Mitch Sneed at Large

I had a chance to go out to the ribbon cutting for the new ownership Chateau du Reaux wine shop on Davis Street Thursday morning.
A good crowd was there to welcome new owner Kim Kelly to the business that has been keeping Culpeperonis lubricated for more than eight years.
Monroe and his wife Pat will be heading to North Carolina’s Outer Banks soon, and both said it will be tough to leave Culpeper, but they feel that leaving the business in Kim’s hands will mean customers will always have a knowledgeable wine source right down the street.
“I never had a bad day here,” Monroe Baisden said.
In this town with all that tasty inventory at hand, I can see why. We hate to see them go. Thanks for all you both have done for Culpeper.
Read more about the new ownership here:

http://www.starexponent.com/cse/news/local/article/wine_shop_changes_hands/22007/

CUP CRAZINESS: You saw the story we had in the paper about the 7-Election where people’s preferences in coffee cups at 7-Eleven served as poll for the presidential election. Well you have to hear this one.
Apparently a customer at one area 7-11 came in with her feathers all ruffled claiming the store was not placing an equal number of McCain cups to the number of Obama cups that were on display.
She wasn’t kidding either. Clerks tell me that she got a bit testy about it and accused them of all sorts of shenanigans and she was quite loud about it.
All this for a cup poll that means nothing? It takes all kinds. Who knows, maybe someday they will allow us to vote for real at the checkout counter. Until then, get a life.
It’s a cute concept that creates something to talk about. No need to get the blood pressure up.
By the way, there were the same amount of cups for both presidential hopefuls on display. See the story here:  http://www.starexponent.com/cse/news/local/local_govtpolitics/article/obamas_cup_overflowing/22680/

COLLEGE GAS WOES: I saw a story that showed that while gas prices have fallen sharply in many parts of the state, Charlottesville hasn’t been so lucky.
The story said “The average price of regular gas in the Charlottesville region was $3.43 on Monday, exceeding the statewide average of $3.12 and the national average of $3.21. A week earlier, Charlottesville-area service stations were charging an average of $3.51 for a gallon of regular gas, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.”
Why is that? It’s a college town and students often rely on Mommy and Daddy’s plastic so they don’t even realize what they are paying.
I saw the same thing when I lived in Auburn Alabama. The price would vary .40 cents from Auburn where Auburn University was located to Opelika just five miles away.
I got gas for $2.89 this morning. That was nice. Do you think the oncoming election has anything to do with this drop?