Short Takes

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Yesterday was a beautiful day. I’m pretty sure we hit 70 degrees. Amazing for November in New England and even more amazing when you think we had a snow storm only a week ago.

I wish I could say I was outside enjoying the unseasonably warm weather and gaining experiences to share but unfortunately I spent the whole day inside catching up on housework and laundry. I couldn’t put it off for a day(although I was tempted) because I already agreed to work an extra shift and then it will be back to my own schedule…no other day to take care of the chores.

As I sit here writing this I have the TV on watching Operation Wild. I really enjoy this show. I guess you’d call it a reality show along the lines of Cops but it focused on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). The officers they feature are very personable and a lot of the stories are laced with humor. I also like the show because it’s set in Florida. It’s not Miami Vice it’s more about the animals and the Everglades or the Florida Keys.

I am planning to go to Orlando in January but I don’t know if I’ll get anywhere near the Everglades. I think it’s at least a 4 hour drive from Orlando to the Everglades but there are other parks and recreation areas to explore this trip.

The things I’ve learned while writing this blog occasionally come in handy. Tonight I got a call from the marketing department of my time share. They were promoting a new Resort in Orlando and offering a discounted 3 day trip. I explained that I wasn’t interested this time but the rep went on to ask where I lived in Ma. Seems he was coming out to Cambridge  for a few days and wondered what he should see. I immediately encouraged him to take the time to spend a day in Boston. I recommended he take the Old Town Trolley tour because he will be able to get on and off as well as enjoy a narrated tour.

I told him about the Old North Church, The Freedom Trail, Faneuil Hall and the Boston Gardens! And it all just poured out without a thought! I’m so glad he called. I was getting in a rut for material but after answering his questions I realized that what I take for granted because it’s right here in my back yard is interesting to folks that don’t live here!

And my last bit to share is that Costa Rica is giving away hundreds of trips. It’s called Costa Rica’s Million Dollar Gift of Happiness. To enter go to: www.facebook.com/visitcostarica

Neds Point Light

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This post is for my sister. Sandy likes lighthouses.

 It was such an unseasonably warm day that I didn’t want to spend it indoors. I was meeting a friend to photograph her cat for the pet calendar and the we were going to lunch at the Olive Garden.  I love their salad. I don’t know why I like it so much…it’s just iceberg lettuce, some onion slices, a couple of sliced  tomatoes and cheese and croutons. It must be the house dressing because I can’t get enough of it.

But anyway after our little photo shoot and a nice lunch I turned my car south to the little coastal town of Mattapoisett. I wanted to see if I could locate Neds Point Lighthouse and if I was successful I wanted to see if I could get some sunset pictures.

So I don’t have much more to say. I’ll let you decide if my mission was successful or not.

Check  the tiny moon!

The setting sun was casting a lovely, rosy glow.

Of course I had to get at least one picture with the seagulls.

Itchy Feet

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No it’s not athletes foot. I’ve been around home too much. I’m getting restless and need to go exploring. Luckily it won’t be long before I’m making the Christmas Decoration rounds. I hear Edaville is going to be open again for its Festival of Lights. That’s great news. I was very sad that the owners had planned to close after last season.

Of course LaSalette is a must visit again this year but I’d also like to make the trek north of Boston to go to the Stone Zoo in Stoneham. I’ve heard that they do a wonderful job at Christmas.

Oh and I never got to Boston last year to photograph the lights in the Boston Public Gardens so I will have to make an effort to correct that omission this year.

In the meantime I need to think “Thanksgiving”. I might go back to Plimouth Plantation again or there’s Old Sturbridge Village. I haven’t been there in years.

Last year there was a walking tour in Plymouth based on the Native American’s point of view. I missed it last year. Maybe I should see if that is being done again this year and put that on my “to do” list.  It’s not like I have anything else to do. (Ha Ha)

It seems like Thanksgiving is becoming a “forgotten” holiday. I touched on that in my post Christmas Decorations Already? I mean, seriously, do we see many Thanksgiving decorations? not really, a few here and there but compared to the Halloween close outs and the incoming Christmas crush they are  squeezed into half a row at best!

And what do we do for Thanksgiving besides having an excuse to enjoy one of the best meals of the year? Maybe a football game, probably the local team in the morning and then the “Big Bowl Games” on TV in the afternoon. what else? Oh I know, a favorite of mine, I put Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade on the TV while I get the Turkey ready for the oven. I think last year there was Macy’s on one channel and Disney’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on another. But unlike Christmas I don’t see a lot of events to attend and things to do.

Every place goes all out with Holiday Light Displays (I’m being PC ) and the NutCracker Ballet is a big event. Many locations that had Halloween now break out the hay rides and sleighs (when there’s snow). But I googled for Thanksgiving Themed things to do and struck out. I guess eating too much and warming the couch are the traditional things to do on Thanksgiving Day in the Modern Era.

 

National Blog Posting Month

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Guess What! November is National Blog Posting Month. Imagine that!  In honor of the month bloggers are encouraged to make a commitment to post everyday for the whole month. I guess it doesn’t matter if you just post a picture or a link or steal something from one of your fellow bloggers. ( Oh Oh…did I say that!) Nothing original required.

The rules of NaBloPoMo ( that’s the acronym) are simple, although the challenge is set up on an honor system. Participants are required to publish one post on their personal website or blog every day. There is no length requirement, with some posters writing long essays every day and others posting photographs and brief captions. Participants are not permitted to back post or schedule  jobs to upload posts in the future, but must actively create a post every day for the month of November.

So those rules eliminate me right off the bat. I write most of my posts  Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (my days off) and schedule them to post the rest of the week. I only write posts on Thursday – Saturday when I’ve dropped the ball earlier in the week. Oops! I guess life got in the way.

You see I started this blog to share experiences and thoughts heavily weighted toward travel. Sometimes I don’t have any travel experiences to share. Then I just share what’s happening in my day-to-day life. But sometimes my day-to-day life begins to take up a lot of time and when that happens the blog suffers. (sigh)

What good is sharing experiences if you stop experiencing in order to sit at the computer all day and if you do that, where are you getting your experiences to share? (Did you get all that?)

I set a goal last January to blog daily because that’s what the gurus of blogging said needed to be done to attract readers. Within the first quarter I realized I couldn’t keep up that schedule. So I admitted defeat and revised a posting schedule of 6 days, taking off Sunday.

That worked pretty well for most of the year but as work has been getting busier and other projects are nearing completion and need wrapping up, even a 6 day posting schedule has been a stretch. So for all the bloggers out there that are going to give  the challenge a shot, my best wishes to you. Maybe I’ll join you someday but it won’t be this year!

Thanks to Fellow Blogger LadyDiBlog for tipping me off to this special month.

For more information: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-nablopomo.htm

Hefty Fines in the Wind

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Mother Nature battered the northeast a week ago and made travel a nightmare.

For passengers on 6 Jet Blue flights and  1 American Airlines plane, the travel nightmare was magnified when the planes they were on were diverted to Hartford, Connecticut.

Storm At Airport

The planes ran out of snacks and bottled water and the toilets backed up long before they were in a position to deplane the passengers. One the news a tape was played of a Jet Blue Pilot begging for help to get his passengers off the plane and into the terminal. It was approximately 7 hours before the nightmare on the planes came to a close but even then the passengers were still stranded in the terminal.

Under the so-called tarmac delay rules put in place last year, both airlines, could be slapped with a fine of $27,000 per passenger, MarketWatch reported, a whopping $18,900,000 for JetBlue alone.

As I watched the news story I was horrified for the passengers. They mentioned a diabetic passenger in distress and a wheel chair bound passenger along with passengers with babies and small children.

But once the dust settled and I tried to look at the situation objectively I think there are some mitigating factors. First and foremost was the severity of the storm, a record-breaking early season storm. This brutal weather forced the flights to be diverted to  Bradley International which was experiencing weather related issues of their own such as intermittent power outages which  caused delays in deplaning.

These planes were not the only planes diverted. In a report I saw over 17 planes were diverted to Bradley pushing it over its capacity to handle the additional traffic along with planes that were scheduled to land there anyway.

Although the Passenger Bill of Rights  will fine the airlines, it sounds to me as if some of the blame in this case falls on the airport and a large part on Mother Nature. The pilots managed to land their planes safely in adverse conditions but then they were at the mercy of the airport  and it sounds like the airport let them down, probably through no fault of their own after… all there was a blizzard going on.

Maybe better plans can be put in place to handle such circumstanes. After all, this is New England and storms do happen. We are not even into “winter’ yet so let’s hope this isn’t a taste of things to come.

http://www.ctnow.com/news/hc-jet-blue-transcripts-1101-20111031,0,7874559.story