5/26/2014

weekly update 5/26/2014

Happy Memorial Day! – I've said it before and I'll say it again - when you're retired, and every weekend is a seven day weekend, a three weekend loses a lot of it's glamor. This I a little late this week, because I wanted to load a photo from the Memorial Day service held at the Veteran's Section of BC. 

Last week was a slow week. So I'll post a photo that Ishy took when she was visiting. This is what I look like, leading a tour through BC.

 

There were two new “committee” meetings this week at the condos. In an effort to promote more involvement by residents, several small advisory groups have been set up to assist the HOA Board. I volunteered for both the Social Committee and the Communications Committee. Meetings were held this week, and plans were made for events such as movie night, book club, game night, etc at the club house to try to establish a fun way for residents to get together and get to know each other a little better. The communications group set up a website and made plans to keep the already up-and-running website more informative, and to publish a newsletter.

Friday night, the Ladies Dining Out Group met once again. It's been quite a while, but thanks to Beth, who set the whole thing up, we met at Skylar's on Bay Street for a nice evening and lot of catching up. We missed the ones who couldn’t make it, but those of us who attended had a wonderful time. Thanks Beth!

 

5/19/2014

weekly update 5/19/2014

Monday was to be Ishy's last full day to be here in Savannah. We spent it by relaxing, going to to the pool and enjoying being in the hot sun and cool water. We went to the Crystal Beer Parlor in then evening to prove to the entire city how stupid we are at trivia (I think the LWS team came in last). But now she can picture how the trivia tournament goes if I ever dare show my face there again and write about it. And then on Tuesday, I had to drop her at the airport in the morning. I missed her immediately, and my condo seemed very empty and quite. Who knows? perhaps I'll visit her next time, but if not, I hope it won't be another year before we see each other again. 

 

I spent a lot of time tracking down the elusive Mother's Day flowers from Allen. It seems that whatever could go wrong, did go wrong. My phone didn't work and I didn't get message from the florist, it was too hot for the flowers to be left outside my door (that was one story, but we were home all day until 3, so I don't quite buy that one), etc. So, maybe it was the flower shop's fault, maybe Verizon, maybe mine, but in the end, Allen is supposed to get a refund. And next year, just a card or a text message will work.

I also FINALLY received the news I'd been waiting for from Social Security. I will receive my first check next month. Well, that's what the latter said - we'll just see about that. But I was glad to have some word about it.

More trouble with Verizon. I tried to reset my password, and the swipe didn't work, so I locked myself out. I couldn't use the phone at all. So, I went to Verizon, who could unlock it only by resetting the whole thing - I lost apps, contacts, bookmarks, calendar notes, recognized spell check words, the hotspot, everything was gone, It's taken me all week to try to recreate everything, and I'm sure there's something I missed. It did not, however, erase any of the pre-loaded apps that are so extremely annoying. And the rep tried to convince me that for only a few dollars more each month, I could trade the samsung smartphone for an iphone. That's tempting, but I think I'll pass.

Wednesday and Thursday and most of Friday, I was back on schedule - doing nothing. I had my lecture on Wednesday at noon, Thursday it rained all day and I didn't get to the pool, DH was Friday. On Friday evening, however, I went to see Into The Woods at the marvelous Lucas Theatre. This was a SCAD production, and it was fabulous. I'd seen the play on Broadway a million years ago when Bernadette Peters was the star, but this was every bit as entertaining. I'm glad I went.  

Saturday and Sunday were do-nothing, stay-in days. I did, however, surprise myself by fixing my laptop. Since the debacle of losing all my data on my phone, including my hot spot connection, I haven't been able to log on with the laptop. But it occurred to me that the best way I know how to get things working again is -surprise! - turn it off and back on again. And, it worked. So, while I believed there would be no more blogs, here it is! Amazing!

5/12/2014

weekly update 5/12/2014

This week started with a very busy Monday. I shopped for new sheets for my bed (the ones I was sleeping on we old, cheap, and the pilling had become uncomfortable for me). I don't like to buy new sheets, because I can't get ones that I like, but I “settled” and ended up with some from the Walmart. Then I quickly went to Donna's to water her plants before going to the hearing center to have my ears measured for the new hearing aids. I'm still not convinced these will be a good thing, but I'm going forward and will at least try them. In the afternoon, I had book club. This month we read And the Mountain Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. It was ok, but we found out that the leader we had for only a few months has quit. I don't know what the future of the book club will be. As soon as that was over, I drove downtown to meet some friends at a new restaurant - Tequila Town - for a little Cinco de Mayo celebration. The food was good and the tequila shooters reminded me of very much younger days.

Tuesday, I was at the pool early to try to swim some laps. My neighbor, Mike, from downstairs was also there. We were chatting for a while about the NFL draft, when he suggested that he go to Publix to get some ground beef and rolls, and we could have an impromptu picnic lunch. We also invited others who were at the pool, Anthony, and our other neighbor, Suzy. It was not something planned, and may never happen again, but it really was quite nice. Unfortunately, that same evening, there was an HOA meeting that counted the votes for the proposal to limit the number of renters in the development (didn't pass, darn! but I'm no worse off than I was before, so I guess it hardly matters) and elect new board members. Some of the residents were extremely rude and inconsiderate, and the meeting was upsetting to me. The good feeling that I had following the picnic lunch evaporated as I had to listen to people promote personal agendas while not considering that we all live in the community. And many did not have the common decency to speak in a polite or professional way. It was difficult.

Wednesday I had not one, but two, lectures at the senior center. The first was an overview of Hunter Air Force Base, that is an active air force base located in Savannah. It was interesting, since I knew very little of the history or what they do there. I also had the next in the series on people who were influential in WWI. This week was Lord Arthur Balfour, who created the Balfour Declaration that was important later as it was used as the basis for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the Mid East. I also cleaned a lot in the condo - and that exhausted me.

Thursday, Ishy was coming for a visit. Her plane was scheduled to arrive just after 4 in the afternoon. For no particular reason, I checked the flight details just before heading out to the airport to pick her up, and I discovered that the plane had not yet left LaGuardia. So I just hung around for another couple of hours. She finally landed at almost 7 pm. It was a very long day for her. Earlier in the day, Dave & Lisa had come over to leave their car at the condo because they were going back to Wales for five months on Friday. I had hoped to see them at The Rail before they left, but because Ishy's flight was so late, that didn't work. They were kind enough to meet us at Churchill's, a British pub in Savannah, for a dinner and one last pint of Guinness, and to visit with Ishy for a while. It's going to seem like a very long time before I see those friends again.

I had begged off of doing my tour duties at DH on Friday so that Ishy & I could spend more time together. It was a lazy day, and we went tot he pool. We both got a lot too sun (too much sun), but it was so relaxing and nice to be in the water. In spite of my plans to get downtown to the 17 hundred 90 bar for a drink, or to Ruth Chris's for a good steak dinner, we were so content and happy to just sit around in comfortable clothes after spending the day at the pool, we decided to just quickly stop at the Publix for some deli sandwiches, chips, and beer. 

Suzy stopped over Saturday morning because she wanted a chance to see Ishy, having met her before. Then Ishy & I went to the SCT for a production of Once Upon a Mattress Jr, done by the junior high school age group. I wanted Ishy to be able to see some of the places I talk about when I write this blog, and I often rave about how great these talented kids are. And although it was not the best show I'd ever seen there, we both enjoyed it. We did get downtown after that for a nice dinner at a restaurant on River Street that I had never been to before but have wanted to try for a long time - The Boar's Head. It was hot, but we opted to sit outside anyway, and since we were out of the sun, and there was a breeze, it was very nice out there. That evening, we watched Lawrence Welk on PBS. Well, Ishy watched - I mostly ignored it.

 

Sunday was Mother's Day, and I'd made reservation for brunch at the Westin Hotel. I was very expensive, but very nice. The food was excellent, and who can argue with champagne for breakfast. Because the hotel is across the river on Hutchinson Island, we parked downtown, and took the water taxi to the brunch. I did not give up my tour at BC, so we went there was soon as we'd finished eating. My stomach was really very full, and I'd had the champagne, and it was hot - I needed to take a nap, but I think I did ok. After that, we came back to the condo and took showers. We were loaded with bug repellant to keep the sand gnats away, and we had worked up a sweat walking around the cemetery, and wanted to get cleaned up a little. We looked through some old family pictures that I have, and then went back downtown at night for the compline that is sung at Christ Church at 9 pm each Sunday evening. I haven't been to this in a long time, and it was a nice, quiet, reflective way to end Mother's Day. I got a text from Allen to wish me a happy day and to tell me he loves me. He also wanted to know if I'd received the flowers he'd ordered - I didn't. Swine florist! It would have been nice to have the flowers, but it's much more important to me that he remembered to write a quick note to let me know he's thinking about me. 

 

5/5/2014

weekly update 5/5/2014

Back to boring. No tennis or used book sales this week.

I have been back in the pool, when it hasn't been raining (in Savannah, we got some heavy rain, wind & flooding because of the storms that swept across the Southeast, but nothing too bad). It sure is more enjoyable than walking!

I had received an “invitation” in the mail to have my hearing checked. It's been getting a little worse, I think, and the old hearing aids I've had for about 5 years weren't working at all. So I made an appointment and went to have my ears checked on Monday. I was hoping that the cost of hearing aids might have decreased a little (who am I kidding? that's gonna happen!), but I was surprised that these would cost $2,000 more than I paid last time. I didn't make a decision, but I'm probably going to opt to have them.

I am getting very close to another milestone birthday, and I still haven't heard from Social Security. I applied in February for my retirement payments to begin this year, but I haven't had any confirmation. In fact, when I check online or on the phone, all I am told is that “a determination has not been made in your case”. This isn't rocket science, so what can the hold up be? I'm getting nervous, so on Wednesday, I drove to the local office. I'd been there a week ago, and I knew that the office closes at noon, so I figured that if I went on Wednesday, at least I'd be out around noon. I killed myself to get up and out the door by 8:30, and drove through a pouring rain, to get there early. I was in and out in 20 minutes. The representative could tell me that I was approved, and that I would receive written confirmation in about 3 weeks, but she couldn't tell me what the payments would be. government! bah!

That same afternoon, I went to the Learning Center WWI lecture that I’ve enrolled in. And, since I'd been out a few times already, and was still dressed, I decided to go to bingo at the American Legion. I've driven past the sign several times since I've moved here, and Donna & I always thought we'd try it. Donna is in Maine now, but I thought I would check it out for both of us while she's away. It's killer bingo, not the old games I used to play at the community center where it cost nothing to play and the winners would have a loaf of day-old bread or expired half dozen cupcakes from Publix as a prize. Nope. I cost me about $20 to buy cards for the games, and more for a raffle ticket, plus soda. And, amazingly I won a game! I won for $50! I don't know if I'll go back - I'm so tight with my money I will probably pocket my good fortune and not risk losing next time.

But, that was about it. I didn't get out much after that. Thursday, I did meet Dave & Lisa at The Rail for a pint of Guinness, and then I joined them at Juarez for Mexican food after that. I rarely do that, but they'll be going back to Wales soon, and I'm running out of time to be with them. I did my regular DH tours on Friday, and I opened and closed BC on Sunday. Saturday I didn't leave the condo all day. I'm feeling like I'm on borrowed time now - it's been more than a year since I've driven into anything or had an accident, so it's looming just on the horizon that I'm going to crash soon. Ishy is coming this week, so I'm going to have be chauffeur, but it's not something I enjoy; in fact, I'm terrorized. But I am an American, and I live in the USA, so the most important thing I have is my independence, and I need to car to maintain that. But I try to minimize my situations.

But there wasn't a lot going on here this week, and no photos.