Fickle FeedReader Folk, You

Oh you people and your feed readers. I used to coulda counted on the regulars to pop by and boost my visit numbers up into the double digits–even if I didn’t post anything but NO! No new posts in NewsFodder this mornign from Fragments, so forget it.

Well, be like that. I was proud of myself for staying focused on the main stuff this morning, resisting the blog-addiction that has held me in its grasp for almost seven full years. So readers have wandered off elsewhere, leaving me to sweat and struggle over other urgent extremely uninteresting trivial pursuits. Well I’ll have you know: I have trivial results to report. But you won’t be here to listen. So fuggitaboutit.

Truth of the matter is that I’ve been held hostage for the past 3 hours waiting on the wood delivery man to come with my three cords of hardwood “right after lunch”. Can’t use the phone in case he is lost and calls; can’t get in the shower because sure as I do he’ll come; can’t go out and cut up the wood we brought over from the pasture. And maybe can’t get to town in time to have coffee with my buddy Dennis before the “Floyd 20-20 Visioning Meeting” at the Country Store at 6:00.

Ann also is held hostage–by the weather threats of sleet, ice and snow overnight, so she’ll spend the night at her workplace curled up on the floor under some newspapers to stay warm, a large pharmacy reference for a pillow.

And we just thot we were in an inaccessible place in years past. Just read in the Press that the VDOT offices in Floyd will close (thanks to the entity formerly known as the Economy) and good luck with any of the secondary roads (or tertiary in our case) getting any attention from now on. Gigantic dead hemlock across the road? Chill. The sucka will rot and crumble in 10-12 years.

Now, aren’t you sorry you jumped when the little Fragments light blinked on in your reader of feeds? I gotta go.

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. You finally got me to feel sorry for you, what with all your whining and complaining. It’s not enough for you that I can sit back with my coffee on the desk and my three cats at my feet (or on my lap, as is sometimes the case) and just read your meanderings . . . no, you gotta get my dander up and make me reveal myself to you.

    I have been reading your “Fragments” since we lived in Christiansburg for two years (’05 to ’07) and fell in love with Floyd and surrounding environs. I do so appreciate your gift of bringing everything I felt living there so vividly back to my memory.

    Thanks for being there and brightening (usually) my days in Northern Michigan.

  2. Oh dear, the VDOT closing in Floyd?! That’s terrible news!

    It’s true, I lurk your blog via feed these days, and I don’t even pop on to the actual blog itself very often, but Fragments is something I look forward to every day. Especially more so since I might be your neighbor in a few short months (Hollins just accepted me to their MFA).

    Hope the wood man came!

  3. Hey Fred !!
    I have not forgotten you, I just been so busy at work, not had time to read you. Yes, notice I am e-mailing from home base, finally got my home e-mail up and running. I hope Ann gets along all right. Hang in there…….Spring is on the way…….coming up the Slow Road Home…….

    Peace & Warmth to All
    Mark

  4. Come on Fred, I read every day, rain or shine, hot or cold, blog and tweet and facebook. So I read it mostly in my Google Reader…Usually with a six month old grandson sitting on my knee. It’s just easier to keep up with everyone that way…And if I’m anything, I’m a lot of lazy.

    Sorry to hear that Ann is being held hostage again by the weather…Try not to get stuck in town again at the Hotel. That’s a tough weather shelter, if you book the writer’s room you can sleep under the maple tree anyway…

  5. Freddie…
    Just thought I’d drop a note…a weasel killed four hens and two roosters the other night. Now we’re down to two hens and we are only getting one egg a day. So, I’m beefing up security and ordering a dozen new chicks!

    Also, I can’t chop wood anymore.

    -Spence

  6. Brrr! Sounds pretty cold to me. Poor Ann! Sounds like she’s practicing to be a street sleeper. Well, no–a pharmacy reference for a pillow is a bit high-class. Sorry to hear VDOT abandoned you…uh, how do tax-paying, country folks get around then in deep snow? Oh, yeah, the pharmacy reference pillow. hmm.
    All the advice I can give is…think spring thoughts. It’s almost here!

  7. One of the things I noticed a few years back when exploring back roads in the Colorado Rockies was that almost every home had a four wheel drive pickup with a dozer blade attached to the front bumper…I wonder if they make a version for a Subaru?

  8. Spring is on the way if you don’t beleive me come down into the RV. I comment every now & then but read you several times a week. Love your blog and good luck with your new book. Will there be any book signings in Roanoke?