WEEKLY UPDATE 10/7/2012

I tried to help at DH on Monday morning to do gift shop inventory. I don't think I was very helpful. I could hardly get back up after getting down on the floor to count small boxes on the bottom shelf in the storeroom, the print on the tally sheets was so small, I had trouble reading what it was I was looking for, and I continually lost count on some of the smaller items - pencils, patches, magnets. I think next time they ask for volunteers, I’ll suggest that older docents be exempt.

Also, on Monday was book club. The meeting began with Elizabeth, our librarian / leader, giving a report on her recent adventure in travels - Turkey. Just listening to her talk about some of the things she'd seen - the carpet showrooms, the mosques, Ephesus, the spice markets - brought so many memories back to me of my visit to Istanbul so many years ago. As far as the book reports went, I was certainly prepared, as I'd read 5 books that will have authors attending the Savannah Book Fest next February. Many of the books that others in the club had read sounded very interesting, and I want to read those, too.

I forgot that I am on the schedule for Massie school tours on Tuesdays now. It isn't a part of my routine like MOW or DH, yet, so I had planned to do nothing on Tuesday until I looked at my calendar and saw that I was to report at 1 pm. There were 2 tours on this afternoon - one was a couple visiting Savannah from Vancouver, BC, and the other was a class of 6 graduate students in historic preservation from SCAD. I'm sure they all knew more about some of the exhibits that we offer than I do, but I did the best I could. I've attached a photo of the students in in the city plan exhibit.

On Tuesday evening, there was another lecture about the War of 1812 athe the Visitor Center. I enjoy those lectures, but they're pretty boring if you're not really interested in history. This week it was about naval battles during the war, and the mechanics of sea warfare. yeah yeah yeah. But I did enjoy the history lesson.

Wednesday, following my late afternoon lectures in the series about Reconstruction in Savannah following the Civil War (which it doesn't seem to me to be much about that - it's about the war itself, and no mention of Savannah so far), I stopped at Charlie Teeple's shrimp shack for a low country boil to go. They have the biggest German Shepard dog I’ve ever seen on the porch there, and I don't know how I didn't see it until I was right there with it. I'm not really fond of dogs anyway, and this one was bigger than Mr Ed. He didn't bother me, and I got my shrimp dinner and left without being someone else's dinner.

As I was getting ready to go to MOW on Thursday, I thought about wearing my Buffalo Bills t-shirt. And then I thought, no, I'll wear it if the Bills go to the Super Bowl. Then I thought, no, if the Bills go to the Super Bowl, I'll EAT that shirt. There was a gallery opening, and I went to a lecture at the Telfair in the early evening. The paintings are all watercolors done by an artist who is trying to show workers who are toiling in jobs that will soon be gone - shrimping, newspaper deliverer, cotton mill workers - throughout the South. It was interesting to learn how she came on this project, and how she picked which faces to capture. Because of this lecture, however, I again had to miss meeting Dave & Lisa at the Rail Pub. As I was driving out of the city again, I decided to drive past the pub to see if they were sitting in the window, where they usually do. Sure enough, and Dave saw me and waved. So, I parked and went back to enjoy a pint with them. I commented that it's a good thing that I own a red Beetle, not a silver Toyota, because it makes me stand out a little on a crowded street.

The Friday tours at DH were pleasantly filled - not too big, but big enough so that I didn't feel that was wasting my time. (oh, com'on Wilma, you're retired! what is a waste of time any more???) I also attended the performance of A Deadly Pestilence, the yellow fever play, that talented people from the DH staff perform every October. Since I’d never seen it before, I thought it might be a good time to find out what it was all about.

Saturday was my turn to open and close up Bonaventure. I'm pulling double duty now, and doing this every other week-end it seems. My good friend (dare I call her a mentor?) has asked to be removed from the list because of her husband's failing health, so I’m picking up some slack. Of course, it only takes a few minutes, but it makes for 4 times every week-end that I have someplace to be at a certain time, and that's confining. Saturday, the first shift didn't show up, so I was there, at the desk, doing my best, in the clothes that I just threw on that had been on the floor all night, and I hadn't brushed my hair or showered, until a replacement came at 1 pm. Lovely - what a fine ambassador I am!

but, wait! It only got better. I went back Sunday morning to open everything up, and the volunteer was right on time at 10. So, after I got everything opened and set up, I left. But, I got a call about 1:30 that HIS replacement hadn't showed up, and he couldn't just leave, so could I come back to lock up? Well, I guess it didn't matter if I locked up at 2 o'clock or 4 o'clock, so I stayed again to sit at the desk. This is getting old really fast! I don't mind helping out, but I don't want this to be a full time job.

I did get my Halloween decor out of the box in the closet this week. So, now I’m not the only witch on display in my condo.

Did everyone watch the presidential debates? Did anyone learn anything? let me state my position: it doesn't matter which of them wins, because nothing will change for me at all. So, I just don't care.

I'm writing this before the Bills game is even over. But, it's over. Crap. Another week that I didn’t go to Coach's because I was embarrassed by my team. I also didn't get to Pirate Fest on Saturdday because I was too lazy, and I didn’t get to the Picnic in the Park on Sunday because I was tired of sitting at the Bonaventure visitor center all week-end, and just wanted to sit in my condo for a while. I have always liked the parade on Tybee for the annual Pirate Fest, and I've enjoyed the Picnic in the Park in the past, too. Maybe I’m becoming too much of a “local” now to want to go out and experience these annual events. or maybe I’m just too old and lazy.