Hot

It was nearly 80 degrees in Colorado Springs today! What's the weather like at home? Someone post a comment and let me know...I miss my island.

But even though I miss my island, I am thrilled to be able to be here with my sister and Connor. I have felt blessed and happy even on the nights when we got little sleep, as we were up feeding or changing him. Jocelyn's instant messenger auto reply sums it up beautifully: "up all night and wouldn't have it any other way".

Sleep well, wherever you are...

All work and no play...

...makes Kati a very tired lady.

I wish I had some great pictures of something beautiful in Colorado to show you, but I stayed inside most of the day today, working. I'll try to get out and do something tomorrow or the next day!

In the meantime, I'm going to go get some sleep. Hope you are well rested, wherever you are...

Train to the top

I rode the cog train up to the top of Pike's Peak today with my Mom and Dad and Mom's friend Pam from South Africa. It was a lovely afternoon, and I very much enjoyed the scenery along the way and the beautiful view from the top.

Near the bottom of the mountain, the rocks were HUGE:


As we climbed, we started to see more trees and clearings:


Nearing the top, we went through some incredibly deep snow:

(It's a bit hard to tell, but that's a wall of snow about 8 feet high right next to the train tracks.)

I certainly felt the effects of the altitude (I was quite dizzy) once we reached the top, but the view was amazing.

Lovely chapel

My mom and I attended church this morning at the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel. It is a very unique building. I did not initially like the design the first time I saw a picture of it, but it has grown on me. I especially like the view of it head on:



I love the inside of the chapel. It has lovely ladders of stained glass in many different colors.



The organ in the choir loft is majestic. Unfortunately, because we attended the contemporary service, we didn't get to hear this organ played (or a choir singing).



My favorite part of the design of the chapel is the fact that it draws the eyes (and, hopefully, the inward focus) upward toward heaven.

I love a parade...

We went to the Air Force Academy this morning to watch a parade. No, not a floats, clowns and balloons parade - it was a military parade, of course! It was freezing cold, and my fingers and toes almost went numb while we watched, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Things started slowly. At first all we saw was a bunch of people standing around on a large field while several commands were shouted (which we couldn't hear). Then, it picked up as one person from each group brought the squadron flag forward. I loved seeing all the flags together.



Then, each squadron marched around the parade area (the terrazzo). They passed in front of where we were standing outside the chapel to watch. As they marched by us, the command "eyes right" was given, and the cadets turned their heads toward the spectators.



Each squadron was led by three people, two carrying flags and the other a sword. The small flag says AFCW (which stands for Air Force Cadet Wing), and has the squadron number on it.



I was impressed with how the cadets were in near perfect lock-step with one another. You can really see it in this picture.



My favorite part of the parade was actually the end. All the squadrons of cadets had been lining up on the side of the terrazzo and standing at attention in perfect squares. When the command dismissing them was given, a roar went up and they scattered, pleased to have completed the exercise and be free to enjoy the rest of the day.

New vocabulary

I learned a new word today: snatiation. John definitely has this condition, as you know if you have ever been around after he ate a large meal!

Here are some other facts about snatiation: it's a backronym which is also a portmanteau. And just in case you're curious, "backronym" is a neologism.

Yes, I love words. I most especially love words about words.

Hope you have words for everything in your life, wherever you are...

The mountains are beautiful...

We went to the Air Force Academy campus today, and this is the view of the mountain from there.

It is indeed lovely here, and I do enjoy visiting the mountains. But I'm definitely a beach lady, and I miss my salt water. :)

Colorado is...

...a bit chilly. It is lovely during the day (mid 60s to low 70s, about the same as in NC). But then the temperature drops to the high 30s to mid 40s overnight! That's a heckuva drop. Sleeping with socks on is required...

...windy. Here in Colorado Springs it is especially windy because the town is right at the foot of the mountains.

...DRY! I had no idea how much the general humidity of living at sea level impacts my daily existence. Here, I am thirsty all the time and my skin and lips are incredibly dry. Luckily, I haven't had any challenges with altitude sickness, though.

...beautiful. The mountains are lovely. Pike's Peak is visible from my sister's house (and pretty much every where else). It is amazing to see snow in April.

Hope you are enjoying the unique characteristics of wherever you are...

On the road again

In case you hadn't noticed...

I will be traveling for the next couple of weeks, so it will be off island daily type blogs again for a while.

I'm in Colorado, if you were wondering!

Another cute baby

Although Connor has certainly been the focus of the last couple of days, here are some pictures of one of my other favorite babies - Alex, my friend Julie's son, who was born in October. He's a smidge larger than Connor. :)


Alex loves this seat, which vibrates and plays music. He has almost outgrown it!


Time for a closeup. I think Alex's hair is adorable!


Alex loves to be tickled...and has the cutest laugh!

Babies are such a wonderful reminder that God loves us and wants to bless us with life abundant. Hope your life is blessed with...well, life abundant...wherever you are.

Today's Big News...

...is on the other blog!

A new friend

There's a cute black cat which lives near our new house, who seems to want to adopt us. He is well taken care of and seems to go in at night, so he doesn't need a new family, but he appears taken with our cats. He'll sit on the porch and look through the door into our den, watching our cats come and go (or snooze) for long periods of time.

Yesterday the weather was beautiful, so we had doors and windows open. Savannah and the next door kitty checked each other out through the screen door, but Jamie kept his distance. I took some cute pictures which I'll post here later.

There are many cats on Ocracoke, probably more than dogs. Some are feral, but the Ocracats program (which spays and neuters them) does a great job of keeping the wild cat population under control. There are people who feed them regularly, to ensure they stay healthy too. Just another example of Ocracokers taking care of each other...even the non human residents of the village!

More fabulous friends

Around 9:30 this morning, my friend Mary Ellen called to say that Jim (her husband) and Will (her son) were on their way over to mow our lawn. To understand what a wonderful favor this is, you need to see a picture of how overgrown the darn lawn had gotten (we have been so busy with moving, filing taxes, and planning for my trip to Colorado that we haven't had a chance to finalize getting set up with someone to maintain the yard for us). So here's a shot:


Yes, those are really tall large weeds. :(

Jim came riding down the street on his ride-on mower, like the cavalry coming to rescue us before we could be completely overrun by our lawn! He made short work of our back yard, while Will worked on the side and front.





I try not to be too obsessive about worrying what people think of me, but I didn't want my new neighbors to think a couple of complete slobs had moved in, so I was truly grateful to Jim and Will for significantly improving the appearance of our yard! They refused any payment, so I gave them something I hoped they wouldn't turn down: a 12 pack of beer. They accepted. :)

This event got me thinking about yesterday's blog (about growth on Ocracoke changing the character of the village) all over again. And I realized that I do have a final thought regarding that article: although change is inevitable, it is still up to the individuals who live here to do the things they can to maintain the unique character that is Ocracoke. And no matter how much things change, I believe those of us who live here will continue to do just that.

An interesting article...

A blog reader sent me a link to this article. It's a really good one - and very thought provoking. It describes the reality that there's a duality of feeling about visitors to Ocracoke. The people who live and work here feel ambivalent about the tourism - on the one hand, it is welcome for the effect it has on the economy, but on the other hand, the very fact of this tourism means that the character of the island is changed.

Further complicating feelings and thoughts is the knowledge that many of the people who visit here (especially those who do so repeatedly and often) love it as much as we do. And many - myself included - first discovered it as visitors ourselves. I first came to the island, as so many do, as a day-tripper from Avon on Hatteras island. I have a picture of my family on the ferry as it pulled out of the slip at Hatteras, and there is NOTHING behind us. (The huge vacation houses, the pastel pink "mall", even the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum building - none of those were there yet.)

I had a conversation once with someone who said she could be more annoyed than others by the tourists because her job was not dependent on them. I thought about that for a while and realized that it's not true of more than a small handful of people here on the island. Even if you work in a business which appears to not be directly a tourism establishment (the school, the water plant, etc.), the size of the population (and therefore the number of school students, water users, etc.) is directly affected by the success (as measured by the traditional American definition of monetary affluence) tourism has brought to the island.

I wish I had a deep and meaningful final thought, but the truth is this is a difficult question. Like many things in life, it is quite gray - it is true that Ocracoke residents enjoy (and benefit monetarily from) the visitors who flock here and it is also true that we are frustrated by how many of them there are, and enjoy our quiet off season times as well. It's one of those paradoxes, I guess.

Philip Howard wrote a very thoughtful blog on this topic, which you might find interesting too.

One final thought to share: Owen Gaskill, who is quoted in the article linked at the beginning of this blog, did in fact stay on the island until he died, as he said he would. So some of the lovely traditional things which are a part of Ocracoke's character (like Owen's veggie stand) will always change, with or without the visitors. That is, of course, life.

Another OUCH

My readers who remember when I cut my finger may be amused to learn that I am apparently working on wrecking my left hand, starting with the index finger and moving on from there. Yesterday morning, my cat Jamie bit me on my middle finger. (Yes, I still love him. He has not been a happy camper in terms of adjusting to our move, and he was freaked out because he was trying to get outside and didn't know how. I made the mistake of attempting to carry a ticked off cat to the door. Stupid, I know, and I won't do that again. He knows where the doors to the outside world are now.)

John was bitten by one of our other cats several years ago, and got an infection as a result. So that's when we learned that you should always see a doctor if a cat bites you, as they have enzymes and bacteria in their mouths which should not be in human bodies. So I went to the health center. Dr. Moore and I had a chuckle about the fact that the last time he saw me it was also for a finger wound. I even went into shock briefly, for old times sake. :)

Anyway, they got the wound cleaned up and gave me an antibiotic shot and pills to take for the next 10 days. I'm going back today (in a few minutes) for another check because my whole finger is swollen and warm. Fun, huh?

Decisions, decisions

I had a small group of people at the house today for a meeting to select the Artisans who will participate in the 2008 Ocrafolk Festival. We had several more applicants than we have available spaces for, so unfortunately some difficult decisions had to be made.

The amazing thing is that we were able to meet at all, since it is nearly impossible to find a space in the house in which four people can fit. Every room is filled to the brim with all manner of things. The office (where we met) had the following in it during our discussion: one twin size wicker bed (with mattress and box springs), another single mattress and box spring, a bedside table, a wicker TV stand, a large computer desk armoire, a 2 drawer lateral file credenza, a small set of shelves, a large antique roll top desk, a chest of drawers, 5 chairs, 4 adults and baby Charlotte!

I would post a picture, so you can truly get an understanding of the fullness of this room, but I have no clue where the card reader for my digital camera memory card is!

Oy...moving is painful. But it will all be worth it, once we have everything unpacked and are settled in better. Check back with me for an update on that in oh, say, 5 months? Just kidding...hopefully it won't really take that long. But it just might.

UPDATE: I found the digital card reader, so here's the picture:

My excuse...

...for not blogging for two days: I got lost in my house. You should see the place...it's a wreck! There are boxes and crates and laundry baskets and bags and pretty much anything else we could find to put things in all over the living room and in the bedrooms and the bathrooms and the den and the hallway and...well, you get the idea. Holy crap I'm overwhelmed right now.

Crib update

Remember what the box looked like the first time Connor's crib was delivered? Well, this is what it was supposed to look like.



The pictures really don't do it justice. The box is an entirely different width and shape! Wow. I was joking when I said it looked like FedEx ran over it with their truck, rather than simply carrying it on said truck. I'm not so sure now, though...

I'm happy to report that cribs.com handled the situation really well. They filed a complaint with FedEx (who will pay them for the first crib), and sent me a second one with no additional charges. I love good customer service! If you need a crib, you can get a good one at a good price from them. So now you know...

Fantastic friends

One of the many wonderful things about living on Ocracoke is the friendships I have developed here. I feel surrounded by love and support, and it has enabled me to take on new challenges, handle difficult situations, learn and grow.

Here's just one example.

My friend Sundae stopped by recently, to bring me a couple of gifts for the soon-to-be-arriving baby Connor. I loved the thoughtfulness of this - both the fact that she stopped by, and the gifts themselves. She brought me a cute rubber ducky with a pirate hat, perfect for Ocracoke (and especially coming from Sundae - her husband is the Captain of the Schooner Windfall and quite piratical at heart), and a baby gift which I'm certain very few others (certainly not from off island) would ever think to give at a shower: a net which will fit over Connor's crib, play yard, stroller, or anything else we might need it to go over, in order to keep Ocracoke's least loved but most prevalent critters - I'm talking about mosquitos of course - off him.

I know that Connor will appreciate that gift. And I will appreciate all the support I know I'll get from my friends, as I take on the new adventure of parenting. Several people have already volunteered to babysit, and I've started asking advice fromm all the good mommas I know. It's great to live in a community like this.

Hope you have supportive friends too, wherever you are...

Cozy spaces

Our recently-adopted kitty Jakes came home from the vet yesterday. Poor guy, he had been there for more than two weeks! He has disease called Feline Hepatic Lipidosis, which he essentially gave himself by not eating. We are hopeful he will make a recovery, but it's tough going right now as he is still not eating on his own (we are feeding him through a tube the vet inserted). He does seem to be happy to be home, though, and has found a couple of soft cozy spaces he enjoys sleeping.






Speaking of sleeping...I think I'll go do that now!

Hoop-a-thon

Ocracoke Child Care will be having their annual Hoop-a-Thon fundraiser this Saturday April 12th. This is a fun event and a great place to take pictures of Ocracoke's adorable youngest generation.

The festivities start at 10:30 AM with a BBQ and bake sale, but the real fun gets going when the kids start shooting baskets at 11 AM. Preschoolers of all ages will be involved, with cute team names:
Double Dribblers - infants/toddlers up to 2 years of age
Tossing Toddlers - 2 to 3 year olds
Big Kid Ballers - 3 to 5 year olds

I'm planning to go and watch. If you're here, you should too!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for...

...ice cream!

An anonymous reader posted a question in response to my rather lengthy blog about restaurants: "I hope you don’t mind, but I do have another food related question to ask: which shop serves the best ice cream? I’ve read about The Slushy Stand and Sweet Tooth, but no one has really mentioned where to get the best scoop or cone on the island."

Unfortunately, I won't be quite as eloquent (or, fortunately, quite as long winded) about ice cream as I was about food, although not because there isn't good ice cream on the island. Quite the contrary - it's all good! I am not an ice cream connoisseur by any means...I pretty much like all ice cream! So I don't have favorites, I just enjoy the many options. :) I think Slushy Stand has a few more flavor choices and other items (like sundaes, shakes, etc.) than Sweet Tooth, but in terms of quality they both have terrific ice cream. In previous years, Candyland has had ice cream in addition to their delicious fudge and other candy items, but I don't know if that's a permanent addition or if it was a temporary offering. Also one year there was a soft serve stand on Highway 12 - I adore soft serve, so I hope they'll be back this year but I don't know whether they will or not. Finally, there's sometimes a stand selling snow cones which usually sets up near the Slushy Stand, so that's another potential option.

Here's one final secret/insider tip: a place you might not think of for ice cream on the island is the Cafe Atlantic. They don't always have it on the dessert menu, but when they do it is homemade, delicious, and often served with a decadent hot fudge sauce.

Ooh, now I'm craving ice cream and everyone is closed for the evening so it's too late to get any. Darn.

Funny stuff

I managed to get out of the house long enough today to learn about another upcoming event! There will be a comedy show on Saturday April 19th at Mango Loco restaurant.

Sounds like fun, especially if you need a laugh...

Monday blues and new menus

It's Monday. It's cold outside. I have been inside all day. So I have the Monday blues, for sure.

I have no idea - as usual - what might be happening on the island this week, other than the OCBA meeting on Wednesday night. (At 7PM, in the Community Center, in case you're here and interested.)

I think I mentioned in a recent blog about new things that the Cafe Atlantic has updated their menu with at least one new item. John and I ate at Howard's Pub on Saturday afternoon for lunch, and learned that they also have an updated menu. They changed the design, which now includes images of license plates with NC university mascots and symbols, and added a few items:
- appetizers: calamari, shrimp jammers (deep fried shrimp, stuffed with cheese and served with a sweet chili Thai sauce), and fried pickles (which we tried and I didn't think were all that spectacular)
- sandwich: reuben
- salads: taco salad

Oh that reminds me of one thing I do know about in terms of happenings. Marcy and Lou (of Coyote) and David and Gary (of Molasses Creek) will be playing at the Pub on Saturday April 12th starting at 8PM.

So now you know!

Shipping challenges

When you live on an island, you don't just run out to Target when you need to buy, say, a crib. So we bought one on cribs.com instead. The shipping charge was very reasonable, and the price of the crib itself was the same as what we would have paid at Target or Babies-R-Us. The shipping results, however, were less than spectacular.

The crib was delivered on Friday. I had been looking forward to that, because I was excited about putting it together and hoping to post a picture here (or on Connor's blog). Well, there will be none of that for a while. The box was pretty effectively wrecked during shipping, and at least one of the crib legs got scratched up as a result. :(



I'll be following up with cribs.com customer service tomorrow and hopefully they will handle the situation well. I'll keep you posted, so if you ever find yourself living on an island (this one or any other) and you need to buy a crib online you'll know whether to order from cribs.com or not.

Stormy

It has been raining on and off all day, and there's been a good bit of thunder and lightning this evening. The frogs in Springer's Point are loving all the moisture - I can hear them singing tonight, whereas last night they were quiet (or perhaps they were just drowned out by the crickets).

I love Spring, when days begin to warm, flowers make their first appearance, and the frogs start singing to each other.

As a result of all the rain, we weren't able to move much today, although we did a bit of organizing at the house. It is a glorious mess right now, with boxes and furniture piled in random places. I'll post a picture tomorrow, so you can feel my pain (didn't think to take the camera over there today).

According to the latest radar map, there are still several large storms heading our way, so I guess it will be a while before things dry out around here. The ducks are enjoying the road puddles, as usual. And John is commenting that "the island is sinking", also as usual.

Stay safe and dry, wherever you are...

Catching up...

It is a beautiful spring evening. The yo-yo-ing weather has gone back to warm again, and it is lovely outside. Unfortunately, I have not been outside much in the last several days. I have been working too much instead. As a result, I have very little clue regarding what is happening on the island.

I do know a couple of things:
- Martin and Friends will be playing at Howard's Pub tomorrow night, Sat. April 5th
- There will be a jewelry workshop at Deepwater Theater next weekend (April 11 - 12)

Tonight my friend Jamie came to visit and got me caught up on some of the latest news about things going on in the lives of our friends. It was good to feel like I was at least somewhat in touch with the outside world again.

Cabin fever or spring fever has set in, for sure. I will have to go out and do something this weekend!

Hope you are not too cooped up, wherever you are.

Cold, quiet, and falling leaves

Spring has fled again, pushed out by a cold wind. The weather ups and downs have finally caught up with me, and I've been sniffling, sneezing, and rubbing my itchy eyes all day. I assume it's a cold as a result of the changing temperatures, but I suppose it could be allergies too.

It has been quiet on the island this week, back to the pre-season slowness which is pretty typical for this time of year. The last couple of weeks were busy with spring break vacationers enjoying the relatively mild weather. Now we get a lull and another short respite before the rush of the high season begins in May. This month, most of the remaining restaurants and shops will reopen, ready for another summer selling season.

A unique thing about Ocracoke, which is very visible now, is the falling leaves. Yes, now. We don't have colorful leaf changes or beds of crunchy fallen ones in the autumn, but in spring time there are leaves aplenty, all over everywhere. Fiddler Dave describes this beautifully in his song "Howard Street" with the lyric "the leaves fall for joy and not for grieving". (Or something to that general effect.)

The gray weather has gotten me down, and the cold (or allergies) is probably not helping. I'm feeling tired, stressed, overwhelmed, and unmotivated. So, sorry for the less-than-inspiring blogs recently. Hopefully they are better than nothing!

Here's a funny picture to make this blog post a bit more interesting. This is what happens when, in the process of moving and rearranging, all the lamps end up congregated together. Maybe I should have turned them all on ~ the resulting light might have fooled my mind into thinking I was getting more sunshine and elevated my mood. :)

Digitizing

So, digital TV is supposed to be the wave of the future, much better than the TV you grew up with. I'm not terribly impressed. I don't know if this is just an Ocracoke/island thing, or if it happens everywhere, but the digital TV broadcast keeps locking up tonight. Sometimes the picture just freezes, and other times it digitizes, breaking up into squares which then move around and create odd patterns. The audio always stops. (Usually, of course, just as the person on the show was about to say something fascinating or funny.) We never had any issues like this with plain old cable. (We did occasionally lose the broadcast completely, getting this messageinstead.)

Okay, enough whining. Maybe God is trying to tell me to go outside more instead of watching the darn "idiot box"!

What was that sound?

On Ocracoke, you can usually set your watch by the ferry horns. I often hear the one for the 7 AM trip to Cedar Island when I'm getting ready to start the day. The noon horn marks the middle of the day, and - at least until recently - the final one was at 5 PM, bringing a nice sense of closure as dusk began falling.

That's changed now, though. Recently, I have heard the new final horn - at 10 PM. Yes, really: 10 PM. The ferry division decided this year to try a late night run to Cedar Island, leaving Ocracoke at 10 PM. I suppose people who just hate to drag themselves away from the island might frequent it. Or its riders might be folks who don't have far to travel once they reach the mainland (which will be at 15 minutes past midnight!)

I'm not too sure it will get much traffic, but I guess time will tell. Let me know what you think - would you take a ferry that late?