Hurrican Irene Causes Dirty Hair, But Mystic Pizza Going Strong

No serious flooding here in Mystic (we got the wind more than the rain). Many trees/limbs down. We were lucky--our brook didn't cause a flood in our home or street (according to the neighbors, it did one year when the drain it flows into hadn't been continually cleared). I went out during the storm all morning long to keep the drain free of debris, wearing knee-high rubber boots so I could step into the stream and rip away vines, branches, etc. Perhaps stupidly, I walked Bailey during the storm and kept storm drains clear in the streets as well. I single-handedly saved Mystic from flooding--but since I was out alone, no one but Bailey knows!

Although I was a little scared watching the wind tear through the tall trees that surround our property (our windows are filthy now from being pelted with rain and dirt/leaves), I felt a lot safer than when Elizabeth and I were trapped in a train during Hurricane Floyd. Other than worrying how I was going to keep her head above the rising water and what she was going to eat since she could only swallow pureed food, we endured the terror of the NY woman screaming that the snack car had run of biscottis! That story was in my book, Anything But a Dog!, which the publisher just converted to an e-book in case you know anyone who might like to read the first chapter for free by clicking on the book’s image on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005GRAE0I

Our oven is electric and we don't have a gas grill, so I have been boiling water in a tea kettle over a little flame. Traffic lights are out around here, so getting around is a little tricky!

The good news is that Mystic Pizza has a generator so we did have a hot meal on Sunday--with the rest of Mystic!

My daughter Jackie and her husband Paul's hurricane story in the D.C. was in preparation of it. Jackie had to compete with others in the nation's capitol for the last remaining flashlight--a toy Lego Man that shines light from his feet. Hunting everywhere for batteries, she finally found a kind store owner who broke up packages of them (and didn't overcharge) and asked each person who came up to his counter, "Now how many do you really need to get through the storm?" Jackie, sounding very much like the old lady in the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life," in the run on the bank scene, said "Two, please." The shop keeper couldn't believe that she fought her way through the crowds to get to that counter just to ask for two. I think of that when I'm tempted to camp out all day long at Starbucks so I can keep my laptop/cell phone charged and keep you all informed. I really should only take up an outlet at Starbucks for two hours max to the writing work I'm required to do for my clients.

Today, 8/30/11-- Day Three With No Power:

We are still hearing of the flooding in NJ/NY from Hurricane Irene and you perhaps are hearing how CT is having trouble getting power back on because of a shortage of linemen. We are still being told to count on "a week or more without power." My cell phone only works intermittently because if cell tower outages.

According to an announement from the governor, CT Light and Power "was still searching for available crews as far away as Seattle or British Columbia." So if you need a job, become a lineman!

I am back in Starbucks in Groton--the one is Mystic does have power, but it's smaller and doesn't have as many outlets. The people sitting around me drinking coffee and charging their laptops/cell phones look like they've been camping. Many are on well water so don't have any water at all. Others, like me, have water, but can't stand putting their heads under cold water. I still have shampoo on my scalp from the one and only time I tried that--I just couldn't remain under the water long enough to get all the soap out.

The night sky never looked better from our house. With a new moon and no lights from town, the stars are spectacular. Occasionally we see a faint glow in a driveway--a TV powered by the car battery. Family members gather in their car for their evening entertainment (and some are cooking with hotplates powered by their car battery). Jim and I curl up in bed with my Starbuck's charged laptop to watch our DVDs. Last night we finished the movie, The Mothman, because the night before that, my laptop ran out of power just at the climax (it's a scary movie about a creature who warns people of impending doom).

Yesterday I bought a folding stove at the Army Navy Store. It sits over a canned flame and takes forever to cook anything. Because I was working until 6:45 p.m., Jim had to start dinner by frying up some of our rapidly defrosting meat--in this case, turkey burgers. I took one bite and couldn't eat anymore--it tasted slimy from the frying pan (Jim thinks the flame made it taste funny, but I don't see how). Suggesting we just give it to Bailey, Jim was upset and said something like, "I slaved all night over this luke-warm flame and you're giving your meat to the dog?"

What I really wanted was good movie popcorn for dinner, so after giving my turkey burgers to Bailey, I talked Jim into seeing a movie at Olde Mistick Village Theater. It was comforting to sit with the other dirty heads in Mystic eating warm popcorn.

Although Olde Mistick Village, a colonial style outdoor shopping center, has power, downtown Mystic and the Mystic Seaport Museum do not. That means all of those businesses are missing out on the height of tourist season (except for Mystic Pizza with its generator still going strong). The drawbridge doesn't go up either, so boats are trapped. The Weather Channel was at the drawbridge Saturday, the day before the hurricane, to show all the boats that dock there during hurricanes. The mouth if Mystic River is protected from the storms over Long Island Sound by Fisher's Island--which is why the area was historically a major ship building district before iron clads became popular after the Civil War (it was impractical to ship iron to Mystic so ship-building gradually died out).


Anyway, Jim and I were in walking around Mystic when the Weather Channel camera crews came so I tried to look casual in front of the yachts and tall ships they were filming in case they wanted to interview me. One camera man moved his camera to get me out of his line of sight. I heard Mystic River was featured on national news, but I doubt I made it into the background. Maybe I'll get lucky and hear soon that I made it in as an extra in the Merryl Streep movie soon to be filmed here.

I bought a spray at the Hair Cuttery that is supposed to make your hair look like it's been washed. It's called something like "Dirty Little Secret." If you want to know whether it keeps my dirty little hair secret a secret, just check back on my blog at http://mysticpizzaseafarer.blogspot.com/2011/08/hurrican-irene-causes-dirty-hair-but.html

Lisa

Day 5—No power: Dirty Hair Tackled by Government

Tuesday, Aug 31, 2011

Still no power, hot water, or working oven. The good news: we’re gathering nightly with our marginally showered friends by candle light to grill our rotting meat and slurp our soggy, previously frozen fruit (originally purchased for smoothies), calling it fruit compote.

Possible as a result of businesses complaining to the government that tourists won’t come back to Mystic if its residents looked filthy, we were ordered to take advantage of free showers. I’m not kidding, this was the newspaper headline: “Groton Respite Center Wants Region To Take Showers.”

Although I am learning how to take a cold shower without going into shock (by doing back bends in the stall so only my head goes under the spray), I’m dying to try one of those cold, lack-of privacy showers offered in a trailer just to have something new to write about—we’ll see.

Well, I must get going on my freelance writing work (the kind that actually pays) before I get kicked out of Starbucks for charging up my laptop/cell phone too long while sipping one cup of coffee all day. Right now I’m surrounded by some grumpy men who are complaining about our lack of lineman to get the power back on. Yesterday the radio played the old song,“The Wichita Lineman.” The mayor got on the air and told us to give “thumbs up” signs to all the bucket trucks that go by. I heard someone with a chain saw at 2 a.m. this morning working on getting the downed trees cleared. Maybe our power will be back on soon!

If only I were Amish or hardened campers like some of our friends—then this would be so much easier!

Seafarer’s Trail to Enders Island

by Lisa Saunders (see video)

My hound Bailey and I just trekked eight miles round trip to “The Hanging Garden of Enders Island” on my quest to get "Thin and Famous" along my Seafarer’s Trail.


Before leaving the house I thought I should register with New England Actors in case they put out a call for extras for the next major movie being shot in Mystic. Oh no—they want you to list your weight!  I decided I would first lose some pounds walking the trail. Or should I aim for getting “Fat and Famous” instead?

With a bottle of water, cell phone and wallet in my knapsack, Bailey and I left our house near the Mystic-Noank Library and headed toward downtown Mystic. Along the way, we passed the usual crowd getting photographed under the Mystic Pizza sign and crossed over the Mystic drawbridge to Mystic River Park, where we saw the usual lunch-time dog-walking gang sitting together on a park bench.

The dog on your right is blind and gets to ride in a little cart.

Then Bailey pulled me toward his favorite people in Mystic, Riverdog Kayak Rental owners, Suzanne and Pete, and their lazy greyhound Jordon.

After pampering Bailey (see video) and hearing of my quest to get thin and famous along my route, Pete suggested: “Maybe you can get famous by getting lost and having a search and rescue team go out looking for you.”

Hmmm. I wasn’t that desperate to get famous, but it did remind me that another way to get known in Mystic was for Bailey to discover a body along the Seafarer’s Trail (he already discovered a body in a New York park, but that’s another story). We would be sure to look for one among the dock pilings along our route.

Heading North on Rte 1, I came across the Denison Burying Ground, a family plot dating back to 1698. The Denisons were among the first settlers in the Mystic area. Always looking for an interesting dead person to meet, Bailey and I walked among the stones. Suddenly, I saw a headstone that possibly explains why so many spots around here are named after the Denisons—because there were so many Denisons!  This grave marker told of Jane, the widow of Mr. George Denison, who died in 1829 -- “At the time of her death, her children and their descendents were 350.”

From here, I couldn’t help but see the roadside restaurant, Sea Swirl, overlooking Pequotsepos Cove. It was an awfully long walk to Enders Island…Bailey rested while I “fortified” myself with fried clams.

The two-mile trip south on Masons Island Road revealed no dead bodies unless you count how I almost became one. On three separate occasions, a dog was off leash and came charging toward us, and there was hardly any shoulder to walk on, making us a target for cars. I gave a panting Bailey all our water, leaving me a bit parched—it never occurred to me that I could perish from thirst along this route.

It was all worth it, however, when we got to Enders Island and St. Edmund’s Retreat Center, which keeps an intriguing stone and flower garden, and displays relics such as the withered arm of Saint Edmund, who preached for the Sixth Crusade. I visited the three-sided seaside chapel open to Fisher’s Island Sound. It shelters an altar where people leave their hand-written prayers—some are so personal and moving, you feel you are standing on holy ground.

After rocking in a chair in a gazebo overlooking the Sound while Bailey slept at my feet, it was time to go home. Although we didn’t get discovered yet, we still have a lot more of the Mystic Seafarer’s Trail to cover. Stay tuned to read about our walk to Noank where Amelia Earhart got married (see video), and where my seafaring friend Kate gave birth to her daughter on a schooner and rowed her to shore the following morning to have her weighed on a lobster scale at Ford's Lobsters (they removed the lobsters first).(see video)

Getting Thin and Famous Along Mystic's Seafarers Trail

Bailey and I embark on the Mystic Seafarers Trail

Face it—famous people have an easier time getting work, published or promoting their cause. If you’re thin on top of it, then you can live longer to enjoy it!

After 50 years of dieting (I was a fat kid too), I have to concede that my old classmate was right when she answered my question at a high school reunion on how she stayed so thin: “You can’t eat anything and you have to exercise all of the time.”

And the secret to becoming famous? Now that truly is a secret! Not being athletic or otherwise talented, I have often resorted to the antics of Lucy Ricardo when trying to sneak into Ricky’s nightclub act. In one "I Love Lucy" episode, however, she got Ricky to agree to feature her if she could squeeze into the small costume of a performer who had quit. Lucy starved, exercised and steamed herself down to that size. Could that be the answer for me?

To find out, I’m about to launch my latest strategy for getting thin and famous—but it will be a lot more fun than Lucy's weight loss regimen! I will walk and write about the Mystic Seafarers Trail—a path I designed to include “The 7 Wonders of Mystic.” It will begin where Amelia Earhart got married in Noank and include Mystic Pizza; the haunts and homes of famous sea captains and their vessels, including the oldest whaleship in the world, the Charles W. Morgan, featured in several films and where stowaways, amputations, floggings, and burials at sea took place; Mystic drawbridge; Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration, where the discoverer of the grave of the R.M.S. Titanic, Dr. Robert Ballard, keeps his home office; and Olde Mistick Village, where Gloria, the cranky, arthritic goose has been reigning over the duck pond for decades. The trail moves south to what I call “The Hanging Gardens of Enders Island” located at the St. Edmund’s Retreat Center, where relics such as the withered arm of Saint Edmund, who preached for the Sixth Crusade, are displayed. Then eastward to Stonington, where the discoverer of Antarctica lived and where vastly out-gunned citizens fought off an attack by the British in the War of 1812.

I will not walk this 10-mile trail all in one day. This trip will involve daily treks back and forth from my home or car. My sidekick in this venture will be my faithful walking companion, my beagle/basset hound, Bailey— a true publicity hound who is already famous. He’s been featured in print and online newspapers, and in a commercial (he is the handsome dog to your left).

When I’m done covering my initial planned route, if I’m still not as thin and famous as my hound, I’ll lengthen the Seafarer’s Trail further west to the hidden tunnel at Fort Griswold in Groton, where traitor Benedict Arnold led British forces to victory during the burning of New London, and further east to include a beer tasting at the Cottrell Brewing Co. in Pawcatuck. Perhaps I will also walk north to the wineries buried in the countryside.

Why do I have all of this time to leisurely journey through Mystic Country? When Jim was transferred here last year from New York, I left a job that I loved in campus communication at a college and began working as a freelance publicist and writer, giving me ample, perhaps too ample, time to walk my hound down several side streets to delve into the back stories of the area. Seeing how much fun I’m having, many have asked me, “When are you going to get a real job?”

Good question—so I have set a deadline. If I’m not thin and famous by September, enough to be cast as an extra in the next major motion picture due to be filmed here (starring Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones and Steve Carell), then I will focus my energies into getting a "real" job—and leave the uncovering of Mystic’s secrets to someone else!

Have any tips?

If you have tips on how to get thin and famous, or want to see a particular point of interest covered on my trail, please share them in "Comments" below. To read earlier attempts, some successful, at getting thin and famous (well, at least published), read earlier posts on my blog, “How to Get Thin and Famous” at: http://howtogetthinandfamous.blogspot.com/

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I wrote the following for my book, "The Mystic Seafarer's Trail," but it will not be included when it's published. I'm putting here just so I don't have to feel sad about cutting it. There are some additonal details here:

 

I finally decided to stop waiting to find a friend with a sailboat and take matters into my own hands. I would have to think of my own stunt to get publicity.

I thought about the documentary Super Size Me, where a guy ate nothing but fast food for a month and gained more than 20 pounds. If I got fatter, would that make headlines? I doubted it. 

If being fat was what prevented me from getting featured (and therefore discovered) in that casino commercial, and why the Weather Channel did all it could video around me, then I needed to get serious about getting thin.

Learning  that “Hope Springs,” the Meryl Streep movie to be filmed in the Mystic area, would hold a casting call for extras soon (August 2011), I just had to get down to a weight I could declare on an application form. 

Perhaps I could kill two birds with one stone—lose weight and find an epic adventure by walking the entire Mystic Seafarers Trail I designed that ran between Stonington to Noank. In hopes of getting the world interested, I planned to blog along the way.  

 

Blog post:

August 3, 2011

Face it—famous people have an easier time getting their work published or promoting their cause. From where I sit on my couch watching TV and eating bon bons, most of those famous folks are thin.

After 50 years of dieting (I was a chubby kid too), I have to concede that my old classmate was right when she answered my question at a high school reunion on how she stayed so thin: “You can’t eat anything and you have to exercise all of the time.”

So, I’m about to launch my latest strategy for getting thin and famous. I will walk and write about my self-designed Mystic Seafarer’s Trail. It stretches between where Amelia Earhart got married in Noank, past Mystic Pizza, the haunts and homes of famous sea captains, and on toward Stonington, where the discoverer of Antarctica lived.

I will not walk this several-mile trail in one day. This trip will involve daily treks back and forth from my home or car. My sidekick in this venture will be my faithful walking companion, my beagle/basset hound, Bailey.

 

Blog Post:

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Bailey and I just trekked eight miles round trip to “The Hanging Gardens of Enders Island” on my quest to get thin and famous along the Mystic Seafarer’s Trail.

That part of the trail took me through Masons Island, where I heard Meryl Streep’s parents once lived. I had hoped Streep would happen to be there, spot us, and think we’d be perfect as extras in her upcoming film.

With a bottle of water, cell phone and wallet in my knapsack, Bailey and I left our house near the Mystic-Noank Library and headed toward downtown Mystic. Along the way, we passed the usual crowd getting photographed under the Mystic Pizza sign and crossed over the Mystic drawbridge to Mystic River Park, where we saw the usual lunch-time dog-walking gang sitting together on a park bench including the little, fluffy blind dog who got to the park by being pushed in a stroller by her mistress. 

Then Bailey pulled me toward Riverdog Kayak Rental, where a lazy greyhound, Jordon, sat in a tent at the end of Cottrell St with his owners who handed out doggy treats. After pampering Bailey, and hearing of my quest to get thin and famous along my route, Pete suggested: “Maybe you can get famous by getting lost and having a search and rescue team go out looking for you.”

I wasn’t that desperate to get famous, but it did remind me that another way to get known in Mystic was for Bailey to discover a body along the Seafarer’s Trail. We would be sure to look for one among the dock pilings along our route.

Heading up Washington St, we came to Bailey’s favorite Mystic store, the pet shop called Stonington Feeds. Co-owner Genevieve showed Bailey the latest in tasty snacks--bovine trachea.

Seeing the repulsed look on my face, Genevieve said, “Oh, don’t worry, we only sell organically fed bovine body parts.” That’s not exactly what was disgusting me as Bailey grabbed the very human-looking mummified trachea, which meant I knew I had to watch him chew it on my living room floor. As Genevieve continued the tour of other doggy treats including duck’s feet and cow hooves, Peaches, the store cockatoo, started screeching. Genevieve assured me nothing was wrong with him, he was just upset he wasn’t the center of attention at the moment. When Bailey caught sight of Genevieve’s old cat stretching lazily over a large bag of organic dog kibble, it was all I could do to hold him back from chasing her. Time to leave if I wanted to save my strength for the rest of our journey.

Heading north on Route 1, I came across the Denison Burying Ground, a family plot dating back to 1698. The Denisons were among the first settlers in the Mystic area in the mid-1600s. Always looking for an interesting dead person to meet, Bailey and I walked among the stones. Suddenly, I saw a headstone that possibly explains why so many places in the Mystic area are named after the Denisons—because there were so many Denisons! This grave marker told of Jane, the widow of Mr. George Denison, who died in 1829 -- “At the time of her death, her children and their descendants were 350.”

The Denison Homestead Museum in Mystic was built in 1717 and has been continuously owned for three centuries by the same family. I got a real sense of Mystic’s personal history when I saw the Revolutionary War cloak found in its attic hanging in the bedroom closet, and could imagine the wrath of little Annie B. Denison’s mother in 1873 when she discovered her daughter had etched her name on the lower level window pane with a diamond ring.

From the Denison Burying Ground where Bailey and I stood, I couldn’t help but see the roadside restaurant Sea Swirl, which overlooked Pequotsepos Cove. It was an awfully long walk to Enders Island. Bailey rested while I fortified myself with fried clam strips. Maybe I should shoot for getting “Fat and Famous” along the trail?

The two-mile trip south on Masons Island Road revealed no dead bodies unless you count how I almost became one. On three separate occasions, a dog was off leash and came charging toward us, and along several stretches, there was hardly any shoulder to walk on, making us a target for cars. I gave a panting Bailey all our water, leaving me a bit parched—it never occurred to me that I could perish from thirst along this route.

It was all worth it, however, when we got to Enders Island and St. Edmund’s Retreat Center. I visited the three-sided seaside chapel open to Fisher’s Island Sound, where the altar holds hand-written prayers of the worried or heartbroken. Some of the words to God were so personal and moving, I felt like I was standing on holy ground. I figured if the prayers were only folded in half with a sea shell holding them down, they were fair game for my eyes. I added my own prayers to those I read. If a prayer was tightly bound up, I didn’t open it. Eventually someone comes in and clears them off the altar to make room for new prayers. 

After rocking in a chair inside a gazebo overlooking the Sound with Bailey resting at my feet, it was time to go home.

People along the way back to our house felt sorry for Bailey and offered him water, but no one offered me any. Next time, I will buy that doggy fanny pack I saw at the Stonington Feeds Pet Shop--let Bailey carry his own water!

Since no one from the film crew of Meryl Streep’s movie, Hope Springs, sighted us and asked us to work as extras, I would just have to rely on making a good impression at the open casting call. It was only days away now, and yet, I had many pounds to go.