Blog – Tuesday, August 28, 2012

WE LEAVE FOR A MONTH LONG SCANDINAVIAN/ATLANTIC CRUISE!

I work really hard at being totally prepared for a trip – packing checklists, long to-do lists, etc. So it is disappointing when things go wrong, but of course they always do. Last week I upgraded my phone to a Droid RAZR so that I would have a global-ready phone. Mom's phone, an old (old meaning two years) flip phone, is already global-ready. It is an Escapade by Samsung that is no longer made. But it works fine, so I went to pack up its charger from the place in the kitchen where Karen always charges it. No charger in sight. And of course Karen cannot tell me what she did with it.

So I run around the night before we leave trying to find a charger for an obsolete phone – Verizon, Wal-Mart, Radio Shack, no one could help me. I found on the internet that I could buy one for $2.99 plus 5.00 shipping, but that doesn't help me now! So the plan now is to keep her phone off except in situations in ports of call where we could potentially get separated. Then we'll turn it on. Will it last a month? I doubt it. Oh, well!

Ken picked us up at 9:00 this morning and as we started out I said, “Sure hope we have everything!” Then for no good reason I said, “Karen, you have your purse, right?” (She is never without her purse, even in the house.) She said, “Uh-huh.” Uh-oh. So I turned around and said “show me your purse” and she shook her head no. So it's off at the next exit and return to the house for it. Fortunately we had plenty of time, so no harm done.

We are still in the afterglow of our wonderful 50^th anniversary dinner/open house at Pioneer Ridge! We had 75 people for the dinner and another 70 or so for the open house. Renewal of vows, a 13 minute slide show of our 50 years of marriage, heartfelt toasts by resident Bob Stanley and by our grandson Sam and by our son, Eric. I was beginning to feel like Jimmy Stewart in “It's a Wonderful Life.” One of the highlights (if I do say so myself, but it did get a standing ovation), was Karen and me telling the story of our wedding and honeymoon, both of which had their share of humor. Perhaps I'll publish it on the blog at some point. What was amazing to most folks was to hear Karen reading from our script with a voice clear as a bell and very little hesitation. They also got a kick out of her giggling from time to time. There was a lot of love in that room, and the memories will last for a lifetime.

As I write this, I'm sitting in Newark airport waiting for our flight to Stockholm. Long flights are not the fun part of vacations, but I go into a form of stasis until we land and it's OK. We change planes in Stockholm, then land in Copenhagen, where we have a day to ourselves before boarding the Emerald Princess.

Bye for now.