8/26/2018

Weekly Update 8/26/2018

THE DRESS

I’ve started to look for a dress to wear to Sarah and Jack’s wedding. I found something online that I thought would be nice. It was available in many sizes, in many colors, and at several stores. The more I thought about it, the more perfect it seemed. So on Monday, I went to the mall – gasp. It was supposed to be at Macy’s, Penney’s and Belks (a Savannah answer to McCurdy’s), but I couldn’t find it, or anything like it. And you know what? It’s been so long since I’ve been shopping at the mall, I was really horrified. Shoppers knock clothes off the hangers, and just leave them on the floor under the racks, and there are no sales associates (or they’re as lazy as the shoppers and don’t want to bother to put them back) to keep things neat. It’s in all departments; its in all stores; it’s disgusting. It’s sloppy and easily fixed if people weren’t so careless and lazy. I was depressed, not only because I couldn’t find what I was looking for, but also by the clutter. Dillards also was supposed to have the dress, but that store is at a different mall, and I just didn’t feel like driving to be disappointed yet again. So I went home. Wednesday, however, I attended a lecture at TLC, and since I was half way to Savannah Mall, I decided to take a chance. And there it was: the dress I’ve been obsessing about. It’s not exactly perfect – it’s black, and I really don’t want to wear black to Sarah’s wedding (but it will be easier to find shoes and a purse in black than trying to match a blue), and it’s a size too small. It fits me now, but I can’t gain even one ounce, and it would be better if I lost some weight. (The wedding is just after Christmas, what are the chances that I’ll lose weight through the holidays?) But – this is the best part – it was marked down from $100 to $35. If I do find the perfect dress, I can still get it and I won’t be out much money.

THE A/C

Not much luck here. I’m really pissed off. As I reported last week, the company that installed to unit eight years ago came out to check the unit. Guess what? Just to have him look at it cost me $288. He found a leak, but suggested I don’t fix it, but rather just add more refrigerant. No, I want it fixed and I want it fixed right. They called the next day, and told me that the part I needed was under warranty, but labor was not. Apparently concerned that I was too warm, they again suggested that they come out, add freon for me, and make the repair when the part is available. What? Another $100 for you to walk through my front door, $94/hour for labor, and still not fix it? I don’t think so. They called Thursday to say the part was available, and that it would cost over $1,000 in labor to install it. I called another company to see if they could order the part and install it for less than this, but I need to have the original installer do the update in order for the warranty to be valid. How surprised I am! So, I’m back to the original installers, and I’ll have to pay them for the labor, but they said the part costs $1,300, so if I want to save that money - and I do – I’m over a barrel. So, more than a week later, I’m finally scheduled to get this done on Monday. In Savannah, I really can’t get by without air. Another example of the 21^st Century idea of “customer service”.

Onward to what I did this week:

I went to two great lectures this week. The first was at City Hall and was given by a City Councilperson who is a retired photojournalist. He had some old photos of Savannah, and what it looks like today. The lecture ended with a typical politician’s spiel of how the City is working toward making Savannah better in the future. I also went to a very informative lecture by the collections curator at the Telfair museums about the updates to the Owens-Thomas house involving the stories of the enslaved people there. This was what I had hoped to learn when I visited the house on Sunday, and I really enjoyed it.

The Talmadge Bridge - then and now

I was also out to the Tybee Post Theater twice. On Thursday, Barbara, June and I went to the Ladies Night Out showing of the movie Book Club. I’d seen it before, but it was still good. The place was packed, all (old) women with a few exceptions where husbands were dragged along. The price of the ticket included a glass of wine. It was great and everyone enjoyed it. On Saturday, I went back to see a local theater group present A funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. That was also well attended and very funny. I am constantly in awe of the talent of regular people.

Saturday, I was able to check one more thing off my summer bucket list. I drove down to fort Frederica which is near Brunswick. It is now a national monument, but admission is free. I’ve been meaning to do this since I moved to Georgia. It was a fort and town that was begun in 1736 by James Oglethorpe as a defense of Savannah from the Spanish in Florida. There was a fort built here, and homes and business for 44 men and 72 women and children. The plan for the town was similar to Savannah with city lots measuring 60 by 90 feet and each lot was assigned a 50 acre lot outside of the town for cultivating crops. Settlers in Florida viewed Frederica as a threat to their claim, and in 1742 they tried to take the town, but were turned back in the Battle of Bloody Marsh. It was not a particularity bloody battle, and didn’t last long, but it did end the Spanish claim on Georgia. When Georgia lost it’s trusteeship and became a royal colony, Frederica was no longer needed as a military fort, and thetown was abandoned. Today, there are tabby ruins of the fort, the military barracks, and some homes. Since I’ve never met a gift shop I didn’t like, I needed to buy a James Oglethorpe doll for my collection of stuffed “things”. It was a nice day for drive, the weather cooperated, and I enjoyed being there. I made it home on time to watch the Travers Cup, but couldn’t pick Allen out of the crowd.  

an outline of an original house

The remains of the Fort

a connon overlooking bloody marsh

the Union Jack still flies here

Jimmy with my other "things"

8/19/2018

Weekly Update 8/19/2018

The Lunch Bunch met for Happy Hour at a rooftop bar in a new hotel that has just opened in Savannah – Perry Lane Hotel. It was nice, but it’s not on the river, and will never challenge my favorite rooftop bar, Rocks. But I’d wanted to see this place, and the views, so I met with others from my group for a nice glass of wine on a pleasant evening.

rooftop view of Savannah

Sonia,Connie, me, Heidi

Summer is rapidly coming to an end, and I still have lots on my bucket list to do. Many will have to be put off for another year, but I did get a couple more checked off this week. I had nothing on my calendar for Wednesday, so, after I did my swimming, I went downtown. I parked where there are no meters, and walked. I started at the Andrew Low House museum. I had not visited there is quite a while, and they are currently showing a display of some 19^th century clothing that I wanted to see. Because the Andrew Low House carriage house was the where the first meeting of the Girl Scouts was held in 1912, I decided to also go there. It is not frequently open, so I felt lucky that I was able to get in. There were lots of old uniforms on display, as well as dolls, boxes of cookies, and a time line. After that, I waddled over to the Telfair Academy. (It’s so nice to have a Coastal Museum Association pass that allows me to get into all these places for free!) They have a summer exhibit entitled Mansion to Museum, which tells the story of the evolution of the site from an aristocratic private home to an Academy of Arts and Sciences. It wasn’t much. Because I have a pea-size brain, I didn’t realize that there was another temporary exhibit on another level that display some of the purchases Mary Telfair and sisters brought back from some of their tours or Europe, and I left without seeing that. To cover my mistake, I did get to see this exhibit following a lecture the next evening.

lovely old dress in a bedroom at the Low House

first Girl Scout meeting place

look closely - Mary Telfair herself is engaging tourist in front of the academy

Friday, I was at DH, and the The 90. But I had to leave earlier than I normally do because a friend from MP was performing at a coffee house not from from home. I wanted to support her, and I’m glad I went. A little poetry, a little Dan Fogelberg – I was swept back to my youth. Kat is a very talented poet and has a wonderful voice. Iced coffee was good, too. 

a bad picture - the lighting wasn't good

Since I didn’t seem to get enough of a history fix on Wednesday, I spent most of Sunday at other museums. Savannah participated in the second annual Lift Every Voice program. Begun last year by the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, this program seeks to focus on special programming that would inform guests, free of charge, about African American history connections to their local sites. I went to the Owens-Thomas House, which was publicized as “a special tour focused on the lives of Emma, Peter and Diane, some of the enslaved people who lived” there - it was nothing more than a free tour of the house and quite disappointing. But I also went to Fort Pulaski, and listened to an interesting ranger-let talk about African American experiences on Cockspur Island. And, my favorite, was Massie School, which featured a talk by Ulysses Bryant, who grew up in Savannah in the 50s and 60s and was one of 12 students to integrate Savannah High School in 1963. That was fascinating.  

the park ranger at Fort Pulaski

Ulysses Bryant and a photo of the students entering Savannah High in 1963

And while all my bar-hopping and museum-going is interesting, I have saved the best till last: my a/c broke. Thursday, just as I was going to the lecture at the Telfair, I put my hearing aids in (I don’t wear them when I’m home alone), and I heard this sound as if a water tap were running. When I opened the door to the utility room – water was gushing from the inside a/c unit. Luckily, there’s a big drip pan in there, so it didn’t flood. I turned the unit off, and went to the lecture. I was going to be busy all day Friday, and I didn’t want to pay for a service call on the weekend, so I I left the unit turned off, and have an appointment for Monday. It’s been in the 90s every day since Thursday, but surprisingly, I have not been that uncomfortable. Between the ceiling fans, the table fan (I move it from room to room) and the sun-blocking curtains on my windows, I’ve been ok. I can’t wait to see what this repair will cost, and how it will be explained to me that my 10-year warranty doesn’t apply on the unit I had installed in 2010.

NO MATTER WHAT I DO WHEN I CREATE THESE BLOGS, THE FONT AND SPACING ALWAYS CHANGES AND I CAN'T EDIT IT.  I DON'T KNOW WHY.  I'M FRUSTRATED.  

8/12/2018

Weekly Update 8/12/2018

Who knew? Tuesday was National Lighthouse Day! (Wednesday was World Cat Day, but who cares?) Fort Pulaski was giving guided walking tours to Cockspur Lighthouse, so Jane and I thought it would be a good chance to learn something, and off we went. The Cockspur Island Lighthouse is a 46 foot tall brick building the marks the south channel of the Savannah River. It is one of only five surviving lighthouses in the state. First constructed in 1837, it was rebuilt and officially commissioned in 1849. It was destroyed by a hurricane in 1854, and rose again in 1856. It suffered little damage in the Civil War, in spite of being located in the middle of the battle between the Confederate soldiers at Fort Pulaski and the Union forces on Tybee Island. After the war, the north channel became the preferred entry to the port of Savannah, and the light was officially extinguished in 1909. It was an interesting walk, but the mosquitoes made it unbearable. And it was hot, even at 9 am.

I have been in full peach mode lately. The local Georgia and South Carolina peaches are at their best, and I’ve been eating them every day on my cereal. They are so-o-o good.

When I got my pedi, I was very daring – I had my toes painted blue. Even a red is more than I like to see on my feet, and I usually opt for a brownish-pink color, something very neutral. I’ve become a wanton woman, or an old lady who thinks she can pass for 17. What’s next? A Tattoo? 

I did another thing that is quite out of character for me this week: I went downtown on Saturday to apply for a “casting call” for extras in a Disney movie that is to be filmed here in Savannah in the fall. I had read about it on my news channel app, and thought I might give it a go. It might be kind of fun to be in a movie, and see how the filming is done. I don’t do much else, so why not try it? Well, I was thinking the same thing that several hundred Savannahians were thinking! When I got to the civic center, the line was out the door and around the block. I wasn’t going to stand in the heat for the chance to be told NO. I turned around and went home.

Sarah finished her internship at Disney on Friday, and Jack flew to Orlando so that they could drive back to Rochester together. They needed to be in North Carolina to stay with his dad on Saturday night, but they were able to stop in Savannah and meet me for lunch. There’s a Cracker Barrel right off Rte 95, so we met there. It was very good to see them. 

8/5/2018

Weekly Update 8/5/2018

I experienced a wonderful day tour to Milledgeville, GA on Saturday. I went with Jane, Barbara and Kay. This planned capital city (one of only two, the other being Washington DC) took shape and was given the name Milledgeville in honor of John Milledge, Governor or Georgia. For more than 60 years it remained the capital. Many homes and structures survived the periodic fires and destruction of the Civil War. It is also the city where Georgia's state mental asylum is located, and where author Flannery O’Connor spent the adult years of her life (she was born in Savannah), but we didn’t visit her Andalusia home.

Saturday began in a hurry. I had set the alarm clock on my phone, but failed to turn the volume back on after DH on Friday (something I frequently forget). So I had 10 minutes to get up, brush my teeth, shower, shampoo my hair, get dressed, and get out the door to meet Barbara, who was picking me up at 6:30. I made it. We met Jane and Kay in Pooler and Barbara kindly drove all four of us to Milledgeville. We were on time to buy tickets for the trolley tour (there is only one tour a day, and we needed to be there by 11 to get tickets), and we had a little spare time. We found a nice coffee shop and had a snack and some caffeine. Then, back to the trolley, which was wonderful!

We had a narrator, plus a bus driver, and the information and stops were great.

The first stop was a the Old Capital. This building was first constructed in 1807 and is considered the first example of Gothic architecture in a public building in the United States. It served as the seat of Georgia State government for 1807 until 1868, and in its legislative chambers the Secession Convention was held in 1861. The building burned several times, and the latest $10 million renovation was completed in 2000. Since 1879, it has housed the Georgia Military College.

From there, we went to the campus of the Central State Hospital, originally formed in 1842 as the Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum. By the 1960s, the facility had grown into the largest mental hospital in the world, occupying some 200 buildings on over 2,000 acres, and housed nearly 12,000 patients. After that, with emphasis on deinstitutionalization, the addition of other public psychiatric hospitals, the availability of psychotropic medications, and an increase in community mental health programs, the hospital population drastically decreased, and closed in 2010. Not unlike the Rochester Psych Center, problems with asbestos and lead paint make rehabilitation or demolition hazardous. The buildings are left abandoned and uncared for. 

Next, we went to historic St Stephen’s Episcopal church. During Sherman’s occupation of Milledgeville in 1864, the interior furnishings were used for firewood, and the building itself housed horses of the US Cavalry. Today, it is an active parish.

The final trolley stop was at the Brown-Stetson-Sanford House. The house was build c. 1825 at another location in Milledgeville and moved to the current location in 1966. It had been in the same family for over 100 years, and had been used as a tea room for the decade before moving the building. It is now a house museum. The house has a beautiful Palladian double portico and original pilasters. A cantilevered, oval, spiral staircase dominates the central hall.  

We had reservations to tour the Old Governor's Mansion, so we did that next. It was not part of the trolley tour, but we wanted to see it. This house was build in1839, and was home to Georgia Governors until 1868 when the capital moved to Atlanta. It then served as the founding building of the Georgia Normal & Industrial College. In the 1990s, an initiative to return the mansion to its original splendor was begun, followed by years of intensive historical, structural and material research. It is now a museum with the focus on the history of the building, its occupants both free and enslaved, and the myriad complexities of Antebellum Society in Georgia (can you tell which sentences I lift directly from the brochures?)

At the end of that tour, we were all ready to eat again. We found a cute little pizza place on the main tourist street (but none of us had pizza), The Brick. Although the forecast was for rain, the only precipitation we got was as we were eating, so we got lucky and stayed dry. After that, we walked back to the car, drove to the Memory Hill Cemetery in a vain search for Flannery O’Connor’s resting place, and another spin through the insane asylum so I could get more photos. We were back home by 8:30. Many thanks to Barbara for being our driver, and to her, Jane and Kay for indulging me in a day tour I’ve wanted to do for many years.

In other exciting happenings this past week:

I went to two lectures. One was a Hungry for History at City Hall, and the speaker was my friend and the director of TLC, Roger Smith. He talked about “Savannah’s Literary Legacy” and included such authors as Harry Hervey (buried at BC), Flannery O’Connor (interesting since I planned to be in Milledgeville on the weekend) and John Berendt (not a Savannahian, but author of The Book). The other was at TLC, and was about mid-century modern architecture in Savannah. Because this city seems to focus on architectural history up until the Victorian era, we often don’t recognize or appreciate some of the newer ranch homes built on the Southside in the 1940s -1960s. I enjoyed that.

It was restaurant week here in Savannah, so I met Beverly, Beth, Jackie and Kay for dinner on Tuesday at Ruth’s Chris Restaurant. Except for Kay, I only see these friends during restaurant week, and we missed last winter. It was great to get caught up.

A few weeks ago, I had my eyes checked. I was hoping to get new glasses, because I just never could get used to the bifocals I’ve had for a couple of years now, and I almost always wore my old, scratched glasses. I wanted to get rimless glasses, but couldn’t find them in any of the optical stores around – Georgia Eye institute, Lens Crafters, Walmart, and others. I found this online place, and if you load a photo of yourself, you can “try on” frames. It still wasn’t ideal, as I also wanted to feel how they fit over my ears since I now have hearing aids. But when I saw the cost - $40 total, including shipping – I took a chance that they would be ok. The arrived Saturday, and I think I’m going to like them.