By Bill Brown Last night’s (May 24th) meeting of the Chesterfield County School Board did not get off to an auspicious start. First, although documents being used during meetings (work sessions and regular meetings) are routinely made available online at http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/chesterfield/Board.nsf/Public, the process is not without flaws. This morning an addendum to Memo 51, “Recommended Personnel Action,” was posted to this web site but ordinary citizens were blocked from accessing that addendum. In what would seem to be a praiseworthy action, Robert W. Thompson, school board member from the Matoaca Magisterial District, asked this item be moved from the consent…
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CHESTER, Va – Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. This is Sunday, and hopefully I will make it under the wire to get this in the Memorial Day issue. Wow! End of May is just around the corner. Anyway, please do take time out from your holiday activities to honor those who have died to protect not only our freedom but the freedom of millions around the world [Note: Veterans Day is to honor all who have proudly served]. Originally this was called “Decoration Day,” a day to place flowers on the graves of those…
I have a new item for your garden this year “bling.” Bling is generally defined as a flashy object worn by people. We have all seen bling, and some of you reading this even have bling in your closet! Besides the belts and the jewelry, what about the reading glasses that go with nothing but just look cool? Bland landscapes across central Virginia need excitement, and here are a few ideas that can make your corner of the world just a bit brighter. Decorative garden stakes give options for breaking up bland walls and fences. Garden stakes can resemble realistic…
On May 16, our fire service family lost a man who was a friend to every person that he met. Retired firefighter George Decker was just that person. George worked on A-shift at Stations 14, 3, 8, and 12 for the majority of his career. George was a humble, humorous, and hard-working guy. To look at George, you would not expect to find that he was college educated; he could also figure numbers in his head faster than anyone I knew. He was also a good carpenter. After his death, many firefighters began to post memories of George on Facebook.…
Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. A few weeks ago I was able to attend my first ComicCon Convention. No, I am not too old for that stuff, even though most of the attendees were of the younger generation. Just so you know, I still collect a few comic books and I probably have at least 5,000 comic books in my basement. (By the way. Do you know anyone that wants to buy a nice collection?) Anyway, I know the younger generation takes a lot of heat about their attitudes toward those older than them,…
We all fail as parents at one point or another. I am fully convinced that no matter how stable and nurturing of an environment I provide for my two, they will undoubtedly end up needing therapy in their adult years from some slight or trauma that I induced unknowingly. It just seems that is the way it is these days. See, when I was growing up, quite a few of us had “functional dysfunction” households. My husband and I are from “broken homes” and endured many scenarios that my children will never bear witness to; and we work very hard…
How many of you think about an escape plan, in the place where you are staying while on vacation? We are staying in a place that firefighters once called a taxpayer, a business on the first floor with living space above it. This is a three-story condominium, where you enter and go straight up a set of stairs. The living space is on the second and third floors. The second floor has a family room, kitchen, two bedrooms and two full baths, while the third floor has a bedroom with a full bath. It looks like this condo sits in…
Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. As I have related over the past few articles, things in my small section of the Dogpound have been rather disjointed and it appears the trend is not going to end very soon. I was mowing the lawn last week with my riding mower down by the pond. I try to get as close to the edge as possible since the slopes have to be hand mowed or weed whacked…both very difficult to do around the pond, so I wanted to get as much grass cut as I could…
To the Editor: On Mother’s Day, May 8, many of us celebrated the powerful bond between mother and child. Tragically, the world-wide symbols of motherhood – dairy cows – never get to see or nurture their babies. Newborn calves are torn from their mothers at birth, so we can seize and drink the milk that mother cows produce for them. The powerless, distraught mothers bellow for days, hoping in vain for their babies’ return. The babies are kept alive elsewhere, to soon become veal cutlets. Dairy cows spend their lives on a concrete floor, chained, with no outdoor access. To…
To the Editor: They came in poodle skirts and fancy gowns and casual duds straight out of Grease. It was the first annual ‘50s Mother/Son dance at C.C. Wells. Moms who had probably worked all day dressed up to the nines for the shindig. And the boys, some sporting suits and ties, some in leather jackets with slicked back hair were so proud of their dates. I arrived a little early and took up a spot at a window looking out to the parking lot. I saw a lot of young men opening doors for Mom and offering an arm…