kochleffel

I would say, pick the smaller ship, period. I’m currently on the Getaway, where a cruise to Bermuda has morphed into a cruise to nowhere with a tech stop at Nassau, at night. The harbor entrance for Bermuda is narrow and larger/taller ships can’t dock when it’s windy. In 2021 on the Breakaway we sailed back and forth alongside Bermuda for two days before docking on the third for about six hours. I think that the Prima is even larger.

No photo of the salad with pear, walnuts, and Gorgonzola, but it was really good.

A crew member said that there are 300 children under age 12 aboard. There must have been a kids cruise free offer. I was surprised, because it’s not a school vacation week, but almost all them are actually under 5. NCL makes a BFD about complex (weird imo) cocktails, which younger passengers seem to like. The result is that bartenders can’t cope with an order for something simple, such as Irish and soda. I’m having dinner at the ship’s Italian restaurant, which I’ve always liked. Some of my fellow Amurricans complain because it doesn’t serve “chicken parm,” but the menu is very like what I’ve experienced in Rome. I’m disappointed, however, that there’s no osso buco any more.

Mazal tov! Once I had a confused discharge where a resident was trying to speed it up, but my nurse was trying to slow it down, because she knew that I needed to receive one more dose of medication by IV and to be off oxygen for 30 minutes. Also, the resident didn’t yet have a narcotics registration so needed to find an attending to order Vicodin for me.

A revised schedule at check-in says Nassau. I don't think that most passengers have seen it. Currently in the priority waiting area, which means that I actually have a seat. Merely getting into the terminal is a pain, especially when there are families with children using birth certificates, but after that check-in was efficient.

No, it's a process with a master sheet plus a sheet of colored wax, usually purple, behind it. You typed onto the front sheet and wax transferred to the back. The Ditto machine used a solvent to transfer that wax to the copies. It was limited to something fewer than 100 copies. Used a lot in schools.

What about typing spirit-duplicator masters, where corrections could only be made by scraping the wax off with a razor blade?

That happened on my last cruise to Bermuda. It felt like a cruise to the Bermuda Triangle as we sailed back and forth in sight if the island but couldn’t dock. On the last day we finally docked, without which the sailing would have been unlawful unless a waiver was granted, and by then it was too late to continue to anywhere else. Almost everyone had the drink package, though.

Rabbit rabbit. Hmm, yet another pseudo-martini. The miso cod would be OK. On a cruise I want every day to be no-politics day. I had an unpleasant cruise in 2019 during which one person after another yelled at me about politics. I never introduce politics into conversation with a new acquaintance, but the moment they learned what state I live in, they started yelling. That was not on HAL.

Thank you. (My name is Paul.) Dinner was at PS Kitchen, an all-plant restaurant that was conveniently in the same block as the theater. No weather problems getting here, and I was aboard the ferry at Port Imperial by 4:00. I took the NY Waterways shuttle bus along 50th Street and then walked down Broadway to my hotel on 47th. If it’s not too cold in the morning (I didn’t bring a winter coat, just a rain jacket and a wool sweater) I can probably walk to Pier 88, which is at 12th Avenue and 48th.

On some of the other Alaska ferries, vehicles drive right onto the parking deck. Foot passengers also board through the parking deck. Here's a motor home being loaded on the Matanuska. And here's someone's best friend in a compact SUV.

Thank you. I think you might be farther north of the Getaway than that, because embarkation is tomorrow. I have a ticket to see Leopoldstadt tonight.

Does it count if I'm starting a vacation? I plan to be off for New York around 10:00 a.m. It is majorly inconvenient that snow fell overnight, but chiefly because I have to take out trash before I leave. The roads will be clear. I'll pass on clam-anything. Don't think I would like the drink but at least it doesn't claim to be a martini. I would probably like the wine. I haven't been to Kodiak but I see that it's on the itinerary for some TPAC cruises using a northern route, and I'm looking for one for 2024.

Once I had a number that was similar to that of the emergency line of the gas company. I got a lot of calls, mostly from people who were enraged when their gas was turned off. A message saying "This is not the gas company. If you want the gas company, please dial...." scarcely reduced the number of angry messages. And when I moved to a beach town in Connecticut, before the 203 area code was split so numbers were in short supply, I received one that had previously belonged to a business called Balloons by the Sea -- a sort of singing-telegram service, plus balloons. A message running "This is not Balloons by the Sea. Balloons by the Sea is OUT OF BUSINESS. This is not Balloons by the Sea. If you want to leave a message for anyone at this PRIVATE RESIDENCE...." had only slightly more effect, but Southern New England Telephone eventually agreed to change my number. When I answered the calls, people insisted that I was Balloons by the Sea and pleaded with me to take their orders. Oh, and then there was the year of the air-traffic controllers' strike. I had a new number that was similar to an ATC center, which other ATC centers called at all hours of the day and night, until I got it changed. At least those callers could comprehend that they had dialed wrong.

Peculiarly, the lead story on a local TV station's website is that the Smithsonian "Castle" (the original, Renwick building) will close for five years for renovations. That reminds me of a story. Circa 1980, I was working for a college on the west coast, in a job that took me to Washington, D.C. I had appointments with people in various Federal agencies, but lunchtimes were open. One of our graduates was a curator at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, nominally retired but continuing to work at the museum, as many Smithsonian scientists did. I asked her to lunch, and she said, no, she would take me to lunch in the Associates' dining room in the Castle. She told me to ask for her at the information desk at the Constitution Avenue entrance of the Natural History Museum. Now, she had a rather unusual-sounding name, and the guard gave me a funny look and asked "What department?" Knowing the field of her expertise, I replied, "Worms." That led to an even funnier look, but he got out a large card file, riffled through it, and found the card with her name. In addition to her name, office location, and phone number, the card read CURATOR WORMS. She came down and led me through the museum. As we left through the Mall side, the guard there searched my briefcase. He didn't search hers. I figured he knew who she was, and if she was stealing any worms, he didn't want to see them.

That's the kind of break I had, but the repair was so good that I was able to drive myself to the pharmacy three days after the surgery (it was my left arm). The only thing I couldn't do at all was tie my shoes, and the Junior Cat was no help at all with that. It was winter and I don't like wearing slip-ons when it's wet or slippery, so I had to get shoes with Velcro fastenings.

Woo-hoo! I had delayed printing a luggage tag because I had an upgrade bid pending. I really expected to be informed this afternoon that it had been declined, because my bid was only slightly more than the minimum, but since it was from an inside cabin it would be in the last batch to be processed. It was accepted: to a balcony cabin on deck 9. I found that I have to do a little more laundry, because clothes that I thought were clean are not.

Nothing to apologize for. It's not on HAL. Norwegian Getaway, February 1-6, Bermuda. Booked only a few weeks ago.

I have only ever roasted a turkey breast in the oven; I'm not even sure that one would fit in my Instant Pot (or slow cooker). I would probably like the wine. Would not try the drink--I have a low opinion of drinks that call themselves something-martini but have no relationship to a real martini except perhaps being served in the same shape glass. Kushiro wasn't on my Japan itinerary but that cruise did not take place anyway. Today I am finishing laundry, buying the last things that I need for the trip (leaving tomorrow, embarking Wednesday), and packing the main bag. It will be a 22-inch rolling bag instead of the 28-inch rolling duffel, with a smallish additional bag that can ride on it or that I can carry with a shoulder strap. I'm not taking any camera other than phone and iPad mini. Earlier in the day for the surgery on my arm, I had a disturbing visit from an occupational therapist. The surgeon had told me that my arm would be functional, although too painful to do much, on the morning after the surgery, but the OT was preparing me for permanent disability. She did give me some helpful tips about bathing and dressing with limited use of one hand, but the rest was off the beam.

I realized a little while ago that I'm currently taking three online classes and teaching two. Two of those that I'm taking run for six weeks, concurrently, but only one of them requires doing any work outside of class and it's offered asynchronously through Coursera. One of the other courses is on Demons and Possession, taught by two rabbis. One of the two seems to believe 100% in demons. Dinner tonight is what in Germany or Switzerland would be called Russische Eier: hard-boiled eggs with a mayonnaise dressing, plus Swiss chard with sunflower seeds and parmesan cheese. Except for the sunflower seeds, these needed to be used up before I leave.

The most excitement in my neighborhood was when a neighbor was screaming in pain and his partner called 9-1-1. It may have sounded to the dispatcher like either a home invasion or a domestic assault, but the result was that the police arrived and approached the house with guns drawn. (Or they may have known something that I didn't, or any combination of these things.) Eventually it became clear that what was needed was an ambulance, but the fire department arrived next (fire responds to many ambulance calls because they can usually arrive faster, and many of the firefighters have EMT licenses). Eventually the ambulance arrived; he was taken to the hospital and had his gallbladder removed the next day.

I'm puzzled most of the time, so I guess that this is my day. I called at Newport on the Norwegian Gem a few years ago, but I used to live in southern Massachusetts and have walked all over Newport with a Volkssport club. Touro Synagogue in Newport: On the packing question from yesterday: shoes alone are too bulky and heavy for really light packing, but at least I can pack clothing for only four days instead of seven.

AAMOF, I'll be entitled to a bag of free laundry. The potential bulk comes partly from sweaters, but I can pack one and wear one.

I had broccoli last night and so-called baby broccoli tonight, but not in a casserole with cauliflower. I'm not trying to have a broccoli festival; this is just what was on hand, and tomorrow there will be Swiss chard. G&T is my typical choice in warm weather. It was 44° today, which I didn't consider warm enough, not that I have any gin or tonic on hand anyway. Buenos Aires is yet another port that I haven't visited. This morning in the synagogue I led Psalm 148 to the tune of "Michael, row the boat ashore." Some of the congregation sang along, but I was happy merely not to be lynched, because most people here dislike novelty and change. I'm having trouble thinking about packing for my cruise next week--that is, rather to pack heavy and have no concerns about laundry, or light because I'll be handling my own luggage, on a ferry to Manhattan, to my hotel, to the cruise terminal, and eventually back to the ferry terminal. None of these is really far from the others and the ferry line provides a bus (which is part of the problem, because the buses are not adapted for boarding with luggage).