Speaking of seeing stars (as JtC did) it’s been overcast virtually every night, including a t-storm last night, so we haven’t been able to see the Southern Cross, dammit. Oh well…
I woke around 3, read one chapter to put myself back to sleep, then woke again around 7:20. It’s our last at-sea day. I’ve begun packing because they need our bags outside our rooms by 8pm tomorrow. No sense waiting till the last second.
There are a couple of things on our schedule today, including some sort of show by the culinary staff. Mostly chillage, tho. We’re ready.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 38 Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 68 and N.O.S. for the day. Tomorrow will be wet and icky accordin’ to TWPTB. We shall see. Today I shall make a lime cake with cream cheese frostin’ and a gallon each of sweet and unsweet tea. Tomorrow is first Sunday brunch after deheathenization. There will be a chili cookoff as a part of The Souper Bowl of Caring. We’re not in to the chili cookoff part but will happily donate and eat some yummy chili and fixin’s. The lime cake seems like a nice thing to as a dessert after chowin’ down on chili. Any need to feed today will be via forage.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah.
It’s 38 degrees F and mostly cloudy outside at the moment. The day will remain mostly cloudy, with an expected high temperature of 52F.
nellie, I hope you’re feeling better today.
VanGo, sending hugs just because. I hope things improve soon.
JtC, it’s not so much about the retention schedules; those are right on the record labels; it’s more having to do with destroying records before permission is received, how some of the boxes are prepared, etc. I’m hoping it’s not as bad as my gut tells me.
JBats, hoping all goes as planned for you.
Errands and cleaning are on the to-do list for today. That’s about it.
Mornin’ all. Awoke just before sunrise and got a couple of pix just after sunrise. Which I’ve uploaded along with yesterday’s more meager haul of pix.
There’s a small nature preserve / park & the ruins of an 1800s fort at the tip of a bluff of land adjacent to the hotel. I climbed up there after breakfast yesterday = Fri. I especially liked the picture of the old cannon aligned with the docked cruise ships. Fire!
In another shot from that vantage you can see some jet-skis zooming about the bay as I did later that day.
Now on Sat I’m lazing through breakfast and (Island-style logistics permitting) will set up a coastal horseback ride at a nearby nature preserve for later today. That and some beaching sounds good. Today is as sunny as yesterday was gray, so solar management will be necessary but doable.
Nellie hope you start feeling better soon!! And yes, keeping good shoes on your feet is no different than good tires on your car. Except getting your steering aligned is a LOT more hassle with your body than a car, so it’s especially important not to “drive” on badly worn or ill-fitting shoes. Besides, shoes are cheaper than tires. And come in more fun colors too.
On Thu night the hotel bar had a similar set-up. A male guitarist, a backup iPad with rhythm section, etc., and a young woman singing who was so awful I assumed it was karaoke when I first got within earshot of the bar. A thin voice, no pacing, little volume control, and not real great on pitch either. She was 20-something, so cute enough, but not even exceptional by those standards.
The following night, so Fri, as I was walking along the boardwalk with the Miami Nigerian lady after dinner we saw/heard the same duo at a beachfront hotel bar. Without my prompting my companion said “Wow, she is bad!”. And this from a woman of such sunny disposition that negative thoughts seemingly just aren’t in her head.
OTOH, the vocalist was seemingly making a living while living in/on Sint Maarten and hanging out with a like-minded guy, so all seemed pretty right in her world.
Wow. That is a lot more far gone than I had thought. My heart goes out to both of you.
Everyone who’s ever been a caregiver has had those thoughts. It’s a very different take on the old married lament: “Can’t live with 'em; can’t live without 'em.” Don’t feel bad for thinking these things. Really. Hug!
ISTM given where his mind is now and where it’s going, whether he was/is assiduous or totally avoidant of medical care almost doesn’t matter anymore. His mind is the pacing item for his longevity.
Late aged MIL was slowly losing the battle with mini-strokes eating her mind. She really wanted to live to 100 but her biggest fear was her body outliving her mind, and being reduced to being a lump in a bed controlled by some staff of indifferent nurses. She got half her wish; she died at home one night at age 96 still interested in the whole wide world and still able to converse fully intelligibly and reasonably intelligently, just not about anything that happened recently.
I’d call that a blessing overall. Here’s hoping all of us facing increasingly infirmity of our spouses and ourselves are granted the same luxury. IMO there are worse things than being dead.
Now that sounds like a great adventure, and not too far from what I’m trying to do. Here’s hoping our journeys prove to be as good as we hope.
Do that. She’ll love watching you thrive far more than she’ll enjoy hearing about you intending to.
Happy personal-Firday there doggio. I suppose that Malört will be apres-heave today?
Morning. A slightly sniffly morning today. I am watching my son swim and crying as the radio came on and it was a song that gives me heavy nostalgia, “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz. Now I’m listening to the song and thinking about my son and crying. I get emotional sometimes.
He is getting close to the assisted back float (starfish.) His progress seems glacial at times, but he’s getting there.
Spouse Weasel and I had a good long talk about next steps with our son, as all the autism services are in place it’s time to work on the gifted services. We were wrong - we can’t afford that gifted school, it’s basically the cost of college tuition. His questions are constant, which is totally age appropriate, but they are all about math. We are reaching our own limits of what we can teach him much faster than expected. We have connected with the state association for gifted children and are hoping for a tutor. Then we need to have a talk with the school district about what they can offer.
It’s always good talking to my husband because we are in this together, we are the only ones who really get it. We are hoping to find some community soon.
It’s nice to have a problem about something positive for a change.
Today we are all three getting haircuts, and then possibly going to Office Depot to let him pick out his own calculator.
We have a distant cousin who believes she is a singer, and she sings at every family event, but because we have such a large family, she gets the opportunity to sing all the time, for large crowds of people, which I imagine just reinforces her notion that she is a good singer, but she is not. She is definitively not. I’ve never met a single member of my husband’s family who can carry a tune, but it never stops them from trying.
Morning all. Got my 8 hours in and the itchiness seems to be subsiding, so will see how it goes. Am breaking fast right now and indoor soccer will be this afternoon, so sloth time is now. Supposed to get to 65F today but rain is due tomorrow and that will dip us back into the 40’s.
VanGo, hope the crap eases up.
Pilot, thanks for the conversation, I have been trying to eat better, but I am also a ‘fussy’ eater and have a limited taste in food, so I envy you (and others) who can vary their diets. Still, losing 60-70lbs in 2 years seems to me to be steady but not a crash loss, so I’ll keep working towards my goal of 220lbs and then see if I can hold it there.
And I love old forts and cannon. My November trip I was in Cartagena and spent more time on the walls of the old city than the shopping areas, and would probably have had heat stroke if they had let me go explore Castle San Felipe de Barajas but still regret not being able to.
Probably too late, been 5-6 years and when walking on a slope he uses a cane. I do worry about it, but as I said he inherited my Mom’s family temper and blows up if I even mention it sideways. At least he has a loving wife and 3 grown kids to help.
J-Bats, one chapter of life closing means a new one opens with blank pages just waiting for you to fill them. Hoping that the story is a good one and you’ll share it with us.
JtC, glad you are getting rain, any flood warnings there? AndI never knew you could send dinner rolls via the post office…you live and learn.
nellie, hope you’re feeling better.
Spicy, sounds like you and husband are on the same page about your son and are starting early to support him. Good on Ya both.
My mom used to say the we (her, my Dad, brother and I) weren’t the best singers in the Church, but we might have been the loudest. We enjoyed it but none of us thought we were fit for company.
I’m not a fussy eater, but my husband is allergic to basically everything, so when I prepare meals I have to restrict certain foods that are incredibly common in easy-to-prepare dishes (no dairy, tomatoes, limited garlic, no beef, no vinegar, no wheat, etc.) But the upshot is probably that I eat healthier. As long as I exclude his allergies I don’t really have to worry about what’s in the meal, because it’s probably going to be some kind of bean or lentil dish, or lean meat, or fish, and vegetables.
I think I’m losing weight, not exactly on purpose, because I gave up on that a long time ago, and just try to focus on healthy habits. But COVID really threw my appetite for a loop. It feels like I can taste food again but I just don’t enjoy it as much. Which is not really a bad thing. I mean sure, I can taste a cake or soda or something and think, “That’s tasty,” but I don’t feel waves of calming energy like I used to. It’s just a cake. Between that and cooking at home more, I seem to be losing some weight. As far as exercise goes, don’t laugh, but I’ve started brushing my teeth standing on one foot, and it has had huge impacts I never would have imagined. In addition to the obvious improving my balance, it has strengthened my legs and core, and now I can squat to get things off low shelves, which was a challenge for me in the past. And from that I have moved into light yoga poses. So it’s what I would call a very gradual increase of strength and mobility, without all the pressure. I’m also trying to get a walk in every day, though that’s harder, because it entails a lot more friction to get out of the house in the middle of Winter. I may start jogging in the spring, because it’s more interesting than walking, but that would increase my risk of injury, so jury’s out.
I think after years of trying to push myself I just decided to make it slow and easy. I’m in no hurry, right? If I get 1% stronger every week, but it’s something I can actually sustain, what’s wrong with that?
I hope I don’t sound like a carping critic; my intent is anything but that.
For sure that’s great progress you can be rightly proud of. Even more so given your age. I did my big weight loss at age 53-54, and I recognize how much older I feel now a decade later, and how much more stubborn 5 lbs is now versus then. You being a few years farther along make what you’re doing even more impressive.
MetalMouse - regarding church singing, when I was in the Navy, there was a chaplain who loved music. He’d tell the congregation “If you have a good voice, praise God with it. If not, get even with Him!”
The culinary show was a hoot. Some mediocre singing, one really good singer (FCD and I agreed he’d go far with some training), a dance routine, and some pretty funny gags. Plus a cooking demonstration. Overall, very entertaining.
After, we got some pizza and some soft-serve ice cream, and now we’re chilling in the lounge at the top of the ship. It’s a beautiful day, but just a tad windy for sitting on deck reading. So we chill.
There’s lotsa stuff here I wanna respond to, but I’m also hitting peak “Bitch” mode (I have so many gripes, imma need my own Festivus pole) so I’m just gonna keep tossing treats to Mr. Monkey to keep us both entertained until I can get more sleep.
New system at work is kewl, but it’s put everyone into “It’s my first day” mode, including the seasoned veterans, so the entire crew is on their last nerve, snippy with each other (which turns into a lovely feedback loop) plus other nonsense that turned last night into one giant pisser.
Really wanted to, um, hang out with G.C. but he’s dealing with work stuff, too, and hasn’t been by in a coupla weeks.
The lack of, um, companionship is not helping Bitch Mode.
Stopped at the grocery store last night, prepped dinner, but was too tired to make it. Tossed my phone onto my bed and told myself I’d just nap for a bit, then make food.
Woke up past dawn, phone tangled in my blankets and dying at 4%, all lights still on, tummy growling hungrily for some reason.
Let Monkey out earlier and he obediently trotted back when I called him in … having triumphantly shed the last jingle-bell collar I had for him. Went out to look for it, and there’s another friggin’ giant branch down in the yard. If they take that tree down, though, the house will be in glaring sun all summer, so it’s not in my best interest to go through that particular maintenance request hassle.
Speaking of … sink is full of dirty dishes, again, but this time it’s not entirely my fault; the damn kitchen AND bathroom sinks are clogged - not that the bathtub drains much better - so who knows when they’ll show up. Probably right after I fall asleep.
If I were the property owner, I’d get rid of the two dying trees AND plant an oak and/or maple towards the back of the lot, so they’d shade the house while being away from the basement, plumbing, and roof.
But I’m not.
Ugh. I’m tired of my own cranky self. Having made last night’s “dinner” for breakfast, I’ve been stuffing my face while griping into the void, so imma head back to comfy bed soon.
Tonight I hafta face Long Night while dealing with the new system and dealing with everyone else dealing with the new system and dealing with everyone else dealing with each other and … yeah … ugh.
Up, caffeinating, breakfasted, had walkies with Nelson and fixing to do KP. Once it gets warmer, we’ll head to the dog park. Meanwhile, I’ll mess around in the studio some more.
Lord, I’m going crazy down here. It’s 10:30 and my sister just said she might not make the goal of being ready at noon. WTF. My Parkinson’s BIL is snoring in the chair with Fox News blasting. But the Publix fried chicken was good.
Croissant sandwiches for breakfast. Today’s version had scrambled eggs, bacon and sliced avocado, with extra avocado on the side. Then we drove up to the Saturday Dumpling Company to pick up our order: one package each of shrimp and pork. This place makes the best over-stuffed dumplings I’ve ever had. And they give you house-made sauce to go with them. It’s a pop-up business that is going viral, and they keep expanding their menu. If you live in the MSP area, give it a try.
Wife’s got an appointment with the house hair cutter today, but that’s about it for activity on our part. We’re both a bit achy after reengaging in the exercise program yesterday.
Heaving wasn’t bad. Shaggy got his ass written up for flirting with the girls instead of doing the bag trailer. Which is good. Because next week Panamanian Vince is on vacation in Panama for Carnival, and I get stuck with Shaggy and Sloth Man. I need a drink already.
Having done old records before, it will be “mislabeled in half crumbled cuneiform tables” bad, most likely.
Well, we had scrambled eggs. And bacon. I had some ‘Mexican’ shredded cheese mix and some of the salsa I made yesterday on mine. (Wife had shredded cheddar on hers.) Both cats got a little bacon, and Goo got some of Catmom’s milk.
That does sound very nice, and I’m sure it will taste great.
I will be optimistic with you. It’s easy for me, I can’t actually see the files, all I can do is try to avoid having flashbacks about that time we “found” a storage locker full of old justice court docs.
He could be more comfortable. His constant inactivity means he hurts when he stands up and hurts to walk. He can’t brew beer or shoot guns because his shoulders give him too much pain and he can’t ride his motorcycle because of knee pain. He gets out of breath just walking across the street to get the mail. It hurts my heart to hear him moan when he tries to roll over at night. It is very sad and it shouldn’t be this way.
The I17 closed at Munds Park (about 20 miles south of Flagstaff) and there were flood warnings around Oak Creek, but not here. We got another .4 inches yesterday and today the ground is dry with a few wet patches under the trees.
I’m learning that I can mail just about anything as long as I don’t put cold packs in the box. That alerts not-so-honest people that the package contains food which is why I cannot successfully mail my cheese to her but can have commercially made cheese drop-shipped to her.
When I bake things, I vacuum pack half of whatever it is and send Mom a weekly box. Mom always seems pretty happy to get it and enjoys taking homemade goodies to the Senior Center to share (and brag about).
I think that if it works for you, not only is there nothing wrong with it, that it is perfect for you and you should keep it up.
Ugg, that sounds horrible. I hope things shake out soon. Dang about the drains, are you on city sewer? If so, I’ll bet you will end up losing one of the trees because blockages like that are often root caused. I hope the tree gets replaced in a better place…but that costs money that the owner might not want to spend.
