Past, Present, and Future

Our views from our parking spot at Yetter’s Diner and RV Resort are very entertaining. Luckily for Tommy, the owner, we keep a vigilant (or is it vigilante!) eye on his dumpster and all of the folks that think its OK to just swing in and disgorge bags of refuse from the trunks of their vehicles, toss them in, and then just drive away with screeching tires and a cloud of burnt rubber. Apparently though, there are some customers that have “Gratuitous Garbage Granting’s, because after taking photos of these felons and texting them to Tommy, his response was something like, “Oh, that’s Jimmy, my second cousin’s uncle’s brother, he’s ok.” We then got to know the “regulars” and I guess these folks are ok too because they invariably stop in several times a day and at least go inside and become “Customers with Privileges” instead of the Hit and Run Felons that are some of the others.

          Being ever observant, we also keep track of the comings and goings of the employees, Paula has their license plates memorized in case she is needed to testify in court as to their whereabouts on any particular day.

          Speaking of employees, Paula has, of late, been gainfully employed by the diner as a Hostess, Cashier, and Silverware Wrapper Extraordinaire. When we first arrived back in May we joked about the “Help Wanted” sign on the door.

          Tommy said very seriously, “I’ll let you know.”

          Oops!

          Paula really wants to help them out and with the kids going back to college, the general people-power shortage , and several vacations of key people, she found that her offer to help out was taken not only seriously, but with open arms and extreme gratitude.

          Now she is on a first-name basis with the Dumpster Divers that we have so much fun taking secret photos of!

          She is saving all of the shekels that she’s earning and putting them towards Excursions that we will be taking on an upcoming Cruise.

          More on that a little later.

          Meanwhile we find ourselves on the downward slope of our extended East Coast Expedition and Visit. Last week was our annual Visit My Sister and Crash her Vacation in Beach Haven. Actually (and thankfully) nothing could be further from the truth. Kathy and Denny really like having us, and my daughter Heather and her family come down for the week. They scour the VRBO listings and when we think that they’ve found the perfect house, the next year they seem to be able to top it. This year may be the best one yet and probably hard to beat. Brandy-new, with four floors (including the roof-top patio and Pirate Lookout spot, a great pool, and AC that just won’t quit, it was quite the find. Kathy gets along so well with the owners (who are really just searching for renters that will take care of their ‘Baby’) that the Owners sent Kathy and the family two dozen incredible custom-made, bespoke, hand-crafted donuts!

          They arrived shortly after we departed so next year we will need to be a little more judicious as to picking our departure dates!

          There are no more ‘trips within a trip’ planned before we depart the area. Our proposed exit from the Garden State is sometime over Labor Day Weekend. Meanwhile we are filling up our schedule with visits to folks that we haven’t seen yet and visits to that other type of person….. Doctors.

          Whilst in Maine, Paula had a run-in with a very friendly, very large, Rottweiler-type dog doing Zoomies around the yard. He lost his bearings and did his last Zoomie into Paula’s knee.

          Hence the visit to the Orthopedic Guy.

          No Surgery is warranted, mainly because of Paula’s “Advanced Age” (his words NOT mine!) only Physical Therapy. She wants to be able to walk around on those excursions she’s working so hard to pay for!

          For me, I had my very own MRI. It seems that all of the lawn mowing in very rough fields, made for some extremely bumpy jolts that felt like I was in the WWW arena with Hulk Hogan, and I was on the receiving end of one of his Pile Driver moves. Hence the slipped discs and other lower back issues. Tomorrow is my visit to the Spine Specialist. I hear that there is a relatively new Chocolate Treatment that I hope that he puts me on!

I was finally able to totally finish the installation of the USS Constitution up in Massachusetts at my son Donny’s house. The glass case came in and as you can see the finished product looks’ good.

          Last week my friend Bob and I visited the USS New Jersey down on the waterfront in Camden, right near the Aquarium. This was an extremely satisfying experience, one that I would highly recommend. The ship is in excellent shape and the self-guided tours are well planned out. The New Jersey is the most decorated Battleship in the Navy’s history and her berth right here in her home state is one of those things that are almost too good to be true.

          As for the upcoming months and our travel plans, well, we’ll be mostly down in Texas. Just like the past few months, if there is not much to write about, I will not bore you with the day-to-day stuff.

          But……..

          Soon after the Holidays we will be embarking on that Cruise that I alluded to in the beginning of this post. I will have a plethora of subjects, places, and interesting things to write about because it is a true World Cruise. Startling in Fort Lauderdale in early January, we will go through the Panama Canal, cross the Equator, go through the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar all while visiting about 50 different ports along the way. The voyage will be about four months long and we will be mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. I will detail the trip in a later post. I understand that the internet connection on the ship is excellent so be ready for  four months of a non-stop barrage of tidbits that you didn’t know that you needed to know until you do know!

          Then you can pick the Geography category in Trivial Pursuit and amaze your friends with your worldly knowledge!