Stockholm Swedrome

 

Benjamin's in Sweden!

Yep.  My 21-year-old baby boy is in the middle of a one-month visit to Sweden!  Except dips into Canada with us, it's his first visit to a foreign country.

I would love to show you dramatic pictures of Stockholm and the Swedish countryside, but that's not the pictures we're getting back. Instead, the picture above indicates where he's spending the most time - the Dragon's Lair, a gaming shop where they can play Magic and D&D*. 

I don't think he's having too many language issues.  Many speak Swenglish, a combination of English and Swedish.  The signage is often in English as well.  If not, his Swedish friends help him translate.

Benjamin also spends time eating.  This, I believe, is an entrance to one of those restaurants.

And what else would he get there but...Swedish meatballs!

Benjamin is not alone there.  Here are some of his Swedish friends.  He is staying at the home of his friend, Eddie, and Eddie's family.  Eddie is the blond on the left (?).  Yes, some Swedes are blond.  Is that a big surprise?

This is another restaurant.  It almost looks like something out of an amusement park.  Or Dave & Busters.  

We're glad Benjamin is having a great time.  He should be back a couple of days before returning to Milledgeville for his last year of college.

After that, who knows?  He'll have a degree that might allow him to work wherever he wants.

And the way things are going in this country, it's almost understandable if he leaves.  That is not what Mama and Dad would like.  We know he won't stay in Blackshear, but some places he's considering now seem so far away.

But, what we really want, is for him to be happy.

That's the important thing.

The Last Outing: Keeping Your Distance 6

When we knew Benjamin was coming home for his Spring Break, we planned for one day to be an outing to St. Simons.

Little did we know that Benjamin's Spring Break would last two weeks, and then stay at home to learn online.  The earliest he'll have classes again in Milledgeville is mid-August.

We decided to go on our outing anyways but do it as carefully as possible.

We went to Fort Frederica.  It was the first time for all of us.  There was virtually no one there.  A ranger greeted from a distance, was friendly, and pointed to a map we could take on our self-guided tour.

We had wide-open spaces, reading the different signs talking about houses and structures that used to be there, but were now just shell foundations and a little bit of fireplace.

The picture of Alison and me is in front of the only structure that is there, a storehouse/fort near the river.  You may think I'm heavyset, and yes, I am.  But I am 25 pounds lighter than I was two and a half months ago, so I'm working on it.


We also went to a grocery store, Harris Teeter, which is more upscale than grocery stores in our home area.  We kept our distance and bought a few things, some fancy brand chips and snacks, and possibly the most valuable find of all - Kleenex. 

We got one of our favorites, Southern Soul BBQ, standing in a queue where there was some distance between people.  Only three people were let in at a time.

We took our food to a picnic table at the pier.  Of the dozen or so picnic tables, there were only two or three in use, and we weren't close to anyone.  The food - BBQ sandwiches, french fries, and fried green beans, was delicious, but probably not very good for my diet plan.

We walked down the pier, not getting close to anyone.  The weather was beautiful.  There were more people than we expected, but we could still keep our distance. 

Benjamin and Alison stand in the trees near the library (which was closed).

We did not go to the beach.  We saw an area where people go to the beach, and it was crowded with cars.

Later that afternoon, the beaches were officially closed.

Maybe we shouldn't have oughta done this trip.  But we kept our distance, did it in the morning through about 1 PM, and all in all were more distant from people than we were at work or in our own grocery store.

So, we're back settled in at Blackshear, making the dogs think this is the new normal to have everyone home.

Yes, Benjamin is home now for a long stretch.  Alison will be home more, too, as sadly, the school lunch delivery program has been suspended.  We have a case in Pierce County now. 

Me?  The "retired" guy?  No, I'm still going to work. Not all the time - about 25 hours or so a week.  I'm not sure that will stop.

I pray all is well with you and yours. 

2018: All About the Me

Theatre

Any year review of me should probably start with theatre.  It's been something I've been doing since 9th grade, and it's a rare year when I haven't been in one thing or another.

From the picture above, you can see the highlight of the year for me was performing as Fester in The Addams Family.  Not only did I get to perform with my son, Benjamin (who played Pugsley), I was able to sing onstage.  The Moon and Me song was a career highlight for me.  It was in my vocal range and had some high notes that I DID NOT MISS!  Great comedic acting?  Check!  Enjoyable singing performance?  Double check!  Dancing?  Uhhhh...in a fashion, yes.  Best I can say about that is....nobody got hurt.

There were other good theater experiences.  I was able to do Love Letters with my good friend, the very talented Julianna Lacefield, for a Valentine's performance at my church.  I played multiple parts in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.  I was the railroad conductor and narrator of The Polar Express.

2019 may be even lighter, as I am holding off and only doing shows with Benjamin (at least until he starts college in the Fall).

Travel

Regular followers of this blog will know about our trip of a lifetime to Ireland.  Above pictured were my traveling companions - Alison, Doug, and Paige.  I won't go into the trip here,, as that could be quite detailed.  Please follow the tag Ireland for plenty of great commentary and pictures from this sensational trip.

Later in the year, we were able to spend a weekend with my sister, Carol, and her spouse, Michael, at St. Simons.  Time with them is rare, and it was a great weekend just to eat and talk.

Writing

It was a good year in that I got two new things out for sale - Crowley Stories: Swamp's Edge and A Christmas With Pegasus (cover done by local professional actress Kennedy Brice, who is roughly the age of the lead character in the story).  I also won first place in both Story and Poetry in the Fifth Annual Okefenokee Heritage Center's Writing Contest.  The story was The Chicken Hut Changes Its Name, and the poem was Step by Step.  Both are available on this blog.

It was a bad year in that nothing I published sold well.  At all,  A real disaster.  And I spent $1600 with Bookbaby thinking it will help not only publish but promote my book.  The results were horrible, and I'm having a hard time coping with taking away so much money that could have been used for the family.

I'm a fair writer, but a lousy publicist.  It's a problem that will dominate 2019.

I've written a good chunk on The Extra Credit Club and I've been trying to market My Europa.

I need to reorganize my writing time, and this will be a significant 2019 goal.

Clubs and Organizations

I remain a participant in the Okefenokee Heritage Center Writer's Guild.  Pictured above is Grace Lee at her 90th birthday party.  Attendance this year has been down, but I remain committed to getting Grace Lee to the meetings.

As I am trying to move away from accounting, I an refusing Treasurer's positions, but Purlie Productions got grandfathered in.  Their commitment to socially relevant theatre productions is a real beacon for this area, and I hope they continue to do well.

Grace Episcopal Church continues to be a cornerstone of my life.  I am a lector and prayer reader there, and I went as a representative to Convention.  I hope to do more for charity in 2019, in conjunction with church activities.

Work

I worked part-time at Higginson & Paulk.  I'm having great difficulty making money creatively (which some of my more cynical friends are not surprised to hear), so I will probably be there for the foreseeable future, working about 40 to 50% work schedule compared to full time.  The people there are very friendly and easy to work with, as long as I don't express myself politically.  It helps make having to continue in accounting much more tolerable.

Politics

It was a tough year.  A lot of scary, dangerous things coming from the Trump Administration, but also glimmers of hope in a new Democratic House coming in, and the Mueller report moving forward.  I spoke out often on Facebook, my blog, and in newspaper columns.  I supported Lisa Ring for Congress and Greg O'Driscoll for State House.  Neither won, but it was an honor being able to vote for them and have choices.

I continue to be depressed by the Trumpeteers in my life.  How they can not see what a foul creature Captain Bone Spurs is, is beyond me.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

T. M. Stait

The Dublin Proposal: Ireland Vacation 7

This wraps my series of photo blogs about our trip to Ireland.

Let's start with the lead.

When we got back to Dublin. we were thrilled to be witness to the Dublin Proposal, where Doug asked Paige for her hand in marriage (and the rest of her as well).  She said yes almost before he could the words out.  They are a great couple, whose bonds of love and affection draw out the best in each other.

The proposal was made in the beautiful garden grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art.  Alison did the research to pick the perfect spot, and I think she made an excellent choice.

We return to a chronological sequence of events.

We had left Belfast to spend a day and night in Londonderry (or Derry, depending on how you stand on independence from Britain).  It was very interesting stop because it was the least touristy place we went.  Unlike Dublin, where you heard as much of the American accent as the Irish, or Killarney where you often heard German, this town was predominantly locals.

There is a wall all around the inner city, and we walked its length.  Above is a picture of a small part of it, including cannons that were once used to defend it. 

This is a view of Londonderry from beyond the wall.

Just inside the wall was a view of one of the prettiest little churches we saw, an old Anglican church.  We saw many great and grand cathedrals on our trip, but this little church was one of the most charming.

This is not the Poundland we saw in Londonderry.  It's just a picture of another location I stole from public photos on Facebook.

Doug and Paige's special focus, something that we did not join them in, were tours of local breweries (including Jameson Whiskey and Guinness).  What we did without them was almost as exciting.  We visited a number of the equivalent of America's dollar stores.  This included Poundland in Northern Ireland and Euro World in Dublin.

We found Daddies Ketchup, a product aimed directly for me, as I am both a Daddy and a ketchupaholic.  John Oliver on Last Week with John Oliver had an even scarier version of this - Daddies Brown Sauce,

We returned to Dublin for the final two days of our trip.  Aaaand...for some reason my picture taking dwindled to almost nothing.  We had a good time. but there was a lot of bus travel that was not conducive to picture taking,  And I also just forgot I had a camera.   

From outside our room rental, I saw the Dublin branch of the OHC - Okefenokee Heritage Center.  Glad to see we're branching out.

I conclude the Ireland series with a picture of the newly engaged.


What a couple!

What a trip!

Giants Beyond the North Wall: Ireland Vacation 6

Doug sits on a Throne of LIES!

Ok, not really.

It's just an oversized size wooden chair outside of the restaurant that the tour uses for lunch, just prior to entering the Giant Causeway.

Yes, we had left the confines of the beautiful confines of the Irish Republic, and had begun touring the Northern Republic.

This could be a picture of Belfast.  I'm not 100% sure, but that where its sequenced in my phone camera "roll".

I admit.  I was a little out of it by the time we hit Belfast.  So it was a bit of fog to me.  I didn't get many pictures.

It was one of the grittier cities we visited.  It felt like working-class Britain as much as it did Ireland.  The song "Come On, Eileen" kept running through my head.

Pounds relaced Euros.  Ketchup became harder to find (sorry - I'm a ketchupaholic).  It didn't rain, except for a brief sprinkle, but things were not as bright and sunny as they were in the Irish Republic.

This may be Queen's University in Belfast.  I', pretty sure it is.  Well, one building of it.  Paige went to school here for a year or so.

It's interesting that American students can often travel abroad, and find school cheaper here than in the states, even factoring in the cost of travel.

America has to do something about its exploding and prohibitive college costs, and the devastating, crippling loans many are taking out to pay for it.  Whatever's done will probably not occur while Benjamin's in college, but for the sake of future generations, it needs to be done.

Our first full day in Northern Ireland was another bus tour.  Once you got out of Belfast, the scenery was as breathtaking as it was in the Irish Republic.

One of our first stops was to a castle.  This would be our third and final castle visit of the trip.

As you can see, another beautiful coastline.  Cliffs not quite as spectacular as the Cliffs of Mohr, but impressive nonetheless.

The highlight of the day was a trip to the Giants Causeway.  This is the area as described in Wikipedia:

The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of the town of Bushmills.

This is a picture of the columns.  Natural formation!  Like God was playing with his own Mega-Blocks.

Alison sits on a throne of LIES!

Okay, not really.

There were parts of the Giants Causeway that were climbable. We and about a thousand of our friends enjoyed doing that.

One of the biggest busts of the trip was the so-called Dark Hedges, a tree-lined street where the tree limbs extended across the road and almost interlocked with the tree on the other side.  Having seen some of the peach tree-lined streets near Macon and Central Georgia, we were not overwhelming impressed.

Much of where we visited in Northern Ireland were locations used for the television series Game of Thrones.  That included the Dark Hedges, which, I imagine, with the right time of day and the careful use of photography and effects, could look quite impressive.  Just not so much at 4 O'Clock in the afternoon.

Beleive it or not, this is the second to last blog story about our Ireland vacation.  The series wraps up with...

THE DUBLIN PROPOSAL!

Posting soon to a Strait Line Blog near you!

At the Edge of the Cliffs of Mohr: Ireland Vacation 5

Our last bus tour!  I hope this shot of Bunratty Castle helps demonstrate that 1) I am definitely on a bus, and 2) I am using my phone camera.  Many of my pictures are unusable for reasons of getting other things in the way, or of being blurry.  I am trying to post the best 10% of what I took.

Once we got into the castle, there was this guy in the Great Hall talking to us about the castle and its history.  I missed a lot of it because we were far back, and the accent was a little hard to decipher.  I got that the place was old (the 1400s?) and that they had large groups eating in there sometimes. Sorry.  On some of this stuff, I think Alison and I are going to have to read more or see a YouTube video.

 

I did get that they liked big tapestries.

We went to try to see some rooms higher up in the castle.  To get to them, you had to travel these narrow staircases that only accommodated people going up or down.  There was not enough space to do both.  We finally got up to a pantry room, only to find ourselves stuck there for ten minutes, as the stairs were too crowded with people behind us, who wanted to get into the room, but it was too crowded to go forwards or backwards.   Briefly, we thought we might have to live in that room, but it slowly cleared up.

The Bunratty grounds were huge, with many other buildings and homes to see.  One was a schoolhouse.  One room of the schoolhouse was occupied by a group of schoolchildren singing The Wheels Go Round and Round.  Love their uniforms!  They looked prepared for the rain.  It rains a lot in Ireland that time of year.  By some miracle, Alison and I avoided the rain, except for some brief sprinkles in Belfast, and a short smattering on the day we left Dublin for the airport to go back home.

The highlight of the day - the Cliffs of Mohr!

Here's brief proof that I was actually on this trip.

This is about as close to the edge of the cliffs as I got.  There were other spots where people would climb past the fence and stand closer to the edge.  Some even sat on the edge and dangled their feet over it.  given the wind, these people were insane. 

Walking to another section of the cliffs, we found a memorial with an inscription, "For all those who have lost their lives on the Cliff of Mohr".  Watching those near the edge, I had no doubt that that occurred.  I just didn't want to be witness to it.

I find that I'm not so much afraid of heights for myself, as I am watching other people (particularly children) near heights.

Another view of the cliffs.  That would be some fancy beachfront property.

Another thing special about the park is that there was only one bathroom for men and women.  You just had separate enclosed inside a large facility.  One of the effects of this was that men had to wait in as long a line as women normally had to wait in.   I don't know how comfortable I was with it, but I had to admit - if we had it in the states, it would end a lot of silly arguments as who could go to whose bathroom.

As we traveled on, we came to a large section of Ireland called the Burren.

I'm not even going to pretend this is my writing.  This comes straight from Wikipedia - The Burren is a region of County Clare in the southwest of Ireland. It’s a karst landscape of bedrock incorporating a vast cracked pavement of glacial-era limestone, with cliffs and caves, fossils, rock formations and archaeological sites.

Yeah.  That's what it was.  It felt otherworldly.  I loved it.

Proof that Alison was on the trip as well, as she sits in The Burren.


Keep watching this blog!

More to come!

Dangling in the Dingle: Ireland Vacation 4

This day of the Ireland trip we toured the Dingle Peninsula.  The motto for Michigan is "If you seek a beautiful peninsula, look about you." This should surely be Dingle's motto as well.  And given its size, it feels like a peninsula a whole lot more than Michigan does.

I think for this day, I'm going to keep the chatter to a minimum and let you enjoy these extraordinary views.

This last is the westernmost tip of Ireland, and is also another place that they did Star Wars filming.

The town of Dingle's main attraction (other than the breathtaking scenery) is a dolphin that frequents their harbor, Fungi.  They even have boat tours to go out to see him.  Fungi is getting up in years, and there is some concern that when he passes, Dingle will have no replacement.

The picture above is not the real Fungi.  That's like a statue or something.

This fancy house built near the end of the peninsula was built by the Cranberries lead singer, Dolores O'Riodan.   She took a trip to the area and fell in love with it, and built the house there.  She only lived there a few months, and found the winters too brutal, and sold the house.  Tragically, O'Riodan died recently at the age of 46.

At evening's end, back in Killarney, we saw a very special show of Irish music and dance, called Celtic Steps.  It was very enjoyable.

During the performance, the emcee of the program asked to hear from those in the audience who were from any of the counties of Ireland both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.   There was a smattering of applause.  Then he asked to hear from those who were a part of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.  The applause was louder.  He asked if anyone was from the States.  Much louder applause followed, representing a very robust contingent of statesiders.

Then he asked to hear from any Germans.  The thunderous response was so loud I thought the roof was going to come down!  Germans were EVERYWHERE this part of the trip.  I guess that's what happens when you have a country of well-paid people who take a minimum of six weeks of vacation a year!

I was brought almost to tears when a beautiful female Irish singer did a soul-scalding rendition of U2's With or Without You.  There was a man behind me responding to the music who reminded me of my Dad.  My parents loved to travel, and I was reminded of how much they would have loved this trip.  I still miss them both every day.


These bus tours may seem choady to some, but it enabled us to see much of the island and get to some of the most beautiful parts of it in the short time we had.  The only other option was to rent a car, and I'm not sure Ireland was ready for me to take their narrow roads, especially when I might not remember which side of the road I 'm supposed to be on.

More Ireland posts soon!