Vacation update 2

 

Nothing exciting to report - which is the point of a vacation, after all!

We've spent a while on the beach, enjoying the pleasantly warm (rather than ridiculously hot) weather and the equally warm Gulf water.  To my unpleasant surprise, my difficulties with balance (due to my spinal injury and nerve damage) turn out to be magnified as I get into deeper water;  if I lose my balance when waves are pulling me around, it's difficult to get to my feet again.  I really don't like that, but there's nothing much I can do about it.  I'll be starting another round of physiotherapy when I get home, so I'll mention it to the therapist as another symptom to be addressed.

We spent a few hours yesterday aboard the USS Lexington, an Essex-class aircraft carrier that was the last World War II-era carrier to be retired from active service in 1991.  This was my second visit to her, having seen her a couple of decades ago during a visit to southern Texas, but my wife's first.  Due to my mobility limitations, this time I restricted myself to the hangar and flight decks, where everything is on a level.  The ladders and stairs below decks don't lend themselves to using a walking-stick!  My wife went through them all while I enjoyed a leisurely stroll around the flat bits.  We enjoyed our visit.

We've taken the opportunity to visit several local restaurants.  The fresh seafood is great - we both enjoy it.  (I'm sorry, but fresh water fish is not "sea" food - it's just fish, not sea fish.  The real thing tastes much better, IMHO!)  There's also a German restaurant in town, where we tucked into schnitzel, strudel and Black Forest cake.  So much for our diets . . .

We're thinking of driving down to SpaceX Starbase tomorrow or Thursday.  It's about three hours from here, making for a long return drive, but we're much closer to it now than we're ever likely to be again, so it seems like a good idea to take advantage of that.  The main road goes right past the SpaceX compound, so one can see almost everything going on around the launch complex.  Furthermore, the upper stage from Starship flight test 13 is due to return to Starbase this week, after splashing down in the Indian Ocean and being recovered intact.  It'll be great if we can see it coming home.  We're both big fans of SpaceX and Elon Musk.

The nicest part of this break is that we don't have to do anything.  We can sleep late, go where we wish, eat whenever and wherever we want, and ignore our normal daily routine.  Just what we needed!  Of course, come next Monday it'll be back to normal, with my wife returning to work and me heading for another physiotherapy session, but we'll take what we can get this week.

Peter

Vacation update 1

 

We left on Friday morning, much to the woe and lamentation of our cat.  She'll survive, we're sure, particularly because friends from the North Texas Troublemakers will look in from time to time to restock her food, pet her, and generally reassure her that she hasn't been abandoned.

We spent Friday night in San Angelo, TX.  Friends there were flooded out by the tragedy last year, and left all their guns with us while they dried out and began remodeling their home.  Repairs have now progressed far enough that they've been able to move in again, so we took their guns back to them.  I must admit, I was half-hoping that a traffic cop would stop us and ask, "Any guns in the car?"  I'd have invited him to take his pick of a score or more!  In some places that would make the cop nervous, but here in north Texas he'd probably have spent the next half-hour on an impromptu show-and-tell.

We drove down to Corpus Christi today.  It was a relatively cool run, thanks to widespread light rain.  We're going to spend the next week in the area, playing tourist, walking along the beach, swimming, and generally relaxing and unwinding.  We're both under doctors' orders to let go of all our cares and concerns, which have been rather heavy over the past while, so we'll be lazy and enjoy the abundant seafood.  We started that tonight;  I had a grilled snapper, while my wife tried a "black drum", a type of fish of which I'd previously never heard (but which tasted great).  Key lime pie and turtle cheesecake finished the meal, with some coming back to the hotel with us for a midnight feast (if we can hold out that long).

Laid back and lazy will be the order of the next few days.

Peter

On the road again

 

My wife and I are heading south for the winter to the Gulf of Mexico for a week lazing in the sun.  We've both been far too busy for the past several months, me with medical issues and her with being the the primary technical adviser to her employer's support staff.  We need breathing room, and space to unwind.

I'll post to this blog occasionally, as and when I feel the urge, but I don't want to commit to daily posts.  I really do need time to relax.  For the same reason, I'll only moderate comments at irregular intervals, so if you comment and it doesn't appear soon, please be patient.  Amuse yourselves with the bloggers listed in my sidebar until I'm back in harness.  Regular blogging should resume on Monday, October 12th.

I'll leave you with these encouraging thoughts from Rat.  Click the image to be taken to a larger view at the comic's Web page.

Sadly, no gin for me.  I'm driving!

Peter