Hey Janice,

Thanks for posting my pictures so fast! I saw on the other thread that you’re taking a long weekend so I hope you have a great time in Canada. I hope Matthew enjoys the experience! Have fun!

Margie

Margie your pictures are spectacular! Beautiful views…I guess it was worth all those curvy~~~~~roads.

Thanks for sharing them with us.

Margie,
Beautiful photos. Thanks very much for sharing with us. I hope you have a great weekend. Send some of those 50 degree mornings and 70 degree afternoons this way if you can! JB

Margie,
As always, your pictures are fantastic! Such a great eye! You have a gift, my friend. I just snap, snap, snap and hope that something comes out good. If I could just take some good shots like these from by back porch, you’d be so impressed with the view. Unfortunately, they never turn out like I want them to. Oh well…I’ll keep trying.

JD, Hope you have fun on your time off. That little Matthew is already an international traveller. Enjoy your time in Canada!

Gwen

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for the kind words. Hey Deb, just looking at those symbols made me dizzy! Those curvy roads were worth it because it’s such a beautiful area. I haven’t had any nightmares about those roads so, except for my allergies flaring up, I survived the trip quite well.

JB, I wish I could send you some of my cool temperatures! When I see that weather map day after day with all those high temperatures, I do feel sorry for everyone who has to endure that. I hope you get some real relief soon!

Gwen, I take plenty of pictures to come up with the few that turn out really well. Sometimes the lighting isn’t right or something else just isn’t right. I’ve taken pictures that I thought would come out really good, but when I look at them on my computer, I’m disappointed. The sun was so bright the other day that it was hard to tell how my pictures were coming out because it was hard to see with all the glare. When I looked at the good ones on my big computer monitor, it was a “wow!” moment! I’m looking forward to my Eastern Shore trip because I’ll be able to take water pictures on that trip. There’s a lighthouse in the Maritime Museum at St. Michaels and I love lighthouses. Stay tuned next week for even more great pictures!

And thank you Janice for giving me a way to show off my pictures!

Margie

Wow Margie, I love the pictures!!!

Margie, thank you for these terrific photos of West Virginia, one my favorite states.

I haven’t visited West Virginia for a long time, but maybe someday I’ll be able to do so again.

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for all the nice comments about my pictures. I’m glad you all enjoyed them! I’ll have more to share after my trip to the Easter Shore this weekend but they’ll be the exact opposite of the mountain pictures–flat with plenty of water around.

It’s sunny and around 75 here in Cumberland this morning. They’re calling for rain this weekend but I hope it holds off long enough tomorrow that my friends and I can take my landscape timbers to the landfill without getting all wet. It will be nice to get rid of those ugly things. When I get my yard cleaned up I’ll take pictures so I can show off my handiwork. I’ll include a “before” picture so you can see what it looked like before I started all the work.

I hope everyone has a great day and a great weekend.

Margie

Very nice pics there Margie. I have never been to WV but my younger cousin has he loves it there when he visits.

Janice,

Can Chicago get two nice days in a row already? Was great yesterday but now today again rain thank goodness the temp is above 80 today

Afternoon everybody,

Hope y’all are having a great day! Don’t really have anything special to share…just thought I’d stop by and see what was up. Looks kinda quiet!

Hope everybody has a wonderful weekend. I’ll catch y’all later.
Gwen

Hey Gwen,

It seems that when Janice goes away, so does everyone else on the blog. That’s why I didn’t bother writing too much yesterday since I figured I’d be talking to myself.

If anyone does check in today, I hope you have a great weekend!

Margie

Hi Gwen, Hi Margie…

Sorry I have been QT of late….Things are pretty somber at the farm….We were the first farm in the state diagnosed with late blight in our tomato fields (Late blight is what caused the potato famine in Ireland of during the 1850’s)…Its a very contagious fungus that hits tomatoes and potatoes…

We may lose our entire tomato crop..
This was the article in the Hartford Courant yesterday (Fri). The farm that is mentioned on Weds is our farm. The man mentioned (Jude) works with us and other area farmers closely. He told us it will be an uphill battle to save the crop now. Weather has ben a significant player in the problem.

If anyone out there, including home gardeners, suspect their tomatoes have been hit by late blight please dispose of the diseased plants as outlined in the article. It will help prevent spreading. Thanks

http://www.courant.com/health/hc-tomato-potato-blight-0710.artjul10,0,6507819.story

Hey Dawn,

I’m sorry that the farm is having problems. I read the article and it sounds pretty bad. I hope that the spread of the fungus can be stopped so you don’t lose the whole crop. Please keep us posted on how things go.

Take care,
Margie

Hey all,

Just checking in….it does kinda get like a ghost town around here sometimes.

Hot here with rain on the way….but we do need it. Current temp is 85.

Dawn…sorry to hear about your tomato crop. I only had 2 plants and they weren’t doing good at all..so I just pulled them up. It was a bit depressing to see them wither away. I can’t imagine how it would feel to lose a whole crop. Wow. That’s awful.

Margie..hope you are feeling better w/your allergies.

So far, I am having a Pajama-Mama day. But I do hope to accomplish several chores before the day is over.

Have a great weekend all,
Deb

Margie

Is it true everyone in West Virginia has one of three last names? lol Nice pictures. Ever listen to WWVA? I’m told it’s actually one of the most powerful radio stations in the world. At night when most stations cut the wattage and still the signal goes further, WWVA runs 50,000 watts at night. Understand it can be heard on The Gaza Strip. Ran across the station by accident and the commercial I remember was for slime hog food which gave me a good laugh.

Passed the stone, finally got rid of the infection all while in NJ this past week for a funeral. My uncle finally passed. returned an hour ago.

Hey Gang,

Good morning everyone! I don’t know who’s out there but I hope you’re having a great weekend. I’m getting ready to head to the Eastern Shore so I won’t be back until sometime tomorrow evening. My plan is to get around Washington, DC before rush hour tomorrow evening. I don’t know how many of you have been on the DC beltway, but you really don’t want to be there at rush hour. I’ve done that a couple times and it really isn’t pleasant. People drive crazy around here, but around DC there are about a hundred times as many crazy drivers!

Have a great day everyone!

Margie

Hey Don,

I forgot to mention that everyone in West Virginia has one of about 4 names–just kidding! I can’t make fun of West Virginians too much because I know many people from West Virginia from work and church. So out of respect, I try not to be too mean. West Virginia drivers do drive me crazy, though and sometimes I don’t have very kind thoughts about them!

I’m glad you’re feeling better. I’m sorry about your uncle’s passing. I hope you’ll have a chance to get some rest now since it seems like you’ve had a rough stretch.

Take care,
Margie

Fox is remembering Tony Snow today.

For 25 years I read cover to cover The Conservative Chronicle always in resent years starting with Tony’s column. Tony used some of the most unusual words in his columns and I wrote Tony telling him I always had to go on line and look up the definitions of many of these words he used to continue reading as I didn’t have a computer in the bathroom where I read the paper. Also mentioned how I surveyed a couple hundred students at Princeton University and not one knew what the words he used meant.

Tony wrote back and you could tell he was laughing when answering my letter. He said he would try not to use the unusual words and suggested I put a dictionary in my reading library.

I miss his columns.

Tony and family= class act….

After his passing a made a modest donate to the Dana Farbar cancer association in his name as that was the wishes of the family….

Several months later I got this card in the mail with the return address listed only as “Snow”
I found myself going “huh?” as I had forgotten about my online donation…

Until I opened it….It was a hand written “thank you” note from one of his children thanking me for the donation in their father’s name..

I was stunned at this completely unnecessary, but very kind gesture of acknowledgement.

Again…Class act….

I will never forget their humility

Hey, Margie,

I watching “The Fabulous Dorseys” (1947) on TCM about two brothers from Shenandoah, PA — Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, two of my big-band favorites!

George

I love the pictures, Margie!! West Virginia is such a beautiful state! Whenever I go home to Ohio, I always take the scenic route of I-68 through west virignia rather than staying on 70 through PA! There’s so much more to look at! (not that I should be looking around while driving haha)

Tony Snow was indeed a class act. I regretted his leaving Fox for the Bush administration because
he was such an excellent and thoughtful journalist, really enrichening the news.

Margie, lovely pictures of WV! We just drove through quickly coming back from OH and were
surrounded by the lovely mountains on the interstate. Thanks for sharing.

Have a great day everyone.
Tony

Mornin’ everybody!
It’s kind of a sleepy Monday morning here for me. I’d better go get that 2nd cup of coffee to try to get kick started. Supposed to be another scorcher today…97 with heat index between 105-107. That’s the forecast for today and tomorrow, but Wednesday is supposed to be cooling with upper 80s to low 90s. Can hardly wait for that!

Big tragedy this weekend in Meridian. Yesterday morning a church bus from Shreveport, LA came through carrying members of their youth group going to camp in Georgia. Rear tire blew and the bus flipped 3 times. So far, one 18 year old dead with 2 critical. There were 23 on board . A group of AL National Guardsmen was travelling along behind the bus and was able to pick the bus up off several pinned underneath. They are real heroes! So tragic! I’m sure the families involved would appreciate all prayers.

With that, I’ll leave you…hoping that you all have a good day.
Gwen

Some great news!

I had another author I know hand me a book deal that he just doesn’t have time to complete. The
short version is that it is a series of 50 short portraits from colonial and Revolutionary history
aimed at students and ordinary citizens who want to know about the founding of the American colonies
and nation as well as the shaping of the American character. I’ll let you know if things go forward.

My son’s baseball camp was cancelled and no one called us. We’ve been talking about it for weeks,
and I went and outfitted him in $100 worth of baseball equipment at a chain sporting goods store
for over an hour. “I guess someone forgot to call you,” was the response. I guess so. His camp
is re-scheduled, so that’s some recompense. We practiced on the field in the blazing heat for over
an hour and both got pretty sweaty before a dip in the pool. Although my wife and I planned a little
alone time, the evening shaped up nicely despite the change of plans.

Take care,
Tony

Hey gang. It’s pretty quiet around here. I don’t see much of the boys anymore. They pack up their school stuff and spend most of their time at my dad’s.

It’s been hot, hot, and hot here. Did I mention that it’s been hot? Today was our 22nd day of triple digit heat this year, 9th tied or broken record high, and 50th day without official measurable rain.

I don’t know if y’all have followed the Billings family double murder, but it’s been a big thing for me. It hit a little too close to home…about 10 minutes from my mom’s house. Several of my friends knew one of the suspects pretty well back in high school. http://www.pnj.com has the local coverage. The worst part about it was that they had 16 kids, 12 of whom were adopted and have special needs.

Hi Everyone,
Well, I survived my trip to the Eastern Shore. It was a lot of fun & we got to see a lot of fascinating things. I’ll send some pictures to Janice so she can post them. I see that she didn’t post anything yesterday so she must have been off Monday, too. I hope her weather was as good as the weather my friend Heather & I had for our trip. It was quite hot & humid on Sunday but not quite as bad yesterday. We went to St. Michaels, MD on Sunday & had a great lunch at a great restaurant called the Crab Claw. That was right next to the maritime museum we visited so it was handy. The museum was great but there were hardly any people there. I was amazed. They said things have been really slow this summer. The museum had a lighthouse & all kinds of other great things. We saw them making & repairing boats & that was great. We took a boat ride on a good sized boat & the captain let me steer the boat for about 5 minutes. That was fun!

Yesterday we went to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge & saw all kinds of great things including egrets, herons, osprey, & other assorted wildlife. That was a lot of fun! Getting a flat tire in rush hour traffic on the interstate was not fun, however. Thankfully, it was on the right side so we didn’t have to worry about getting hit by a car. I know how to change a tire but it was so nice when a guy stopped to help. I didn’t have to get dirty!

I’m running out of space so I’ll wish everyone a great day. Stay tuned for pictures.

Margie

Hi Friends.
Sorry I’ve been missing around here lately. I moderate an email prayer chain and had to move it to a new provider. Naturally the addresses of hundreds of people wouldn’t transfer, so I had to manually enter each one. Didn’t even want to look at the computer after that!
Tony, my son played baseball from coach pitch through high school and we have lots of good memories associated with it. Just promise me you won’t become one of “those” parents!!! LOL
Dawn, sorry to hear about your family’s difficulties with this years tomato crop.
Margie, love the pics. Sounds like you had a nice time on your getaway, except for the flat tire at the end – I’m impressed. I don’t know how to change a tire . . . I do know how to call Roadside Assistance, does that count???
Have a wonderful day, everyone.

Hey Gina,

Calling Roadside Assistance is great but you really should learn how to change a tire. You never know when you’ll be in an area where you don’t have cell phone service or some other situation. I belong to AAA and I could call them, but since I know how to do it, I’ve never called them for a tire–only a dead battery.

I’m just glad I didn’t get the flat tire while going across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. That would not have been fun at all! And when it did happen, it was just past some road construction with concrete barriers so there would not have been a place to pull over in that area. God was definitely watching over us.

I hope your weather is cooling off down there a little. To you and all those putting up with triple digit temperatures, I wish you cool temperatures and low humidity! We actually got down to 52 this morning. That’s crazy for the middle of July! I wish I could have packaged that up and send it down your way! Hang in there!

Margie

Morning guys,
Kinda quiet here on the blog the past few days. Must admit, I don’t have too much to add today myself.

The weather has been much better here. We did get rain yesterday (.5 inch). That was really nice! And it’s overcast here today, so the heat is not as intense as the past few weeks. In any case, I shouldn’t complain…bro in law in Iraq reports 133 degrees w/sand storms from where he is. Luckily the base he’s on this time around has good air conditioning. 2005 was a different story…they pretty much built the FOB they were at from the ground up. Sad that we get so little news from them and what’s going on over there.

Guess I’d better run. It’s almost lunchtime…one of my 3 most favorite times of the day!

Catch y’all later!
Gwen

Gina, believe me, I am definitely not one of “those” parents especially when it comes to sports (I don’t think my kids have watched any sports on TV except one or two tennis and golf matches and of course the Olympics!). We also don’t want to overbook our kids. We mostly wanted the baby-sitting for us while our son picked up some basics of baseball.

Cest la vie.
Tony

Evening/morning it’s July 16 but I wanted to leave a post about Margie’s great pics. Sorry to hear about your crops Dawn, do you have such things as crop insurance or can you get coverage, I know it doesn’t help much, but look into it. I don’t know the US programs like I do the Canadian ones.

Re: Tony Snow, what a loss to the world of this fine man. Made me sad to think of the talent and kindness this person had.