BLOG, THE SEVENTH

November 17, 2018

Today started out in an ordinary fashion.  Actually, a tad unusual because I slept in until 8 o’clock.  I was having a weird dream.  Someone had broken into our house at 233 and I had shot him with a Mossberg 500 shotgun (which I want one of and have not yet purchased).  His cohort was tapping me on the shoulder and I was getting ready to turn around when I realized it wasn’t the bad guy tapping me, it was Bonnie waking me up.  Bless her heart, she had been awake since 6 o’clock, had quietly gotten up, dressed, walked a mile and came back to our stateroom.  I was still sleeping, so she slipped into bed and played games on one of her devices until she decided I had slept long enough.  So we showered and went to the dining room for breakfast.

Last night, reading the FunTimes, the official communication of the Carnival Ecstasy, I was surprised to learn that I was not scheduled for a talk today – although the schedule I received when we got on board indicated I would have a talk today.

After breakfast, we came back to the room to get some lazy day supplies, and I decided to call Rick, the entertainment director, and ask him to change today’s missed talk – Celestial Navigation – to the last sea day and drop the Social Media talk (my least favorite of the 5 I do for Carnival, and the least attended – folks our age, who make up a large portion of the guest population, just aren’t all that interested, but as I’ve said before, it’s their ship and they can do what they want).

When Rick answered and I told him who it was, he asked, “Where are you?!”  In our stateroom.  Then he apologized up and down because he had forgotten to tell me about the schedule change (there was a cooking show in my arena) and asked if I could come up to the Chinese Lounge and do my talk.  Of course, says I, and I slipped a collared shirt on over my Pittsburgh Pirate t-shirt, took off my casual shoes and put on my dress Florsheims, grabbed my computer and headed up to Deck 9.

I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t gotten the message and my tech support came rushing in with an old fashioned projection screen – similar to the official projection screen of MIR Children’s Foundation – and a portable digital projector.  The cruise director announced the talk – first time any have been announced over the ship’s public address system – and I settled in with some faithful folks to do the talk at 10:30 (just a tad bit later than the original start time) and repeated it at noon.

Rick thanked me profusely for pulling his fat out of the fire, and I said, “Glad to help.”  Build up those brownie points wherever you can.

To the best of my recollection, the rest of the day went without incident, and there is no one awake in R-15 to correct me.  This was formal night and we dressed up accordingly and went to supper.  I had lobster tail with grilled jumbo shrimp and Mom had pork loin with mashed potatoes.  Two good dinners.  The show tonight was a magician – not my companion’s favorite – but I enjoyed it.

Now we are back in the room.  It is 9:53 and she has been asleep for 30 minutes.  She is still droopy.  She has been taking Coracidin for two days and isn’t perking on all cylinders yet.  Keep her in your prayers that she will be bubbly and perky soon.

Tomorrow is St. Maarten and if she is up to it, we will go ashore for a few hours, wander around, and try to find the Yoda Museum, developed by the man who created one of Star War’s favorite characters.  I know a couple of young Star Wars fans who might be interested in a picture of Granny and Pappy with the old Jedi master.

Well, there is no one to read this to for proof reading, so what you see is what you get.  Until tomorrow ...

TTFN