Out for a few days

Tuesday evening and late. I am going to the North Carolina Outer Banks tomorrow with close to 100 guys from church for a men's retreat. We will arrive at the southern end of Ocracoke Island tomorrow evening and be there until Saturday morning. This is the retreat's 14th year, my 3rd, although not in a row.

We are stopping at the Chicamacomico Life Saving Station in Rodanthe, NC to do some painting and other work needed. This life saving station is a historical site now, and very a very nice place to visit. This will be my third time there as well.

If you want to explore the site via the Internet, use this link: http://www.chicamacomico.net/.

This is where we stay on Ocracoke: http://www.theanchorageinn.com/. The entire motel is ours for the end of the week each year. More info about Ocracoke can be found here: http://www.ocracokevillage.com/.

See you when we get back. I'll try to take a couple of good pictures that show off the island.

This was about the last picture I took in Oklahoma on the day of Phillip's funeral. I wondered if it was the last time I'd see this bit of my family history. Life moves us all on. Reminds me of my favorite Dickinson poem. I leave it here with you.

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played
At wrestling in a ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then ’t is centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity.

Emily Dickinson 1863