Car wreck

I was driving my sister to the Norfolk airport today when a large cargo van rear ended my Honda Pilot. It was very scary - I swear that's the loudest bang I've ever heard. My seat malfunctioned, sending me flying forward (and my sunglasses whizzing off my face), then just as quickly flopping back into a reclining position. The back window and one side window shattered and blew completely out, and part of one of the back interior panels ended up in the front area with us. After I stopped screaming (yes, I admit I screamed, multiple times...remember the part where I said it was scary?), I found a broken sand dollar in my lap, which had been on the dashboard. My sister did a wonderful job of calming me down and calling 911. My back and neck hurt immediately, so I got an ambulance ride to the hospital on a backboard (two words: seriously uncomfortable), but the CAT scan showed no major injuries ("just" whiplash, I suppose...which is enough...ouch).

John borrowed Sundae's van to come and get us, since Jocelyn obviously wasn't going to make her flight! On the way back home, we stopped at Cape Point Exxon (where they had towed the car) and took a few pictures.

I'm typing this blog several weeks after this all happened, so the update is that the car was totaled. We received the check recently and are working to find another one (as similar to that one as possible - I didn't realize how much I liked my Pilot until it was gone). It's odd to think that if we hadn't found the car that night and taken these photos, I would never have seen it again or known what the damage looked like.








Hope you are safe, wherever you are!

Independence Day

Fourth of July on the island is always a fun filled day, and today was no exception. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Backyard Kids Talks at OPS

Festival tees

I received this info. in email recently and thought it might be of interest. The T-shirts for the Festival sold out within a few hours this year. If you wanted to purchase one but weren't able to do so, you have another chance.

If you missed out on an Ocrafolk Festival T this year, you can place
your order by sending your size, name, address, and contact phone or
email to info@ocrafolkfestival.org by July 9th. The festival will be
be placing the re-order on July 10. T-shirts are $15 ($20 if shipping
in required). Colors will be Sage Green for men's shirts and Lilac
(Purple) for women. The festival will contact you when the order
arrives in. Thanks!

Pool shark!

I am terrible at pool. When I was in college, and I played fairly frequently, I was decent but never excellent. But now I play so rarely that I'm really awful. That fact, however, did not stop me from winning the first annual summer sister getaway contest (which Jocelyn and I just inaugurated). This year, we decided the contest would be about pool, but next year it may be something else (my vote is for Yahtzee, but that's another story...)

Anyway, in case you're wondering how in heaven's name I - with my terrible pool skills (or lack thereof) - managed to WIN the best out of three contest, it was really quite simple. And no, my sister is not worse at pool than I am - she's actually much better! She beat me fair and square the first game, although I actually played almost decently that time. The second time she scratched on the break, so I won on a technicality. And - you guessed it - I won the third game on a technicality too (she sank the 8 ball early...whoops), although up to that point I was losing miserably.

At one point, I tried one of those sit-on-the-table, put the cue behind your back sort of shots, and actually sank it. I was so shocked, it was hilarious! Jocelyn actually got some video footage of this amazing event. I don't have it yet, but will add it to this post if she ever remembers to email it to me. (Hint, hint.)

Beach bonfire

Our friends Randy and Dianne Thompson came to visit for a few days, and we discovered that Dianne had not ever had the experience of a bonfire on the beach. So we decided we needed to fix that immediately!

Dianne gathered a bunch of wood (she's resourceful, that lady!), we dug a hole, and the fire got going quite quickly!



Connor and Jocelyn enjoyed watching the flames.



I found the fire mesmerizing and stared at it for probably an hour straight. It's impossible to capture that sense in a photo, of course, but here's one I like.



And yes, of course, we also made s'mores. You can't have a beach bonfire and not have s'mores!

Girl getaway

My sister and I are spending a couple of days at The Castle B&B. We plan to play pool, read books, relax, swim in the pool, ride our bikes around the village, and eat at wonderful restaurants. Wow, Ocracoke is a really great place to vacation!