A chapter ends

It took just one week from the time I set up a search to the time I had accepted a new position in TN. I thought it would take 1.5-2 months. First I thought it would take time for an opening to apply for and then the process of interviewing and so on. But this took a week. So instead of going to TN for a visit at the end of April I am moving. By May 1st, slightly over 2.5 years from when I bought my house, I will be a TN resident.

Luckily the tickets I had bought to fly to TN where purchased for the most part with points I had earned on US Airways. So all I lost was about $40.00 in taxes and fees. Now instead of taking a train to the airport I will be driving away from NY.

There was a lot to do. I had to finish yard work, clean out the NY house, set up a zillow page click here for house info, and pack up the car.

First thing that had to happen was finishing the fence along our pool. Originally it had been a black chain link fence and my neighbor had a wood fence right behind it. However age had taken a toll on the wood fence and it was falling down; also these horrible horrible horrible wisteria vines had taken over. We bought the green privacy strips that would make the fence look like hedges. Normally the pieces thread nicely through the chain links however at some points the wisteria had actually grown around the fence and made it difficult. I had about 2/3rds done but I knew the last third would take a long time and had been procrastinating on it. Now it was time to get it done. My Mom cleared wisteria vines from the fence and I followed behind her weaving the strips. It came out looking great and we had been pretty much on target with the amount as we had about 10 extra pieces.

After finishing the fence my Mom and I decided to head to the east end to get some more Montauk Daisies. We had bought some from a south Hampton nursery when I bought my house and planted them by my mail box. Now we wanted a few more to plant because the quality of those was so good and when Meg eventually builds her own house we will be able to spread them out and bring some to her house for a NY connection. After stopping at the nursery and getting three plants we continued east towards Montauk for one last visit.

Montauk is the very point tip of the southern fork on Long Island and where my parents first meet. My Dad was bar-tending at the Tattler, a bar in the center of town, and my Mom was getting a break from the city. A couple of years ago we had gone to have dinner at the Tattler, now called O'Murphy's. This time as we drove by it was completely closed down. Even though it hadn't been the same restaurant for years it was sad to see it closed. I consider it a sign that we have over stayed our welcome in NY and need to go.

The next day's project was to clean up the yard. Nothing major here. I rolled up the last of the garden hoses and got rid of some left over construction debris from home repairs. We also had 12 concrete blocks to get rid of and my Mom was pretty sure the garbage special pick up would not take them. So I turned to my new favorite website Freecycle. I posted that I had 12 blocks to offer along with a picture. The next morning someone expressed interest. Unfortunately while I was out the blocks had been taken. I got in touch with the person who wanted them and luckily had other blocks that she was interested in. The whole offer/need for free is a nice way for a community to come together to help each other.

Then of course there is saying good bye. The wonderful thing about the internet is it keeps us close to people even when the distance between us is great. But it certainly doesn't replace seeing people face to face. For example I talk to my sister and cousins in Atlanta almost daily on facebook. But there is going to be something very different and special when I can actually see them with my eyes and reach out my hand and touch them. On the flip side though I have friends and coworkers here that I am going to really miss. Because just like facebook is a poor substitute for personal interaction with my southern family it is certainly going to be a poor substitute for interaction with people I have grown used to seeing 5 days a week.

In an effort to combat that I got an address book so that I can send cards, letters and post cards to various people during holidays or just if I see something that makes me think of them. I think it will be nice to actually hand write letters and I hope for people receiving them it will be nice to get something in the mail thats isn't a bill or magazine no one really wants.

Then there were things I had to do and places I had to visit before I left.

1. I went to a diner to get breakfast for dinner. Breakfast, no matter when it is eaten, is my favorite meal. I ordered an Athenian Omelette, a staple in any NY Diner menu. Of course it has different names but it is always something involving spinach and feta cheese, sometimes tomatoes, in an omelette with home fries and toast.

2. I went to Nathan's for the best fries anywhere.

3. I had an egg sandwich from a deli.

4. I went for a little trip to Flanders, NY to see the Big Duck, a small shop in the shape of a duck. It was built in 1931 and was originally a duck farm.

The owner of the farm got the idea to build the Big Duck after a trip to Bedford, PA where he saw a coffee shop in the shape of a giant coffee pot. It is built out of concrete over a wooden frame and the eyes are taillights from a Model T, apparently they glow at night but that sounds kind of creepy.

5. A last slice of pizza will be a must have and is the plan for tonight before we hit the road.

I'm happy and excited to move to TN but there is one person that it really hurts to leave behind. My Dad is buried in Pinelawn Cemetery in Farmingdale. Last Friday was his birthday and I went to Pinelawn yesterday to say my final good bye. I've been thinking about this a lot for the last two weeks as I prepare to move. It really hit me as we were driving in Montauk. Part of me knows that I don't need to be near his grave to feel close to him. I can feel him every day in silly little moments that remind me of him or even my own mannerisms that make me think "I am my Father's daughter". And I know this would make him happy. When my sister and I were kids he worked in NC for a while. At that time he wanted to move south. So now, 20 years later, I am finally listening to him and moving south.

It's was always a family joke whenever someone would come up with a good idea my Dad would always say "I'm glad I thought of it." obviously even if he didn't. Well in this instance he is definitely smiling down on us and very rightfully saying "I'm glad I thought of it."

Curling: A slip sliding good time!

I went for a Curling Open House yesterday held by the Long Island Curling Club at the Newbridge Arena in Bellmore. I learned some details about the game, got some of my guesses from watching the Olympics confirmed, and even got on the ice to try my hand at it.

So what I now know about Curling (a combo from researching the game and last night):

First it's origin is in Scotland dating back to medieval times. Apparently when an old pond was drained a curling stone was found in it with the year 1511 etched into it and that is the oldest existing stone.
Because I love art here are two works by the Flemish Artist Peter Bruegel the Elder showing people curling :-)

The Hunter's in the Snow

Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap

The equipment:

The stones are between 38-44 lbs and official stones are made in Scotland. This is not something a person usually buys for themselves rather the stones are the property of the club. The bottom of the stone is convex and then in the middle is concave so that there is actually only a small ring that is in contact with the ice.
The brooms used to be corn cob brooms but are now more like brushes with a sponge like fabric at one end. You use the broom to make the stone go further and curl more. As I learned last night a good sweep can add 8-12 feet to a throw.
Now for throwing the stone you need to slide across the ice. So Curling shoes have two different soles. One sole is rubber and this is for the dominant leg that you will be kicking off with from the hack. The other sole is made of teflon (cause you haven't been on ice until you have been on ice and teflon). This is on the foot that you will be sliding on when you throw the stone.
The hack is where you throw the stone from on the ice. It is just a metal support where you basically set up like you would before a race with your dominate foot against the hack. You hold the stone in your dominate hand (in front of the foot in the hack). Now yesterday I was holding onto a pvc support in my left hand but normally I think you would be holding your broom.

The Curling Sheet

Curling ice is not smooth ice like on the street or even in a hockey rink. After the ice has been smoothed it is sprayed to create a pebbling effect on the ice (tiny water droplets freeze making it feel like gravel).

The playing field is called a Curling sheet it is a long rectangle with a house (three circles) painted at either end. Starting from right to left on this picture:
HA: the hack is where the person throwing the stone starts and it sits 12 feet behind the house.
BL: The backline marks the end of the house which is made up of three circles 12 foot diameter, 8 foot diameter and four foot diameter. At the center of the circles is the button.
TL and CL: The Tee Line and Center Line divide the house into quarters. The button is at the meeting point between these lines (direct center). I think the point of this is like the circles in that they help tell which stones are closest to the button.
FGZ: I don't know? Hey I'm learning here :-)
HOL: There are two Hog Lines drawn on the ice (one for each side) which are 21 feet from the button.

Rules of the game

My understanding here is still very basic (and details can be wrong). Each team has four players (Lead, Second, Vise and Skip). The game is played in Ends (like innings). Each team throws eight stones in an end. The Lead throws two, the Second throws two, the Vise throws two and then the Skip throws the last two stones. Team members alternate between throwing and sweeping, except the Skip who (as they said last night) is like the quarterback. The Skip stands by the button directing where the stones should be thrown. Now when you throw you need to let go off the stone before you cross the closer Hog Line and the stone needs to get past the further Hog Line.
You score by getting your stone closest to the button. Only one team scores per end and you get as many points as you have stones closer to the button then the other team. So if you have three stones in the house but only two are closer to the button then the opposing team you score two.
Now when I was listening to the announcers during the Olympics they kept referring to the Hammer. I guessed this meant the last stone in the End and I was right. At another point in one of the final games they said the Skip had to decide if she wanted to do something (I forget what) and risk losing the Hammer. I didn't understand that at all. I learned last night that if the team with the Hammer scores then they lose the Hammer. If the other team scores or if no one scores then they keep the Hammer. So that was the choice. As the young man put it last night (I'm sorry I forget his name) they had to choose if one point would be worth losing the Hammer.

So last night we went into a room with the equipment and got an explanation of a little history and the basics about the equipment. Of course the first thing I did was pick up one of the rocks and yeah they are heavy :-) After that we moved on to the next station where we got a brief explanation of the Curling Sheet and some tips about falling on ice. Then it was time to step onto the ice. First we learned about how it feels to stand on teflon on ice. True to how it sounds it is a slip sliding good time. Then we learned how to position ourselves on the hack and to push off with the stone in our hand (but we held it instead of throwing it) and slide on the teflon sole. The first time I tried this I think I slide about ten feet before I tumbled to the side like a baby learning to crawl. (Yeah that is the best way I can describe it and I am not ashamed). Next we got a few tries at sliding and throwing (really letting go) the stone. We were told to hold on lightly to the stone and that as we start to slow the stone will pull away and we need to just let it go. Then we got to try sweeping. Now there are two people sweeping. One is closer to the stone and one is further and touching the stone will get it disqualified. When holding the broom one hand (dominate hand) is toward the bottom and your other hand is toward the top of the handle. This was difficult. You have to run along the stone not touching it while looking forward so that you don't trip on any other stones in play and sweeping. Sweeping is hard and a good cardio workout. I can see how one can easily be sore after sweeping for an entire game/tournament.

It was a lot of information for an hour of time and well worth ten dollars.

That about sums up everything I know about Curling except for one more thing: I want to know more! Immediately after the Open House was over I signed up (what turned out to be the last spot) for the 2 hour Learn How to Curl on April 5th. Now I hope to get more time on the ice and learn a little bit of technique and maybe an idea of strategy. The Long Island Curling Club has several articles and videos on their site which I will definitely watch before the fifth so I go into this ready to learn.

Hoping for 6 o'clock

Cross another item off my 'things to do before leaving New York' list.

On Sunday Meg and I went out to Montauk (The End) of Long Island to go whale watching. We left my house at 5am in order to be sure we were at the boat an hour before it was scheduled to leave. Since we made good time we stopped at Gosman's dock before heading to Montauk harbor. When we were younger we would climb out to the very end of the jetty. I remembered it being much more of a climb when I was younger. At one point we came up to a big gap in the rocks where one of them had been dislodged and rolled to the side, I wonder if that happened during Sandy? Here is the panorama view from the end of the jetty.

When I was little my parents took Meg and me whale watching on the Viking Fleet out of Montauk so naturally that was the fleet I looked up for my trip last weekend. In an earlier blog post I mentioned the Viking ship hat which I still have. We ended up taking the Viking Starship which I believe is the same boat we went on last year when we went for a late night fishing trip. On board the ship with us were several members from Coastal Research and Education Society of Long Island (CRESLI). Our announcer, Artie, was not only informative but also entertaining. I don't know if CRESLI has a partnership with other local boats but I think they made a great difference in our enjoyment of the trip. They helped spot and identify the different animals and provided information about the animals in a way that kept us engaged the entire time. Here is their url in case you want to learn more about the organization:
http://www.cresli.org/

Meg and I positioned ourselves at the back of the boat. It was a bit annoying being right over the propellers but it gave us space and a view of the back and both sides of the boat. Everyone else climbed up to the second deck or crowded in the front. Artie gave the locations of the animals based on the hands of a clock. The front of the boat was 12 o'clock the sides were 3 and 9 and the back was 6.

The first animal we saw was a loggerhead turtle, which Artie described as looking like a tire floating in the water. Here is some video I captured of the sea turtle which shows that is a pretty accurate description. I apologize for how shaky the video is I was having a hard time keeping it still.

We also saw two different humpback whales. The first had a white and black tail and the second one had an all black tail. The underside of the tail is like a finger print and is used to identify the different animals.

And finally to end the trip we had a most amazing experience. When I say the entire boat was surrounded by dolphins I am not exaggerating. Every direction I turned in there were pods of five to ten dolphins. It was breathtaking. Left, right, behind the boat, in front of the boat and under the boat everywhere you looked they were swimming and jumping in the waves.

I had been seeing reports of the trips seeing 200 and 300 dolphins and I kind of laughed at it. But now I have to honestly say it was not an exaggeration. It was also the perfect good bye to a part of NY I have always loved.