I had less than no energy for most of the day - a short post

 

I have mentioned my problems getting up in the morning, but today was a doozy!  I ended up staying in bed well past 11:00 am, and still had no energy to get up when I awoke.  It wasn't until 1:00 pm when my body started to have any energy, and I knew that I had to get moving, or I wouldn't have anything to eat before our scheduled co-op board meeting.

With all of the above being said, I still had a productive day.  We had a successful co-op board meeting, and we were able to choose a vendor for some important work we need to have done for us.

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I'm grateful to be able to talk with the people on the co-op board, as they gave me a couple of good ideas on what I can do with my old sofa just before I buy its replacement.  The only problem is that I have to work to figure out how I will dispose of the sofa - and that will take time.

My brother just booked a cruise.

 

I won't go into many details here, save those which do not identify my brother in any way.  This means that I won't identify him by name, the ship he will sail on, or when he will sail.  But I can tell you about how quickly he made the decision to take his first cruise.

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Yesterday, I received an email from my brother containing the cruise itinerary of one of his friends.  Given that I had no warning about this, the message took me by surprise.  Later in the morning, I found that my brother left me a message on the phone to look at this itinerary to find out what I thought about it.  So I gave it some thought and came up with the following items:

1. Sailing on a new ship costs more money than sailing on an older ship.
2. Booking airfare via the cruise line can be hit or miss.  I did well with NCL booking my air for my Hawaiian cruise, even though its choice of flights may not have been what I would have chosen. Others have reported that NCL's flight bookings left much to be desired, and often had unrealistic times between flight segments.
3. The Mediterranean during peak season is hot.  Often, temperatures stay above 40°c (104°f) for days at a time.  American travelers often stick out like sore thumbs, as we look for "American" ways to deal with the heat, and not dealing with it the way the natives do.
4. His route's cruise ports are 60-120 minutes from their associated cities.  This means that he will need to plan his shore excursions carefully.

My list was longer than this, and it included details specifically related to him and his wife.  When I called my brother, he was overwhelmed by what I was saying and made an excuse to end the call.  RQS and I fleshed out the list a little mode, along with suggestions that he view some videos made by cruise vloggers we watch regularly.

This evening, I was surprised to find that he booked this cruise with less than a couple of days of thought.  He really wanted to take this cruise.  Hopefully, he'll have taken my advice in regard to booking an internet package for when he's on the ship.  (I expect that he'll keep up to date on his commitments at home.)

I'd have recommended that he take a shorter, more local cruise before taking this cruise.  However, he has a habit of trying to bite off more than he can chew.  Hopefully, he has not done so with this cruise. We'll find out sometime towards the end of 2024.

Furniture shopping - again...

 

Now that I know what I want, I have to figure out a way to get the furniture into my apartment, and get the older stuff out.  And I don't want to spend a lot of money doing this.

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I've been tracking the price of this sofa for a while.  The price has stayed relatively stable, as it is the store's top of the line brand for reclining sofas.  Having viewed this sofa several times as Marian, I couldn't go into any of these stores as Mario to make the deal.  So I went to a new outlet and met up with a new salesman as Mario - and he gave me the information I needed to do the deal, save one: I needed to have answers on how to get rid of the old sofa.  For this, I will need to make additional arrangements, such as calling a firm like Junkluggers to remove the old sofa.

One annoying thing I noticed was that the online price was $130 less than the in-person price for the sofa.  I'll bet that this will be negotiable with the salesperson when the time comes. Until then, I'll do my research on how to get rid of the old sofa and when to do so.  Ideally, I'll be able to get the town to dispose of it on bulk pickup day, and all I would need to do is get a couple of people to help me lug the old sofa out to the dumpster area.

Once I'm done with this, I have other things I need to do - such as buying a new coffee table. Hopefully, I'll find something I like soon.

Looking for lobsters, and we didn't find any.

 

The North American Lobster - a treat to many.  And yet, these animals were once so plentiful that they were fed to prisoners, slaves and apprentices during the American colonial era.  Today, they are considered a delicacy, and I only buy them when they are on sale.

Last night, RQS and I planned to go to the local ShopRite after seeing a movie to take advantage of a sale they were having.  Lobsters were on sale for $7.99/lb.  That meant that I could stock up on lobster, cook a couple for the two of us to eat that evening, and have the meat for lobster salad over the next day or so.  Unfortunately, this was a mistake.  Before we made it to the store, they were all sold out of live lobsters. But we didn't know this when we went to the store.

Arriving at the store, RQS went to pick up some things while I headed to the seafood department.  The fellow behind the counter told me the bad news when I asked for lobsters.  So, I picked up a tray of two partially cooked lobsters (with potatoes and corn) ready to be steamed to perfection.  At that time, an announcement came over the PA system - Lobsters were on sale for $7.99.  So I sent RQS over there to find out what was going on, since I was there already.  That's when we found out that all of the announcements were on a prerecorded loop, and that no one could stop them if a selected item was sold out.

We then went home to try the "heat and eat" lobster dinner, and were both impressed and disappointed at the same time.  The seasoning for the food was very good, and we plowed through the food quickly.  However, both the quantity of lobster and preparation instructions (tiny lobster, with no reheating information) took away from the enjoyment of the dish.  (RQS had to saute the lobster meat in the tails because it was underdone.)

Would we do this again?  Maybe, but only if I wanted to reheat everything in my oven, and not using a steamer for the lobster.

A trip to the sample sale

Sometimes, you get a bargain.  Sometimes, you don't.  Today's trip to Universal Standard's sample sale was mostly a waste of time.

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My plan for today was to get up and out of the house early, so that I could meet RQS at Universal Standard's sample sale.  I got showered and dressed, and out the door by noon to make it to the store by 2:00 pm.  However, my usual tardiness meant that I would not be able to pick up a snack on the way to the station, and I was lucky to know of a soda vending machine on the platform to get a soda. This was a wise choice, as the weather was warm and sticky, and not conducive to me wearing my wig. But I soldiered on anyway.

I made it into Grand Central around 1:30, and could have picked up something to eat downstairs.  Instead, I ended up deciding to see if there was a deli near the store, and got on the subway.  Although this was risky, I knew that I could hold out for a while.  And soon, I was in front of the store with 45 minutes to spare.  Now, it was time to find a deli, bodega, fast food outlet, or promising halal food cart. None of the nearby food carts had people waiting to order, so I took them off of my list.  There were no fast food outlets in my path, so I drew a line through that option.  Luckily, I was close enough to some of NYU's buildings that I stumbled into a small deli - and it was there I picked up a sandwich.  But I still had a problem.  Where do I eat?  There was nowhere to sit in the place, and it wasn't air conditioned.  Luckily, there was a bench outside, and it was dry enough to sit on it's edge and enjoy the sandwich I had just ordered.

When done with the sandwich, I walked over to the store.  To describe this place as a store leaves something to be desired.  Universal Standard hasn't had a traditional storefront since before Covid. Instead, it occasionally opens a pop-up store in the back room of its offices, where a freight elevator brings people up to that back room.  RQS had gotten a little lost getting out of the subway, and I waited for her to arrive at the ground floor of the building, sitting inside near the freight elevator.

RQS arrived, and we went up to the showroom.  It wasn't as crowded as the last time we were there, but it was still a sea of femininity there.  If it weren't as warm as it was, I'd have done what one woman did, and wore a bodysuit/unitard under her clothes to allow her to strip and not show her underwear while trying on clothes. (I may do that next time.)  Unfortunately, there was nothing special that caught my interest, although I did buy something small that I may talk about at a future date.  RQS found nothing, and we ended up going back to my place, enjoying the trip together for a change....

If you knew sushi, like I know sushi....

There is an old song that goes:

"If you knew Suzie,
 Like I know Suzie,
 Oh, Oh, Oh, What a gal..."

I rework that in my head, replacing "Suzie" with "Sushi", whenever I go out for sushi.  Today was one of those days I did just that.

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But first....

As has been happening lately, I didn't go to sleep when I wanted last night.  Knowing that I'd have a hard time waking up in time for lunch, I set multiple alarms on multiple devices to ensure that I'd be able to get ready and meet my friend with minimal delays. After showering, shaving, and making up my face, I decided to put my earrings in.  With q tolerable "struggle", I was able to do so without much effort.  This is important, as I don't want to go back to the piercing shop a third time.

At noon, I drove into Croton to meet my friend from the census.  We try to meet at least once each month to catch up on things, and today, we met at a sushi joint in town. The conversation flowed like water.  All too soon, it was time to go home - and none too soon, as I had GI Tract issues.  When done, I drove to Target to buy a bathroom / shower shelf, so that all my bath needs could be in an easy to reach place.

And then, it was time to go home.  I got on Route 133, and less than a mile from the Saw Mill River parkway was the site of a multi car accident blocking the road.  Instead of waiting for things to clear up, I drove back to the Saw Mill parkway, taking a wide detour to get home.  Given that it is raining as I write this, I'm going to close out this entry because I doubt anything more of consideration will happen tonight.

I woke up late today, and did nothing of note.

 

I didn't want to get up today.  I was comfortable in bed and didn't want to get up - until I needed to take a bio-break.  That's when I looked at my watch to find that Mickey was getting held up!

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At last night's board meeting, we were frustrated by three no-shows at our zoom meeting.  Luckily, the fourth vendor gave a good presentation.  Although we need to interview more vendors, we feel good about this one.  That's enough said on that issue - I don't want to say whether I'd award him the contract, nor do I want to say what he was bidding on. 

This morning, I received an email from our managing agent, apologizing for the problem.  Since the email came from the new fellow, I am not going to jump on his back too much.  But this apology made me reconsider the wording I'd use on the meeting minutes, and I edited them before, and reword the paragraph so that the new site representative would not suffer too much from his mistake.

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Afterward, I ended up doing a lot of nothing, and this was just as well.  The Broadway play I was thinking of seeing was sold out, and I no longer had a good reason to make it into NYC.  Although I could have gone to the furniture store to buy the sofa I wanted, I decided not to leave my apartment. Do I regret doing nothing?  Yes and no.  It would be nice if I had a better reason to get up in the morning. This is a problem with retirement, and one I deal with on a regular basis.  And this is why I used to attend as many meetups as possible - I like human companionship, and it gives me a reason to rise and shine in the morning....