Archive for the ‘News / Events’ Category
As We Wind Down . . .
. . . this week,
we might keep in mind that
we’ll have a new bus driver
beginning next week.
And practice her name — Elizabeth.
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Outer Banks Attract Interest
in Wright Stuff
NAG’S HEAD, N.C. —- It was the Wright place and the Wright time for the elderly North Carolina couple to learn how to fly. They snapped on helmets and hang-gliding harness, caught the wind and sailed off the largest living sand dune in America to emulate the historic moment that occurred more than a century earlier just up the road at Kill Devil Hills, where a memorial to Orville and Wilbur Wright’s famous flights is operated by the National Park Service.
It was the wide-open rolling dunes, privacy, and persistent wind at Kill Devil Hills, not Kitty Hawk farther up the road, that opened the skies for air travel. Any local will tell you bluntly – you don’t even have to ask – that Kitty Hawk gets all the glamor because the Kill Devil Hills telegraph station was closed that December day in 1903 when the brothers completed their four controlled flights. So they made their announcement to the world through the Kitty Hawk telegraph office.
The brisk breezes that lure hang gliders to this ring of barrier islands that shelter North Carolina are what give the place its spanking-clean look. Everything is scoured by sand. Cookie-cutter wooden houses on stilts and lattice-wrapped carports stretch along the 75-odd miles of beachfront. They come in all shades of gray – tan, white, ecru, taupe, azure, cream, yellow, and aqua, but still look gray – and straddle both sides of Highway 12, the asphalt spine that stretches south from just below the Virginia border to Ocracoke Island that’s monitored by that storied point of fact and fiction, Cape Hatteras.
It’s a 90-minute drive from Norfolk airport to the Currituck Lighthouse that warns ships away from the northern end of these Outer Banks. But you should stop along the way to study and sample local delicacies that range from sweetbreads to softshell crabs. The latter, which are called peelers here, are trapped in wire cages much like lobster. Because they molt under a full moon, light bulbs are placed over the traps to confuse the crustaceans into shedding their carapaces, at which time they are picked and prepared for sale.
The 20-story Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
is the tallest brick lighthouse in the nation.
Early sailors along these shores had to maneuver their way through the sinister shifting shoals that gave this stretch of coastline the name, The Graveyard of the Atlantic. Adding to the dangers over the years was Edward Teach, the notorious pirate known as Blackbeard who used the area below Cape Hatteras as a hideout because his shallow-draft ships could slide in and out over the sand bars that the heavier British warships couldn’t manage.
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The Man . . .
. . . and his table.
Thanks to his contribution,
Verena at Gilbert now has a pool table
installed, ensconced and embedded
in the 2nd floor apartment / game room.
It’s available around the clock, we’re told
so anyone can play at any time.
Just keep food and drink and pets and anything else away from it.
If you don’t know how to play,
ask any of the several old pool sharks swimming among us
to show you how.= = = = =
Believe It Or Not . . .
. . . we’ve got a nice normal routine week to finish up.
So just refer to your calendar and you won’t miss a thing.
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Skip Boring TV . . .
. . .Tuesday evening and
drop by the dining room for
a book signing at 7 p.m.
by author Peppur Chambers
who you know as the hostess at
our several wine-, beer- and liquor-tasting sessions.
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Jazz Aficionados . . .
. . . can hang around the dining room
after the buffet and
applaud the South Valley Junior High jazz quartet
OR
head to the free
Chandler Center of the Arts POP concert
if the bus isn’t full.
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Wonders Down Under
Begin in Kiwi Country
By Tom Morrow
For Mature Life Features
AUCKLAND —- Stopping over in this North Island metropolis laced with waterways is an excellent way to acclimatize yourself to the more leisurely pace of living in this part of the world as well as stretch your way through jet lag.
Landing in this island country’s biggest city that’s home to about one-third of its population also gave us the opportunity to become accustomed to driving on the left side of the road.
Dominating its waterfront profile is the Sky City Tower that pokes up some 1,066 feet. It’s a small city unto itself with two casinos, a hotel and a theater, several shops, banks, and 10 restaurants and as many bars.
Because we didn’t have much time here, we decided to seek out the best of what the Kiwis – the locals call themselves this in honor of the odd-looking long-beaked nocturnal bird found only here – prepare best: lamb
Even if you don’t care for lamb, you must try it here. This country has just under 4 million people but more than 70 million sheep. Most of the “good lamb meat,” we were told, is exported to America, Britain, Mexico, and South America. “We’re left with the rubbish,” one hotel chef told me. “My wife works for a giant meat exporter and she says you Yanks get all our best meat.”
Still, what they serve here is superb. Here’s an example of a dish you can prepare at home. It’s a Moroccan sauce recipe from a suburban hotel’s sous chef that can be used for either beef or lamb.
Slow cook roast-beef and lamb bones with vegetables, such as leeks, onions, and celery, with bay leaves, peppercorns, and rosemary for 24 hours. Strain and cook the sauce until it is reduced by half. Add a bit of red wine and some tomato sauce. Mix to taste. Slow roast your lamb as normal, then serve the lamb (or beef) with this wonderful sauce.
You’ll be a hit at your table.
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Don’t Know How . . .
. . . anyone else feels,
but I’ve found that
growing old
has come at a very inconvenient time.
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Taos Pueblo Houses Magic, Mysticism
By Silvia Shepard-Lobanov
Hi ne ya
Dal tso hozho ni
All is beautiful, beautiful
Dal tso hozho ka
All is beautiful
Pueblo Indians carry a certain magic about life. They know about p’o (the moon), sip’ophe (the underworld) and ‘opa (everything). And, that song and the universe are one. They always have been one with the land, sensitive to its beauty. Their whole being is open to the glory of life in their valley. Indeed, the word “taos” means “place of red willows” in their native Tiwa tongue.
They believe all nature’s elements — the snow, the land, the sharp mountains, life itself — flow into their essence and make them look vibrant and purposeful, but act shy.
Silence is an important element in their nature. Solitude often is their way of communicating. To the stranger, they may not utter a word, yet one can feel a new force passing between you. Through hundreds of years, when bitter cold embraced the harsh landscape and there was almost no food to eat, Pueblo chiefs would go to the kivas, below-ground centers of religious ceremonies. The drums would start the chanting and accompany a dance whose steady cadence transported those present to the future when corn, wheat, and beans would once again be plentiful. Each generation learns that winter is only part of a cycle: that it will go away. The cold will go because the people in the pueblo command it to go, they say. They concentrate. Be the summer.
Be the warmth.
Author D.H. Lawrence sensed the area’s powerful natural force. “The moment I saw the brilliant, proud morning sunshine high over the deserts of Santa Fe, something stood still in my soul and I started to attend.”
For Pueblo Indians, the stillness helps them hear the energy of the universe. They see themselves as eternally knowing, part of the creation of the cosmos — secret knowledge given by their ancestors that should remain theirs alone. But it is their eyes that reveal the great sweep of life within them: the invisible fire.
For Those of You . . .
. . . who didn’t make it to the food-service meeting,
the possibility of doing away with Sunday brunch and
replacing it with regular week-day breakfast and lunch service
is being explored.
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Eyes Give First Glimpse
of Health Problems
The old adage that the eye is the window to the body has been found to be literally true as many diseases manifest themselves first in the eyes. Diabetes and high blood-pressure are two health problems optometrists can pick up on early during an eye exam. Rheumatoid arthritis and lupus are just two conditions that have ocular manifestations easily detected by the optometrist.
Vascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, that can put a person at risk for heart attack or stroke also can be detected via an eye exam, even when a patient has no visible symptoms.
The following symptoms are red flags that require an immediate visit to the optometrist:
— Fleeting loss of vision;
— Fluctuating vision;
— One or both eyes turning red;
— Soreness and inflammation of one or both eyes, or
— Worsening vision.
The medical community suggests adults have eye examinations once every year or two from ages 41 to 60, then once a year from age 60 onward.
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grab a nap . . .
. . . so you can be up for
Peppur’s book signing
at 7 p.m. in the dining room.
SORRY that’s next Tuesday…
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Welcum . . .
. . . to a new week and a new month and,
in this part of the nation, a new level of warmth.
Gear up for a couple of meetings tomorrow afternoon —
a Town Hall gathering at 4 p.m.
after the food-service meeting.
Pick Up . . .
. . . your May calendar
in the mail room and
prepare for a marvelous month that includes
Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, and Cinco de Mayo,
a jazz performance and Verena Voices concerts,
a Zinfandel wine tasting, book signing, car show
and much more. . .
Mature Life Features 