Back Again, Back Again, Ginity Gin

I haven’t posted a word since my story of the first day on the Alaskan Cruise.  In isn’t that I have nothing to say, but I have so much I want to write about that I end up sitting at the computer and commenting on other blogs.  (Sounds Stupid, Right)

I will write some more about the cruise itself, but my plans for communication went askew a bit.  I bought me a new little Olympus Camera for the trip, and used it like mad.  I filled up about five or six gigabites with picture of little ice bergs, big glaciers, shots of the cities from the ship and shots around the ship (No whales, the only whale I saw was in the process of diving and the camera man was too slow to catch it).

When we got back to Washington, we only breathed a few times when we took a three day trip to the San Juan Islands (Of which I had never heard, but of which I took another bunch of pictures including deer, foxes, and a fawn that came up to the porch of our little cottage.)

In the mean time my laptop acquired a Trojan Horse, which required a lot of cleaning out, including changing the pass words of all my financial dealings, but which precluded a lot of writing,  We did have a wonderful time, and on the day before we were to come home, I picked up my cell phone and my camera to use while I was taking Janet for some last minute shopping.  While we were doing it, I lost my camera and all the pictures that were in it.  (If you are in the Vancouver area of Washington and found a silver Olympus camera in a little black leatherette case, if you will send me the chip inside the camera, I will send you the two CD’s and all the attachments that go with the camera.)

At any rate, we are expecting some of the grandchildren to arrive in Georgia shortly, and I probably will buy another camera.  It looks like all of my children may be in one place at the same time along with some of the grandchildren and even some great grandchildren and we will go up to the aquarium in Atlanta.  Say OOOOH and AAAAh a lot ant take some pictures and even pose a family picture while we have so many around.  I am sorting some pictures that Jan took, and will really write a little more detail about our trip.  Now that I have proven to myself that I can write a few words.   I hope to see you all soon (or at least send you some messages, I have some family member who think we died in Alaska.

FIRST REPORT FROM ALASKA
I had really planned to make a systematic report of our trip, but when I logged on to the internet wireless on the ship I found out that I had to pay an activation chard of $3.95 (reasonable) then my internet use would cost $.75 a minute and the way I do the internet thing, I am too darn chintzy to pay that much. I have done a report, and like much that I write it is garrolous and long, so I am going to send the report for the first couple of days, and it is too darn long too, but if you don't want to read it, just take a nap naturally somewhere.

Cruise Journal.May 24, 2009
This really has to begin Sunday morning when Alex rousted us out of bed to leave for Seattle to take the ship from Pier 91. We had all our stuff packed with a little left over (from our Shopping tours of discount stores etc in Vancouver and Portland) so I asked Alex to lend us a little black duffle bag that he had recently purchase. He agreed, and we finished the packing, ready to go. Alex helped us load the baggage into the car and away we went. We stopped once at a McDonalds for a 1.00 large coke and a snack and were in Seattle in plenty of time. We were to be there for loading at !:00 and we were half an hour early. We dumped the baggage out of the car and began to attach baggage labels. I asked him to go the front of the line to pick up a baggage label since we had only been given four and we had five bags.

“What do you mean?”, he asked, “We only have four bags.” I froze. I knew that with his duffel we had five, so I insisted on looking back in the car for a fifth bag. He was right, and the bag that was missing, probably still sitting beside the bed in Vancouver was my “carry on”. It contained all of my spare underwear, my socks, all my shirts but one, and a pair of black shoes that I had included for the “formal night” on board to go with my tux. I instantly foresaw and long stinky trip. When we unpacked I foresaw, as well, a less than healthy trip as well since I couldn’t find the “Saturday to Sunday” divided box that contains my medications. When one is seventy plus years old and the co-payments on my monthly prescriptions exceed one hundred and fifty dollars every month, that means that lots of meds are missing, heart meds, arthritis meds, neuropathy meds, and a few like C Q 10, alpha lipoic acid, vitamins of all sorts that can be categorized as hypochondriac meds..

In spite of my baggage concerns the entry into the ship was pleasant and easy. Alex had picked up a three wheel walker at a yard sale or Goodwill the day before we left and it proved to be a life saver. The first and most obvious reason was that it helped people to know that we had some special needs so we didn’t have to wait in a lot of lines. The second reason was that Janet was actually feeling rather shaky, and was frequently in a lot of pain. Another reason that our entry was rather painless was that I had actually filled out and filed, on line, all of the complicated entry papers that provided me an “instant entry” form. We got on board and Alex called to see if he could bring back some shirts or something,, but it was clear that no one was getting on board temporarily so he gave up, called me a couple more times and made his way home. We found that we had been upgraded so we went from deck four behind the life boats to deck six with our own little balcony.. It is really pleasant with a wonderful view and nice fresh air if you can put on enough layers to go sit outside and watch the sea go by.

They didn’t have our room made up when we boarded, so we went up to the Lido room and had lunch until they called us. While we were sitting there I suddenly panicked realizing that all of our bags were labeled 4065G, and we were up in 6016, so I purely wore the folks in “hospitality” our until, about six o’clock that evening when we were well out to sea a steward came to the door with three of the bags. Of course the one that was missing was the little duffle bag that we had inadvertently substituted for my socks, underwear and meds. It took another hour before they found that, and it was then that I discovered that I also didn’t have the black shoes to go with my tux, or the cufflinks and studs for my dress shirt, or my cummerbund. Oh well, formal night isn’t till tomorrow, and I will probably do that in stinky underwear. We finished up the evening going to the Vista Room for dinner. It was really lovely. We shared the table with someone we didn’t know, a nice lady from Virginia, visited a lot, and I had a wonderful fruit appetizer served in a goblet, and almond crusted salmon followed by a lovely strawberry short cake, while Jan had a baby spinach and arugala salad, a wonderful piece of prime rib with baked potato with a dessert of chocolate mousse. When it was over we both remarked that it was a mistake not to have taken pictures of our plates, salads, desserts etc. Since Eric has come to spend a lot of time at our house, we have begun to watch the Food Channel and are now more aware of the value of “presentation”. We went to bed early and slept for twelve hours.

May 25

The next morning we began one of the nicest days of my life. We started the day with breakfast at the Lido. We had eggs benedict Italian (Italian because Jan has a very low opinion of mayonnaise), a bowl of delicious fresh fruit, and a bowl of soft chocolate vanilla ice-cream with a cookie. We then went off to the Vista Lounge to listen to a lecture about where to go and what to do on shore adventures.

It was not great. It turned out to be a sales pitch for Juneau businesses, paid tours, and discounts at particular stores that was delivered with an enthusiasm that put most television commercials to shame. It reminded me of the old medicine shows as they were portrayed in the movies of my youth. It was entertaining enough that we sat through the whole thing, but not informative enough that we remembered much that was said. I went to rent a pair of black shoes to go with our “formal dinner” that night, and we spent some time wandering through the art museum in preparation for the art auction that evening.

We had lunch at the Vista where we were seated next to a large window at the stern of the ship where we looked out on the wake of the ship and over the ocean. It was very beautiful. We shared a table with a couple from Wisconsin (or Minnesota, my brain didn’t sort out the states well), and two ladies who were taking an excursion without their husbands. (I think they were sisters, but I’m not sure.). I can’t remember what we had for lunch except that I finished with a piece of strawberry cheesecake, but it was delicious. The sommelier was a bit miffed that no one was having wine, but he smiled, even as he sniffed a bit while collecting our wine glasses.

After lunch we walked back to the Vista lounge (a nice theatre with balconies and a good stage), pausing on our way to listen for a few minutes to Adagio, an excellent string quartet, who played to an appreciative audience, some of whom were seated in their little concert lounge and some of which, like us, were standing in the hall, leaning over the rail. We were on our way to listen to a young native man who gave an excellent and informative illustrated lecture on the Huna culture, the early life style and current status. I loved one line (actually many, but this is the one I remember) “You people,” he said, “look out and see a seal on a rock and think ‘Isn’t he cute’ while I look out at the same seal and think, ‘Won’t he be delicious? Yum.’” He told some of the mythic tales of his village and they were very moving. It was an excellent experience.

We then went back to our stateroom to get gussied up for the formal dinner. Janet looked so beautiful I teared up a little. She is always beautiful but she looked so lovely in her black gown with the diamond necklace that I had brought her from Turkey, and she was so excited. It was wonderful. I, in dressing, discovered that I had also left my suspenders in Vancouver, but fortunately or unfortunately my waist was large enough that my pants stayed up unsuspended, and the coat covered my lack of a cummerbund quite well. I think we looked quite regal, my cane and Jan’s walker notwithstanding, as we walked back to the Vista Restaurant for dinner. We walked past the stacked and collected art works set out in preparation for the Art Auction and Janet commented about a particularly beautiful painting of flowers, run rampant, that she would like to be able to buy. We walked on down the hall and ran into a photographer who pulled us into place, dumped the walker and cane (and our glasses) and posed us in a series of romantic poses then shipped us away. I am sure that the time will come when they will want to sell us these pictures, but they didn’t even take our name or stateroom number which, for some reason, makes me a little nervous. Soon we arrived at the Vista Restaurant and were seated for dinner. On this evening we were seated with six others. Two couples who were traveling together and a third who were strangers to us all.

It turned out to be a wonderful experience. We had things in common with everyone, and the conversation was interesting, witty and friendly. I wish I still had a memory so that I could remember some of what we discussed. Being two months short of seventy five with a memory like a sieve has it’s disadvantages, I do remember the food.(which says something about my mental priorities.) All but one of us had shrimp cocktail as an appetizer. There were four or five enormous prawns hanging over the edge of a goblet looking for all the word like swimmers making a unison dive. Several of the party had salads as well, and everyone but Janet had a form of “Surf and Turf” with a very nice filet minon, several large grilled prawns, mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables. Janet was the single exception with a chicken breast and large prawns. We decimated some of the shrimp populations of the area. The shrimp were delicious, not quite as fresh as those we buy in Brooklet, fresh out of the sea, but fresh, tender and gigantic all the same. We had almost all made the same choices for appetizer and entre, but the desserts were all different and all luscious. One of the couples who were on their fourth or fifth Alaskan cruise talked about spending the afternoon listening to a band called Jenny and the HAL cats (HAL for Holland American lines) and that they were good to dance to. Hardly in condition to dance with Jan’s walker and my cane, we went down to the venue where they were playing (can you guess that I can’t remember the name) and listened for awhile, then, taking our balance in our hands we danced one of the numbers. I hope Jan enjoyed it as much as I, though we hardly did much more than stand cheek to cheek and rock back and forth in time, but I was so happy I was almost in tears. We couldn’t quite finish the number, so we sat, listened to the end and to another couple of songs and then went on our way. We got to the Art Auction too late to register for a number, but we sat in for awhile. Janet got really frustrated that she was unable to bid, so we left early. She muttered for quite awhile about the picture of flowers that she had wanted to bid on, but considering the prices that were going when we left, if she had been able to bid, we might have had to sell a couple of children and the house to get the picture (Actually, I asked around and it only sold for four or five thousand. Whew!!)
Our next destination was the “Big Show”. We stood in line to get into the Vista Lounge, and I couldn’t help but think that Formal Night on the tour brings out some of the most beautiful and some of the least flattering dresses ever made. They are interesting though, and the wearers always enjoy themselves so much.

The ship has a company of singers and dancers who were to perform scenes (set to music) from around the world. The singers and dancers were polished and showed great energy but they were all so “miked” in the MTV manner, that the music did not even sound stereophonic. I find myself frustrated that the electronic gimmickry of much modern music performance encourages singers to ignore the fact that the music has lyrics which have meaning, but current styles and electronics lead, in my opinion, to a sort of musical pyrotechnics in which glissando and crescendo are featured over meaning and solo vocal gymnastics are more important than the song. (Granted a lot of music is written for this effect, but most of this performance was made up of songs from various countries, and the scenery was a great revolve with windows through which much peering was done to pretend that there was an emotional context).

Having said that, the dancing, though the choreography was often unfocussed, was excellent, The Can Can numbers were a little more than traditional and this was one time when the performer’s skills were worth receiving the focus. I noted that one of the very best dancers was quite a bit larger than the others (shades of 1950’s movie musicals) but that she was featured in several numbers. So often, talent that is “a different size”, if it gets the job at all, is frequently slipped to the corners or back line in this day and time, but this young lady was not only often featured, but stole moments of the show. In one of the opening scenes a young ballerina also got my attention with some wonderful toe work, (coming back later and dancing very well in all the different styles.)
The Irish scene, though the vocal work was sometime histrionic rather than having the purity that make Irish music so popular over generations was excellent in spite of some really grotesque costumes on the women. Overall it was what one might expect from a competent revue at a Theme park. One scene, from which country I can’t remember had the ladies in knee length skin tight grey body suits with patterns on the legs and red boas wrapped around the waist, with a dangling boa tail (large) that seemed to shift positions. For that costume the dancers should, en masse, surround the costume designer and flail him or her (no programs) with wet spaggetti. A very talented young group though, and I found myself applauding enthusiastically at performance work that was hindered by technical foofera and affectation in the blocking. (I would have given anything to get to the sound board and cut down the gain a little)

It was building to what I though might be a very nice climax, but Janet by then was in a lot of physical pain and we had to leave about five minutes before the end.

I am being critical of the performance because I spent nearly fifty years as a performer, director and teacher, and I can’t help being critical. (There was time when Janet would not sit by me in any play because I would be taking notes) but it still was the conclusion to one of the most beautiful days of my life. We sat, with her curled up against my arm, and in a way, I was melting. This day, the first full day of the trip, was by itself worth the price of the purchase. (It was after all the planned big celebration of our Golden Wedding Anniversary, even if, by doctor’s orders, it was two years after the date.)

At last.

Tomorrow, God willin' and the Creek don't rise (you have to be in or around or from Georgia to completely understand that saying) Janet and I are going to go on the cruise that we scheduled in honor of our Golden Wedding Anniversary almost two years ago. Assuming that we make it to the ship on time, we will leave Seattle for a cruise to Alaska on the Holland America Line.

I don't want to hex this, but everytime we have gotten our lives together enough to make this trip something has jumped up and bit us on the butt. (It is scary to see how long ago we paid for this trip, and this seemed our last chance before expiration.)

If the ship has wireless internet, or if the last of the family laptops doesn't collapse into a pile, you may get a report now and then.

Wish us luck.

Lovely scenery

I'm in Washington and just had to report on a silly little incident. My son took us out north of Vancouver to a donut shop and to look around. As we were coming home, the traffic stopped on our lanes, and then on the approaching lanes of the five lane road (near a road called fourth plain). As we sat there, a mother duck with seven ducklings came waddling our from our lane into the next. The ducklings followed mama except for one that stopped to peck at the road for a moment. After that moment, he (or she, its hard to tell when they are barely fledged) turned, noticed that the rest of the family was already across the road and rushed to keep up. After the whole family were into the grass at the road side, traffic picked up and went on its way. There must have been forty or fifty cars hold place for a duck family. It was marvelous. The only bad thing was that by the time I got my camera up they were all long gone and traffic was moving as usual. There wasn't even a sign of anyone honking in the rear. It was if everyone had a feeling of something unique and precious.

Vacation??

My laptop died the other day, I decided to use Janet's laptop for awhile and it died too. 

We are going on vacation.  We are going out to Washington State, which is one of the places I have grandchildren, and we will visit with them, then, the last week in May we are going on the cruise that we paid for two years ago but couldn't go because of Janet's health.  We had to use the tickets this year or they expired, so we are going to Alaska.  Janet's orthopedist said it was okay to go, but not to walk on any glaciers.  The cardiologist said okay, but don't have any exciting adventures that would make her bloodpressure go up. Janet said that we better go while I am still young enough to try to keep up with her.

Once we leave, it is possible that posts to Facebook and the blog will continue if I can get hold of a computer, but it is also possible that no one will hear from us till the last week in June.  We HAVEN"T died, we are just loafing.  It seems to be a much needed thing.  Goodbye for awhile, MAYBE.  Who knows I may post more than I have lately (I could hardly do less.)

More Meditations on Change or Whatever

I guess that some  of the first things that come to mind relate to ecology or maybe just to nature.  I was wandering through the plant section of Lowes today and found, for sale, sweet gum trees. We all know that there are plants to avoid like poison ivy and poison oak, and there are plants that we shouldn’t eat like rhododendron, 

Now I am sure that somewhere in the great scheme of nature there is a place for the sweet gum tree, as there must be for poison ivy, but anyone who would sell a sweet gum tree to an innocent customer or any customer who knows anything about  the tree and buys one anyway should be placed together, barefoot and fenced in on a piece of property shaded by a sweet gum tree.  Hidden among the leaves that fall from a sweet gum are one and one half inch diameter porcupines that, no matter how careful one might be, will attack the bare foot, and sometimes even the shod foot viscously, oftimes drawing blood.  Evil tree that must have been created to punish the guilty in the “place down there”, and the name “sweet gum” is not accurate as is “poison oak.

Another non-nature observation:  Note if you will the number of times when an on screen TV anchor or reporter will bring in an on scene reporter who, regardless whether a question was asked, or was asked for a description, or for that matter anything else will give, as his first statement, the word “Absolutely”, usually as a total non sequitur.  “Now to Norman Numbut with the Governor/  Norman.”       Norman, “Absolutely!”

“Norman, what do we know about the accident on I 16?”  Norman “Absolutely”

Not related in any real way to nature or to the darn privet hedge (May privet be located in the same place to which I would like to locate sweet gum) I have been trimming all day, I came in the house just after dark and popped on the TV.  I found  a rerun of a Friday broadcast by Glen Beck designed as a rejoinder to the main stream media coverage of the “Tea Parties” on April 15.  My friend Patrick the “Redneck” has ranted a bit about Beck, but after listening to this program I have got to say that Glen Beck has a knack for asking the right questions and if he gets a bit emotional, he has none of the ranting arrogant jingoistic absolute generalizations of Sean Hannity (Did anyone watch him trying to shout down Geraldo –who is gradually turning into a real reporter and analyst- the other night) or the aggression of  O Reilly, he just has the right questions, and I think he may turn into one of the really formidable media forces.

I had some other things to say, but exhaustion has taken over, and I will try to put my mind back in gear tomorrow or the next day.  I was sad to hear of the passing of Jack Kemp who was an interesting and passionate advocate of some good stuff.

J'ever have one a those days?

Before I get anywhere else, I have had a number of folks ask about my eldest son. I got him into a hospital, the doctor there transferred him to one of the major hospitals in Savannah where they hung on to him for awhile, diagnosed major liver problems, and began to remove some of the fluid from his abdomen. They stuck needle in and took out five and one half liters of fluid. It didn’t near do the job. but they sent him home. It seems that they can only take that much fluid out about every three weeks, because if they took out more his kidneys could fail. He is now at home, taking medicine and he is absolutely prohibited from using salt, or alcohol in any form. The salt thing is bugging him because he is a cook (not by profession, by fun, and the things he cooks are smoked turkeys, barbecued shrimp shish kabobs, smoked Boston Butts, etc.) He is now staying with us quite a bit of the time, and his salt problem is getting to me a little as well.

Yesterday, I roasted a Boston butt with lots of spices and no salt. It came out pretty well. (I try not to put my salty Barbecue sauce on it in his presence. )

Today I spent a lot of time working outside. I planted a couple of tomatoes (One of the “topsy turvy ones you see advertised, and one in a similar gizmoe that I made out of a six inch plastic pipe) They are both doing well, so I took the pump on my swimming pool apart for repairs. In the afternoon I needed a wire brush to clean part of the pump, so I went into the utility room where I keep my tools and voila, my freezer was hanging open, the floor was covered with water, mixed with fruit juices and blood from thawing fruit and meat. So far I have blamed everyone but the pussy cat (who no longer lives at our house) for leaving the freezer open, but I know in my heart that it was me, when I removed said pork butt from the freezer over a day ago.

Fortunately the door was only open a little way, so that though everything was thawed, most of it was still cold and “salvageable”.

This was one of those days when I wished I had been wealthy enough, when I bought the freezer, to have bought a frost free one. Though probably some of the layers of frost helped keep the foot cool for awhile. About the only good things about this are the fact that my freezer is cleaned out and I have inventoried what I had in there. I had fourteen pounds of rhubarb. You laugh but rhubarb is precious to a man who was raised where rhubarb is so common it is almost a weed, and to the working poor (actually pretty middle class) rhubarb is almost a food group. Yummm. So I bought this big box of frozen rhubarb and we have been taking out some and cooking it (Pies, bowls of cooked rhubarb, strawberry and rhubarb jam etc.) as needed. It is now rhubarb mush, though a fair amount made it to the cooking pot with some of the other fruit in the freezer. The rest is compost. Also had fourteen pounds of flash frozen strawberries and we are seeing what can be salvaged there. I had about ten two cup bags of blackberries, and equal number of frozen raspberries, and about three times that much of blueberries. Some of the blueberries were still frozen and were salvaged that way, but the rest of these were mixed together in a sort of fruit compote (about a gallon and a half) and are now in a large tupperware bowl in the fridge where I hope we will eat them day by day. Actually I kept the blueberries separate and Janet plans to make the mother of all blueberry cobblers in the morning. About a dozen Marie (I think) Calandar frozen dinners bit the dust. A LARGE frozen Stauffer’s lasagna went into the oven, and another equally large chicken alfredo joined it, so we have a newly roasted butt, large lasagna and chicken alfredo all ready to eat. We don’t even have company invited.

I rewrapped most of the meat and put it back in the freezer. Inventoried: I have six Boston Butts, two large boneless pork loins, four of these little round boneless pork loins, about ten pounds of pork chops, three pounds of Italian sausage, a pound of two of just plain ground sausage, and a fresh picnic ham. I think it is pretty obvious that I am not Jewish. In beef, I have about fifteen pounds of various steaks, mostly boneless top sirloin, but a fair share of T bones and four New York Strips (bone in). There is also a bunch of hamburger, but it was so thoroughly thawed that it went to the fridge till we can eat enough of this other stuff to justify firing up the grill. There is also a fair amount of chicken. One whole roaster, ten pounds of rear quarters, a package of thighs and miscellaneous. My problem is that whenever I find meat that is REALLY on sale, I tend to buy it, stick it in the freezer (love these little vacuseal gizmos) and have to really work to remember that I have it so I wont buy more.

I am too old to clean freezers, wrap meat and mop the blood and fruit juice off the floor and do all that stuff after dinner should have been (but wasn’t ) eaten.

Janet was just given permission yesterday to walk without her walker, but she tried to help for a while and ended up in bed with a vicodin tablet.

By the way, I didn’t mention what a mess six or eight half gallon (actually a bit less that that now) containers of ice cream can make when they are well distributed around the freezer. Not much salvageable there unless you want to drink what is left out of the container (I did a little of that).

I’m on my way to shower off the freezer remains and collapse in bed.

didja ever have ona those days?