2/24/2014

weekly update 2/24/2014

I had a slow start to the week.

By Wednesday, it was time to get out. The Georgia Day parade was scheduled for the morning. It originally had been planned for February 12, which is the day that James Oglethorpe arrived in Savannah to form the new colony, but had been postponed for a week because last week was too cold. In addition, since I'd missed going to Goose Feathers during the book fest, this was an opportunity for me to go downtown and treat myself to a nice treat there. The parade was really fun. Second graders for all around the area are the participants. It's in the 2nd grade that they learn local history, so they dress up (some costumes are quite elaborate) and march along Bull Street to City Hall. Each year, a local historical figure is highlighted for the school children to learn more about and this year it was Flannery O'Connor. Book Club next month is reading her books and short stories, and they are difficult to understand; I doubt that the school children had to read any of her works. After the parade, I did some errands - walking to the IRS office (which moved, so that was a waste of time), getting some paperwork notarized, going to the post office. It was a nice day, and I had the top down on the car.

the kids were all dressed up and so cute

each school had to create a banner which included something about this year's "special person"

Thursday I wasn't feeling well. It may be that that horrible pine pollen is filling the air - and my sinuses - again, or maybe I was coming down with a cold. But I slept a lot on Thursday. And I had chicken soup. That's pretty much a sure sign that I'm not feeling well if I have chicken soup. I babied myself for a while, but had to get over it by Friday when it was DH day again.

AS I finished my last tour at DH in the afternoon, I ran into Donna, who was waiting for me in the gift shop at the museum. She had been teaching and was downtown just as she knew I would be finishing up. So we went to 17 Hundred 90 for have a drink. I had a fabulous key lime martini, and they had some complimentary food set out. They had fresh rye bread, deli ham, and all the trimmings - onions, tomatoes, mustard, horseradish, mayo. That was so good. We’re going to have to do that more often.

Saturday was an experience. I don't know how else to say it. I went to a memorial service for the mother of my good friend, Anthony (who is also the handyman for the condo development where I live and an all-around great guy; I've never seen him without a smile and a good word). I've seen these services on tv or in the movies, but I never thought they were real. Well, they are. The hand and arm waving, the shouts of “tell it brother” or “amen”, the loud choir and pastor with a microphone that he really did not need (I'm sure they could have heard him the next county without the mike). There were five of us from Mercer Point, and other than us, there was only one other non-African American in the group. This is not Hilton Baptist, or Rev. Pater doing a polite service at Crawfords. It was a genuine celebration of the life of Anthony's mother. I felt very out of place, but I'm hoping that Anthony would feel that we all care for him deeply and wanted to be there to support him.

Sunday I was back at BC for the afternoon shift at the cemetery. It was quite uneventful. I did have a few minutes to take some photos of the flowers that are beginning to bloom here. There are yellow trumpet flowers, white camellias, and even some pink azaleas are starting to flower. And after that, I was invited to Donna's for a delicious dinner. She always makes wonderful meals, and I'm beginning to feel guilt for not reciprocating. But I try to stay out of me kitchen as much as I can, except for occasional hamburg or sandwich.

Then I settled in front of my tv for the final episode in season 4 of Downton Abbey. This season just sped by! I thought it was to be a 2-hour final, but the last 30 minutes was all ads for PBS. I found a DVD of this season on ebay, and it's in the mail to me now. I should enjoy watching the old episodes until the new season starts again.

2/17/2014

weekly update 2/17/2014

After last week's update about travels to Alabama, this week is going to be pretty boring. Boring is what I like to do, and also what I do best.

There was a lecture at the Jepson on Wednesday evening. There were dire storm warning all day, but not for this area - it was moving to to the north of us and was expected to dump on North & South Carolina, which it did. I was still nervous about driving, but I had planned to go to listen to this talk, so I screwed up my courage and went. I didn't stay for the reception and wine following the lecture, though, as I have enough terror without adding darkness and even the smallest amount of alcohol into the mix. The presentation was in conjunction with the release of a new book, Slavery and Freedom In Savannah. The two researchers spoke about the history of slavery in an urban environment, specifically Savannah. It was very interesting, and I bought the book.

The event I wait for all year happened on Saturday - The Savannah Book Fest. Authors - some well-known, others not so much - come to Savannah and spend all day Saturday talking about their books and the mechanics of their writings, and what it is that makes them write. Several speakers give their talks at the same time at different venues around Telfair Square, and it's often difficult for me to decide who to listen to. I was disappointed not to hear Dave DiBenedetto, author of The Southerner's Handbook: A Guide to the good Life (actually, rather than author, he is the editor of this collection of essays from some of the South’s finest writers, chefs and craftsmen) or Daniel James Brown, who wrote Boys is the Boat, a wonderful account of nine Americans and their epic quest for gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I'd read both of these books and enjoyed them very much. This year I heard: Wiley Cash (I haven't read is book This Dark Road To Mercy, but was impressed by his lecture and am intrigued to read it soon), Wally Lamb (who has written a few books that have been on Oprah's Book Club list including She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True), Melanie Benjamin (who wrote The Aviator's Wife, which I did read), and Anita Shreve (another author I haven't read, but is highly praised by my library book). Sales of books are also available at a tent during the Fest, and I spent way too much there. I was surprised when I got an email from Marcia Lloyd in Rochester wanting to know if I was at the same Savannah Book Fest that she was watching on Book TV. I checked when I got back to the condo, and sure enough, a few of the tapes of speakers were going to be broadcast between midnight and 8 am. I set my recorder in case I slept through them, but I did have a chance to watch some in the night, and I watched others on Sunday. I didn't pay to go to the featured speakers ( Eben Alexander who wrote Proof of Heaven, Scott Turow, prolific writer of legal thrillers including Presumed Innocent, and Mitch Albom, popular best selling author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven.) I prefer to listen to the free addresses on Saturday, and to hear about what the unknown have to say about writing. Not that the more seasoned authors are not interesting, I just go to the free talks and enjoy them so much. 

 

There's a little pastry shop / lunch place that I love - Goose Feathers - which is located only a block from the Book Fest . In fact, their raspberry cream cheese croissants are so good, I have to limit myself to special occasions to go there. But I try to get there for lunch on this special Saturday. When I got there, the line was out the door and around the block, so I didn't wait. Missing it made me hungry for quiche, so I stopped at the Publix on the way back to the condo and bought ingredients I needed. Then I called Donna, and she came over on Sunday to have lunch with me and to watch an old movie on tv. TCM is having their “31 days of Oscar” viewings now, and I'm watching many of the old classics. We watched Mrs. Miniver.

There's not much is on my calendar for the coming week, so next week's update won't be much better than this. I hope all those who read this are dug out from all the snow and recovering from high heating bills.

2/10/2014

weekly update 2/10/2014

A vacation week. Donna and I went to Gulf Shores Alabama to visit Jan and Fred Waggoner. Donna drove, and it was a long drive - 10 hours each way. We left early Monday morning, and came back Friday. Donna is an excellent driver, and I don't think we took one wrong turn in spite of my horrible navigation skills.

We got in around supper time on Monday, and had time to chat and get caught up. Jan made a delicious shrimp salad with a remoulade sauce that was Fred's mother's recipe. We had lost an hour by changing time zones, and were tired from the driving, so it was an early evening.

Jan & Fred's Gulf Shore Condo

A view in their backyard of Oyster Bay

 

Tuesday was the day that we had tickets for the Kingston Trio concert, and also had made plans to go with Jan to her Newcomers Club luncheon. Donna belongs to the Newcomers of Savannah, so we were rather interested to see how they would compare. The lunch was at shopping / dining / condo / marina complex called The Wharf. The food was good, and since this is where ladies meet to interact with other people who have relocated or are visiting from other areas of the country, we met some nice women. There was a fruit wine bar in the complex, and we stopped for a tasting. Very strange - and I was reminded of Boone's Apple Wine (which I never really wanted to be reminded of again). I bought a bottle of Key Lime Wine and one of Mango Wine. We'd had a big lunch, so we didn't really need another big meal. We had some wine and cheese and crackers before going to the concert. None of the singers were from the original trio (in fact, only one is still alive), but they sounded the same and sang the songs we all remember - Tom Dooley, Scotch & Soda, MTA. It was a great concert.

lunch with the Newcomers Club

Tasting at the Fruit Wine Bar

The Kingston Trio Live

 Wednesday, Jan drove us up to Mobile Alabama. We visited a couple of museums and a historic home. The first museum we went to was Mobile Carnival Museum. Coming from the North, with my Puritan New England and religious Baptist background, partying and having a good time is something that has been frowned on throughout my life. So to have festivals that go on for a month, and include drinking, partying, unbelievably ornate costumes, parades and dancing, this is all something that is not within my own person history, but it's very much a part of this area of the country. Mardi Gras was observed for the first time in the New World in 1703 in Mobile. The first masked parading society was formed in 1830, Many additional societies have since formed. Currently there are over 50 parading and non parading organizations in Mobile. The museum today is housed in a restored mansion, and has displays of majestic crowns, scepters and bejeweled robes. The museum also had photos of some of the early parades, and many of the costumes worn by kings and queens have been donated or are on loan to the museum and the displays go on and on. I've never seen so many beautiful ball gowns gathered together in one place, each seemed to be more fabulous than the one before. And men were not forgotten, with there highly decorated garb as well. Even children will dress up to be attendants, so the were page and ladies-in-waiting costumes on display as well. It's amazing.

One of many gorgeous gowns & capes

If we were on a float, we'd look like this

 

Following that, we went to the Bragg-Mitchell Mansion. The home was built in 1855 for John Bragg, a lawyer who was born in North Carolina. During the Civil War, the Bragg family took all the treasures from this home and moved them to their plantation outside the city to save them from the destruction by the Yankees when they occupied Mobile. Interestingly, the city home was not torched by Union soldiers, but the plantation and all it's contents were destroyed. The Mitchell family bought the property in 1924, and it remained in their possession until it was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The interior is amazing, as many antebellum mansions are. 

The Bragg-Mitchell Mansion

 

We then went to the History Museum Of Mobile. As we walked in, there was a whole room of doll houses. I could have spent the entire time in this room, but there was more to see. There was more Mardi Gras history, some collections about Civil Rights in Mobile as well as the importance of the port and ship building in WWII. I saw the baseball that Hank Aaron hit when he broke Babe Ruth's record. We had to rather hurry through as it was late in the afternoon, and the museum would have been closing soon. We drove back to Gulf Shores, added Fred to our group, and went out for dinner. There was a rousing game of Scattergories played in the evening, and Fred knows at least 15 boys' names that start with the letter J. 

Inside one of the lovely dollhouses

Hank Aaron's 714th home run ball

 

 

Friday Jan took us in the other direction and we visited Pensacola, Florida. There is a Historic Pensacola Village there that, while certainly will never be mistaken for Deerborn, Michigan or Sturbridge, Massachusetts, was an interesting visit. We had a guided tour through an 1805 cottage, an 1871 Victorian house built by an upper class family, a 1890 house built by a middle class sea merchant, and an 1832 Protestant Church. There was also a museum of Commerce and the Wentworth Florida State Museum. Pensacola is known as the City of Five Flags (or Seven, depending on how you count): Spanish (twice), French, British, Confederate, and United States (twice). 

 

The city of Five Flags

Our tour group outside one of the houses

OK, this is where it gets into that It's A Small World category. As we were looking for a place on the street to park the car, I noticed a NYS license plate on another car, and it had a Dick Ide decal, who is a Rochester auto dealer. We bought our tickets for the tour, and were waiting for it to begin when we started talking to others who were also waiting. One couple were the from the car we'd seen, so of course, the first question is: what part of Rochester are you from? I answered Greece; they were from Hilton. I said that I had known the people who lived in the Braddocks Bay lighthouse years ago. He DATED one of the girls who lived in the Braddocks Bay lighthouse years ago - Patty Stone. Patty Stone is Mark's cousin. He knew them all - Patty, Linda, Uncle Walt and Aunt Kay, Shari Weber. How weird is that?

Driving back after the visit in Florida, we stopped at Joe Patty's Seafood Market. I had seen this mentioned often on Jan's fb page, so we stopped there for fresh seafood. Fred grilled for us when we got back to their home. We opened a bottle of mango wine, and spent our last evening there eating and drinking. 

 

Jan ordering 2 of something at Joe Patty's

 

Imagine the terror when Donna had to scrape ice off the windshield of her car before we could leave to drive back to Savannah on Friday morning! Isn't this winter over yet? It was a long drive back. Luck for me, Donna doesn't mind driving, so I could just relax and watch the scenery (or nap). We got back to our condos just before 6 pm. My dvr was almost full, so I watched several programs before going to bed - my own bed!

I had planned to go to the Colonial Muster at Wormsloe Historic Site on Saturday. I've gone each year, and I enjoy it very much. But it was raining when I woke up, and the sky remained gray all day. (I later discovered that the gray skies were not because of rain, but there was a huge fire in a rubber warehouse at the port that spewed black clouds into the atmosphere all day. No one was injured in the fire, but it was specular in it's smoke and flames). So, with very little arm twisting, I just spent then day in my condo, doing laundry, watching more taped shows, enjoying the Olympics. Sunday was a better day, so I drove out to Wormsloe to see the muster then. It was every bit as good as I remembered from last year. General Oglethorpe was there, and he is fascinating to listen to. I had to go early because I was scheduled for a tour at BC in the afternoon. This Sunday was Super Museum Sunday in Savannah, when most places waive the admission fee. It's too bad I couldn't take advantage of some of those attractions, but I've seen most of them anyway. In the evening, I went over to Donna's to have dinner and some Rummikub with her, Lisa & Dave. 

Colonial dancers

 

(This blog took me an incredibly long time to post.   I know I'm old and techno-challenged, but I've done this before.  It should not be this difficult.  Connections suck big time, and I'm really frustrated with it.  Like I said, this should not be this complicated or hard.)

2/2/2014

weekly update 2/3/2014

BIG NEWS this week - the storm. I went for a walk on Monday when the temps were in the 60s. It was downhill from there for a couple of days. There were dire warnings on Tuesday and drivers were warned about the conditions that were coming, schools started closing early, and events for the evening were canceled. Atlanta was hit with snow, and from what I could see on The Weather Channel, most of the roads there were clogged with cars. I tried to take photos every couple of hours, but nothing really changed so I have a lot of pictures of the VW in the parking lot. It was dry here on the Islands until after dark, although I think it may have been different in the city. On Wednesday, schools, colleges and daycare centers were closed, city administrative offices were closed, some bridges were shut (how many times have I seen the warning “bridge freezes first in cold weather” posted?), the malls delayed opening, the hospitals closed except for emergency services, Meals on Wheels delivered 2 meals on Tuesday and did not make deliveries on Wednesday, public transportation was canceled, there were no visiting hours at the jail, Hunter Air Force Base locked most gates to discourage people from coming and going, the libraries closed, the YMCAs in the area all closed. Schools and day care centers remained closed on Thursday. I watched the storm from the comfort of my big chair and was tuned to the The Weather Channel to see what was happening throughout the South. I had expected that when I moved here, hurricanes would be the dreaded the weather that would shut everything down. I was wrong. I never wanted to see snow and ice again, but I had it for a whole day and a half. By the week end, temps were back into the 60s and 70s.

ice on the car on Wednesday

 

my project while stuck inside - baking & eating cookies

I had a very interesting luncheon on Thursday. And I almost didn't go because I was afraid of the icy bridges. The lady I had met in a bar last December had invited me to meet with her and “few friends” for lunch, and I had promised I would go, but that was before the weather turned so bad. I took my life in my hands, and prepared to turn around if I couldn't get over a bridge to the mainland, but everything seemed ok. This group of a “few friends” were all power ladies in Savannah - one owns a coffee shop, one plans events for city, one owns an Inn. And there I was, a retired account clerk in a pair of used jeans who can't afford to live in the historic district. I had little to offer. But it was certainly interesting.

who's that peeking around at the end of the table?

DH was incredibly slow on Friday. I guess everyone was stuck in Atlanta. But, I spent the afternoon there, mostly reading books in the gift shop. When I got back to the condo, I remembered that I had wanted to see Tarzan The Musical at the SCT, and it was going to be performed that evening. I went back out. As always, this theater production did not disappoint me. I have never been to anything there that I didn't like. These kids are all amazingly talented.

Sunday was the Super Bowl. Well, some may call it a Super Bowl; I prefer to think of it as a Super Blow Out. Where was Denver? For a team that broke so many records during the regular season for touchdowns and points scored, I certainly expected better than what they showed on Sunday. If the Broncos can get to Big Game with that kind of play, maybe next year the Bills will do it! The Seahawks offense didn't do that well, either. The turnovers by the defense and run backs by special teams made the game more of a runaway than it should have been. Russell Wilson didn't win the MVP, defensive linebacker Malcolm Smith did. 

Lisa, Donna & Suzy

Dave & Lisa

 

 

It will be a long time before I get to watch any more football. Somehow, after that disappointing game, Downton Abbey seems like a good alternative.