Look at the pretties!

Man, I have missed having a farmer’s market.  I remember when we first moved here, there was a farmer’s market that convened on a semi-regular basis in that little parking lot on the corner of Third and Donnelly.  Local produce, crafts, and I particularly remember a tea merchant whose stuff was addicting.  Then it closed for the summer (? winter?), and never came back.  I was very sad when that happened.

Then earlier this week, I saw an announcement that a farmer’s market was starting up again.  This time at the Lakeside Inn on Sunday mornings!  Wooot!  So this morning I gathered up all the cash we had in the house (admittedly, not that much) and headed downtown to check it out.  This is a Good Thing to happen to Mount Dora, and I definitely want to encourage this kind of behavior.

Finding it was an issue, I’ll admit that.  It’s allllllll the way back at the back of the Lakeside Inn “complex,” for lack of a better word, in the space that used to be tennis courts.  This was the first week, so vendors were few (but enthusiastic), but I really think this is the kind of thing that could take off, and is so so good for the town.  Let’s get some more signage up to direct people to it, and I think we may have something here.

Oh Honey Man, thanks for feeding my addiction.

While I was there, I scored some tomatoes and onions, and submitted to one of my huge weaknesses: local orange blossom honey. Ohhhh yeah. I could eat that stuff by the spoonful. I chatted with a fiber artist who was there too, who hand-dyes her yarns and weaves them on a loom into gorgeous scarves and purses. I kind of wanted a hair tie she was selling, but I ran low on cash (I told you I didn’t have much!), so I’ll have to go back next week for that.

There have been some rumbles lately on the internets about the decline of Mount Dora, which is something I should probably get into on a different post.  But there’s lots of concern over the empty storefronts, and we’ve lost a few businesses lately.  Those losses are hard to take, and we definitely need to do something as a town to keep things going during this crazy economic downturn.  But, speaking not as a business owner or a government employee but merely as a citizen of Mount Dora, I think one of the best things that I can do is show up.  Support local businesses, even if it’s just on a handful of tomatoes and some orange blossom honey.  Encourage events like a new weekly farmer’s market.  Show my love for the town, and my commitment to seeing it through the bad times and back into the good.

As anyone with a smartphone or new computer will tell you, one of the most important things to do when setting up your new phone, aside from developing an unsettling addiction to Angry Birds and Words With Friends (I’m jeneral22!  Start a game with me!  Please!!), is choosing wallpaper.  A lot of the time I use pictures of the pets, but when I’m stressed I like to use pictures I’ve taken of Mount Dora, just to remind myself of where I live and all the things I love about it, even when I can’t get downtown and take advantage of the town as much as I would like.

This is the picture I’m currently using, of a sunset over Lake Dora.  I took this with my old phone a while back and it’s one of my favorites.  It just makes me feel a little more serene whenever I look at it.

I’m putting the phone to good use.  I’m back to using Foursquare on a fairly regular basis, and have already become the Mayor of Mount Dora Brewing.  It’s good to have little achievements in life.  Now to reclaim my mayorship of PureAveda!  Maybe even One Flight Up!  Or the new Five Guys that finally, FINALLY opened in the Loch Leven Landing.  You know, the one with the Publix, across from the Lowe’s, with the horrible, horrible traffic pattern so you can’t leave to go south on 441 without taking about 47 u-turns and cutting through the Lowe’s parking lot!  But that’s a blog post for another time.

We were both feeling a little stagnant last night, creatively, so we remedied that with dinner downtown at One Flight Up.  I had a Groupon to use, and a novel that’s not writing itself.  Morgan had his new(ish) camera that he hadn’t taken out night shooting yet.  After dinner, he went off to wander the streets and I opened up my netbook and started typing.  I kept typing as the sun went down and cars emptied out from Donnelly Street, leaving the block much quieter than it had been when we got there.

We sat on the balcony, which was probably ridiculous to do in this heat.  When we got there around 7, it was still in the mid-90s.  We knew that, after living in this state for sixteen years, we were true Floridians as we proclaimed it to be “not that bad.”  As the sun went down, you could actually feel the mild relief of the temperature dropping.  By the time we left it was still in the mid to upper 80s, but it felt much cooler than it had been before.

Balcony-sitting season is really just about over, though.  I’m glad we sat out there one last time.  I think my writing dates will have to be inside for the next few months.

So there’s beer.  And there’s food.  And it’s GOOD.  Sammiches and burgers and salads and such, and if you like mozzarella sticks get the fried cheese.  These are not puny little sticks, these are slabs of mozzarella deep fried – a heart attack on a plate.  When I’m at work on Friday afternoon, sometimes the only thing getting me through the day is the thought of cheese sticks and beer.

And there’s music!  The first couple of times we went there was acoustic music, usually of the “guy with a guitar” genre, though it’s not unusual for a friend to strap on a second guitar and join in.  Last night, though.  LAST NIGHT was the house band, The Brewery Boys.  A full out rockin’ band, playing oldies and swing and oh my God was it a great time.

Now I’m up early this morning.  We have a few errands to run today, and hopefully are going to catch a movie tonight.  My nails desperately need attention, so I scheduled a mani-pedi for 10:00 a.m. at PureAveda.   Which is why I’m currently staring at the computer screen through bleary eyes and reaching for a second cup of coffee.

Aren’t small towns supposed to be sleepy and slow-moving, and boring because there’s nothing to do?  Yeah.  Not so much.

The rule of thumb is that the grieving period takes about a year.  Grief never truly leaves you, but I do think it really took that year to come to terms with what happened, and figure out a different kind of life, figuring out the things that still made me tick.

Knitting still makes me tick.  Still doing a lot of that, even though the knitting store in town closed.  If I win the lottery, I will open a yarn shop.

And writing.  Writing still makes me tick, I’ve discovered lately.  I was frankly kind of worried that I’d lost that forever in the bog of depression.  But no.  Here I am trying to figure out all the crap that’s changed on WordPress in the past year or so (so no pictures this time around: I think I can barely figure out how to input text!), and I’m back to work in earnest on my novel.  I blogged about my 2009 experience with National Novel Writing Month, which I won largely in part thanks to One Flight Up and their carrot cake.  I had written something very silly, that I just loved more and more, and 2010 was going to be the year I turned it into something.  So much for that.  But now the determination is back: 2011 will be the year.

I still love going downtown to write; one recent weekend I brought a blanket and spent a blissful little while in the sunshine in Donnelly Park.  And when it’s too hot for coffee, there’s B Frozen Yogurt, one of those ubiquitous DIY yogurt places that seem to be popping up everywhere these days.  I like this one because it’s independently owned, and the yogurt is SO GOOD.  And no one seems to mind that I bring my netbook and hang out for a half-hour or so.  They have a Wii in the back though, so I suspect that hanging out is encouraged.

And another, major thing that still makes me tick is living in Mount Dora.  Seriously, this town rocks in so many ways, and I’m excited to keep telling you all the ways in which it rocks.  For such a small town, lots of things change, so I suspect there will be a fair amount of things to tell.

So.  Here I am.

I had taken a couple vacation days around that long weekend, and had been determined to do absolutely nothing that put any pressure on me.  So when I woke up around ten after nine with the parade downtown starting at 10, I thought “Ehhh, I’ll catch it next year.  We’ll go to the fireworks.”

That afternoon it started to rain.  And rain.  And rain.  I started to wonder if there would be fireworks after all.  As it got dark, we headed downtown, and it looked ominous.  The party in the park was dismantled, and it didn’t look good for fireworks.  We stopped in to Mount Dora Sushi, because they know everything, and sure enough, got the word that the fireworks had been cancelled.  Idle speculation ensued – maybe they’ll store them and then set them off on New Year’s?  That could be kind of cool.

But as it turns out, the fireworks will be part of an end of the summer party on September 4 – Labor Day weekend.  Not a bad plan since, as previously mentioned, summers are slow here in Mount Dora.  A Labor Day weekend party could be kind of fun.

And next year I’ll make sure to get up early enough to make the Fourth of July parade.

When he asked what  I wanted to do this weekend, I said “Well, I’m getting a haircut at PureAveda on Saturday at 11:00.  You can go with me if you want a manicure or something…”

Next time we're getting pedicures!

I never expected him to say “That sounds good, I’ll do that!”  I think he may be taking this father/daughter bonding thing a little too far.

We then had chicken salad sandwiches at One Flight Up, which always, always hits the spot for me.  (Not pictured: chicken salad sandwich, because I was too busy eating it.)  I think it’s the craisins they put in the chicken salad that make it so yummy.  It was just a little too hot to sit on the balcony and people-watch, which is really what One Flight Up was made for.

Then we took a boat tour!  This is more of a triumph than you might think, but I have had bad luck with boat tours around here.  I don’t want to disparage anyone, but let’s just say there’s a certain Inn on the Side of the Lake that has a boat tour going out from it that I have yet to take.  Not for lack of trying.  Once we made reservations, but when it came time to go out they were overbooked.  Another time they were apparently underbooked, and cancelled our trip.  Argh.  But Lake Dora and the Dora Canal are so gorgeous, I really wanted to take my dad out on the water.

Thank God for social networking.  A few days ago, the folks at the Mount Dora Historic Inn tweeted about sending their guests on an eco-boat tour.  I followed their link and discovered Lake County Waterways.  How had I never seen this outfit before??  I called them Saturday morning and booked us on an afternoon cruise.  They are docked down by the Yacht Club, near Pisces Rising.  The two-hour (well, closer to three but who cares??) cruise took us across Lake Dora, through the Dora Canal/Elfin River, out briefly into Lake Eustis and back again.

A shy ibis

We checked out a mama alligator watching over her nest, another 8+ foot alligator chowing down on a fish among the cypress knees, and plenty of herons, ibis and anhingas.

It was a perfect afternoon to be out on the water.  I’m always amazed at the beauty of the Dora Canal.

What century is this again?

It’s just stunning to see land that looks so primitive so close to the fancy houses on Lakeshore Drive.

That night’s dinner was steak and a beer tower at Mount Dora Sushi.  Of course.

Sunday was more low-key, but we did end up back at One Flight Up in the afternoon for ice cream – Dad wanted to take his little girl out for ice cream… I let him pretend I was still seven.  Plus I think he’s gotten addicted to their smoothies.

Dad left this morning, but the way things are he’ll be back down soon. All in all it was a really good weekend. I think he had been hoping for something a little more “festival-like” – I’m fond of saying that Mount Dora’s motto is “Any Excuse For A Festival!” To our surprise, there wasn’t really anything going on around town. But we still managed to have a pretty full weekend anyway.

Seriously, go on this boat tour.

This year, all of Mount Dora’s Independence Day celebrations (parade in the morning, celebration in the park in the evening capped by fireworks) are being held on July 3.  I’m assuming this is because the 4th is on a Sunday this year, and they would rather have everything on a Saturday?  To me, that’s like saying “Well, Christmas is on a Sunday this year, so let’s just have it on the 24th.”  I’m just going to come out and say it: I don’t get it.

Independence Day is a big deal to me.  One of my favorite holidays.  As a native Virginian, history is a big thing for me.  Yes, some people there are still fighting the Civil War with rebel flags hung up behind the gun racks on their pickup trucks, but some of us also grew up with a working knowledge of Colonial Williamsburg and have visited George Washington, Richard Henry Lee and Thomas Jefferson’s homes so many times we consider them close personal friends.  The American Revolution is probably my favorite period of American history, and I don’t want to tell you how many times I’ve seen 1776.   So celebrating it a day early just feels weird.

Not that I’ll be boycotting it or anything.  Mount Dora on the Fourth of July is a tradition with us.  We usually walk the dogs downtown to watch the parade; it’s a good bit of socialization for them, they get lots of random hugs from kids, and Sarah wears a party collar and gets told she’s pretty by lots of people, so that’s always good.  The parade itself is a lot of fun: very small-town, marching down Donnelly Street with floats, city council members and local businesses, looking like something out of a John Cougar Mellencamp video.   And the fireworks over Lake Dora are gorgeous and within walking distance from the house, which is one of the things I love about living here.

But I’m still left feeling a little confused.  Once we’re done celebrating the Fourth of July on the third, what do we do on the Fourth?  It’s a mystery.

Eh, who cares.  It’s all a gray area anyway.   The wording of the Declaration of Indepence was finalized and approved on the fourth, which is why we celebrate the fourth as Independence Day, but the actual vote on the resolution for American independence was on July 2, so technically TODAY is Independence Day.   John Adams’s letter to his wife, Abigail, dated July 3, 1776, says as such (from A Tradition of Celebration by the Adams Family):

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not. (The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784, Harvard University Press, 1975, 142).

I love how this song from 1776 echoes his letter so well:

So happy Independence Day, whenever you end up celebrating it!

Geese at Sunset. Taken last summer-ish.

This article  in the Orlando Sentinel yesterday kind of upset me.   How can the geese be missing?  They’ve been a staple of the park for a while now.  For the past couple years, they kept building a nest in the bushes right at the base of the lighthouse, which of course means lots of hissing and honking if you have the audacity to want to, you know, check out the lighthouse.  If you bring them food, it might be okay, but if not, chances are you’d get chased off by Papa Goose while Mama Goose sits on the nest and hisses at you.

I remember one night a few months back, I was really upset about something on a Friday night and drove around downtown aimlessly and ended up at the lighthouse.  It was during our crazy winter so it was freezing, but I wrapped my wool coat around me and sat on a bench by the lighthouse.  It was just me and the geese.  I felt like I was hanging out with friends, and that made me feel a little better.

I hope they come back.  Do geese do that?  I’ve known cats to wander off for a bit and then show up home again, looking slightly the worse for wear but like they have a great story to tell.  I hope the same thing happens here.

But that morning my mom, who had been in the hospital for surgery, had experienced a sudden drop in blood pressure that morning and was moved to the ICU. The phone calls from my dad went from “no need to panic” to “they’re bringing in all these specialists” to “we’re losing her.” My mom passed away that night around 8 p.m. My parents are in Virginia, so even if I had gotten in my car after Dad’s first “no need to panic” phone call, I wouldn’t have made it there in time, that’s how sudden it was.

To say this put me in a tailspin is an understatement. Losing grandparents and other relatives did not prepare me for this. The loss is so much more primal. And so much of my concern is for my father, who lost his best friend of 40 years. But now, a little more than a month later, we’re healing. Or at least on the way to it.

Ironically, social media was a godsend to me at this time, where I could just post the news on Facebook and Twitter, and send text messages to friends. It sounds like a cold way to get the news out, but that first day or so I could barely speak the words. So it helped a lot.

Looking ahead to Mother’s Day frankly kind of sucks, but I’ll get through it. I loved my mom so much, and I’m thankful for the 37 years I got to spend with her.

This photograph was taken in early 1970, before my parents were married. It’s my favorite shot of the two of them.

So that’s what’s been going on with me, and why I haven’t been around lately. But time goes on, and I’m starting to feel human again. So it’s time to start living.