Here We Go Again

Over dinner last night, we brought up the subject of our "next" cruise...and if we were going to go on a cruise next year or not.

We've been vacillating between going through the Panama Canal and taking The "Grand European" cruise on the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers, between Budapest and Amsterdam. Char said she had recently checked on the European tour and discovered that the early dates were already booked.

I came home and checked again and found a date open in late June, later than I wanted to go, but I wrote to Char right away. She called this morning and discovered that now the earliest we could book was July 15. Guess this tour is very popular!

So we decided to book today and make sure that we had a space. The tour sounds exciting. We decided to go Budapest to Amsterdam, instead of the opposite direction. I worry about the heat, but from what I can find on the internet it's "very hot," but that term is relative...high temps at the Budapest end should be in the 80s, and high temps at the Amsterdam end should be in the 70s. That doesn't sound too awful.

The good part about this trip is that we won't be traveling by airplane all the time, like we were in China. We will spend 3 days in a hotel in Prague first (an optional extension), and then get on the ship, travel for 15 days, and get off the ship and fly home. No constantly packing and repacking, no settling into a new hotel every night or so. I love that idea!

And free wifi shipwide. YAY!!!

So now I have to read up on that area to prepare!

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Jeri's August vacation has ended. We had Waffle Tuesday this morning, then I finished writing and submitting my article and then she and I went off to Ciocolat, a lovely cafe here in town, and had a girls' coffee...well tea for her, coffee for me. We split a creme brulee and talked over the cares of the world, our hopes dreams and ambitions, and all sorts of stuff.

When we were finished, we drove out to visits "the boys" at the cemetery. Not much to say. They haven't changed much from the last time we were there, though the grass has covered the "fts" note at the bottom of the grave marker.

Char and I decided what we want it to say on our own grave markers when the time comes. I want mine to say "it's all juice and crackers."

I could have sworn I told y'all about my philosophy of life before, but I can't find it in my database, so if you've heard this before, just ignore this.

Our kids were in a parent co-op nursery school and each month there would be a parent meeting. When we joined the kids were having soda crackers and kool-aid for snack each day. After about 6 months, the membership of the school had changed and the nutritionists brought up their concern about what the kids were eating. They suggested we switch them to graham crackers and apple juice, which would be more nutritious, but more expensive.

A big battle would take place and at the end, we finally agreed to switch the kids to graham crackers and apple juice, because the kids' health was more important. In another 6 months, there were more new people who saw how much money we were spending on snacks and suggested that the school could save money if we just gave the kids soda crackers and kool aid. Another big battle would take place and finally we would agree to save money, because the school always had money problems.

Etc., etc., etc.

When I thought about it, I realized that all of life is juice and crackers. Think of any place where you ever worked or volunteered or supervised (like a home owners association)...even up to Congress and the White House. A group of people fight for how they think things should work and a way of operation is chosen and then, after a period of time, new people come in with new ideas and the same things happens all over again. Nobody seems to pay attention to historical memory. They go back to something that was already tried. And then again after a period of time, someone has an idea that you should try a version of the old way things were done.

Walt says he saw this all the time in his office, where he worked for nearly 50 years. After awhile, the old timers let the younger ones slug it out because, bottom line, is that nothing ever changes for good...sooner or later, someone will have the brilliant idea to try something that failed years ago.

So my dying message to the world will be: It's all juice and crackers!