Unfortunately his burger stand is never where I need it to be.

This past week on one of my marathon drives in the rain, I pulled into a Cookout drive through burger restaurant in Sanford, NC.  If you are not familiar with Cookout, you should give them a try.  They have very good charcoal burgers. I have eaten at the one in Mount Airy, NC a couple of times with very good results. 

Unfortunately with my Sanford stop, I was in a rush so I ate my burger at the stoplights while driving through Sanford.  That is not a very satisfying way to eat a burger.  I had hoped to find a Cookout in Wilmington this weekend to actually enjoy one of their burgers, but I did not have any luck.  However, while searching for great burgers, I found a local chain called P.T.'s Olde Fashioned Grille.  One of their locations was not far from the University of NC at Wilmington, so I slipped down there for lunch break.

It was a typical crowded college place where you filled out your own order form.  I came away with a very large cheeseburger, fries, and a drink for $7.  It was an excellent burger.  It is a very different burger from the Burger in the Square burger that I nominated as the "The Best Burger in Roanoke."  The P.T. burger reminded me a little of one from "Five Guys Famous Burgers."

If you are in Wilmington, NC and looking for a very good burger with some salt and pepper home made fries, P.T.'s Olde Fashioned Grille is a good place to start.  Their three locations are at:

Fountain Dr (College)  392-2293

So. 17th St. (Hospital)  794-4544

Military Cutoff (Wright. Beach) 256-8850

One of the legitimate and needed functions of government is the protection of our environment.  As individuals we have little leverage in stopping pollution that comes from beyond our own lots.  We can recycle , drive energy efficient cars, turn our thermostats down, and buy more energy efficient appliances.  Yet all that does not fix the problem of pollution that comes from beyond state borders.

I will join with the Raleigh News and Observer in congratulating NC's Attorney General Roy Cooper in his efforts to get the Tennessee Valley Authority to behave more responsibly.

While the biggest impact of TVA pollution is in the North Carolina mountains, we should not get complacent here on the Crystal Coast, because I am sure some of the pollution makes ti to us.   I have spent many years in Roanoke, Virginia.  There from on the side of our mountain, I have watched as the increasing traffic on Interstate 81 has often brought an ugly haze with it.  As the Roanoke Times reported in "Heading home ... slowly" traffic counts of 80,000 vehicles per day will be seen during the holidays.

One of the reasons I was attracted to the Crystal Coast was the brilliant blue skies that are so clear that you have to wonder if your eyes are tricking you and someone has used Photoshop to clean it up.

I hope we can keep those blue skies and blue waters.  They add an immeasurable amount of comfort to those of us who once had our heads stuck in smog banks like Washington, DC or Northern Virginia.

This morning I read a couple of pieces, one in the NY Times by David Brooks,  "The Education of Robert Kennedy," and the other, "The job's not done," in the Roanoke Times by Jerry Fuhrman.

It occurs to me that one article is talking about learning the past while the other hopes to preserve the past by legislating it. Last night we stopped by one of our favorite spots in Croatan National Forest to watch the sunset.  A mother was there with her young son.  We did not notice him until we got close to the water.  He was climbing high up in a tree.  Eventually we struck up a conversation as we watched the sun burn into the water.

She said that she wanted her son to feel like he owned the world.  She did not want him to live in a world of "no you cannot do that."  That is probably an admirable strategy as long as there are limits to that ownership and an added measure of responsibility.

I am a believer in the government staying out of our lives as much as possible so we do have a chance to fairly own a piece of our world.   Having the government outlaw same sex marriage in our state constitution will have little impact on whether or not people form same sex unions. 

It will not change most people's opportunity to be happy.  It certainly will not help improve the lot of people in same sex unions who help drive our economy just as much as those in same sex marriages.

It is a interesting idea that we can create a more comfortable or safer society by trying to legislate people to be like us.  We are actually better off building a society that excludes no one except those who are a real danger to us.  You should take that to mean, that I am not in favor of holding people indefinitely without trial on charges just because they do not look like me or do not worship the same way that I do.

Is affirmative action a danger to our society?  I can think of plenty of other dangers that I would put well ahead of it.  If you want to see how American culture has changed for the worst, spend some time in our corporations that are held so dear by many in our society.  I wrote about this new corporate society, "Cult of the Buddies," back in December 2004.  That new corporate society is a far greater danger to American life than any affirmative action.  If your position in the corporation has more to do with who you know than what you can accomplish, we have some very serious structural problems.

Our experiences shape our prejudices and even how we write.   My life in Apple's buddy dominated corporate world colors how I see corporations.   I tend to view governmental power from the perspective of someone who got whacked on the head while attempting to go get a burger during the student marches in Cambridge in the late sixties.

I would like to see government have as little power as possible while still meeting our basic needs which in my mind do not include invading places like Iraq for specious reasons but do include providing basic health care for its population.

We have to understand in our minds what government can and cannot do.  Government can legislate all it wants, but if there is no enforcement there, then the legislation is worthless.  We have laws about age discrimination in business,  but talk to any male over fifty in the high tech world, and you will realize that most companies consider older employees an expensive burden even if the employees are highly qualified.  The laws are on the books, but with the current state of enforcement the companies can do whatever they want including putting older employees into situations where there is not a chance to do anything but fail.  It has even reached the stage that there are Dilbert cartoons on older high tech workers like these published this past Thursday and Friday.

Can government fix this? I seriously doubt it, and the cost would likely be prohibitive.  Can government legislate marriage between a man and a woman?  I have no doubt that government will try to do that, but I suspect over time it will fail.

We can all yearn for the fifties and sixties, like George Will in his "In the market for the '50s," or me in my  post, "Growing Up in the Fifties and Sixties."  Yet, society will change in spite of our desire to legislate it into the past.  The best we can do is learn from the past and build a society  that puts as few people at a disadvantage as possible.  That likely means protecting the rights of everyone  to be free from the  "Tyranny of the Majority" or those who happen to be in power at a given  moment in time.

If you think that power always stays in the same hands, that walls can protect our country, or that we can legislate how people live, remember that in ancient Greece, Sparta fell after it built its first wall.

David Brooks closes his article with this very poignant observation.

And the lesson, of course, is about the need to step outside your own immediate experience into the past, to learn about the problems that never change, and bring back some of that inheritance. The leaders who founded the country were steeped in the classics, Kennedy found them in crisis, and today’s students are lucky if they stumble on them by happenstance.

And so here we are reliving the past in foreign policy because those in power thought they were immune from the lessons of history and that they owned the world.

I felt fortunate recently to be in Roanoke during the peak of the fall leaves.  I snapped this shot from our deck on November 1.  The shot reminds me of how beautiful the Roanoke Valley can be.  The colors aren't with us very long, but they always leave a lasting impression.  It's always easier to let your mind wander back to remember the good things than it is to deal with some of the tough things that we face every day.

The election will be here in a flash.  My guess is that we will have just as many tough problems three months after the elections as we have today.  The difference I hope is that we will have some people with fresh ideas who are more committed to doing the right things for the country than they are to spending all their energy trying to stay in power forever.  If we don't see a change, we should work hard to get new people to run for office.  We cannot afford to endure another several years of corruption, and I'm referring to a disease that isn't a stranger in either of the political parties. 

I'm hoping the fear mongering ends, and someone can emerge who is dedicated to bringing out the best in our country not the worst.  I have seen enough of politics defined by division and fear.  I hope we can prove we're smarter than politicians think we are.  If we don't elect new people, we deserve exactly what we'll get, more of the same, lame, corrupt, and petty politicians whose greatest pleasure is lining the pockets of those organizations who footed the bill for their election.

It would be absolutely wonderful to see some national leadership on transportation.  Certainly it doesn't look like Virginia can figure out its own mess by itself.  The Interstate Highways were a federal initiative, but they are badly in need of upgrades.  Certainly Interstate 81 is a classic case, but the last thing we need is more pollution belching trucks coming down through the valley.  Our landscape holds in the fumes, and I for one don't want to see the Shenandoah Valley turned into a three hundred miles long version of Los Angeles.  There has to be a better way.  If not, we'll be paying for the inaction with health problems and fewer opportunities to see those beautiful Roanoke Valley colors.

Vote, but vote wisely.

I felt fortunate recently to be in Roanoke during the peak of the fall leaves.  I snapped this shot from our deck on November 1.  The shot reminds me of how beautiful the Roanoke Valley can be.  The colors aren't with us very long, but they always leave a lasting impression.  It's always easier to let your mind wander back to remember the good things than it is to deal with some of the tough things that we face every day.

The election will be here in a flash.  My guess is that we will have just as many tough problems three months after the elections as we have today.  The difference I hope is that we will have some people with fresh ideas who are more committed to doing the right things for the country than they are to spending all their energy trying to stay in power forever.  If we don't see a change, we should work hard to get new people to run for office.  We cannot afford to endure another several years of corruption, and I'm referring to a disease that isn't a stranger in either of the political parties. 

I'm hoping the fear mongering ends, and someone can emerge who is dedicated to bringing out the best in our country not the worst.  I have seen enough of politics defined by division and fear.  I hope we can prove we're smarter than politicians think we are.  If we don't elect new people, we deserve exactly what we'll get, more of the same, lame, corrupt, and petty politicians whose greatest pleasure is lining the pockets of those organizations who footed the bill for their election.

It would be absolutely wonderful to see some national leadership on transportation.  Certainly it doesn't look like Virginia can figure out its own mess by itself.  The Interstate Highways were a federal initiative, but they are badly in need of upgrades.  Certainly Interstate 81 is a classic case, but the last thing we need is more pollution belching trucks coming down through the valley.  Our landscape holds in the fumes, and I for one don't want to see the Shenandoah Valley turned into a three hundred miles long version of Los Angeles.  There has to be a better way.  If not, we'll be paying for the inaction with health problems and fewer opportunities to see those beautiful Roanoke Valley colors.

Vote, but vote wisely.

I felt fortunate recently to be in Roanoke during the peak of the fall leaves.  I snapped this shot from our deck on November 1.  The shot reminds me of how beautiful the Roanoke Valley can be.  The colors aren't with us very long, but they always leave a lasting impression.  It's always easier to let your mind wander back to remember the good things than it is to deal with some of the tough things that we face every day.

The election will be here in a flash.  My guess is that we will have just as many tough problems three months after the elections as we have today.  The difference I hope is that we will have some people with fresh ideas who are more committed to doing the right things for the country than they are to spending all their energy trying to stay in power forever.  If we don't see a change, we should work hard to get new people to run for office.  We cannot afford to endure another several years of corruption, and I'm referring to a disease that isn't a stranger in either of the political parties. 

I'm hoping the fear mongering ends, and someone can emerge who is dedicated to bringing out the best in our country not the worst.  I have seen enough of politics defined by division and fear.  I hope we can prove we're smarter than politicians think we are.  If we don't elect new people, we deserve exactly what we'll get, more of the same, lame, corrupt, and petty politicians whose greatest pleasure is lining the pockets of those organizations who footed the bill for their election.

It would be absolutely wonderful to see some national leadership on transportation.  Certainly it doesn't look like Virginia can figure out its own mess by itself.  The Interstate Highways were a federal initiative, but they are badly in need of upgrades.  Certainly Interstate 81 is a classic case, but the last thing we need is more pollution belching trucks coming down through the valley.  Our landscape holds in the fumes, and I for one don't want to see the Shenandoah Valley turned into a three hundred miles long version of Los Angeles.  There has to be a better way.  If not, we'll be paying for the inaction with health problems and fewer opportunities to see those beautiful Roanoke Valley colors.

Vote, but vote wisely.

It's all in the neighborhood.  The shot to the right is of some early morning fishermen near the Highway 58 bridge close to Emerald Isle, NC.  They're in a pretty good neighborhood for finding fish.

I just seem to be in good neighborhoods for not having to mow my yard.  I've written about our crew of middle aged mowers on the hill before in "The First Mowing of the Year" and "The Last Mowing," but I haven't mentioned the good luck I've had recently in not having to mow our two yards.

In early September, with some partners we closed on a second home near Swansboro, NC.  That meant that I picked up a second yard which needed mowing not long after closing.  Since we didn't have a lawn mower in Swansboro yet, we arranged for a lawn service to mow the yard.  We were back in Roanoke when they were scheduled to do the first mowing. I was surprised to get a phone call from them.  They said something like, "Did you get someone else to mow your yard?" They had found the yard already mowed when they went out to mow it the first time.

I immediately called the real estate agent and asked if he knew who had mowed the yard.  He said they had been trying to figure out themselves how the yard got mowed.  We were down a couple of weeks later when I was sure that I would find the yard needing another mowing.  It looked like it had just been mowed.  It was then that I decided there must be a lawn fairy in the bushes.

The next morning I saw my new neighbor outside.  It didn't take him long to confess that he instead of a lawn fairy was mowing our yard.  Though he didn't say it, I think he was so glad to have the construction done next to him that mowing seemed like a small price to pay for having a neat yard next door.

You don't find many neighbors like our new neighbor.  He immediately offered to finish out the  mowing season for us since we didn't have a lawn mower at the house yet.  True to form he mowed it again before our next trip down.  Now the centipede lawns in our subdivision on the coast have gone dormant until next spring so I'm completely off the hook.

Of course the lawn in Roanoke is a different story.  I did contract to have it mowed a couple of times and managed to mow a couple of times between the rain storms the last time we were up on the mountain.  As I wrote in the "The mowing countdown," my Canadian psyche has a problem with December mowing which is often required in Roanoke.  Even in Roanoke things usually slow down in October and November, but this year the grass has grown like spring.  It's been a challenge for the middle aged mowers especially considering how much we've all been traveling.

This morning I got pictures in my email from my across the street neighbors of the new "Lawn Doctor" service that was mowing our  yard.  It wasn't exactly what you might think.  It was another neighbor mowing my yard.  Once again I'm off the hook for a while.

All I can say is that I really know how to pick neighbors.  I've lived in lots of spots, but none of them before Roanoke and Swansboro have ever had neighbors who would mow my yard.  As I've often said, neighbors make the neighborhood.