Sunday, December 15, 2013

I love my church.

FBC is having their annual Christmas concert three evenings in a row, so I picked last night and braved the cold, rainy weather. If the performers went to the trouble of being there, so would I. It was all worth it! The choir was wonderful, but even better was the thirty-two piece orchestra. I coulda sworn during "Sleigh Ride" that they were really the Boston Pops. This morning I took two quick pix with my iPhone so you can catch a glimpse of this grand old church building.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

The USO



Growing up I heard many stories from my mother about all the fun she had at the USO dances during the war. Later during that golden era in America, the fifties, my grandmother would take the bus downtown, as she did not drive, and play cards with the servicemen on leave. What wonderful memories they both had. The USO still stands, I was glad to see yesterday. I thought of my mother and grandmother and the many people who passed through these heavy, old doors, handsome young men in uniform who didn't return from WW II and those who met their true loves on the dance floor. The USO is now on the National Registry of Historic Places and is used sporadically for various art venues. When I stopped by yesterday, the big, high ceilinged room was empty except for the two young women volunteers, and echoes of the past seemed to swirl around my head. What tales it could tell!

Friday, December 13, 2013

What is it?

An increasingly used idiom is "It is what it is." It can be applied to just about anything we don't have control over or can't fully grasp. Wiktionary has these definitions: a thing with its own distinct nature; this thing itself; and as a synonym, the circumstance is simply a fact and must be accepted or dealt with as it exists. It is so ubiquitous and plainly true that anyone or many could have come up with the phrase, but yesterday as I was re-reading Mere Christianity, third chapter, second paragraph those few words popped out at me. CS Lewis in 1943, in his self described search for truth, had written them. Perhaps he was not the first, but from now on, I will attribute those words of wisdom to him.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

From the Crystal Pier




After a nice lunch at the Oceanic, we walked out on the pier and found the weather had changed from mildly chilly to cold and blustery. Strong winds ruffled the tops of the waves and made the sea rough, but the many surfers seemed to enjoy it that much more. I had wondered what the beach was like this time of year.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Learning curve

In recent months, I have done many things for the first time, and I have not done them smoothly or perfectly. I just plunged right in, and I know that the next time will be easier, and the third will be a piece of cake. Parking for instance. At first glance, it is hard to know the best place to park for any outing. Today I dropped a few things off at the Salvation Army. I didn't know I had driven in the wrong way until I saw the vertical parking stripes going the opposite way from my driving. Then I did not know who to give my stuff to. Prior to that, I turned onto North College thinking that it would take me to the next stop, but no. I should have gone a tad further and found South College. One thing I did right however, was get a couple of beautiful poinsettias at a local place that grows their own from cuttings and does not import them from Mexico or wherever. "We have thousands," the cordial, aproned employee told me. Indeed they do. And in several different colors. I bought a pretty, lighter red one for myself. About a month ago, I was there and saw them being carefully tended to and almost ready to change color. Today I found the plant place without problem, and I came early enough in the season to see a big display of beautiful Christmas flowers and get my pick. I learned easily on this one!



Sunday, December 1, 2013

a happy camper

There was a blogger in Greenville who posted a photograph a day of interesting places around town. What a cool idea, I thought. Maybe I would do that when I eventually settled in Wilmington. As you can see, I haven't acted on that thought. Later on perhaps.

For now...I am just being happy. For now...I am nesting.

The kitchen in my little patio home is small and without much cabinet or counter space. It took a good bit of arranging and rearranging to make it workable. A woman needs to get her kitchen in order, and now it is. I am finding I like the small area, because I have to be more organized, and it makes me have to clean up as I go along. So I have spent many blissful moments in the kitchen, cooking and eating, and eating and cooking, accompanied by the music on some new favorite radio stations. The down side is that I need to move on to another phase before I get any fluffier.

I love it here even more than I thought I would. Maybe it really is that wonderful, but maybe it is because without working at a job or working to keep a house market ready, I have had time to live at a different pace. I have been able to explore or relax or do pretty much as I please. That may be contributing to my bliss.