I’m sitting at home, trapped without my car…

Last night, coming home from Charles Town, my car with a load of groceries and me died at the Engle Switch Rd railroad crossing, while waiting for an awfully long train to pass.

I managed to roll it off the road to the side, then proceeded on the unimagineably complex and bewildering communication via iPhone to the Triple A. It took nine calls, during which I was switched all over the place to find someone who represented this little piece of woodland in Harpers Ferry, WV, and was repeatedly disconnected, forced to call again, give my membership number, spell my name, describe the problem, be told that I was at the wrong `office, but would be transferred….

Finally yelling at the last, really undeserving guy who I hadn’t spoken with before, I got notice that a tow truck was coming and waited for an hour until it go there. Total times with calls and waits was close to 2 hours.

Now Brown’s Auto Service picked up the Subaru this morning and with luck they can get it running today and I can find someone to give me a ride over to the west side of Shepherdstown to pick it up.

Not a great day at the beginning.

An evening revelation…

It’s been so long that I’ve seen a rainbow… but, as Elly and I pulled into the parking lot of the Mountain View Diner in Charles Town, there it was… fuzzy in the clouds as the sun behind me was beginning to set.

I took a quick photo with my iPhone:

A little out of focus, but that’s what the air felt like.

My glasses are here.. I’ve changed my look..

First, I had my grey hair cut short. Then I had my Superfocus glasses fitted at an optician‘s in Charles Town. Now here is the new me:

What a change!  Wait til John Case sees me tomorrow morning on Winners And Losers.

We’re going over to the Open House at Craftworks today…

The Craftworks at Cool Spring Center in Charles Town is opening a branch in Shepherdstown this week and today is their open house from 10 to 5. They are at 219 South Duke Street, former site of the departed pet foods store and next to the Chronicle offices.

Elly and I will check it out this morning… perhaps with the notion of someday teaching arts or crafts classes there.

Their Shepherdstown classes are currently listed HERE.

I Return from the Polls…

…after casting my Jefferson County vote in the “table gaming” question. I don’t think the folks at Charles Town Races and Slots (CTR&S) are going to be very happy with me.

The reason, of course, is that I voted NO in this special referendum for the citizens of Jefferson County, WV. The reasons?

1. As I recall from the gambling casinos in Connecticut (the difference being that they are “Indian Gaming” – but people are affected in the same way), the prevalence of table games at Casinos does NOT create GOOD jobs, rather brings in more lower end jobs from out of state, for localities…

2. Does cause an increase in crime…

3. Is a huge traffic hassle which costs a fortune to maintain on the roads…

4. All the pro-gambling promotion (I’ve been getting 3 or 4 of the SAME BROCHURE in the mail every day for the last week… plus people from OUTSIDE our county coming around door to door… plus signs all over the place) leading me to the conclusion: if they have to do this much to promote it, something is wrong.

5. Doesn’t set the American Entrepreneur example for our kids (how many of you want your kids to grow up and be Maverick?)…

6. A purely personal reason… when I was looking for a job in the last 15 months of unemployed status, CTR&S wouldn’t even give me an interview. If I can’t get a job there, then the “adding jobs” rationalization is meaningless to me.

If you disagree with me and are a registered voter in Jefferson County, you have until 7:30 tonite to offset my vote.