Sunday, August 17, 2008

"Sunday will never be the same."


Last night was my first alone in 5B.

Wonderful.

Yesterday, before leaving Knotts Island, I enjoyed a final walk through the Mackay Wildlife Preserve which I will miss.

I bid a fond farewell to Nancy Tillery (landlady) and her sister Barbara (next door neighbor and pool proprietress.) Nancy's husband Terry was off to the mountains on his Harley, so the ladies were headed on a Thelma & Louise like assault on Target and Wal-Mart (28 miles away.)

It's been a wonderful year of writing, new friends, and GREAT food!!


I brought up another car-load of stuff from Knotts Island yesterday leaving one final fall trip for books and CDs.

Over a life time of back and forth, I have spent countless Sunday afternoons trying to negotiate the George Washington Bridge. Today, while walking around Fort Lee, I was, at last, the happy object of :

"if you lived here...


you'd be home now."



Very cool.

My Sunday routine is now forever changed.

Most notably, my excursion to get the NY Times has been reduced by 25 1/2 miles (each way!) I also now have a stove so I can cook the few Sunday morning things that my diet permits. Oh well, it's just nice to know that I could cook bacon, eggs and pancakes if I wanted to.

I will miss the grill which, you readers may recall, was my one capital purchase on Knotts, but I'm a city slicker now. 

Fittingly, my one major capital purchase here was a 37 inch Sony 1080 LCD TV. It will arrive any day. All of NY is abuzz about Bret Farve's arrival to the Jets from Green Bay. I won't need to miss a snap! Redskins?! Yesterday's gone.

The noises here differ from Knotts Island. Daybreak there brings the rooster, followed by birds of every variety, followed by turbocharged ride-on lawn mowers, industrial grade weed wackers, ginormous supercharged pick-up trucks, and two 6 year old girls (one, actually, is 5) roaring all over creation on their ATVs.

Daybreak here brings the pulsing plaint of air horns from the 18 wheelers jockeying for a slot at the toll booth overlaid by the soothing sound of the 13 air conditioning units atop of the Walgreens strip mall five floors below.

Fort Lee is a tidy little town. The library and hardware store are down the street, and little shops and restaurants abound.

This is going to be fun.

Thank you for visiting.

Jack

5 comments:

don said...

GREAT STUFF! And welcome. Onward, ever onward. I can feel the creative juices starting to rev for the fall push into blogville. Can't wait. And welcome back to 'da gahdun state, ahready.

Barbara said...

thanks for the update. fun to be able to picture where you are read the descriptions of the sounds.
The world is a noisy place no matter where you are, I guess.

don said...

So....I've read this a few times.
Country to city. I get all that. But the transition from NASCAR/Cummins diesel pickup doolie, meat and keg scene w/ turbocharged BBQ to.... Now I'm wondering, what will the trappings of the new life be? Readers need to now know, what will be new mantra be? And the fate of the BBQ? Now lonely and locked in the garage awaiting a Tillery roadie invite to the beach? We're out here and need more. Signed: Waiting in the West (anxously).

Dano said...

Speaking of the west....Brett Fav--rah's luck with San Diego ran out Monday night. It's not like we (Chargers) didn't deserve it, though, what with the formerly
best referee in the NFL...Ed Hochuli's blown call in Denver.

Look for us in a playoff tilt in January!

I sincerely hope that you have a much fun in NJ as you did in NC!

Booker said...

Jack,
I've often thought back to a rainy night in '67...a AWOL (foggy) marine who came on escape to Chapel Hill and knew, I think, where he would end up...we might have been drunk but it was not a happy trip to a bus station for the return to LeJeune. It's been a long time; I'm really happy for what you have done,
Booker