Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

Family, friends, fall back, finished and finally

Charlottesville, VA
Monday October 21 to Monday November 4, 2013

 

 

This past week, I’ve been hanging out with Jane.

 

 Among the Janeites

One of the things I’ve been doing while we have been here for our month is a lot of reading.  In my previous life I was a marathon reader, 100+ books a year.  Prior to coming back to Virginia, I’d read a grand total of 13 books since January 1st of this year.   So even before I returned to my beloved  library, I had gotten on  line and reserved some things I’d seen or heard about and that were new enough not to be in the campground book swaps.  

One I read, rather late in my stay, was Among the Janeites which is a hoot for anyone who has read or likes Jane Austen.   These Janeites (NAJAS-North American Jane Austen Society) are fanatics of both the professional literary research type and the Austen as chic lit type.  What fun reading about their history and listening to them talk  about the characters as if they were real people, take group tours to visit all the Austen sites in  England, have Austen movie marathons, and dress in 18th Century ball attire for the annual conference ball.  Did you know that Bridget Jones Diary was a Pride and Prejudice redo?  And that there are many many redos and spin offs and even sci-fi and gothic Jane as well as Jane Austen mysteries.  It is just amazing.   It was great fun and propelled me back to read all of Jane Austen again.   I’m reading them in order and have gone through Sense & Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and am now on Mansfield Park which I may not finish before we leave.  Apparently I gave away my Jane Austen in the great purge so I’m headed over  to our Goodwill store to see if there happen to be any Austen books for sale cheap!  :-))

 

 

It’s been a  couple of heavy weeks of visiting.

 

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As we are winding down our stay here in Charlottesville, I’ve been on a heavy social visitation schedule these past  two weeks.  I’ve been  out to lunch 3 times, to after work tea, and out for dinner 4 times.  All  in two weeks.   That’s a LOT of socializing for me.  But these are all my very best friends in Charlottesville  whom I don’t see often.  I have posted pictures of all these folks all in previous blogs  and it just seemed too stilted to take my camera along for our get togethers but David did get this picture of his sister and  her family by borrowing his nephew Justin’s iphone when we met them  for dinner.  They are such a fun bunch, smiling and laughing all  the time just like in this picture.  We were really sorry not to have seen Justin’s wife Carmen and their 2 and 8/9ths children. :-) 

So if you are reading Lynda, Pam, Laurie,Helen, Diane, Robin, Justin, Ashley, Ted and Lynne, it was really wonderful visiting with you.  Sure wish you would all visit with me at a wonderful warm spot in Florida this winter!   Not all at once of course!  :-)

 

 

What is this with Christmas before Halloween??

 

Winnona Wax & Pantry floor 022

 

Of course Halloween happened this past week and Winnona was ready even though no trick or treaters came to her door.   I have been just amazed to see that the Christmas decorations and advertising were all over the stores  when we first came back in early October.  They don’t even wait until after Halloween anymore let alone after Thanksgiving.  It just makes me very angry this obvious money grubbing.  Next year will  the Christmas stuff be out before school begins in September??

 

 

My trigger thumb is still a problem. 

 

My doctor gave me a steroid shot for the pain and that really did take care of the pain and enabled me to move my thumb some but after two weeks, the upper joint was still popping in and out so he sent  me to The Hand Clinic.  There a therapist who was about 12 years old gave me this thumb brace, some exercises to do and told me if it wasn’t improved in 2 weeks of wearing this full time and then 2 more of wearing it only at night, then I needed to contact an orthopedist and surgery was probable.   In a month I’ll be in Florida so I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do.  But isn’t this a cute little piece of hand wear??  Try writing with your thumb totally straight out, no bending anything.  Even I don’t recognize my signature.

 

 thumb1thumb 005 

 

 

 

Of the big things on the list to be done here,  only two actually got finished.

 

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Pantry walls and floors are all freshly painted.  Glad to have that all taken care  of.  At least that and polishing and waxing Winnona got FINISHED!

David was unable to fix the slide adjustment problem I posted about last time.  It appears the screw there was stripped. So we’re going to have  to find some HWH authorized facility on the road and pay them to do what should have been a very easy fix.  I looked at their on line list of certified repair places and there sure aren’t many and none in Virginia. 

We did get one of the MCD shades hung but it turns out that they sent the wrong size for the other one – OF COURSE – and so we have to go to the trouble of sending it back and having them send the correct one to us on the road  as well.   Why doesn’t anyone ever check their work?  These are custom shades.  I don’t know if they made it wrong in the first place or packed someone else’s in our box.  The size on the packing slip was right for both shades but one of the two was no where near what we ordered or what it said on the list. 

So two of the 3 things we wanted to take care of for Winnona while we are here, didn’t get done.  Such is life I guess but it does seem  to me that the quality of work being done in this country is decreasing pretty rapidly.

 

Some of the work on the farm drive has been completed so it is looking better but not finished.   After the wind storm this past Thursday most of the leaves are now on the ground so the height of color here is not as dramatic as usual

 

Fall Drive1

  Fall field

 

We’ve also had a lot of fog this week.  Foggy fall ridge colors as you drive into the farm’s hollow are very muted this year.  Wish I could find this same shot from  previous years when the colors were gorgeous, I know I’ve taken it but who knows where it is. :-)

 

Fall Ridge 2

 

 

 

And of course, my personal favorite, yesterday was FALL BACK

 

Fall Back 1

 

Most of you know how I feel about this so I won’t make you read through my semi annual rant about the nonsense.  If you haven’t read  any of them and are in need of a good rant, you can read one of them here and another by clicking this link. 

Suffice it to say – WHY DO WE DO THIS?  Our bodies suffer.  Who benefits? I don’t care which one we pick, standard or daylight let’s just stop this stupid flip flop.   If you have wisdom to impart, or even a guess, that might help me understand  why we continue this waste of time and money PLEASE let me know in the comments.

 

 

That’s it for this week and I’m all caught up, finally. 

 

This covering a week in a post thing works pretty well when you are busy doing chores and visiting rather than hiking, biking and kayaking.  Not sure how well it will work as we get back on the road. :-)

We’ll be heading out day after tomorrow, Wednesday morning, on our typical slow trip south.  We’re headed to Edisto Island South Carolina and then on to Hunting Island,  Cumberland Island National  Seashore, Anastasia and Sebastian Inlet State Parks  in Florida.  If there is anything you recommend we see there or on the way, let me know.

20 comments:

  1. That floor & wall in the pantry looks GREAT!!! Well, my son can now get up and to work and work in daylight instead of trying to bang around someone's yard in the dark, which is a fairly good thing, one would guess :) (re: daylite time)

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  2. Nice looking family! ;) And the PERFECT cartoon for your sentiment - love it!

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  3. According to a study done here at UVA, street crimes (like robbery) increase when it's daylight savings time but not if it doesn't switch and it's darker in the morning. Apparently, criminals are not morning people.
    TBL tomorrow or will you be packing?

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  4. I loved Cumberland Island. I think you and David will, too, Sherry. I've camped at Hunting Island--think I remember that you did, too, so you know about the narrow bridge over. We used to enjoy St. Simon's Island this time of year. They used to have a wonderful historic trolley tour. Sapelo Island also can only be reached by ferry (as with Cumberland) and has a very interesting history. Enjoy the coast. It's the best time of year, in my opinion, to visit.

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  5. Fun to catch up with your goings on when you are at the farm. My, my, you are a little hard on yourself regarding "getting things done."

    Love the Among Janeites review. I enjoyed the Jane Austen Book Club novel very much which sounds like it fits right in with this recent read of yours. I, too, have been back into reading--must be a fall thing as I am less tempted to be pursuing outdoor activities, at least now when we have been in cooler temps.

    Regarding the time change: as a retiree it has no significance to me whatsoever. When I taught school, I did not like getting home from school when it was already dark although I think my students benefited from driving to school in the winter after dawn. I try to remember that almost any issue dealing with time is just a conversation in our head. If you study quantum physics at even a basic level, you learn time is just a construct we impose to make things run more smoothly; it is not real in any sense at all. It helps me to remember that when I get caught up in what I perceive to be the constraints of time. You asked, I responded. :>)

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  6. I read all the Jane Austen novels years ago and never had the desire to read one again.

    What a fun time you've had and accomplished some things in the meantime. I love the social calendar bit, and would love for mine to be filled up!

    I've heard the thing about time just being a construct in our minds to keep order, but it shouldn't be so darn aggravating twice a year.

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  7. I used to be such an avid reader but seems all I find time for now is blogs. I'm good with that because it's good reading, like here. Nice to be 'home' for a little while and see friends and family. But don't they know it's warmer in FL. I'm going to ignore Christmas. Hope that thingy works on your thumb. I count that as 1 1/2 things done on Winnona. Hope you don't have to rush to FL for the service work. The farm colors my not be at peak but are very pretty. Smart in AZ doesn't change time. :) I'm looking forward to the road trip with you south. Safe travels.

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  8. Well Great, you are all caught up... showoff;o)) Now you can do our blog!!!

    I know you will be glad to get back on the road. Really interested in reading about your Cumberland Island Trip!!

    Safe Travels and Happy Trails....

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  9. Hope to catch up with you two in Florida sometime. Have a safe trip south!

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  10. Love, LOVE the two pictures of the road leading up to the farm. I know those old places are so hard to maintain, but oh my, what a glorious respite. Safe travels on Wednesday. Can't wait for more reports from the road.

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  11. I heard the same story as Pam about crime and daylight savings. I dislike it except standing on the train platform when it's light out is better..otherwise, yuck! I'm sorry I missed all the visits. It does look like a lot of progress was made!! Pretty farm pictures ... the pantry looks great! I hope that thumb heals...I really do!! In terms of work quality...I've decided a lot of Americans are quite lazy - just want to get onto the next thing.

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  12. I'm ashamed to admit I've never read Jane Austen. I'll have to add it to my Kindle.

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  13. Looks like you had a productive and fun time last week, hope the thumb feels better with out surgery. Every year it seems Christmas is showing up in the stores earlier and earlier, crazy. I know I saw them getting stuff out in Sept before we left VT. Hunting Island was one of our favorite stops last year when we were just vacationing, hope to get there next fall, we spent most of our time at the park. They do loan out poles for free to fish off of their pier-no license required. Wish they would leave the time alone too, sure would make life easier, since our son lives in AZ it's always been fun trying to figure out what time it is before we call him.Safe travels south.

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  14. Glad you were able to catch up with some of your book reading and that you were able to visit with your family and friends (including me!). I'm looking forward to reading about all your adventures and, of course, all the beautiful pictures. I'll miss seeing you, however the blog helps to lighten my loss, since I get to experience your trip and feel like I'm still connected to you and David.

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  15. Seems to me as though you accomplished a lot on your sabbatical.

    Dave's had three trigger fingers repaired. . .it only takes a few minutes in the doctor's office. . .so don't suffer with it for too long. . .just git'r'done. . .

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  16. I had to wear a thumb brace like that a number of years ago, and it really worked for me.

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  17. You've really crammed a lot into your time back home. Of course catching up with friends and family is the best part. Bummer that you have to have one of your MCD shades sent to you on the road -- what a pain! Hope your thumb heals so you don't have to deal with surgery on the road as well.

    Safe travels south!

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  18. Robinkwalton@gmail.comNovember 6, 2013 at 10:18 AM

    We had such fun and catching up with you both. Lots of laughs and lost track of who was saying what ! I was so happy to see you both looking so well,David we were thrilled to see in a "little"tummy! I know my 2 were real glad we were able tp slip dinner in together.The pantry looks great!
    I have that same feeling about the stores marketing,it drives me crazy to see holiday decorations as soon now as July!Seems like it gets worse every year.
    Enjoy South Carolina ..."ON THE ROAD AGAIN" should be your theme song...was wish we could be doing the same

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  19. I'm with you on this daylight savings business… government can't do much by it can do this… drives me insane… Arizona doesn't do it!

    Great Fall pictures, Sherry.

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  20. Glad to hear that you read lot of books. Sounds you had a great time .Take care of your thumb.

    All pictures looks beautiful.

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