I didn't do much today, save for grocery shopping and laundry.

 

I wasn't able to get to sleep last night.  So, all my plans for the day were fouled up before noon.  Originally, I was supposed to go out for an exercise walk while it was cool outside, contact an electrolysis operator for a consultation, contact my sleep doctor's office to find out when I should expect a call from the people setting up my sleep test, call the lab to set up the brain scan for a study I'll be participating in, and then get around to both laundry and food shopping.  It's not as much to do as it sounds.  But when one has no energy until mid afternoon, one can only do so much during daytime hours.

The first thing I took care of was to make the brain scan appointment.  It's a larger study than I might think, as it is being coordinated from a site in California.  Next, I tried to contact an electrolysis operator for a consultation, but both of the local operators were on vacation.  Finally, after getting showered, dressed and made up, I was out the door and off to Trader Joe's.  $35 later, I was returning home in time to get a load of laundry in before the soft deadline of 9:00 pm (start) / 10:00 pm (finish).  So, I carted my laundry downstairs, and got it done in time for RQS's arrival tomorrow.

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While I write this, I have MSNBC on in the background.  Earlier, I had our former president's news conference on for a while.  As much as MSNBC panders to an educated elite, the ex president panders to an uninformed audience, an audience who lets authority figures feed them misinformation to be ingested without critical analysis.  Sadly, a significant part of our population believes his nonsense, as he is the leader of a political cult.  I can tolerate the left's talking heads, as they aren't feeding their audience the message that "White America is being overrun by illegal aliens that have come to take our jobs."  But I have to turn off Fox News' propaganda, as they have targeted people who are afraid of any cultural and economic changes that put "White Privilege" at risk.

After sitting down to write this entry, I opened up a letter from one of my credit card banks.  Seems like $3,700+ was credited to my card in error.  Next time I'm out as Mario, I'll visit the bank to see what's up.  If this was a debit, I'd take off my nail polish and visit the branch before picking up RQS at the train station.   Hopefully, I can get this error fixed AND have the service charge removed.

Norwegian Fjord Cruise Vacation - 06/17/24 (Haugesund, Norway)

 

I awoke to an overcast day, knowing that we were not on a fixed schedule.  Our ship was due to make port in Haugesund around 9:00 am, and RQS had planned to take an exercise class at 10:00 am.  So RQS joined me for an early breakfast (not eating anything) while I feasted again.  (Reminder to self: Aim to have breakfast in the main dining room next time.)  

Around 10:00 am, RQS went to exercise, while I went to the atrium to relax and catch up on reading the daily news.  (She found that no one but her was at the exercise class, so she had the leader to herself - a private lesson.)  RQS texted me to tell me that she made it up to our cabin when the power went out.  First, it was the lights in the stores (closed for the time in port), followed by everything else for a few seconds.  Then, the emergency power and lights kicked in.  We were told NOT to take the elevators at this time, so I told RQS that I'd come up when it was safe.  Once I heard the ultra low pitched sound of the ships engines kicking in, I went up to the room to meet RQS before having a light lunch.

Shortly after lunch, we took the shuttle bus into Haugesund.  $8/pp (approx.) isn't an unreasonable price to be shuttled into town and back, given the price of gas (or electric) in this neck of the world.

Later on in the day, we went to the main dining room for dinner.  Compared to what we've had in the past on NCL, Princess's MDR now shows itself to be better than what we have been finding on our NCL trips.  Hopefully, our Autumn Bermuda trip will show that NCL has rectified the problems we've seen on previous cruises....

One thing of note:  We chose an all-inclusive package (Princess Premier) which gives us 4 devices of unlimited internet use on this cruise. This is a much better deal than I could have gotten on any other cruise line that I've sailed on.  However, there is a minor glitch.  When we sailed out of the US, we were connected to a United States based IP address, and the ads presented to us were geared to the US market.  However, on this cruise, the IP assigned to us was either UK based or German based.  This means that we've been getting ads geared for the UK and EU markets, some of them in German.  In the Google search results for Linens and Things above, I got responses from European stores with prices listed in Euros.  There are also some sites that I cannot reach due to EU restrictions.  I guess that I'll have to wait until we return to the US to order a new dress from Lane Bryant, or to order a new wig from Wig Outlet.  But what I find most interesting is that I keep getting forced to German sites of international businesses based in the USA.  Even my high school German has proven to be no use here....

A test run of a trip to NYC to reach a ferry terminal.

 

I loved watching Bugs Bunny cartoons when I was a kid.  He always seemed to come out on top of almost every situation.  But in the real world, that's the type of thing that requires a lot of work.  Soon, I'll be taking a cruise out of Brooklyn, and I figured that I needed to take a test trip using Metro North and the NYC Subway to reach the Pier 11 ferry terminal, and I'm glad I did this, as I found out that I will need to change my plans for this journey.

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Shortly after I finished lunch, I decided to trek into NYC by train.  Since it was a weekday, I was glad that I was not wheeling a bag - for reasons I will discuss in a bit.  I had some GI Tract issues which delayed me a little, and I ended up leaving for Croton-Harmon station later than planned.  By the time I got there, the usual supply of available metered parking spots (freed by people returning to Croton in the early afternoon) was depleted, and there were several cars hovering in the lanes of the lot waiting for spaces to open.  I was in luck - a space opened up just in time for me to both pay for parking and to make it onto the 3:45 pm express to Grand Central.

Around 4:40 pm, I arrived at Grand Central, and browsed the holiday court of stores before heading to the subway.  Since the Lexington Avenue line (#4 & #5 trains) runs along Broadway in lower Manhattan, I doubted that I'd use it to reach Pier 11, as it is a long walk from the Wall Street station to Water Street.  This ride gave me a good reason to nix this line for use - It is not an ADA accessible station.  It would be a major effort to lift my bag up the stairs (as there are no elevators at the station) and then walk th the pier.  On my way to the pier, I noticed that the 7th Avenue line (#2 & #3 trains) would be just as bad a choice to reach the pier.  So what should I do?  I figured that I'd walk to South Ferry and see if there was a bus that runs along Water Street, and figure out how to take it from the Staten Island Ferry terminal to Pier 11.  Although I didn't see the downtown bound M15 Bus, I did see uptown bound buses, and knew that I could reach the ferry terminal without problems.  (I'll deal with the return trip when I get back to NYC.)  And the South Ferry subway station is ADA accessible.  So, now I had a plan.

Once I got to South Ferry, I took the 7th Avenue local to Times Square, then transferred to the 42nd Street shuttle to reach Grand Central.  While at Grand Central, I decided to look at the Long Island Railroad Terminal.  They did a nice job on it, and the rest rooms look much better than their counterparts in the original Grand Central.  (I say that, as they do their best to make the restrooms stay clean at the original Grand Central, but they look the worse from many years of overuse.)  But soon enough, I had to return to the Metro North zone and board a train with only 5 minutes to spare.  I'm glad I did so, as the train was a super express that didn't even stop in Harlem.

Soon enough, I was back home and in for the night.  It was a long day, but only because I did a lot of walking.  My legs were telling me to call it a day when I reached Wall Street.  By the time I walked to South Ferry, my legs were cooperating with me and didn't mind the exercise.  I wonder if I will feel the same way when I do both legs of this journey for real in a few days.

 

 

PS: They were preparing to light the Financial District's Xmas Tree as I walked along Wall Street.  Glad I didn't stay to see it, as I'd bet that the area would be a pickpocket's paradise in a little while.  I certainly don't want to visit DMV again, nor do I want to dealing with stopping stolen cards again!

Random thoughts on a weekend day

I usually take care of shopping for the week on weekends.  When I'm at RQS's place I usually go to the supermarket on my way home.  This way, I'm able to pick up lunches for several days.  If I haven't done my laundry, Sunday is the day it gets done.  This weekend, I got a little bit done, but didn't have energy for anything else.

Yes, I've written about being tired many times before.  And I will likely do so again.  But I've noticed that when I don't have much at stake, I tend to do nothing - not forcing myself to gt up to do any of the things I need to do.  Is it old age, is it depression, or is it something else?  The root of my lethargy is a big concern to me, as I feel that as I approach traditional retirement age that I need to understand more about my health.

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Years ago, I could ride a bicycle all day, covering 50 miles without much thought other than the time it would take to do so.  Today, I couldn't even pedal a bicycle up the small hill that I live on.  Much of this can be explained by the weight I've put on over the years.  But that's not the only factor.  I never learned how to eat healthy, nor did I develop a taste for "healthy" things to eat.

One of the things I can do to help myself is to get outdoors more often.  Before I took my current job, I had no problem finding time to do this - even in the worst days of the pandemic.  Now, it's much harder for me.  I figure that things will get better once I finally retire for good, as I will both have no excuses not to get out and I will have the time (and energy) to do so when my body is ready to do so.

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In chatting with my brother for a few minutes, he mentioned that an operation he just had is healing nicely.  Hopefully, he'll still be glad that he took care of this when he has to go to work.  In many ways, he's in the same position I'm in - he can't ask a family member for help.  In his case, he'd prefer to ask a friend for help.  In my case, I'd need to ask a friend for help.  This will become more of a problem as we get older, as there will be fewer people around that we can ask for help when we need it.

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I could go on and on about little things.  But I'm not in the mood for regurgitating little things.  So, I'll end this entry here....

Exercise

Lately, I've been getting out and about on days where the sun is out and when I'm not working.  I've been trying to build up my time and distance endurance before I decide to do some serious hiking with groups in the region.

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Given that in male mode, I am bald, wearing a wig and going out for a long walk doesn't make any sense.  Without makeup, my face looks masculine, and that's not the image I want to present on the trails.  So I have decided to exercise in male mode.  😢   This is a hard choice for me, but one I needed to make.

Since the quarantine began, I've been out of the house as much as Mario as I have been as Marian.  It's certainly strange to be finding some practicality for my male presentation.  But with a life like mine, I'm used to "strange" by now.  But after one outing as Marian with a little bit of blush on my face, reality hit me in the face.  If I had decided to go all the way and have FFS, plus hair transplants, I'd be out as Marian.  Yet, I'm not uncomfortable as Mario anymore.  I can live in a half and half mode.

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Recently, people have started to go outside to enjoy the outdoors.  Theaters are still closed, restaurants are only open for takeout in New York, and there are few diversions open to the public, save for walking in a local park.  And the local parks have been overrun.  In the case of Croton Dam Park (and its vicinity), the park is overflowing with cars, the road stub which once crossed the dam is packed with cars, and the overflow from that stub led to cars being parked on both sides of the road for a half mile up and down from the road stub.  The county has had to put up signs to tell the public that this overflow parking is prohibited, and that cars will be towed if necessary.  This has caused me to drive further North to enjoy my nature walks.

Virtually all of the walking I have done has been North of me, save for two walks along the Old Croton Aqueduct.  I'll save walks along the aqueduct trail for days I don't have much time to drive to a trail head for walking.  Most of the time, I've driven North to places which are (at least) an hour away from here, such as the Harlem Valley Rail Trail, Walkill Valley Rail Trail, and Dutchess County Rail Trail.  Some of these trails are well maintained, such as the Dutchess trail. And others are poorly maintained, such as the Walkill Valley trail.  I wonder what the O&W Rail Trail will look like when I go there.  However, I will need to make sure to avoid certain sections of it for personal reasons.

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Soon, I expect to see restaurants in the Hudson Valley open up, now that the region is meeting the governor's criteria for reopening the economy.  Once this happens, I'll walk a trail in the Kingston area and visit The Little Bear again.  Hopefully, they will have survived the shutdown, and will again be serving great meals.