One of the intersections that I travel through regularly is Curtis St. & West Hundred Road (Rt. 10). For anyone that has attempted to make the right turn from Curtis St. onto West Hundred Road. to the east, you know what a drastic change needs to occur. The ability to see fast moving traffic was obscured by bushes and the curve, as vehicles approach that intersection from Chester. My wife and I would state regularly that this needs to be a no right turn on red. The weekend that this changed, and yes it did change, was the epitome of…
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Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. Before we continue down the memory lane with Max, I need to bring you up to date on some things happening around the Dogpound. One of the more recent and important events to date has to do with the place where I work. Yes, I still do work for a living…if I tried to live off of writing…I would starve in short order. Anyway…on Monday the 27th of July, a Monday…we received an email from Management telling us that 2015 year-to-date has not been a great year for us…at…
By now you have heard about Uber and Lyft services that allow you to get a taxi-type ride with an individual by using your smart phone to order a ride. You can also participate by offering a ride to others and making a few bucks yourself. If you are a driver for Uber or Lyft you never touch or carry money with you; money changes hands through credit card payments authorized by way of your phone. On Sunday, I used the Uber app on my phone and saw that there were four individuals offering rides in the area with only…
Chigger bites are a regular summertime annoyance in Central Virginia. Most commonly found in grassy fields, gardens, forest areas, and parks, chiggers thrive in moist, vegetated areas with high humidity, hitching a ride on the unsuspecting human passer-by. Also called the harvest mite or red mite, chiggers are the six-legged, wingless larva form of the Trombiculidae mite. They are arachnids, like ticks and spiders. Barely visible to the naked eye, chiggers are red in color and may only be seen if they are clustered together on the skin or a plant. The mites will attach to the skin or clothing…
Some folks subscribe to the theory “if it does not fit, get a bigger hammer.” Not so fast my fellow garden enthusiasts. Read the directions – or in this case the label –when it comes to pesticides. First, what is a pest? A pest is an animal, insect, disease, weed or fungus that you want to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate. A pesticide is a substance or mixture of substances intended for that purpose. Pesticide manufacturers have undergone rigorous testing to determine what amount of product is necessary for results. So like the theme in a previous column, do not…
Two 14-year old boys are missing at sea from a fishing trip. As I watched this story, I felt that I had no choice but to weigh in on this tragedy. My experience with a scenario like this one takes me back to my Coast Guard days and a long couple of weeks with Chesterfield Fire & EMS. The two periods that I referenced dealt a tragedy with two men who were declared missing in the Pamlico Sound, while the second involved two teenagers who lost their lives in Swift Creek Reservoir after their canoe capsized. Some may say that…
Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. As you know, I have been writing about the memories of Max, but I need to pause a minute and thank Ernest Mackey for the nice letter I received in the mail. Ernest also related that they had lost their pet of 14 years “Sheltie” [Prancer]. [Sorry for your loss] Included in the letter was a little poem about losing a pet, called “The Rainbow Bridge.” I have to admit after writing three articles since Max’s passing I thought I was over the tears, but that poem brought a…
Memory – what a fantastic part of us. Whether you believe it is a result of God’s best work or an element of Darwin’s theory of natural selection, it remains one of the most important parts of our consciousness. For the most part, memory is stored in the temporal lobe and hippo campus of the brain and stores not only recent memory (short-term) but also long-term memory. Remember the first edition of the Village News in 1998? I can only remember the cover and some of that particular article, but that first issue is ingrained in my memory because it…
Summer is moving right along – too fast. I am desperately trying to hold onto these last few weeks of summer, which has been one of the best summers we have had so far. My darling girl will be starting kindergarten in just a few short weeks. I just cannot get rid of the anxiety that is swirling around me like an invisible tornado. My sweet, little, angel-faced baby is going to big school, and a chapter in her life and mine will be closed forever. As parents, we get caught up in the day-to-day. We get up, fix the…
Last Friday, we took a day trip to Nags Head. We staked our beach claim near Jeanette’s Pier close to the lifeguard stand. It was a beautiful day, with temperatures in the low- to mid-80s and a breeze off the ocean. Being close to the lifeguard station, we found ourselves in the midst of constant activity. Flying from the lifeguard stands were yellow flags that stated “Dangerous Currents.” The red four-wheelers that were used by the mobile lifeguards had a safety message on the back that read: “If in doubt, don’t go out.” There were crowds of people on this…