Orlando Trip, Day 2….

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Okay, I have to back up to yesterday – or rather last night – to talk about dining at Bice, the fine dining restaurant at Portofino Bay Hotel. It was everything you want when paying those kinds of prices. Lovely ambiance, great service, excellent food, and presentation. Hubby did go with the veal osso bucco and loved it. I had veal piccata that was wonderful. We shared a mixed salad to start and not surprisingly, the fresh baked (and warm) bread was served with two dipping olive oils and balsamic vinegar instead of butter. We did do dessert – chocolate torte with vanilla gelato. We had wine by the glass though because I brought a bottle of champagne for us to have later. Well, have a glass then save the rest for today.

Mother Nature was not as kind to us as she could have been although it could have been worse. We did take advantage of early park entrance today because the specific ride in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Hubby wanted to go on is the only ride in the park that isn’t on the Express list. Even with getting there early, it was an 1.5 hour wait. With that said, you do wind through a scenic path and the castle making your way to the ride, so it is somewhat entertaining. I do not, in general, go on roller coasters and did so only as a “gift” to Hubby. It was right on the edge of what I can tolerate. The other two rides were not quite as bad and the Hogwarts Express train was pleasantly calm. We did manage to cover all the Harry Potter items today – to include lunch at Three Broomsticks. Fish and chips for him; pasties and salad for me and we shared. Nothing fancy this time, but part of the experience. Light rain set in not long after lunch and we were prepared with a rain jacket and hood for him and small umbrella for me.

Dinner tonight will be at something kind of different – The Cowfish. I will explain tomorrow.

Orlando Trip, Day 1……

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Trip up was as good as can be expected; no accidents or back-ups. Staying at a different hotel at Universal – the Portofino Bay. Lovely, but massive. Might need to get some breadcrumbs to drop to find way around. We have the fine dining restaurant tonight as it is our 35th anniversary. Will report on that in the morning.

Coincident of timing. We stopped for lunch at one of the Turnpike plazas. Granddaughter sometimes Facebook messages us on Sundays and she did at exactly the best time she could have. Hubby was waiting for sandwiches and I was at the table. She wanted to swap to Facetime so we traded off. I talked to her while Hubby at half his sandwich, then we swapped. Turns out science is still her favorite subject and she is now trying jazz for dance. She thinks she will like that better than ballet and tap and quite frankly, I can see that considering how active she tends to be.

Anyway, we’re headed down shortly to stop by the Universal desk to pickup our park tickets, then get oriented. This hotel is on the far end of the complex and the opposite side of where we have previously stayed. The water taxi goes to the parks and there is a walking trail which is about 3/4 of a mile. We’ll go down for dinner at 7:15, so if we have time, we’ll go over to Citywalk which is where the shops, non-Hotel restaurants, etc., are. Margaritaville will be a stop depending on a couple of things. After all, a good way to toast Jimmy’s legacy. If not this afternoon, we’ll catch it tomorrow or Tuesday.

Tomorrow will be our only early start as there is the newest Harry Potter ride that doesn’t take the Express Pass, so we have to take advantage of the early entrance for those staying in the on-site hotels.

Guest Post and Gap…..

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I’ve been longer than usual in posting due to an unavoidable situation that will be resolving soon. In the meantime, I have a guest post here. In writing for the paper, I’ve covered stories occasionally of women who have come through the trauma of domestic violence. Abby Holt, the guest blogger, is also familiar with such cases, and while it is an intense topic, her points have application to those who may be facing major changes for other reasons.

The Key to Using Major Life Transitions to Your Advantage

Going through major life transitions is a fantastic opportunity to change things up, start fresh, and replace bad habits with positive ones. Taking on a new job, moving to a different area, and other transitions are challenging, but they can also help us realize our true potential. Below, Abby Holt of Craftability explores five major life transitions that you can leverage as a domestic violence survivor to nix bad habits and adopt good ones.

Take Stock of Your Bad Habits

Before you can begin replacing your bad habits, you must first take the time to understand what they are. CoughPro suggests starting by making a list of every bad habit you can think of and the situations or triggers that lead to them. Then, you can develop a plan to overcome them.

Leave Toxic Relationships

Relationships do a lot to shape our behavior, both positively and negatively. That’s why it’s essential to take a close look at the people in your life if you’re trying to break a bad habit.

Say, for example, you’re surrounded by people who engage in the same negative behaviors or enable your bad habits. In that case, it’s time to reevaluate. Leaving toxic relationships can be hard, but it’s a major life transition that can help you cut out negative habits and adopt positive ones.

Reexamine What You Put in Your Body

The old saying is true: we really are what we eat. So what you put in your body can make a big difference in how you feel. Relying on fast food and sugary drinks is a common vice that you can address by seeking out farmers markets and restaurants that serve whole foods.

If you drink several cups of coffee or espresso beverages a day in order to stay energized, take a look at the amounts of caffeine in each drink and cut back. You may be surprised by how much caffeine you’re actually consuming. And caffeine is both a stimulant and a diuretic, so too much can affect your sleep (hello self-perpetuating cycle) and dehydrate you.

Become Your Own Boss

Owning a business allows you to take control of your work environment and create an atmosphere that supports your mission to change your habits. It’s also an excellent opportunity to establish a fresh, healthy lifestyle for building something from the ground up! You can even simplify your passion project by leveraging online resources to streamline the startup process. There are services that can help with legal paperwork, name selection, and other important aspects of starting a business.

Further, you can also use online resources to research your competition, identify a potential customer base, and develop a marketing strategy. Doing so will accelerate your startup process and help set you up for success.

Moving to a Different City

Along with presenting the opportunity to break bad habits and adopt positive ones more easily, relocating can give you the chance to change your environment and start a new chapter in your life. Maybe you end up finding a new, more fulfilling job. Training & eTracking Solutions points out that a simple change of scenery can do wonders for your mental health. When it comes to overcoming bad habits, few actions are more effective than moving away.

Making Healthier Choices

Times of transition are an opportunity to make healthier choices. For instance, if you move to a city with excellent outdoor recreation opportunities, you might find that you naturally adopt healthier habits. Or if you relocate somewhere that has more walk-friendly areas, you might find yourself walking more than driving. New routines and environments also allow us to establish new habits more quickly than we would in the day-to-day lives we’re used to.

Embrace the Changes

As difficult as they may be, major life transitions provide you with a chance to take stock of your life and replace the habits you’ve been wanting to replace. Exiting toxic relationships, taking on a new career, making healthy decisions, and relocating are a few of the many waves to improve your quality of life.

Change can be scary, but it can also be thoroughly rewarding. Take this opportunity to start fresh and create the life you’ve always wanted. Approach your next transition with the right mindset, and incorporate positive habits into your routine!

End of post.

Plenty of Candy…..

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With everything going on, we haven’t decorated for Halloween this year although some of the neighbors have been creative. I did pick up the usual quantity of multiple bags of candy as we get lots of trick or treaters. Hubby will post a few photos to Facebook no doubt. They do range in age from toddler to teenager and we don’t mind that. Sometimes the older ones are bringing young one around and other times, they may just be hanging on to a last bit of childhood for a few hours.

Hubby teases me some, but I have two candy bowls. The one with the most is the good chocolate/nut stuff and I have a second smaller one with no chocolate and no nuts just in case. Speaking of food, we will have a steady stream of visitors from around 5:30 to 9:00. We usually have dinner at 7:30 while watching Jeopardy and with one of us having to answer the door every few minutes, we will fix tuna etouffee tonight. Since it’s a stew-like meal, it will stay hot between bites.

I do tend to try and err on the side of too much rather than too little candy and we do have a bag or so left over at times. It has been known to last until nearly Christmas. On the other hand, I am supposed to make sure there is a bag – or at least most of a bag – of Butterfingers for Hubby to enjoy for later. That mostly works out. Sometimes he prefers Snickers as leftover, but not this year.

I am also okay with all the places that choose to have some sort of event for kids rather than have them go to houses. Oh, and I do have a few friends whose favorite holiday is Halloween and they go all out whether with decorations, costumes, or party. None happen to be in this neighborhood; I know I’ll be seeing FB posts tomorrow from them.

 

 

Doctors and Other…..

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Recent events and a conversation yesterday led me to thinking about the whole doctors, health, etc., Not about the abysmal health/medical costs in this country – well, that is perhaps tangential, but also a topic I won’t venture into.

At some point in our lives we all eventually make health and life style choices. Granted, there are households where healthy eating is not practiced and as I have posted before, growing up when I did in small towns, it was basic fare. Good and nutritious although I do have a friend who can’t comprehend those of us who used bacon grease as a prime ingredient. Anyway, once you reach a certain age or change in your environment, you can decide to also change the way you eat. Expand your tastes, become some variety of vegetarian – or whatever. The same with drinking, smoking, exercising; general factors that affect health. While there are people who genuinely don’t understand how these things are related, that is also a topic for another time (if ever).

In my case, as much as I disliked running, it was a requirement throughout my Army career. I’m fine with walking and once I retired, I swapped from one to the other. After an injury to my knee a number of years ago, I swapped from walking to a stationary recumbent bicycle. Like most women in my family, I struggle with my weight and I’m pretty sure I’ve posted about that before. I did start smoking during college and quit 6 or 7 years later when I was pregnant. I was never addicted and quitting wasn’t difficult. As for drinking, let’s say I definitely don’t agree with the medical profession’s general advice of only one drink a day. (I also suspect few of them adhere to that).

All right, barring genetic issues – and those cannot be discounted – as we get older, we will develop things we didn’t have to deal with in our younger years and taking medication is part of that. In some cases, making lifestyle changes can help, and in other cases, “better living through chemistry” is the answer – or the choice. I have issues with “Big Pharma”, but at the same time, there are simply things I enjoy that I don’t want to give up. And so, my follow-up to the doctor this morning means I will be taking yet another prescribed medication instead of continuing to rely on a supplement that no longer seems to be adequate. Sigh!!!

Unplanned Gap…

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I can’t get into the situation now, but let’s just say I’ve had some unexpected commitments.

It’s an exciting weekend for Hubby though as the NASCAR playoff races are here. He’s at the Homestead-Miami Speedway again today; was there yesterday afternoon into the evening and two races are today. He left out early as there are all sorts of other aspects he’s photographing and capturing for his pieces for the paper. The third and biggest race is tomorrow. Mother Nature did mess with them a little yesterday although the fairly light rain cleared off and it has been lovely, plus should be again tomorrow.

As usual during this weekend, traffic anywhere near the area is jammed and they bring in extra police and alter the flow to accommodate the thousands who come in. Even though the races end tomorrow, we learned the first year that traffic doesn’t actually clear out until almost noon on Monday. Most of the folks who come in RVs to stay at the Speedway, plus the big haulers and many of the crew members don’t depart until then. Fortunately, everything I need to do Monday takes place where I can stay off those roads.

I have a couple of deadlines I’m working for the one non-profit because it’s the time of year where we have to submit a substantial report to the County. I have multiple parts to complete and while I spent several hours previously, today was another big chunk. The next phase is coming up soon, too, and I try to have a few days in between since it’s easy to mix up the documents – another of the lessons I learned the first couple of times I did these. Among the volunteers I don’t have and need is an individual to help with this part. It is also one of the most complicated, does require a special level of skill and therefore, is one of the most difficult to get help with. Ah well, maybe one of these days.

 

A Rapid Decline…..

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Emotional content alert. A friend’s father passed away recently and as often happens, it brought to mind memories of other passings. As I mentioned in the posts about my father, his decline had been gradual – like “fading” – for a few years. In those final three weeks when the hospice nurse recommended come, there was a rally where my sister and I were able to be there and he was unaware of our real purpose in the “unexpected visit”.

Turning to my friend; she had relocated her father from his previous home as his second wife had passed away and despite his protests, he could no longer live alone. As often happens in families, she was the one who stepped up to make the arrangements and be his advocate in assisted care here. There was adjustment that wasn’t always smooth, but it did work out. She and her husband had a trip to Brazil (his home country) planned for this month and prior to leaving her father had a series of trips to the hospital. Despite many tests, there was no good diagnosis and he was better and seemed to be stable. She went on the trip and went to see her father as soon as they returned. He was still having issues with falling and a night attended was engaged as a precaution. Within only a few days, everything changed. Confusion, etc., and hospice was brought in. From that, it was very rapid although my friend was able to be with him and it was quite peaceful at the end. There is not a large family and because of his recent relocation, she will later take his ashes back to his previous location to be interred in the plot with his second wife.

We friends are of course here for her in whatever she needs.

Services Needed Of Course……

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Naturally, in a week when I am jammed up with lots of extra tasks, my Escape, “Change Engine Oil Soon”, notice came on and the AC people called to schedule a service. Hubby could have taken the Escape in as usual, however, I needed him to do something else. He couldn’t be here for the AC service which is going on as I type this. Now, when the AC runs approximately 360 days per year, skipping a service is unwise. That happened last year because it was when Daddy was failing and during one of my trips, they left a voice mail about setting up a time and quite frankly, I forgot to do it. Skipping the service meant the drain did back up which later led to a leak. It’s just one of those realities to be dealt with.

Back to changing the oil. Again, with today’s digital features in vehicles, you no longer have to do the thing of, “Okay, I’ve driven X-number of miles or in the case of low mileage, it’s been X-months since oil change”. On the other hand, when the notice comes up, that gives you only 2-3 days before the notices switches to “Change Engine Oil now!” Anyway, we usually combine that with some other service that needs to be done and go to the dealer. In other cases, such as yesterday, we use Jiffy Lube. I’m old enough to remember when Jiffy Lube first opened as a company. It was a startling idea and naturally, there were people who didn’t think it could work. This is one of the reasons capitalism and free enterprise are great. They proved the concept and then, as is almost always the case, other similar companies sprang up although Jiffy Lube still has the greatest market share.

The techs were efficient and polite and while I was there a bit longer than at other times, I did have my Kindle with me. Oh, one slightly amusing thing. The guy finishing the service had to talk me through re-setting the Escape’s “memory” to let it know the oil had been changed.

Catching Up, Sort Of……

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The trip to Louisiana was somewhat whirlwind and did involve a fair amount of driving. It was good to see people though. I think I posted before about how I reconnected with the three high school friends, but that’s been a while if I did. Most people who read this blog realize there was a time with no email, no cell phones and no social media. You wrote letters and called long distance at an extra price. When I left Natchitoches almost immediately after college graduation, it was to go to initial training in Alabama, on to the next level training in Maryland, then on to my first assignment in Germany. The time I had in between meant bouncing from parents to grandparents, once again driving different distances to do so. One of my three high school friends stayed in Natchitoches, but my parents had moved up to Minden while I was a senior in college. The second friend was already in  Shreveport as she moved up there in our junior year for the other part of the nursing program. The third friend left to go somewhere in Texas I think it was. Since I was never assigned back in Louisiana, it was easy to lose track of people.

Anyway, they decided to hold a combined junior and senior class twenty-year reunion one summer. One of my friends called Daddy to find out how to get in touch with me. That was sweet, but where the coincidence comes in – or not depending on your view – we were being reassigned to Germany that summer. We shipped one automobile out of Baltimore as we were assigned in Maryland. We went up to Maine to visit family, then drove to Louisiana to visit other family with the intent of shipping the second vehicle out of New Orleans. In almost the exact time, the reunion was not only planned for that weekend, it was to be held at a hotel we literally had to pass on the way to New Orleans. The only adjustment I had to make in order to attend the reunion was stay one less night visiting some of the relatives. We did go, reunite with my three friends, and kept in touch at least each Christmas. Email and social media has of course made it easier once we had such things.

Louisiana Trip, Day 5……

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Yesterday was the quick go back by my aunt’s with a promise next year’s visit will be less rushed. At least that’s the plan. We headed up to Minden and this is a somewhat “divergent” part. If you are not familiar with the HGTV show, “Home Town”, it’s another husband and wife renovation show set in Laurel, MS. They are a delightful couple and in addition to restoring homes, the husband has an amazing wood shop/work shop where he almost always creates something extra special for each home. Anyway, a few years ago, they got the idea and the network agreed to a “Home Town Takeover” where they select a small town trying to revive itself and can’t quite make it. There are certain criteria and the first time they did this, they selected Wetumpka, Alabama which wasn’t very far from Laurel. The format is they spend four months and do four projects; two businesses, one public place, and one home for someone known for strong community giving. The concept was such a success, they expanded it and decided to bring in extra teams and do four towns in different parts of the country. I was surprised to hear Minden was one of the towns. They faced severe economic set-back when the real estate bubble burst and have struggled to regain their footing. Anyway, one of the businesses selected was a breakfast and lunch cafe, “Geaux Fresh”, run by two women. I didn’t realize my sister had actually been there, but she didn’t know anything about the transformation. We went for lunch and a) it looked as cute as it did on TV; b) the menu was terrific; c) the food was excellent; and d) there were a lot of people there. The only drawback for me is they don’t serve beer and wine, however, I wasn’t going to be drinking anyway.

They have a huge selection of sandwiches, burgers, salads, and several pastries. Sis had a lovely chicken salad and I had the Black Bayou burger that included sliced jalapenos, bacon, jalapeno jam, and pepper jack cheese on jalapeno bread. Yes, it was spicy and messy.

It was a beautiful afternoon to go to the cemetery although warm and the VA marker had been installed on Daddy’s grave. It doesn’t match Mother’s as his is granite and hers is brass, but it looks nice and more importantly, everything on it was correct.