This last day of March started out bright and sunny but as the day wore on the clouds and dampness set in. I guess you could say March is going out like a damp lamb. It is hard to believe that we are 90 days into 2009. It has been a bumpy 90 days for the country and gosh only knows what’s going to happen in the next 90 but its spring and anything is possible. Heck there was work done on my cabin today, go figure. With luck the electrician will be there tomorrow and once he is done the insulation can go in. I am trying not to get excited about the cabin but things are starting to move along and it’s hard to keep that “it will be done when it gets done” attitude.

How can I tell its spring? I have 3 main indicators: how much hair do I have to sweep up every day (I have 2 dogs and a cat), how many small animals and birds do I have to rescue from the cat (2 birds so far) and……. how badly do I want to plant something. About 2 weeks or so ago I planted some basil just to have something green around. I told myself that I was going to hold off on the flowers and plants this year but I needed something from the store and saw some pansies and I just could not resist. I did resist the magnolia tree, barely. It was beautiful, but I could not figure where I would put it so now it’s on the sometime in the future list.

I have been paying attention to what is starting to bloom and bud now. Yellow tips and daffodils have bloomed. Willows have tiny green leaves on their branches giving them a green silhouette and many other trees have a slight red tinge to them, an indication that they are getting ready to show their new spring growth. On the bank next to my driveway the previous owner planted many different types of spring flowers. I know she planted daffodils they are every where. There are other things coming up also; I think I see what could be irises but I don’t know. Until I see the flowers I won’t know what gifts the previous owner has left for me. I wonder how much of what I see now will turn out to be weeds. This year is for learning and boy do I have a lot to learn!

I was talking to my #2 son, venting was more like it, when he said to me “things haven’t gone too great for you up there (the Mt’s)” Lets face it, it took longer than I had hoped to find a contractor to build the house and its taking even longer to actually build it. Every thing I have wanted to do has cost a lot more than I had budgeted. Someone burned my barn down and now…. I hate my job. Humm. I will admit that lately I have wondered if I did the right thing in moving up here. I miss my family, I miss my friends and god knows I miss my job. I am not where I wanted to be by now. Things are not going the way I want them to go. So why am I here?

Rounding the corner, just before I turned on to road that leads to my house I saw the Buffalo wrapped in clouds. I saw the first live skunk I have ever seen up here. I saw baby cows jumping and running. When I got on my road I felt at home. A house is just a house, some day it will be finished. A job is just a job I can always find another. I miss my friends but I have been very privileged to meet a lot of very good people up here and the phone and internet allow me to keep in touch with my distant friends. The reason I am up here is because I want to be. Its not heaven but for me it’s close.… kinda.

touch of spring

It was a very pleasant week here in the Mt’s . It felt a lot like spring and I spent as much time as I could outside. I spent a good deal of the day Thursday removing wild roses from around my fruit trees and while that was not all that fun it was “rewarding”. I have been reading the seed/plant catalogs that have been coming my way, and while I don’t plan on doing a lot of planting this year these magazines are giving me some ideals. I won’t get away with out buying something but my goal is not to over buy. I want to live on the property and in the cabin for a little while before I buy that walnut tree that grows 60 feet tall and 40 feet wide.

The cabin roof has been shingled. We will see what gets done next week.

A touch of spring

What a difference a week makes. Last Sunday I was slipping and sliding on my way to work yesterday we reached 73 degrees. In the afternoon I opened up the house to fresh air and sun today I am planning on working in the sunshine and fresh air at the cabin site. March came in like a lion of sorts, we had an intense but brief bout of winter and in less than a week we are having a touch of spring.

This weather and the nature of my job is exposing me to new bugs and I have caught a head cold. Ever since I reached the age of 40 I have been getting colds in the spring and fall. I don’t remember this bi-annual illness thing prior to that age but no cold is going to keep me inside today. I need to be in the great outdoors even if it is only time spent picking up trash from a job site.

The view on my way home today... gotta love it

I woke up this morning, stumbled into the kitchen let the dogs out, turned the coffee on, checked the fire in the wood stove and looked at the digital thermometer. At first I thought it said 21 degrees but after I fixed my cup of coffee and put my glasses on I took another look at the temp. It had changed to 1.6 degrees that’s when I realized that the 21 had been actually 2.1. burrr rabit!!!

I took a ride to the local convenience store yesterday afternoon to get some sour cream for my home made chili when I came across another Jeep owner. This guy has a red Jeep with a 4 inch lift kit, beefed up tires, wench and all kinds of stuff. He is a real Jeep enthusiast, kind of a Jeep jock. well I love my Jeep but I only know how to drive it and I haven't gotten any "attachments" YET , so a lot of what he had to say went over my head. But we had a good conversation anyway. He told me how he had some fun whipping around on Buffalo Mt rd in drifts that came up higher than his wheel wells. I told him how I got stuck and then pulled out by a range rover. "His reply; oh no I know that guy and I'll never hear the end of it!" It’s a small world.

Some day that will be home

We had a bit of snow Saturday and Sunday. While getting to work on Saturday was no big deal it took 2 hours to get there on Sunday. On the way to work Sunday I took a little “slide” trip. I got a little cocky and went a little too fast for the conditions. My south bound Jeep and I wound up in the north bound lane; I came close to ending up in the ditch. It was a good thing it happened where and when it did because pretty much as soon as I came out of the skid and was back in my lane a road scraper followed by 3 or 4 cars, one a sheriff, pass by heading north. Needless to say I watched my speed the remainder of the way home.

Coming home this morning was no big deal until I hit Burk’s Fork road. As soon as I turned off 221 the snow was at least a foot deep. I was putting along just fine until I came across a group of vehicles stopped on the road. The land rover driven by a man named Lynn and his son Wyatt was in the process of pulling two pick up trucks out of the ditch. I was asked to back up a bit and in doing so I got stuck, so sad to say my wrangler got pulled out of a ditch by a land rover. I will be getting a wench before next winter. It was a good thing I did get stuck because just a little further up the road the snow drift was so high that there was no way I was going to get by. Lynn recommended a different way and I got home, no problem at all.

The dogs loved the snow the cat was not impressed

The snow was so beautiful and to me it feels warmer with snow on the ground, less depressing. I hate that I have to go to sleep today because snow only last for a few days then it either melts or turns yellow.

Its feeling a lot like spring this last day of February; this past week we have had warm temperatures and periods rain. I have seen the green tips of what I hope are lilies on the road bank near my driveway gate. I have been warned by the folks that have been living here a long time that March is truly a month of transition. I have heard tails of blizzards and ice storms where folks were stuck in their homes for weeks!!! March is promising to start off like a lion (cub), we are expecting a wintry mix tonight and tomorrow.

Things are moving along on the cabin. The windows and doors have finally been set and they have started on the soffits. While it’s predicted to be cold next week there is no rain in the forecast till Friday so hopefully something will get done.

What a nice day it has been. It started out with a snow shower and a walk with the dogs, followed by music and brunch with friends and finished with home brewed beer and snack food at a new friend’s basement Irish pub. Days like this are what life is all about.

I learned some interesting financial information the other day. I applied for a loan and was curious as to why my credit score went down. Now I have few bills and I pay all of them on time also I very seldom have a balance on my credit card. I have savings, not much but some and my monthly obligations are much less than my income (for now that will change when the cabin is finished!!) so why did my credit score go down, your not gonna believe this but you see, last summer I canceled 2 credit cards and had my one remaining credit card limit reduced. I never used the 2 cards I had canceled; they were tied into my home mortgage and my equity line, so I did not see any reason in keeping them. The one card I kept had a high limit, more than I could ever afford to pay back if I was dumb or desperate enough to use it, so I thought it would be responsible of me to reduce the limit. Boys and girls here is why we have the financial problems we have now, the credit bureau penalized me for being what I feel is financially responsible. Here is how it goes, if YOU cancel a card it reflects on your credit score the same way it would reflect if your creditor canceled the card because of poor payment, the same applies if you reduce your limit. Another little heads up if you have 10 credit cards each with a $10,000 limit as long as you don’t use more than $4,999 on each card it will not reflect on your credit score but if you have 1 credit card with a $500 limit and you put $300 on it, you will get poor marks on your credit score. You are penalized if you use more than half of your credit limit no matter what that limit is. If you were to have 10 credit cards and go to the bank to get a consolidation loan they use to tell you to get rid of 9 of them, now they say, keep the cards just don’t use them you don’t want to mess up your credit. This just does not make any sense to me.

My farmer friend moving his cattle from one field to another

This reminds me of a winter shot but its 55 degrees out

It’s been a nice few days. I can’t believe it’s the middle of February. Other than the breeze things here have been very mild. I have been assured that the weather will get cold again. I have been told many a story of March & April snows.

The dogs and I have been taking our daily walks and I have been looking for some nice photos to shoot but there is slim pickins in that department. I haven’t had much to talk about either. I don’t like to put too much politics in this blog and that’s what been on my mind as of late so I’ll just keep my mouth shut.

For the most part things are good. I have made some nice friends up here and they are getting me out and about. They are costing me money though; I have to buy blouses because I can’t wear my t-shirts on our outings.

My builder is threatening to get some work done on the cabin. He tells me it will be done in a month….. Ok…… we will see.

It was a nice day today. The week started out with snow and cold temperatures and now we have warm weather and mud. I did not do a whole lot today my project was to clean the chimney; I had that done by 9:30. I heat by wood stove for the most part and while the wood I am using is all hard wood its not truly seasoned, most has been cut with in the past 6 months so I have been sweeping out the chimney about every 6 weeks. I love the heat from a wood stove I also like to watch the hypnotizing flames as the wood burns. It amazes me how fire can be comforting and dangerous at the same time. I treat fire with respect and I keep the tools I need to control it in good working order.

We have had a few days of snow. This shot was taken yesterday morning. I did not go on a walk this morning, it was just too damn cold, 9 degrees,. Its a little after noon now and we are up to 20 degrees with a bright sun but I think I will stay in today and just listen to music and read.

• It’s the first day of February and the weather is great. This morning the sun was shining so it only made sense that the dogs and I should take a walk and we did. We took a different path this time and came upon these bones. I think it may have been a cow there are a lot of them around here.
  

• The dogs and I continued up the path, the path was up a hill and it’s easier to go up the path to start because on the way home when I can go down the path (hill) I’m lazy that way. Anyway walking along the path I looked to my left and saw this. To me it looked very inviting so up I went.

• I had never been here before but it’s a nice site. That is the Buffalo in the distance. I will make it a point to vary my walks from now on. I can actually drive the Jeep down a lot of these paths and then take to foot when the way gets too narrow.

• I’m a big The Daily Show & Colbert Report fan but with my work schedule I don’t get to see them every time they are on TV. These shows have to be seen pretty close to the air date to get the jest of the humor so I don’t worry about seeing them in rerun. I discovered something this week the Comedy Channel plays the previous week’s shows back to back on the weekend starting at 7am; the Daily Show is rerun on Saturday and the Colbert Report on Sunday. When I move I hope to have DSL and I will be able to watch what ever I want when I want on the internet, but since all I have now is Hughes Net I’ll watch the weekend reruns on TV if I have time.

I haven’t felt much like writing these past few days partly because I have been working a lot and partly because things are so depressing around here right now that it just hasn’t felt right to write.

I have moved to a rural part of Virginia and have started working in a small rural hospital. I had been working in a small hospital on the Outer Banks and I loved it. We saw a lot of poor people there and did a fare share of indigent care but nothing like what I am seeing here. Around here there are a lot of proud people who have lost their jobs and when they lost their jobs they lost their health insurance. They all do the same things; they don’t make eye contact they just look at their hands. It’s sad. This is why I am for universal health care. People should not have to worry about going bankrupt when they get sick. I guarantee you a lot of people are going to become disabled or die during this recession because they could not afford to go to the hospital for “just a little indigestion”. Some people abuse the system but most people don’t. We as a society need to change our view on health care; we need to make it available and affordable to all.

We need to pay to train new doctors. North Carolina had a nursing grant that I took advantage of. They “loaned” me money that I could pay it off in one of two ways. I could work in North Carolina for an agreed amount of time or I could pay the loan off in cash. The United States could do the same thing for Doctors. Work in under served areas like family medicine and preventative care and get part or all of your schooling written off.

In 2000 the world health organization rated the US 37 out of 191 in over all health care. In 2005 we spent 15.2 % of our GNP on health care. An article I read in The New York Times World’s Best Medical Care? - New York Times was informative. We can do better than this. People should be able to look me in the eye when they seek health care, they should not think twice about coming to the hospital with “a funny feeling” in their chest. People should not die because they don’t want to risk losing the family home.

• When I sat down at 6pm tonight to eat dinner I noticed that it was not totally dark outside. The trees were black silhouettes against a gray sky. The days are getting longer and that tends to give me spring fever. I know that spring is more than 7 weeks away and that there is a lot of cold weather yet to come but…….
  

• There has been some closure on my barn that burned down last August. One of the men involved in the “accidental” arson has been sentenced to 4 years in jail. I don’t know if that is fare or not because no one has discussed the case with me. No one asked me how I felt or gave me any ideal of how this case was going to be handled. The only reason I know what the verdict is, is because I read it in the paper. I was contacted only once by the common wealth attorneys office and that was because they wanted to know the value of my barn. I guess I will call the common wealth’s attorneys office on Wednesday just to see where things go from here who knows maybe they will tell me something. I don’t expect to ever see the barn money, lets be honest, the guy is being sent to jail for 4 years, after he is released he has to find a job and then pay off me and the insurance company that paid off the farmer who had his equipment in my barn. Unless the state of Virginia offers technical school in jail I don’t know how he is going to do it. I’m not holding my breath

I finally made it to the The Sun Music Hall in downtown Floyd. A friend and I went to hear William Walter & Co. I must say I had a very good time. The music was really good and the band looked and sounded like they enjoyed what they were doing. My friend that told me about the group said she was told that they “kinda sounded like Bruce Springsteen and the E street band” I disagree with that description, I think they sound more like Train, my friend said they reminded her of Van Morrison. No matter what the music was good.

I very much liked checking out the folks that were there to listen. Where I come from most of the bands play in bars, and those bars are for the most part not family friendly. What I saw at this event were baby’s in mother’s arms and people that easily could have been those baby’s grand parents all dancing together. I did not dance. I just sat in the seats provided sipping my cappuccino (no beer for me I had to drive too far =-( and enjoying the music. I was not really impressed with the acoustics of The Sun Music Hall. I have been to hole in the wall bars where the sound was better but the band was good and they for the most part were able to work with what they had. In my opinion The Sun Music Hall may not be a perfect place to play music but it offers a good space for a bunch of people to listen to music and enjoy a night out with family and friends

“As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers ... our found fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.” Barack Obama

I have started a new job and did not think that I would be watching the inauguration today. My orientation syllabus had me working until the12:30pm lunch break and while I had mentioned on Monday that I had really wanted to watch it I had no expectation of being able to. When class started today the instructor informed us that her husband had commented on how surely she would be letting us watch the inauguration and that we would be taking our lunch break early.

We were sent on our lunch break at 11:45am and I quickly set out to find a TV set. I knew that the patient waiting areas had TV’s but I did not know exactly were these areas were. It wasn’t long before I heard the sound of thousands of people cheering and knew I had found a TV.

The waiting room I found was empty except for one patient waiting for an X-Ray. I went in acknowledged him and sat down to watch. Right after Biden was sworn in as vice president others slowly began to join us. We chit chatted while the music played. “What time is it” I commented “by law Obama has to be sworn in by 12 noon because that’s when Bush stops being president” shortly after that the TV announcer whispered that technically Biden was president because he had taken the oath office and Obama had not. Those of us in that waiting room waited patiently for our future president to be sworn in. We commented on how nice he and Michele looked. Aaaa’ed when one of the Obama girls squinted one eye shut while looking into the camera and sun. We were quietly enthusiastic. I had the sense that all of us were hopeful but not expecting much. We listened as Obama was sworn in as our president and then we listened to his speech. Those around me seemed to feel that the speech was well done. We then introduced our selves to each other, we would be working together at the same facility and hopefully would be seeing each other again and then I quickly made my way back to class. I may have gone quickly but I was still late. To be honest I don’t care that I was late; somethings are more important than making a class on time.

Ombam’s speech was good. I especially liked the paragraph that I have posted above. I agree that “As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals” I have a bumper sticker on my Jeep that has a quote from Benjamin Franklin it says “They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” I put it there when the government said that not every one was entitled to habeas corpus. I will keep the sticker there because I believe in liberty ABOVE all else. I hope that the new powers that be can let go of the restrictions placed on that liberty by the past administration but I know that It is very hard for power to let go of power.

I am so bummed. I have to work today and I will most likely miss the inauguration. Damn!! I wanted to see this one in real time. I have a lot of hope for this Pres-to-be after what we as a nation have been through these last four presidencies, Regan, Bush, Clinton (dumb ass I like him but he screwed up big) and Bush 2 (very few sequels are ever as good as the first, and while the first wasn’t the worst Pres he wasn't that good either). No matter what at least for the first time in a long time I don’t hear a lot of negative comments on our top leader. It won’t last long. He will screw up some how or another because no matter what anyone thinks he is not the second coming. I wish him well and with that I wish the American people well. We deserve it.