Our Wander Years

Eating for Jett

Posted on February 23, 2021 by Sparky

It is now more than 4 months since Jett’s untimely and very sad demise. During that time I have made great progress (if that is the word) on cleaning up her affairs – terminating credit cards, etc. – and packing up and shipping to her children those items that have more meaning to them than to me (e.g., old pre-me photographs).

But I am still consuming her food.

At the time she died I had accumulated a wide variety of high-calorie, protein-laden foods that I hoped she would consume and, eventually, regain weight and strength. It never happened. So, being too cheap to discard perfectly good consumables, I have been slowly eating those things that I had bought for her. She liked coffee and chocolate ice cream. I have finished the coffee but am still working through the chocolate. She liked to snack on those very expensive chocolate wafers. I am not a big fan, but, dammit, I am going to eat those buggers. Saltines. Protein shakes. I will consume them.

There are a few things that I won’t eat. She loved Cream of Wheat. I can tolerate it, but why torture myself at breakfast when Frosted Mini-Wheats are available? I also have at least three large, unopened containers of CoffeeMate. I never use the dreadful stuff. I need to donate those to somebody.

Then there is the freezer. We had way too much stuff in the freezer. A lot of it is just things for both of us and I am slowly working my way through frozen bacon, pork tenderloins and hamburger. But frozen margarine? Needs to go.

I will have to do a major purge of the pantry and freezer one of these days. At that point I might be able to stop eating for Jett and start eating for myself.

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Very good news and kind of good news

Posted on February 22, 2021 by Sparky

Today, within 15 minutes of each other, I received 2 phone calls that I have been awaiting very anxiously. The first, from the Quabbin Pines RV Resort in Orange MA, confirmed that they do, in fact, have a suitable site for me for the summer. A few details – like picking a site when no site map is yet available – remain to be worked out, but I am now confident that I will have a seasonal site in a very good location for the summer of 2021.

The second call, from Lee County, Florida, was to schedule my COVID-19 vaccination. This call was only “kind of good news” because the earliest date they could offer was March 24. This is for the Moderna vaccine which requires 2 doses 4 weeks apart, so the second dose would be April 21. This means that the earliest I could leave Florida would be April 22 and, more likely the following Monday, April 26. That means yet another 2-week delay in my trip north (TN7) and an arrival in MA around Memorial Day. I don’t like that schedule much and so will continue to try to score a vaccination through Publix.

But, overall, very good news.

UPDATE: I received the confirmation email for the vaccination appointment and was shocked to see the date: 24 FEBRUARY rather than 24 MARCH. I think this is a mistake on the part of the county. But I intend to show up, confirmation letter in hand. If they turn me away then my second dose will be 21 APRIL; if not the second dose will be 24 MARCH. Stay tuned…

Categories: FL, Health, Places, Preparation/Planning, TN7 | Leave a comment

“Dance of Death” by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Posted on February 21, 2021 by Sparky

This is #6 in the series of Preston & Child books featuring Aloyisius Pendergast, FBI agent extraordinaire. I have read several other Pendergast books but this is the earliest one in the series of all that I have read. As there is a lot of continuity (characters and plot references) in the series, I think anyone who is interested should start at the beginning and work through them chronologically.

Preston and Child are skilled authors. As testament to their skill, I will tell you that I read the last 300 pages of this 560-page book in one day, probably the most reading I have done in single day in the past decade. The plot and prose definitely kept my interest.

This is a “brother” book. Many protaganists in long-running mystery series have brothers who are the basis for some of the stories in the plot. Sherlock Holmes had Mycroft. John Puller had Robert, Jack Reacher had Joe. Aloyisius Pendergast has Diogenes.

But where the other brothers are merely interesting, Diogenes is pure evil. He is the supervillian counterbalance to Aloysius’ superagent. The Pendergast plots, as I have mentioned before, stretch the limits of credulity, but if you check your disbelief at the door, you will have a good time. Follow the adventures of the rich, Rolls-Royce driving superagent as he roams the world.

This is not a whodunit but rather a “what is he doing and how is he going to do it” plot. Diogenes, who apparently saves Aloysius’ life at the end of the previous (unread by me) installment turns out to be more Dr Mengele than Schweitzer – he saved his life in that book only to keep him alive to torture him in this book. The torture takes the form of serial killing of all of Aloysius’ close friends. Ultimately the life of his closest friend, NYPD detective Vincent D’Agosta is threatened. Pendergast and D’Agosta counter this threat, as they often do, by going on a crime spree.

Like I said, check your disbelief at the door.

The book does not fully resolve the legal perils of Pendergast and D’Agosta, nor does it terminate the life of Diogenes who lives to see another day (and, no doubt, another book). But the lack of a clean finish doesn’t tarnish the book very much.

8 out of 10.

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TN7 still uncertain, but more certain than yesterday

Posted on February 16, 2021 by Sparky

The plan for the 7th trip north (TN7) is still taking shape. The two things that are most critical to making final plans are (1) the date of my second COVID vaccination and (2) the date of my final cataract surgery appointment. Today I learned the answer to (2): April 9. That is later than I hoped but sooner than I feared. If I can depart soon after that date (still a big if due to the uncertainty of the COVID vaccination dates) I will arrive in MA around the middle of May.

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Twisting the COVID knife

Posted on February 15, 2021 by Sparky

I previously reported the difficulty that I was encountering in my attempts to get the COVID vaccine. But what used to be merely annoying has now become cruel. On Friday I was, for the first time, offered a chance to book a vaccination appointment on the Publix site. But the nearest available appointment was in Jacksonville – 5 hours away!. Today I did a bit better: I was offered an appointment in Flagler County, a mere 4-hour drive. I declined both. My limit is probably 2.5 hours of driving each way – a total of 10 hours of driving (2 trips of 5 hours each).

To twist the knife a bit more, Lee County called me tonight to schedule an appointment at the mass vaccination site in Fort Myers – hardly any driving at all. I was pretty excited. But after going through a long list of eligibility questions which I answered satisfactorily the interviewer said “let’s see when the next available appointment is.” Pause. Then “Oh, I am so sorry, but the last available appointment for February was just filled. We will have to call you back.”

As a software designer I have to say that failing to reserve a slot at the beginning of the interview is an egregious design flaw. If they hadn’t called I would have been fine. But calling and getting my hopes up, only to have my hopes dashed so viciously is just cruel.

It is becoming apparent that I will not be leaving Florida by early April as I had hoped. I will have to stick around and let them twist that COVID knife a bit more.

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The vaccination wildcard

Posted on February 12, 2021 by Sparky

I don’t know why it took me so long to recognize the obvious, but all of my tentative plans to travel north in April are moot until I get vaccinated. It is nearly impossible to get the vaccine here in Florida, as a resident of the state, and I think you can drop the “nearly” qualification if I try to get the vaccine in Massachusetts – or somewhere along the way – as a non-resident.

I also have to get cataract surgery on my left eye.

Both things – COVID-19 vaccination and cataract surgery – could occur before April. But there are no guarantees. And until I get both I will be remaining in Florida.

Categories: Health | 2 Comments

Shutout #4

Posted on February 10, 2021 by Sparky

Today, for the fourth straight time, I was denied an appointment for the COVID-19 vaccine.

I should mention that the shutout occurred on the Publix supermarket site, which, along with the Florida state site, seems to be the only source of vaccine right now. I think that is rather odd – why Publix? Why not CVS or Walgreens (both of which have many more sites and many more qualified people capable of administering vaccines)? I have to believe that some money went into the pocket of some politician somewhere.

The Publix website is actually pretty good, listing appointment slots available by county. The counts are updated each minute, so you can sit in front of your computer for an hour or more and slowly watch your opportunity to get immunized slip away. Also, if you are lucky enough to be offered an opportunity to book an appointment, you can book it anywhere in the state where there are open slots, if you are willing to travel.

Today all slots for southwest Florida were booked in under 45 minutes. But I am willing to drive 2 hours to get my shots so I continued to watch. 90 minutes after all local slots were gone there were still thousands of slots available in Orlando. I imagine some of those slots were taken by people like me who were shut out of the local venues. That strikes me as an inept allocation of doses. Why allocate so many to Orlando, which has relatively few eligible residents (i.e., over 65) and so few to southwest Florida which is drowning in retired folks? Isn’t it both incompetent and cruel to make retired people travel 12 hours (2 6-hour round trips to Orlando) to get the vaccines that the state wants the elderly to receive?

Today was especially egregious. In my previous 3 shutouts , all slots were taken within 90 minutes. Today, 3 hours after the site opened for business, there was still one county up in the panhandle that had slots available.

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Patriots by proxy

Posted on February 9, 2021 by Sparky

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV on Sunday by a score of 31-9, a huge surprise for most sports prognosticators. But three of the Tampa Bay touchdowns were passes from Tom Brady to Rob Gronkowski (2x) and Antonio Brown. All 3 are former New England Patriots. Anyone who has watched the Patriots for years has seen this kind of touchdown innumerable times. It was like watching one of the Patriot’s 6 Super Bowl victories, but with different uniforms and without Bill Belicheck on the sidelines. And without Patriots-haters in the stands.

Tampa Bay: Patriots by proxy.

Categories: Commentary, Sports | 1 Comment

“The Cuban Affair” by Nelson DeMille

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Sparky

I am having a hard time evaluating this book. This is my first Nelson DeMille novel and I have to say that I like his writing style. Very lively. The characters are interesting. The settings are places that either I have been to and liked (Key West) or places that intrigue me and I would like to visit (Cuba).

So why was I not wild about the book? The plot. The “affair” was arranged as a clandestine visit to Cuba to retrieve, among other things, $60M that had been stashed away during the 1959 revolution. Spoiler alert: they never get the cash. Worse, they never try to get the cash. The protagonist, Mac MacCormick, who was promised $3M to join the expedition, led by Cuban ex-pats, feels duped. I feel the same way. The great adventure never really gets off the ground.

The story is really one of arranging the expedition, biding their time in Havana, embarking on a romance with the female leader of the expedition, obtaining some papers and relics (Plan B after the money is abandoned), getting the two trunks of Plan B stuff to the boat that will extract them from Cuba, then shooting their way to international waters. Spoiler alert: their boat is sunk and the Plan B trunks are lost. Or are they?

At the end of the book Mac mulls the possibility that the two trunks were actually salvaged by the men in the helicopters who saved their bacon. Were they CIA? No one is quite sure.

So an aborted expedition, a failed extraction. Does Mac get the girl? Even that is indefinite. In short, a plot that doesn’t satisfy. No one wins in this story.

Some books that might otherwise be lacking are redeemed by the descriptions of the exotic locales in which they are set. Cuba is exotic, but Mac hates it. I started the book thinking that I would really like to visit Cuba, but this book pretty much killed that desire.

There was enough good about this book that I will read DeMille again. But there was enough bad about the book that I can’t recommend it.

5 out of 10.

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WOW (softball edition)

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Sparky

We won our softball game today, 20-19 in extra innings. This victory was a minor miracle as we were outplayed and beaten badly for 5 innings . We were down 17-9 after 5. But we held them in the 6th, then scored 5 to make it 17-14. They added one in the 7th but we came roaring back to tie it 18-18 after 7. We gave up a run in the extra frame (thanks to my throwing error) but they made some bad plays of their own when we got to the plate. I knocked in the tying run and put the winning run on 3rd base with a hit down the line. The next player up – a guy that I had moved from 7th to 5th in the order because I had a good feeling about him – lined the next pitch over the shortstop’s head to win the game.

Hell of a game. I will be smiling the rest of the day.

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