Life When Larry Stops Traveling

My husband is only working part time, but 90 percent of his work is during the winter. I don't mind his traveling. Truthfully, I know his work keeps him involved enough without taking over his life. It's a good way to retire, if you can pull it off. I probably couldn't. I'm an 'all in' kind of person. And once I retired I was 'all out'! That worked for me. Larry is great at saying 'Sorry, I'm off the clock and on vacation. Deal with it yourself". And then he leaves, to clarify the point.

Once March hits, his work travel comes to a screeching halt and he is ready to..... um..... travel! But this time he travels to places of his choice and none of it is work related.

Well, March is here. His work travel has come to an end for now, so what did we do? We hit the road on our first springtime adventure; something we both love.

Our cruise ship, the MS Westerdam, docked in Grand Turk Island

We booked a cruise and traveled to the Eastern Caribbean. For us a cruise ship in the tropics has little to do with adventure, and everything to do with chillin'. Of course, anyone looking for adventure can book an excursion. The cruise lines always have a variety of guided tours for every ability level, from zip line, or dune buggy rides, to snorkeling the reefs, and taking local cultural tours. But the tropics means warm water, balmy breezes, lots of sunshine and taking it easy, which is exactly what we did on this trip. We had a great time.

Our first stop was at Grand Turk Island in the Caicos.

The view from the ship was beautiful. We watched as small boats arrived and threw out their anchors. Another boat scouting the waters would pick up the people in the boats and ferry them to shore. Since it was early in the morning we decided most of these people were driving their boats to work.

I'm not sure I ever realized that Grand Turk is where John Glenn splashed down from his historic 3-orbit trip around the earth, but the displays there re-educated me.

Detailing the recovery of John Glenn and his space capsule

That time was so long ago. Can you remember how daring that event was? Space travel was new. We had questions about how the human body would respond or react to weightlessness. Would our eyes pop out? Would the digestive system work? After watching Mark Kelly spend a year in space those concerns are very distant, but when John Glenn orbited, they were real. This display reminded me of that.

Whenever we would enter or leave a port we liked to watch the Pilot Boat. A Pilot Boat always accompanies a ship when it is in the harbor. The pilot is a local captain that knows the harbor waters intimately and is tasked to provide safe passage for these huge ships. Our verandah provided a pretty good view of the Pilot transferring between the Pilot Boat and our ship, which was always fun to watch.

Our second stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico. I've wanted to go to Puerto Rico for a long time and this was my first chance. As an American, I admit that I know nothing about it. It has really been on the sidelines of my consciousness, but after working with people from there, I've been curious about this part of the United States. It isn't a state or a colony, but a Territory.

As we came into San Juan we entered through a narrow channel on the other side of this fort. I was amazed to see that the Pilot didn't come on board until after we were through the channel, and when we left he got off before we went through the channel. It wasn't very big, and there was plenty of water moving through it with a strong current! While it looked tricky to me, clearly the channel was defined enough, and we only needed guidance in the protected harbor.



We didn't book an excursion in Puerto Rico, but as we got off the ship we encountered a man who was a true salesmen at heart. He promised us a $10.00 tour for one hour, with four stops; the beach (which are actually few and far between there,), the Capitol, the old fort, and the shopping district. He reasoned that after we were done, we would know enough about the city of San Juan to know what we wanted to go back to see. We joined others in his bus for the best $10.00 tour we have ever had. He was a blast!

Our tour guide, Christopher, had been born in NY to Puerto Rican parents, but grew up in Puerto Rico. He joined the military and was a Marine. He was proud of his island, knew a ton about it and never stopped talking--including with his hands as he drove. When one of the passengers commented on his ability to drive without holding the steering wheel he laughed and said he had been told the only way to shut him up was to tie up his hands. We loved his tour, and miraculously arrived safely back at the ship an hour later.

View of the port from the ship

This Hilton Inn was the first one built off the continental US in 1949.

Narrow Streets, Picturesque

Our visit to the Capitol was brief, but interesting. Did you know that while Puerto Ricans get to vote in the primary elections, they are not allowed to vote in the actual Presidential election, since they are not a full state? I did not know that.

The rotunda itself was beautiful.The artwork on the dome inside was created with over 5 million pieces of mosaic tile and depicted scenes from the island's history.

Capitol Building

The mosaic dome inside the Capitol

Capitol Rotunda

Nine American presidents have visited Puerto Rico since it became a US territory. The most recent was Barack Obama. In honor of their visits, the territory has erected statues outside the Capitol building.

After our stop at the Capitol, we went through Old San Juan to the point where we had a good view of the Castillo San Felipe and the Old San Juan cemetery, the burial site of many of Puerto Rico's most important citizens.

Old San Juan Cemetery

 The cemetery and the fort were really interesting places and are on the "Must See" itineraries of many visitors.

Castillo San Felipe del Morro

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Shopping area

This used to be a prison. If it looks nice now, it's because it has been reborn as a Casino!

Our third port of call was St. Thomas. St. Thomas is an unincorporated territory of the US. It is part of the US Virgin Islands. I get rather confused here about all the national logistics, but I am learning the difference between the British Virgin Islands and the American Virgin Islands. It was originally settled by the Danish, but the United States purchased it in 1917. It has an interesting history, but we were ready to just enjoy the port and the shops there. It is a beautiful island, and one we would like to go back to.

Iguana's greeted us at the port. 

Larry waits for me in the shopping district

The harbor was dotted with lots of sailboats.

A Great Example of Business PR! 

Port Gateway

The gray object in the center is a cistern, used to catch and store rain water.

We left St. Thomas with just two days left on our trip. The next day was at sea, before we stopped at Half Moon Cay, a privately owned island in the Bahamas (by Holland America Cruise Lines) for a true beach day. Half Moon Cay is a tiny island, well managed by staff that is ferried in from nearby islands. They offered several opportunities from horse back riding and hiking to hanging out at the beach. The crew from the ship got to come on shore just to provide us with a terrific lunch. I'm not sure if they were grateful for a day off the ship, or if this was just another day at work for them. 

The island itself is uninhabited and maintained as a nature preserve. It was a great way to end the cruise.

Big Boat, Little Boat

While we sat on the beach we could see the crew carrying out some sort of exercise on the ship. We could see the little tug next to the ship and water spraying out from the ship. Perhaps a fire drill?? I don't know. But the picture was cute!

Lush paths directed us from the beach to the lunch site.

Tram Stop: For those who had difficulty walking a tram gave them a lift.

Which Way is Home? or better yet, Which Way to the Rest Rooms??

The view from the Tender as we headed back to the ship shows beautiful beaches and gorgeous water. 

There are lots of things that make a cruise fun, from the activities on the ship and on shore, to the amazingly warm and friendly staff. I love getting to know our dining room waiters and our room stewards. My favorite part is coming back to the room from dinner knowing the stewards have been there, our room has been readied for the evening, and looking to see what kind of "towel" animal they have put on the bed. The first night we had a cute sea turtle on our bed.

 Our steward was very talented and creative when folding towels. On our last night he left us the best one, a monkey hanging from a 'tree branch'.

Agus, our room steward and the monkey he left in our room.

Another part of cruise life are the evening shows and the variety of entertainment venues, from a piano bar to a rocking blues band, classical violinist, or karaoke. The Holland America shows are outstanding. We had a wonderful pianist, an amazing ventriloquist, and a comedian, named Fred Klatt who was the funniest person I have ever heard, hands down. From the minute he walked on the stage until he walked off no one stopped laughing.

8 days. 7 nights. 4 ports. The bluest of blue waters. Sun. Breezes. I can come up with several 'favorite' things about cruising. But perhaps my most favorite is just boarding the ship, because I know I'm in for a week (or more) of a terrific experience.

Now that we are home from the cruise, Life with Larry is about to continue with the biggest Travel Trip of all. We are gearing up. Stay tuned.

Murphy's Law, Bio Rhythms, and How to Tell When You Are Ready to Retire

Long, long ago, back in the days of floppy disks and 40MB hard drives, I brought a program home from work to put on my little Apple LCII computer. It was a shareware program that plotted the bio-rhythms of your body. It was a neat little program that by using your birth date could tell you how your body was prepared to handle things emotionally, intellectually, and physically. After I put in my date of birth the line graph would display three colored lines in an upswing or a downswing. I found it interesting that the three lines rarely coincided. I never really understood how it all worked but it was fun to see if my brain cells were performing as good as I could hope for, or if perhaps, this was a bad time to try and appear smart. That little program disappeared along with my LCII, but I carry it in my mind like an old joke to be brought out when stupid things just seem to happen.

Flash forward 30 years..... when we've had a week when 'stupid' seems to surround us like a shroud.

Larry claims to be semi-retired. He claims just as often that he wants to be fully retired, but circumstances just aren't making that happen. In the winter, 'semi-retired' is a distant term for him. Although he doesn't travel as much as he did, he travels a good bit. Last week he was nearing the end of his LAST business trip this winter and looking forward to being home....so he can get ready for a cruise. More travel, but definitely the right kind.

Saturday, I got a call. 

"I've lost my driver's license." This isn't good when you have to fly back from Dallas in three days. Airlines count on that ID, or a passport which he has, but not with him in Dallas.

The next day, he called. He had located his Driver's License at a local restaurant and had it back. YAY!! Excellent news.

Following this good news he returned to his hotel room and sat down to watch TV while gnawing on some beef jerky....and broke his tooth. Fortunately it was just a corner and not a painful piece, but still not good news.

While he was mulling his options over, he got an email that his flight home had been upgraded to 1st Class!! At least he could smile a broken-toothed smile. 

While he was relaying his latest ups and downs to me over the phone, the vision of that old bio-rhythm screen played in my head. Obviously his physical (tooth) and intellectual (driver's license) lines would have been plummeting on my computer screen. Things really weren't going his way. He was tired and ready to come home. 

The day he flew in I was in Atlanta and we met and came home together. We did a few errands, and stopped at Applebee's for dinner. We arrived home in the dark and got the car unpacked just as a storm blew in. "It's been a long day," he sighed, "But I'm done!" 

The next morning I realized I had left my phone, and my leftover dinner in the car and went out to retrieve it. 

There was the final sign; this boy is ready to retire.

Larry had left the driver's side door wide open.....his side of the car was soaking wet.... and there was an open, empty styrofoam container on the floor. My steak was gone. 

(Happily, my phone had been tucked into the pocket on the passenger door and was fine, but I'd like to know what critter stole my steak!)

Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. And it has. Let's just hope we've run the full course of the crazies so that our upcoming cruise will be all upswings!

Weather: It's All Relative

I live in the North Georgia Mountains. At least, geographically. When I first moved here I met more people from Florida, than Georgia. One day I was getting a manicure and as the others in the salon and I were chatting I discovered we ALL were 'from Florida'. At first, the manicurist maintained she was from Georgia, but then she mentioned she was born in Plant City, FL and moved here when she was 4.

I have jokingly stated that Blairsville, GA is technically the northern most town in Florida, only Georgia thinks it belongs to them. Occasionally, I meet a 'local'; someone who was born and raised here. More often than not, when the conversation gets going, even someone who is from "Minnesota" will interject "when we lived in Florida" into the conversation. Once in a while I will discover that someone I considered a 'local' actually came from somewhere else, most often Florida. So, while I live in Georgia, sometimes it just doesn't seem that way.

I love this town. It is nestled in a beautiful part of the Appalachian Mountains. Summers get warm, but not as hot as Atlanta. Fall and Spring are lovely. We have four seasons. Snow makes an appearance, but it's not too serious. By that I simply mean we get inches, not feet. However, because we live in the south, a few inches can shut down this town as easily as 10 feet shuts down Buffalo. Maybe not. I'm not sure if anything shuts down Buffalo.

Truth be told, around here if there is snow in the mountains the people living there are stuck until it melts off. Sometimes that's in a few hours. When the weather is cold it can be several days. The 3 trucks with a plow are too busy keeping the main roads in town open to worry about anything more than a mile out of town. Salt? What is that? I'm pretty sure, Pittsburgh has cornered the market on salt. When we lived there I routinely found a bucket load of salt at every intersection. Here, we use gravel, (mixed with salt they say...).

The weather this week has separated us from Florida. The high one day was 29 degrees and that was at midnight. At 3:00 that afternoon we were sitting at 24 degrees. Then the cold front went through. The low was 9 degrees with a windchill of -1. That's right. I live in Georgia and we are expecting -1! Today the snow hit...and the town shut down. The predictions rolled in yesterday and by nightfall, schools were cancelled for today, along with everything else.

Our Winter Blizzard

Sorry Buffalo, but we here in the south, just don't put up with that stuff. We fold without a fight.

-1 is cold, but I give kudos to my daughter in Iowa. They finally decided to cancel church when the windchill was predicted to be -40!  I'm happy in the 20's. It's better than -40. But this is the one time of year I feel we separate ourselves from being a Florida town. If it ever hits -40 there we will know Hell is freezing over.

Wait! I didn't meant Florida is Hell!! I really didn't! I simply meant if it is that cold in Florida then Hell is probably freezing over too.

New Year--New ME?

New Year's Resolutions! We all have them. Well, a lot of us do. The smart ones remember that every day is a new day and they set new goals whenever the time seems right. The rest of us start lining up all the changes we want to see in ourselves, as we watch that giant crystal ball drop in Times Square imagining it is the starter pistol at a race.

I'm part of that crowd. I always have a couple of personal adjustments I'd like to see accomplished. So for this year, here we go;

Lose Weight! (Hey, I've never pretended to be original.) 10 pounds would be a good starting point. 40 pounds would be a great ending point. Last year I took off 10 in the winter. I put on 12 in the summer. I've taken off 5 of those so far. If I do the math, addition seems to be more my thing, than subtraction.
I've worked on a strategy for this, though. I figure if I just get up at 7:00 every morning I'll have time to work out and do the other daily stuff I want to do, before I head out to wherever I'm going later in the morning.
As my kids are reading this, they are laughing. I'm retired. I have no children to take care of. My husband fixes his own cereal. I never get up before 8:00--on an early day. Making myself get up at 7:00 every morning would be like telling them that getting their kids to go to bed every night promptly at 7:30 is simply a matter of telling them "good night". My will power has the laser efficiency of a weak flash light. I hit the snooze on the alarm more times than my grandkids come up with ways to avoid going to sleep.

So, my first resolution sits in limbo while it waits for me to recharge my will power.

Then there is my resolution to spend more time each day developing my spiritual focus. I often get involved in a daily devotional reading plan. I'm pretty good at it too. I can read the daily Bible verse on my iPhone while I'm brushing my teeth. I can peruse the devotion while Good Morning America is running in the background and get it done during a commercial break. Now, even I can figure out my focus isn't very focused.

It seems I'm not alone with this resolution thing. According to StatisticBrain.com this year's Top 10 resolutions fall under the following categories.
1. Lose Weight--(See I told you I'm not original!)
2. Getting Organized
3. Spend Less, Save More
4. Enjoy Life to the Fullest
5. Staying Fit and Healthy
6. Learn Something Exciting
7. Quit Smoking
8. Help Others in Their Dreams
9. Fall In Love
10. Spend More Time with Family

45% of Americans make resolutions. Unfortunately only 8% of us succeed in following through. (Interestingly enough, the younger you are, the more likely you are to follow through. Is that because they have more energy or because they aren't as set in their ways?)

Last year my resolution was broader, but simpler. I wanted to live each day more intentionally; waste less time, be in the moment more. I set some specific guidelines I wanted to achieve. I didn't hit that one out of the park but when I looked back over the year I had made good strides. And that's ok. It's really the kind of thing that is a work in progress. It will continue to be a daily focus.

When I compare last year's resolution to this year's, I come to the conclusion that resolving to make fundamental changes in my routine, like getting up early to work out, is likely to be less successful than making an overall change in the way I look at things. Assuming I'm like the majority of other people I would wager that of the Top 10 resolutions on this year's list, #1-Lose Weight and #7-Quit Smoking will be the most difficult to achieve. Those who resolved to #4-Live Life to the Fullest may well have the best chance of achieving that goal. It relies more on attitude than action. And it promises a reward of fulfillment.

That's a good goal. It piggy backs nicely on my goal from last year. I think I'll add it to my list,

The good news? I can cross #9 off the list! I did that 48 years ago. It was a very good year!

Who's Eating My Chocolate? or, Welcome to Squirrel Hill

The Saga of Rocky continues...but here it gets a wee bit creepy!

Waking up early in the morning, I heard a familiar scrabbling noise. I had heard it before, but never thought much about it. Squirrels running on the tin roof were a common noise. Sometimes I would hear branches dropping down. Now, as I listened, I knew what it was. We had company.

I checked the kitchen island but nothing seemed amiss. As I was dusting the hutch, I noticed slivers of aluminum foil. Moving a silk plant I found the evidence.



Squirrels like chocolate! Who knew! (Our exterminator told us later that rodents love chocolate.) Our night visitor had stolen a Hershey Kiss from the candy jar, gently peeled it and taken it off to nibble. Thanksgiving couldn't come soon enough!

Saturday after Thanksgiving we were enjoying a peaceful night at home after traveling 1200 miles round trip for a turkey dinner (and of course a chance to be with family and friends!). As I cleaned up dinner, Larry suddenly appeared from the basement, where his office is, with one of those looks on his face and holding his hands far apart. If you've ever seen a spider, roach or god forbid, a snake in your house, you know the look. If you've ever seen a fisherman show the size of the 'one that got away', you know how far apart his hands were.

"You gotta come down here! Something just ran by me and it's THIS (insert hands far apart) BIG!!!"

Frankly, I'm wondering why I have to go down there, but I think this is where that concept of Supportive Wife comes in, so down the stairs I go, into the deep dark, basement. Well, really not that dark. We did have the lights on. And when I got there, we had EVERY light on.



"It ran under there" he says pointing to the couch. So we crouched on the floor with a flashlight and sure enough, the shadow under the couch was definitely bigger than a mouse. After consulting we decided to:

Flip the Couch
Trap the critter under a clear plastic bin we had handy
And then, somehow, wriggle the lid under the bin and TRAP THE SUCKER in the box!

Sounds good, until you attempt to execute it.

Larry was going to flip the sofa and I was going to TRAP THE SUCKER!
Before we made our move my ever supportive husband looked at me and said, with full confidence:
"Oh yeah, you're gonna let him get away."



And I did. He flipped the sofa. Rocky and I took a split second to eyeball each other. I threw the tub over him....well, in his direction, and we both ran in opposite directions. Rocky headed into the bedroom.

And now it was apparent why Rocky looked so big! Our pest control company had placed sticky pads around the house to help trap mice. Rocky had inadvertently touched the sticky pad with his tail and it was going everywhere with him, making him look twice his size. That's a good strategy if you are trying to scare off a bear, but not real good if you are a squirrel trying to hide.



We were able to corner Rocky and this time Larry took the tub, while I poked under the bed and moved Rocky in Larry's general direction. Larry, being a GUY and much more stalwart than ME, held his ground as the squirrel came his way and dropped the tub over him.

Now came the tricky part. And as things go, the creepy part. But if you have a sense of humor, it is also the hilarious part.

It is the part where we try to slide the lid under the tub to trap the squirrel.

As we slid the lid in the back, somehow, the squirrel managed to wedge himself under the front of the bin. Then he grabbed hold of Larry's pant leg. And held on. And dragged the sticky pad over Larry's shoe. I wish I had a video. I can't begin to explain the following sequence of events, but here's the gist of it.

The squirrel was stuck to the pad. The pad was stuck to Larry's shoe. Neither of them could get away from each other. THEY WERE STUCK!

Somehow Larry got the squirrel off his shoe, and into the bin, and got the Lid on.

















Sorry, Rocky. As long as you stay in your world we are fine. My house takes up but a tiny bit of your forest and there are plenty of oak trees and squirrel nests, and bird seed out there. But once you ruin my blinds, it's war. We won this battle.

The exterminators have plugged the holes and set the traps. It was a warm day when they were here, and hopefully all the critters had gone back outside. So far, none have been trapped inside. And the token tomato and apple I keep on my counter as a checkpoint have been untouched.

So maybe we won the war! I will update you if we see more critters. For now, I'm hoping Rocky decides to reunite with Bullwinkle and move to Minnesota.

In Search of Rocky--(The Flying Squirrel)

It all started this way....

It was a dark and stormy night...

No, Really! It WAS a dark and stormy night when Larry walked into our house to find things amiss. In fact it was Halloween! And he was spooked. A magazine was on the floor. Dish towels had fallen off the towel rack. A votive candle holder had been knocked off a table. As he investigated further, he found the Venetian blinds in our bedroom on the second floor were tangled or down and he couldn't fix them.
    
There were wood shavings on the window sill.... and then more under a closet door in the loft where something had chewed the entire bottom of the door and pulled 4" slivers off, just for good measure.


More proof of the invasion and perhaps the entrance point was discovered in the basement. Something had chewed a hole in the ceiling tiles, and left a mess on the floor.



Where was I? In Iowa, and very happy to be there as he called and relayed what he was finding. I think I was happier realizing it was not a burglar, but an animal, but at any rate, I was really happiest knowing I wasn't there! So much for being the supportive wife.

Fast forward a month and here's what we know. Our home was invaded by both mice and flying squirrels. When I got home a week later, I realized the squirrel had actually run across the tops of the valences in the living room and the top of the china hutch, knocking over Styrofoam pumpkins that were on top.

An exterminator was called and he popped his head through the tiny 'man hole' in the bedroom closet that leads to a true crawl space and quickly proclaimed, "Oh yeah, There's a nest, food piles, tracks, (and other signs of rodent activity) up here." Oh goody!

He told me what it would take, (and what it would cost!) to get rid of the varmints and I wondered if it wouldn't be easier to call Bullwinkle to come round up his trusted buddy, Rocky. However, although we live in the North Woods, the North Woods of Georgia is not a familiar habitat for Moose, so Bullwinkle probably wasn't going to get us out of this fix. We hired the exterminator. He would start work plugging holes, setting traps, and removing said varmints, after Thanksgiving.

 Meanwhile, it was still evident something was visiting at night. One morning as Larry went to the kitchen to start his coffee he found mail knocked off the kitchen island onto the floor. I checked the bowl on the counter and discovered something had nibbled two of the tomatoes I had bought the day before. Mouse? Squirrel? Whatever it was, it had neatly skirted the sticky pad our pest control company had placed hoping to catch our critters. After that, I left an apple out, just as a 'critter activity check'.

Yep. We had critters in the house. We were counting down to Thanksgiving. Since we would be gone we needed to wait until after we got home to get serious about catching them. (After a week away, no one really wants to come home and find a dead mouse in the house.)

Our story doesn't end here. Stay tuned for Part 2.

To Be Continued.....