TARBORO — Saturday was one of those busy days around the community, with a variety of things going on — TASS (Tarboro Association of Saltwater Sportsmen) with their fishing gear yard sale at Marrow Pitt, Junior Girl Scout Troop 806 selling Girl Scout cookies at Walmart, the rabies clinic at Albemarle Animal Hospital, the first day of registration for North East Carolina Prep and the visitation and paying of respects for Dr. Peter Temple.

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David Mears was, I’m afraid, like a lot of us when he looked out for the first time or two on Saturday.

“It was beautiful,” he said, as we stood in the Marrow Pitt parking lot. Both of us had jackets on.

“I thought this was going to be great,” he said, “but when I got out in that wind, it was a different story. It just cut through you.”

David tells me the rockfish are already moving upstream to spawn … but I’ll leave the discussion of all things fishing — except the eating of them — to my friend Rick Goines as it takes me but a split second to tell all I know!

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Even though it was windy, at least the TASS crew was in the open sun and, on the rare occasion when the winds died down, it was quite pleasant.

That wasn’t the case for the Junior Girl Scouts, as they were in full shade and full wind and until I arrived to take their picture, bundled up against the cold.

Ashleigh Perkins was the first to start taking her coat off and I told her she didn’t have to … until I saw her merit sash and knew she wanted to show them off.

Then, as customer Walt Lanier of Myrtle Beach, S.C. walked up to make a purchase, I asked the girls to turn and wait on him, rather line up in front of the camera. Lanier said he had bought so many cookies this year, he couldn’t keep up with them.

If you didn’t buy a box or 10 on Sunday, you missed it as that was the final day.

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The waiting room was full at Albemarle Animal Hospital on the first day of a rabies vaccination program rotating around the community and Dr. Sam Gregg, Wayne Bland, Kim Webb and Lexus were gracious enough to let get a photo to remind folks of the need to get their pets vaccinated.

Dr. Gregg is a Mississippi State grad and I’m a lifelong State fan and we commiserated for a few moments about their horrible play against Georgia in the SEC Tournament on Thursday before each had to move on to other tasks.

I’m pretty sure Bridget has found her doctor here in Tarboro and I’d bet she’ll even wear her “I eat Rebels” pooch T-shirt when she makes her initial visit.

Like most Labs, Bridget has one of those wonderful personalities and can go from full sleep to full play and back to sleep in the span of 10 minutes with no difficulty at all. She’s a shelter pup who has taken full ownership of the humans in the household.

I can’t imagine not having her around … meeting us at the door with either a shoe (her preference) or one of her stuffed animals in her mouth. She does a little happy squeal and kind of dances on her tiptoes as we come inside … as happy to see us as we are her.

As she has a bit of a weight problem and is getting a bit older, I’ve got to figure out how to build her some steps to climb in and out of the Jeep and into her spot in the front passenger seat. I don’t mind helping her up, but the jumping out is tough on her joints and legs. That’s a project I’ll tackle when I get my tools up here — soon, I hope!

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In our previous residency in North Carolina, we were in Thomasville, which was served by Duke Power but close to Lexington, which was (and is) an ElectiCities member — like Tarboro.

I had forgotten about the complaints of high rates until a combination of events last week — a story out of Raleigh about the failure of a legislative committee on any plan that would reduce high electric bills in Eastern North Carolina, but that was the day before I got my first electric bill from the Town of Tarboro, also an ElectriCities member.

As this is a family newspaper, I can’t put into print what my first reaction was. To tell the truth, about the only reaction I can’t admit to was an “Oh, my God!” that was well into my conversation with myself.

As I related my $88 bill for 16 days to co-workers, I heard tales of bills much higher — much, much, much higher — and could never get away from the fact that my bill, averaged and carried out to a full month, would be more than what we’re accustomed to paying in a two-story house more than eight times the size of the two-room apartment I’m now in.

I know it’s something folks in many communities are dealing and have dealt with and understand the roots of the problem — those investments made 30 years ago in power plants owned by Progress Energy and the delay of Progress’ acquisition by Duke by federal regulators.

I’m sure it was a well-intended effort in the 1980s, as the communities incurred the debt to ensure they had a steady supply of power in the future. Over those years, though, you haven’t heard much news about people running out of power.

In the meantime, I’m comparing the Edgecombe Martin EMC service map against the real estate listings!

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Here’s your weekly update on your newspaper:

• We continue to increase the number of local and stories in your newspaper to give you more of what you are looking for.

• Thanks to Linda Goines, Buddy Hooks and about a dozen other folks who got in touch with us as soon as they heard Dr. Temple had passed away on Thursday night. Without your help on important community happenings such as this, there’s much we would miss. Thank you!

• We have a subscription drive that starts today that will allow you to get a flag for your favorite college with your paid subscription. Now, in our ad, we show the flags of four schools — Duke, ECU, NC State and UNC — but if you have a different favorite, such as a Wake Forest or a Mississippi State, we can get it for you. So don’t think it’s limited to only those four.

Thanks for reading and supporting your hometown newspaper. We do appreciate it.

(John H. Walker is editor and publisher of The Daily Southerner. He may be contacted at jwalker@dailysoutherner.com or 823-3106.)