HBE4

I hear ya. Another reason I hate flying out of JFK is I literally drive past 2 other airports - Westchester & LaGuardia - to get there. 🙂 Is there any reputable off-site private parking lots you can use? For example, I use The Parking Spot at Newark or AirPark at JFK & LGA. Both companies are AAA approved and offer AAA discount and the price can be up to 50% less than airport parking. The free shuttle is usually waiting, the driver loads your luggage & will take you directly to your terminal rather than "the loop" of multiple parking lots/terminals the airport shuttle take. Plus, free bottle of water! Arriving back is a bit inconvenient in that you have to call after ahead once you land so you may need to wait 20 minutes or so. But they will take you directly to your car which is usually started up & running so its warm in the winter or cooled down in the summer.

It's the old hub-and-spoke system that all the airlines use. It's actually cheaper to fly people from several locations (the spokes) to one city (the hub) & load them onto one plane to their final destination. In SW case, I guess Baltimore is the hub where they'll fly you and OB from Rhode Island where you'll join people from Chicago, Buffalo, St. Louis, etc to Florida. It's cheaper than having 3+ semi-full direct flights to Florida. And when I say cheaper, I mean for the airline, not the passenger. Whenever I've had a choice of direct or connecting, the connecting flights are always more sometimes substantially more. The bigger, traditional airlines such as United and Delta have several hubs scattered around the country which is why it's usually easier to get direct flights with them. I never really thought of it before but I guess I'm luck as I have 3 major and 2 regional airports within a 1 hour drive. Well, JFK is more an hour but that's because of the massive traffic jams that seem to be there at all hours of the day & night thanks to the ancient roadways surrounding the airport.

Total guess on my part. Just from postings I've read from other Monopoly players, the time outs become longer as you accumulate more. And I think the last time out was pretty long as well, at least 2 weeks if not more.

The "Mrs." will probably give us random updates for the next month. She's better behaved.😉😇

I guess he finally found the end of that very long leash he was given when the humor thread was moved.

🙏 for your daughter and her children. Grieving is difficult enough for an adult, I can't even imagine what it's like as a child.

No struggle, You got it right! Perfectly said.

This waterfall looks like an optical illusion Much taller than it appears and the massive amount of water from the upper falls seems to just disappear when looking at the meager amount of water on the lower falls.

@MJSailors Just saw this post now after writing several posts the size of novels. Looks like you and I had similar experience. The Nightguard mouthpiece is expensive & I never really got comfortable using it. Probably only use it 20% of the time as a precaution whenever I feel like my stress level is building. Of course, the dentist tells me that's why I'm never going to feel comfortable wearing it. I guess it's all or nothing.

Smoke from the western wildfires drifting this way. Listening to the radio this morning, the weatherman warned that the next 2 days in New York could be tough. Last time this happened, the AQI was in the 325-350 range but that was from the Quebec fires. Hopefully this haze coming from the west will dissipate a bit more over the long distance and be less severe. It figures, after 7 days of constant, gray, damp skies and on-and-off showers, the next 2 days were supposed to be nice. Caught a glimpse of the sun earlier in what feels like forever.

I had a same issue not too long after joining the same unfortunate club that I share with your daughter. Jaw & ear pain, occasional headaches when waking up and an infected tooth that required a root canal. Short Story: Constant clenching of my teeth due to the stress of life-changing events. I would do it without even thinking about it, suddenly realize it after a certain period of time. Minutes? Hours? Who knows but then try to relax my jaw only to realize I was clenching it again a few minutes/hours later. And I would do it in my sleep as well which is why I would wake up with a headache and jaw & ear pain. Long Story: It came on gradually, only hurting for a while & then go away. After a few months however, it stopped going away. A trip to the dentist reveled an infected tooth so it was off to an oral surgeon for a root canal. There he did a cat-scan on my mouth - I didn't even know that was a thing - which basically gave a 360 degree, 3-D image of my mouth in amazing detail. Several of my teeth had what he called Micro-fractures. Tiny, almost invisible cracks that went deep into the teeth that allowed infections to start brewing. Needed only 1 root canal but a few others we are keeping an eye on. The cause of these tiny cracks is the pressure exerted from constanting clenching of teeth. Solution: Wearing a night guard when sleeping to soften the clenching. I hate it so instead I do some deep-breathing exercises to relax before going to bed as well as some mindful mediation during the day and just trying to be more aware of what my mouth is doing. So far, so good.

Wow, I feel like I wrote a mini-trip report when trying to answer a simple yes/no question. 😅 One thing I did not know at the time was that Tampa is the birthplace of one of my most favorite sandwiches. The Cuban. Also didn't know there was a controversy around it. LOL. Next time I'm there, I'll make sure to get a Cuban or two. The sandwich, I mean. 😉

Yes, I did. Spent 5 days/ 4 nights in the Hyatt Place which is the traditional hotel room (Hyatt House has the bigger rooms with kitchen, dining area, etc for longer stays). The rooms are modern, clean and quiet with all the usual big city hotel amenities. I had a room with 2 Queen beds with a pull out sofa since there were 4 of us and it was plenty spacious. The staff was super friendly and efficient. Without me asking, the clerk that was checking us in gave us a "free upgrade" to a higher floor when I told her I am a light sleeper. The free breakfast buffet had plenty of hot and cold food with both healthy and unhealthy options and the staff kept bringing out fresh food right up to the very end. The hotel bar and restaurant were both good with the usual big city prices. The only slight disappointment was the pool area. It was nice enough, on a 3rd floor patio overlooking the streets below, but it had no service. If you want a bite to eat or drink, you need to take the elevator down to the lobby. Not big deal as we only used the pool once to kill a few hours. I thought the location is great and easily walkable. Note: A 10-15 minute walk to me is "just around the corner" so take the following with a grain of salt. The Riverwalk & the nearest trolley stop were about a 5 minute walk from the hotel. If you have time, I highly recommend taking the free trolley to the Historic Ybor City. http://www.tecolinestreetcar.org/home.html) include a live street map showing the current location of the trolleys and arrival times. Also a 5 minute walk are 2 restaurants where we ate: A sports bar called Hatticks (https://hattrickstavern.com/) and a British Pub called Yeomans (https://yeomanstopgolfswingsuite.com/tampa/) . The closest Trolley stop to the hotel is actually right across the street from Hattricks. As I mentioned, the Riverwalk is about 5 or so minutes from the hotel. It looks closer on the map but you have to walk around a large building or two to get to the access point. It's a pleasant way to spend an evening. We grabbed a drink at The Sail which is a large, open air plaza, then continued our way to eat dinner at Jacksons (https://www.jacksonsbistro.com/) . Probably a 20 minute walk from the hotel but took us longer because of the aforementioned drinks and talking with strangers we met. After dinner, a 15 minute walk took us to Sparksmans Wharf (https://sparkmanwharf.com/) for some live outdoor music and after dinner drinks at the beer garden. At this point, we are about a 25 minute walk back to the Hyatt but we opted for an Uber instead. I would 100% stay there again and highly recommend it, especially if the price is right. Oh, I almost forgot the view from our room. I did have to zoom in a bit but it's the unmistakable whale-tail of Carnival.

@Sea Dog I'm sure you've thought of this already but just to throw it out there - we are more than halfway to Christmas. Is it too early to start putting up the holiday decorations, lest you have any mobility issues this autumn?🙂😉 Hopefully you won't & can do it all yourself but I used to be a Cub Scout so the motto is "Be Prepared". 😇 I expect to see holiday decorations appearing in the stores anytime after 4th of July. 😆 And I look forward to seeing this years pictures of your beautifully decorated house later this year.

I was actually typing up a reply when you posted this, so instead I'll just echo 100% what everyone up above has said. The only thing I would add is the few people I know that have gotten a 2nd knee or hip replacement have said the 2nd time around is easier & the recovery time is quicker. I'm not sure if that is actually factual or just "seems" like it since they've experienced it once before. But I guess there is some logic behind it as they are more active & have slimmed down so less stress on the new joints.

I wonder if this is a new trend in hotel construction, a hotel corporation putting in multiple brands into one building. When I was researching Tampa hotels last year, I was looking into Hyatt Place & Hyatt House. When looking at pictures of the public spaces & amenities, I thought they looked very similar. That's because there were! While they were advertised as two separate hotels, they shared the lobby, pool, bar, restaurants, etc. The only difference was that the Hyatt Place (standard hotel room) was on the lower floors while the Hyatt House (suites with kitchens) was on the higher floors & cost more money. A few years ago in Nashville we stayed in a new Marriott that had 3 different brands (Residence, Springhill & one other) in the same building sharing the same public space but each had it's own elevator bank.

Not to be argumentative or anything but it appears that Minnie is watching TV while you sleep. 😄😉

So glad you had a wonderful time on your cruise despite the sub-par entertainment & are looking forward to the next one. I know you didn't want to return to cruising until it was pretty much 100% as it was in the before times so it's good to hear your thoughts, both good and not-so-good. I think that leaves me as the only one who has not returned to a ship yet. That might change this fall. Maybe. I think.

Good luck with the new car. That is a hard deal to pass up on. Most of the offers I've received are a little less, no surprise considering it's a year older and the last year of the previous generation. And while the RX is a beautiful & smooth driving car - if a bit ponderous on the curvy roads - I'm sure Owen would prefer to have the Storm Trooper. 😉

I know you have 2 houses and are in the process of moving (or have moved) but I missed when you purchased a 3rd hours above the Arctic Circle? 😉

Sabel is adorable!

I forgot to add the link. https://www.ticktockdiner.com/

I get an e-mail offer once a month from my local Lexus dealer asking me to trade in my 2015 RX for a new one. I guess because there is a big demand for used cars. While some of the offers are tempting, I'm pretty sure my next car is going to be something a bit sportier. Me too! Well, almost. When my step daughter moved back in with me, she, took over (okay, I gave to her) my daily driver which is a convertible and now I drive the aforementioned RX SUV. I told her she has to "give the car back" to me when she moves back out on her own. Not because I'm the evil step-dad but the convertible is an aging Saab and parts&repairs are becoming harder and more expensive to come by.

I just started watching Season 4 of Cobra-Kai on NetFlix, TV show based on the Karate Kid characters 40 years later as well as the next generation of kids. They work in the "Wax ON/Wax OFF" line into just about every episode.

Tick-Tock Diner. Route 3 in Clifton, NJ about 5 minutes off the Turnpike. Although that part of Jersey is very congested so 5 minutes could easily be 35 minutes depending on time of day, weather, sunspots , the price of tea in China, etc. It's been a very long time since I ate there last but the reviews are still positive. Looks like the menu has been slimmed down considerably, probably due to the C19-word. And it's no longer open 24 hours which immediately makes me wonder if it's still a "true" diner. 😉