When I worked at the Virginia Bankers Association (VBA), one of our political adversaries was Delegate Bernie Cohen (D) from Alexandria. Delegate Cohen, who was very liberal for his time, grew up and was educated in New York City with a law degree from Georgetown University in Washington. Often (well, most of the time), we… Read more »

Recently, one of my family members went shopping. Nothing strange about that, but for an 80 year old who worked so hard in a demanding job (coal mines), time has not been kind physically. On the way out with his groceries (after having to take a break in the store due to weakness in his legs),… Read more »

As PVB Employees (and some outside of the Bank) know, beyond the rather mundane role of President and CEO of the Bank, I have a truly important role – Junior IT Level Support! I even have a certificate presented to me by the Management of our IT Department noting this. It was in my “geek”… Read more »

When I was a kid, we would play a game where we would see who could hold their breath for the longest. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t beat my cousin Gary. Air is just something we cannot do without. Approaching 7 months of limited interaction with family, friends and the community… Read more »

As children we all read the story of “The Little Engine That Could.” The story is used to teach children values of optimism, perseverance and hard work. Perhaps you have also read the book to your own children or youngsters and continued the passage to them of a can-do message! The last Friday in August, I… Read more »

Dinger. Tater. Bomb. Moon Shot. Round Tripper. All of these terms are baseball slang for a home run –  the crowd rising (well, if we had crowds now) event. As we enter September (the “home stretch,” in more baseball lingo) and teams vie for the playoffs, home runs become even more valuable –  more crowd… Read more »

Given the choice of the numbers above which would you pick? One hundred is a much higher number. It is the perfect score on a test. So, why not choose 100? Eleven. It is not even a dozen. A dozen donuts. A dozen eggs. What happened to the other one that we only have 11? With… Read more »

As the COVID-19 situation drags on, staying positive and keeping perspective on things becomes challenging. So I decided to shake things up a bit by getting back into reading books. I decided that I wanted a book to continue learning more about my culture and history (got one by Ron Rash – Appalachian Author – thanks for… Read more »

Think over the years about how many times you have used that phrase – the cake or cookies someone brings to work, homegrown vegetables or fruit shared with you. I was reminded of the value of “Homemade” last Saturday when our neighbor Jess brought over some homemade chocolate covered cherries. Normally, these are a treat she… Read more »

You have planned a family event – getting ready to head to the ball game or maybe start a meeting, and you are waiting… Waiting for that person (or family) who always seems to be just a “little late” to the event. In our family, we play a little game with our beloved family members who… Read more »