65th Annual Dogwood Festival Parade

Buster Ball of Putt Putt
The annual Rorschach test, the Dogwood Festival Parade, took to the streets yesterday. What makes a parade? Fine looking people in uniforms, dresses, martial music, hillbilly music.

chip harding
Many of my favorite law enforcement officials and politicians participated in the parade.

pepsi figures
Buster Ball, the spokesphere for Putt-Putt was followed by the Mountain Dew can with hands. While employing images
that have a national profile many of the companies participating in the parade have deep local roots.
The Jessups of our local Pepsi had a long interest in Riverview.


Charlottesville is the crazy salad without trying.

Little Miss Scottsville
Little Miss Scottsville
Last year’s parade

witnesses

hand on the Bible
Two Jehovah’s Witnesses dropped by yesterday. They stood on my front porch and talked about Jesus. They read several passages from the Bible.
They were very kind. They left a copy of the Watchtower. They headed on down the road.

scabies

license plate scabies
In Virginia, car owners have the opportunity to “Create a plate“, Identity plates, vanity plates, license plates that tell the rest of the world something about the interests of the owner of the vehicle.
Usually the choices are idiotic, but on occasion, the message is intriguing. Eight characters to say something really important.

respect, choice, options

Senator M Warner D VA

Senator Mark Warner was in Charlottesville yesterday at the ribbon cutting for Blue Ridge PACE.
The last of seven to address the assembled crowd, following celebratory remarks, Warner spoke from personal experience about our society’s view of aging. The Senator’s comments begin at 25 minutes (see player below) . Warner spoke for fifteen minutes.

At the end of the day I think a society is judged most not by what they say but how they treat their youngest and how they treat their oldest.– Senator Mark Warner

Sen M Warner hands

Speakers at the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

“We saw lots of things wrong with the debate around health care reform. But to my mind, the single most insulting point of the health care debate was when people were legitimately talking about how we ought to allow families to have the kind of counseling that they should all go through, as an option, not forced upon anybody but as an option, and even the notion of those kind of conversations was labeled by some as death panels which was outrageous, beyond the pale… This is an issue… that is more than a policy issue, it is a personal issue, it is an issue of faith… it is time again I believe to start this conversation.”

crowd gathered, Monticello Mountain in background
Crowd assembled for the ribbon cutting at Blue Ridge PACE. Monticello Mountain in the background.

Cooking in Belmont

franklin street looking south
At 10:15 this morning members of the JADE task force executed a search warrant at 706 Franklin Street. Three individuals were detained. Materials were removed from what appeared to be a operational laboratory engaged in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

Franklin cordoned off
Traffic control cordoned off 500 feet of Franklin Street and established a perimeter. The Fire Department and Hazardous Materials Team handled decontamination.

inbound or outbound?
View from Mason Street looking east. Not able to say what is in the containers. Mr. White?

taking down the decon tent
The operation was winding down around 1330 hrs.

windblown footware
Found this footware just outside the Police perimeter.