h20skibum

I’ve got absolutely nothing to say either today. All I have is this! But a picture is worth a thousand words, or Every picture tells a story, don’t it? Or something like that!

Looks like a beautiful day in Maui. When we were there on a Princess ship, we tendered to the dock by the Pioneer Inn and the Banyan Tree. Met some interesting characters under that Banyan Tree. I assume you tender to the same location. FYI, Kimo’s has hula pie if you need a snack. It is not far from the dock. Just go left on Front Street

Daughter picked it out locally. The kids had written personal notes to accompany Lucy on her journey. They were so sweet and heartfelt.

You should be getting calmer seas and nicer weather, the closer you get to Hawaii. At least that was our experience. Couple days of cool weather with rolling seas, then smooth and warm. Enjoy.

Tonight’s supper After all, it did say it was selfie worthy. Reese’s peanut butter cup for me, and strawberry cheesecake for Susan. Yum.

My son takes his family once or twice a year from CA. It is a nice school break trip for them. The last time they went to Honolulu, but their preference is Maui. I have to say that Maui is my preference also.

This afternoon was a difficult one to be with our grandkids. We knew it was only a matter of time before Lucy would pass on. She was so tiny when our daughter got her. And, of course, she had grown by the time our grandkids came along, and she loved those Christmas presents. Always tolerant of getting decorated. Many tears were shed. RIP Lucy.

Have you tried any of the Boston Ice tea?

Possible. They have a white front like that one. This is an osprey I saw at our lake.

No, too dark for a Cooper's hawk. This is a Cooper's that took up residence at our place a few years ago.

The leaves are starting to show more color here. We took our daughter to the lake for a walk. The doctor says she needs to keep up with exercise, even though she may not feel like it. So we do our part to keep it up. It was perfect weather for walking. I spent the last couple days working on my John Deere tractor, and just came in to relax, when Susan said “Mr. K. is mowing. You should go do it for him.” Well, Mr. K. Is 96 and walks with a cane, and his doctor has told him to stay off his tractor. Usually, one of our friends does the mowing for him, and we do leaves and snow removal. But they went to Florida to check on their house, so it hadn’t been done for a week or so. So I went over and mowed for him. It was nice that my wife had a nice filet waiting when I finished. I see a couple drinks, and relaxing in the hot tub in my future tonight.

Try typing it in Notes. When I type café, it brings that up as one of the options. As an alternate, the iPhone lets you load several keyboards. You can always load a French keyboard, and use that one for the words with accents.

Don’t get me started on that subject. I have banged my head against that wall too many times. That government project I talked about last week, giving guidance to the new owners, is a prime example of government waste. The government is more than happy to spend $5M on a project that could have easily been done for $1M. Then they turn around and ask taxpayers for more money. I better stop now, before I start banging my head again!

I saw a news story about that a couple days ago. In 2017, FEMA chartered the 1,500 passenger Grand Celebration, owned by the Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line, at a cost of $25,700,000 for 90 days. (That works out to around $286,000 per day.) In 2005, FEMA chartered three Carnival Cruise Line ships (Ecstasy, Sensation, and Holiday) after Hurricane Katrina for six months at a cost of $192 million, plus an additional $44 million in fuel expenses. I assume they would looking at much higher costs for the ship in the current environment. Even using the 2017 figure, if they housed 1,500, that works out to $190/day per person. That’s like giving them almost $70,000 per person if you consider a year’s cost. That just seems like an excessive amount to me, and surely they can find something for less.

We traveled today to tend to my parent’s graves and to Susan’s parent’s graves. While we were in that area, we did a small hike on the Pittsburgh to Erie Trail. The sky was blue, and the Allegheny River was calm today. We did come across an old furnace that was in pretty good shape, but is getting overgrown with brush. Wasn’t able to find any information about it, and was surprised there were no photos of it on the AllTrails app. So I added it. We walked as far as the old gate, then turned around so I would get home in time to get work done at home. It was a beautiful day for a hike, and it was nice to enjoy the quiet walk.

+2 @dbancroft Dani, those are wonderful pictures of your gathering.

Thanks for your great review, Greg. I really enjoyed it. Twelve pounds doesn’t sound too bad, considering all the food and drink from those packages. Heck, I probably gained at least four, just looking at all the food and drink pictures. 🤣🤣

Sailing virtually with you on this one. Good start.

I took my daughter and granddaughter to her cheerleading game today. The two school districts that were playing are only a couple miles from each other, but they were playing on a neutral site, and that meant about a 30 mile drive. The cheerleaders were dressed with pink highlights for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. She is not old enough to understand what is going on with her mom. She was just happy to have the pretty pinks and the face sticker. That game did have some tense moments. They usually have medical personnel at the game, but I don’t know if someone dropped the ball because it was a neutral field. One of our players went down with a neck injury, and he laid on the field for 20 minutes until the ambulance got there. Thankfully, I hear his MRI came back clear. The team she cheers for won 30-8. Meanwhile, Susan went to our grandson’s game. He had another great game, and another win 22-6.

Sitting at the drive thru today, and saw this. Somehow, the pinwheels just do not look right on this vehicle.

We parked there for a B2B in January, and it was easy to get to. The problem was, they didn’t open the garage to let you start parking there until noon, if I recall. I don’t know if that is the way it normally is. We had to drive around in circles till we could park. We also encountered a problem with their app to pay for parking after the cruise. It was going to charge for the equivalent of 5 weeks or so, so I just took the ticket to the exit lane. There, the ticket registered for only one week instead of two, so who knows what goes on with their system.

+2 @George C So sorry for your loss.

My Daughter-in-law was a professor at UB when they were living in Williamsville. We always enjoyed great Muffaletos from Marco’s Italian Deli, and that was our Go to sandwich when we visited them. I just pulled up Marco’s menu, and it looks like they no longer have them on the menu. Too bad, because it would be worth the trip to have one again.

Good to hear your power is back on

I think someone here mentioned about getting calls, after they retired, to help with things at their old office. Yesterday was my turn. One of the new owners called and asked if I could come in and give them some guidance on a government project they are working on. I was surprised how easy it was to slip back into that role, and I spent a few hours with them. Of course, traffic was bad, and some people just couldn’t get up to the speed limit. After spending some time there, I picked up Susan from my daughter’s house, and we did some walking. I can’t believe how many of these we have seen lately, but they are moving more for mating season. (Yes, there are 4 deer visible and one hiding in this picture) No pictures of dinner out, but after seeing Greg post all those great looking drinks, I had to have one. A Carmel Appletini. Today, football games and cheering, so we are headed in different directions this morning.