QUARANTINE BLOG #1

March 31, 2020

A friend of ours suggested that I write a different kind of blog during these new times.  So if you like it, thank Frank.  If you don’t like it, same person.

This is going to be disjointed, jumping from one subject to another.  And that’s my fault.  Not Frank’s.

👉Last week I shared with a family member a very, very, very minor reason for hoping for a soon end to this pandemic.  In 7 days I had made 4 trips to Walmart, all to pick up prescriptions (Bonnie has her regular end of cruise cold and hasn’t wanted to go out).  I picked up a few groceries while I was there, strolled by the toilet paper aisle, just to check.  Yup, empty (but anticipating a visit from relatives who wipe vigorously, we stocked on Sam’s large size).  Well, the remark: I hope this thing ends soon or people are going to start to think that I like shopping!

👉I went to Monterey’s Mexican Restaurant last night to pick up beef fajita’s for two.  The front door is tied open so you don’t have to touch it.  And inside at every other booth, the table is turned on its side so no one can set there.  What a brave new world.  Decidedly different from the one Aldous Huxley had in mind.

In Huxley’s story of a future that is certainly unappealing, stability is the “primal and ultimate need” if civilization [is] to survive the present crisis [of the novel].  Stability.  Social distancing.  Self-quarantine.  Mass cancellations.  Home school.  Restrictions on purchases. Only critically needed workers.  Stability.

👉Talking to his aunt a few days ago, I learned that one of the young men who attends Macedonia United Methodist Church had long desired to be home-schooled.  After 3 days of it – and his Mom is a school principal, and thus his teacher – he changed his mind and was longing for the good old days.  As are we all, Sam.  As are we all.

👉Speaking of Macedonia and church in general, many congregations are joining together, not in the house of worship, but via the Internet.  It is not unusual to hear complaints about “the church” or the preacher, or the choir, or the whatever – and three fingers back at myself – but the thing I am looking forward to the most once the outbreak is under control (and not one day before then) is “the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:25).  In the meantime, another verse from Hebrews: “encourage one another daily” (3:13).

👉Back to Aldous Huxley’s book for a paragraph or so.  The title, “Brave New World,” comes from Miranda’s speech in William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” Act 5, Scene 1.  (For more information, check out my cruise talk, “Tempest in the Atlantic.”)  Seeing visitors coming, Miranda says, “O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t.”

Miranda was naive.  She did not see the evil nature of the island’s visitors.  But I  think now about people responding to our evil visitor – COVID 19.  The essential jobs.  In a normal world, and we left that world sometime ago, all jobs are essential.  Today when we are sitting at home, numbing ourselves with TV and the smaller screens of our hand-held devices, there are people who are putting themselves at risk  so that we can stay well.  Those who are taking the risks that all the rest of us are being ordered not to take.  We immediately think of the medical teams, the first responders, those who literally face hazard by protecting and serving.  Protecting and serving us.  But let’s not forget the grocery store workers, UPS, FedEx, USPS, manufacturing, trucking/delivery and the restaurants open for take out – all who working to keep the wheels of civilization moving.

👉That cartoon is by Signe Wilkinson and published in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

👉And just for laughs, Garfield, by Jim Davis.

👉And now some (more) disjointed thoughts.

👉I am reading Donna Leon’s The Waters of Eternal Youth.  It is the 25th in her marvelous series, set in Venice, about Commissario Guido Brunetti.  I have written one novel, unpublished, and reading her stories, I see my tale – which I think is pretty good – as a skeleton, but hers is a body, strong, robust, and full of life.  Great stuff.  Two thumbs up.

Reading the series now I say, “Oh, we walked there!  We saw that!”  And will again.  That’s the beauty of it.

Incidentally, the first time Star Trek: The Diary of Elena was submitted to Pocket Books, it was returned with a note which said, in effect, “You mean trees died for this?” and the second time with a note that said, “Good story.  Well written.  But not a direction in which we wish to go at this time.”  I need to rewrite it a third time, and put flesh on the bones.

Anyway, back to Guido.  Having finished supper, he and his wife, Paola, have gone to bed where many evenings they read, propped up on pillows.  Paola, a university professor, teaching literature in English, usually reads in preparation for her classes or the works of her students.  Tonight, Guido is reading Apollonius of Rhodes, the story of Jason and the Argonauts.  In the fashion of most couples who read different material together, Guido has commented on the story:

“The Greeks saw nothing wrong in going to war over the kidnapping of a woman, yet when a city was conquered, the men were slaughtered, the women enslaved, and no one gave it a thought,” he said.

“Well, no one on the winning side,” Paola said, then added, “The victors get to write the poetry.”

“I thought that was history.”

“They write both,” Paola said.

Message, Spock?  Absolutely none.  I just enjoyed that passage.

👉Something else I enjoyed reading this morning, sent by Pastor Mickey Moss, who is emailing a daily psalm.

O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!
(Psalm 8:1, 3-5, 9)

Most preachers, commenting on the psalm put a question mark after David’s remark, “What is man that You are mindful of him?”  I like to put an exclamation mark: “What is man that You are mindful of him!”

Do you see the difference?  The first is trying to figure out why God bothered with man.  The second expresses joy that God did bother, and sent His Son so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.  Humanity must have been something for God to pay such a price!

-30-

ALL OUR BAGS ARE PACKED

March 17, 2020

We’re ready to go.  And however the rest of that song goes.

We survived St. Patrick’s Day with no pinches and minimal wearing of the green.  There were some strange costumes and door decorations.  Obviously some folks plan better than we do for these kinds of things.

We played a general knowledge trivia and scored 8 out of 20, a scifi trivia and scored 14 out of 20 (Michael, I couldn’t remember “Firefly” – I knew it, but it just wouldn’t come), a cats and dogs trivia and scored 8 out of 20, and Carnival’s version of are you smarter than a fifth grader and scored 19 out of 21 – we missed the color of Australia’s $100 bill (the trivia reader is an Aussie and he substituted that: answer “green” we put “red”) and I overruled Mom’s “kidney” for “liver.”  It mattered not in the end for the winners of that last one got a perfect 21.

We said good byes to our wait staff and to the girls who helped us with our dining room arrangements (neither one of us was too fond of our last night’s dinner – if I were on death row and that was my last meal, I would have sent it back: starting with the escargot, nothing was hot, barely warm, but the carrot cake for dessert and the decaf coffee to wash it down were good, Mom’s cherry pie was sicky sweet and rated a just so so).

We went to the disembarkation talk today – nothing we hadn’t heard before except for the details about our docking in the morning.  Pier 92 at San Pedro at 0600.  No idea how long it will take to clear customs but we have ZERO infection on board so prayerfully that will speed things along.  After the talk I cornered the entertainment director (who had given us luggage tags #1 – did I tell you that yesterday?) and asked him what our disembarking time and rendezvous station would be.  And he put us with the Diamond and Platinum folk (whom I call the which of which there is no whicher), meeting in the Phantom Theater at 7:15.  Complimentary shuttle to the airport.

And I have us checked in online so we are ready to fly.

And thus concludeth the blog for this cruise.  We are scheduled to touch down in Augusta at 21:44 hours (9:44 p.m. for you non-24 hour time keepers) with Uber Jennifer at the gate.

Continue, please, to pray for smooth arrangements and smooth travel.
TTFN

HOMEWARD BOUND, ALMOST

March 16, 2020

Well, through earlier emails you know that we are going to either dock in Long Beach or San Pedro (no preyhunday san pedro) and we are flying out of LAX to DFW to AGS.  Our second leg is the same flight I booked in January.  Carnival is providing free shuttle to the local airports, and they said if there was enough interest, they would provide a bus to take people to San Francisco who couldn’t make other arrangements – haven’t heard about that, but the bus ride is 9.5 hours, and at any rate, we won’t be needing those services.

It is the conclusion of your favorite cruisers that this sailing was cut a day short (a port skipped) to get us back to dry land as soon as possible.  As far as I know, every other Carnival ship is either in a port where she will stay until travel restrictions are eased, or they are at anchor near to a port.

I did my last two talks today, and finished off with the Hub Cap Joke.  I did a total of 10 talks, repeating the Social Media talk and doing 9 singles.  It made for a little extra work on my part, but I think folks enjoyed having a wide variety to choose from.  And some brave souls attended nine for nine.  They deserve a blue ribbon.  Or maybe a purple heart.

I spoke to Roberto, the entertainment director, last night, and he secured Luggage Tag #1 for our disembarkation.  That means we will be going out first with the which of which there is no whicher.  He had told me he would send a bottle of wine to our room or to our table in the dining room as a way to make up the aggravation we experienced during embarkation, but I told him LT 1 made up for it.

Well, the voice of disappointment has been heard, and Mom/Bonnie/Granny will blog tonight.  And her reporting and witticism will make this a non-boring blog.

TTFN

Well, today started about 5:30 for me and he got up at 6:30. We went to breakfast and I had 2 fresh eggs scrambled with cheese from the omelet station. The omelet line and the buffet line are strange!. You get in the omelet line on the left and end in the end of the buffet line. The beginning of the buffet line is on the right. So you have these two lines kind of meeting in the middle and people from both lines competing for the attention of the one server behind the counter to get your toast, butter, jelly, bacon, potatoes, waffles, pancakes, etc. It can be a hassle. Well, after having procured our eggs and such (and we managed to get 4 sets of silverware because we both got 2 not knowing the other had gotten some).  We sat down and consumed it.  Then, I was going for a walk. The temperature was in the fifties with a strong wind so I went down to deck 3. It was cold but not unbearable, but as usual they had one side of the ship blocked. So I only got about 2500 steps.

Then, I headed to the room and got the crocheting bag and went to the Mad Hatter lounge to wait for his talk at 10. Good crowd for the talk and they enjoyed it. After the talk we headed to Lido. We decided on a pizza and ice cream. It was not 11:30 yet and the buffet is not open but pizza is 24 hours. It was good. We got our cones and walked back to the room, braving the cold outside by the pools.

His next talk was at 2 so I just went to the room while he rehearsed. Soon it was time to head downstairs. Again a good crowd and they enjoyed the last talk. YEAH!! As we were heading back to the room, the Captain came on with his announcement of docking and disembarking. He is very difficult to understand and we got most of it. So we headed to the room to start researching changing out tickets to LAX from San Francisco. We didn’t want to do anything yet because there was some letter being made and a form we needed to sign by 6 pm and by now it was 3:30 and we didn’t have the form.  Adam, the cruise director came on shortly after the Captain and more clearly made the announcement.

We checked on line and found a flight from LAX but didn’t make any changes till we got the letter and form. It came about 4. We made our changes and signed the form and headed for supper about 5.   By then Adam had come on again and said not to get upset about 6 pm deadline we could have to 8. But we took no chances and we turned it in by 6.

After supper we headed to the theater for the show. No one was waiting in line and it was after 6:30. I wondered about that but figured everybody was busy with trying to change stuff. We stood until after 7 and they hadn’t opened the doors. So we checked the app and the show wasn’t until 9. It isn’t going see us. We came back to the room and now will be watching some house shows and then, to bed.

No rising early tomorrow. All we have to do is pack and relax. Yeah, I am going to be getting off the ship on Wed, going to an airport and then flying home. I will relax when I get home. Well, that is all. Love you all. Mom, Granny and Bonnie

AS THEY WARNED JULIUS CAESAR

March 15, 2020

Beware the Ides of March (which in modern English is March 15).  That was the day he was stabbed.

Well, we were not stabbed, but as I texted this morning, our plans certainly have changed.  There was a letter in our mailbox this evening as we came back from the theater, from the Captain, telling us nothing new from this morning.

“It is highly likely that San Francisco will not be available to incoming cruise calls.”

“Our current plan is to dock on Wednesday, March 18, in a port in southern California.”

And we’ll get a refund on our internet package.

Oh, “For the time being, there is nothing for you to do or worry about.”  For the time being.  Does that mean there will come a time when we will need to worry?  I’m making a joke there.  A story with a humorous climax.

American Airlines has waived change fees, so when I know our port of disembarkation, I will book our tickets home – doing my best to avoid Atlanta – and I’ll let you know.

I had two good talks today.  The Ghent Altarpiece, Part 2 and a repeat of the Social Media talk.  Mom and I both agree, the Social Media talk is our least favorite one, but Carnival requires a talk in SM, and I do all I know.  So I do my best to make it interesting, and there you go.

Tomorrow I will do two talks and then I’ll be finished for the cruise.  And since we’ve already set the clocks back (a day late) we can sleep until it really is 6:30 in the morning.

Well, that’s about it.  We are tired, so I am going to send this and let you know as soon as we know what the new plans are.

Thank you for the texts and your prayers.  Keep them coming.

TTFN

SO FAR SO GOOD

March 14, 2020

The blog will be short and sweet tonight.  I have two talks tomorrow, one of them I am doing for the first time in front of a cruise audience, so much rehearsing ahead.

The good news – so far so good – concerns our travel on American Airlines Flight 1260 from San Francisco.  It is still on the books.  The airline sent a link to check for cancelled or changed flights and ours to Dallas and Augusta are just like I booked them in January.  And because I booked them so early, if we need to change them, there is no change fees.  So continue your prayers, please.  It may be selfish, asking God to ask as our agent with the airlines, but he said to cast all of our cares on him, so we are casting.

I did my second astronomy talk this afternoon in the Phantom Theater to a large and responsive crowd.  Before I began with the business at hand, I told them I have two bonus talks coming the day after Cabo San Lucas.  I have picked “Pirates, Buccaneers, and Swashbucklers” as the first one (one of the first talks I wrote, and a fun, light-hearted talk with lots of humor – bad jokes included – and barely recognizable today from the version from 2008). 

I told them I was playing with two others – favorites of Bonnie’s – and asked them which they’d prefer to hear, and voting did not obligate attendance.  One is “Museum Mosaic” about three museums in the Caribbean and the history preserved by the artists.  It got three votes.  The other is “Alexander Selkirk: The Real Robinson Crusoe.”  It got the rest of the house.

And we walked out of our second show in the Phantom Theater for the second night in a row.  This one was “Hasbro, The Game Show.”  Evidently it was on TV some years ago and contestants were picked from our audience by their loud screams and stupid dances.  Being up in the balcony, we did not scream or twerk (and aren’t you glad).

Well, that’s it for now.  My voice is the only one until tomorrow.

TTFN

THE LAST SHIP AT SEA

March 13, 2020

Before I explain that title, I want to wish all of you triskadekaphobians out there a Happy Friday 13th.  Of course by the time you read this it will be the 14th – since we are two hours behind you.

Before the evening’s show in the Phantom Theater, for which Bonnie and I did not stay – a hypnotist, Adam, the cruise director announced that as of midnight tonight the entire cruise industry was shutting down for 30 days.  All Carnival ships at sea are being diverted to the nearest suitable ports to get guests off and home.  We are going on to San Francisco on schedule, and by the time we get there, Adam said, we may be the only cruise ship anywhere in the world with guests on board.  Have any of you seen “On the Beach?”

And he said, Carnival remains corona virus free!

Back to San Francisco for a moment.  We covet an interest in your prayers for our flights home.  I booked First Class for these flights, so I hope that gets us extra favor with American Airlines, should favor be needed.

It was interesting in Guatemala today.  As we crossed the gangway from the dock into the tourist area of the port, all of the workers – souvenir sellers, tour guides, bus drivers, security guards – were dressed in masks and gloves.  And there was someone well-disaster suited who was taking the temperatures of all guests who looked Asian.

We enjoyed our time in Antigua today (a city in Guatemala, not an island in the Caribbean).  It is, as I told you earlier a World Heritage Site, which means it is protected from development and encroachment.  For 200 years Antigua had been the capital of the nation, until it was destroyed three times by successive earthquakes.  After the 1773 quake, the capital was moved to Guatemala City.  The main feature of Antigua today is the remains of 9 colonial churches.  Sadly, we only got to see two of them, and one was a drive by.

Because it took an hour longer than planned to clear the Miracle by local customs, we  were, of course, late to leave.  The drive was supposed to take 1.5 hours each way giving us 3 hours to explore on our own.  The drive took 2 hours going up, and we had to leave early to get back to the ship (all aboard was extended by only 30 minutes – but as it turned out, we didn’t sail until 7, instead of 4 because of a medical emergency which required an ambulance to come from Guatemala City).  Looking at pictures in brochures, we know we missed a lot.

But we had a great local lunch of tacos – very unlike Taco Tuesday – and a plate of frijoles negras (black beans) topped with fried eggs, and washed down with very cold Coca Colas.

Well, I need to rehearse for my 1 o’clock talk, so I’ll turn the keyboard over to Mom.

TTFN

Well, your Mother is concerned about you all. PLEASE take care of yourselves and my Grandchildren!!! It is a strange time and I am so far away from you all and I do miss you a lot. I am praying hard for you ALL and  that all goes well in about 6 days and we are flying home to you. 

Well, on to our day. The ship was cleared more than an hour late today and our tour was more than an hour late leaving. There were 6 busses for the tour we took all going to Antigua. (Close to 300 people) But there were probably another 5 or 6 busses on tours also going to Antigua to do other stuff. It is an ancient town. All the streets are cobblestone and the sidewalks are not handicap friendly. The whole town is not. After a long.... bus ride we arrived. The first half hour the roads were extremely bad, but when we started up into the mountains we were on newer roads. I think that was because about 3 years ago they had a volcano eruption and many people were killed. We rode by the area where the most devastation had happened. The tour guide ( who was a rude man, and very uncomplimentary of his people and Americans) said that most of the rich people were able to escape in their big cars while most of the dead were the poor who had to walk or ride bicycles to try and escape. The country side is very poor. Most of the homes are tin shacks and garbage litters the sides of the roads.

One of the main forms of transportation is mopeds or motorcycles. There appears to be no rules regarding them.  No helmets are worn and I saw at least two with a mother riding and her 2 small children on with her on her lap between the handlebars and her. One the mothers had a child about the age of Tate and a smaller one that looked about 2. It was a very scarey thing. Like all cycles they weave in and out of the line of traffic that goes up the roads. The trip to Antigua take you up winding 5000 feet on a 2 lane highway. The roads are heavy with 18 wheelers hauling oil, and many other things. Going up the mountains would be a long line of trucks and busses and cars. The cars and busses including ours passing going around curves when you couldn’t see ahead. It was at times frightening. 

But we safely made it. When we got to Antigua our busses could not enter the city because the streets are so narrow. So we parked outside and then rode smaller 19 passenger vans into the city. That took about 10 minutes in and 10 minutes out. That took up part of our exploring time. There are women and men walking all over the streets hawking their wares. We only bought a few post cards and some small things I wanted. Lunch was great. The young ladies in the small restaurant ( really just a hole in the wall) did not speak English and I am terrible at Spanish. But with pictures on the menu we managed to order. Loved the tacos and the black beans. Later we visited a chocolate shop because Dad wanted to get some chocolate for the young ladies in the dining room. They are so very nice and friendly. There are 5 of them in all.

The church we visited that was in ruins had once been magnificent. They have repaired enough of it in the front so that it still serves as a house of worship. They have decorations and things up for the lenten season with purple cloths displayed everywhere. 

The bus ride home was no better plus it was very warm. But we made it. We laid down for a few minutes and your Dad got a small nap. Then, we headed to supper. It was good tonight fried green tomatoes, chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and green beans, then cheesecake for dessert.  We hadn’t planned on going to the theater tonight but when Adam, the cruise director,  announced he was going to give us the latest news we decided to go and then leave. It was a shocker but not really unexpected because Princess had already cancelled all there cruises to the middle of May.  But none the less scarey. The crew are the hardest hit. They will lose their livelihood and being many miles from their family. The US has promised to help the cruise lines get their crews home. Lets hope that happens. Lord hear our prayers!! 

Well, he has a talk in the theater tomorrow and he needs to rehearse so I will go. Love you all!!!!  Mom, Granny and Bonnie

AS HAN SOLO SAID

March 12, 2020

We are all fine here.  In these difficult times, that is a great thing.  And as I was reminded earlier tonight, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.  That sound mind includes a good dose of common sense, too.  It is an incredible thing to see all of the closings: NBA, NHL, March Madness, MLB season delayed, requests for schools to close, and President Trump’s orders regarding travel from the European Union (and the Democrats raising sand about it – you can never please some folks).

I read this afternoon that Princess Cruise lines has cancelled all sailings through May 1 with some smaller sailings allowed to continue and some already at sea likewise.  Our cruise director announced tonight that there is not a single reported case of corona virus in the Carnival Fleet.

After each show in the Phantom Theater – the main theater – the theater is closed and the crew does a complete sanitization, wiping surfaces that are touched by hands and applying a disinfectant spray.  We are not allowed to serve ourselves any food, the staff does it for us.  And other things, too.  Mom and I carry hand-sanitizer and use it, and there are stations all over the ship.

And another big announcement is that we are still cleared for docking in San Francisco.  In addition to good health that is our big prayer so we can be shuttled to the airport and catch our big bird home to Augusta.  As I often say, “Pray saints!”

Now on to other things.

I did my “potato” talk today to a full house in the Mat Hatter’s Ball.  One man who has been to all of my talks came up afterwards and made my head swell, and my arm is hurting from patting myself on the back to tell you.  He asked, “Do you have any dull, uninteresting talks?”  I certainly appreciated that.

We went to the Sea Day Brunch this morning, the first we’ve been able to do because of my schedule.  I really enjoyed my frittata, Mom her omelet not so much.  But we packed away so much that for lunch we only had chocolate soft-serve ice cream cones (and my cruise buddy did have a side of Guy’s French fries).  Follow our lunch we played two games of Rummy, yours truly winning both and now leading for the cruise 3-1.  Not getting cocky here because in January I had a similar big lead, but ended up down 4-5.

Tomorrow we are taking an excursion to Puerto Quetzal.  It is a city that is on the list of World Heritage Sites.  It is an hour and a half bus ride and 10,000 feet up a mountain for a three hour visit and an hour and a half bus ride back to the ship.  This is our first time in Guatemala, and we are looking forward to it.  The next stop is Cabo San Lucas and we are staying on board – it is a tender stop, and not the ship’s tenders, but local ships.  They are difficult for someone with two good legs, let alone Bonnie with her surgically repaired gams.  This time discretion will be the better part of valor.  And we can play more Rummy.

Well, she just asked, “Are you rewriting ‘War and Peace’?”  So I will turn the keyboard over to She Who Must Be Obeyed.

TTFN

Walking on this ship has been difficult to do. In the mornings it is so very hot that if I do my walk I feel sick from the heat. I have managed about 5 or 6 days of 10000 or more and the rest are 5000 to 7000. Oh well we will get in a good amount tomorrow.

But on the other hand I am making good progress on my crocheting projects that I brought along. I should get finished the first one in the next day or two. Yeah me.

I worry about you all, I know I am not supposed to, but I do. Please take care of yourselves. Lots of hand washing and do fist bumps not handshakes.

Not much going on here. His talks have been well received and they even like his jokes. Today I think he took a whole hour for his talk. 

Supper was okay. The best part was the appetizer of chicken wings. I could have had 2 or 3 orders of those. You only got two little half wings but they were tasty. I had key lime pie and you know I don’t know why people exclaim over it so much. It is only so-so. 

Well, we have to be up at dawns crack tomorrow. Our tour is the early one. Didn’t nap today but slept to 6 this morning. Hope to make it to then tomorrow.

Way to go MAC!! No crutches. Go get um but not too fast.

Love you all. Mom, Granny and Bonnie

P.S. Hey Karen hope you are all well. Thinking about you, too.

PUNTARENAS

March 11, 2020

That was our stop today, Puntarenas, Costa Rica.  It is our first time here.  We’ve been on the Atlantic side of Costa Rica twice, in Limon, but this was the first time on the Pacific Side.  We decided not to visit the rain forest and do a zip line.  Instead we walked down the pier and into town.  The beach is a brownish grey, not white sand.  No idea why it is that color, but on one side of the pier people were swimming and on the other side, people with four-wheelers had been tearing up the beach – there were ruts back and forth across the sand, making a general mess of things.  And interesting that is allowed because 25% of Costa Rica is a protected natural preserve.  I guess that doesn’t apply to the beach in Puntarenas.

Puntarenas, like Limon, is very dependent on the tourism industry.  Once we walked out of the souvenir area there were a lot of boarded up store fronts and the ones that were open did not seem all that prosperous.  We did find a small art gallery displaying local works, and a lovely cathedral.  Both were recommended to us by a lady at the information booth, who was obviously very proud of them.  We enjoyed looking in both.  But the two hours we were out was enough for us.  The lady had suggested that we might like to walk to the other end of this little peninsula to the light house, lovely views she said.  But it is, she cautioned, a mile and a half walk, which, as all you math majors know, makes it a three mile round trip.  Maybe when it’s cooler.  But I’m pretty sure it is usually about 90 degrees in these parts.  Regardless, if was a good visit.  We bought a few souvenirs and a Coke Zero.

Back on board we had pizza on the Lido Deck for lunch, followed by ice cream cones, soft serve ice cream actually.  As I think we’ve commented before, it reminds us of the Frozen Custard Stand back in Oakland.  Because of new health procedures, we are not allowed to make our own ice cream cones – we are not allowed to serve ourselves any food other than water, ice tea, lemonade, and coffee.  Well, some of the crew are doing a great job of making the cones and others need more practice – a couple of swirls around the top with nothing in the bottom does not make a good cone.  The worker today had passed all the training and turned out an excellent product.

In between the pizza and the ice cream we played two games of rummy, bringing the total for the cruise to three games.  The score is 2-1 in favor of me.  But as Mom said, or was it Scarlet O’Hara, tomorrow is another day.

Well, I am typing this and as of this minute there is no connection to the internet, so today’s blog may become tomorrow’s.  Kind of like reading the Augusta Chronic or the Atlanta Journal Constipation.  So for now ...

TTFN

A SLOW DAY FOR THE BLOG

March 10, 2020

On board it is called, “A Fun Day at Sea,” and your favorite cruisers really enjoy them.  They were our favorite days of the cruise before I started doing the talks.  And speaking of talks, I did two today: “Social Media – Communicating with a Blog,” and “The Ghent Altarpiece: The Most Stolen Artwork in History.”  For the Ghent Altarpiece, it was the first time I did the talk for a cruise audience.

Interestingly, the tech had trouble getting the projector to come on for the afternoon talk, and we were 15 minutes late getting started.  No one seemed to mind the delay, and it was fun, and a little scarey doing a brand new talk.  In five days I will do Part 2 of the Ghent Altarpiece, having the Nazis steal it and the Monuments Men recover it.  I actually have 5 more talks for this cruise, and strangely no talk on the last sea day, so Mom won’t have to worry so much about us getting packed and our suitcases out in the hall.

In between the second talk and supper I worked on the next talk on the schedule, “Potatoes: Famine, French Fries, and the Final Frontier.”  After supper (our second formal night) we went to our first comedy session of the cruise.  We only go to PG shows.  For some reason, I just don’t think being cussed at is funny.  And sadly, I didn’t think this PG comedian wasn’t very funny even with clean talk.  Mom laughed a lot, so that made it a good show.

And my cruise buddy said I just told you everything we did today, so this one is short.  Hopefully sweet.

TTFN

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DOLLAR

March 9, 2020

This was the day when we transited the Panama Canal, sailing from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean, thanks to President Teddy Roosevelt – in what some called an act of war on Columbia, principal engineer George Washington Goethals, and 56,000 workers.  Sailing through the locks is fun, watching the swing gates or the slide gates (depending on whether you are in the old locks or the new) but sailing in the Culebra Cut, which slices through almost 8 miles of mountain terrain, is the best part.  What was once the top of the Culebra mountain is now barely 30 feet above the water level, less in some places.  An amazing feat of engineering, one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

The title of today’s blog is based on the pay of the workers – another day, another dollar.

We went to breakfast in the Bacchus Dining Room, our first sit-down, waited-on breakfast of the cruise.  The menu selection was good, the food was excellent, but our waiter Renaldo was the best.  He asked me if I wanted coffee and I replied, “Decaf, please.”  He asked Mom if she wanted some and she waved her hand in a negative fashion over her cup and declaring, “No!”  A few minutes later Renaldo brought my coffee and she asked if she could have hot chocolate.  He waived his hand in a negative fashion and declared, “No!”  He gets a great tip!

After breakfast we found a place to read and play cards and were joined by trivia players competing for a “Ship on a Stick” (most of you have seen one sitting on the mantle at 233).  The first trivia was general knowledge, and we scored 15 out of 20, good enough for third place.  Here’s one we missed: out of 10 M&Ms, how many are brown?  We guessed, incorrectly, two.

The second trivia was about the universe and we again scored 15 out of 20, this time earning first place and another SOAS.  While I was claiming our prize, Bonnie heard a young woman sitting near to us say that she so wished she could win one, she had missed out in one trivia by one answer.  And we made her day when we gave her ours.  She said her mom would be jealous and we told her to take total claim for the win.  She stopped by our table at supper, told us she had kept the ruse going for a while, but finally had to tell her mom the truth.

The spirits of the day were dampened when our cruise director, Adam, came on the PA system while we were sitting in the final lock on the Pacific side.  He told us of a medical emergency affecting one of the guests who was being disembarked – an ambulance was standing by – and taken to a local hospital.  He said he firmly believes in “The Man Upstairs” and asked us to pray for the guest and her family.  So, when you pray, please add these folks to your conversations with Father.

Well, she is fading fast, so I’m going to wrap my part up and let my cruise buddy have the keyboard.

TTFN

I did not get a nap. He did. I couldn’t sleep but at least I didn’t get up till 7. Now that our clocks are being turned back I will have to subtract 2 hours from my phone to know what time it is here but I will know what time it is there whenever he asks.

Today was a fun day. Watching ships beside us in the locks, watching the rope throwers get off our ship (there were 30 of them)after we got through the first set of three locks, and all the great sites along the canal. We had really good views out our window in our room. Even though our view is surrounded by 2 life boats you could see very well. Also, we turned on the TV and watched the progress on the forward camera. All in all great fun. And the weather was beautiful, sunshine and warm.

Lunch was a hot dog and supper was just so-so. They didn’t even have a dessert I wanted. Tomorrow night is elegant night.  The show tonight was heart and soul and it was okay. Mostly songs from Motown including James Brown’s “I Feel Good”. Tomorrow night is Consuela Ivy, a singer with a great voice, but her show is not one we like so we will go to 2 PG rated comedy shows. She does more talking than singing.

Tomorrow he has two talks. The one in the morning is “Social media” ,how to do a blog. The Dr Suess parade etc is at the same time so attendance may be low. The afternoon talk is his first talk on Art and is Part I on the Ghent altar piece.

Well, I am very tired and am off to bed. Love to you all.

Mom, Granny and Bonnie

A DAY IN CARTAGENA

March 8, 2020

First, no presents tonight.  I guess they are over us, or they have figured out we aren’t the Diamond Level people whose names were originally on door.  Oh the sadness.  But with 10 days left there is always hope.

Along with 14 other hearty souls we loaded our small bus to explore the old parts of Cartagena.  We saw some places we had visited before when we did a transit on the Pacific Princess a couple of years ago, and some new things as well.  One of the nicest things of this excursion, our tour guide didn’t steer us to places she knew who would give her a kickback if we bought anything – the last tour guide did, much to our displeasure. 

My favorite part was walking through Getsemani.  As I suggested last night, it is pronounced like the Garden of Gethsemane, and is, in fact, named for that reference in the New Testament.  It is the oldest part of the city, and the place where the indigenous people and the African slaves lived.  The architecture reflected the fact that were considered “low class,” but now a 5 star hotel is being built in the center of Getsemani, and property values are skyrocketing – think of property along Washington Road in Augusta near a certain well-know golf course.  Trying to hold on to their heritage, some of the residents have done street paintings, street murals, showing their culture.  I have some great pictures which I will upload into a final blog of the cruise once we get home.

All together, we walked four miles after being bussed from section to section.  It was a nice day.

Back on board we had Guy Ferrie cheeseburgers, ice cream cones, and a nap.  Lots of good veggies for dinner tonight, preceded by an appetizer of legs of frog – at least that was my appetizer (the chicken Milanese was just so-so).

Well, I’m tired and I’m going to let Mom blog and then we are going to turn on HGTV and hope to catch some remodeling, flipping shows.

TTFN

In total today we have almost 12,000 steps and over 4 and fourth miles. I am tired. I even took a nap today. Most days I can’t seem to fall asleep.

On our tour today there was a family that had two severely handicapped children both in wheel chairs. The older looked to be about 14 was lifted by his father onto the steps of the bus and he used his knees and arms to pull himself up and into a seat. He was not able to use his lower legs or feet. He was very interested in the things we saw and talked and asked questions. Nice young man. T he other young man appeared to be about 8 or 9  and seemed to be severely mentally handicapped as well as physical. He had to be carried by, I think, an other sister on and off the bus and he sat on her lap through the bus rides. He never spoke or communicated to anyone that I saw. A difficult task for parents to take these two children, but they all seemed to enjoy their trip.  As did we. I remembered quite a bit of the things that we saw and it was fun remembering places. It was also nice to see some new things.

During our first stop Kathy, our tour guide, took us to a hotel that had been created out of what had been two family homes. It was very nice. We went up to the roof top where there was a swimming pool and a large lounge area. There were steps as well as elevators. We walked up but rode down. One of the flights of stairs was shaped like the stairs in my Mom and Dad’s house at 12 Beckley Road and it made me think of all the times I had slipped and slide down them.  On the top was a bar and the bartender made us a complimentary local drink, non alcoholic but it can contain rum, to try. It was very good, it gave your Dad a brain freeze. I will try and make it when I get home. You put one part lime juice, three parts coconut cream and one to three smaller parts of simple syrup, depending on how sweet you like it, and lots of ice and put it in a blender and blend. UMMM good.

At the end of the tour the tour bus is not allowed to take you back to the ship, but they leave you off just outside the port in an area where they have a small zoo area and a large gift shop. There were peacocks, toucans, parrots, flamingos, and much more.  While dad was taking pictures of the toucans there was one of them laying on the ground near where he was standing and it came over and attacked his trouser leg. Strange.

Well, we got back on the ship and unloaded our stuff and had lunch and napped. I woke up just as it was all aboard time. We got to watch the sail away from our window because the Captain had backed the ship out and turned around. Very cool.

Now last night when we went to bed, I fixed my phone so it wouldn’t automatically update. Your Dad did too. He set his alarm for 6:30 so we could get up, have breakfast and meet for our tour at 8:15 on the dock. Well, his alarm went off at “6:30" or so we thought. But because the calendar program in the phones, as well as in my kindle and on my watch they had all changed to Daylight savings time.  So it was actually 5:30 ships time. We were up an hour early. We thought our time was wrong because it was still pitch black outside and sunrise was at 6:15. So I called guest services and asked and yes indeed it was only 5:30.  Crazy!!

The show tonight is not my favorite. It is 80's music and the music is so loud it is very difficult to hear the singers. The costumes on the young ladies are very revealing. A little too much flesh for me. Oh well I am old.

We are back in our room. I am having some coke zero and he is having mountain dew. We will have a  little TV and then off to bed. Love you all. Hope everybody is feeling better.

Mom, Granny and Bonnie

MORE FREEBIES

March 7, 2020

More freebies, but first, we are not Springing Forward with the rest of you (hey Bro, do they spring forward in Albuquerque?).  In order to stay on time with our ports of call, and to be on the same time as San Francisco when we dock (do they observe Springing Forward in San Fran – they don’t pay attention to much else out there – Google “sanctuary cities”), we will turn our clocks back an hour on March 10 and another on March 15.  No sleep loss here, unless it’s to get up to pee.

Okay, about the freebies.  Bonnie came back to the room after dinner while I sat outside the theater waiting to rush in and grab our favorite seats.  When she came back she had a photograph of another plate of chocolate covered strawberries, and on top of the lid was a golden ship on a stick and a Carnival medallion on a ribbon.  Also there was a note from Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald, telling us to “have a brilliant time.”  We ate the strawberries and put the two goodies in our secret stash to take home.  We still don’t know whether they think we are the original occupants of 4115, or whether they are saying, “Sorry!” for the dock-side shenanigans.  Either way, thank you very much.

I did my third talk of the cruise today on Photography in the Phantom Theater.  This is the first time I’ve done a talk for Carnival in the main theater, Holland America always, here not so.  And two more are scheduled there – it all revolves around what is going on where.  The main floor was 2/3rds full and there some people in the balcony.  Lots of questions and comments after the talk.

And I had my first, “How did you get this gig?” question of the cruise.  Usually I tell them, “By asking that question on a sailing a dozen years ago,” and then explaining about needing an agent.  It always bugs Mom when people say, “Oh you get to cruise for free.”  She is well-restrained and does not respond to that.  But I think I am going to change my answer and tell them, “Well, first you have to have something to talk about and I have more than 50 cruise talks, each one of them taking 120 hours to build through research, writing, rewriting, and developing a PowerPoint.  That makes 6,000 hours or 250 days of work to get them ready, and that doesn’t count two rehearsals which I do in our stateroom before each talk, regardless of how often I’ve done it.  Then you have to hire an agent and pay him or her to represent you to the cruise line.”  That answer is Bonnie approved.

The ship instituted new safety/health procedures today.  There is no more self-serving of food.  Even on the Buffet, especially on the Buffet.  All food will be served by the crew who will be wearing rubber gloves – including ice cream cones.  At night, neither bread, nor butter, nor salt and pepper shakers are put on the table.  Each is served upon request.  No bottles of water, no bottle of wine with the table number dangling from the bottle neck, no wine glasses on the table.  I told one of our servers, Sarvesh, that it makes more work for them, but Bonnie and I appreciate it.  He said it is not more work, it is simply doing what is necessary to keep everyone, guests and crew alike, safe.  And we really do appreciate it.  I’m sure the fact that the Carnival Magic was denied docking at Grand Turk yesterday and another Carnival ship was denied docking at another West Indies island earlier in the week.  We are all for it because my wife and her husband are on board!

We have booked two excursions for this cruise.  The first one tomorrow is in Cartagena, Columbia (I did not risk buying hop on hop off bus tickets, because the last time I bought hoho tickets for Cartagena, I wanted them for Spain and bought for Columbia, so I’d probably reverse it here – we showed up at the bus and the lady said, these are for Columbia.  Well, fiddle dee dee).  This is a 4.5 hour deluxe walking tour and visit to Getsemani.  I have no idea what Getsemani is, other than we ride there, make a couple of stops where we walk around, then ride back.  Getsemani is billed as a well-known historic center and arts and crafts haven (and I am pronouncing it like the Garden in which Jesus prayed the night he was betrayed).  Stay tuned for tomorrow night’s blog.

Okay, Mom’s turn.

TTFN

Well, this is the cruise of the sore toes. You all know I broke the little toe on my right foot several weeks ago and it is pretty much all better. But today I have an ingrown toenail on the left foot. I worked on it this morning and put neosporin and a band-aid on it. We will see how all goes tomorrow on our walking tour. And we have another walking tour when we get to Guatemala.

Today was a so-so day. Your dad’s photography talk is always long and he ran right into the time for the trivia game on Seinfeld. Only about 10 people showed up for that so I guess it was okay. We knew bingo ticket sales were to start right after his talk but missed the note about the trivia. Oh well fire us.

After his talk we went to the lido and had a small, very small salad. Mine was made even smaller because they put a lot of that one type of yucky tasting lettuce on mine and I took it all out. So I mainly had some cauliflower and croutons and a tiny bit of  lettuce.   After that we got a minuscule ice cream cone. The crew member who had been put in charge of making the cones had no clue how to do it. Oh well it tasted good.

We went to the cabin for a nap. He snored and slept and when he got up I laid down for a few minutes. Then it was up and dressed and off to supper. When we went to supper last night at 5 there was nobody there waiting to get into the dining room But tonight there was a huge line at 5 when we arrived. So we had to get at the end and wait our turn. We didn’t get table 421 but table 423. It was okay because it was the same server. I had broccoli and cheese soup, linguine with spicy Italian sausage ( every time I get this there are only 4 tiny pieces of sausage) but the sauce is good so I enjoy it. I got the smore’s parfait tonight, which is usually very good, but not tonight. I only ate about half of it.

The show tonight was a juggler who is from Mexico originally. He told a lot of jokes about Balls (editor’s note: ping pong balls with double entendres) and other things, a little on the racy side. He is a good juggler but I think he talked more than he juggled. But a nice show.

Now back in the room relaxing. We need to be up early and have breakfast and be on the dock by 8:15. We are to dock at 7. I am going to wait till we return from the tour and then take a bath. It will be hot and I will need a bath to cool down.

Well, love you all.  Mom, Granny and Bonnie

WHAT A DAY THAT WAS!

March 6, 2020

A week before we left home I contacted my agent and asked when my booking number would come so I could register for the cruise online, do the pre-check in stuff, purchase internet at a discount and know our room number.  It’s coming.

Two days before.  It’s coming.  The day we left.  It’s coming.  We got to the port and guess what, it wasn’t there.  To make a four hour story shorter, suffice it to say that no one at the dock had heard of us and therefore did not know we were coming.  I talked to Patricia, Stephan, Elmer, Tracy Ann, Elmer, Stephan, Patricia, Stephan.  In between several of those I called my agent – actually 3 times.  Finally Stephan comes out and says we’ve got you in the system, but they didn’t know your wife was coming.  However, I do have your room number and you can go on board.  Uh, no, sez I.  And an hour later we were both on board.  Good googilee-moogilee!

We went to our room, a nice outside room with a large window and a view of the stern of one lifeboat and the bow of another, and in between, the ocean.  We don’t spend much time looking out, but the light coming is nice.  We ate supper, unpacked our suitcases and by 9 o’clock, Bonnie was asleep.  I rehearsed my Banana talk for the 10 o’clock show the next morning, and joined her under the covers.  I think this is the first welcome aboard show in all of our cruises that we did not attend.

Tough first day, but as one of my regular readers is wont to say, “You are on a cruise!”

I did two talks today, food and astronomy.  “Yes we may have no bananas,” and “Are we there yet?”  These two were in the Mad Hatter’s Ball, the small theater and comedy club.  Tomorrow I am doing Photography in the Phantom Theater, on the big stage – the ship’s main theater.  They’ve scheduled 3 of my talks there.  First time on Carnival they’ve done this.

Tonight was formal night and of course we dressed for the occasion.  Coming out of the dining room, a lady come over to me, patted me on the stomach and said, “You look handsome.”  As I said one time on an Aeroflot jetliner, somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean between New York and Moscow, “I’ve still got it!”  And it’s not catching!

Well, my cruise buddy is awake and says she wants to write a few lines, so hereeee’s Bonnie!

TTFN

Yes, I am here. Yesterday was a day from H***!!! I was never so miserable. Sitting in 80+ weather is not my idea of fun. We got on board just in time to get to our room and go to the lifeboat drill. Whoopee!  I was exhausted and could have gone to bed before supper.

When we got to our room there was an envelop in the mail box with 2 other names on it. I guess they were the people who were supposed to have had this room. They are somewhere else on the ship. While I was waiting for him to come back to the room after supper the room steward brought an envelop with tickets for something with the other peoples name on it. I went to the hall and called him back and told him they were not in this room. We had already told the desk when we returned the envelop. But nobody listens. Then, later he brings 2 large bottles of water and says complimentary. They are probably for those people too. But it didn’t have their name on it , so we kept them.  Then, today when we got back from his second talk there was a covered dish with chocolates and chocolate covered strawberries. I ate the strawberries and he ate the chocolates. This couple is sure missing out on all their new treats for obtaining Diamond status. Tonight when we came back from the show there were 2 complimentary photo frames that included a picture of the ship. The 2 people who were supposed to be in here have different names so I guess they aren’t married and that is why they are two of everything. I put them in the closet when they come looking for them I will give them back. 

I slept till 6 am but then was awake. He got up about 6:30. We got ready and headed for breakfast. We both had an omelet. The water on this ship is not as good as it has been on other ships, so I am using my Mio a lot more. Both talks were well attended and the afternoon show’s audience was larger than the morning.

After breakfast I did get my walk. Deck 10 is the full length of the ship and it takes 3 and a half times around to get a mile. So far today I have walked almost 4 miles. It was nice walking outside.

Well, I am tired so I will say good night. Love you all.

Mom, Granny and Bonnie