vacation Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Sunday Stealing: traveled

travel advisories

This week’s Sunday is all about where I’ve traveled, or want to.

1. Have you traveled abroad? Where have you been? If you haven’t been overseas, which country would you most like to visit?

Barbados, 1999; France, 2023; Mexico, at least twice in the 1980 and/or 1990s; Canada, several times, most recently in Ontario in 2011

2. Where did you go on your last trip? Talk about where you went and what you did.

The last trip abroad? I wrote a LOT about France in 2023. One of the most recent posts was this. The last trip out of state was in Las Vegas, NV, also in 2023; one of those posts is here.

3. What is the best place for a vacation in your country? Why is it good?

I have no idea. It tends to be a personal thing. I’m not one to hang out on the beach. Since my 1994 knee injury, I haven’t gone climbing. Generally speaking, I like places that are walkable (Savannah, GA; Newport, RI) or have decent mass transit (many, but not all, major cities).

4. What is the longest time you have been away from home? Did you feel homesick?

We’re not counting college or the like, I suspect. Maybe two weeks. I wouldn’t call it homesick as much as tired of living from a suitcase, since none of those trips were going to one place and staying there.

How long is too long?

5. How long should a vacation be? How long does it take you to really relax?

I may be constitutionally incapable of relaxing on vacation. In the ’80s, when I worked at FantaCo, the owner FORCED me to take some time. So I took eight successive Wednesdays off. I could pay bills, do chores, and see a matinee.

6. What forms of transportation do you prefer to use when you travel?

All things being equal, I always prefer the train, the only civilized form of transportation. It’s a pain in the US because freight trains take precedence over passenger trains for access to the tracks.

7. How do you choose where to go? Are you inspired by other people’s travel stories? Or photos? Or advertising?

I went to Las Vegas because I had never been to Las Vegas. There were family reunions in Peterborough, ON, Canada in 2011 and Ashtabula, OH in 2016, and we found things to do en route. If I were going to a US city, I would check out the CityPASS program. It was great when my family went to Toronto, ON, Canada in 2011.

8. What’s more important to you when you travel – comfort and relaxation, or stimulating new experiences?

New experiences, obviously, since relaxation is not my strength.

9. Do you like to try local foods when you go somewhere? Have you ever had something really delicious?

I had some food in old Montreal in 1991 or 1992. I don’t remember what it was, but it was very good. The food in France was generally great.

Airports!

10. Things can go wrong when you travel. Have you had any bad travel experiences?

By far, the worst travel experience was flying into JFK from Barbados in May 1999. The Customs line was terrible. Actually, entering France at DeGaulle in 2023 was pretty chaotic too.

11. Do you take a lot with you when you travel? Or do you try to pack light?

As little as possible.

12. Which places in the world do you think are too dangerous to visit? Why are they dangerous?

I’d use the US State Department travel advisory list. As of today, Burma (Myanmar), Belarus, South Sudan, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), Libya, Mali, Russia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen, Burkina Faso, and Central African Republic are all listed as Level 4: Do Not Travel. Israel/the West Bank/Gaza and Mexico are mixed bags. Dave Koz was going to have a music cruise featuring Rebecca Jade that would have included Israel, but after October 7, 2023, the itinerary was changed.

13. What is the best age to travel? Can children appreciate the experience?

The younger your joints, the better. Of course, children can appreciate the experience. My daughter went on those reunion circuits.

Going it alone

14. What are the advantages and disadvantages of traveling alone?

My 1998 trip to Detroit, Cleveland, and Washington, DC was by myself. It was great. But going to France or Las Vegas would have likely been boring and logistically challenging going by myself.

15. What kind of accommodation do you like to stay in when you travel?

In France, we were at four very different venues, from a lovely modern hotel to an equivalent of a B&B. It was all good.

16. Do you like to talk to the local people when you travel? Why or why not?

Always. Even in France, it was great, and my French was tres mal. Also, talking to people on the train has historically been fruitful.

17. Would you like to go to a big international event, such as the Olympics or an international film festival? What would be good or bad about attending such an event?

I’ve been to two cities the year before the Olympics: Atlanta in 1995, and Paris in 2023. I’m pretty sure I would have hated being there the following years because of the touristy crowds. But I could imagine going to the Toronto Film Festival because people are there to see the movies.

Sunday Stealing:Tuesday 4

summer vacation

Whatever Tuesday 4 is – Ruby Tuesday?- Sunday Stealing is stealing.

1. Are you currently reading a book you’d like to tell us about? Maybe a TV program you can recommend to us?

I’ve circled back to The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green (no relation). I bought it when it first came out, signed by the author, but then I got distracted. Fortunately, it’s a compilation, so each essay, even as it reflects how John’s mind works and how he pays attention to his surroundings, stands independently.

I suppose the only newish TV show I could recommend is Abbott Elementary, in its second season. It’s a comedy about an elementary school in a poor section of Philadelphia, PA.

2. Are you a Jane Austen fan? So many seem to be. If you are, what is your favorite book, and who is your favorite character? If you aren’t a fan, is there an author you especially like to read? Favorite character, etc.

I tend to read mostly non-fiction, but I don’t have a favorite author, though it was Russell Baker.

However, I have seen quite a few movies based on Jane Austen books, such as Clueless (1995), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001), Pride and Prejudice (2005), and Emma (2020).

3. How do you spend your time during the day? Do you set apart time to read, watch TV, and study?

Wordle, Dordle, Quordle, Octordle, blogging, working on things for my church and the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library. I don’t have a designated time to read.

My wife and I tend to watch the recorded NBC Nightly News after dinner. I view JEOPARDY and try to tackle the recorded but not watched episodes of several shows, mostly the CBS news programs Saturday Morning, Sunday Morning, and 60 Minutes, plus Finding Your Roots on PBS.

I never change?

4. Have your beliefs changed in your lifetime?

Of COURSE! Everything from the nature of God to my understanding of science. How could they not?

5. What are your interests and hobbies? Reading? Writing? Collecting?

Genealogy. I have some coins I’ve collected but have not been diligent about it. I listen to music, and I have a lot of it.

6 How much time a week/day/month do you devote to your interests?

I have no idea. For one thing, I tend to tackle things in chunks of periods based on the running time of my CDs. So I’ll work on my word games and start my blog. Then I need to change it up, so I wash the dishes or clean the kitchen counter. Next album, I’ll check my email and return to the blog post. When I have set events- Bible study, book review events, doctors’ appointments, trips, that’ll affect things.

I’m retired. I don’t punch a clock.

7. Do you share your interests with anyone?

Genealogy with my sisters. Book review with those folks. Choir with the choir. In the words of Yul Brynner, “et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”

8. Tell us why you enjoy your hobbies, pastimes, or interests.

They bring me joy, especially choir and blogging.

9. What emotions and feelings does summer conjure up for you?

I’m not primarily a summer guy. As a kid, it was baseball or softball at Ansco Park, trips to Eldridge Park in Elmira, Corning Glass Works, and visiting my mother’s aunt Charlotte.

10. What’s summer weather like in your neck of the woods?

Variable. While it doesn’t usually get above 90F, it can be hot. Or unexpectedly not.

11. Got some special summer meals you and your family enjoy?

Other than corn on the cob, not really.

Vacation

12. What do you enjoy doing in summer? Sports, trips… Do you go on vacation?

My mother-in-law’s kin has had a family reunion each summer near Binghamton, NY, for the last three-quarters of a century except for COVID and a year during WWII. Our nuclear family had extended vacations on the way to and from the Olin international reunions in 2011 (Ontario) and 2016 (Ohio). I wrote about my favorite vacations last year.

13. Did your parents have things better than you today?

Absolutely not. Because my mother was much fairer than my father, they were perceived as an interracial couple, which they were not. As a result, they could not find a place to rent in their hometown, and they lived in a rental property owned by my maternal grandmother for over two decades after they married.

14. What time period would you rather live in… or are you okay with today?

On the one hand, advances in technology. On the other, climate change. It’s difficult to peg a specifically better period. I don’t romanticize the past. IDK.

15. What changes would you make for our time to make it nicer/better to live in?

The improvement in freedom, even in ostensibly free nations.

Sunday Stealing: High school, music

an eclectic mix

The Sunday Stealing for this week is nominally about high school. There are a lot more questions about music and recreation, thank goodness.

To that end, I have a great fondness for this song, High School by MC5.

1. You are back in high school… what are you doing after school lately?

Usually, walking my friends home, which involves a circuitous route before I get home. It usually was the friends I walked home with in junior high.

2. Do you do homework early or late? Do you really study?

I did the homework I liked (geometry, trigonometry, history) early. The rest was at the last moment.

3a. Do you go to the games? Football? Basketball.. what is your favorite to attend?

I went to an occasional football game because, because as president of the student government, I felt a vague obligation to go. But the field was across town, so it was more of a pain to get there. Basketball was at my school, and I knew a more significant percentage of the players, including the center, David, who I went to kindergarten with.

b. Do you go to dances? Prom? (what’d you wear?)

I went to a few dances. And I attended two proms, I believe.

prom

That’s me, left rear.

4. Lunch! What are we having today? What is your favorite lunch?

There is a yearbook picture of me on the General Organization (student government) page drinking one of those half-pint containers of chocolate milk with a straw. Beyond that, I have zero recollection of the cafeteria food.

Impossible to answer

5. What kind of music do you like the best?

I have over 2500 compact discs. It is an eclectic mix.

6. Does the radio play in your car, and if so, what station or kind of music plays? Does music play in your home often?

Occasionally there’s music in the car, often dictated by my daughter, who plays music from her phone.

Music plays in my house often. When I am writing – like at this very moment, listening to Volume 3 of The Buddah Box, or I’m cleaning the house, or doing almost everything except eating, watching television, or sleeping, there’s music on.

7. What do you think of the music played in restaurants or stores? Do you find it relaxing or annoying?

It depends on the store. Restaurant music usually puts me to sleep.

It IS my life

8. What part has music played in your life? What kind of music was played at your wedding or at parties you have been to?

I have written about 6500 blog posts. Approximately one-third of them have mentioned music. I sang I Love You Truly at more than one wedding when I was still a boy soprano. Music from Mrs. Joseph started with fourth grade. My failed piano lessons. The MAZET singers at church. The Green Family Singers. Sitting in the stairwell singing with Candid Yam. Church choir as an adult.

I’ve been to lots of concerts, especially before I got married.

Back in 2007, I wrote a post about the rules of playing music. This is to say that if you have north of 2500 CDs, you ought to play most of them at least annually. Now 2500/365 is 6.82, and I don’t always play seven albums a day. But absent meetings and other distractions, I come close on many days.

What kind of music at parties? Again, eclectic.

Green Acres: not the place to be

9. Is the farm for you? How about a ranch, a village or a city? Which is your choice and why?

I’m a city kid. Small cities are fine. I like to walk or bus to the store and to the movies.

10. A short auto trip for the weekend with friends or a long vacation? Where would you go?

I’ve taken weeklong vacations and weekend trips. My wife wants to go to all of the 252 towns in Vermont; they established a new town recently.

11. The quiet life at home with a cuppa and TV or a good book or a night out with friends? Which sounds good today?

I hardly go out much at night. My DVR is about 47% full, so I suppose I should watch or delete some programs.

12. You have a choice of dinner and a movie or a game of cards and snacks at the neighbors’. Where are you going tonight?

I have a hearts game almost every year. But if COVID would ever go away – high transmission in Albany County AGAIN this week – I’d opt for a movie OR dinner, but probably not both in the same evening.

Friendly neighborhood…

13. Is there a hero or character on TV, in a book or a movie .. or even in all three that you especially like? What do you find attractive about them?

I always related to Spider-Man. Or, more likely, Peter Parker, who felt misunderstood. I edited an issue of a magazine about Spider-Man.

14. Was there a book that was better in movie form? How about a movie you thought didn’t live up to the book?

Admitting I never got through the book, The Bridges of Madison County was a better movie. Catch-22 was the better book; there are lots more of those examples.

15. When you choose a book, program, or movie, which subject is it most likely to be: science fiction, mystery, romance, comedy, documentary, etc.? What draws you to a particular book or movie?

Books/movies: history, politics. Film: Documentary. A good review helps in any case because there are lots of books, many movies, and more new television programming each year than anyone could ever watch.

What’s your favorite vacation?

two Olin reunions

That Greg Burgas, the scoundrel, asked What’s your favorite vacation?

Overthinking this, as usual, I don’t recall any vacations growing up. Oh, we would go camping, which I hated, and we might see some attractions. Day trips to Eldridge Park in Elmira, NY; Catskill (NY) Game Farm et al. Maybe the trip I took with dad to Lake George, NY was a vacation, though it was only a few days.

My family visited NYC several times, but it was partly to see my mom’s cousins. Going to the Empire State Building, Coney Island, or Jones Beach was a secondary consideration. Likewise, trips with my wife’s family to Massachusetts didn’t usually feel like vacay, mostly because it was often logistically or interpersonally… complicated. However, the trip to Newport, RI, in 2012 was far less stressful far than most.

My wife and I did take a trip to Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont at some point before the daughter was born; THAT was a vacation, as was the trip to Maine in 2003. My favorite was my trip to Portland, ME, with my soon-to-be wife in March 1999, when we got snowed in for a couple of days. And even the three of us going to Yorktown in 2008.

V-a-c-a-tion

But when I think of vacations, I think of three trips, or maybe four. There’s the one in 1998, which I wrote about while attempting to write about my 2011 vacation.

2011: the Olin international reunion in Peterborough, ON, Canada. We stopped at Niagara Falls (more ); Toronto (more, more, more); eating in Canada; reunion; Canton, NY

2016:the Olin international reunion in Ashtabula, OH. Corning (NY) Museum of Glass; Seneca Nation; Lucy-Desi Museum; Pro Football Hall of Fame; First Ladies National Historic Site; Rock And Roll Hall of Fame (more); reunion; traffic; Letchworth State Park. There was more, but I didn’t write about it until the following year.

Closer to Albany, NY, than San Diego

The fourth is our honeymoon in Barbados in May 1999. Considering it’s the only time I’ve ever been anywhere besides the US, Canada, and Mexico, I’ve written relatively little about it, in part because it predated this blog.

Truth to tell, it was just grand to go to any all-inclusive resort for six nights, especially as a prize for coming in second on JEOPARDY on my second episode. But arranging for the trip was terribly complicated, and it makes sense that the show has since opted for cash prizes for second and third place.

The ocean was gorgeous. My wife went snorkeling, but I opted out. There were three different places to eat dinner, and the food was fabulous. We bought a rum cake to take home; it was extraordinarily delicious. We enjoyed having tea at 4 p.m.

Everything was interesting to us, from the way the news was far more international to the wall-to-wall coverage of cricket. I must say that the cab ride from the airport to the resort was a white-knuckle affair, and there was a fatal automobile accident that very afternoon we arrived.

When we returned to the States, we needed to pay $13 apiece for the privilege. (If we didn’t have it, would that mean we could stay forever?) Somehow, we were bumped to first class on the five-hour flight home. Customs at the JFK airport, though, was chaotic, with the queue somehow turned into a figure eight.

Roger is 69, or 69, if it’s upside down

soixante-neuf

ny 69 — **From https://www.alpsroads.net/roads/ny/ny_69/ Idea stolen from Arthur http://amerinz.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-annual-increasing-number-63.html**

Rumor has it that I’m turning 69 today. This means I’m exactly a year younger than Ernie Isley of the Isley Brothers and Lynn Swann of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Every year, I wonder if I can recall how old I am during the year. How could I remember when I turned 59? Je ne sais pas. Whereas I recall the mechanism for 52 (deck of cards), 57 (Heinz), 61 (Roger Maris), 64 (Beatles), 67 (chaos).

I’ve loved the number 69 at least since 1969 when I turned 16. It’s just the look. I also have been told that 69, or more specifically soixante-neuf, has a rather sordid meaning. But since I’m so young and innocent, I have no idea what that is.

On the other hand, turning 69 makes me recall a song on the first Steppenwolf album called The Ostrich. The depressing lyrics:

Then you’re free
And forty years you waste to chase the dollar sign
So you may die in Florida
At the pleasant age of sixty-nine

In turn, this reminds me of the one thing I miss since I retired. I would take off work on my birthday. If my birthday were on Saturday, I’d take off Friday; if Sunday, then Monday. It’s difficult to blow a vacation day when I only worked two days in 2021, Election Day and the training beforehand.

Anyway, I don’t blog on my birthday, so see you manana.