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.