So how am I doing on my two New Year’s Resolutions?
1. Be Healthy – I let down the team on this one during March, April and most of May. I just didn’t want to deal with it – too much going on with work. (Thank goodness this one monster project is closing today!) But since last week I’ve been back at it – I’ve gone swimming with friends three times in the last six days. I’ll get there. Onward.
2. Be Hospitable – That was supposed to be ‘throw more dinner parties.’ Hasn’t worked out lately. However, I did contribute homemade coleslaw to my friend’s Memorial Day cookout. And I’m going to take more homemade coleslaw to a cookout Saturday. So there. I’m going to have to get it together and do something to be hospitable. I’ve been busy with Toastmasters, work, work, Toastmasters – it’s just not happening.
But – I did get my new mattress set, finally! And the last two nights I’ve slept through the night, floating on a plush firm cloud by Simmons Beautyrest.
After the irritating hours of Saturday – Lost Wallet! Golfer’s Elbow! Continued pain! Buying an elbow brace! – I had a wonderful surprise today in church. I was a few minutes late and so had to wait at the back until the handbell choir was done. (Our church has such a nice custom of not letting people move down the aisles while a choir or soloist is performing. You have to wait until it ends.) I had to nip halfway up to the front past my usual spot to find a place. Later, when I got up to greet those seated around me during the “handshake” portion of our Baptist service I turned around and saw behind me a friend I’d been trying to reach for two years.
(I should have posted this Saturday but I was waiting for the world to end so I wouldn’t have to do it. Hooray we’re still here; boo, I have to clean the house.)
Saturday was as frustrating a day as I’ve had in some time. Thursday I came back from the doctor with an odd diagnosis. A couple of weeks before intense, deep pain centered around my left elbow woke me up. If the pain had been shooting down my arm I would have called 911. But I’d been sleeping with my arm curved up under my head, so I figured I’d just aggravated the arm. Yet the pains kept coming back.
More scene setting: You should know my work schedule has been too hectic by half the last three weeks. And going to my doctor is always a major production because I work way out on the Northeast side of town and Dr. Smith is closer to where I live, on the Northwest. It can mean two to three hours off, depending on when I can get the appointment! I finally found time in my work schedule to go last week.
Easter Sunday 2011, the flowering cross outside Riverland Hills Baptist Church after the 9 a.m. service.
After church I cooked Easter lunch for Mom and Dad. The menu featured veggies from my first spring weekly share from my coop – Pinckney’s Produce. We had:
Spring Onion Soup
Spinach Salad with Mandarin Oranges
The main pathway into Forsyth Park, downtown Savannah
I lived in a garden with a city tucked inside it.
The azaleas of Savannah in full bloom - late March, 2011
I lived in Savannah, Georgia, the place Margaret Mitchell described as “that gently mannered city by the sea.”
The building where I used to live on Gordon Street. The Mercer House (made famous in "the book") is right across the street.
My stay there lasted four years. The last two I spent in the middle of the historic district, a space of centuries-old churches and homes, all surrounded by private gardens enclosed with fanciful wrought-iron gates, flowering azaleas and sturdy, gnarled live oaks draped with Spanish moss.
Look for the bird perched among the iron leaves of this gate.
All too infrequently I leave the modern world of work, mortgage and 401(k) and return to the garden. The last time was at the end of March, when my Mom and I decided to visit.
The Six Pence Pub on Bull Street imported its own red British telephone booth for even more character. Mom is happy to be on the trip.The view from the Crab Shacks outdoor deck, Tybee IslandQuite a few of the Crab Shack patrons have fed this big kitty on the outdoor deck. Hes waiting patiently for more.
When I was in Savannah I attended Wesley Monumental Church. This beautiful church was built as a monument to John and Charles Wesley. Construction started after the Civil War and the sanctuary was finished in 1890.
I used to attend Wesley Monumental Church when I lived in Savannah. This beautiful United Methodist church is on Calhoun Square downtown.The interior of Wesley Monumental Church showcases the 60-rank Noack organ.Forsyth Park Fountain. The city fathers dye it green for St. Patricks.The putti or water nymphs or satyrs - whatever! of the Forsyth Park Fountain.
It was a short trip – only 36 hours – and ended with an adventure. The car wouldn’t start. We got a jump from a gentleman who’d been a neighbor of mine 20 years ago. Once we got going, we took one last turn around the squares and then pointed the car toward Talmadge Bridge and the low county of South Carolina. As we reached the peak of the bridge we looked back for one last glimpse of Oglethorpe’s city on the riverbluff, of tall spires and steeples reaching heavenward through the green leaves, of live oaks in the town squares.
Glenn Reynolds makes a good point about the far-reaching disruption to the modern supply chain that a single disaster across the globe can have. From his article:
Japan’s earthquake was in some ways a triumph of preparedness: Thanks to strict building codes, not a single building in Tokyo collapsed. But the earthquake, and the tsunami it produced, have had impacts that go well beyond the immediate.
In particular, the damage is exposing the extent to which modern supply-chain management has produced a system that is so lean it lacks the reserve capacity needed to cope with disasters.
In manufacturing, plants have been idled around the world because Japanese factories — or often, a single Japanese factory — serve as the sole source for a vital component. With the factories sidelined by damage or power outages, the components are unavailable, and production has to stop.
… But the problem goes well beyond cars and subways. Lots of more important systems are similarly vulnerable. My wife takes a heart-rhythm drug called Tikosyn; if she misses a dose, she could die.
The pollen here has been so bad that I finally broke down and washed my car. I took a picture of it when I was done so I can remember how nice it looked. By tomorrow morning it will have a new coat of yellow. Ah, it was pretty for an hour or so.
The pollen hasn’t hurt me as badly as last year, but it’s as gross as ever:
Finally – doing something to live up to my 2nd resolution: to be healthy. I walked across the Lake Murray dam* Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
Everyone here knows it as the Lake Murray Dam; it takes walking across it to know that the "official" name is Dreher Shoals Dam.Setting out on the walkway of the Lake Murray Dam. There are lots of walkers from 6 p.m. on.
The walk one way across is 1.8 miles. Lots of folks in Irmo and Lexington are out exercising on the dam walkway.
Love this Daylight Savings Time – it’s giving us more time to walk at night. And the beautiful weather is great for walking. Now, if we could just do something about the pollen.
The Intake Towers for the Dam are in the distance.
I wonder how often this little contraption is used to get workers back and forth from the dam to the Towers:
If this were a ship, I'd say this was a "bo'sun's chair." Let's call it the "bo'sun's chair" to the Towers, shall we?
Sorry for the terrible photos – I forgot my camera and was relying on my itty-bitty non-smart phone.
*Okay, three-quarters of the way across and back. But that still comes to 2 miles total – I checked it with my car odometer after the walk.
Most Baptists (or Protestants, for that matter) don’t make a big deal out of Lent. Or “give anything up”. I remember one Catholic friend in high school told me her mom always gave up cantaloupe for Lent. Being out of season, it wasn’t too big a sacrifice for her.
But I like the discipline; your small sacrifice forces you to reflect on all our Lord gave up for us. Once I gave up all carbonated beverages for Lent when I was in college. And that was when I had an 8 a.m. class. Early Easter morning I popped the top of a Diet Coke and toasted the resurrection of our Lord. Nobody sang out more joyfully later that day on the Alleluias, I tell you.
This year I’m going to give up pointless Web surfing. (Sometimes, of course, surfing the Web is legitimate – like looking for airfares for our family reunion later this year.)
Specifically, I will remove most sites from my weekday browsing and limit my weekday Internet usage to
E-mail
Publishing on my blog. It auto-posts to Facebook, so that takes care of that. No hanging around that site.
Weather.com
Paying bills
One news site
Nothing else. In fact, I think I’ll “de-subscribe” from some blogs so I won’t get their updates and be tempted to click over.
It shouldn’t be as hard to do as you might think. For the last three Sundays I’ve been doing an “Internet Sabbath.” I’ve completely unplugged on Sundays. The first one almost killed me; I had never had such an urge to go online! But it’s a wonderful way to slow down and shut down some of the stimuli. It’s so relaxing I now look forward to Sunday afternoons.
Notes from Aunt Gem 