Keeping the Music Alive

Here in Oscar Scherer State Park on Wednesday evenings you would have an opportunity to listen to "American Music" performed by Carl and Betty Ross. Carl strums a banjo while singing and telling corny jokes while Betty keeps time with a homemade bass of sorts.  They prefer to perform in period dress in keeping with the authenticity of the times they represent. The music is all the product of American composers and artists. Stemming from the Civil War, Stephen Foster, and many of the anonymous songs we learned as children in our school music classes. The kind of songs we sang around the campfires and on long car trips of our youth. "O Susanna", "De Camptown Races", Negro spirituals, songs we may have never heard before but which are all part of our American heritage. Carl has a treasure trove of over 300 songs in his head. Songs that record the mores and values of our ancestors and describe a lifestyle long past. These are songs that can speak to all of us in all times as they are stories of love, beauty, and good plain fun.

I am not sure if my children knew the songs of which I speak and I am pretty sure that my grandchildren have very little, if any, experience of them. So if you have an opportunity to experience a bluegrass event take a minute to soak it in and by all means take the kids. And if you run into Carl and Betty playing "Old Tyme" music say hey for me.

My Kind of Marathon

Yesterday at this time Don was sacked out on the couch wondering how he gets talked into things by me.

This time it was an 11 mile all trails hike in Oscar Shearer State Park. We have hiked all of these trails in the past, but never all in one day. And according to my rather accurate pedometer the hike was more like 14 miles. I believe this to be mostly true as that mileage is based on my stride length and the number of steps and I certainly took all of those steps. A number of miles of trail consist of plodding through beach quality sand accounting for shorter steps and quite a bit of tacking trying to find the firmest piece of trail. The 11 miles, accurately measured in a vehicle, also does not seem to account for the distance travelled from one trail to another which accounts for about a half mile. Hence, I will take credit for my pedometer reading.

The trails are lovely, but why did I decide to do this marathon hike? Simply because I could. I would like to be able to run a marathon or participate in a triathlon or maybe even the 30 mile walk for breast cancer. This occurred at a time when it was convenient. There are no winners or timekeepers. The only glory was to be able to say you did it.Walk at your own pace, quit anytime you like and no one knows the difference but you. The trails are lovely. We stopped to take a picture of a scrub jay without worrying about falling behind.

All along the way are volunteers with refreshments and drinks. Don loved the variety of cookies. At the end of the trail, or in the middle if you prefer or need a rest, are hot dogs and ice cream sundaes. Life is good when you have the physical and mental capacity to take advantage of its opportunities. We are truly blessed.

Everything is Relative

Things I have learned spending winters in Florida

• Cold is a relative thing. Everyone down here complains when it is below 70 about the cold weather. I tend to pooh pooh this, but the recent cold snap of below 30 degree nights followed by days in the 50's is just as painful to Floridians as the sub freezing temps are to us Northerners.
• Several inches of snow in Chicago is just a long rush hour. In Atlanta, it paralyzes the city for several days. That's painful.
• Bird watching can be fun.
• Playing golf in January is exciting even when course conditions are as bad as they can get.
• If two people get along well living in 9 rooms, they can manage living in two rooms just as well.
• Stuff is over rated. There is nothing I left at home that I cannot live without.
• Friends and family are under rated. They are the only things I left at home that I cannot live without. Friends also abide in Florida and some will even join us down here which keeps the long time away from home from getting lonely.
• Church is important anywhere you go. It not only offers the opportunity to commune with the heavenly Father on a regular basis, it is a constant in an ever changing environment.

• Laundromats are efficient, but very expensive.
• There is good health care in Florida; you just have to make good choices and get lucky as in any other place.
• An abundance of fresh produce is taken for granted.
• And, oh yes, alligators won't bother you if you give them their space. I am not about to test this one to often.

There is nothing wrong with perpetual summer. It is healthy for both the mind and body. Moving here permanently, I would not miss the seasons as I hear people say. I would, however, miss the place I call HOME, in a most miserable way.

Living in the Eastern Time Zone

Do you know it is still dark here until almost 8 AM but in the January evenings it is like daylight savings time never went away? When are we supposed to be sleepy?

When are we supposed to be hungry? We used to watch Good Morning America over breakfast; now it is starting while we are washing the dishes.

Does anyone really watch TV here. You have to wait until 8:00 for anything to be on; then you find out your favorite show has been replaced by some special; then you decide to watch something different only to find out that it is a rerun of the only episode you have ever watched of that particular show. To put the icing on the cake the best shows are not on until 10:00 and since you have been enjoying the warm outdoors into the extended daylight time you cannot keep your eyes open to watch. I think most of the easterners use Tevo to keep up with their favorite shows so the advertisers may as well forget them and pandy to the simple habits of the medwest.

And that is my most interesting thought this week. Lack of responsibility definitely has its benefits.

Well I guess if you are too busy living life and then too tired to write about it it's not all that bad. We had a whirlwind week of Christmas in Atlanta. Starting with a couple of days alone with Mike and Elizabeth and getting reacquainted with Drew and Ollie.

It seems that Drew has taken a liking to buses lately, so when he saw our Big Bertha out in front of his house this was quite a treat. When he gets an opportunity to get into a real bus, he will wonder where the kitchen is. 

We went to the Christmas Eve service at their church then immediately to have dinner with Elizabeth's family. These people are living proof to the truth of Southern hospitality. They take you in and treat you just like family and, fortunately, they are a family which likes each other. Dinner was magnificent and it was followed up with Christmas carolling around the tree. That is my kind of a Hallmark Christmas.

On Christmas day the rest of the family arrived. The threat of flight cancellations came not from Wisconsin or Minnesota but from Atlanta where flights were being cancelled 24 hours in advance because of an expected ice storm. Fortunately the ice turned out to be a significant snow fall giving them the first white Christmas in 128 years and allowing the flights to arrive. I suppose some might credit all of us Nannooks from the north for bringing it.

So the day after Christmas we were all fifteen together hanging out at Mike's. What fun.

The day after Christmas some of us went to the Georgia aquarium. Although we had been there before and Aquariums are low on my list of favorite places, it is awesome to experience these natural wonders through the eyes of the children. We returned to the hotel where we were met by the rest of the clan for a good swim. The kids and babies were all such fun in the pool. Unfortunately I was too busy playing  to take pictures. Perhaps I will be able to steal a few from Elizabeth.

The one job I gave to the parents of all these children was to get me a picture of the 7 grandchildren together. I didn't care if they were smiling, crying, or even sleeping. They did a pretty good job. Then we were also able to snap a few of all the old kids together while they were all taking pictures of the kids.

 

Everyone left town on Wednesday after Christmas, and God bless Mike and Elizabeth for making sure everyone got to where they needed to be on time.

We drove straight to Lakeland Florida where we are now to rest and recuperate in the sunshine and on the golf course.

What Time Is It Anyway?

View from our window in Nashville

So here we are one day out on our way to a warm winter after Christmas in Atlanta. We left a day early to avoid an incoming snowstorm so we are taking it slow and easy. (Can you say 4 days to get to Atlanta is slow and easy?) We spent the night in the Eastern Time Zone in Clarksville, In. It was a rather short drive to Nashville from there which allowed us to arrive in the afternoon early enough to find a show to attend that evening and low and behold, my dream come true show was in town.

All my life I longed to see the Radio City Rocketts and secretly fantasized about being one of them. The only reason I watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade is to get a glimpse of them. We saw them once in Las Vegas at a small night club on a small stage in what I now realized was like seeing the Readers Digest Condensed version.

So I was thrilled that we were able to get decent seats at the last minute. The show was at 7:30 and we were asked to show up by 7:00 to claim our tickets. So we plugged the address for the Grand Ole Oprey into the GPS. An address we found out later was wrong. The ticket agent gave me the address for the motel rather than the theater. We arrived at out destination at 6:52 only to find ourselves in a line of traffic getting into the parking lot which was unbelievably slow and troublesome time wise. After about 10 minutes we were able to talk to a person directing the traffic only to find out we were in line to get onto the motel grounds to ride through and view the Christmas lights. The theater was in an entirely different place. He gave us some very confusing directions and no way were we going to be there by 7:00.

Then a miracle happened. My beloved husband said "we are stopping at a gas station." I had to shake my head to believe my ears. And would you know that the person in the gas station actually knew how to get us there? She even wished me a Merry Christmas on the way out the door.

We arrived at The Grand Ole Oprey which, incidentally, just reopened in November from the flood they had last year well past 7:00 and ran through the parking lot to the ticket booth to the theater doors and landed there about 7:20. Lo and behold the doors were locked and there were no handles on them to get in.. One lovely young couple standing outside told us we had to wait until 6:45 for the doors to open. Say What????

Yes we were back into the Central Time Zone. Who knew? It seems these lovely kids from Alabama had made the same mistake. So the time passed quickly as we had a great time getting to know them.

The show was more spectacular than anything I had ever seen. There is nothing to compare it to as it is a one of a kind experience. The precision dancing, the elaborate and glittery costumes, and the music and singing were amazing at every turn. It was just the thing to ring in the holiday feeling. After all the Santa Clause, toys, and sugar plum fairies were finished, it ended with a splendid depiction of Christmas in its true glory. The whole story of the first Christmas was told through a living nativity scene and traditional Christmas songs.

I am sorry that I don't have any pictures to post as once you go through the doors of the theater there is no photography allowed. So this adventure will have to live on in my memory and it will for a long time.

Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

This year we have been so blessed there is nothing more to ask for. The year started out a bit rocky, but it took a turn for the best almost as soon as it began. We both have clean bills of health. Our family is growing. We had a wonderful celebration of a blissful 40 year marraige (and counting). We have had outpourings of love and loyalty from our extensive web of friendship. We are financially sound in this time of hardship for so many others.

So what I ask for this year is that you give ou share of Christmas to those who have not been so blessed. Encourage others who have so much to reach out to those who don't. Give our share of the goodies both material and emotional to those who need it most and pray to God to inspire us in ways to spread out blessings around to those most in need.

Merry and blessed Christmas to all.