Winter WonderLand

As in “I wonder if I’d be an idiot to try to get to the Jacksonville Center this morning.”

In all honesty, I don’t think even the local folk will be so desperate for arts and crafts that they’ll risk fenders and hips and trek out in the snow to Winterfest.

Could I make it? Most likely. Will there be others on the road who only thought they could? Most certainly. Is the risk of travel today urgent, necessary or only desirable?

The latter, I’m thinking. I still have an hour to decide what to do. Just took this 30 second (crappy quality) movie with the phone from the front porch in the snow. I’m open for any Droid settings tweaks to make this movie feature better than it currently is, feel free to offer suggestions.

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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. Fred–
    In your movie, I think you answered your own question–Should you go to an event where there will be no customers? It sure looks beautiful though! Thanks for the short video–

  2. Hey Fred –

    Well, we vendors are here and enjoying the coziness of the center. Guests are rolling in, too, saying the roads aren’t that bad and that they’d hate to miss this great community event.

    You should come out too!

  4. Well, I gave it til 11 and and still couldn’t decide. I made an attempt (just got back in, my hands are frozen!) and got as far as Simpsons “up top” at the end of a 2.5 mile climb, and the higher I went, the worse it got. Temp fell from 34 to 33 just in that run, and I don’t want to come DOWN that way in the dark at 32 or less, so I turned around. It’s falling big flakes again–very wet sticky snow that gloms up on the bottoms of your boots so you feel like you’re walking on stilts. Chickens don’t want ANYTHING to do with it, even with snow pulled back and scratch down–they’re staying put. Me too.

  5. It looks gorgeous, but I’m glad it’s you and not me. Seems, from what I’ve read, that it is snowing everywhere in the east except here. I’ll applaud that!

  7. As to the movie qualty, Fred: quit your bitchin. What do you want: egg in your beer? Once you got the thumb print cleaned, I think the quality is just fine for sharing on a monitor.
    Beautiful scenes, loved the music of Nameless Creek. Fun to hear your voice. Your accent isn’t near as thick as I expected!

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