9/25/2016

Weekly Update 9/25/2016

My cousins, Ellen & David Norton, were here from Sunday evening until Thursday morning. It was great to have them here! We did quite a bit in the three days they were here. We went downtown a few times, and toured DH, the Owens-Thomas House, and both the art gallery at the Telfair Academy and the Jepson Center. We also drove out to Tybee to see the ocean and the lighthouse (none of could climb to the top, so we just drove past it), and Bonaventure Cemetery. We had some great lunches: The Pirate's House, the cafe at the Jepson, and the Pink House.  

I made them do their own cooking and cleaning - nice hostess

looking at some of the art in the gallery at the Jepson

On Tuesday, I had already made plans to go to the Massie School Reunion. Although I'm not an alumni, because I'm a Friends of Massie, I was invited. It was very interesting to listen to people who had attended school there, or taught there, to tell of some of their stories. The school closed in 1974, so many of the students have since passed away or moved away, and there were not many who came, but it was a great program. Massie School was Savannah's first public school, opening in 1856. It is a historic building that now houses a wonderful visitor center.  

a former student reminisces about his school days at Massie

At BC, the Historical Society has commissioned some restoration to one of the bronze busts of a “resident” who was important in Savannah's history: General Robert Anderson was the first chief of police for the city. His monument has been deteriorating, and to try to curb the destruction, we funded a clean up. I was there for three days in a row to check on it. It looks great and I think this may prove why the BHS should use some of the donations for fixing some monuments.

doing the work...

it looks so much better, and it's better protected after the work is complete

My friend and mentor at DH, Dottie, retired this week. On Thursday evening, there was a party to celebrate the time she has been with Davenport House, and all the work she has done, and to wish her well in retirement. An hour before I was to be there, it occurred to me that I was supposed to make an appetizer. Crap! So I went to the Publix, bought some crackers and dip, and took that. Classy, Wilma! In spite of my slight efforts, the party was a success with many people in attendance to wish her well.

best wishes, Dottie!

I did more this Friday than I did the whole month of June. At 10 am, there was a Georgia Historical Society marker that was unveiled on Broughton Street to commemorate the 1960 protests and sit-ins in Savannah. It began with a slide show presentation about the protests, and that was followed by some speakers who participated in the demonstrations. Very interesting! Then I had to return to the condo to change and get ready for DH. I did meet friends at The 90 for a glass of wine after I finished my afternoon tours. Then The Lucas Theater was having a celebration of the 95^th year of the theater. There were food trucks, live music, costumed actors in the streets, and the movies Camille and Gone With the Wind were shown. Camille, starring Rudolph Valentino, was the first silent movie shown in the theater when it opened in 1921, and GWTW as the first movie shown after the theater reopened after extensive renovations in 2000.What a long day that was!

this marker is on the side of a SCAD building on Broughton St

some of the things going on along Abercorn St for the Lucas celebration

watching Camille before GWTW at the Lucas

I had to give a tour at BC on Sunday afternoon. That meant I couldn't go to Coach's to watch the Bills first win of the season. But who knew they would win? After I got back home, June called. Jimmy has been in the hospital for a week, because he broke his leg (he's really not in the hospital any longer, but he will be in rehab for a few weeks). She wanted me to come over and watch a movie. Then Tom called, and invited me and June to have a pizza with him before the three of us watched the movie. His condo it great! And the pizza was served on china! I guess I won't be able to have him to my condo for a meal! The movie was The Legend of Tarzan. Except for the gorgeous Alexander Skarsgård, the movie wasn't very good.

I received a notice from the NY State Retirement System and I'm getting a raise! $8.75 / month! What shall I buy first? I can't wait to see what my medical insurance will increase, but I'm guessing it's gonna be more than $8.75.

9/18/2016

Weekly Update 9/18/2016

The week began and ended with visitors.

Lisa was still in Savannah on Monday. She drove to Charleston with Donna and me for a nice visit there. I was disappointed because the app I loaded on my phone for some tours in Charleston was useless, but on our own, we explored some nice things: The Dock Street Theater, City Market, Angel Oak, and then we drove through Waynesboro GA to stop at a few antique shops. When we returned to the condo, I nuked up some white hot dogs; I think both Lisa and Donna were tired of hearing how good these are, so I decided to prove it. Either they both lied, or they are now fans of white hots.   

The dock Street theater

Angel Oak

Tuesday was Lisa's last day here. Donna had other plans; Kay was at work; I was out of ideas about what to do. So Lisa and I hung around together. First we went out to Savannah Mall. Lisa helped me find two new tops to wear to Europe, and I need them – so far it's Bills t-shirts and Halloween t-shirts. Then we stopped at Best Buy for Lisa to try to find a couple of nice CDs to take back to Wales. We really stopped because it was pouring really hard and driving was difficult, so we waited some of the worst of it out in the store. It was still sprinkling, but we rode down to River Street. I found a good parking spot, so we wandered in and out of a couple of tourist traps, then found ourselves at Wet Willie's. Gosh, how did that happen? So we ordered some frozen drinks in a to-go cup and took the water taxi across the Savannah River and back. That's one of my favorite things to do, and it was really nice.

  

Wet Willies!

Lisa watching a large container ship pass by the water taxi

Wednesday, Lisa and I got up early so that she could get an early start on her drive back to her dad's in Orlando. She had planned to spend a few more days with him before flying back to Wales. I missed her as soon as she was gone. I loved having her here, and hope she will return. In the evening, I had been invited to a season start up program with the CMA (Coastal Museum Association) I belong to this group through my Board service with Bonaventure. It is a group of directors, Board members, city history department employees, and generally a lot of people who know a lot about Savannah and it's history – I fit right in! This event was held at the Juliet Gordon Low birthplace. It must be a several years since I was last there, because it all seemed very different. The curator at this museum talked to us about the changes, and what story the museum is trying to tell. It was great.

some of my colleagues at the CMA reception

Thursday, I just hung around until kick off. I should have skipped the whole game.

I was still tired on Friday, so I did my DH duties, then just went back home.

Saturday, I had to open and close BC, and I was the desk in the visitor center for the afternoon. Same old same old, and nothing new.

Sunday, David Ellen arrived about 7:30. A big semi on Route 95 had skidded and was blocking traffic, so they were a little later than they thought they'd be. But it was great to see them. We stayed up and talked for a while, but then went to bed. I'm not sure exactly what we'll be doing in Savannah because there's so much to see and do, but I should have some things to write about on next week's blog.    

9/11/2016

Weekly Update 9/11/2016

Monday was all about trying to get the condo cleaned. Tuesday, I spent the morning doing errands. And then, LISA WAS HERE!

But before I get into that, I have to write that one of the errands I had to do was to go to the AAA and pickup the final package for the Viking tour Allen and I will be taking in just about 5 weeks. Although this wasn't technically the tickets we needed, there was some important information there: insurance cards, flight information, luggage tags. I wanted Allen to have his packet, so I stopped at the post office on the way back to the condo after picking everything up.

Lisa arrived in the afternoon, and we made plans to meet with Donna and Kay at the Crystal Beer Parlor for supper. It was great to have all the best-ies together again! No one could decide on what to eat, so we got a little of this, a little of that, and ate until we were stuffed. That pretty much was what we did the whole week, and once again, I didn't cook.

Lisa was a big help to me on the Dell. I'm much more comfortable now with finding files and information. And she linked my printer up. One thing we couldn't find was how to add a caption to a photo in the pictures folder. I used to be able to do that on the Toshiba, but we couldn't find a way on the Dell, short of re-naming the file. Any suggestions? We also couldn't buy on-line tickets to the Anne Frank house, but I think that may have been the website issue, not anything we did.

We didn't do much on Wednesday, although Lisa went walking with Kay. Thursday there was a lunch bunch gathering out at Tybee. That was really nice, because I don't know if Lisa would have been able to visit the beach if it had not been for the luncheon. I had a BHS Board meeting at the cemetery in the early evening, which had been postponed from last week because of The Storm. But following that, I met Lisa and Kay at The Rail. Thursdays was always a time for Dave and Lisa to go to happy hour and there, so we continued the tradition.

I honored my regularly scheduled DH schedule on Friday. While I was doing that, Lisa and Donna went to a movie at the community center near MP. Then, they met me at The 90 for a drink and sandwich. That's a tradition that is on-going, and it was fun to have Lisa with us again for that.

Here's photos of some places we ate:

Crystal Beer Parlor

with bartender / friend, Kathy, at the Rail

at The 90

at the Pirates' House

Saturday, Donna had found that there would be a free Art Walk in several galleries and shops in the historic area, so we decided that sounded like fun. We went to the River Street Inn to begin the walk, and then visited a few of the places that they had talked about before they set us free to roam the city streets. It was interesting. None of us bought anything, but it was fun to see all the art. We went to the Pirates' House for dinner – very good, and a nice thing to do with Lisa while she's visiting Savannah.

Sunday, Opening Day for the NFL (if you don't count last Thursday, and I'm sure Cam Newton doesn't want to count it). Of course, since it was the Second Sunday, I had to give a tour at BC. I'm pretty sure Lisa was glad I didn't drag her to Coach's with me for the first half of the Bills game. I have to say I wasn't surprised by the outcome (although I didn't really expect it to be so close), but some other games this week did surprise me.

Although it may seem as if we did a lot and went a lot of places, for the most part I bored Lisa and made her watch a lot of tennis, and some football. We also spent a lot of time at the pool, swimming, talking, relaxing.    

Donna, Lisa & me at the MP pool

9/4/2016

Weekly Update 9/4/2016

I began the week by volunteering to stuff envelopes at the HSF for an upcoming fund raiser event. If anyone wants to buy a ticket, they are available for $1,000 for a patron or $275 just to attend the affair. I won't be going. It was raining hard when we finished, and I'd parked several blocks away to avoid paying the meter. HSF is one block from The 90, so I went in there, was immediately recognized, enjoyed a glass of wine, and waited for the rain to stop. I then went to Staples. My Toshiba laptop, that I've had since before I moved to Savannah, was giving me some problems – like just shutting down unexpectedly - and I was afraid I'd lose some important data. I'd investigated a little online and found that I wanted the Dell laptop that was on sale at Staples. I bought one. But since they weren't in stock, I had to wait until Wednesday to pick it up.

Working at the HSF

I attended a nice luncheon on Tuesday. Girl Scout Troop 2012 (for OLD girl scouts) hosted a tasty meal, and then a program. Five former mariner scouts from Savannah reminisced about the fun they had sailing on the Wilmington River many decades ago. It was great to listen to their stories, and the chicken salad was good, too.

The Mariner Scouts telling their stories

I went to a CMA lecture at City Hall on Wednesday. Jamie Credle, the Director at DH, spoke on urban slavery. She's given this lecture many times, but I've never been available to hear it. I have an interest in anything DH, so this was my chance to finally hear this talk. Not content to hear Jamie speak just once, I went to another lecture by her on Thursday evening. In spite of dire storm warnings, I went to the Kennedy Pharmacy next to DH to see a slide show presentation about her recent trip to UK. She attended a symposium and tour of of castles and mansions. It must have been wonderful, and the few of us who showed up were treated to many fabulous slides of the places she visited.  

 

Jamie giving her slide presentation

THE STORM – All day Thursday, there were reports of a hurricane that was supposed to hit Alabama and the west side of Florida. Then it was suppose to travel across land and bring rain, high winds, and perhaps a few tornadoes to the Savannah area. As always, schools began to close, companies canceled work on Friday, museums alerted tourists that they would not be open, and general precautions were taken throughout the area in an attempt to keep people off the roads. Even BC would be closed on Friday, and someone said that had never happened before. I watched Thursday night, and even went out to the stairs a few times to watch, and although there were some brief heavy rains squalls and gusty winds, those didn't last, and it was mostly just a steady rain. I charged up all my devices, rummaged through my Christmas box to find the only candles I had in the condo, dragged out my one flashlight to the table by my bed, and went to sleep. When I woke on Friday, I still had electricity, so I turned on the the tv. Although I could see only small branches strewn about the parking lot at MP, apparently, other places did not fare as well. DH did not close (and therefore was very busy as it was only one of a few museums open – the only game in town) so I drove into the city to do my normal Friday tours. I tried to avoid driving in areas where I knew streets may be flooded, and took a different route to the city. The only trouble I had was driving across the bridge, where my poor little car had a fight with the wind. Coming back home again, a tree fell across the road right in front of me, but it was more than a block away, and I had time to stop, turn around and find another road.

this tree fell right as I was driving

Saturday, Sylvia called to ask if I could help remove some debris and downed branches from their yard. And she also needed to go to Publix, since they had no electricity and she needed a few things to eat that wouldn't need a microwave or a stove.  Because the power was out, her car was stuck in the garage.  I can do that. On the way back from her house I stopped at the Walmart to get a few items that I needed, like candles, so that next time I won't have to get out my Christmas decorations. I didn't do anything else all day except watch some tennis, but when evening came, I drove out to Tybee Island. There was an Elvis-impersonator concert scheduled at the Post Theater. It never occurred to me that this would be popular, so I didn't buy a ticket ahead of time. The concert was sold out! so I just went back home again.

Donna came back to Savannah on Sunday. I was a little late in getting to the airport, and her flight landed a little early, but we finally connected, and she back! It was so great to see her! I just dropped her at her condo so that she could get some rest, but we went out again in the evening. Connie had invited us to a rock concert at City Market, so we went there. It was good, but I have to say I like Elvis music better. We stopped at Jalapeno's for a quick bite before we went back home again. It is SO GOOD to have her back!!!

Irritating Julie playing at city Market

I've been struggling with the new laptop since Wednesday. I didn't realize how different it would be. After all, it's still windows – a newer version, but I thought it would be basically the same as the old Toshiba. But I can't install the printer. I can't find files. I can't save photos or edit them, or label them. They've hidden utilities.  It's not easy being old and technology challenged.

I CAN'T DO THIS!