7/28/2014

weekly update 7/28/2014

The summer weather in Savannah is almost tropical - we get a lot of heat and humidity, and it builds up all day. In the late afternoon, there may be a storm with wind, thunder & lightning, but it it sweeps in and is gone in less than 30 minutes. On Monday this week, it began with a thunderstorm that woke me up. But that cleared up, and I went to the pool for a swim. In the afternoon, it stormed again, but then cleared. The rains became quite heavy again in the evening, and it was still pouring when I went to bed. When I got to the pool on Tuesday, the water level was really high (I didn't have my phone, so I wasn't able to get a picture) and it was almost overflowing. The numbers along the side where it marks how deep the water is were completely covered with water. The pool maintenance guys needed to drain some of the water because the skimmers weren't working. It was really strange. I hope the farmers liked the rain.

I had two events on Wednesday. The group of women that I meet with occasionally for lunch met at the Soho Cafe. I'd invited Anne Nedd to join us, thinking she might fit into this group. In the evening, Jan Vach and her husband gave a slide presentation of their cruise to Antarctica and along the Amazon River. It was very interesting. 

 

Thursday evening I drove out to Pin Point Museum for the annual meeting of the Coastal Heritage Society, a group I'm a member of that supports the Visitor Center, Old Fort Jackson, The Savannah Children's Museum, and the Railroad Museum, as well as Pin Point. I had the top down on the car, which is something I don't do when the temps are so high and I generally go only short distances. It was nice to drive like that, although it was hot. There was a nice breeze at the Museum, which is on Skidaway Island along Moon River, so there was a wonderful breeze as we enjoyed a cash bar and snacks (pimento cheese biscuits - how Southern! how delicious!)

 

I had a day off from DH on Friday because someone else wanted to have Friday afternoon this week. That worked fine, because DH was sponsoring a talk about what's being done a block away at the historic Berrien House. This has been an eyesore since I've moved here, but it's is currently being rehabbed into retail and residential space. It's very exciting because the developer is making a sincere effort to keep as much historic and architectural integrity as he can. His enthusiasm for the research that is being done, not only in the structural details, but also of the Berrien and Stephens families, was evident. Because there is much work to be done, and the efforts made to do it all well are time-consuming, it will take many years to complete. But it's exciting to see it brought back. It was originally built in 1791 for John Berrien, who was a general in the Revolutionary war. The house had a center entrance with a staircase similar to DH leading up to the second story entrance. I wonder if Isiah Davenport might have used this house for inspiration when he built DH in 1815.

 

And, following that, I met Beth for dinner at Tondee's Tavern. It's Restaurant week in Savannah, when many places offer special menus to encourage people to come in and dine. This restaurant is right on Bay Street, near City Hall, so I'd seen it often, but had never eaten there. It wasn't that good - my food was rather cold, the ribs were tough (I brought most of them back to the condo where I cooked them in my crock pot and ate them the next day. They were a lot better when they fell off the bone). The service during the meal was good, but they seemed to want us out of there as soon as we paid the bills, and we were wanting to talk for a while. I didn't like that. But it was certainly nice to see Beth.

Golf isn't really a sport that interests me, but I did watch the ESPN coverage of the Senior Championship. It's being played in Porthcawl, Wales. Lisa and Dave have a home there, and they are in Wales now. I wanted to see where they are, so I’ve been watching the golf tournament. It seems that they have a lovely area to live in when they're over seas. Lovely beaches, beautiful scenery, a charming lighthouse, a championship golf course (obviously), but very bad spelling - are there any vowels in the Welsh alphabet? Jeff Shuman is playing in this event. There's a link between Rochester, Savannah & Porthcawl - me. Who would have imagined? Allen also alerted me to the ESPN coverage of the Bills training camp at St John Fisher College, so I watched a few minutes of that.