Tadpoles at the Greenbrier Nursery
My wife and I visited the Greenbrier Nursery in Cave Spring off of Starkey Road the other day looking for some herbs and vegetables for the garden. They have tremendous greenhouses and would you believe, two of their inground ponds have little tadpoles. I’m curious as to what kind of frog or toad they will become. My guess is they’re little spring peepers but I could be wrong!
Old Southwest Roanoke visitor
The folks in Old Southwest Roanoke had an unusual visitor today! Check out the black bear story and photos of the chase through Old Southwest!
Campbell Garage Lofts
Unique downtown living! Waldvogel Commercial Properties yesterday had an invitation-only tour of their new downtown Roanoke condominiums.
I must admit that when I first heard this downtown Roanoke building was being renovated for upscale condominium homes, I was skeptical. After all, this building overlooks on the front side, the Roanoke City Jail. On the backside, it overlooks the roofs of the smaller buildings behind and the parking lot of the Virginia Transportation Museum. Not exactly what I’d call a nice view.
After a very quick self-guided tour, I can say that the inside of this building is beautiful. It has a very tasteful modern decor with Roanoke-themed artwork. The inside of the condominiums are also very nice with very modern appliances. The floors are all dark wood that looks to be the original floors. While this is very nice, it does make some of the rooms darker than I personally like. Obviously though this isn’t a negative for some as many of the units are already sold.
The balconies on the upper floors of the condominium are interesting. The floors are a sort of rubberized mat while the outside walls of the balcony are copper siding which should be very pretty if kept polished but I think may make it even more hot on top of the building as well as reflect your heat if you’re trying to grill out there.
Overall I’d say it’s very nice for the right person. Plus, if you love watching CSI and Cops you’ll have real live-action out your front window. How exciting!
Fly from Roanoke to Orlando on Allegiant
Local TV stations and the Roanoke Times have reported on the new airline at the Roanoke Regional Airport, Allegiant Air, who is offering roundtrip airfares from Roanoke to Orlando. What seemed like a good deal when I was watching the news story though started to lose it’s luster this morning when I watched the TimesCast math lesson from Andrew Kantor.
Apparently Allegiant Air flies you to an airport on the other side of Orlando away from all the attractions. After adding in all the costs to get where you’re going, it’s still cheaper to fly out of Lynchburg Regional Airport. Thanks for the math lesson Andrew!
Update: Baby Ian
Andrew Kantor of The Roanoke Times wrote a great article on the local bloggers’ effort to help raise funds and collect used cell phones and inkjet cartridges for Baby Ian H. I had perviously blogged about it here and have a permanent page here.
The Floyd Press also picked up the story about the community’s effort to help Ian here.
Salem & Franklin County Schools receive A+
The Salem and Franklin County school systems were named academic outperformers by Standard & Poor’s School Evaluation Services.
According to The Roanoke Times 130 school districts were examined in Virginia with 12 districts receiving top marks.
You can read the report for Virginia schools here [pdf].
Fishing the James River
This morning I spent several hours in the morning with a good friend floating and fishing the James River. It was an absolutely beautiful day and the fishing started out pretty good but they stopped biting after about the first hour and we didn’t really catch anything else.
The canoeing was excellent. The river is a little low though and we had to walk the canoe through one set of riffles and we were unfortunate enough to swamp in a very weak class 2. We hit a rock under the water which turned us sideways and pinned us against another rock and it turned us over. Ah well, it’s bound to happen every now and then. Except for a few bruises and scrapes, we survived and recovered all the equipment so that was a bonus.
The James River real estate is beautiful. I saw several pieces of property with new homes right on the river that were absolutely beautiful. It was a great morning for admiring the weather, the James River and the adjoining real estate. Fantastic!
Rides at Roanoke Civic Center
On my way to work this morning I noticed a tractor and trailer in the parking lot of the Roanoke Civic Center with what looked like an amusement park ride. Guess that means it’s time for the Drew Expo at the Roanoke Civic Center! Click here for more information on dates and tickets and have fun!
CSI: Can’t Stand It
If you’re grossed out easily, this post isn’t for you.
RANT:
I should start off with the disclaimer that I used to love shows like CSI, Law & Order, ER. I also used to work in the justice system, volunteer with the local rescue squad as a cardiac technician and I have seen the real blood of a murder victim on the hands of her murderer as well as other tragedies that these shows glorify.
Last night I watched CSI (or any show like it) for the first time in many months and was really sickened by the level of “realism” that the writers, director and TV people are putting into it. I watched a police detective lift the severed head of a murder victim out of a creek. I watched a police detective being shot in slow motion, complete with fake blood flying out of his wounds. I watched the autopsy of the aforementioned severed head victim, complete with them realigning the severed head with the man’s torso.
What makes this truly disturbing is the great efforts that everyone involved in the production goes through to make it realistic and yet how very unrealistic it truly is. I’ll first start off by saying that the sound effects they use…completely inaccurate. Our bodies, dead or alive, do not come anywhere close to the level of disgusting sounds portrayed on the television. Furthermore, police detectives do not lift severed heads from anywhere by their hair and stare into their eyes.
It amazes me that this stuff is allowed on television. This is the kind of thing that movies like Friday the 13th were originally rated R for.
Remember, I used to love this stuff, but having some time off from it has really opened my eyes to how truly disturbing it is.
Delinquent businesses beware
According to The Richmonds Times-Dispatch, the Virginia Department of Taxation is posting (read: trying to embarrass) delinquent tax payers into coughing up their arrears. The full list is here- http://www.tax.virginia.gov/. As of today there are only two listed from near this area, one in Lynchburg and another in Danville.
The Roanoke City Commissioner of the Revenue has a similar process with their real estate tax auction where they post the names and full arrears of delinquent real estate owners in the local newspaper and online.
Beautiful weather in Hardy and Goodview
It was a beautiful day out towards Smith Mountain Lake. I stopped along Jae Valley Road and took this picture looking toward Roanoke. Power lines got in the way of the photo, but who cares, it was a great day for a drive!
The second photo is a shot of the bridge at Bay Roc Marina. My lovely wife and I stopped there for a bite to eat. They have a great patio overlooking their cove and the bridge, and they have house boat rentals!
Roanoke City leadership cuts off nose
You know the old saying, “Cutting off your nose to spite your face…”.
The Roanoke Times reported today that Roanoke City Manager Darlene Burcham has cut the budget of the Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau (RVCVB) by $30,000 because she’s angry that other local governments (Salem, Roanoke County and Franklin County) are not contributing their fare share.
For those who don’t know, the Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau (RVCVB) is the marketing arm to increase tourism in the Roanoke Valley.
For the fiscal year 2004-05, Roanoke City saw a gross revenue from their lodging tax (that’s the tax you pay on your hotel room) of 2.5 million. Roanoke City contributed $847,440 during the same time period. That’s a pretty good return on investment, roughly $3 earned for every $1 spent. That doesn’t include the income from sales tax and other money brought into the City of Roanoke from other tourist activities that aren’t as easy to track. (Get all the numbers from The Roanoke Times story.)
So if you follow the stats, Roanoke City stands to lose about $90,000 by cutting their budget to the RVCVB. I understand that the City may be frustrated they’re carrying a bigger burden in this arena, but their revenue is also higher tax-wise than the other participating counties and city.
This seems to me to be another example of the pettiness between our local governments. I say grow up, climb out of the crib and start acting like responsible government officials.
Millionaires in the making
If you’re interested in how real estate is helping this young military couple become millionaires, read on!
CNN Money has published a few articles for -
- Sellers and flippers
- Buyers
- and finally real estate investors
My favorite excerpt is-
An experienced agent…can be invaluable in helping you price your home correctly and in getting it noticed by prospective buyers. An agent can also steer you through the tortuous sales process and keep a deal on track when the inevitable glitches crop up.
50-year mortgage debuts
From CNN Money:
As home prices and interest rates keep rising, lenders have figured out a way to keep the dream alive for millions of people who want to own their own home. It’s called the 50-year mortgage.
According to a report Wednesday in USA Today, a handful of small lenders have begun offering 50-year adjustable-rate loans to buyers who need to keep payments low in the current economic environment.
I personally don’t believe this is going to be a good idea for most folks. Let’s just say you wanted to have the house paid off by the time you retire at 65 and the loan goes it’s full term. You would have to buy it at 15! I don’t know about most of you, but I couldn’t afford to buy a house at 25, much less 15! :)
I think this is an attractive way to lower your house payment, but seriously, you’ll end up paying huge amounts in additional interest and you will be earning less principal over the same periods of time.
My recommendation- stay away from the 50-year mortgage. If you’re seriously considering it, consult with a financial advisor.
Used Coffee Cans
I picked up a cleaned, used coffee can today and for whatever reason opened the lid to smell it (perhaps to see if it was clean!).
I was instantly taken back to my childhood. My grandmother used to save her old coffee cans for me to hold the crawfish, red-spotted newts and other fauna I would pull from the creeks at Camp Bethel near Troutville. I would spend Labor Day weekend at camp and never venture much further than 100 yards from any particular creek. By the end of the weekend, I had more cans, cups and containers with critters in them than you could shake a stick at. I always enjoyed letting them go though; they had been unwillingly brought me much joy over that weekend and even now the memories are fantastic.
