I'm Not The Only One Who's Been Gone...

Rick's Back.

Looking at my front page, I see it's been a whole work week since I announced my return. And no post 'till now. I just may have been a day or two premature.

I have been catching up on all the happenings around Virginia while I was somewhat preoccupied. I especially appreciate Waldo's RSS feed on the GA and his reporting from Richmond.

For the past several years I was living in Buchanan County (Coon dog Central) and my local cable provider was based in Kentucky. I got to see Johnny Wood's fishing forecast (SWVA readers will know) each morning, and very little else from Virginia. Ask me about recent Kentucky politics or southern West Virginia Judicial elections and I can answer with authority. But, while living in "Radio Free Hurley", I was unable to listen to a Virginia radio station on a daily basis for many years.

Now that I have returned to the morning side of the Blue Ridge, on my way in to work each morning I have the choice of either Morning Edition on WVTF or 101.1 FM from Burlington, NC which has the Wall Street Journal Today on air from 5:00 to 6:00. Well, there is also 96.3, Rock of Virginia with John Boy and Billy, but that doesn't really count as news, does it? Certainly not Virginia news, anyway.

As a conservative, Morning Edition has my attention for about 5 minutes at a time, then I switch to the Carolina station. I tend to alternate between the two all the way to Patrick Springs and my daily breakfast treat.

The point I am painstakingly (painfully ?) getting to is how much I have come to rely on Waldo's efforts during the past month that I have been so "out of the loop".

Thanks to Waldo I will have some opinions, to be posted tomorrow, about some of the legislation currently being considered, debated, and passed in the GA.