You are using an insecure version of your web browser. Please update your browser!
Using an outdated browser makes your computer unsafe. For a safer, faster, more enjoyable user experience, please update your browser today or try a newer browser.
I had to think a very long time about whether I should post this. It might shock some of my friends and relatives. But I was swayed by the current guiding principle of my life: what the heck?
On Jan 2 I visited a nudist resort and spent 2 hours basking in the sun, au naturale, surrounded by naked men and women. I was careful to keep the parts of my body that had never seen the sun in full shade to avoid a painful sunburn. Apparently that worked as I am fine now, 3 days later. Thanks for asking.
There was a pool, a DJ and lots of lounge chairs. I settled in a lounge chair where I could observe. I took a dip first – I had played pickleball earlier and felt sweaty – but mostly just sat and watched, with no interaction with the others, a mostly senior crowd of maybe 60 people. In the final 30 minutes I went into the tiki hut to watch the end of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game (how could the Jets screw it up that badly?) and even danced one dance.
My conclusions:
Most people my age are every bit as out of shape as I am. Maybe more.
Dancing with a naked woman is easier than dancing with a clothed woman because you don’t have to expend energy in mentally undressing her.
No, I don’t have any photos. Be grateful for that.
The 2021 New Year’s Eve party at the resort was cancelled due to COVID-19. This year, while the pandemic was rearing its ugly head once again via the Omicron variant, the party went on. It is now January 4, 5 days after the party and I have not heard of any new cases in the park. So, hopefully, the party was not a superspreader event.
It was a good party. The band, 41 South, was excellent. They knew their audience as I could sing the words (not well) to nearly every song they played. Excellent musicians, very good vocals. Couldn’t ask for a better band. I even danced a couple of times – probably my first dancing in over 3 years.
The caterer, however, balanced it out. They were terrible. The entree – a chunks-of-chicken-in-a-tasteless-broth concoction – was forgettable, as were the minimalist appetizers and the scant dessert. I found myself wishing that the event had been catered by Subway. Oh, well… I have been meaning to lose weight.
Because this resort is fundamentally a retirement community, there was a 9pm New Year’s toast. I am sure it was midnight somewhere in the Atlantic – maybe in Iceland – but the only real significance to 9pm was that the old people could drink the free glass of champagne then go home to bed.
About half the crowd stayed beyond 9pm and about a third made it all the way to midnight. But it was a quick midnight toast and the ballroom was empty by 12:03am.
So, not like the New Year’s Eve parties of my youth. But fun nevertheless.
My first full year without Jett. I survived. I even had a modicum of fun. But I still miss her.
So… 2021. Another year of COVID. A trip north (TN7) and a longer trip south (TS7). A cruise (PCL2). What were the highlights and lowlights?
Highlights:
Good health. I was healthy all year, which is pretty remarkable considering COVID-19 was raging. First vanilla COVID, the the Delta variant and, at the end of the year, the Omicron variant. Through it all I had nary a sniffle. The worst days, health-wise, were the days following my COVID vaccinations.
No major rig problems. While I had two truck failures that required tows, neither turned out to be significant. The most expensive repair (my bathroom faucets) could be considered routine maintenance.
Found my brother. Ron, my younger brother, had been missing for 5 years. Thanks to some terrific investigative work by Jett’s son, I found him in August in Ellsworth ME. And he was happy to be found. That made me feel really good.
A fantastic cruise. The one-week cruise on the Sky Princess in December was a blast! It was gratifying to discover that a Jett-less cruise could still be fun.
TS7highlights. The 4,000-mile trip south via WI was a pleasant bit of travel. Seeing friends in Madison was wonderful and I got to finally visit the battlefield in Vicksburg MS.
TN7highlights. The trip north was shorter than the trip south, but included some time in VA, with Jett’s family, and Cartersville GA turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
Headstone photographs. Taking photos of headstones and posting them in findagrave.com is always gratifying. The Silver Lake Cemetery in Athol MA proved to have many headstones without photos and it was quite hilly so I got some good exercise.
WooSox. The move of the Boston Red Sox’s AAA minor league affiliate from Pawtucket RI to Worcester MA was an unexpected boon. I saw 3 games.
Lowlights:
Quabbin Pines RV Resort. This new “resort” was my home for 3 months. But it wasn’t ready to open. I lived there, illegally, with electricity provided by a 20A circuit from an extension cord run from the office and no sewer for the first month. Just horrible.
Truck damage. An exploding tire in August 2021 blew out the entire right rear quarter panel. I expected that it would be difficult to fix but have learned that repair may be impossible. This is an existential threat to the truck and, potentially, to my life “on the road”.
Two tows. While it is true that there were no major mechanical problems with the truck or the RV in 2021, I did have to have the truck towed twice early in the TS7. Both problems turned out to be trivial to fix, but the angst resulting from those breakdowns was severe.
TGA. While my health in 2021 was generally superb, I did have two health-related incidents. The loss of several hours from my memory in July, diagnosed as Transient Global Amnesia, was scary. But the doctor was reassuring, saying that it was usually just a “blip” and didn’t indicate a more serious condition. Rare but benign.
EMASS softball. I played summer softball for the first time in 2 years and it didn’t go well. I performed poorly and sprained my wrist to boot. Plus I had to drive an hour each way to play poorly. A miserable summer of softball.
Summer rain. Compounding my poor play was the poor weather. Of the 16 scheduled games, 6 were rained out. Add in the two games that I missed due to the wrist injury and my summer softball season was reduced to half a season. July had measurable rain in 28 of the 31 days. Miserable weather.
I can’t categorize these as either “highlights” or ‘lowlights” but they were significant events for me in 2021:
Weekend of memorial services. Two of the members of my very close-knit college fraternity class of 14 died in 2021. Memorial services were arranged for consecutive weekend days in July. It was a weekend of renewed friendships and great sorrow.
Getting the COVID vaccinations. Arranging the COVID vaccinations proved to be difficult and was a major activity in February. When I finally got the vaccinations it was more due to a scheduling error than my diligence. An error that worked in my favor. The vaccinations kicked my butt more than any other vaccination that I have ever received, but I was still very happy to have gotten them.
Bottom line: 2021 wasn’t good, but it wasn’t a disaster, either. But there is plenty of room for improvement in 2022.
I just returned from 3 days in Austin TX. I wanted to spend part of the Christmas holiday with two of Jett’s remaining 3 siblings (who just happen to be two of the people I feel closest to in this world).
The view from Christine’s balcony
The plan was to fly to Austin for 3 days, including Christmas Eve, then fly back to Ft Myers on Christmas Day to have dinner with my sons. It wouldn’t be easy – especially since the only reasonably-priced nonstop flight from AUS to RSW on Christmas Day left at 7am (translation: arrive at the airport at 5:30am). But it was feasible. So I booked the flights.
Rainey St in the (calm) daytime
I stayed with sister-in-law Christine in her 17th-floor condo overlooking Lady Bird Lake. It was a beautiful view. Brother-in-law Ray and his wife Kim also stayed there, in the guest bedroom. Christine assigned the sofa to herself and I took her very comfortable bed in a bedroom with dramatic wrap-around views of Austin (thank you, Christine). Her condo was a very short block from Rainey Street, one of the major night entertainment venues in Austin. The nightlife noise was present from 6pm to 2am but it was never loud enough to keep me awake. And being that close to a major attraction has to have a positive impact on her property value.
Daniel Whittington
The first full day was slow until 5pm. At that time we drove out to the Crowded Barrel Whiskey Company for a tour. Crowded Barrel was founded by Daniel Whittington who just happens to be the brother of Sarah, a very close friend to Jessica, my niece. He gained some fame on YouTube by reviewing whiskeys which led to a crowd-funded start to Crowded Barrel. It is still a very small operation but I have to say that the Extant whiskey – a Scotch-style blend — was terrific.
The tour, led by Richard, was very informative. Then, while we were enjoying a post-tour drink, Daniel joined us and chatted with us for an hour about whiskeys, his experience as an entrepreneur and the weird laws surrounding – and limiting – what he can produce and ship. Very interesting.
Dinner after the tour was at Fixe, an upscale restaurant serving southern dishes. It was not far from Christine’s condo. Not cheap by any means, but excellent. My pork chop was the best I have ever had.
Friday was easy for me – I just watched Christine prepare her coq au vin dinner. I helped a bit – reaching high items, taking the hot dish out of the oven – but she did the hard work. The dinner for 8 – Christine, me, Ray, Kim, Nick, Jess and their 2 kids – was awesome. I certainly ate well on this mini-vacation.
Christmas Eve dinner – Jess, Nick and Christine
I got to bed around midnight and then was up at 4am to get to the airport for the flight back to Ft Myers. Christine drove me but Ray came along for the ride (because what else is there to do at 5am on Christmas Day?). Much love and a boatload of gratitude to Christine, Ray and Kim for making my whirlwind holiday trip just plain wonderful.
We were all hopeful that we were on the downside of COVID-19. The Delta variant was waning, more people were getting vaccinated, normal life was resuming. I was even able to spend a week on a cruise ship.
Then the Omicron variant of COVID-19 erupted.
Just in time for Christmas.
Waiting for my second flight at DFW
But I had already made plans for Christmas – Dec 22 to 25 with Jett’s siblings in Austin, then fly back early on Christmas Day to have dinner with my sons in Ft Myers. It was a risk to travel, but as I am fully vaccinated, I judged that the risk was minimal. So on Dec 22 I flew to Austin via Dallas/Ft Worth. The flights were smooth and, more importantly, on time. While people were pretty good about wearing the requisite face masks on the plane and in the airports, social distancing was practically impossible – there were a LOT of people traveling. Both planes were nearly 100% full.
Unloading bags at DFW
This had nothing to do with COVID, but I was amazed by the number of ground crew who were involved in unloading the baggage at DFW: 7 (you can see only 5 in the photo – 2 more were out of frame to the right). Because DFW is such a huge hub for American Airlines, bags for passengers changing planes had to be distributed to 4 different terminals. I think this used to be done “automatically” by a very complex system that never worked right. I think they have given up and the sorting is now done manually as the bags are unloaded from the plane. A failure of technology remedied by hiring more humans. The Luddites would love it.
I arrived 20 minutes early, but sister-in-law Christine was there to meet me. We spent the afternoon shopping and having lunch before heading back to the Austin airport to collect brother-in-law Ray and his wife Kim who were flying in from Boston. They, too, were a few minutes early and rush hour traffic into the airport was horrendous, but the timing worked out perfectly as Ray and Kim reached the curb just as we pulled up.
While air travel during Omicron was indisputably risky, the airlines performed well. If we don’t get infected while in Austin then our Christmas journeys can end happily.
On Tuesday this week a cold front came through Ft Myers. It didn’t get a lot colder, but the front produced some bodacious winds. The forecast was for “gusts to 40 mph” but I am sure the gusts were much stronger than that – my estimate is 60 mph. Enough to rock the RV. I had to pull the awning all the way in. There was even a tornado watch and some reports of a minimal tornado touching down in Ft Myers south of me. But I never got a tornado warning.
Yellow hibiscus
What I did get was some incredible cloud formations and a beautiful sunset. The best one is above, but there were others. A nice reward for enduring a nasty day.
I am going to throw in a photo of a yellow hibiscus that I took a day earlier. Not a perfect picture as it was overcast that day, but the yellow is still vivid.
When the exploding tire took out the right rear quarter panel, I knew that repairing it would be difficult as the truck is 17 years old and parts are difficult to obtain. The GMC dealer in August told me that just one part was available in the US – in Nebraska.
Well, that part is no longer available. Attempts to locate even used parts have been unsuccessful, as have attempts to locate an entire replacement bed. The Geico-approved repair shop told me yesterday that they were unable to repair the damage and I should talk to Geico to see if they would total the truck.
I am not quite prepared to do that yet, but that option is looming large. I don’t know what I would be offered if the truck was totaled – probably around $10K. Even a used truck will cost me over $30K so I am looking at spending around $20K that I really don’t want to spend. But other options – like coming off the road – don’t appeal to me very much.
I think once Christmas is past then solving this particular problem will be #1 on my To Do list.
Meanwhile, the truck’s A/C has failed and it seems to have sprung a slow leak in the power steering. I don’t think either problem will be difficult or expensive to repair but I canceled the scheduled repair work because why put money into a truck that may have to be totaled? But those problems increase the urgency of solving the overall Truck Problem.
Carl and I joined Bobbi and Patricia for breakfast for a final time together, followed by some goodbye hugs. Then we waited for our color (Gold-5) to be called. And waited. And waited. Seems there was a problem with the new facial recognition software in customs.
We had been told by our dinner neighbor that ALL passengers would have to get a rapid COVID test to exit the ship. We were skeptical as no such announcement had been made. But Carl called the Guest Services desk and they confirmed the rumor, saying the EVERYONE would be given a free, rapid test after clearing customs. I was still skeptical as the logistics of testing 2,000 people would be daunting.
We finally got called, exited the ship, made it through customs… and saw about a dozen people in line at a testing area. Everyone else just walked on by. Clearly, COVID tests were NOT being given to everyone. I fault Princess on this one. When asked a simple question they should be able to provide a simple and CORRECT answer.
Finding the bus to the parking area, getting the Corolla, paying the balance, driving back to Carl (who was waiting at the ship, with the luggage) was all done pretty swiftly. It could have been even more swift if I hadn’t gotten lost in the port.
Loaded the luggage and drove 2 hours to Naples. Dropped Carl off, then drove to Lehigh Acres to pick up Rusty. He didn’t recognize me and barked at me. Or maybe he recognized me and was just letting me know that he preferred to stay. In any case I got him and took him home and once he was back in the RV he seemed pretty happy.
Next up: fetching Frank, my younger son, from his hotel. Why was he in a hotel when he was supposed to be in his brother’s guest bedroom? Long, sad story involving, not surprisingly, beer.
I had planned to loan the Corolla to Frank but when I started the truck I realized that I had a big problem: the power steering was malfunctioning. Driving that beast of a truck without power steering would require superhuman strength. So I took the Corolla to pick up Frank and grabbed a quart of power steering fluid on the way back to the RV. After putting about a cup of fluid into the reservoir the truck’s power steering was, once again, functional. I took a short trip later in the day to confirm that. But the power steering clearly has a leak. I will need to deal with that. Soon.
Frank stayed with me overnight. Why? Again, a long, sad story involving, not surprisingly, beer.
Ok, let me give a wrapup of the PCL2 cruise.
The central question was: would I enjoy a cruise without Jett. The answer was a resounding YES. I had a grand time, assisted by having a congenial travel companion and meeting some very fine people.
The questions I had about how the cruise would be different due to COVID were answered thusly:
How full would the ship be? About half.
What COVID protocols would be in place? Strict use of masks in elevators and public spaces, except when dining. Strong encouragement to wash hands at entry into the buffet.
What else was different? The shows were shadows of the large-scale productions I expect on a cruise. There was just one “production” show and that was pretty small. All other shows were basically lounge acts: single vocalists and a magician.
Other observations:
The Sky Princess is a beautiful ship which, while constructed in 2019, had a “new ship” smell. I don’t think it was used at all last year so this may have been one of its first journeys.
The onboard internet was a joy. It was, hands down, the best internet service I have ever had on a ship. I didn’t use the streaming capability, but the fact that I could have streamed live shows aboard a ship at sea is incredible.
There were NO children aboard. I have been on cruises with few children but never on a cruise with none. Zilch. Zero. I don’t know why this was so as we saw lots of children from other ships in St Maarten. Did Princess discourage children (who might not be vaccinated)? Don’t know.
I didn’t do any excursions. I was traveling with a man who was too mobility-challenged to do most excursions, but it didn’t matter. I have been to St Thomas and St Maarten before and wasn’t terribly interested in doing any of the excursions there.
I saw very little of this ship. I usually spend one day at sea wandering around, getting a feel for everything the ship has to offer. I didn’t do that this time. Not sure why. Maybe I saw this cruise as more of an experiment than an adventure.
The bottom line is that I enjoyed the week very much and am glad I went.
This was my first cruise with back-to-back days at sea since the transatlantic crossing (TC1). I enjoy days at sea, so there is no problem with having two of them in a row. It just means that I am going to eat more than usual (a fine beef bourguignon for lunch and mahi mahi for dinner). Carl and I attended two trivia contests where we did okay but didn’t win and a word game called Word Tennis where a category is given and the contestants have to quickly provide instances of that category. For example, if the category is “superheroes” (as in the photo) then the instances could be “Superman”, “Batman”, “Wonder Woman” and so on. The contestant who fails to provide a unique instance in a timely fashion loses.
I did poorly.
Dinner was a hoot. Carl and I dined with Patricia and Bobbi, two women from Fort Lauderdale who were traveling together. We had met them at dinner a few days earlier and had been trivia teammates quite a few times. We decided to dine together on the final night of the cruise.
Trivia buddies – Dick, Carl, Bobbi and Patricia
And I am glad we did.
Bobbi’s Bunny Bow
Carl hitting on Bobbi
The conversation was so lively that the woman at the next table jumped in several times because she was so enthralled by our chatter. Among other things Carl and I learned that Bobbi had been a Playboy bunny starting in 1959. She demonstrated the Bunny Bow for us. She was nearly 80 and Carl and she really hit it off. The photo of them holding hands looks like Carl is proposing. He isn’t, but they sure had a connection.
A wonderful way to end the cruise.
Well, it didn’t quite end there as Carl and I went to the casino for one last try at fortune. Carl ended up breaking even for the trip. I ended down $300. A woman playing a slot machine near the roulette table won $1100. I could only admire her good fortune as I had none of my own.
This day at sea was very relaxing. I spent some time on the balcony, reading, but the main features were the 3 (count ’em – 3) trivia contests, the formal dinner, the Thursday Night Football game on the big screen under the stars and a late night at the casino. I also got some very nice sunset photos, two of which I have included here.
We (Carl and I and friends Pat and Bobbi) did well at the morning trivia, coming in third out of about 20 teams. The topic was “Where am I?” and the answers were all cities. If we had been just a bit more knowledgeable about Brazil we would have come in second.
The most entertaining contest was the midday trivia which was entitled “Terribly Twisted.” The contest consisted of video clips from commercials from all around the globe and the challenge was to pick the product being sold from a multiple-choice list. The commercials were hilarious and we actually did quite well – a tribute to our twisted minds, I guess. We teamed up with 2 women from Oregon who apparently were as twisted as we were. We didn’t win but we did better than I expected.
Dinner was formal, with broiled lobster tail, Beef Wellington and several other elegant dishes on the menu. I had escargot to start (quite good) and Beef Wellington as the entree (also very good but not as good as the ones I made many, many years ago). I wasn’t going to have dessert, but the waiter forced a Pistachio Dome on me – a chocolate-covered chocolate mousse with a pistachio center. I ate it all.
Football under the stars
I went to watch the NFL game on the big screen. It was a blowout in the first half with Minnesota leading Pittsburgh 23-0. It turned out to be a competitive game with Minnesota winning 36-28, but I went down to the casino instead of watching the second half. I could have saved $50 by watching the entire game. Down $200. Carl, however, won about $100 at roulette.
