To celebrate our anniversary yesterday, we use the second half of Mom’s gift card at Longhorn. Thanks, Mom!

After 3 days of rain, cool temperatures, and high winds, the weather turned perfect today — 50 degrees and sunny with light winds. I completed my first long ride (over 40 miles). The really great thing about “out and back” rides, is the motivation to complete the second half of the ride is very high. I’m tired, but good. There will be no riding tomorrow for sure.

Danita enjoyed reading the book “Pope Joan” by Donna Woolfolk Cross. The story is based on folk lore about a woman dressing as a man who becomes pope for a couple of years back in the late 800s. Apparently one can make an argument that Pope Joan was real, but this story is all fiction. Danita enjoyed it. I agree it’s a good story and well written, but there are too many implausible coincidences. I think the story would be better if it were a little more plausible. The book is supposed to represent life in the darkest of the dark ages. If the depiction is any where near accurate, it’s very good that we are living in the 21st century.

This was a mostly quiet week. Things will start picking up again soon.

We didn’t have anything planned because we thought we were going to be touring Texas. I got a cold the day we got back from our travels. It’s still hanging on. My biking skills are greatly diminished. I’m continuously walking around with sore legs, trying to work my way back.

There was a neighborhood St. Patrick’s Day party last weekend. We didn’t go because we thought $25 each was too expensive. Last Friday was Lenten grilled cheese and soup dinner at St. Louis Church, followed by Stations. I think they have really great grilled cheese and darn good soup. Speaking of darn good food, Danita made Cincinnati Chili which we haven’t had for quite a long time. She was hoping to eat the leftovers for her lunches, but I talked her into serving the leftovers for another dinner. It was pretty darn good, if you ask me.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We spent two days with the Reeds. We took B & E out to play mini-golf. We took them to the latest Avenger movie, “Captain Marvel”. And we took them to a Harry Potter Science day. We split the ride home with an overnight stay in Burlington, NC. The trip home was uneventful.

We’ve been practicing our fun-having, and doing a pretty good job of it. Yesterday we visited the Kennedy Space Center. There’s a lot of fluff, but also a lot of really great stuff, including: The Space Shuttle Atlantis inside a really big building, a Saturn 5 Rocket on it’s side inside an way bigger building, Control Rooms for Mercury (which had only 12 people!) and Apollo, the launch site for Space-X and the upcoming ILS, and the Vehicle Assembly Building (which was the largest building in the world by volume). All of this was pretty amazing, but what caught my fancy was this picture I took from the Banana River. I’ve never had a day this bad (and I hope I never do).

Yesterday we moved ourselves 4 hours up the road to Savannah, which took us most of the day. Today we visited the Prohibition Museum, which was more fun than anybody should be allowed to have. It was entertaining. It was outrageous. It was surprising. (At one point, two pictures on the wall “came alive” and the two people argued their position about prohibition.) It was a delightful mix of entertainment and education.

We decided to move on to Old Fort Jackson on the Savannah River. Fort Jackson was fun, but we also had a delightful surprise along the way. We were driving through Savannah when we noticed that it was lunch time and it would be good to find something to eat. By this time, we were in the middle of an industrial neighborhood. The probability of finding anything to eat was grim. I pulled off the road, went around the corner, and there was a great cafe-bakery. We had a wonderful lunch and a wicked desert.

Our plan for tomorrow is to drive to Jul’s. The way we stop along the way it will undoubtedly take all day. We’re thinking of visiting a nature preserve. The weather forecast is great. The boots are in the trunk.

We had a one-week cruise in the Caribbean with Mom. The main attraction was the cruise itself. Plenty of good food, terrific service, amazing entertainment, wonderful weather. (It only rained at night!) Danita and I took a special tour package in St. Thomas. We went to Coral World, where we donned big heavy metal helmets with huge glass portals in the front. Then we climbed down a ladder until we were 15 or 20 feet underwater, and walked around. The fish were plentiful and totally amazing. This was a special treat for Danita. She can’t snorkel because she needs her glasses to see anything. These helmets were so big it was easy to wear glasses under the helmet. The helmets were hooked up to an air compressor. The compressed air kept the water out of the helmet. We had a blast.

We dropped Mom at her house and drove up the road to Cape Canaveral, where we have a hotel room for tonight and tomorrow night. We plan to see the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow. After that, we don’t know what we will do. We decided to cancel the Texas Tour. We don’t have any plans at all. It should be fun.

We’ve been home for too long. It’s time for a trip. Thursday, we’re taking the car train to Florida. We’ll be with Mom for a few days. We’ll start a cruise on Sunday, returning the following Sunday. For that week, my phone and Email will be available only occasionally. If you want to get hold of us, the best way is to send me an Email. Or you can call me at 410-417-8854. I’ll get your voice mail message in a few days. If it’s urgent, here’s the emergency numbers:

Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam, Cabin 4069;  Cruise 2/24 – 3/3

Holland America has dedicated Emergency phone numbers staffed 24/7

800-628-4771

800-426-0327  5:00 AM – 7:00 PM; M-F;  7:00AM – 3:30 PM  (Pacific Time)

888-361-8803

206-286-3294

206-301-5393

Additionally, you can call the ship directly from the shore. Recommend that you use this for the most critical emergencies only.  Connecting to a Holland America Line vessel at sea is simple by using Ship Dial. Service.  A credit card is required for all inbound phone calls to a ship. The rate is US$16.00 per minute and billing begins at the time specified. Please have the ship’sname, your party’s name and stateroom number before you call.

Instructions:

1. Dial 1-800-993-5483 (US).
2. Listen to the announcement.
3. Listen to the menu and select the number that corresponds to the ship you are calling.
4. If you receive a busy signal or message, please hang up quickly and try your call again.

Our clubhouse has a large room used for a lot of different activities such as parties, exercise classes, and Monday Morning Men’s Club. Those of us who participate in Men’s club dedicate ourselves to the major issues of the day. The main requirement is that each member must be willing to bring bagels when it’s his turn. Since the room is used for many purposes, furniture is rearranged several times a day. Scooching furniture around marks up the bamboo floor. Some people wanted to refinish the floor. Others felt that would be a waste because the floor will quickly be marked up by schooching furniture. The wrong side won, and the floor was refinished. Being a powerful force in the community, some men arranged for the refinishing to be started on Tuesday, finished by Friday, with the room available for use Monday morning. Unfortunately, the work ran late. And there was a major miscommunication. The floor has to dry a full week to get maximum protection from the new protective coating. As a result, Men had to meet in the clubhouse living room last Monday, and maybe even again tomorrow. This was a serious inconvenience, because everybody who comes in to make a cup of free coffee in our clubhouse kitchen can kibitz — without ever bring bagels, and even if they aren’t men. There’s a silver lining to every cloud. We turned the living room fireplace on. Hopefully this travesty will be quickly corrected.

Another effect of the floor work is that our Chinese New Year party was not held Friday. It is rescheduled, and Danita and I won’t be here when they finally have it. Our neighbors the Jonses (yes, we have to keep up with the Jonses) and we were so disgusted that we went out to Mission BBQ for dinner. Danita wanted to walk, but besides being rather cool, winds were 20 MPH. Because the Jonses help with daycare for their grand kids, they have child seats in both cars. We had to drive our *gas* car 2 miles to get the 4 of us to dinner. As Jeff said on the way back, “the car could be warmer”.

The weekend isn’t a total loss. We’re having a neighborhood concert tonight. The large room is still closed, but the concert will be in the living room. Music, appetizers, desert, and wine. Life is starting to look up.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We had a Circle luncheon Thursday. Our big thing was a concert at the symphony last night. The Brahms and Respighi were wonderful. The other piece was Helen Grime’s Percussion Concerto that was getting its US premier. Colin Currie, the percussionist, was fabulous. But I couldn’t stretch my 19th century brain to encompass the 21st century music.

Danita and I both saw the doctor. Apparently, we’re both still alive. For some reason I don’t quite understand, the doctor has to rate my mental status. (Or maybe there is a reason I’m not quite aware of?) He asked me what I thought he should write. I said “hopeless”.

The fireplace works. The extra table is gone. We went to a neighborhood lunchen talk.

The most interesting thing we did was to visit the National Aquarium animal rescue center, which is across the inlet from their main building. They started offering these tours to members on weekends recently. They allow up to 12 on a tour. Our tour had 4. Besides Danita and me, there was Nolan and his mom. One must be at least 8 years old to take this tour. Today is Nolan’s 8th birthday. It turns out the aquarium doesn’t rescue all that many animals. Most of the animals in this facility are being quarantined before being placed in the main exhibit, or recovering from a sickness, or taking a time-out for being ill-behaved. One of the interesting tanks we saw had 3 rock fish which were too large for the exhibit. I would be severely tempted to cook them. Apparently, the aquarium plans to keep them in their tank for as long as they live.

One of the more fun moments was near the beginning of the tour. The guide asked us his first question: “How do you think we transport fish?” I piped up and suggested “In a plastic bag of water.” I was 100% correct! Unfortunately, I didn’t keep my mouth shut after that. It was the only guess I got right.

We had a good time. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Norman Stifler died. His funeral was at Oakcrest Thursday. Norman was Danita’s uncle, married to Bud’s sister Catherine. Norman was a body builder, Marine, and a Lieutenant in the Baltimore City Fire Department. Catherine was a nurse who earned her PhD. It’s an unlikely combination of backgrounds for a successful marriage, but there’s no doubt they loved each other. When Catherine was suffering from Alzheimer’s, Norman was with her constantly. RIP Norman.

I have a couple of small projects coming up this week. Our fireplace doesn’t turn all the way off. A small flame burns all the time. A fireplace expert will be in Wednesday. Now that we have a nice new table and chair set, we have more tables and chairs than we need. The Habitat for Humanity ReStore will pick up our excess Friday. I had to disassemble the table to get it downstairs. I’m going to have to move it upstairs and assemble it. Assembly is likely to be more difficult than disassembly (matching up screws to holes in the table top).

We’re having lunch with the Chaprnkas Monday. Tony and I usually have lunch the first Tuesday of the month. Since this is the holiday season and Monday is a holiday, we decided the four of us should have lunch this month.

We’ve been planning trips and reserving hotel rooms, both for our Texas Tour and our trip to Italy. We still aren’t done, but we’re getting close. Our great bargain is in Baton Rouge. For less than $500, we are getting 3 days in a suite with a real separate bedroom (door and all), made-to-order hot breakfast, manager’s reception in the afternoon (with wine), indoor pool, plus normal amenities such as parking and WiFi. Queue “Blue Bayou” in the background.

The big news this week — I got my first Social Security check. Money in the bank. Every month. Woo-hoo!

I hope this finds everybody doing well.