West Union Fest 125

The Town of West Union, West Virginia
County Seat of Doddridge County
Incorporated July 20, 1881
125 years - and COUNTING!!!

The Party ~ July 22, 2006 ~ “Lions and Tigers and Bears - OH MY!!!!!!!”

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

July 22nd, from 8 to 8 ~ This little Town is going to CELEBRATE!!

On the 22nd of July - We are going to close off Main Street and PARTY –

Pony Rides, Bands, Entertainment ~

Stock up early for your Christmas presents - there will be local crafts, arts, honey, jams, quilts, purses, carvings, cheeses, paintings, pottery, marbles, famous WV blown glassware, jewelry, chainsaw carvings and demonstrations, candles ~ Also fresh produce at our Farmer’s Market

Commemorative items will be available:
· Limited Edition Commemorative Coins
· Framed West Union Historical Photo Reproductions
· DVD’s and CD’s of the Town and County History
· Ephraim Bee Postage Stamps and Lapel Pins
· Books, Books, Books
· Postcards

Grab a Hot Dog and a SnoCone, order a picnic lunch - or eat at one of our Fine Restaurants ~

Major Attractions:· Walking Tour of West Union’s Stately Historic Section, including the Doddridge County Historical Museum, the Doddridge County Courthouse, the Stuart Mansion, The old Opera House, the Wall of Honor, and the Stagecoach stop
· Be guided by our costumed docents or choose the Self-Guided Tour
· Commemorative Amateur "Ham" radio station WU8WV will be on the air issuing a special QSL card and certificate of contact during the event.
· Guiness Book of Records registered attempt to establish a new World’s Record for the Largest Family Tree Chart
· Ride a horse-drawn wagon down our RailTrail (Or by bicycle or Shuttle-bus) (Smithburg Depot Museum will also be open for this special day and Parking and shuttle-bus service will be provided at Pennsboro and North Bend Park as well)
· Meet the Ghost of Ephraim Bee
· Watch the Civil War Re-Enactors
· Keep an eye peeled for celebrities - Many of our Native Sons / Daughters are coming back...
· As evening draws near, join our marshmallow roast and sing-along


Come-as-you-are or come in costume and enter our contest ~

West Union, WV ~ We love our history - that's why we're still making it!

Trying to Cancel PeoplePC Account

Anyone else out there had a problem canceling an account with PeoplePC??

I am going through a Nightmare...

My husband died the first of the year. I sat down with all my accounts and tried to decide where I could save a penny. PeoplePC is only $10.95/month - but $131.40/year is a help when money is tight and I didn't need it, so I picked up the telephone as per their instructions for cancelling...

Very nice man answered. He was little 'hard-sell' but appeared to be professional and caring. Talked me into suspending the account for a couple of months to see 'how things were going to go'. Unfortunately, I did not write down who I talked to.

3 months later, the charge is on my credit card bill again. I let it go a month, then called to cancel. Unfortunately, I did not write down who I talked to again.

So I called this morning - my first day off from a new job - the first chance I've had to call. Spoke to 'Frankie' who told me I would have to call back next week as my account was in 'transition' and he could not access it. Seems they are updating their billing software. I told him that I was on a new job and only had today off as the office was closed for the holiday. I would not get a chance to call back next week. He advised me to 'just keep trying' then. I asked for his supervisor. 'Kathie' picked up the telephone and advised me that 'Frankie' was absolutely correct. Nothing could be done but that I must call back next week. I asked if they could not make a bring-up and address it after their 'transition' was over - as the transition was certainly nothing to do with me or my schedule. She advised that it was to do with me as it involved my account. I asked for her supervisor and 'Gabrielle' picked up the telephone after another wait.

Now, Frankie and Kathy were civil and polite. They were simply not into customer service. Gabrielle was another breed of cat. Supercilious, arrogant, and ready to put me in my place immediately. I was not to get a word in edgewise as she talked (no, yelled) over me. She advised me that if next week was inconvenient for me then I could just call at my convenience, but that billing would continue until I made a proper telephone call at a time when they could reasonably access my records.

Who else has had a problem with these people? I'm considering this a breach of contract as the agreement was that I could call to cancel service at any time that I needed to cancel.

Any suggestions?

Née McColl Excitement

Life has become SO exciting for me - All of a sudden my book is real - I mean REAL!! VBG! Total strangers - many with my name of McColl - so 'cousin-strangers'? - have emailed and called about it) I DO hope they are ordering it LOL)

One of my sisters is as excited about it as I am. Oddly, one seems to have always taken it for granted that I would publish - and one is in her own world.

I am driving myself crazy checking the Amazon.com sales rank daily. I won't get an accounting from my publisher until the end of November. I KNOW the Amazon.com sales rank does not tell me how many books are sold - but I keep worrying with it, thinking there is a key if I could only do the correct charting of it. LOL The sales rank has been everywhere from "None" to "33,058" (which tells me that I was 33,057 under Harry Potter on that day. hahahaha)

My Book: Née McColl is PUBLISHED!

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Woo - Hoo!!!!  My book was only published last week and it is on Amazon.com already!! Here's the Press Release (Can you believe it????? (VBG!)

West Union, WV – “Née McColl” by Frances McColl Stewart, published by iUniverse, Inc. has now been listed on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com.
"They arrived at the battlefield at dusk. The shooting was becoming more sporadic as it was difficult for soldiers to aim through the heavy smoke at twilight. The three of them picked up as many injured soldiers as they could and stacked them in the buckboard for transport back to the Old House. Furniture was moved out of the living room and the wounded were made as comfortable as possible on palettes on the floor. When Sherman’s scouts came through, they declared the Old House to be a hospital. It seems that in the dark, poor Lucy was picking up Union soldiers as well as our Rebs, and once daylight hit, simple Christianity won out. We children were savage enough to be thrilled to have the bloodstains of that long ago time permanently embedded in the wooden floors."

“Née McColl” brings alive the cultural heritage of being a South Carolina McColl.

Poverty, Rationing, Education, Grits, and Rapists, as seen through a child’s eyes will make you relive those bittersweet, simpler days following WW II.

A member of Mensa’s Webheads, Frances’ personal websites have gathered much recognition in different fields: N-etiquette.com is a primer on Internet Etiquette, West Union-WV.com is an interactive community site, and McColl-Name.com is a genealogical site.

Frances currently lives in the “precipitous hills” of West (by God) Virginia with her husband, Bud – and SeaDog.

Hobbies include quilting, genealogy, Fortean mysteries – and the Family Quote of the Year Contest.

Available from Ingram Book Group, Baker & Taylor, Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com,
and from iUniverse, Inc.ISBN: 0-595-34026-1 - Publication Date: Aug-2005History
/ General - Price: $14.95 - Size: 6 x 9 - 147 PagesTo order call 1-800-AUTHORS

Learning: CSS for Example

I do love to learn - but am oldschool enough that it is a separate process for me. I separate that from work. In fact, my whole life is compartmentalized: family, home, work, education. I notice that the newer generations are more integrated in their life-style.

Working on the Internet has been wonderful, but has presented some problems for me. I am leaning CSS - I swear I am!! :) In the meantime, a friend has taken a website I am working on and added CSS for me. It has solved many of my load problems (this site has many photos and graphics of products).

The client wanted to change the background color. I am not going to bother my friend for that - so I stop what I'm doing and research - Hey - This looks easy. I change the bg color on the CSS sheet - cross my fingers and "Voila!"

Thursday, I was ready to add the order form - We are almost ready to go. I used the script that I normally use to make it printer friendly - and Boingoiinngoiiinnnnggggggg. Seems we have a conflict. A little research and a posting to my FP List (a wonderful site, wonderful people, BTW http://groups.yahoo.com/group/frontpage/ ) and that problem is solved.

Now - as usual, I know a lot more about CSS than I want to at this point. Learning in this manner leaves me with holes in my knowledge. I feel insecure with the base. What else can you do on the 'net tho? I am already enrolled in a wonderful - but demanding - class on SWISHmax - for animation. Even if I had the time for more classes, which I don't as I also have to earn a living, I feel that I can't ever learn it all...

Why do we blog? Is it a fad?

Why do you blog?

Are you a writer who simply likes to keep a journal?

Have you read all the hype about it helping your websites in the search engines?

Here's an interesting story:
A friend got an email from a group requesting permission to use her blog on their website. So far, so good, right? Maybe even flattering?

They wanted to CHARGE her $19.95 per month ....

I guess there's always new ways to make a dollar - and new people who will pay it....

Mother's Day Calls

I got the funniest calls for Mother's Day

Elizabeth (3 yrs old - Amy's oldest) called to complain to me that her mother was being 'bad'. I asked her what her mother could do so wrong on Mother's Day - she said "She always makes me call you"

Later in the day, I checked the answering machine and Tela (3 yrs old - Dawn's baby) was on there "Happy Mother's Day... Hello? Hello? LISTEN - I'm TALKING to you!!!" hahahahahahaa

Marketing on the Web

I am amazed at webmasters who are so caught up in SEO that they can't see the forest for the trees.

Weblogs - all those wonderful reports and tools are great marketing tools.

Being on the first page of returns for any search engine is important for generating traffic.

I know several webmasters and so-called SEO experts who are thrilled to death to be #1 in Google's returned list using keywords that are not searched for by the public. If you are selling green widgets, optimize your site for the keywords: "green widgets", or "widgets". Why would you strive to be #1 with a keyword like "snazzlefrass"? No one looking for widgets - green or red - is ever going to go to Google and say "I think I'll type in "snazzlefrass" and see if I find any widgets today."

The buzzword on the 'net is that it is better to be a big fish in a little pond than a little fish in a big pond. If this means 'target your audience' or 'narrow your focus' - well, sure - that's common sense. Unfortunately, I am seeing more and more sites that are optimized to be a fish in a pond with no water...

The best way to tell if your site is optimized properly is to check your bottom line. Are you selling more? That is what it's all about - isn't it?