Nobody is Promised Tomorrow. . .
It’s just a normal east coast summer. Hot. With interesting thunderstorms in the late afternoon.
Still working on my trip photos.
Thought I was going to be unemployed when I got back from Alaska. But, that hasn’t happened. I guess if they want my irresponsible old self I can help them out.
Grateful. I have lived a charmed life and I know it.
It’s hot. I have been working at the computer all day. I just pulled some random shots out of my archive. The titles are what was there.
BTW: I got the waffle issue ironed out. Fake Eggos will no longer be served.
Spent most of the day rattling around in the old bat cave. The A/C stopped working, but fortunately the “turn it off and leave it off for 30minutes and turn it back on” trick worked. So, things are cooling down.
Emailed management. Essentially asking WTF are you doing about all the stuff that needs doing around here. My suggestion about on-site child care was ignored. No surprise there. They seem already be considering a couple of my other suggestions. Basically to build our own nursing and kitchen staff with training programs.
Also suggested that they cease serving waffles as to not embarrass themselves. Also to search out technology to augment staff in our health care settings. And a robot cook would be a good idea.
Managements response to our problems has been “supply chain issues” and “tight labor market”. Well, after a while that becomes a “the dog ate my homework” defense.
Laundry. Nap. That was it for me today. Having dinner with my friends at our pizza restaurant tonight. It will be closed indefinitely after tonight. Official reason “lack of staffing”. I might say it is a “lack of foresight” by management.
I did discover this morning that they still make real pancakes on the griddle.
So, where to escape to? Bermuda still has draconian covid testing requirements. 1 test 4 days before you arrive and the one test upon arrival and you can not leave your hotel until those results come back, then 3 more tests 4 days apart. It’s their country. They can make the rules. But, I don’t have to go there.
These photos are from July 12. Last morning on the ferry and into Skagway in early afternoon.
After two glorious days, the weather was bound to turn. And it did. But, there was nothing much to do but pack up and wait. Most of the people got off in Juneau. Some got on in Juneau, mostly returning home to Skagway or Haines after a visit to the doctor, dentist,or Costco. Most likely all three.
It was a great trip. But, good to be onto the next part of the adventure. But,
If I didn’t have a place to stay, my Plan B was to haul-ass back to the ferry before it left for Sitka.
Right now, the asylum is not so good. I am seriously considering moving out. Well, not really. Keeping the Old Bat Cave. But keeping it for later. Later if I live long enough to be really old. Or later until the establishment gets its shit together. I can honestly say, if it weren’t for the dear friends that I have here, I wouldn’t be here today. I would be somewhere else. But, I can make a case for keeping my lodgings here as a legal address and as a long-term care insurance policy.
And what was it that pushed me over the edge? Breakfast. This morning. The waffles. Eggos. Not even “good” Eggos. Bad knockoff Eggos. No. I didn’t take a picture. The Asylum used to serve ok real waffles made in a waffle iron. Not anymore apparently. I wonder about the pancakes?
I am most likely just having a little hissy-fit. Most likely I’ll get over it. But, I sure as hell don’t recommend this place to anyone.
By the way. They had to end the palliative care services due to lack of staffing. That really is serious. Much more serious than defective waffles.
These photos are from June 11th. That was my second full day on the Matanuska. I didn’t do a blog entry on June 11th due to lack of cell phone coverage.
The kids were my “Boat Buddies”. They are having the adventure of their young lives. But, like all of us old people after more than 24 hours on the ferry they are on deck and ready to spend a couple of hours onshore. They spent most of yesterday looking for a spirit bear. But, we didn’t see one. And by this morning we are out of their range.
The first full day on the ferry is spent on board with no stops. The second day features three stops. And you can get off the boat for a nice walk around town at two locations.
After another couple of hours on the ferry, we come to Wrangell.
The “thing” in Wrangell is garnets. The town is filthy with garnets. They even mixed garnets (or maybe red glass chips) into the sidewalk concrete aggregate. The boy scouts used to own the garnet mine and small kids would sell stones to people off the cruise ships. But there are no cruise ships so I don’t know if the kids still sell garnets.
Not long after Wrangell is Petersburg.
And another fine day on the Matanuska came to an end. But the sun was still shining. When the sun is shining there is no better place to be in the summer than southeastern Alaska.
Of course, I have a bunch of photos. Am really going to try to get them all culled down ASAP. But, knowing me…
Today’s photos are from June 10. That was a full day on the Matanuska off British Columbia.
Somehow or the other, I scored an awesome cabin on the ferry. It had two huge windows looking over the stern.
The crew used the area outside my windows as their smoking area. We ignored each other. It wouldn’t have been so nice if passengers had been wandering around looking in my windows and blocking my view. Never again will I get such a fine cabin.
I believe this is called the “boat deck”. Seven laps around it was reported to be a mile.
Up top is the “sun deck”. That is were the young people pitch tents and the older crowd snags a deck chair in the solarium for the duration.
No complaints at all about June 10, 2021. Or July 8, 2021 for that matter. Left the Asylum tonight for real food at a cheap Thai restaurant. Food with flavor! What a concept!
At my desk this afternoon when a crow touched down briefly and then took off again.
Nice and summer toasty here. Nothing like Seattle. Just nicely hot and humid.
More messing with the trip photos. These are from my great walk outside Sitka.
Unbelievably grateful to have my tooth fixed! Thank goodness for modern dentistry.
A fine day.
After this trip, I never need to ever take a “real” camera on a trip again. Well, unless I go on safari in Africa. Never say never.
Today I inspected my 300+ GoPro photos. The little thing takes fine wide-angle shots.
This one was from inside my cabin on the ferry through the Inside Passage. I had a great cabin.
This is from the tiny plane going from Skagway to Juneau.
And finally on the Empire Builder going through Montana.
Grateful for a fine month-long adventure. Thank you body, mind, and bank account.
Time to start planning the next trek. Icelandair reminded me that I have a credit. And, I have a credit at a hotel in ReykjavÃk. I have completely aged out of the tectonic plate swim that I booked in 2019. In Iceland, you can swim from the North American plate to the European plate. But, the absolute max-age for that activity is 75. And, that company sent my money back.
There are a couple of days in June and another in July when the sun comes up behind the Washington Monument. Always fun to shoot. And, today’s haze makes for interesting post-processing.
But sunrise wasn’t the day’s main event. The dentist was the main event. The kid dentist said “My Dad and my brother warned me about you”. Now that’s not a great start.
That is the trouble maker. At my advanced age, it didn’t warrant a crown even an inlay. Got an old-fashioned filling and then I napped until the Novacaine wore off.
Long story short. I made it back home late last night. On United. Amtrak really didn’t have any viable options anytime soon. And, I really want to make my dentist appointment to repair my broken tooth tomorrow morning.
Going to see how well my GoPro does with fireworks this tonight. I don’t really have a vantage point for photographing fireworks. But hey, I am not getting paid to take pictures of fireworks. Just doing it for my own amusement. For the last 4 summers, The Orange Lord took over fireworks and I closed my shades.
Added after fireworks. GoPro Experiment was not a success. Picture above is with my Pixel 2XL through double-pane window.
Spent the train day wandering alongside the Mississippi and other rivers, lakes, swamps etc. Saw many Sandhill Cranes and lots of deer. And one beaver. Finished up an audiobook while doing all of this wildlife viewing.
Most of the day spent wondering if I would make it to Chicago in time to make my connection to DC. I won’t. We almost had a chance, and then a drawbridge opened. Lost 20 minutes there. So, what’s to do but order chocolate tart for dessert. And take a nap. It’s 5:30 now and I suspect it will be another 2 hours to Chicago. And my train to DC leaves in about one hour. Amtrak will not hold a train an hour for me. Nor would I want it to.
Plan B is to bail on Amtrak, scuttle over to the Blue Train to the airport, find a hotel, find a flight out tomorrow, etc.
But first, let’s see what Amtrak has in mind.