Wednesday, Jan 12. Arrived at
the pier. Short line since few were
arriving that day. Amazing room. Our earlier Semester at Sea
experiences were on a former vessel. The new one is only two years old
and quite luxurious. The dean's suite, is hardly distinguishable from a
hotel suite, except that our private balcony overlooks water instead of
a parking lot. Closets and shelves on both sides of the entryway.
I gave S the closet with the crosswise rod and took the other. My
side
was shorter, so socks placed on the shelves could fall off. The
"medicine cabinet" in the bathroom was just three shelves in a hole in
the wall with a single rod that might keep large items from falling
out. I determined to get baskets to put on the closet and shelves to
keep things from falling out.
In the late afternoon I went for a walk in town. Discovering an Office
Depot I found some filing buckets that were just right for the closet
shelves. They have proven perfect. No suitable trays for the bathroom
were to be found, so I proposed to make some from used tin cans. duly I
requested same from the ship's pursers office, only to be told that I
needed to have such work (bending tin cans) done by the Ship's Joiner.
Soon he arrived at my door. A not particularly imposing guy with a
little caddy tray of useful tools. When I described my tin can plan he
firmly vetoed it. "No, no. Plexiglass. I'll bend a piece of
Plexiglass." We arranged to meet the following morning at 10. Ten came;
the joiner didn't. he did later call and apologize.
Exercise: 1.5 mile walk downtown.
Thursday, Jan. 13. E was to
arrive early afternoon from her visit to a
friend in L. A. I spent time in the morning creating a web site for the
Church of the WHoly Quantum (CQ). I plan to offer services for the
Church
during the voyage. Afternoon came, but not Ellyn. Finally she called at
3:30 to say she was on her way and would arrive in a mere
three-and-a-half hours. She finally did arrive after dinner. I
rendezvoused with her and we proceeded directy to more shopping. Items
included:
libations
distilled water and white vinegar for my CPAP machine
hair care products
tooth care products
snack foods
batteries
Altogether a hefty $350. I blame E. She disavows all responsibility.
And everything had to be lugged by hand up the three stories of ship's
external gangway/ladder.
Exercise: 1 mi. walk to town in the afternoon; ~ 1/4 mi. in shop; some
workout toting bags up the stairs.
Friday, Jan 14. More shopping
with E. A radio/CD player for S, A clock for me, and electrical
adapters and three way plugs. The ship is primarily 240 volts, although
each cabin has one outlet at 110. All the faculty and staff
arrived in the afternoon. Embarkation at 5! Followed immediately by a
life boat stations drill. Seven short toots and one long on the ship's
horn. Right on the final blast, there knoncking at our cabin door was
the Ship's Joiner--Plexiglass shelf liners in hand! A bit of hectic
ensued, but we got to the drill. Afterward I installed the shelves and
they work great.
Dinner with
After dinner Brandon stopped by my work area. He is a writer and has a
number of short stories. Mostly, he says, rather dark. That he
explained is how he gets the dark out of himself.
In the evening I worked a bit more on CQ.
Exercise: Standing up for an hour at reception (and raising snack laden
hand to mouth)
Saturday, Jan 15. While most
people were in meetings today, I worked on setting up these logs files.
Breakfast with Dennis, who makes musical instruments--lately from
cardboard. Before lunch Kathye and Karl , two Physician's Assistants
came by and chatted. Lunch was with Mary and Carl and
Annie.
This morning I visited the clinic and asked about the water. The nurse
there was the one who tests it. She says it is okay and she drinks it.
Kathye elaborated, however. The desalinator is okay on the open sea,
but in port it really cannot cope with the oils and other garbage in
the water. So the cabin water is fine at sea, but less desirable in
port. Indeed, the cabin water tasted of fuel oil in San Diego harbor.
And the water served at meals had the same taste, even though it goes
through an extra level of filtration.
This afternoon was the Steeler's game. And it was certainly exciting.
The Steelers finally won, but not really through any great merit of
their own. In the closing two minutes of regulation time the Jet's
kicker missed two (2) game winning field goals. In overtime the Jets
got first possession, but failed to get close enough to scorel.
Rothlisberger drove the Steelers down the field and they scored the
final winning field goal: Score: 30-27.
Exercise: .2 mi on elliptical machine in the morning; 2.1 km on
treadmill after the game. John Sorrio and Rebecca Youmans took turns on
the other treadmill. John got into computer publishing early and edits
a journal that he does all the typesetting/layout for.
Sunday, Jan 16. S had breakfast
with the Dean. I ate with Rene, Jackie, and Sharon. We discussed
relationships with children and grandchildren. After breakfast I
cleaned my CPAP gear. And finally got onto the shipboard shard files
system. Sadly, I find, it does not extend to my cabin. Then I spent
some time trying to schedule a room for services of the Church of the
WHoly Quantum. It turns out that room assignment is shared between the
registrar (daytimes) and Dean Dane of Student Life (evenings). Lunch
with S and Dean Becky. Afternoon in cabin avoiding work on CQ web site
in preparation for evening services.
Exercise: 2 km walking decks 2, 3, and 4.
Monday, Jan 17.
Breakfast with twins Betty and Barbara. Both nurses. Barbara works for
a group of monks and is just aboard for San Diego to Vancouver.
Later Mary and then Trish joined us. Trish has an African Gray parrot
with a huge vocabulary. It plays tricks. And counts. She tells it how
many days she will be away; once when the trip went a day longer, the
parrot pulled out its chest feathers.
We arrive in Vancouver this afternoon.
Tasks for today:
get heart medicine refill
pay Citibank bill
get TIAA-CREF money moved
two more pages for CQ
build the stand-alone Mozilla web page composer
