Rant or Explanation - You Choose

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Sunny and pleasant - 70F

Today, I feel like I'm writing from "an old folk's home". I start with, "We went to breakfast and I had cereal and Karen had fruit." Everyday? Yep. And we had the same again this morning. Oh, I added a few prunes, just because they're so popular here. I got two eggs over medium for the simple reason there was no one in line. Some days there's just not much to write about. Nothing that offers any excitement. No diving with the sharks, no hill climbing on motorcycles, no monster trucks and nothing whatsoever at all to do with parachutes. Here on the ship, we live in a world of eating, movies, singing, reminiscing, sleeping, eating, swimming, walking, eating, bingo, shopping, reading, eating, complaining, sleeping, playing word games and eating. Most of us don't actually attempt any of these things but prefer to watch others perform these feats while we simply eat.

Ask me the proverbial question, "Why do you write about all this stuff?" and I'll answer, "It's what I do and I enjoy it." I need a project. A newspaper man once said, "I don't make the news, I merely report it." That's me. If someone doesn't crash their scooter, start a food fight in the buffet or steal some guy's toupee, then it's a quiet day onboard. No "fake news" here. And, like the daily newspaper, my blog must go out everyday. People are expecting it. Lives are depending upon it. Oh sure, I could copy and paste Article 450 of the NEC (National Electrical Code) covering the installation of electrical transformers and somehow tie it into our cruise. It certainly would fill up space but I'm sure my readers would catch on. No. If nothing is going on that day, if we just woke up that morning and went back to bed, that's what I will report and the blog will reflect that in its brevity.

Karen and I went to breakfast. Who cares what we had? We sat by the pool at the stern of the ship, Mom reading and me writing. Later we relocated to the Atrium where some game "Can You Beat the Cruise Director?" is taking place. I have no idea what it is as we are in the Crooner's Bar two floors above but we here all the ruckus. Today's effort pays off as I complete three more blogs ready for posting. Returning to our room, I find the internet is out again so posting will have to wait.

Karen is doing fine after her fall the other day. No bruising or pain. We also find out more about our delayed departure from Maui this past Monday evening. Many of the tours on Maui require travel inland from Lahaina, whether it's the Haleakala Crater, pineapple or tropical plantations or a trip to the north shore to the town of Hana. The only road to these places is the Hana Road, a full day's drive through breathtaking scenery. Apparently, some people, not connected with the cruise, drove their rental car off the road resulting in fatalities and a huge traffic jam on this narrow road. Nine buses carrying 380 cruisers were behind this mess and had to wait for several hours for the road to get cleared, without any food or bathroom facilities. The fact that those tours were sponsored by Princess meant that the ship had to either wait for the buses to return or fly all those passengers back to San Francisco from Maui, including hotel, transportation, luggage and ID issues. They waited.

Tonight's dinner entree is prime rib and that works for us. Add in oyster soup, shrimp cocktail and a couple of souffles and we're good. We sit with two other couples from Florida, one which we dined with before and remembered us. Uh oh. Also a single guy that talked only to the couple to his right so we don't know anything about him.

After dinner, we went to the Explorer's Lounge for a Trifecta of events. First, Mosaic played country music, then a question and answer game show followed by country line dancing. By now the place was packed. We had good seats and kept them until 9:30pm when we got up to dance, then left the venue, watching our seats from a distance just to see what’s happening. The people were polite at first, showing restraint by leaving our seats untouched while we danced. But when we walked up the aisle and proceeded outside then, like rats, they scurried around from all sides, fighting among themselves for that prime real estate while watching for our return. You see, its “the little things” now that keep us entertained. We retired to our stateroom where I made an attempt to hook up with the internet to no avail. Then I wrote the first half of this article with Karen asleep and the TV in the background discussing some old news about Hillary Clinton. Even FOX is desperate for new material.

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