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A day on a cruise ship with no destination seemed silly in the abstract, but they are pretty indulgent in reality. Sleep in. Eat whenever. Read. Go somewhere else and read. Check out the scenery or read some more. Maybe catch a show or an event or take a nap. Meet the captain. (He’s not that busy.) You come to look forward to sea days.
A video:
Does this look like the face of a young woman set for an adventure? I think so.
That was on the 15th deck of the Celebrity Eclipse, our home for the next several days. Not the 15th deck, necessarily, but the vessel.
We set sail today. Here’s a little video I put together as we left port. I think you might enjoy it.
I’m especially proud of the tracking shot at the end.
More tomorrow.
I’m fine.
At the end of the night, our hotel concierge asks how things are. “Well, I’ve been hit by a van and almost ran over by a teenager on a bicycle.”
This, and a few other interesting non-traffic things happened within a five-block walk.
The concierge points out this is Miami, and they are all notoriously bad drivers here. Turns out he knew of an insurance survey ranking them at the bottom of the list, and everything. There’s a lesson there. If you cite your source, even if it was one of those publicity surveys, you’ll always come off as an expert.
The van incident was a mutual fault kind of thing. We’re on the sidewalk and the van is trying to join the road to which we’re walking. He’s looking to his left and we’re approaching him from his right. The Yankee walks quickly in front of the van, which might not have been smart. I walked behind her, which definitely was not smart. The van driver started his acceleration as I’m in the middle of his path. I hop back and smacked the hood of the van twice. Hard. Scared him to death, aggravated me, terrified The Yankee.
But I’m fine. I hurt my hand hitting the hood, purely a defensive measure. I tweaked my left ankle in trying to hop back in an effort to create some distance between flesh and bone and bumper and grill. I was happily able to walk off the ankle as the night wore on. I’ve grown very protective of my feet of late, as I have recently noticed I use them to walk and run and ride my bike pretty much everywhere.
So that was a big highlight. A van! Hitting me!
Other highlights include this little story: Last week in Connecticut the woman who runs the little Italian place we visit there told us she was cruising out of Miami today. Her two children had booked a trip for their parents. Knowing we were also going to be in Miami we said “Maybe we’ll see you on your ship, haha.”
We checked into our hotel, got up to the room, took in the view, looked out the window to the left and:
That was their ship pulling out for a week-long party.
Dinner tonight was at Havana 1957. I’d recommend it. I had the Fricase de Pollo:
Here’s their placemat, and how often do you take a placemat from a restaurant?
I’m going to shoot a lot of video in the next few days. Here is one from today, just some shots of the city:
Tomorrow, we’re leaving Miami … but to where?
I got a pair of broken glasses in November and an eye appointment two weeks ago to replace them. Ignored at that doctor’s office, I made a new appointment, today, with another eye doctor.
I got my appointment rescheduled earlier this week. Seems the doctor didn’t want to come back to the office after lunch. So this morning, then, I waited 75 minutes to meet the doctor. I got this picture of the chart while I waited. I zoomed in on my camera phone, and then zoomed in on the picture so I could read them. When the doctor did come in he managed to not introduce himself.
I got into a long debate with this new doctor because he somehow ascertained that his machine told him a radically off result for my vision. That meant a lecture by the doctor because, I think, he somehow assumed that this error was something I was advocating. We followed that up with the pleasure of someone sticking their fingers in my eyes.
And I got a trial pair of contacts and the persistent sensation that something is in my eye. Perhaps because something was in my eye. Even now, with them out, and maybe I did that right, it feels like there’s something in my eye. Also, so far, I find that putting them in is easier than taking them out.
I’m still not sure what all of the letters are on the last line.
I got the perverse pleasure of watching my 16-gallon gas tank fill up beyond 16 gallons. Coasted in again. And I received the joy of filling up for less than $40, which was great after the expense of the eye test.
I got a very average haircut from a stylist perfectly uninterested in small talk. The extent of it was pointing out the cowlicks.
And, tonight, we got to have dinner with Mae Margaret, an old Auburn friend.
Because I enjoyed this picture from last night so much …
It is my first favorite shot of the new year, and it will take a fair amount to top it.
