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St. Pat's Day, Bullets, Scuba And More
RidgeRunner

 
March 20, 2015 -

At about 6:45 p.m. tonight Spring officially begins. You know, that's the season that is NOT supposed to drench us in snow or anything close to it. One of my best friends disputes something I said this past week: "History shows us that there will be at LEAST one more snow - of whatever depth - between March 20 and March 27th," I said. My friend said that she had checked the authoritative source for weather predictions, Poor Richard's Almanac, and the Almanac apparently agreed with me...but that the WDBJ-7 weather outlook app said I was wrong.

Well, for once in my life, I certainly wouldn't mind being proved wrong. I haven't looked up the local weather history files, but I doubt that there has been a year with larger snowfall in our area in the past forty years. If I wanted to live around more snow, I'd have moved to the Yukon.

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A surprisingly large crowd showed up at Bannon's Irish Inn this past Tuesday - most very well decked out in green - for the Second Annual Clifton Forge St. Patrick's Day "parade." I put "parade" in quotes, because the total length of the parade is 88 feet. That's the distance from Bannon's to the Jack Mason's Tavern. After some nice singing, good conversation, some Irish fiddling and more, the participants joyously walked down Ridgeway St. to a crosswalk, and then, as WDBJ-7 filmed them, walked across the street (with police assistance) and the vast majority continued to party at the Tavern.

I attended the event ONLY to see the special section known as the "ugly knees contest." Melissa Hundley, whose day job is a signmaker at Bear Mountain Signs in the downtown area, was the judge. She was blindfolded and then performed an "examination" with both hands, the knee area of several local male (methinks seven) in order to figure out the winner. She chose contestant number one, which was the emcee's knees (Mr. Richard Bannon). Alas, I think she made a horrible mistake because I'm sure that town mayor Carl Brinkley was there in a pair of shorts. At any rate, Bannon was selected to much laughter.

I didn't enter the contest, but did later offer to let Ms. Hundley examine mine. I was rebuffed, obviously because my knees obviously were not in the same ugly class as those of Mr. Brinkley. I guess I'm happy about that.

At any rate, local folks seemed to have a good time...and after a few drinks, seemed to have an ever BETTER time packing the Tavern, taking additional photos, and scoffing down all sorts of food.

Most will attend the Third Annual event next year, I'm sure. For links to the videos, go to AlleghanyJournal.com and look under the Headlines section. Enjoy!

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And so it was that President Obama's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, better known at the ATF, decided to take a stab at curbing the use of the popular firearm known as the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle...via the banning of the purchase of certain types of ammunition for it. The NRA and its supporters as well as millions of other Americans immediately and strongly opposed this back door effort at gun control. Rightly so. It was just the latest in a whole series of Presidential executive orders that has the public up in arms (pun intended). From what appears to be a blanket amnesty executive order, to the President's signalling that his proposed Iran nuke deal will NOT be submitted to the Senate for approval, he is treading on thin political ice these days.

Not long after the proposed ban idea was published in the Federal Register, the administration apparently changed its mind. Good. What WOULD be a good idea is for the government and the population to come together to find a way to keep mental cases from obtaining AR-15s and other firearms without impinging on citizens' right to bear arms.

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The local YMCA will be the scene of some scuba classes this Spring. There's a story on our website about it or you may call the Y at 962-9622 for more information. Sounds like a great opportunity to me.

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Looks like the Botetourt's Sheriff's office has caught a couple of suspected bums cooking meth near Blue Ridge. It's just another example of thugs allegedly taking advantage those who are already down and out. The path to meth leads nowhere, as we all know.

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The Friends of the Clifton Forge Library will hold a book sale on March 28th. Sounds like a good opportunity to get some good, new reading material on the cheap! (The RidgeRunner's better half purchased several hard cover editions of The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew for the grandchildren for a total of about $3 at the last book sale. What a bargain!) See ya there.

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The Virginian-Review carried an article this past week indicating that GoMart of West Virginia was buying Dixie Gas and Oil's operation (Dixie Food Mart) where the former Covington Drive-In Market was located. GoMart is a huge operation and probably will impact fuel prices all around the Covington area.

There have been persistent rumors that Kroger would build a fueling facility near its store in Clifton Forge, but I've seen no record of a building permit or other indication that that move was even in the works.

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So, pass me some rumors, drop me a line. Let me know what's going on where and when. I'll do my level best to pass it all along right here. See ya here again next week.
 
 
 

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