http://www.google.com/mapmaker?ll=39.277616,-74.5746&spn=0.200384,0.291138&t=h&z=12&vpsrc=0&q=map+%22ocean+city+new+jersey%22&hl=en&source=gm_el

MapQuest:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?cat=Grocery%20Stores&zipcode=08226-3336


link to webcams two on the boardwalk & one more at the north end of the island:
http://www.sunsetcam.com/cams/occams.html


And for something I would only be interested in, the virtually generic & unlabelled Boardwalk Map:
http://www.oceancityvacation.com/about-the-island/island-map/boardwalk-map.html
(My nostalgia provides a lot of out-dated details when I look at this one)


I just found this page devoted to Gillian's Wonderland Pier:
http://www.funnewjersey.com/upload_user/NJ_BEACHES_SHORE_GUIDE/OCEAN_CITY_NJ_BOARDWALK_GILLIANS_WONERLAND_PIER.HTM

I copped two pictures from the page:



The Music Pier where my maternal grandmother and I were content to spend much time.




Further south than the first picture, obviously back a bit from the ocean, close to the Flanders Hotel, the private fishing pier, and the Spanish-style whitewashed building (see red-tiled roofs) that once housed a -very- nice gift shop, a proto-coffee/tea shop long before Starbucks was on every other city street corner, the Copper Kettle fudge store, and an elevated 27 hole miniature golf course which which had a roof and was high enough up tp catch the sea breeze. Wonderful, after a day of baking in the sun on the beach!

Hi! Zathras (the computer) and I are both at least semi-alive and in the new apartment, so hurrah God!

Both of us are missing things at the moment.

A Printer & Scanner
I have no idea where Zathras' printer & scanner are. Many people helped to do last minute packing--and a common label coming out of that effort was "office". Common as on maybe 30+ boxes, many of which are hiding under and stacked between other boxes with ordinary "Liv. Rm." labels.

In the living room alone, the numbers of stacks across the width of the room varies from 4 to 5 with a single gap between 2 or 3 stacks. Looking lengthwise down the room, the stacks begin pressed up within less than a foot of the balcony doors and they continued in solid formation sometimes four across up to the tiny gap where a couple of chairs are hiding. Between the "chair gap" and the bookcases against the far wall are more stacks of boxes, in clumps of 3 or two or just one.

The printer and scanner--and their cables--could be anywhere in that. Actually, either may have flown the coop all the way into the study. (Not everything necessarily hit the correct destination room, during this massive effort as orchestrated by Pastor Philip. Obviously that was the plan but with so many people involved glitches happened. One of the funny categories of glitches involves various bits of stuff making the trip that were never intended to do so--things like one piece each from two broken and dumpstered old bookcases.

Oh. Also my alarm clock got packed & has yet to turn up.

B. Important documents in a NaNoWriMo canvas carry bag.

Somewhere between Mid-Thursday afternoon and perhaps at late as Saturday, I managed to part ways with my canvas carry bag which was holding important documents, topped off with my copy of my lease. I'm trying not to panic about this but I am on the verge of it.  The lease can be replaced with a certain outlay of embarrassment in the process. I'd rather strangers not see my budget calculations but I'll survive if I get them back. However the bag also contained at minimum a bank statement, the start of my collection of data for tax purposes, and a couple of folders with data involving dealings with a couple of "errant" businesses. I'd rather never find the printer and be forced to buy yet another one rather than lose the papers!

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Moving on, the apartment building is very quiet, which is an enormous relief! Out in the hall during my first visit here, I just caught the sound of music from the apartment catty-corner from mine. I've heard a couple of dogs bark, once or twice but not loudly or persistently. I may actually find myself the noisiest tenant, based on my experience so far.   ;-P  Turns out I have two walk-in closets, the expected one in the bedroom and the surprise in the hall between the living room and the bedroom. On the floor plan, I thought that this second closet was the laundry room. (W/D are actually in a tiny  kitchen nook.)

All windows seem to be uniformly 4' x 4' and all have mini-blinds. (One of the bedroom windows is now bereft of its mini-blinds though my dim-bulb-ness or clumsiness or something--I was trying to lower the blinds with the cord when the whole assemblage dropped free from the window frame. Oopsie! First call to maintenance on Monday, 

The glass panels and door leading the the balcony has standard--sized vertical blinds. The only things out of the balcony--so far as I can tell--are the table still in its two parts and some of my seashell collection. So far as I can see, the chairs and my big storage cabinet are among the missing. However it's hard for me to be sure since there's only inches of leave-way between the stacked boxes and the balcony glass. Right now, I can only peek out at the balcony from one corner. If the storage cabinet is still back at the old apartment, I don't know what I'll do.

The balcony and the windows in the study and dining room both face toward the short section of Arundel Drive between the turn off from Limestone (a fairly busy multi-lane road that's not quite a highway) & the entrance driveway to the apt complex. This stretch of road isn't really that close though I can hear the distant swish of cars going by. I'll wildly hazard that it's 200 yards between this my of the bldg and the road. Most of this is just grass but there's a patchy screen of trees along the edge of the road, and a grove in the ground covered with brush that my be a natural stream or a culvert.The bedroom has two windows--one facing the same way as those above, and the second one (near the head of my bed) facing toward the rental office and the section of Crosswalk Drive that leads to this outlying arc of buildings.


The kitchen is stainless steel and has a counter that I think is supposed to be granite but I doubt it. Microwave built in over the largish stove. The now "de rigor" dishwasher. As a woman in her 60's who remembers living in a house without electricity, heat or running water when I was a tot, I find all of this far over the top. I wish I could send half of the stuff in the kitchen off to someone who would appreciate the extras, in exchange for more counter space and storage under counter level. I have my small microwave which serves all my small purposes and have never used a dishwasher in my life.. Consequently, I've been trying to come up with strategies for removing the big microwave and stashing it in the dishwasher. Alas not enough room.   :)


The cats had a few rough days Friday & Saturday but are settling in now. Really enjoying all the new "sniffies" I think. Much more on them later!

...which in turn may be the complex to which I may be moving. Or not. Just waiting to see what He wills. Also when.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please back up one blog entry. :)


http://mapq.st/?maptype=hybrid&q=CrossforkDrive,Wilmington,DE19808

Okay, I've tried this link and it does take me to Mapquest but to a generic map of the area. To get to exactly what I was looking at on MQ, you will need to click the + sign on the left three times and then click the satellite view button on the right.

The complex is that bumpy-looking oval near the top. Notice the trees surrounding it, especially on the left side. I doubt that these are part of Arundel's property. I would guess that they are fenced in to divide them from the complex.)

Someone could reach Arundel apartments by driving along Kirkwood Highway (Rte 2) and turning (sort of west?) on to Limestone Road. Limestone Road runs pretty much parallel to the bottom edge of the map but is just below it. Then again, there's those GPS thingies. ;-P

I may be moving...I may be moving here:


http://classic.mapquest.com/mq/4-GFDf7lZe


(Or try this URL for "embedding"?)
http://<iframe style="height: 275px; width: 450px;" src="http://classic.mapquest.com/embed#b/maps/m:map:12:39.727963:-75.664075::::::1:1:::::::::/l::2901+Crossfork+Dr:Wilmington:DE:19808-2016:US:39.735732:-75.671925:address::1:::/e" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>


Some of you already know parts of my increasingly frustrating apartment story. (See past entries.) For those who do not know, living here recently has become an awful ordeal. You really don't want to know the details though I may blog more about them after the possible move. Suffice it to say that the tale involves an apartment that was quite nice when I moved in 11 years ago but which was allowed to go to seed by a succession of owners--beginning almost directly after I signed my first lease and took possession of my apartment.

Anyway,  I may be moving not long after Christmas to a place called Arundel.

Or not. Some of the fiddly bits are still up in the air. W-a-y up in the air.

One of the easier fiddly bits is will Arundel even have the kind of apartment that I require availible at the time I may possibly move? For those of you who have never rented, a transition from one apartment to another can be fair tricky. Selling a house or, in this market, trying to sell a house is an ordeal. Trying to -find- another house, especially out of state, ain't much fun. (Mike, are you here? That was for you.) But at least after settlement, you have some idea ahead of time -when- your moving date will be.

Apartments, not so much, because the people in the rental office have no idea when an apartment will be free untill a tenant stops by and says that they are not renewing their lease. Popular apartments, of course, have most tenants staying where they are year after year. Look at me--I didn't like this place & it's certainly not popular but I kept renewing my lease every year anyway. So who knows when someone will choose to move out?

It might be tempting to take a gun to an apartment unit that suits, knock on the door, and try to threaten the current tenant to not sign a new lease. (This town ain't big enough for the both of us!")  For some reason policemen frown on this. ;-P   Picky, picky, picky. More importantly I understand that God is quite...unsmiling about this kind of antic, too. And, shoot, I don't have a gun anyway, so there goes the game plan.  ;-P

Anyway, back to reality. If events go as they might & if it's God's will, I'll be moving to Arundel up toward where you see Fawkes Road at the very top of the map, assuming you can see the map via the link above.  (My current location is beyond the right edge of the map.)

If moving to Arundel isn't God's will, then I'll be ... uh, somewhere else anyway in a few months. I have no clear idea where that would be if no units show up at Arundel. On the other hand, I know that fairly soon -not- being here is inevitable.  (I think we can take this as read since the voice recording in the rental office no longer suggests that people interested in one or two bedroom apartments stop by the office.)

There's several mysterious hints in this post plus lack of detail but, essentially, I don't know much more than what I'm posting. I can only think of one time when I knew less about what was going to happen next in my life than I do right now. Ironically, that time wasn't long after I moved where I am now.

Okay, here's some things that I can tell you. Whenever I have a chance,  I am still clearing out the accumulated detritus from the last 11 years. I began this weeks ago and I've worked at it very hard. However, there's a -lot- of it still to go, including more than 10 years of paid bills/receipts plus old magazines. (Why on earth did I keep them all?) Add to that just plain mysterious gizmos. Like for instance, I found a metronome and couldn't figure out what it was at first. I have two closets spilling over with various clothes in a variety of sizes--I've weighed both lots more and lots less since I moved here. The only thing that hampers me is finding a temporary place to "store" dumped & bagged stuff until someone very kind comes and gets it for me. (I can't make it down three flights of steps and over to the dumpster with any load worthy to be given that name.

I'm still sorting through things and bundling up stuff and that helps emotionally. Technically at least, it keeps me from thinking about all of the bits and pieces--in the logistics category that is--that are still up in the air. When I can't sleep, which is increasingly often, I can always get up and do more sorting and bagging.

Have the cats been freaking? Nope. The cats are LOVING this. I've had to move furniture around--first for the replacement washer that took nearly a month to arrive and more recently for "scheduled" repairs that no one comes to do--so Khiva and Vartha both keep getting a chance to smell new bits of carpet.

Then there's all of the stuph that I'm sorting, which obviously requires sniffing piece by piece. I have a new hobby too-- trying to figure out if something is a "keeper" or not when there's a furry head blocking my view. Hey, cats have precedence in these matters, don't you know! Even once I've loaded & tied up debris in a food store bag, the investigation game isn't over. Additional sniffing is required. Those things may sniff differently now that They're in a bag. Gotta make sure! In Vartha's case, occasional -licking- of a particular bag or two is part of the necessary routine. (I don't want to know why.) Both Khiva & Vartha have developed a knack for finding rubberbands that I thought I had hidden or carefully discarded. (I worry that they'' bite through them, and then swallow the rubberly "string".


The pix I used for this post? That's just my sly way of saying that I'd rather be moving to Ocean City, New Jersey. But then that's been true for over four decades. See http://www.sunsetcam.com/cams/occams.html  for a couple of webcam shots of OC's boardwalk.

This is a message to myself, found again in a file after decades.  But this is also for you!



The Daffodil Principle

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over."  

I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. "I will come next Tuesday", I promised a little reluctantly on her third call.

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.

"Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!"

My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time, Mother."  

"Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I'm heading for home!" I assured her.

"But first we're going to see the daffodils. It's just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "I'll drive. I'm used to this."

"Carolyn," I said sternly, "Please turn around."  

"It's all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."

After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, "Daffodil Garden." We got out of the car, each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight.  

It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.

"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn.  

"Just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home." Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house.
 
 On the patio, we saw a poster.   "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking", was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."

For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration.

That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time--often just one baby-step at time--and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we, too, will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.

"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years? Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said.

She was right. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use today?"


Use the Daffodil Principle.

Stop waiting.....

Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you clean the house
Until you organize the garage
Until you clean off your desk
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die...

Wishing you a beautiful daffodil day.

(Author Unknown)




How old will you be in ten years if you start working on your dream today?
How old will you be in ten years, if you don't?

Please update on your current conditions over the next few days!

Even if the power or cable goes off, we can read all about your circumstances afterward. And if they stay intact, everyone can offer everyone else experiences and sympathy or advice. I doubt my Irene watch will get updated much by me before my power goes out, but here's what I've got so far.


I'm about halfway between Wilmington and Newark DE and it's approaching 4:00 P.M. We're supposed to get the serious beginnings of Irene is a few hours That was actually a small relief for me. I was under the impression that Irene would be here around noon to 2P.M., when I went to bed last night.


Current observations here aren't particularly hurricanish yet. The trees maybe 20 yards beyond my balcony are tossing about a bit. I haven't been outside. However from here, I doubt that there's any serious rain. As they say, it's the calm before the storm. I am very worried about my neighbors on the "first floor" which is actually about half a flight underground. We are prone to flooding here under the best of conditions. Usually the water encroaches no further than residents' patios but I wonder about this time. I'm also concerned for stray cats and smaller dogs, and fear that many may drown. It's going to be difficult for dog owners to walk dogs at the height of the storm too.



KB who works at the Greenbank Mill Historical Museum is fairly certain that the light wooden fence around their flock of sheep will blow apart and the pieces will be swept away into the millstream. That means sheep everywhere, something the few intrepid motorists may not be expecting. Meanwhile KB is also concerned for their house basement which is prone to flooding.



Residents each have their own focus based on their particualr vulnerabilities: roof damage, trees falling, windows breaking, the slight chance of tornados as the storm arrives, and the loss of power and/or water. I'm resigned to losing power at some point but I'm much more concerned about a tree crashing into the side of my apartment. Mine has a NE exposure and I can't for the life of me remember which way the winds blow as a hurricane approaches and as it leaves. I devoutly hope, for everyone's sake here, that the wind is directed mostly at the ends of the buildings where there are few windows and no balconies or patios.



I made no effort to stock up ahead of time--it would have been too much of a hassle for friends to have helped me with that. However, I always keep stocked up here a bit ahead anyway. Should the water supply stop, we've got enough water to take care of the cats plus a bit for the human, supplemented by a wide variety of juices and sodas. I regret not having more batteries & bigger flashlights. My enormously heavy-duty flashlight is loaded with its zillion batteries. Aside from that I have three small flashlights--none of which have much power, and a bunch of candles clustered on top of the stove along with matches and 2 of those mechanical fire-starter thingies. What are they called?



People in low-lying areas of Wilmington near the Christina River were evacuated. As everyone has heard, NYC is trying to handle the shift of over a third of a million people from their low-lying areas, and at this point their subway etc have been shut down for hours. Newark DE already had a problem before all of this started. I think it was two days ago that a major watermain broke somewhere in the city. Residents at that time were advised not to drink the water unless they boiled thoroughly first, since it might contain e. coli. Fun if people didn't or couldn't stock up on water and if they have electric stoves and the power goes out.



For the time being, I am getting my "outside information" via three webcams attached to the roofs of buildings in Ocean CITY NJ. (See link below)  A little while ago, I saw what appeared to be a police van slowly chasing a single bicyclist down the boardwalk, in gentle but forceful encouragement for him to retreat from the beach. I've seen no one else via the webcams, but it is clearly raining there. Raindrops hit the camera lenses frequently, the wood of the boardwalk glimmers with water, and while some of the beach is still visible, the ocean is already obscured.



MICRO-UPDATE:  I just went downstairs to get mail. It's eerily quiet in the building!  Naturally I peeked out the front door as I went by. It's -pouring- but so quietly I hadn't realized it from up here. The rain is coming straight down, so obviously Irene is still having a minimum or rather non-exitent wind effect here.  We have a very high curb between the parking lot and the apartment front, built that way especially for normal flooding, to protect the lower apartments. Right at the moment, the water hasn't risen as high as that curb so first floor neighbors are safe for the moment.



BTW, my mailbox was empty! Peculiar since I haven't gotten my mail in days. Given that something is sticking out of a box two up from mine, and that no one lives in that apartment, I suppose the mail carrier has been putting my mail in the wrong box. Will have to call the local post office on Monday. Hm. I wonder if they will be open.



HURRICANE-RELATED LINKS

4 Dead in VA/NC including one child http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44297053/ns/weather/#.Tlk-fl36lyE    (This is now 5 people.  A boy has been hit by a tree since this report)


Delaware afternoon update http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/delaware/item/25636-delaware-closes-major-sussex-county-bridge-predicts-8-12-of-rain-from-irene&Itemid=1


Ocean City NJ Webcams along the boardwalk http://www.sunsetcam.com/cams/occams.html


Latest NJ Update 2pm Saturday http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/08/hurricane_irene_latest_nj_upda_6.html


Update with Rain-estimating Radar (Daily Kos) http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/27/1011109/-Hurricane-Irene-update


Weather Channel Video http://www.weather.com/weather/videos/news-41/top-stories-169/hurricane-irene-called-extreme-threat-6584


Weather Channel Video -- timing of Iren's threats along coast http://www.weather.com/weather/videos/news-41/top-stories-169/hurricane-irene-called-extreme-threat-6584#loc=41/169/21701


Weather Channel Video - Report from VA, in the thoes of Irene http://www.weather.com/weather/videos/news-41/top-stories-169/hurricane-irene-called-extreme-threat-6584#loc=41/169/21705

Stolen from John Scalzi's blog, Whatever. 
I'm sorry but this isn't actually hooked up like a poll. If you want to vote, you'll have to put your response in the comments.


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p.s. I'm not actually in the mood for silliness but I ran into this poll belatedly. And sometimes distractions help.