What If You Retired On A Cruise Ship?

When our whole family moved my parents out of their home of over fifty years in Edison, New Jersey, we were fortunate to move to Seabrook Senior Living Community in Tinton Falls, NJ. For several years I described it as a cruise ship on land due to its size, quality food, and endless activities among other things.  But, what if you really retired and stayed on a cruise ship?

Believe it or not, there's at least one couple in the world who did just that.  The below picture is an Australian couple who booked 51 consecutive cruises because it was cheaper than a nursing home.

Think about it, they don't have to go shopping, they have cleaning services, endless food choices, activities all day and night and they get to travel the world.  What bills do they have to pay? There's no traffic, they don't have to drive or get an Uber, and they can socialize with a wide variety of people that will never see again unless they want to.

They have been on the cruise now for 500 days and still have twenty more cruises to go on. They are scheduled to get off the cruise ship in 2024 and guess what they are going to do? They are getting on a larger cruise ship than the 2,000 passenger ship they are on. Their next cruise is only for another year.

At the beginning of this year a cruise line announced a three-year cruise hitting seven continents, 135 countries and 375 ports.  I hope they don't run out of bagels and lox.

Things You Don't Usually See

 I have a few unusual pictures to show off from our trip to New Jersey:

THE KITTY LITTER BOX

 I hope George Jetson is reading this.(He's from the cartoon, "The Jetsons" from 1962)  I'm not very familiar with cats, but I've seen a lot of litter boxes and they don't look like this.  I did not take a picture of Lady Arwen in there due to privacy issues, but I can't imagine what it would be like if we had to go in something like that on a regular basis.

2. THE DEER IN THE CEMETERY

This is a little hard to see but on the left side on the path and between the first and second tree is a deer in the cemetery.  I've seen deer and I've seen cemeteries, but never a deer in a cemetery.

3. BUTTER'S? 

While we were driving my wife told me that the convenience store was called Butters. Could someone really name their store "Butters"? It could be "Butters," but it's really Rutter's, which isn't a whole lot better.

4. TWO DRINKS

We've all been to many restaurants over the years, but what you're looking at is just a moment after something unusual happened.  My wife and I were having brunch in a Cracker Barrell restaurant and server brought me a refill for my coke.  Instead of putting it down and taking the empty one, she poured the new drink into the old drink which had ice. 

5. THE LARGE ART PIECE

This a tree on the left and up front from Northern California that was inverted and is standing 20 feet up in the air. It looks like a bunch of fingers on top and it's call, "Alien."

6. THE LEAF BLOWER

There's nothing unusual about a leaf blower, except for the fact I don't think I've ever used one.  We have one, but my wife usually does cleanup with it.  This picture was taken by my wife, who said, "I"ve never seen you holding one." I had just mowed my daughter's lawn in New Jersey and I picked it up to use instead of a broom which I usually use.  My wife already did it and I never got to use it.

IT'S DOCTOR WEEK-DO I NEED GLASSES?

NO, absolutely, positively, the answer is no. I knew this before my eye exam today.  I went for a check-up, because I promised my wife I would go to the eye doctor and get a physical in the fall.  Today was the optometrist and next Monday my regular doctor, whoever he is.

I know there are many people my age, 63, and younger, who regularly make a lot of visits to doctor offices on a regular basis.  I am fortunate with my health, but there was a time in my life between the ages of 13-16, I had a lot of visits due to stomach problems and broken bones every few months.

My wife and children have been talking to me about getting my eyes checked for a few years.  The last time I got them checked was approximately 2007.  My wife has explained to me that everyone in my immediate family has glasses.  I explained to her that you don't get glasses or contacts because everyone else has them.  I love to read and have literally read hundreds of books since 2007 and have not had a problem reading.  I told her that the day I have trouble reading, I will call for an appointment, because reading is very important to me. I also have driven maybe a million miles without any trouble driving, not counting the intense fog in Kansas this summer.

My wife drove me to the eye doctor and before I got out of the car I said, "Are you sure I should do this?" As I walked into the examining room I passed this picture on the wall and I thought to myself, "Is that really what people want to see before the big exam?"

The first thing they did was flash a bunch of colors at moving and little moving things just to make sure my vision was impaired a little bit. The optometrist came in and I saw the eye chart.  He told me that my right eye was much stronger from far away and my left eye was better from close up. He said my vision was good. Before the dilation, the assistant told me my vision was, "Very good, you don't need glasses." 

They checked for all the diseases and he showed me highlights of my eyeballs and said, "You don't need glasses." I told him, ready for this-an Uber story of the optometrist who told me that there are many people in their sixties who don't need glasses, but everyone in their seventies does.  He laughed and said he would disagree with that and here was the clincher, "You may not need them into your seventies." I made sure he wrote a note to my wife and below is his message.  The lady at the front desk highlighted it, I think for anyone who has trouble seeing. This blog can be referred back to by anyone in my family on a regular yearly basis.

I promise, I will go back...in a few years or if I have trouble seeing.

What I Learned When I Was Away

I'm beginning to think that my IQ would go up considerably if I was away from home a lot more.  Every time I go and stay somewhere else I learn things I did not know.  Here's a few things that I remember I learned last week when I was away:

1. I never realized that you can lock the glove compartment in your car. Honestly, I never have seen the lock on it.  And, some people actually lock their glove compartment.

2. Is the name Barnabas a Jewish name? I am not kidding. I was trying to remember a guys name while we were driving home and I knew it was a Jewish name. My wife started looking up male names that were Jewish and Barnabas was one of them. It's the name of a "Cypriot Jew, " meaning from Cyprus. Below is a picture of the most famous Barnabas, Barnabas Collins from the television show, "Dark Shadows." Do you think he would look good wearing a yarmulke?

3. Driving by our old house slowly, I noticed they had a trampoline in the backyard.  My wife noticed there were a lot of weeds. I guess some people can notice weeds in a moving car, but I'm probably not one of them.

4. Driving down to my high school reunion, I noticed a number of green diagrams on the console where the time and temperature was.  I thought they were warning signals and looked them up in the car manual and called my wife.  She said they've always been there. I've driven that car maybe 20,000 miles and I've never seen it. No wonder I couldn't see the weeds!

5. Cats are very much like dogs. Sure they have four legs, but there are a lot of things that are similar.  They usually can position themselves in the perfect spot to be in your way. This is the cat I blogged about, Lady Arwen, and her laser focus right at this minute was to run up the steps at me.

6. It can actually cost a lot more these days to use cash.  The bridge from Phillipsburg, NJ to Easton, PA., cost $3 if you use cash.  If you use your E-Z Pass it cost only $1.50. It sounds ridiculous to me.

7. We really are going to get a television. You may have read on my blog that we have now gone five years in Myrtle Beach without buying a television.  My wife talked with our son-in-law and went over what kind of television and how big it should be and I think she's ordering one next week! I don't believe it either, but both couches are gone in our house and we have a television stand-stay tuned. How many years will we now go without a couch in the house?

The Ins and Outs of a High School Reunion

When you think of ins and outs you probably think of all the details, but I'm not the right person to explain that. I was one of about fifty members of the John P. Stevens 1978 graduating class who got to enjoy a few hours eating, drinking and talking in Asbury Park, NJ. last Sunday between 4-7 pm.  The amazing woman mainly responsible for putting all the ins and outs together was SPD. I would mention her name, but I don't want her to be swamped by other high school classes wanting her to run their reunion.

Below is my high school picture which was my name tag for the event. You may notice I did have hair in 1978, forty-five years ago. I think my nose was bigger then too and I look way too serious!

Back to my ins and outs. I drove up to the restaurant about ten minutes to four and realized there was no parking lot at the restaurant.  It's right on the beach so space is limited.  I would have to pull into a spot and pay on one of those incredible parking meters. They were all over, everywhere I looked. Technology is not my thing, but I gave myself a pep talk, "You're 63 years old, you can handle this."

I pulled into the first space and walked up to the meter. It said to put in my plate number, but one letter would not go in.  I tried several times and got nowhere. I figured it wasn't working. I pulled around the block and into parking space number two. None of the numbers went in and I got nowhere. I also realized that the numbers in the parking lot were faded, very faded. I went to parking space number three and my results were similar-failure.  It's possible I had to download an app, which is something I don't do.

It was about 4:20 now, thirty minutes after I almost arrived when I saw a hotel parking lot across from the restaurant.  The gate was open which I really appreciated.  I know how this works.  I pulled up and pressed the button and no ticket came out. After several attempts I pressed the number for help and got no answer. I called the phone number and they told me just pull in and when I leave call them and they'll charge a flat rate.  I didn't ask what the rate was, because I did not care. 

I had a good time at the reunion and the food was very good also. I knew getting out of the parking lot would be easy. I pulled up to the gate and pressed the button and got no answer.  I tried again, failure.  I called the phone number and  found out that it's not set up for messages.  I called again-failure. I was one hundred minutes from where I was staying and the gate on the other side was open.

What would you do? I did and I have no regrets. I pulled out and was on my way-piece of cake. Will I get a notice that I owe money? I have no idea and I don't care.  The most important thing is what happens at an event and not how you get there or how you leave there.

Below is the group picture with the ocean behind us.  My friend Larry is in the second row in the blue shirt right in the middle looking cool wearing dark glasses. I am in the very back to the right next to the tallest guy, Ed, probably my oldest friend. He's wearing dark glasses and looking cool too and I am to his right or your left. This is proof that I was there and did not drive home when technology got in my way.

MY BOOK HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!

 

Somehow I took the picture below and it's a pretty good picture. The UPS truck pulled up Wednesday around 2:30 pm and I knew he had my books.  It took longer than expected, but I'm very happy with it.  You can see on the front cover behind the title and also on the orange on top that they designed the cover with what looks like a road map.  It was my idea to have my current car on the front and my original car on the back.

I wanted a glossy front cover that was very bright and they came through.  The book needed to be easy to read and many of the chapters have different layouts and they are spread out.  The only glitch I can see is that many of the eighteen pictures are light instead of darker.  They would have been in color, but the cost of color pictures would have been $10 more per book and that's not worth it. In addition to that, a number of the pictures are not very colorful.

The book is selling for $19.99 on Walmart, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books a Million.  I will also be selling them in my car to any of my passengers for a very long time.  I think it's going to be pretty cool on Saturday when people get in my car and see a book with a picture of the car they just got into.  By the way, the orange on the front cover is so bright that my orange car definitely looks red. I can't wait to see the reaction my passengers have this weekend.

The Cat in the House

In 1957, cartoonist Theodr Seuss Geisel, published one of his first books and this book made him a household name- "The Cat in the Hat." Dr. Seuss wound up publishing sixty books, the best selling one was, "Green Eggs and Ham." The moral of the "Cat in the Hat" book is that you have to be careful who you let into your home. If you let "The Cat in the Hat" into your home, you're going to have a mess to deal with.

But, what if it's the cat that's in the house and you're just visiting the house? My wife and I were visiting our daughter and son-in-law in New Jersey and they have a new cat. I would mention her name, but my daughter says I shouldn't use real names in my blog.  I'll call her Lady Arwen and this is one of the best pictures I've seen over the last week of her.

I was told before visiting that she roams around the house in the middle of the night, very much like myself.  She also eats around 4 am, which is also about the time I eat when I'm ubering that day. I decided to stay in my room and let her have the house in the middle of the night. My daughter told me that her cat chases around the robot vacuum cleaner in the middle of the night and I would have loved to see that or at least get a picture. 

Below is a picture of Lady Arwen's "scratchy thing?" I think she scratches on this to relieve stress from her daily life or to make sure her claws are very sharp.

In the end everything went well with Lady Arwen and myself.  We had a couple stare downs and I won them both.  Below is a picture of her inside playground and I'm pretty sure that "The Cat in the Hat" would say, "I really like that."