Month: September 2026

Diamonds 💎are a Girls Best Friend :    The Legend of The Man who I feel blessed to know and wish I could spend more time ⏲️ with!

After I write ✍️ a story, any story about something, I immediately think about who would truly appreciate reading this one ???

Nothing is about commercialism for me, it’s about joy and giving it to others, free of charge.

How much life can one person stuff inside a five hour window 🪟 ? The answer is a great deal if you are fortunate enough !

Yesterday afternoon was fun and fellowship with some awesome people, but if you don’t know those people, you might not truly care about that story.

That part is okay because I don’t write for clicks or money, I write to bring joy to others.

I sent that story to eight people. I sent it to the people involved in it ➕️ Marion Harris and Mr Chris Dodson. The last two because they know most of the people that were part of the story.

There’s an inside joke 😃 there about the relationship dynamics between Alan Knight and myself, and it stems from an old Kevin Bacon movie 🎬 about degrees of separation.

Alan laughs at the fact that with six steps or less, I can find a way to laughingly take credit for anything good that happened. It’s fun because if you break it down, all I am trying hard to do is bring light to positive people who are using their God given talents for the betterment  of others.

Everyone who knows me in Carroll County knows how much respect I have for both Vickey Ritchie and Greg Bolen. Take those two and add them to Alan Knight, and it gives you the idea 💡 of the workload that this Dodson fella carries every day.

Right now, Dodson is adjusting to life after being a full-time teacher ( following the career path of that Knight fellow) but he didn’t search for a fishing hole somewhere, he just added the next challenge and this one he can tackle with his Bride.

There will be a day when his life slows 🐌 down, and when it does, I hope that he will stop by my nursing home 🏡 and we can reminisce about the life he has led.

Back to the inside joke, because I might not still be around when Dude slows down, I will connect the dots on how this works…

I am the Public Relations Manager who takes care of people like Alan Knight and Lawrence Nesselrodt while working with anyone who can tolerate me.

So, being that Alan is under the umbrella 🌂 and the highest level, the fact that Alan taught a young Chris Dodson as well as gave him someone who he could look up to as a high school student, means that I have already ” taken ” credit for everything Chris Dodson has accomplished…….

But seriously, you are my daily inspiration, and I look forward to the day when you catch your breath. It will mean that instead of grabbing a slice of pizza 🍕, you will have to ask my nurse what flavor of pudding 🍮 you should feed me during our visit.

Circle back part of the story :

The comparisons –

Like Alan Knight, Dodson has seven rings 💍

Like Greg Bolen, Dodson could just run around and beat people up that bother him but he knows that there is a better way.

Like Vickey Ritchie, Dodson had a built-in reason for it, he has spent his entire life dedicated to folks with special needs.

While this might be a solid read in one of my places that I was never from, it will have the opposite effect in the current place I’m not from. In Carroll County, Chris Dodson is Darth Vader because of the history between the girls’ basketball programs as each school might have one more State banner if not for the other.

Dodson is a Home Town hero, and I’m honored 🎖 to be “not from” where we works all of his magic

The funniest line from lunch yesterday afternoon came from Quentin as I was telling the story about the time that Frank Comer was heading into the season finale with an 0-9 record. I consider Frank Comer a big part of my story because he shared an office 🏬 at the High School with Alan for decades.

On game day, I went to school with Frank and stayed with him from 7am. until the final gun sounded. People were going to come after him, and I wanted to be standing next to him when they did. In my world 🌎, it’s not about how much you win, its about what you do with your success or lack there of.

Quentin, who I hadn’t seen since High School, adds I don’t know what season that was because we didn’t win a single game while I played. He added that even though he won 🏆 a State Championship in baseball ⚾️ and won ZERO games in his time at Page County High School, that his time in football was more fun.

Win or lose, Friday Night Lights is THE REAL DEAL in high school 🏫.

Everyone who reads my work knows that I bleed Duke Blue. I am sitting here outside Wallace Wade Stadium typing this story, but the one thing I don’t write about is Duke Men’s Basketball, and that’s because it would be the very definition of overkill.

This winter should be exciting because there are seven or eight storylines to follow. One of those will be can Chris Dodson break the tie 👔 of 7-7 with Alan Knight in regards to rings 💍. Know this, whichever one gets to eight first, I will take credit for it !

Welcome 🙏 to the final Saturday in September, which begs the question of who will follow Greg Bolen in the Top Box on our site??? But first, our Morning 🌄 Brew….

Travis Osborne and his Bible Verse of the Day :

Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

  Today will be a trickier day for balance after a phone call we received from one of our kiddos last night as we were checking in to our hotel 🏨 down here in Durham.

  Life is full of challenges, and my family has more than it’s share but when you are trying hard to give others hope and encouragement, one has to follow the Joel Osteen path by only preaching out of one side of the Bible.

I can still remember the last time that my late Father and I discussed religion. He shared with me that issue with Joel Osteen was that he only preached about Heaven, and Dad wanted him to let people know about Hell.

Yesterday, one of my children experienced something that made my heart ache as it would any parent. When you add in the distance, it removes the ability to hold them.

Now, there is absolutely no reason for sharing what happened because of the amount of pain involved in others’ lives right now. Yes, I could tell the story in the manner that I’m capable of, but it’s not my story.

Yesterday, I wrote about not telling a story if you can not reach the end of it without demeaning another human being in the process. The back half of the thought process is don’t tell a story that isn’t yours to tell.

Now, Thursday night in Martinsville is a story to tell, and I will absolutely do so here before too long !

Thank you to Kevin DeHaven, Bill Gallimore, and Travis Osborne for taking a second of their time to keep me in the know about the latest conquest of our 5-0 🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈 ( one ball for each victory) football team last night 🌙 in Stuart !

Enjoy the weekend, you have earned it !

Have a Blessed Day 🙌😇🙏

Bill Gallimore checks ✔️ in from over in Stuart, and he has great news about the undefeated Cavs ! CCHS is looking to spoil Homecoming festivities.. (F, 38-6)

24- 6

Thank you, Mr Gallimore !

Now at the break….24 – 6

Mr DeHaven reports 38 – 6 in the 4th !!!

FINAL, 38 – 6!!!!

In the business world, this is called a HAT 👒 TRICK

You have Travis Osborne supporting Ryan McCafferty supporting Cavalier football 🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈

Bill Gallimore Photo 📸

How much life can one person stuff inside a five hour window 🪟 ? The answer is a great deal if you are fortunate enough !

4:45 was the departure time ⏲️ from the center of the campus at the James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The next stop ✋️is down in Salem at the Exit 140 Park & Ride.

  Yes, there was one very important piece of business that HAD to take place and did, but the rest of the day was answering the question – how much fellowship can you fit in one time slot ?

BWW was our headquarters !

Alan Knight is about to be the color commentator for ESPN+ tonight as the network covers the JMU – South Alabama match at 6pm.

The first bit of humor was about the two things that he loves most about his part-time gig. Let’s start with his love for the sport, but follow it with the fact that it is the one thing that I can not find a way to take credit for. In a lifetime of joining up with someone to accomplish something, the bond between Alan and I was created in a special place!

Old Coach, Young Coach

Chris Carter is the fourth of five children whom I was blessed to father, and the bond between Alan and Chris goes way back, and the ties 👔 run deep. Chris coaches a multitude of youth sports in Page County and enjoys picking the brain 🧠 of someone who has collected 1,100 high school victories in his career.

Christina, pictured here, is connected to four of our nine grandchildren  and is a great role model for each of them ! Noah, Ana, Melody, and Madison each feel protected by this young lady.

The next member of the extended family to swing by was Brian, who also answers to Big Daddy. The push 💪 for his health is to the point where we might need to revisit the nickname. The before and after photos are pretty wild !

The next guest was a great unexpected surprise as the son of Frank Comer, Quentin, stopped by. Frank is the one who called the balls and strikes the day that Rick Nester led Carroll County High School Softball team to the very first State Championship in Lynchburg.

Father and Son are about to team up to officiate an area high school football game.

We missed out on Bill ” Pappy ” Meade and Dennis Zimmerman but will get to see 👀 both Pappy and Barb in Durham tomorrow.

When you factor in that I didn’t know that I needed to make the trip up until last night, I feel blessed by the turn-out !

Approaching exit 205, the home of Nancy the book 📖 publisher lives. There is a solid room for a nap….

Rest Area #3 means almost there, and it’s time to once again take a break and tell a story. Let’s call 📞 this one : The next 5 minutes or the oldie but goodie, don’t judge a book by its cover.

That sign has a crazy story to it as well, and I look forward to telling it later !

The goal for me was / is to create a set of books 📚, seven in number, with the 7th one being a faith-based 🙏 non-fiction tale of the role that God played in my life. That one is designed to help people who face serious struggles and could use inspiration.

The thing that sets me apart from most people who write ✍️ is that I have never asked for or seeked compensation. Even the years of writing for Mike Petre and Chuck McGill at the Northern Virginia Daily, that money 💰 went towards producing the volleyball 🏐 book we did for the Strasburg Rams 🐏 after they won their State Championship.

The other thing that sets me apart from most writer’s / storytellers is that I will take a hard pass on a story that I know to be true, if I can not tell that story without casting another in a bad light because I don’t need money or fame, just need an audience to try and make smile.

I mentioned earlier ( two Rest Area’s back ) that today is Ryan McCafferty Day here on our site because of his birthday. Earlier this week we shared a thought or two about people who are quick to judge others.

Someone who will absolutely be part of the seventh book 📖 is Delilah Brady !

If you go back to the only time that I knew to be in the same room with her, the conversation was very different. There were days that I would drive up to Omega Office and spend hours swapping stories with Ron Cochran. I miss those days, as Ron would tell a story about the person who walked in, and then that person could decide if they wanted to engage in a conversation with me or not.

The day that Delilah walked in, it was a different type of conversation, to day the very least. She didn’t call me any names or show true disrespect, but it was different.

See, most people only have minutes, but a great deal of knowledge comes from the next five minutes. A lot of people take pleasure in running other people down, a part of life that I will understand, nor will I ever, but my next 5 minutes included asking Ron about the Lady I had just met.

Her story intrigued me to the point that I went home and spent another 15 minutes learning about what matters to Delilah Brady and her friends.

I think the work she’s doing falls under the umbrella 🌂 of doing God’s work ! It is easy to type that and move on, but for me, the natural next step was to write ✍️ her group a check ✔️. I have to answer to the government about every nickle of the $250K we distributed so I know what the amount was, $1,000.00

She is from here, embraces her home, is trying hard to capture as much of the history, and preserve it. Beyond that, she goes out of her way to educate people on subjects that she knows are important to their lives. The kicker to it all is that she tries so very hard not to belittle them while doing so.

It would have been easy to just go to the local restaurant and talk 👄 smack about this lady, to judge her on a five minute exchange. First, that is short sided, second is not very Christian like and third and most importantly, I would have missed out on a great story !

I see 👀 you, Delilah Brady, and I praise your efforts to stand up for what and who you believe in !

I live my life in an open book manner through my site. There’s not a day that goes by where a reader of mine wouldn’t know where or how to find me. What I do every day is anything but the norm. If someone has a question about any part of it, I welcome questions because the alternative is for folks to draw their own conclusions…..