4/12/2015

Weekly Update 4/12/2015

This was the week of the Biltmore motor coach tour. I had to get up very early on Tuesday to be at the bus and ready to begin the journey at 8 am. That's not an easy thing for me to do. After a long ride and two stops, we arrived at the Albemarle Inn in Asheville for high tea. The Inn is a restored 1909 Greek Revival mansion, now a B&B. It was lovely, and the tea was good. There were also a couple of actors in costumes who pretended to be cousins of Cora's mother, Mrs. Levinson, on Downton Abbey. They asked or answered trivia questions about DA, since everyone on this tour was a fan of the show. Following that, the bus drove around Asheville a little bit while a local guide told us some of the stories behind some of the buildings and sites we were shown. It was ok, but I'm from Savannah, and we have better stories here. After checking into the Comfort Inn, we had dinner at a pub in the downtown area. It was really quite good and we all got to know a little more about the people we were traveling with. One lady at our table had recently moved to a new home, and she ripped out all the plumbing and wiring and redid it all herself because she felt she could do a better job than the professionals (she's probably right). Another had danced with the NYC ballet as a child. Another has lived all over the world, and was orginally from Germany. Finally one turned to me and asked what I do. “Do you knit?” she asked. WHAT??? - I must have looked as if I'm ready to be put in a home where knitting and basket weaving are the best options I could hope for! 

dessert at the high tea

The next morning, after the breakfast buffet at the hotel (yuck!), we boarded the bus again for Biltmore. It was foggy when we arrived at the estate, but by afternoon it cleared up and we could see the mountains. The mansion is fabulous! It was build by George W. Vanderbilt, grandson of the commodore, in 1895. He was a bachelor when it was completed, but soon married Edith and they had a daughter Cornelia, who was born at Biltmore. Today, the estate is still owned by the fifth generation of Mr. Vanderbilt's descendants, but is open to the public as a way to support itself. The Downton Abbey costumes were wonderful! There were probably more than 30 of them on mannequins throughout the house, and each had a sign telling who wore the outfit and in which season and episode. I remembered almost all of them. What struck me the most was the brilliant colors and bead work on the gowns, which is not apparent on the tv program. They were truly lovely. And, how small the dresses are - Michelle Dockery and Laura Carmichael are pencil thin. I didn't have time to walk around the gardens (I barely had time to visit all of the mansion), and I'm sorry I wasn't able to do that. But I did get to the gift shop and the ice cream parlor. 

 Biltmore estate coming into view as we approach on the long driveway

no photos were allowed inside the mansion, but this dress was in the gift shop.  it's the only photo I got of the lovely costumes from Downton Abbey

 

Then it was a short trip to the Biltmore Estates Winery. I didn't take the tour, but I did enjoy a wine tasting. I bought three bottles and some other things at that shop. There were some gardens there and the flowers were lovely. I can only imagine what I missed by not seeing the main gardens at the mansion. Back on the bus again for the long drive home, with a short stop for a fast food dinner. I was home by 10 that evening. 

even flowers inside the winery were colorful and beautiful

 

At about 10:30, as I was trying to watch some of the tv shows I'd recorded while I was away, I happened to notice that there was a strange shadow on the ceiling over my breakfast bar. I got up to get a closer look, and it was WATER - there was a leak coming through my ceiling from the unit above me! I went up there to knock on the door, but no one was home. Suzy came over to help because I hoped that since she's on the HOA board, she might know what I should do. It was no use trying to get our management company on the phone, as the office were closed and the “emergency” number that we both had was connected only to the office. There was no water dripping into my space, and it even seemed to be drying up a bit, so I left a message and decided that there was nothing that I could do that night. Mercer Point called me the next morning and gave me contact info for the owner of the unit upstairs (the family who lives there are renters), and I contacted them. They sent a repair person out to assess the damage, not only at my unit, but also where the leak was originating (the condenser on the a/c unit had malfunctioned and overflowed is the story they gave me). They told me that once the source of the water had been repaired, someone would contact me about fixing my damage. OK. Good. Until Friday evening, when everyone has left for the weekend, when the water stain started to come through again. The saga continues. 

the water stained ceiling - it seemed to run along the rafters until it found a weak spot to pool in

 

Sunday, I had an unusal tour at BC. A Masters Program student at Georgia Southern University had scripted a narrative of several of the people who are buried at BC, and four costumed friends were at the cemetery to tell the stories. I still did my tour, but I had others to tell the tales of four of the more famous “residents”. That was very interesting.

Lisa and Dave came over later on Sunday. I've enjoyed many wonderful “pickie” dinners at their home, and I wanted to have them to my condo. I also needed help with my computer. For quite a while, I've wanted to save all the photos on my laptop to computer discs and I sat down to do that this week. But the memories of all the pictures I'd lost on Kodak archive discs was nagging at me, and I wondered if discs might not be the best way to save things. I decided that a memory stick might be a safer way to keep the photos I don't want to lose. I went to Walmart on my own to try to find one to buy last week, but got too confused by all the selection. Dave kindly agreed to come over and help me by testing how much memory I would need and which type of stick or temporary drive would be the best for what I wanted to do. After his tutorial, I need to go buy a 32KB stick this week and try to save my files. I think I can do it, now that I have some idea of what I'm supposed to be doing. After we ate, we played a little Pictionary Man; I'm not any better at drawing than I am at Trivia. We all missed having Donna with us, but she left for Maine on Friday. I think she may be back before the end of the summer, but she needs to do something with her house there, so I don't really know when I'll see her again. Lisa and Dave go to Wales at the beginning of May, so I'll be quite lonely .

I did get to the pool a couple of times this week, and I even got in the water once. I still don't like to spend too much time there, as I'm afraid I will get a bad sunburn. Later in the year, when I've got a pretty good base tan, I can sit out longer, but I try to be careful now. It certainly is a pleasure to be there again, though. I also turned on the a/c this week (and apparently, so did the family upstairs). It's not been sweltering - yet - but the hot afternoon sun coming through my west-facing windows in the afternoon can make it pretty warm inside the condo. It's time.