UP, UP, UP TO THE HEAVY SIDE LAYER

December 15, 2016

We begin today with homage to the first cat I slept with at 103 Valley View Avenue, PJ.  He actually might have been the second.  Cyrus could have been first.  A couch was opened up to a comfortable bed and those two cats joined me.  From a rescue collection of as many as ten, the population at Valley View is now down to one.  Only Jasmine patrols the hall.  Two days ago PJ went to the Heavy Side Layer.  He could have been named “Bustopher Jones,” for he was not skin and bones, in fact, he was remarkably fat, he didn’t haunt pubs, he had 8 or 9 clubs, for he was the Valley View Avenue cat.  So up, up, up, past the Russell Hotel.  Up, up, up, past the Jellicle moon.  Up, up, up to the Heavy Side Layer.  The mystical divinity of unashamed felinity.

Today was a good day on the Pacific Princess.  Rainbows this morning.  A few blue skies in the afternoon, and the rain held off long enough for mom to make 13 laps, completing her nautical mile.

With four straight days at sea, the entertainers who got on at the last stop are with us until Bermuda.  That means that Mark Preston, an excellent singer and former member of The Lettermen did a second show today, and the ventriloquist will do a second show tomorrow night.  Hopefully the Celine Dion tribute act will not be repeated.  If it is, your favorite cruisers will skip tht one – last night was the second time we’ve seen her; the first on another ship, and if we never see her again, that is okay.  I know there were folks who liked her, but we did not.  One of our table mates, who likes Celine Dion, said that other than the performer twirling her fingers there was nothing she recognized.  Take that!

I think my crowd today was the largest for my talks.  I did “Captain Kidd” today and will do the “Barbary Pirates” tomorrow.  Someone asked me if I had a Bermuda Triangle talk, I said I did, they asked the cruise director if I could do it.  I told him I would if he wanted me to.  Haven’t heard back yet.  It will be the day after we sail from Bermuda and are actually in the Triangle.  Spooky!

All of the ship’s wait staff and bartenders are wearing Santa Claus hats for the duration.  Tis the season.  Some of the head waiters add dongly things to theirs and the matre d added antlers to his.  As I said moments ago, “Tis the season.”  It is fun.

Everyone was back at Table 33 tonight and it was a pleasant evening.  I wasn’t crazy about the menu, in fact, I haven’t been crazy about many of the menus and I eat almost everything.  Tonight it was veal cordon blue.  That wasn’t too bad, but the Japanese chicken dumpling soup wasn’t much.  And neither was the fresh made Caesar salad, for that matter.  Last night while Carol and Stan went to the fancy restaurant, which they graded maybe a C+, Kathleen and Charles went to the buffet for supper.  They had never done that before and wanted to do it.  They graded it lower than the fancy restaurant.  Breakfast and lunch area always good there, but supper evidently is lacking.

Well, it’s getting close to bedtime so I will say TTFN!