Hurricane--Sister's Visit---Letterboxing

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Here's a short video of trees swaying during hurricane Irene (not very impressive!) :

  After the hurricane I checked on a letterbox near me. The Peace Pilgrim box is intact after Irene and several new signers or stampers have been added including the Peace Pilgrim's sister, Helen Young. Although our town has commemorative activities for Peace Pilgrim at this time of year I have not participated but this does not diminish my fondness of her ideals. So I feel honored that in a way I have her blessings.  My daughter carved the master piece for the Peace Pilgrim stamp.  Check out this site for clues for the Peace Pilgrim's Letterbox and more information.
http://www.atlasquest.com/

 



  I lost power during hurricane Irene that includes most of the time that I had my youngest sister visiting from Charlotte, North Carolina. During the storm we took off around four heading for Hammonton to visit our sister Roe. Started to think we made a mistake as we got to Hammonton but we decided to eat at Joe Italiano's Maplewood Inn. Fearless and hungry patrons packed the popular restaurant that serves homemade linguine. After dinner the storm eased up so we were able to visit our sister. I am having trouble remembering the timeline for the activities during my sister's visit but here is a bit of a summary:

• visited nursing home where Roy resides and was being evacuated. It brought tears to my eyes to see the line-up of ambulances and bedridden residents being moved out.
• my sister talked to staff members at the home where she once worked.
• lost power in a storm that seem rather innocuous in the end.
• spent about an hour in the cellar waiting for the tornado alert to be over.
• walked in the woods around my house and saw a hawk and a pair of killdeer.
• spent an hour at Ulta beauty store and tried on make-up and perfume.
• introduced my sister to my favorite store --the Christmas Tree Store.
• went to Wildwood and spent the day before the hurricane walking the Boardwalk there.
• went home on the Parkway and was enmeshed with the traffic of those who were evacuating the barrier islands
• my sister took Rose, the cat, to the vet for an emergency visit for a collar problem that I won't explain here
• neighbor allowed us to use an extension cord to get power from them to run the freezer but upon the return of the power service I forgot to plug the freezer back into the wall outlet
• had two visits with our father at the assisted living home and watched a good deal of the Phillie's game
• We took dad for a ride when my sister went shopping at the famous quonset hut "Ideal" clothing store. Judi wearing her newly purchased jacket from Ideal:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quonset_hut

      I cooked scrambled eggs in an electric frying pan on the garage floor.

• We did not visit our sister Linda because she was in England, specifically Wales.  She was visiting our niece who had an engagement party. She plans to marry a Welsh young man named Samuel. He recently proposed to her on a trip back to Italy where she had met him while spending a semester abroad.
• We got to see Marisa, our niece and Vince and David, our nephews
• We talked to our mother's brother, Uncle Billy.  Almost got on the ferry to visit him in Delaware.
• got introduced to some very interesting beach reading by Margaret Mead (after some research I think it was Margaret Meade's mother, a sociologist also), the famous sociologist.  I still have to check on the name of the little book.  It does contain some remarks about early Italian immigrants in Hammonton, New Jersey that are a bit derogatory.

           http://marie.bravepages.com/ischam.htm

• made a pre-emptive strike against my gutter system and possible flooding of my basement.  My new gutters were channeling water against my foundation  and I was seeing some moisture in the cellar.  My contractor added pipe extension to the ends of the gutters and installed a sump pump.  I did not consider that the pump would not work if there was a power failure. Luckily the reworking of the gutter outlets was enough of a solution for my problem. 

Lone grave from 1785 near my home:

Irene's minor damage here:

Neighbor's ducks and geese enjoyed the rising water:

Not so Wild Wildwood

 Thought we were going to spend a couple of hours in Wildwood, New Jersey before getting on the ferry to visit our uncle in Delaware but our plans changed.  So three sisters spent time on the boardwalk with the rain holding off until the late afternoon. With Hurricane Irene threatening, the ferry ride might have been a little scary as even on some goods days it is a little rough.


No rolling chairs in Wildwood.  It's the tram.

Nephew Vincent:

An update on an old idea--I like the pink truck:

Yeah, not so wild:

Visiting Great Dane at Dad's Home

  My sister and I visited our father at the home and watched several innings of the Phillies' ball game.  Later in the dining room there were two huge dogs visiting:  A great dane and a mastiff.  I am a small dog person.
    

The three of us:

Judi and Dad:

A huge dog:

An animated Dad:

Earthquake!!

  Yes, an earthquake shaking the ground in South Jersey.  I  have lived 64 years and never experienced anything close to this tremor.  I was sitting at a poker machine at the Taj Mahal.  When it first started I thought the mechansism on the seat was going fluky.  Then I thought it could be a terrorist attack.  I thought maybe it was just a horrible accident like a plane hitting the building.  After it was over I got a little more reasonable and realized I had just experienced one of nature's rare events for this area:  an earthquake!  I certainly had a lot of thoughts for all of about four seconds.

It is the Season for Spiders

  I think this is a type of spider called a furrow spider.  It makes this classic web in the evenings in late summer and fall.

   I am not sure if this is a frog or a toad but I know for sure it isn't the typical toad that I find in my yard.  What ever it is, I have a population explosion of frogs and toads in my yard this year.

Atlantic City Airshow 2011

 Well, I went to the same beach again, the one in front of Resorts Hotel and Casino but this time most of the action was in the air but nothing beats people and bird watching.  My friend and I had a comfortable spot at the edge of the Steel Pier but around one, we got a little bored, and the sun got to be a bit too much.  I am just recovering from a fever blister that was brought on by my last sunny day beach visit.

First there was the blimp-- part show and part advertisement:

 Then there was this guy that kept making us look up but there was nothing up there unless he had binocular vision:

 So when there wasn't any action in the sky I looked for more interesting sights like this guy's feet next to me who wasn't much interested in airplanes. By the way I do not have a foot fetish:

And there was this woman who kept walking around as though she were lost:

And then there were airplane formations:

The photo above is of the GEICO Skytypers Airshow Team(my photo).  It is a flight squadron of six vintage WWII airplanes performing precision flight maneuvers at select airshows across the United States. The diverse flying expertise of the team members aligns perfectly with the unique components of their overall performance. The six vintage SNJ-2’s demonstrate low level precision flying and deliver aerial messages, known as sky typing. These messages are 10,000 feet up in the air, as tall as the Empire State Building, and eight miles wide. The letters can be seen for 15 miles in any direction or nearly 400 square miles. Each plane weights 5500 pounds and utilizes a 600hp Pratt and Whitney R-1340-AN-1, 9 cylinder radial engine. Below is a photo that I found on the net:

And there were paratroopers from the USA and Canada:

Got a shot of these two fellows enjoying the show:

Some Surfers:

  The reason we got a little bored is that my friend frequently gets up-close views of crop dusters for the cranberry bogs. Some are willing to show off a bit. (Check out my past blogs)  We  also live close to Pomona's International Airport.  Just stopping at the red light intersection there, you often get a thrill. Big passenger jets come barreling in overhead while you wait for the light to change.  So we were kind of dumb-founded when there was a fly-by of a cargo plane:

 
We often see jet-fighters on a daily basis in our area as well:

 My friend said that she read where the businesses do not make much money off of the visitors to the airshow.  It makes me think that they may discontinue the show at some point.  Even though I have been a bit critical here, I would hate to see it go.  I was happy to see many veterans enjoying themselves.  I left early and maybe the Thunderbirds made up for it.  Also, it was a thrill to see the stealth bomber a few years back.  In any case it leaves one with a favorable view of Atlantic City unlike this view that we really weren't supposed to see because we took a short-cut to exit the beach:

Nice day for the medic:

Probably a vet--just liked his shirt:

Here are two good videos that was posted of this year's show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_8aindB5hk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHDE9zPzm0w

  Also, I wanted to post a photo of the Resorts Hotel and Casino.  This hotel was once called Haddon Hall.  As I posted before, my father worked for RCA.  One of his jobs was to wire the rooms at Haddon Hall for televsion back in the fifties.  He must have enjoyed his time there because he continues to remark about the work he did.  I remember him explaining to me what conduits were once.  I think that's what he installed for the needed wiring to be funneled through :

Roe's Ride to Work

 My sister Rosemarie has about a 45 minute drive to Bridgeton, NJ,  for her work as a purchasing manager at a hospital. Sometimes she stops and take photos.  I was hoping that she would send me some turkey photos but she shared these two from her commute. Not quite as good as the one that escaped from the Central Park Zoo and perched on a ledge of a high rise condo. 

At the Beach in Atlantic City

   Many of my friends buy tags for Margate, Brigantine or Ocean City, NJ beaches. They probably spend $20 dollars for the yearly fee but then there are the parking and the bathroom issues. If you go to Margate you wind up carting your stuff maybe two blocks in the heat and then once you are there public bathrooms are not available or are inconvenient. To avoid fees there is Wildwood or Atlantic City. I like the beach at the northern end of Atlantic City near Gardiner's Basin. If you get there early you park right by the beach and the public restrooms are right there. One draw back is that the beach is situated near the inlet and the waves are less powerful and the beach faces the part of the boardwalk that is broken. I enjoy it there because the Coast Guard Station is near by so as you sit on the beach you see helicopters coming in and departing. Also, all types of boats go by as  they leave the marinas to head out for the ocean. On Sunday my sister and her daughter went with me to go the the beach in front of the Taj Mahal. It was still a struggle to get the beach stuff out of the parking garage down to the beach.

Wind Turbines as you enter Atlantic City:

Bikers heading into Atlantic City:

Sister:

Get your ice cream!

Lifeguards on Duty

Black-headed Gulls or Laughing Gulls ?

Store where I bought earrings back in 1962.
They were tiny dangling crosses.
The look was very much like the Madonna look
 that came many years later.

Me now, still wearing earrings but it is more like the grandpop look!

Old Man Down by the Sea 

.

Something you would have to pay me to do even in my best days:

 Looking Good, Suze!

Bird Spa--really just a storm vent pool on the beach.

 Under the Boardwalk.  Got a good look at some homeless "pads"

Revel Casino--won't open til at least a year from now.

Still advertising the old fashioned way--will post the banner separately.

Banking Banner :)