2018 - Year in Review

Well as always the year had its ups and downs. 

Chelsea graduated from Ohio State, so that was a big event.  The actual graduation was a cattle call,  lines of students walking through and getting their diplomas en masse.  Still it was Chelsea's day and after grinding through school and investing the time and money, it was worth it for her to have her moment in the limelight.

It was turbulent in the homestretch as Dan's mother was in a bad car wreck - bad enough that she was in a coma.  So the decision was made to come back to help with her business and also to help her recover.  Poor Chelsea had to commute to and from Columbus during the last of her time at OSU.  So that made it all the more difficult.

They now live in house trailer on our property and Chelsea is redirecting her career and is thinking of becoming a school teacher now - specializing in science.  She is substituting now to get a feel for it and is making plans to take the needed coursework to become a full time teacher for next year.

We celebrated her graduation with a trip to North Carolina's Outer Banks.  We rented a house down there for a week. The stay had its moments to say the least.

Annabelle is doing well in school and wants Mommy to come substitute teach in her class someday. Chelsea said that you need to tell your teacher to call in sick someday.  Sterling is mischievous as always.

Vanessa and Eric are maintaining.  Vanessa has become a girl Friday or maybe a better term is a facilitator for her church. It has grown and has 2 services on Sunday mornings now.  With the growth, scheduling and planning became more chaotic. So she was hired part time to help keep everything running smoothly. Eric made the switch to Pepsi and is good with the change.  Slightly better hours and scheduling so that he can spend more time with family.

Elaina is now in Junior High, hard to imagine having a grandchild that old. Violet tried her hand at cheerleading (Ugh), but this winter tried basketball - and is liking it (Yeah!).  Elliot has been a handful at times in preschool, maybe he has my temper.  And young Thomas is getting around and talking, so he is at a fun age.

Joe and Sam bought their 1st house in New Lebanon this fall.  They bought a house trailer and are acting as their own realtors after the realtor they hired simply wasn't performing - no show on appointments, not returning calls, etc.  Sam has a new job, she works in the office of Dayton Freight. Joe has a new boss.  The owner of LaVecke Lighting retired and sold off the business. The new owner is an electrical engineer.  Joe is excited because they are looking more into the controller market where companies control lighting and electrical service operations via computer.  So potentially new products to sell down the road.

Ryker is trying to run his preschool.  I guess the one day the teacher sat down for story time.  So Ryker did not care for the story as he told the teacher - "Could you stop now, we are going over to the toy box and play with cars." He then grabbed another boy and left the group.

Chad and Sarah are also maintaining. No big changes for 2018. He is still a mechanic for Montgomery County.  She is still teaching. His project dujour is rebuilding a backhoe.  He is trying to bring it back to life as he has some tile on his property that he wants to redo. He has done a good job of fixing our vehicles this year, it is nice to have a mechanic in the family.  I can do some of my own work, but these modern vehicles can be so difficult to diagnose and repair.

Cash is still enjoying working on little projects and putting stuff together. Definitely headed for being a mechanic or doing something mechanical in the future.  Serenity is enjoying her school and is doing well.

Me and Becky are counting down to retirement.  February of 2019 has been selected.  Getting the i's dotted and t's crossed have been a pain. Becky qualifies for medicare as she is disabled, but we have insured her under my insurance all these years.  Making the change from private insurance to medicare has been a major undertaking.  Much wailing and gnashing of teeth.  The battle is not over -we are dealing with bureaucrats and they are unflinching in their enforcement of nonsensical rules. But hopefully by January things will have been worked out.

Tilton Tales

With the family coming together this weekend to memorialize uncle Danny.  There has been a lot of swapping of tales and family lore.  So I figured that I would save some of these tidbits before they are lost in the passage of time, so here they are in no particular order:

Uncle Rusty remembers that the 3 boys had bedrooms upstairs in West Alexandria and that it had some vents cut in the floor to allow the heat to rise. It got cold up there and so sometimes wind would blow snow around the edges of the window and there would be a thin layer of snow on the floor close to the window.  They ended up stuffing socks around the edges as best they could to keep the wind and snow out.

Another time they had raised a pig.  So having no truck they put the pig in the trunk of their car and took it to the butcher in West Alexandria.  They backed it up to the chute and as soon as they popped the hood, the pig took off like a shot.  Grandma Garret and the boys chased it around the cemetery in West Alex. Finally they got the idea of going back to their place and getting a bucket to lure it back to the butcher shop.  That finally worked and they got it back to the butcher shop - probably a few pounds lighter than it would have been without the workout.

Grandpa Jack remembers the time that me and Matt decided to help Dad by filling up his truck.  Only with a garden hose...  He was suspicious when the truck would not start and there was a garden hose laying nearby. He had to drain the tank and refill it with gas to get it running again.  We were only like 6-7 years old, it was hard for him to get angry at us.

Another time he ran into a parent at the store and asked him how the first week of contact at football practice was going.  He had been working and hadn't had a chance to swing by and see how things were going. He said, "The only ones hitting are your boys - and they are hitting each other!" I was playing center and they put Matt at nose tackle when we practiced plays.  Neither one of us was going to let the other show up the other.  So we went to the whistle on every play.  They only did that for a practice or two and then split us up.  If they hadn't we surely would have killed each other.

Both Uncle Rusty and Dad had memories of their grandfather (John Henry) who had a business in Drexel.  Coal in the winter and ice in the summer. Sometimes the grandkids would ride with him on his stops and ride on top of the ice in back of the truck.  That came to an end when the tail gate became unlatched one day and they all spilled out of the back!

In a backroom, there was a bootleg slot machine.  Customers would come in and try the machine for a nickel a play.  If they left and hadn't hit, they would beg nickels because they knew it was due for a win.  More often than not, they would get a winner and pay him back - then have money to spend.

Uncle Rusty's father - Dale Sr.  was in world war 2.  He spent some time in North Africa and was in Normandy.  He was part of a crew on a half track.  They saw a lot of action.  They used molotov cocktails against tanks because they didn't have much firepower to knock them out. They would throw the molotov cocktail on the tank and catch it on fire, then shoot the crew when they tried to escape.

 They caught a bunch of germans in a staff car and took them out.  Another time a sniper was shooting from a brick building.  Their bullets weren't having much effect and so they just rammed the building to eliminate him.

His tour came to an end when they were engaged by a 88 cannon in France during the breakout from Normandy.  They had seen them in North Africa and knew that they were very accurate.  They would first fire 2 shots.  One to get the range, another to get the angle ( left/right ).  The third shot would be dead on.  So they saw the first two shots and knew that they would not make cover before the 3rd.  So they stopped the halftrack.  4 of the guys took cover under the halftrack, he dove into the ditch.  The 4 guys under the halftrack died.  He woke up a week later, naked, in a hospital in England.

Dad told of the time that us kids were playing hide and seek in the house.  I hid Misty in the deep freeze!  he was not happy about it - but Misty explained that I showed how not to let it shut all the way.  It was summer and she said actually it wasn't bad in there. And the important thing - she won!

Dad played football for a spell for the West Alexandria Bulldogs.  He was a safety - about 5'9" and 145 pounds dripping wet. There was a fullback from Dixie that over 200 pounds.  He busted through the line and Dad filled the hole and tackled him.  Right away he knew something was wrong. He went to the sideline and told the coach "I think I broke my collarbone."   And sure enough the bone was actually sticking through the skin. That ended his career for good.  He also mentioned that most helmets at that time did not have facemasks.  Only players with glasses would wear one.

Uncle Rusty had a close call coming home after a night on the town when he was young.  He was speeding and lost control of his car in Dayton.  He slid through a gas station and took out a couple of gas pumps.  Totalled the car - and this was before seat belts were as big a thing as they are now.  He was able to walk away from the wreck - although he was dinged up.   Another time he was fooling around with his motorcycle in his yard.  It had a little hill and he went airborne.   He went up in the air and landed on his butt - hurt his back for quite a while from that little escapade.

My memories of Uncle Dan

Recently Uncle Danny passed away and so I wanted to post a few of my memories of him.  My earliest memory is of when he lived with us in the old farmhouse. He stayed there for awhile after he graduated.  I must have been a toddler, but I recall having a bad dream where there was a gorilla in the bedroom (hey, I was a kid and kids have weird dreams).  He settled me down and told me that it was just a dream that there was no gorilla in the room.

He started down his path with a LaSalle class that he took on architecture/drafting.  One of these deals where there was a matchbook and it had a phone number on the cover to contact LaSalle Institute to get a degree.  He made the call and took a correspondence course.  After he got this degree, his career was set.

He designed houses and built some in New Lebanon.  He designed my Dad's house and even designed his own place.  I remember going with my Dad from time to time when he would help on these projects.  Me and Matt helped cut out door frames and other simple tasks.

He went to work for Pitney Bowes and helped to design office machines. Later he decided to again start a new business.  He designed and made a printer and was able to make a huge sale.  But the marketing guy was not able to follow up and they ended up dissolving the partnership. But he tried - threw the dice and made a good effort. In his later years he did government contracting and helped design modern landing craft for the marines and other similar projects.

He retired to Kentucky - close to Cumberland lake. And he finally passed away.  I know he smoked most of his life, so that was probably a factor. But then once you hit your seventies, each day is not promised.

Graduation Note to Shane

Young Shane,

It has been a long path to get to this point.  There have been many minor milestones along the way, but graduating from high school is a major milestone in everyones life.  This whole crazy school thing has been a right of passage to get to this point.  An artificial environment in which you have to navigate and not long after it is over, you will realize that very little of the experience or the education has prepared you for the real world.  What have I been doing for the past 12 years???

As I have done so often in the past – I will share some quotations from Shakespeare – the first one is that “Advice is wasted on the young.”   You are 18, when someone twice or thrice your age gives advice, at least give it some consideration.  You have to consider the source – particularly when listening to me! But someone older has life experience that you should at least think about before discarding.

“Neither a lender nor a borrower be.”  Lending  - particularly to friends seldom ends well.  So if someone asks for a short loan let them know that you are tight too.  And borrowing is fraught with danger.  It is easy to get that 1^st credit card and easy to charge this and charge that and suddenly you have ginormous payments to make every month.   Get a gas card and pay it off every month. That will build your credit. Then after you have a good credit history get an American Express card. It charges an annual fee – but more importantly – you have to pay the full balance at the end of every month.  So you won’t accumulate a balance like you would with a Visa or Mastercard

“All things in moderation.”  Alcohol, food, love and so forth – all in moderation.  Always be in control and don’t let your passions control you.   I have a friend of mine who is a great guy to hang around with, but when he drinks, he puts the pedal to the metal and just gets crazy drunk.  Don’t be that guy.  And when you think that something is getting the better of you, stop for a month and see if you can do with out it.

Last word that I had was that you were planning a career in law enforcement.  I think that is a honorable career – a difficult career, but honorable.  First get rid of your tells – when you are nervous or uncertain you shuffle your feet and clench/unclench your hands.  So get rid of these traits.  Always be calm and steady even when you are in the eye of storm.  Even when you are scared to death – inside you may be hollow and scared to death, but outward you must project strength and certainty.

I dealt with the public as a telephone man and later in cable tv.  It won’t take long and you will enter a house and in about a minute or less, you will be able to get a feel for the other guy.  You will be able to read personalities and get a vibe about them.  Trust your gut, if something doesn’t feel right – there is something up.  

Oh and always do the honorable thing. I have a friend who was a deputy.  Don’t let a crook talk you into doing something on the other side of the law.  Because now they have a hammer over you – they can blow you in for aiding and abetting or whatever.  He stayed on the straight and narrow, but knew of another cop who got caught up in some bad crap helping some crooks and got busted.  Do you want to be a cop in prison with the same people you put in there??? 

But you are young, the world is in front of you.  Remember the only person that limits you – is you.  Don’t be afraid to change careers, change states, travel - go do what you want to do.  Before long the world will grind you down, have fun now while you can still bounce back!

Anyway enclosed is $50, have some fun – but not too much fun.

turkeys and time

Went turkey hunting this past weekend at Rose Hill. The trip was not successful from the standpoint of bringing home a bird for the table. We will need to get a Butterball turkey at Krogers for that. But it was successful as far as getting away from it all and spending time with nature. There are worse ways to spend a weekend.

 I did get off of a shot and perhaps I was too hasty and got off a hurried shot and missed completely. Or, as I later reflected, my ammo was about 10 years old - it may not have had enough oomph to get the job done. I did the math - the last time I went turkey hunting was with Joe when he was like 15 or so. From my perspective, it didn't seem possible that it was 10 years ago.

 Then later in the afternoon I felt my boot heel start flopping. I sat down on a log to survey the damage. The entire sole was separating from my long trusted hunting boots. I had gotten them when I was 41, after my heart attack. When that happened I had resolved to start doing the things that I had been putting off - fishing, hunting, and travelling. Not many things crossed off my bucket list at that time. So I got the boots to go deer hunting. I had sought out a pair of Wolverines as those were the brand that my grandfather carried in his store and they have served me well. So 17 years, I calculated as I looked at the worn leather. It didn't seem possible that it was that long ago when I had first pulled them out of their box. Now they were wore out, spent.

 The days are long, but the decades are short is one expression that I have heard from folks my age and older, and it certainly seems to apply. So I will buy some more outdoor gear and get set for next season. I have some grandchildren to take adventuring and teach them to enjoy their time and adventure now - before their days grow long. Now where is that Wolverine website - I need to get going before I am wore out and spent!

Hyding on Jekyll Island

In a sense, it was a sort of jekyll and hyde vacation. It had its good parts to be sure, but some aggravating circumstances in the beginning and end due to the remnants of Harvey and the presage of Irma. During the drive down, we had to pass through the remnants of hurricane Harvey. No driving winds, but rather driving rain as we went across the mountains. Waze got us around one wreck and we only lost 20 minutes taking a detour. But there was a second wreck not far from the Tennessee border and so we had stop and go  (mostly stopped) traffic for about an hour.



 When we finally got to the motel, we could see on the news that the rain was still following a circular pattern and that was why we would go through periods of a light drizzle and then a heavy downpour as the system spiraled above Kentucky and Tennessee. So much for a relaxing drive through the mountains to start our vacation, it was more of a white knuckle time. Things improved greatly our first day at the beach. Jekyll Island has mild waves - no body surfing for me, but it made it easy for Becky to get into the water. Beaches are nice, the sand packs tight, so you can take long walks as well. Now it was time for what had came for - relaxation. The place is lousy with sand dollars, it is infested with them. So we have plenty of souvenirs if we can pack them right so that they don't break.



I got to do a little fishing and caught whiting and a small stingray. Lost several that got off the hook, but finally called it quits for that day when something snapped the hook in two and tangled all the line. They have a sea turtle station on the island. It is part hospital and part learning center to find out about the sea turtles. They rescue turtles that have been struck by propellers or fishing equipment, or just in ill health. The surgery room has a huge picture window and by chance they brought in a turtle that had been hit by a propeller. Interesting to see the team spring into action. Everyone had their jobs and they efficiently went to work. We went to the recovery area and there were about a dozen turtles there and even some baby turtles. The baby turtles turned out to be terrapins whose mother had been hit by a car, but they were able to harvest and hatch the eggs. All in all a neat experience.



 We had booked a dolphin tour for the last night of the trip. But we were notified that due to the next hurricane, Irma, that they were cancelling tours at the end of the week. So we did the tour on Wednesday. The tour guide remarked that it was one of the better trips for seeing dolphins that he had done. We got to see a small pod driving fish up into shallow mud to catch them - I think he called it 'stranding'. When we got to the South end of the island we had them come up by the boat several times. As close as 10' away from the boat. So definitely a memorable trip.



 Southern hospitality is a real thing. We met several people during our visit, and they are always warm and friendly. We can be cold and distant up North at times. One couple we met at a restaurant, we talked through out the meal and they stayed an extra 15 minutes to visit with us after they paid their bill. They were a wealth of knowledge and told us of several other good restaurants in the area.

 Another time we went to an isolated part of the beach to watch the moon and stars with a bottle of wine. We met another couple who were there too - but to catch shrimp of all things. So you get a net and attach it to two lengths of PVC pipe, then you drag it along the shallow water just after high tide on the beach at night to catch the shrimp. We chatted with them for awhile while they were waiting for the tide to be just right.



Finally the tide was right and they made their first pull and went about a hundred yards. They brought the net on shore and I was amazed at the quantity of shrimp and they were of all sizes. I helped gather them up and they offered us some - but we are staying at a motel and so cooking them up was not an option. They had a 10 gallon cooler they planned to fill by 11:00pm - they were well on their way from what I could see. We thanked them for their company and went on our way.


We did spend a day on St. Simons island to check it out since we were so close.  There was a lot more traffic and more congestion. So we didn't think we missed very much by choosing Jekyll island for our vacation. We did get to watch a 3 masted wooden ship under full sails.  Sure modern ships will get you from point A to point B a lot faster. But seeing that ship brought to mind a feeling of elegance and grace. As it rounded the point, you had a feel for what sailing was like 200 years ago.



Our last day at the beach was anti-climatic.  I had hoped to fish for half a day and spend the rest hanging on the beach. Mother nature had other plans. The wind was blowing and the waves were choppy.  We thought it was from hurricane Irma, but apparently a regular storm was brewing out to sea and was approaching land. Walked a little of the beach and found some more stranded sand dollars washed up and left high and dry at high tide. But it was too windy to sit on the beach and too choppy to really fish.



We did picnic in our favorite spot.  The local squirrel population took to Becky and her pringles. On past days she had up to 8 of them in a circle around us and even taking them from her hands.  But this breezy day all but one brave soul stayed tucked away. But Becky made sure that her one customer was well fed, I grumbled that she owed me a can of pringles to a make up for all that she had given to the rodents !!! :-)



Our motel was booked full that last 2-3 days of our stay with Floridians getting away from hurricane Irma. 80% plus of the plates in the parking lot were from Florida. We had been keeping watch on the traffic and saw that it was heavy - but moving.  Our plan was to get up at 4am and get on the road early and get on a west bound highway before I95 got packed.  It sort of worked.  We had an hour stretch where we averaged about 45 mph. But the remainder of the drive to Knoxville went fairly well.



We did feel sorry folks at the rest stop at mile marker 1 at the state line for South Carolina.  It was packed with the cars of folks who apparently could not find a motel.  There must have have been a couple of thousand cars parked there.  Lot full, cars parked in the grass, under trees, and both the on and off ramps. They had even brought in extra porta-johns for all of the people. So not a good a night for the evacuees. 


Knoxville was about the half way point and we stayed a night there.  Getting too old to do 14 hour drives anymore.  When I made reservations, I tried to get the same motel I reserved on the way down - but it was fully booked. So we had to find another and it was subpar.  A noisy AC unit that wailed in pain every time it kicked on and grumbled to itself while it ran to the end of the cycle. Woke us up several times. But the motel was booked up when we checked in and with the folks leaving Florida flooding the area, we didn't have any options but to endure the slowly and loudly dying AC unit. 


We did have a nice supper at the Smokey Mountain Brewery.  It is a micro brewery set up with a bar and grill. Big screens galore and the booths each had their own screen. Most screens had the Tennessee game on of course.  We figured that they would not have the Ohio State game on so left just before game time to watch the game in our room.  As it turned out, we should have just stayed as Ohio State looked awful.  I turned off the TV after they got 3 scores behind - and wailed in pain along with the air conditioner...


All in all a good vacation and I recommend Jekyll Island to anyone wanting a quiet, peaceful time.


Here are some pics from Jekyll Island if you are not bored to tears already!

Cruisin' a tale of Cuban Rum and it's effects, Uber'ing, and dining pals - and enemies.

Well something new that we did for this vacation was use Uber for our ground transportation. It made sense as we would not need to rent a car and navigate Miami - a city that we had never been to before. So we did a test run in Dayton a few weeks before leaving to make sure it would work for us. Which it did, we simply had them drive us from the TJ chumps in Miamisburg to Fricker's in Centerville.

That short trip went well and something else that we learned - other than that we could rely upon Uber, was that every driver has a story(Excuse me for mangling the name of an old news show). One fellow was testing Uber as a means of making extra money in retirement and we found that his wife was laid off from lexis-nexis too. Seems like a lot of that has happened over the years...

In Miami, we again used Uber and again we met some interesting people. One young driver had a Dodge dart with a stick shift. We complimented him on being one of the few of his generation that can drive a stick. Turns out that he was an immigrant from Venezuela and that his grandfather had a 1970 Dart. So when he went out to buy his first car it had to be a Dodge Dart. Oh and we found that his grandfather left Italy after world war 2 to start a new life in South America.

Unbeknownst to us Becky's niece, Jessica, had booked a cruise a week ahead of us. So when we found out,we made plans to get together for a day in Miami. We had lunch at a restaurant by their hotel. Then we hung out at their roof top pool for the afternoon. Jessica and Tim went on a 'shiprock' cruise where they got to be groupies for a week and listen to rock bands every night.

At supper time, I campaigned for Cuban cuisine, but was outvoted. We did end up at a nice Mexican restaurant and ate outdoors since it was so pleasant. As we walked there a Lamborghini drove by and Tim, who is a car buff, remarked that he had never seen so many expensive cars in one place. Must be the drug money in Miami I suppose.

So when it was time to return to our motel we called for another Uber. While we were waiting we talked about all of the different ethnic backgrounds of the drivers so far - lots of folks with Latino backgrounds in Miami of course. We later discussed that if you wanted to live in Miami, you would do well to learn Spanish. But Becky then said that wait a minute - we have not had a woman driver yet! So of course who else is driving the Uber car but a woman! Found that she had came to the US from Cuba 2 years ago. She spoke English well enough, but we could tell that she was struggling at times, so we spoke amongst ourselves for most of the trip. She did make one wrong turn, and had to make a u turn on one street to get us back on track.

Well finally we began our cruise. We met up the first night with a group that we had joined on Facebook. A fellow from North Dakota probably had the longest trip - I would imagine that he was happy to escape the bitter cold. Met a building inspector from Denver who seemed to spend a lot of time at the lounge bar at the back of the ship. I think that the stool has his name on it by now. But we met folks from a variety of backgrounds and they were all friendly. Being first time cruisers we had a lot of questions for the more experienced folks.

The next day we had a group event - a slot pool in the casino. We put our money together and every person got a turn at the slot machine. It was my first time ever inside a casino. I had the idea from TV years ago that the machines were mechanical with a lever on the side. Wrong - they are electronic with touch screens and buttons. So we all took our turns and I was up. The machine was a 'Wheel of Fortune' machine. I matched three spins and that gave me a push of the 'Spin' button. The arrow at the top of the machine spun around and around and stopped on $2000!

Talk about your beginner's luck! Shared a lot of high fives, but we got to share something else - 30% went to Uncle Sam! Out international waters and still the government reaches out and puts their hand in our pocket. Well I guess someone has to pay for our middle Eastern wars. We still ended up tripling our money so we had some extra pocket change for Cozumel.

Cozumel was our first stop. There were some Mayan ruins that we wanted to see. Jose was our guide, he was born on the island and knew 3 languages: Spanish, English,and Mayan - which he learned from his grandmother. And me – I can barely use English. Since he was raised on the island he was very knowledgeable on the tour.

One of the temples was a place where young women went to beçome fertile. There was a large stone meeting place for Mayan VIP's. Even with the cleared paths, it was rough going at times going about the complex. The rock path ways were uneven in places and tree roots were at the surface in places.

Next up was Belize where we to a place called Starfish Island. It lived up to its name there were about 6 good sized ones in a pen in the ocean. We found another that was about a foot across about 35 feet out. It was a cozy 4 acre island, about the right size to walk about and spend an afternoon in the sun. The beer was cheap and the food was good.

We met a couple from Germany with 2 sons. We saw the oldest one playing with an American football. So we asked if he played and they explained that yes some areas had football, and that was why they had brought it. The youngest really enjoyed the licorice that Becky had brought. He had never had any before.

We had signed up for anytime dining on board the ship. This way we could eat supper any time between 6 and 9. Since we were not assigned a table we are at a different table every night with new people. So we met a variety of people this way.

A retired airforce officer, nurse from Chicago, Norman - a retired IT guy from New York, a Blackhawk helicopter pilot(retired), a lawyer, etc. Most were fun to spend to spend time with , Norm in particular was a delight. He was witty and I wonder if he had owned his own company or had a high up IT position with a big company as it seemed like he was very well traveled and every time we saw him on the cruise he was well dressed. His shoes always matched his shirt. Blue, white, and when we first met him – a black and white hounds tooth shirt with matching hounds tooth pattern on the shoes. He must bring a suitcase of just shoes on every cruise!

On the other hand we met Shane from Maryland, not once but twice. He seemed to be well to do as well. But seemed more anxious and high strung. We never did find out what he did for a living, but it must have something to do with his mouth. Newly rich (Nouveau riche for those that know french) he was celebrating his 50^th birthday and was in high spirits that first night. The second night we were seated at his table again by chance. It is a crowded dining hall and the wait staff was running behind. We had to wait quite awhile to get our order in. He was making comments about how “This would be a good place to open a restaurant” and “We might as well ask for the breakfast menu.” He finally called for the maitre d' and began unloading on him while flashing his platinum carnival cruise card for emphasis. Really made for an awkward table.

I much prefer the relaxed demeanor of Norm to the angst of Shane. There still exists a thing called class which Norm definitely had while Shane still had a lot of growing up to do despite his 50 years.

Next stop was Mahogany Bay, Honduras. It was the hilliest and probably the poorest of the countries that we visited. Very beautiful place to view. But the roads are a bit scary by our standards. No guard rails and in a few places a short 6 inch curb is all that stood by us and a steep clift.

This beach had the calmest waters yet, and Becky got out and had a good time. With her balance it is difficult for her to get out if the water has very many waves at all. It is true what they say about the water being clear in the Caribbean. It is pretty much like standing in a swimming pool as far as clarity. I could stand in water up to my neck and still see my feet.

There were occasional vendors that walked by on the beach. Becky bought a nice bracelet off of one and I bought 5 Honduran cigars. Later I was wondering if I would regret my decision – for all I know the old man in the straw hat that was selling them just wrapped lawn clippings in tobacco leaves! Now later in the Cayman Islands I did buy some Cuban cigars – so even if those are duds, the Cubans should make up for any shortcomings.

We did meet a crazy Cuban guy at the Cayman Islands while killing time at a bar before going back to the ship. A local was playing calypso music in a small bar (probably open when the 1^st one is at capacity) that was not in use at the time. The Cuban guy is dancing to the music and when the music stops, he does a backflip off of the bar but does not ace the landing at all. We all cringed when he landed, but he hopped right back and came our direction. He must have been made of rubber – or maybe all the rum he drank really limbered up his muscles.

Turns out that we were next to his wife. “Hope his life insurance is paid in full!” I quipped. He said that he would probably feel it tomorrow, but today he felt great. He came to the US from Cuba 42 years ago. He could not wait for the liberation of Cuba from the last Castro. But he did turn us on to some Cuban rum before he left. It was very smooth. So maybe next year it will be Cuba for vacation – I can try some authentic Cuban cuisine, then sit down for a cigar and some of that Cuban rum! I would like to see some of the places where Ernest Hemingway hung out. But rest assured that I have no plans for backflips off of bars.

We enjoyed the cruise overall. Even though we had 18 foot waves on the 3^rd day out. Some of crew were saying that they had not seen seas that rough ever! Becky went back to the cabin and laid down for a spell. Many people were ill.

The cruise gives you a small taste of each port of call. Myself I would rather have a deep drink of each island. There are no beaches right there at the port so you have to take a bus or taxi to get to a beach. Then the ship is only there for 8 hours. So by the time you get to the beach, then break for lunch, then go back to the port to check out stuff there – you only have like 4-5 hours tops to be in the water. So I always felt rushed and had to keep one eye on the time.

We did like the social aspect of cruising – meeting all sorts of people. We enjoyed the shows and the comedians. They have events scheduled all day and into the night. So you can keep yourself as busy as you want to be. I do regret that I did not talk Becky into letting me go watch the booty shaking contest they had at midnight ;-)

So we talked about maybe just going to a place like Cozumel (or Cuba) and staying for a week. That way you can hang at the beach all you want, maybe take a day or so for sight seeing. It would be slower paced – no watching the clock, and also person would have the time to get a little deeper into the local culture.