Barbie's birthday

My mom, a.k.a. Vacation Barbie, celebrates the big 8-0 this weekend! She recently moved from her home to the local assisted living place. Fortunately, her cat Molly was adopted by her previous home health care worker! I won't be able to attend the big bash but we're trying to get there in 2 weeks for a longer visit when my temporary job is done.

Wanchese Whistle

The other day after work, we were making dinner and all of a sudden, some sort of warning siren sounded. This went on for about 5 minutes or so, enough to make all the hounds in the 'hood bark. We weren't quite sure what it was but thought they were testing the warning system. Not many days later, the same siren sounded, this time lasting for about 20 minutes.

(This warning siren is reminiscent of my home town "whistle." The whistle dates back to factory days and blows at 7 a.m., noon, 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Even on the weekends. Except for Sunday when they abstain from the 7 a.m. one. For "nostalgic" reasons, the town voters decided to keep the whistle blowing, although it still causes some rankor.)

The Wanchese whistle blowing continued and we finally found out why it blows. It is the warning system for the volunteer fire department. The length of time the whistle blows depends on the time of day, type of fire alarm and other factors no one could quite explain to us. We apparently have been lucky and not had a fire alarm in all these months we've been living there.

Suzy Q

Based on a suggestion from my sister, we decided to name our boat Suzy Q. This appropriately chosen name was the nickname my dad called me when I was a little girl. In a serendipitous coincidence, I learned this is the nickname/call sign that airplane pilots use when flying over and referring to the area around my hometown.