April 25, 2015 THE CASE OF THE MISSING SOCK

April 25, 2015


THE CASE OF THE MISSING SOCK

This morning my beloved wife, the bride of my youth, the mother of my children, the lover of my heart was frantically tearing the bed apart, looking for a lost sock!  In the night sometime she took them off – brand new, softies – and lost one.  I was sound asleep and missed everything but the search.  She finally found it – after totally destroying the bed – folded neatly inside her pajamas.

Clad in other new socks, and the new pants she bought yesterday, Bonnie went off by herself to shop.  Now she is back showing her trophies.  She can tell you.

I have been rehearsing this morning for my next to last talk.  The Princess Patter has never had the right one listed, but I have told the audience what was coming next.  Somebody has been dropping the ball.  But there is only one more – our last sea day – so they still have a chance to bat .250 (shoot, you can do that in the Major Leagues and make a million bucks).

One day later and one port more – it’s now the 26th, and we are anchored off of Santa Barbara.

This is a tender port, no dock big enough to receive a cruise ship, so 4 or 5 of the life boats are used as tenders to get us ashore and back.  The weather was rough this morning and the Captain got permission to move us to a different anchorage to continue the tendering.  Getting 2800 people (or those who wanted to go) ashore 100 at a time took some time.  We got off somewhere around noon – we had not purchased a shore excursion, and were in no hurry.  Once we got off we ate at a restaurant called “Sambos.”  They had pictures up from the classic children’s story that has now been outlawed as racist (and it’s not about a Negro, it’s about a boy in India).  A little boy (for those of you who don’t remember it) tricks a tiger to run around a tree and he turns into pancake batter – the tiger, not the boy.  We didn’t eat pancakes, but I had a cheese burger and Bonnie had chicken tacos.  Then we walked out to a touristy peer where we looked around, and walked back.  We are two exciting tourists!

I have napped.  She is napping.  And then we will go to supper and a production show.  Next stop, Catalina Island and another tender day.

From Bonnie: Now you would think if a cruise ship with 2800 people plus crew were in dock that the stores would be open. Not so. I left the ship around 8:15 and walked about 30 minutes to pier 39 from pier 27. The only thing open was the restaurants and those shops selling tours. Rats. So I popped into McDonalds and had a diet coke and a hot apple pie. I asked the young lady who waited on me what time the shops would open. She said 9 or 9:30. So I sat down drank my coke and ate my pie. At 9:15 I again ventured out to complete my shopping list. First I found the t-shirt I was looking for. Next I finally found the chocolate factory so I could get some chocolate covered pretzels. Next I went looking to get another pair of long pants (sweats actually) I found a pair. You know if you ask for a bag when you buy something they charge you 10 cents. After purchasing said sweats I headed to CVS to complete my shopping. One diet coke, Q-tips, a razor for me and a bag of combos (I was hungry for a salty snack). It wasn’t as cold yesterday and my hat didn’t fly off. I had a good time but was really dragging by the time I started back. It took a little longer but I made it back in time to meet David at 11:30 for a little bit of lunch. After eating a tuna sandwich, I went to the Vista lounge to watch sail away and wait for David’s talk. The hour before his talk was the Zumba class and I did about 20 minutes before my legs said STOP! 

TTFN