….A few mishaps last week. Bill’s column ran twice….once in his own space and once in Jeremy Alger’s. The moratorium on the establishment of new convention & visitors bureaus is not 2004 but 2024. The Top of West Virginia CVB is open for business in Weirton, but they appear to be keeping a low profile. While we’ve seen where Steubenville is having its concert series there’s no word to the media on whether or not the free concerts sponsored by the CVB will take place.
…..If the decorating skills of HGTV hosts don’t do enough to make us feel inadequate, the social life the homeowners claim to have should. Every homeowner claims to have a cadre of friends and family that visit and dine so often they plan their living space around them. The home’s normal layout morphs into a kitchen with an island and walls come tumbling down so that the cook has a clear view of the many guests they entertain while they prepare the meal. Don’t they realize that means the guests have a clear vision of dirty dishes? Aren’t there some conversations that you just don’t want to participate in?
…. And, the homeowners are all visionaries. They all stand at their kitchen island and say things like “I can just see Aunt Elva sitting here watching me cook her special spaghetti sauce,” or “I can see the kids sitting here doing their homework while I cook dinner.” Wait, one said every Friday they host the neighborhood pizza party. Is this designed to make us all feel like unpopular people?
……Let’s get real. Someone in the show needs to say, “I really don’t cook much so devote as little space to the kitchen as possible” or “I discourage my family from coming for dinner and when I do, I prefer to keep them in a separate room from me.” Or, just make sure I have a microwave!
…..Why would you design an entire house because you have family over for the holidays and need seating for 16? Why not design for the other 360 days and do what the rest of us do on the holidays? What about a nice cozy dining room that seats six and some card tables for those special moments? My sister, Marsha, used to use her garage when for holiday dinners and I know other families that used the basement. Or, how about eating in shifts?
…..And, I wonder if those people who remodeled in anticipation of entertaining like Martha Stewart wondered if they had wasted their money when COVID kept even family away.
…..I predict the “open” concept will someday be “so yesterday” and renovators will be erecting walls to give everyone their own private space. The ship lap that Joanna Gaines is so fond of will become the paneling we all tore out of our “rec” rooms when they morphed into our “family” rooms. What’s new will soon be old again. Wallpaper is back? Go ahead and wallpaper that bedroom. Your children will be taunting your taste as they strip that wallpaper off in years to come. (I know of what I write. I had many a word for my Mom as I stripped off velvet-flocked wallpaper in the bedroom and gold and silver foil wallpaper in the kitchen.) I could write more but then I would miss the latest Hometown show. It’s neat they have this small town and they redo all the older homes for residents. They snap those homes up for $30,000.00 and only put $200,000.00 to renovate them. What a deal!
….Governor Justice is expected to sign a bill that keeps emergency rules in effect during the COVID closure of restaurants. Patrons will continue to be able to carry out alcohol in addition to their meals. The Hospitality & Tourism Association heavily lobbied to keep the change in effect and predicts it will greatly aid the restaurant business.
…..County Commissioners received a total of 50 e-mails from residents prioritizing the top three areas they would like to see receive American Rescue Act funds. Commissioner Paul Cowey said the priorities most listed were Hancock County Museum, libraries, broadband, water, sewage and a sports/recreation complex.
…..Hancock County Museum President Vivian Weigel sent an e-mail letting friends of the museum know that the Hancock County Museum was in need of funds and asking them to e-mail the Commissioners asking them to fund much-needed repairs out of the Rescue funds. According to Weigel, the museum is in need of structural repairs especially windows. Repairs were taken on by the Museum Commissioners with funds from the Pugilese Grant, but fundraising ground to a halt with the COVID pandemic and to finish the work the Museum foundation had to deplete the money they had received from the Wells family along with the interest from that funds.
….The importance of water and sewage to the development of the County is immense. Those who lived in town may have never experienced the challenges faced by those of us living without a city sewer system. While I can’t say we were true country dwellers when the kids were little we lived on Flats Cemetery Road and didn’t have city sewers or city water. I washed on Mondays but didn’t cut my grass until Thursdays to give the back yard time to dry up so that I could get the mower in and out of the swamp. Douglas recalls that when he and his little friends played football, the area where the sewer came up in the back yard was the out-of-bounds. When I made the decision to move back into my childhood home and invest the money to remodel it, the major impetus was that City sewage was extended to the area that year.
….Spring has arrived and I am so happy to see the trees “greening” up. No better time to live in West Virginia then when Winter turns to Spring and the world seems to come alive again.