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biscman.....I called down to sjp and was told the same facts as in your post of the front porch gazette . the membership fee of 15k is much cheaper than I paid 6yrs ago. The 5k activation fee is something they require if you don't commit to membership within the first 30 days after you close on your property purchase. That is if you decide on membership later there is an activation fee. Also a golf or tennis membership is extra. Again I had no idea of the new structure when I first tried to clarify some of the questions.
Regarding the "massive" restaurant closings and the Surfers Restaurant in particluar, that were reported in the Front Porch Gazette article posted earlier, all due to the municipal sewer improvements being installed in Southport........ as we are headed down there in a couple of weeks and were worried that the only food we would have to eat would be some wienies heated up on a portable grill we could set up behind the supermarket, I decided to investigate and personally called about a half dozen of the restaurants that we intend to visit and they are all open and ready for our business and were happy that the sewer work was being done.... they said it was a shame about the Surfer restaurant as it had been there so long. It is good to know that news publications are carrying on the age old tradition of accuracy at all costs. I am very heartened by the notion that we will not be going hungry while on our sojourn to Southport..... also please reference the below article that may clear up "a bit" of the mystery about the Surfer restaurants' demise.
Surfers hosted the local Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club and Lions Club and specialized in local seafood but, when it discovered that their impact fee would be nearly $200,000, they had no choice but to close down.
That is absolutely absurd. The tap fees for properties on Oak Island were less than $5,000. It certainly doesn't cost 40 times that to hook a restaurant to public water and sewer in Southport. How is a business in a town with a full time population of less than 5,000 people supposed to absorb a cost like that? No wonder restaurants are closing in Southport.
Since my better half has reminded me time and time again that I am not always the sharpest knife in the drawer OR the brightest light on the porch OR the quickest on the uptake.... AND with old age creeping up daily at 58 yrs of age ( birthday last week ) ..... it has taken me a while to gather my cobwebbed thoughts on the "dues" thing. She has reminded me that here at home our minimum is $2400 per year excluding booze. Our full golf membership is just under $1k per month "year round" even though the course itself is closed in the winter and the "buy-in / initiation fee" was and still is $40K..... with people standing in line waving the money and hoping for an availabilty to pop up through attrition. That's for 1 very nice clubhouse with 1 pool, no tennis, 18 holes, no marina, no excercise facilities and no beach club. I believe now as I believed earlier that the St James fee structure is a bargain..... especially for what you get.
I myself have a birthday on March 17, St Patricks Day. Big 57, 1 year behind you. Even against Charlotte NC standards the St James deal is quite a bargain.
Dear biscy..... when I got up this morning I had a new ache in my left shoulder..... it wasn't there last week when I was 57...... just something else to look forward to.
Many of you have asked me when daughter Mary's TV show, In Plain Sight, is coming back on the air. We now know. May 1st at 10:00 on Sunday night. They are back to Sunday nights and I think the day and time slot are good.
Something new this season on IPS. As you know, I was out in L. A. early this year and on January 7th Mary found out she was pregnant. She and Michael had been trying to get pregnant for about a year so this was cause for great celebration. She was scheduled to leave for Albuquerque on January 9th to begin shooting her fourth season. It takes about 6 months to shoot the 13 episodes. I told her maybe she could keep her pregnancy hidden until she finished shooting in June. Mary told me, "Dad, no way, when I am six months pregnant I look like a Coke machine". She IS a big girl and funny too. So they are going to write her pregnancy into the script. It should be a lot of fun. USA Network is actually happy that she is pregnant, they think it will add some more interest to the show, you know, working Mom etc. But who will the father be? Fred? What do you think? Stayed tuned.
MY NECK DOESN'T WORK
I just remembered an incident that happened to me when I was in L. A. in January, and maybe some of you can identify with it. No, not my appearance with Paris Hilton. Mary and I and her two girls were riding in Mary's car, Mary was driving, I was in the front passenger seat and the girls were in the back seat, Margaret behind Mary and Rose behind me. Somehow Mary saw something amusing Rose was doing and whispered to me, "Dad, look at Rose, look at Rose". I said, "I can't". She said "Why?" I said "Because my neck doesn't work anymore." Mary said, "What the hell are you talking about?" I told her my neck no longer can turn far enough for me to see behind me. I told her the only way I could look at Rose would be for her to stop the car, I would get out of the car and then get back in the car, kneel on my seat facing backwards and look at Rose in the back seat. Mary shook her head, sighed heavily, and said, "Jesus". I told her wait till you get older, you'll see. I can only turn my neck about 60 degrees before the pain sets in. Oy! O. K., what was Rose doing in the back seat? I'm not sure, she was probably back there making bullets or cleaning her pistol -- Tiny Soprano.
DINNING IN ST. JAMES
Beginning in April there is a new restaurant schedule. Breakfast will still be available every day at Tommy Thompsons. All five restaurants will be open for lunch seven days a week. Dinner schedule is: Members SMTW, Players WTFS, The Reserve TFSS, And Tommy Thompsons will be open all 7 nights.
There is some confusion among Club members about the dining availability at the new restaurant at The Reserve Club. Only Signature Members and their guests will be permitted to eat at The Reserve Club. A Premier Member as a guest of a Signature Member can dine at The Reserve and he or she can charge their meal to their own account and this will apply toward their minimum.
The Reserve Restaurant will open for business on Thursday, March 31st and because of the anticipated heavy volume of dinners, reservations for both lunch and dinner will be required for that first week-end.
Remember, all can tour the new Reserve Clubhouse on Member Appreciation Day on March 26th.
POTPOURI
How often do you meet someone and after talking to them for a few minutes you are perplexed how this person made it this far in life? I'm thinking it happens way too often.
Interesting. Did you know that less than 40% of Hospice patients are Cancer patients? At one time almost all Hospice patients were end stage cancer patients. No more. Cancer is still number one, followed by Heart Disease and Dementia.
Warrior Ride on 3/31. Thirty combat wounded women service members will be riding their bikes throughout St. James on 3/31 and you received an email blast from the POA showing the 16 mile route. You can also check out the route in the POA office. This is an important and fun event and all St.
James women are invited to ride along with the Warriors. A ceremony will be held at Woodlands Park following the ride. A good idea would be for folks to line up along Park Ridge Drive right before the covered bridge and you can cheer the warriors on at the end of their ride. They should be approaching the Covered Bridge around 11:30. And then you will be at
Woodlands Park for the ceremony. For full information call Warrior Ride
Coordinator, Tom Kuhn 253-3664, Carol Szot 253-7029 or Pattie Powderly-Accordino 253-9874
Golf Tournament on April 7th for the benefit of Southport's Maritime Museum. Four friends of mine are behind this effort -- well, they are not really friends, I just kind of know them -- actually I not really that fond of them. Now, please understand that none of these four is Mr. Excitement.
Who else would be raising money for a Maritime Museum? Rumor has it there is a trip to the Masters involved in this tournament -- that's pretty cool and worth checking out. Get more information by calling Jim "Fruit Loops"
Carey 253-6331, Jim Crum 253-7843, Walt Madsen 253-8884, or Wayne Moody
253-3552
Speaking of Mr. Excitement, I ran into Bruce Maxwell at the POA meeting last week. If you don't doze off talking to that guy you are an insomniac.
Bruce and four other St. James guys rebuild old computers and give them to needy school kids. So far they have refurbished more than 600 units for the school children. So, if you have a Windows XP or later version of a computer that you are finished with, please give Bruce a call (253-4452) and he will come and pick it up. This is a very worthwhile cause.
"I'll be seeing you in every lovely summer's day In everything that's light and gay I'll always think of you that way I'll find you in the morning sun And when the night is new I'll be looking at the moon But I'll be seeing you."
I know when you were reading the lyrics above, that you started to sing a little bit or least stared to hum it. Right? Yeah, you did, I know it -- fess up. You have to admit that these lyrics are beautiful -- are there any songs written today with lyrics like these? Sorry about talking about old songs again, heck, this song is older than I am. It's that 40's station on XM radio that gets me. As all great music, it evokes strong memories. This song was on Sinatra albums we listened to in college in the 60's and it reminds me of those fun and carefree times and all the young girls we dated back then. And, you know, when I picture those girls today, they still look like they did when they were 19. Perky. God, I hope I don't run into any of them today.
American Idol -- to the other four folks in St. James who watch American Idol -- how great is the talent this year? And, I think the panel is the best ever. I know it is a young people's show, the panel of judges is made of up of a black guy, a Spanish gal, and a white guy who is recovered alcoholic and drug addict rock star. Young people just see people, they don't have the built in prejudices that our generation was raised with. It is not a group you would find having lunch at Members. And how absolutely gorgeous is Jennifer Lopez -- oh my - and smart and nice too!
Bobby Sherwood and I took Jim Reynolds to lunch today at Members. Who is Jim Reynolds? All golfers who were in St. James before 2008 remember Jim.
He was a Ranger who always had a great smile -- a real friendly guy. Jim is now a resident of Carillon Assisted Living in Southport and he has dementia. But he still has that great smile. He obviously gets mixed up and forgetful, but this hasn't diminished his great personality. I asked him at lunch how long he worked as a Ranger at Members and he said, "40 years" and he says it with confidence and authority. I told him when we picked him up that we were going to Members Club for lunch and he said, "Oh good, I have to see that girl in the office there". He was talking about Becky. He hugged on Becky when we arrived and he hugged on Becky when we left, as a matter of fact we had to pull him out of the office. Old Jim might have dementia, but something is working right. A bunch of folks from St. James have been over to Carillon to visit Jim and to take him out -- nice folks, right?
I am leaving for Ann Arbor on Wednesday for 12 days to give daughter Bridget another break -- she will leave for DC on Thursday to spend the week-end with her husband while I take care of the kids. Son Will is flying out from LA on Thursday for the week-end to help me out -- I don't think they trust me. I'm actually looking forward to it because they are good kids and fun to be around and I am healthy enough to help out.
Judith is still In FL with her ailing Mother. Her Mom is back in the nursing home and Judith spends every day with her watching that she doesn't pull out her IV that will be in for another week. They have mittens on her Mom's hands so she can't get to the IV and when Judith got to the Nursing Home yesterday at 8:00 A. M. (she has a 1 hour and fifteen minute ride) her Mom had somehow removed her mittens and had pulled the IV out. Someone from the hospital had to go to the Home and put the IV back in. It looks like the antibiotics they are giving her will be complete by next Monday and then she won't have to be "watched". It's been a rough few weeks for Judith. We have all gone through it or will go through it, but this has been a rough one. I hope Judith is home when I get back on the 21st -- there's a lot of pine straw to spread.
#1.... Was waiting til tomorrow to asy Happy Birthday.... but ok Happy Birthday a day early..... I trust that this salutation does not remind you of the approching and inevitable onslaught of aches and pains that will soon be creeping up on you.
#2.... Yes, as a matter of fact we are headed down to St James next weekend for 5 days to breathe the Southportish air, partake of some victuals and libations at Tommy Thompsons and the various eating establishments inside and outside the plantation gates..... in particular we are looking forward to some oceanfront dining at some of the Oak Island and Southport restaurants with some of the new friends we made on our last trip. We will also be scouting around to arrange for a rental for when we arrive down there on approximately August 1st. The weather purports ( look that one up ) to be high 60's to low 70's degrees and sunny so we anticipate a few drinks on Friday night at Tommy Thompsons with the live entertainment out on the deck while watching the boats bob up ad down in the marina..... during these "festivities" I will be gently a puffin' on a Macanudo Baron de Rothchild in the breeze from the very same marina.
Thank you very much my trusty future neighbor, appreciate the good wishes.
It sounds like you have a great plan and weather should be great. Tommy T's opens up the outside bar this Friday I am told.
Cheers!!!
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