A Trifecta of Trouble in Tidewater

Years ago, Mike & I lived in Norfolk, Virginia. We became friends with another Mike & Gail, natives of the Tidewater area. We moved back home to Wisconsin in 1975, but have stayed in contact with them, yo, all these many years. They are retired, eccentric old hippies.

A few days ago, an earthquake hit Virginia. My Mike called to see how our friends were doing, but all the phone circuits were busy.

Now, we hear that Hurricane Irene is headed their way. The Outer Banks are being evacuated, and Mike and Gail have a second home there on the water.

Finally my Mike got through last night on the phone.

Yup, our friends felt the earthquake ("I was rolling one and it fell right out of my hand"). And their son was at the beach house yesterday but he was getting the heck out as of this morning.

Last, our friend Mike added, "Have you heard about the fire?"

"What fire?"

"The Dismal Swamp in North Carolina caught on fire. The peat has been burning for a couple of weeks. It's twelve miles from our house."

Maybe it helps to be eccentric at a time like this.  Good luck, Mike & Gail!

They taught us to live

August 22, 2011. On this day thirty-three years ago, I was 27 years old and I got the worst news I ever had: my father, mother, and brother had been killed in an automobile accident in Ontonagon, Michigan. They’d been enjoying a camping and fishing trip. Pop was 51, Mum was 48, and George was 13.

Argh! Need traffic!

So, I’ve been on a writing retreat at our house trailer on Little Green Lake for two weeks. Fabulous scenery, fabulous quiet, fabulous writing progress. I should be fine, right?

I sure thought so. But I realized today that something was wrong.  The problem became clear to me when I discovered that I had two rolls of film to take in for developing (stifle the sniggers). It occurred to me that in order to get the pictures printed, I’d have to drive from Little Green Lake to the bustling (not) burg of Ripon, Wisconsin, to get to a Walgreens photo department.

I felt elated! Elated to drive 25 minutes to Ripon!

What?

That was when I realized that I craved a shot of “big city.”

"Up Nort"

I'm "Up North" now on a writing retreat. My goal is to finish my new script and then convert it to a novel. I had good luck doing that last August with my first script.

Beware of secondary ticket sellers!

Before I go on a rant, I have to say that “Jersey Boys” was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. The singing was beautiful – the actor portraying Frankie Valli sang like an angel. And the staging was ingenious, sparkling, fast, fun, fantastic. Best of all was the WAY THE GUYS DANCED as they sang. We tried to duplicate it after the show – impossible. Pretty good for a bunch of white guys.

However, I am so mad. I got royally ripped-off by a secondary market ticket website. I paid $109 for a $25 ticket. And so did my husband, Mike; my friend Lynn; and her friend, Beth.