Good-bye, Cindy — We’ll miss you!
The B.B. B&B said, “Farewell,” to its first customer today. Despite the threat of a pilots’ strike, Cindy was able to fly to Chicago today. With her help, the staff are now even better able to serve future customers of our B&B.
Although the staff haven’t finished putting together the book for this visit, we like to keep our friends informed. So, for an overview of her visit, and tantalizing information about the staff’s retreat, follow the link…
Cindy Smith will be the Primary Documenter during her visit, so take a look at her Flickr site for the latest photos from Dublin and beyond.
She and I biked all over Dublin today and yesterday, so there’s lots to see.
I think we had a proper summer week. There wasn’t much rain at all. It was even humid today! It felt like a late June day in Chicago, although the high was 71° F with 88% humidity. I guess I’ve adjusted.
I have a standard exercise ride — to and through Phoenix Park. I discovered a hill today that I couldn’t finish without dismounting, so now I have a goal on my standard ride.
Here’s the real story: I happened across a small group of the Park’s fallow deer.
There were two bucks with antlers just like the photo here. There were three or four smaller deer — whether juveniles or does, I don’t know. They were all tagged on their ears.
I was awestruck. I didn’t even stop to think. The two bucks ran in different directions. Their loping run is even more graceful when they have a large set of antlers that move up and down much less than their bodies. It’s been several hours, but I’m still struck by the memory.
I was biking along a road through a little-used part of the Park, southwest of the Papal Cross. It’s not as quiet as other parts of the Park, because it’s close to the River Liffey and the traffic noise from the roads that run alongside it. But now I think I’ll return often.
Nothing routine about my life in Dublin so far, even when I try!
I don’t know much about deer. For those who know and care more than me, here’s a few links. (No, you can’t shoot them, even with a bow.)
Settling into our lives in Dublin has been a long (but fun) process since Will arrived. One of the fantastic parts about living in Dublin is how often colleagues from work have a reason to be in our city. Our first visitor was my former co-worker and friend, Jenny. Jenny had a conference the last week of June and she made sure to let us know that she was in town. We arranged for me to pick her up on my way home from work and bring her to the city centre. It was awesome to see her – she got to see our messy apartment and go to some of our favorite pubs with us. Since it was a Wednesday night, we were all very well behaved.
Which leads me to our next visitor, my friend Merle. Merle happened to be in Dublin over a weekend, so she joined our traditional Friday happy hour. Every Friday, Will, my co-worker Kathryn and I stop at a pub to call an end to the week and signal the start of the weekend. Merle was a welcome addition to our crew. We explored several establishments in the city that were new to us, which allowed us to extend our normal happy hour into an evening of … celebration! Kathryn’s boyfriend met up with us, so we were a happy group of five, enjoying some of the best sites Dublin has to offer.
I may be getting a bit too old to enjoy all the best sites Dublin has to offer. At least all in the same night.
Here’s a special thanks, to Jenny and Merle, for taking the time out of their busy trip schedules to spend some time with us. We enjoyed seeing you and we can’t wait for you to come back!
OMG!!!! Somebody shot J.R.!!!
- I'll kill him. I'll kill him!
- Take a number, there's a lot of us ahead of you.
I wonder whether that banker who lost 20 million dollars did it? Or Sue Ellen? She started drinking again, after all, and she found a gun. And J.R. called her a slut!!!! He insulted her a lot, but if somebody called me a slut…!!! But the writers really want us to think that it’s one of the investors in J.R.’s scheme.
Anita thinks its Cliff Barnes. You know, the OLM debacle, shutting down Field 23, and everything in between??? He’s got to have enough of the Ewings after this season!!
You’ve got to admire the way that Jock and Bobby stood with J.R. as all those suckers came to complain about the bad Asian oil deals. After all, those guys could have done their own research about the rebels that wanted to nationalize the wells!! But then it’s hard to see why J.R. lied to Jock about it?!
I’m surprised that J.R. wasn’t able to bribe the rebels. I think they could have spent more time on that angle. Maybe one of the rebels did it! Now, I wonder if he’s dead. I can’t imagine Dallas without him!!!
Lucy mentioned a disco in Dallas during this episode. Does it really exist?!? I’d love to go there someday! It will be very popular this weekend, after being mentioned on Dallas.
The sun was streaming in the windows of our home Saturday midday. After a week of poor weather and busy schedules, we had to seize the sunshine while it lasted.
I wanted to go to the seashore, to see a beach that was mentioned in Ulysses: Forty Foot at Sandycove. Plus, it was high tide, and I hadn’t seen saltwater up close yet!
We packed food, reading, and our folding chairs. As usual, Anita took a coat and wore several layers of clothes. I went outside and decided that the sun was strong and the temperature was warm. I was going to the beach — I was supposed to wear shorts and sandals.
At Sandycove, near the Joyce Tower, we found the famously rocky Forty Foot and a sheltered cove of shallow water. Children were playing where the water met the sand, and jumping into deeper water from a series of rock walls.
We fetched our chairs from the car and set up on a grassy patch overlooking the cove.
Several kids were wearing wetsuits, which seems to be the norm. The seawater isn’t dangerously cold, but it’s also not LA or the Gulf.
For me, the problem wasn’t the water. It was the cold air. There was a steady breeze of moist sea air, which was bracing. When the sun shone on us, it was even pleasant. And the idea of an afternoon at the beach is supposed to be about sunbathing.
The sun was shining on many parts of Dublin: on the island of Howth, on sailboats in the distance, and on the townhouses along the Dun Laoghaire Harbor. It was beautiful — as scenery.
Sitting on our chairs, just south of Dun Laoghaire, we didn’t feel much sun. 
Anita read her book, satisfied with the temp in her black fleece zip-up. I tried to read a local political magazine …but I spent most of my time watching the clouds and hoping that the next patch of blue sky would bring me some warmth.
The wind shifted time and again, as if the clouds were conspiring to keep my patch of the world in the shade. The one time we saw the sun in all its glory, it rained. I felt like a cartoon character with a perpetual cloud over my head.
I was cold, and miserable. Eventually, I stopped toughing it out, and I convinced Anita to go home. 
Here it is, mid-July, and I can’t get warm outdoors! We sleep under two blankets and a comforter. We run the furnace from time to time. This is absurd.
To be fair, the cool weather is worth it, overall. I’m sure those of you in 90°F aren’t sympathetic to my tale of woe. It’s comfortable to wear ordinary, nice clothes. Today, we went biking in the sun and didn’t break a sweat. Also, Dubliners tell us that this weather is unusual this late in the year.
PS – “Dun Laoghaire” is pronounced approximately like “Done Leery”.
Tonight, I had a wonderful Dublin evening. Anita was on the phone for a long conversation at about eight, and I took a walk to my new favorite place, the Grand Canal.
The rain from all day cleared, and by the time I reached the canal, there was a rich, spectacular rainbow over a short row of Gregorian Georgian townhomes. I just smiled and stared; I may have creeped out some joggers. Nobody else seemed to notice the rainbow — maybe they’re common around here.
I strolled east, and I found several pubs and restaurants. They were embedded in neighborhoods, each alone in a residential area. So far, all the pubs we’ve visited have been cheek-by-jowl with several others. So these new places were immediately attractive to me.
I didn’t bring any money, so no pint for me. But serendipity smiled upon me, just as the rainbow did. I walked the long way around the canal and saw a floating restaurant motoring towards the next set of locks.
I saw the restaurant yesterday, under unusual circumstances. It was draped with a banner reading, “Coffee on the Canal,” which got me excited, but the banner was a prop for a film. I watched the shooting for about an hour that afternoon.
Back to now: the barge was labelled “La Peniche: fine dining”, and as I approached, it drifted into the locks. A crowd, about twenty people, gathered to watch the locks at work. It was impressive, as you can see on Flickr. Apparently, it was unusual, since some Gardaí stopped to watch and residents were looking from their windows. As the water rose about 3 meters, the diners came to the top of the barge — smoking, taking snapshots, and listening to the Skipper’s story about the canal. Within about twenty minutes, the dinner party was on its way west.
I can’t convey how lovely this evening was to me. I’ve been blessed by so many little gifts from Dublin in these first few weeks!
Credit due to Anita for the Nautical pun. Just a little north of Dublin, in Belfast, nautical twilight lasts all night at midsummer (this weekend).
One surprising aspect about moving to Dublin is how it has forced Will and me into the 21st Century. In Gurnee, we had basic cable and one old mobile phone that we shared. I believe we may have been the last two people in Gurnee to share one mobile phone. Now, living in Dublin, we have been forced into the high tech world (the high tech world of 2003, that is). We each have a mobile phone – Will’s even takes pictures! We send each other text messages and actually use the features of our phones. It’s crazy.
The other high tech addition to our lives is the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) that came with our satellite. While most of our friends had DVRs or TiVo for years, we resisted. We like video tapes, we would reply when asked about what we had. They are more flexible and we like recording things on the VCR. Oh, how wrong we were. The DVR is wonderful. We can pause live TV. We can set up to record a series (say, the Sopranos) and we can know that we’ll never miss a show.
The other thing that the DVR has allowed us to do is to explore certain historical television programs, like Dallas. One of our stations is showing the series Dallas, in order, from the beginning. We’re learning all about 1978 hairstyles and fashions while we watch the Ewings and the Barnes battle it out over the OLM (that’s the Office of Land Management, in case you were wondering).
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