I'm Invited!

Oh, what to wear!



Hmmm, is that a donkey on the fake wax seal? (note to the former Brooklyn Hillbilly: If you host a really formal gathering, you should totally do the donkey seal on the envelopes)



A donkey indeed. In case you can't read the fancy script, I'm invited to vote in the Democratic primary. *Sigh*


"Here's why...There are more candidates from which to choose. The presidential race is ---"

WHOA, buddy, stop right there -- you had me at "from which"!

Seriously, though, I'd been pondering doing this anyway. I'm just a little surprised to be formally invited. Why, I wonder, do the Democrats really want Independents voting in their primary? Because it might make us more likely to vote for their candidates in the fall?

Happy Hardscrabble Birthday, WV!

In honor of the state's 144th, here's a bit of YouTubery.

I Wanna Go Back To West Virginia, Spike Jones, 1942
I heard a piece of this song this morning on Metronews and got interested in the song. It just happened to be offered on YouTube. I'm going to have to do a little more research because I just noticed that Spike Jones was born and died in California. I wonder what the history is behind this song -- is it his or did someone else do it first?

My Home Among the Hills, as performed by the WVWC Chorale
It's not a great recording for music quality, but it's the WVWC Chorale, and in my biased opinion, no one does "My Home Among the Hills" like WVWC musical groups. I still get chills whenever I hear this song.

Road Racers

There's not a lot to look forward to when you drive Route 50 between Parkersburg & Clarksburg, but in the summer time, it's kind of fun when you happen by cyclists or walkers doing a coast-to-coast trek.

On my last trip, I passed a couple of cyclists in Race Across America (Oceanside, CA, to Atlantic City, NJ).

I'm totally in awe of the bikers who do those races. Even in my best physical condition, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't last more than 5 very slow miles on that stretch of highway.

Trying to reminisce about the 1990 teacher strike

I don't remember much from that time period, which is a shame because I must have been terribly giddy to be out of school.

I watched the video and looked at the pictures at WSAZ, but it didn't unearth any lost memories. I just know that what went on in our county couldn't have been nearly as exciting as some of the picket lines they showed in those videos.

What I do recall of the strike is spending at least one glorious day at the local park enjoying the spring weather with some of the older kids. But even then there was gnawing at me a bit of boredom because, no matter how much I hated going to school, I had to admit that really there wasn't much else to do.

Sometimes the Weatherman is Right

Like today.

I didn't really believe it last night when I heard the forecast for a big snowstorm, hitting right during the morning commute and continuing throughout the day today. I've lived here long enough to know that there are often huge snows predicted that never materialize.

But darn if it didn't materialize today!

Today would've been the ideal day to work from home (and graze all day, as I did last time I worked from home), but no, I didn't have enough sense to do that. I instead got up and saw the little dusting of snow on the ground, figured the storm wasn't coming, and headed out as usual.

Ha - boy was I wrong! We now have about between 6 and 8 inches of heart-attack-inducing, back-breaking heavy snow.

What fun.

Remembering the Buffalo Creek Disaster

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the horrible Buffalo Creek flood in Logan County that killed 125 and left thousands homeless.

I've always heard brief mentions about this incident, but today I finally took a moment and looked at the online exhibit at the WV Division of Culture & History's website and now have a better of understanding of what took place.

The second image on this page helped me envision the dams involved and the area devastated by the flood. Also note the first paragraph of that page. There are at least 9 Buffalo Creeks in WV, and two of those are associated with major disasters -- the mine explosion at Farmington that killed 78 and the aforementioned Feb. 26, 1972, dam break and flood in Logan County. I'd definitely never made that connection.

Everything But Hail

I had a grand tour of precipitation today, and was it ever an adventure. I'm thankful to have made it back to my little shack in one piece.

A drive from the homeland to the current place of residence usually takes about 2 hours. Today it took about 4. Now, I am a very cautious driver in the snow, so you probably could have made it in about 3 1/2 or so.

I could have delayed my drive till tomorrow morning, and I contemplated that briefly, but the weather forecast didn't sound promising -- more snow, freezing rain, etc.

Route 50 was by far the worst. It always is. The most awful part is when you're driving along at a comfortable pace in the one sort-of plowed lane and you reach the top of a hill, cross a county line, and suddenly you're on something resembling a Lake Placid bobsled track -- nary a bare spot to be seen, just packed snow and ice. Gosh, that's fun!