TRIP TO JEKYLL

We did a day trip to Jekyll Island today, eating at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel, then visiting the Sea Turtle Center and ending up at the Goodyear Cottage for the art exhibit.

Following are pix of Nan D. Arnold: one in the Grand Dining Room of the hotel, another with a stuffed turtle from the Turtle Center gift shop, and the last with the big turtle skeleton that hangs over the gift shop.

We got rained on a bit but not much. Next time we'll try to visit Driftwood Beach and eat at the Courtyard at Crane (the old Crane Cottage). Or maybe at Sea Jay's where the squirrels and birds come right to the table and beg!

There's a lot of history here. Wish I could have seen it in its heyday, when the cottages were full of families and servants bustling around, and the harbor was filled with the yachts that brought them down for the winter.

WAITING

Is there anything worse than waiting to hear back from someone? Whether it's the plumber, the doctor, the pharmacy, the kids.... Doesn't matter. It's always hard waiting for that letter, that email, the phone.

And waiting on submitted writing is even worse. But there's nothing you can do about it except forget it's out there and go do something else.

Like clean out the dryer. Or the dishwasher. Or start supper.

Yeah, sure. Ugh. I'd rather hang out on the computer.

WIMPY HEROINE

Usually I have problems with my heroes. But in this latest, my heroine isn't coming across very well and I'm not sure what to do about it.

One suggestion was to make her more decisive, to get her to stop wrestling with what people expect and forge out on her own. I'm not quite sure how this will work but I'm game. However, I suspect the problem lies in two areas: her personality and the era.

The era is the early sixties, when women were still expected to be nurses and not doctors, teachers and not principals. And if a woman didn't marry after high school, or at least by the time she finished college, she was regarded as -- alas it's true -- an old maid.

So my heroine is toddling along in her career, uneasy because she's over thirty and not married, but unenthusiastic about committing to any man.

So now I have to figure out a way to make her attractive to today's readers.

Sigh. Can it be done?

DEATH OF A YOUNG MAN

It's true. Someone told me but I didn't really believe it until I saw the death notice today.

A friend's son - her youngest, her baby - died. He was only 27. I remember when I first met him. He was a sweet little boy you couldn't help smiling at.

Children grow up and sometimes lose their way. Despite all the efforts of his mother and the others who loved him, he did. Maybe he was close to finding his path again but now we'll never know.

It's a hard world out there today. If you have children, realize that at any point they can be taken away without warning. So protect them as best you can and forgive them when they don't behave the way you want them to. And love them always.

In the end, when it's all said and done, that love is all that matters. And when grief is overwhelming, that love is all we have to cling to.

NETBOOK

My critique partner got a new netbook. We met at Starbucks, both of us excited because we were going to see how it worked in a wifi place.

She got her wifi card, turned on the netbook, and tried to follow instructions. Nope. Nothing.

Nan went over and talked to a cute little Starbucks employee. She came back with Nan and sat down to work with it. Nope. Nothing.

Now Nan thinks it's the way the computer's set up. They did have a problem installing Outlook.

I thought I wanted one. Maybe not.

LOCAL NEWS

I've mentioned before how entertaining the police blotter is in our local newspaper.


Today one report told about a man and woman spitting on another woman's car because she'd given a ride to someone they didn't like. Wonder if they had to wash her car!

And then there was one about a pickup pulling up, a man jumping out, urinating on the resident's mailbox, and shaking it hard (the mailbox). The resident came out, they started brawling, a second man in the truck intervened, then the men jumped back in the truck and left. They were later found, the urinator (???) intoxicated and the driver protesting he was only trying to stop the fight.

Wouldn't these little cameos work great in a novel?

ALLIGATOR FARM

Yes, we're going back to the Alligator Farm soon. The bird season is about over and my guy wants to shoot some last pictures of the little birds he's watched hatch and grow up. So I won't be blogging for a day or so. I'll be sitting in the shade trying to keep cool and watching the rangers feed the alligators while walking among them. Ugh.

A friend told me Alligator Farm was an answer on JEOPARDY the other night. The category was St. Augustine. I am amazed. I didn't realize it was that well-known.