Photo by Robin Giordano

Ever since the power went off Friday, one line I’ve heard over and over and over is, “Where are the AEP trucks?”

Some people have seen one or two here and there. Crews have been working, no doubt, because the local grid is slowly being repaired. But I’ve also heard from many people who have seen no bucket trucks whatsoever.

One of those is my friend Paul Giordano, who lives in Raleigh Court’s Center Hill neighborhood as still has no power. But Tuesday evening, he discovered the bucket-truck mother lode.

“They’re on Colonial Avenue, parked across the street from Fresh Market!” he exclaimed.

His wife Robin took this picture and sent it to me.

Even linemen need to eat, of course, so let we should assume what — they they were on a dinner break? Paul thinks perhaps they were gassing up on coffee at Starbucks ahead of a long night of work.

At least, that is one of his fervent hopes. The other is that they’re heading his way, to Center Hill.

The city's new energy-efficient LED lights | Shot by Dan on Campbell Avenue Tuesday night.

Note from Dan: The following email exchange comes via artist Suzun Hughes, who along with her husband, scuptor John Wilson, owns the Wilson Hughes Gallery at 117 Campbell Ave. Southwest. It’s a fun place to drop by.

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Nov. 29, 2011
To: Chris Morrill, Roanoke city manager
From Suzun Hughes

Hi Chris,

We have new blue light street lights downtown. Is this an economy measure?

The lights are annoying and do not create the same soft ambiance as the yellow lights. Why has this been done?

suzun

Suzun Hughes
WILSON HUGHES gallery & studios
Downtown Roanoke ARTS District
117 West Campbell Avenue
Roanoke VA 24011
www.suzun.com
www.studio9i.com

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Nov. 29, 2011
To: Suzun Hughes
From: Mark Jamison, Manager of Transportation, City of Roanoke

Ms. Hughes,

The City is in the process of changing out the city-owned street lights downtown from high pressure sodium bulbs to LED bulbs.  We are taking advantage of a rebate offer from AEP that will cover a portion of the cost of these bulbs. Read more »

Saturday in Elmwood Park | Shot by Zach

Note from occupier John Houlihan:

On Dec. 10th Occupy Roanoke will be passing out coats, hats, gloves, etc. which they are currently collecting. They’ll be donating them to any of the homeless folks who come through the park (which many do), in addition to the soup they serve each week.

If, at the end of the day, there are more coats and whatnot left over, they’ll be donating them to various groups such as the Rescue Mission and Salvation Army.

The idea was to, first, get them directly to the people who need them the most.

There’s more pix after the jump. . .

Here’s a fitting theme song for Occupy. Read more »

Shot by Dan

Bea Jones of Christiansburg and Anne Colleran of Salem don’t know each other, but they have something in common.

Both women are extremely displeased about robocalls politicians made — to their cell phones — in the run-up to Tuesday’s election.

Chances are  you’re well acquainted with those rotten and distracting intrusions — but on your land lines. My home phone got at least 25 political robocalls in the past three weeks.

If Jones and Colleran are any indication, the calls may soon be coming to our cells, too.

Good grief.

Jones said she and her husband were enjoying a quiet evening at home last Sunday. They ditched their landline back in April, and the best thing about that was they weren’t getting any campaign calls this election season, she said.

Sometime after 6 p.m., her cell rang. It’s a number not many people have, she said. When she answered, she heard the beginning of a recorded message by Republican Senate candidate Dave Nutter. Read more »

Wikimedia Commons

Sometimes you’ve got to spend a lot of money to save a little, eh?

If that strikes you as a fiendishly silly line, you should consider what’s happening down in Wythe County government: Big raises across the board for the county’s three top officials.

It all stems from the decision to hire a finance director. The old one had been doing the job for around $51,000 a year.

But to hire a new one (the new guy is a CPA) they had to pay him more than $77,000. They hope that will help them with problematic audits, which have lowered the county’s bond rating.

One problem: the assistant county administrator was making about $12,000 less than that.

So he got a 18 percent raise, for the sake of parity. And to help goose the bond rating.

The county administrator, meanwhile, was making $106,000. But how could you give his underling a raise, and not him? So he got a 10 percent raise, to $118,000. Partly to help goose the bond rating, I guess.

No other employees got raises. They haven’t for a few years.

The details are here.

My phone in The Roanoke Times' newsroom

Note: This column originally ran May 12, 2009 — and I’m still getting robocalls at home and work.

If your household is anything like the Caseys’, you once felt besieged by dinnertime telephone calls offering all manner of unwise purchases.

And back in 2003, when you triumphantly registered for “Do Not Call,” you might have thought, “Hooray, this is the end of those pesky phone spammers.”

But there is both good news and bad news on the telephone soliciting front.

The bad news is an irritating loophole in federal regulations that arose last summer. The regs are long and involved, but essentially they allow robots to make unsolicited sales calls to your house, even when live people cannot. No matter if you put your number on Do Not Call.

Let’s take a recent Thursday afternoon when I was trying to get some work done from home.

The phone rings. A stern mechanical voice is on the other end.

“We have been trying to reach you. Your eligibility for extending your vehicle warranty is about to expire. Press 1 if you’d like to be connected to a representative. Press 2 to remove your name from our list.

I hit 2 and the line disconnects. (I actually got another three of these robo calls at my work number last week.)

Thirty minutes later, the phone rings. Again, it’s a mechanical voice.

“We have been trying to reach you. Your eligibility to lower your credit card interest rate is about to expire. Press 1 to talk to a representative. Press 2 to remove your name from our records.”

This is the third or fourth time this particular robot has called. I have pressed 2 for each of the previous calls. This time I press 1 and a man answers.

“Who is this?” I ask.

“This is Jim, sir. Are you interested in lowering your credit card interest rate?”

“No, Jim, I’m interested in you not calling me again.”

Read more »

This is from a reader:

“Last week, to celebrate reaching the lofty goal of a 14 million customer subscriber base, the management of the Echostar call center in Christiansburg, Va. treated their employees to an in-house cookout prepared and served by the floor supervisors. Wednesday and Thursday of this week, in preparation for the holidays, they treated 50 employees to impromptu and clandestine ‘separation,’ with further ‘separations”‘tentatively planned for next week.

“It turns out that even after attaining a record number of customers, DISH Network profits are down and expenses must be reduced. And the expenses they have chosen to cut are the jobs of many longtime employees. Apparently their loyalty is best repaid by replacing them with new employees who make less. Adding humiliation to the shock of losing a long-held job during the Christmas holidays, these employees are called away, told they are fired and immediately escorted off the premises–not allowed even to collect their personal effects.

“With the good planning of an American corporation in a “right to work” state these employees are suddenly fired for cause, every one of them, so none can even collect unemployment. And the timing is just perfect. Now the company can avoid paying out those pesky holiday bonuses and profit sharing.

“Who says there’s no Christmas spirit left in America?”

Wikimedia Commons

This is an oldie but a goodie that we’ve explored in the column some months back. Gonzo blogger Michael A. Howdyshell resurrected it with a comment posted to a different thread this morning. Here is what he wrote:

I have a rant for you and I rarely rant about much. Merging onto 581 South at Orange Avenue. Don’t the driver education class’s teach merging anymore? Yesterday I witnessed a car that stopped as it came up on 581 I simply passed the car on right, as others did, and proceeded onward. Out of respect for propriety I will not mention the gender of the driver. This is very dangerous. The merge lane is designed for the merging vehicle to attain the speed of the ongoing traffic. I understand this particular entry ramp is a little difficult as cars are exiting 581 to Orange Avenue East, however that does not change the basic skill of merging does not involve stopping. To make this current for the blog I think the people that stop on the entry ramp are probably 1) not Virginians and 2) probably liberals.

Michael is certainly right about one thing: There are lots of drivers around Roanoke who reflexively stomp on their brakes when they should be hitting the gas pedal.

But like any good blogging provocateur, he had to blame it on liberals and/or non-natives who have been allowed in the wonderful commonwealth thanks to the good graces of the REAL Virginians. Heh,  heh. And get a gender reference in there, too.

Then Elliot chimed in:

Even though this is off the topic of the post, I’m going to respond to Michael. Being from NY originally (although I’ve been here for 9 years now and I can’t imagine living anywhere else), I’ve got to disagree with one of your two assessments. You are correct that people who stop on on-ramps are most likely liberals, but the “not Virginians” claim is backwards.

After moving down here I was shocked at how many people don’t know how to merge. It was a drastic difference from anywhere else I’ve been. People will stop even when there are no cars coming. Orange to 581 is the worst but not the only place this happens. I think Liberal Virginians are the culprit.

And then some others, including Jason.

I understand the irritation. It gets to me, too. And I also get frustrated by:

Drivers running 10 mph under the speed limit (without any obvious reason for doing so);

And, by “biased” traffic lights such as the one at Grandin/Brandon southwest, where the cars on Brandon get all the time in the world to clear the intersection but barely 10 cars in line on Grandin, if that many, can make it through. Thus, many Grandin drivers have to sit through 2 stoplight cycles.

What do YOU say?

Please add you merging/traffic gripes here!