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The Office Cat
Look for lots of visitors in town this week. Aonia Pass Motocross Park will be host to "The General" which is round 2 of the Can-Am Grand National Cross Country Series, America's largest off-road series. There will be races for fourwheelers on Saturday; and for twowheelers (motorcycles) on Sunday. Many of the people who will be participating in the series were in Florida for competition last week and had plans to come on to Washington early this week. The Aonia Park was made available to them Monday of this week and many of them have been parked and camping since then. The event will probably have 1700 riders, which makes for about 7500 people when you count the family members and friends that accompany them, and the spectators who are expected. The Washington-Wilkes Chamber of Commerce is planning a big welcome and special events for all those involved. . . . At the same time, in another part of the Park, The Washington-Wilkes Young Farmers Tractor Pull will be taking place and that always brings a lot of people to participate and watch. .. We had a stormy first day of March last Thursday. There were tornado watches and warnings all around us but we managed to get by with just strong winds and lots of good rain. On Hill Street, Norris recorded 2.4 inches and said this was the first time he had ever seen the pond behind his house running over. During that same period, Sandtown got 3.2 inches, as did several other rainkeepers that I heard from. . . . Total rainfall for the month of February was 2.7 inches. .. Lizzie Newsome left Saturday for the first rotation of her senior year clinical externships at Central Florida Equine Hospital in Orlando, Fla. Lizzie is a senior in the doctoral program of the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine. .. Ashley and Ames Barnett are new owners of the lot at the southeast corner of Court and Jefferson streets. They have already started a beautification project by planting 13 hybrid magnolia trees and grass and, in the future, putting in a white picket fence. They also own the lot across the street (where the carwash is) and have plans to build their home there. Both of these projects will really add a lot to Court Street and the Downtown area. .. The tulip trees are in full bloom and for the first time in several years have not been damaged by the cold weather. Many other springtime plants are blooming and it looks a lot like spring. But I remember the "Blizzard of 1993" on March 14 and I'm not ready to welcome springtime yet. .. Susan Gunter Chafin called to tell me about an observation her grandson made on a recent cold and bright sunny morning. Four-yearold Evan Harper hitches a ride to Pre-Kindergarten at the First United Methodist Church every morning with his granddaddy - Mack- Daddy. As they went through Downtown, Evan noticed the sun gleaming on the Courthouse and said, "Mack-Daddy, is that a castle?" It does look like a castle, and even more-so before "The Fire" in the 1950s. .. Remembering the Courthouse reminded me of Rosemary Hopkins' beautiful Wilkes County plates which she designed and had made in England. All of the 16 different designed plates have finally arrived and are available at Tena's and Bee Southern Downtown. I think the Courthouse is the prettiest one. .. Chef Ben LeGette will have samples of his menu selections at the Farmers Market on Court Street Saturday morning, March 10. I hear the food is delicious. I plan to sample. .. Ashley Barnett, Washington- Wilkes Tourism Director, will be on WAGT-TV (NBC, Augusta), Channel 28, Wednesday, March 21, between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m., promoting the Washington-Wilkes Spring Tour of Homes. .. Wanda and James Trimm are moving their Purple Palette art studio to Elberton where they hope to generate more business. They will be next door to Tena's Gifts and Jewelry with Sandra Reville Brown, owner and manager. .. Gail Duggan finished teaching her class at the RESA Center in Dearing Thursday night and headed for Washington-Wilkes. She knew that it was a rainy and stormy night, but she didn't know how bad it was until husband Tom called on her cell phone and told her about the tornado warning for Warren and McDuffie counties. He also told her to get off the highway and take shelter immediately. Gail pulled into Wal-Mart at Thomson and got inside the door just a couple of minutes before the storm hit Thomson. She says she told the attendant at the door about the storm and asked for the safest place in the store. She was directed to the "fitting room" while the attendant alerted others in the store. She says she got into the room just in time to feel the building shaking and having a feeling that all the air was being sucked from the store and from her lungs. She says it all happened very quickly and as soon as it was over she left to make her way home. .. Marshall Frost e-mailed several pictures of the beautiful rainbow that many of us saw late in the afternoon about two weeks ago. He had photographed the rainbow in sections and then put them together on the computer to get the full rainbow. Marshall is one of the pharmacists at Fievet's Pharmacy. ..
I first heard about the "beautiful, talking goat" from Peggy Barnett who lives on Pecan Grove Road. She had seen the goat, who wore a collar, and a dog on her deck one day last week. She thought she knew who the owners were but knew that they were out-of-town. Meanwhile, a couple of days after this spotting, a goat, presumably the same one, appeared at Joe and Debbie Bennett's home on the Tignall Road, minus the dog. Debbie said she was suddenly awakened by Joe who was shouting, "Wake up. You have got to see this." Still in a zombie state from being so abruptly awakened, Debbie stumbled to the window and saw what she thought was a Collie dog. But it wasn't. "It was a beautiful 'talking' goat with a reddish brown coat with white spots, and she wanted to come in our house," Debbie said. After calling neighbors, they didn't find the owner, but the neighbors had seen the goat and dog at their houses during the past two days. Debbie says the goat was quite domesticated. She posed for pictures and wagged her tail and would talk to you if you talked to her. "This goat was not afraid of people, dogs, or cats. This goat was lovely and sweet," Debbie continues. When she returned from a luncheon that afternoon she decided to call Cindy Bounds - mainline to animal control. In a little while Gloria Wheatley from the Washington-Wilkes Animal Shelter came and they enticed the goat into a cage in the van to take her to the shelter. The last I heard Monday was that Gloria was still awaiting the arrival of the owners who Peggy was trying to contact. . . . And Debbie said, "I thought you all would like to know who finally got my goat!" . . . She also said, "Only in a small town!" . . . And I said, "It's the best of living, isn't it?"
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