6/12/08

TMA?

What could that stand for?

Or am I the only one who thinks it could have more than one meaning?

And, pray tell, where is the new logo?

Just something to amuse myself with...

***UPDATE***

here it is!

wow - beige. and grey.

wow

Who knows? Not us, thats for sure.

Milan Tobacconists, a venerable downtown business since 1912, is moving.

Down the street to 309 S. Jefferson, the old Lee and Edwards Wine Merchants shop.

106 S. Jefferson, the current location, is owned by Blue Marlin LLC - which also owns the Frankie Rowlands/ Subway building.

One can only speculate that with the recent acquisition of the old Southern Pawn, we could be looking at yet another restaurant downtown, and a possible expansion of Frankie Rowland's.

And just a block away - the Ol' Billy's Ritz is heading down a similar road. Filings with the city include many details, one of which being a 5th floor added atop the existing 4. The amount of work required to convert this aged beauty into a boutique hotel and restaurant is.. well, expensive. And word on the street is, no investor would touch it - but the decision was made to go ahead anyway.

And much like the former Woolworth's/CampbellMart, all work has ceased there too.

Would it be too much to ask for the City to put a time limit/fine on permits for work? The Woolworth's has been an eyesore for over 2 years now, and if the owners had only went for the proper permits - they might not have received a stop work order, and we might have a viable retail location.

Milan should do well in it's new location, being 2 stories prepared for wine storage, which is not all THAT different from cigar storage. Hey, maybe it will become a cigar bar?

Anyway - that's my retail roundup. I kept meaning to get to it.

6/11/08

Oddly enough

I've been getting a good number of requests lately for more of the Haunted Roanoke (tm) stuff.

Well, I'll be indulging those requests in the next few days, especially considering the recent documents that have crossed my path.

OH - the answer to yesterday's "secret": 4011116

Get out those secret decoder rings, kids. Little Orphan Annie needs your help!

So keep your ears open, there will be more to the story!

6/10/08

I know a (public) secret

Change is coming - more condos. But most likely in the last place one would expect it.

Very last.

More to say on this later.

6/8/08

delayed update (final update)

sorry folks, but we are dealing with a minor issue here at HQ

Lack of AC

At some point today, it seems (this is a laymans guess) that the transformer gave out for our AC, leaving us hovering around 85 degrees all day...

always the best days to happen.

So, as we await our savior (who has been getting slammed by service calls all day), we sit pretending that fans actually do something.

Anyone got a block of ice that will sleep 3?

Hopefully we will be back up and running in a few hours.

So, hot enough for ya?

*update*

We get closer to having AC again, and this whole trip puts me in mind of the Blackout of 2003. It was a hot August day in NYC, and things were progressing as they normally do. I happened to be off that day, and was spending a little RnR time at the future wife's place. She had gone to the store, so it was me and the dog in the air conditioned kitchen, watching TV.

The TV went off.

Came back on, and went off again.

I checked all the breakers, and everything seemed fine - so maybe a powerline in the area was down or something.

I turned on the radio.

Nothing...

I switched over to AM, and found news. At this time I looked at my cellphone. It had no signal.

Then word started to trickle in on the news about the power outage.

The future wife came home, reporting streets of confusion and near-chaos.

We decided to fire up the grill for dinner, and spent the night on the front lawn - radio keeping us informed as best they could.

There's that moment of *gasp* when you realize that for 200+ miles, there is no power.

This is not at all like that. But because of the heat and humidity, it feels like it should be.

Maybe the heat has muddled my brain.

**update 2***

24 hours after the initial call, we once again have air. After being told by multiple companies that "they could fit us in next week," Service Experts came and had us up and running in minutes.

Thanks to all you folks at Service Experts who made this happen.