I had been stuck in traffic on Route 10 for about 25 minutes when I finally pulled out my laptop at 8:45 and started writing this blog.

There must be an accident up ahead, some place on the Obici Hospital side of Butler’s store.

I called my wife and blamed her for advising me to go through Chuckatuck instead of going over the Mills Godwin Bridge and taking Bennett’s Pasture Road to work as I normally do. She said the bridge would be icy and dangerous.

“Have you heard about the road rage driver who had to take his kids to school one morning in September of 2001?” she asked. “The kid forgot something and they had to turn around to go get it. The man was cursing and complaining the entire time because it was going to make him late for work for his job at the World Trade Center.

“So you see, things happen for a reason. If you hadn’t been stuck in traffic there you might be at the bottom of the Nansemond now.”

I said, “OK, I get it, but it’s still your fault.”

With nothing to do, I’ve been sitting here looking at my fellow drivers, many of whom have been getting frustrated and turning around and going back to Chuckatuck. I thought about doing that, too, but figured if there’s a wreck that bad, I should probably stay here and try to get a photo of it if I ever get to go by.

I’ve seen three people driving cars this morning wearing telephone headsets. Who in the world is so important that they need to have a headset on so they don’t miss any calls on their way to work? It’s ridiculous.

It’s not holding a cell phone that makes talking on one dangerous when you drive. It’s the act of engaging in conversations when you should be paying attention to the road. I wouldn’t be surprised if the poor, unfortunate soul in the wreck up ahead was wearing a headset.

8:57, a wrecker from Dale’s garage just passed on the left, so hopefully they’ll be moving the wreck soon. I would have thought a wrecker would have been there much sooner.

I just heard a guy on Tony McCready’s talk show call in and say he’s been from somewhere in Virginia Beach to somewhere in Norfolk, he named the streets and I’m assuming it was a long way, and he didn’t see a single VDOT truck.

I think I’ll stop at Lowe’s when I finally get through here and get a new coffee pot for the office. I was in there last night with my wife who was looking at kitchen countertops and picked one out that I really liked. It was a Bunn. The price tag said it was $104 and when I went to check out it rang up as $154. I got mad and left it. I think I’ll go get it now.

I broke the office pot about six months ago and we’ve been using a little cheap one someone brought from home. I spill coffee all over the counter and the floor every time I pour a cup.

Lowes was almost completely empty Saturday afternoon. I figured everyone who normally be there looking for tools and wood and other manly stuff was home watching the Daytona 500. I’m not a racing fan. Who has three hours to sit on the couch watching cars go around a track

It’s after 9

now and still not moving.

I have to write a column today for tomorrow’s print edition. I think I’ll do something on the Hall Place strife. The News-Herald found itself in the middle of it last week. We had been running a Town Topic item on the a Hall Place Community Association meeting. Some dude called me Friday morning and asked me who placed the item.

I didn’t tell him, because I didn’t know. I transferred him to managing editor Douglas Grant whose job it is to keep angry readers away from me.

I think I’ll switch from McCready to BBC World News on public radio.

The guy apparently represented the Hall Place Community Association in exile and told Grant that his group was the only one authorized to use the name. He and I discussed it and decided that until they can show us some type of cease and desist order from a court, we will continue to accept announcements from the other group, which claims to be the legitimate Hall Place governing Authority.

By mid-afternoon Friday, both Grant and I had been delivered packages with documentation that the Hall Place Community Association in Exile had incorporated or something under that name and had copies of state paperwork to that effect or something. The package also included an email exchange between the one of the exiled leaders and me from August in which I apparently agreed not to run announcements from the other group.

I was apparently confused at the time, thinking that I was exchanging emails with the legitimate group. Plus, I had had it up to my ears with Hall Place. These people had been fighting it out for months and I was being cursed by both sides.

Grant and I discussed the possibility of having a letter hand-delivered back to the person that afternoon quoting Vice President Cheney in his exchange last year with Sen. Patrick Leahy, but decided not to.

9:11, I need to turn the heater down. It’s getting hot in here. I’m getting hungry, too. I may need to break into my lunch soon but what if I’m here for hours, or days? I should probably ration the food n a sandwich, a banana, an apple and a small bag of nuts and raisins. I have a spreadsheet program on the laptop, I could probably come up with some kind of sheet to help me ration it.

It’s still snowing

a little. Kind of pretty.

I was hoping for snow yesterday morning but it never came. Around 9 a.m., my

wife spotted a pair of doves sitting on our deck. We watched them for a while. They were so pretty. They mate for life you know.

We had a pair of them take up residence at our house about two years ago they sat on the roof every day side by side. It was pretty neat.. One day, Cathy found where our cat had killed one of them. His or her mate hung around the house for months after that, sitting on the roof by himself, seemingly waiting on his spouse to return. It was so said.

9:15. I think I’ll call the office and see what’s going on….

9:20: They told me at the office there was reportedly a 12-car pileup on 58. I don’t know whether that could be holding up traffic here or not. I didn’t have any messages, nobody needed me.

Allison Williams called me back and said police dispatch told her there was a head on collision on the bridge over the Western Branch that threw someone from the vehicle. I may walk up to take a picture…

9:30. I’m back. It was a pretty nasty wreck. Better stop and say a prayer for those folks. It involved a pickup truck and a small white car, both of which were loaded on to the Dale’s Garage truck. There was a VDOT plow on the bridge cleaning things up. I think they have it about cleared up. I better sign off and get ready to move.