Ordeal or Adventure?

on an adventure…

Elderly Cindy takes it all in stride. “My daddy was a farmer. He used to say the only difference between an adventure and an ordeal is how you look at it.” – from Sean of the South‘s blog

Moving can be an ordeal or an adventure. Or both. For me, it’s both this time. The ordeal part is no more than anyone else experiences in moving. After what I’ve been through the past eight months it seems it’s actually going to be a piece of cake.

This is my third move in less than a year. The first two were far from being an adventure. They were an apartment and a house chosen for convenience. This next one has been chosen for a home. The adventure will be in turning it into a home. The adventure will be being with my grandkids. I’m ready.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever. – Psalm 23:6

Sense of Direction or Sense of Adventure?

 

Kat, my adventuring daughter – Little Talbot Island State Park

 

“Your grandma always had a terrible sense of direction. She could get lost on an escalator.” – – from And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman

 

It’s funny that this could describe me and my mother, yet it never stopped her and doesn’t stop me from having adventures. Mom would pack her pistol for protection and her machete for whacking away grass and weeds in the cemeteries she visited and she’d hit the road for Georgia. She would get her sisters and they would visit court houses and cemeteries and woods in search of long lost ancestors. This was all without GPS and, in the beginning, without internet. Finally, the last time she visited my Aunt Betty, when Mom was 81 or 82, she got lost because Aunt Betty had moved to a new place. She decided then that she would not go back again alone. But she was never able to go back again at all after that, anyway. I know my Aunt misses her and her visits terribly.

I , however, have the technological benefits and I still get turned around. I’ve taken much longer then intended hikes and made many an unnecessary U-Turn because I second guessed myself. I am not afraid, usually. but there was this one time when I got a little panicky because night was coming on and my daughter and I were out in a kayak and heading in the wrong direction. We passed some fishermen on a boat who looked familiar (we’d passed them once already) and shouted out to them. They pointed us in the right direction and we paddled like mad to get back before dark and before the kayak rental place closed. We made it, but just barely.

So, even without a sense of direction, my sense of adventure is still intact. And for that I’m glad.

 

With my adventuring cousin, Paula – Jean Petit State Park

Terrific Tuesdays – 1

As my days in Jacksonville seem to be numbered, my friend, Cathy, and I plan to do as many things together as we can before we go. I was going to call these Free Tuesdays, since we are trying to do things around town that are free, but since often there will be lunch or other purchases along the way, I decided on Terrific Tuesdays. Not too original, I know.

For our first adventure last week, we headed downtown with the goal of eating underground at Benny’s Sandwich Shop. We found a parking meter (yay) and had lots of change, so we were set. Entering though the Atlantic Building, former Atlantic Bank, we followed the signs down the stairs. I spotted an unmarked hallway, which we went down and discovered the old vault. So cool! There was also a large scrapbook there, with news clipping coming unglued, that dated back to about 1972. All the articles revolved around the Regency Square Mall. It seemed like an odd thing to find there, but we enjoyed browsing through it for awhile. Then we headed to Benny’s, where the service is friendly and the food good and inexpensive.

After lunch, we met a very gracious security guard. She directed us back down into the tunnel, after she pointed out the spot where we would pop up across the street. The tunnel felt more like a hallway as we passed several underground offices. Sure enough, we came up to the surface at the opposite corner.  I went back to feed the meter and then we headed to Chamblin’s Uptown Bookstore. On the way we decided to detour through the public library. We hit every level, taking pictures while in the courtyard on the second floor.

I keep a list of books to look for on my phone, but had no success finding any at Chamblin’s . I did, however, find a book by one of the authors on my list. It sounded so interesting that I bought it, to add the bazillion books at home that I haven’t read yet. Proof that I have an addiction to used bookstores.

It was perfect weather for our first Terrific Tuesday! Can’t wait for more!