HBE4

33 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

Much to my chagrin the answer is yes. 

I know he doesn't own a Jeep but he can pass the duck forward under the rules of "Jeep Ducking", slide #4 in the attached link.

https://www.motortrend.com/features/duck-duck-jeep

A movement that was started by a person named Allison in a small town in Ontario, Canada as an act of kindness, fellowship and healing of sorts. 

Seems kinda kismet.

58 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

But I'm guessing this decision was made for liability reasons,  not actual safety concerns. 

That and probably to stop Customer Service from being overwhelmed by phone calls, emails, chats, etc. from concerned customers.

1 hour ago, OnTheJourney said:

For sure, and super expensive also! We've passed it many times during our drives up that way. Most hotels are charging double / triple their usual rate. Can't blame 'em. Right now I have two places booked being that the first I considered turns out to not be in the path. That one's on Keuka Lake. 99.5% - still really good, but we figure if we're going to do this might as well go for totality. So I'm sitting on both reservations for now, but will likely cancel Keuka.

 

That Geneva link is great. Thanks!  Those public areas are gonna be jammed. Best to just hang out at the hotel and see how things are there. Just hope this event (nationwide) doesn't bring out the crazies, especially of the gun-happy sort. A bit concerned about that. "Eclipse crawl"??  Amazing!!  Some of the activities taking place are really cool.

They certainly do seem to be making the most of it & as you said, can't blame them. Last total solar eclipse in NY for the next 130 years.  Hopefully your hotel will have a viewing party or at least in close walking distance to someplace that does.

Make sure to get your "Embrace The Dark" t-shirt. Although I think it would be better if the t-shirts said "I stared at the sun and survived" as stated in one of the flyers on that link. 

EDIT: And as for Belhurst Castle, beautiful grounds and building, great restaurant but I'm not a fan of their wine. Personal presence.  I've never stayed there but have gone to view 4th of July fireworks over the lake.

7 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

Whereabouts does he live in NY?  

In the Finger Lakes region, probably 20 minutes outside Geneva.  That's what caught my attention in your post.  Enjoy, Geneva is a cute little town as you probably know already since you booked a hotel there.  In case you haven't seen this already

https://www.eclipsegeneva.com/eclipseviewing

Belhurst Castle would make for a great place to stay & view.

3 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

why are you quoting my post?

Because it's part of the conversation, we both quoted the same post and you seemed to be in agreement with the person we both quoted.

But if I misunderstood, I'll edit my post and remove the quoted post, if time allows.

1 hour ago, AandBmom said:

I find it fascinating that this post has so few replies. What happened to all the individuals that were saying this would never happen just two days ago?

3 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

Some have disappeared.

Who said Royal would never temporarily suspend Labadee as a Port-of-Call?

The only posts I recall seeing is that a marauding gang of 4,000 escaped prisoners would never pillage and plunder Labadee.  And so far, that hasn't happened. A little too early for the "I told you so" crowd to start crowing. You might want to wait until Royal announces that Labadee will be permanently shut down, should that ever happen.

32 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

Anyone have plans for viewing the eclipse next month? We made reservations at a hotel in Geneva, NY since it's in the path of totality. Here's a really cool site to check it out:  https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/where-when

Thanks, I was just talking to someone recently about eclipse.   My brother-in-law lives in that area and as luck would have it, he's currently wintering in South Carolina thru the end of April. I wonder if I can use his house? 🙂

9 minutes ago, George C said:

Only two ports on our 7 day cruise Aruba and Curaçao, this is a music charter with artists from the 70’s including Don McLean, Foreigner, Randy Backman, Dave Mason , Cowsills etc etc ,

If you want, feel free to post a few pics with you and the artists. 

It sounds like an interesting and different kind of cruise.

19 minutes ago, doghog said:

You're much taller and thiner than I imagined. Thanks for taking us along. 

I'm trying t figure out what he's holding in his hand. Umbrella? Grappling hook?

25 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

Announced around 6pm that our Labadee stop was cancelled. Look at us saving money. More OBC for the OTW cabana refund. 
 

Not much more to say. I’ll be watching for the jet ski brigade/attack force tomorrow. 

Did they give you an alternative port or is it a sea day?

You can always give your OBC to Heidi.

Also, another question.🙂 If you do get attacked by escaped prisoners on stolen jet skis, do you have to tip them 18% on the dollar amount of the valuables they take from you?

4 hours ago, grapau27 said:

 

Thank you for Paulines lovely birthday wishes.

We went out for lunch and Pauline had smoked Salmon and cream cheese sandwichs and I had a steak sandwich.

Happy belated birthday to your wife!  Wishing her many more!

6 hours ago, akcruz said:

 Don't remember who mentioned using Irish Spring shavings to keep the mice away but will tell you it didn't work here.  Left a partial bar, in the box, in one of the kitchen cabinet.  The mice loved it, finished it all, left the box.  Was probably the worst year for mice.

6 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

I'm surprised the mice didn't eat the box too. It is amazing how much damage such small critters can do.

Ever since my step-daughter brought her cat Leonard home some 18 months ago, I've found 3 dead mice in my house.  At first I was like "Great job Leonard, nice work earning your place in my house"! 

Then I started to wonder if I've had these mice living with me for all these years and never knew it. I've never seen any trace of droppings, chewed up things, nests, etc.  😱

22 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

Deal or No Deal Island last night was a very interesting show.

I find myself rooting for Boston Rob be because he plays the game like he did on Survivor.

 

19 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

  Now we have 2 with targets on them which protects Boston Rob. 

6 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

Someone should do a psychological case study on Rob.  Whether Survivor or Deal or No Deal Island, everyone knows and says that they should get rid of Rob first, because he's too dangerous.  Yet that never happens.  Through some combination of smarts, charm, celebrity, people thinking it's smart to ally with him, he never seems to get eliminated.  I think he figures out individually what people want (boost their self-confidence, stroke their ego, etc.) and gives it to them, so they end up wanting to keep him around.  It's fascinating to me.

I think Boston Rob is one of the reasons I stopped watching Survivor. Specifically because the producers kept bringing him back year after year under various formats (All-Stars! Hero vs Villains! Fan Favorites!)  until he finally won one season.  It seemed like the producers really wanted him to win, although he kinda won a few years earlier when he started dating and eventually married fellow contestant Amber who won that season. Since then he's been in several other reality shows including Amazing Race where he tried to manipulate his way to a win. It failed.

I know reality show producers like a strong "love-them-or-hate-them" personalty as they are good for ratings but enough already.  And as to why his fellow contestants don't eliminate him earlier, I wonder if the producers subtly suggest to the contestants (during the interviews) that it might be in their best interest to keep him around. Again, for the ratings.  Or to do their "dirty" work of double-crossing other contestants.

9 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

Now that we are settled for the day at CoCo Cay we can return to last nights activities. Insert Wayne’s World flashback scene. 
 

We decided to make our donation at the casino. We visited with our favourite bar waitress Heidi. You might remember her from our previous cruises, in July and March trips of 2023. 
 

 

 

We each put in $20, and it started slow. I had to put in another $20 when Lisa was up. Heidi was doing some steady pours. Hans even stuck his head in the side of the screen occasionally with his words of wisdom.  Lisa even hit some extra 5 and 10 spins a few times. 
 

I hit some 5 free spins and then 25. 

 

Heidi was impressed with Lisa’s spin. Look at those eyes of disbelief. 

 

When it was all said and done our 60 made 120 in under an hour. 

 

Congratulations.  Heidi is one of my more favorite slot machines.  Unfortunately,  I'm not one of her favorite customers.  😕 

And for some strange reason,  I seem to drink a lot of beer when playing her.....or being played by her as the case may be. 😁

13 hours ago, DaniDanielle said:

This made my daughter smile at least! One of her second graders.

Maybe I need to attend your daughter's 2nd grade class as I read the note 3 times & couldn't figure out why a Hairstylist delivering coffee would be a big deal.🤔😂

Took 4 tries before reading comprehension kicked in. 

2 hours ago, helen haywood said:

FB is back…M is not.  I need M to stay in touch w

MySpace is still around?  

Truth 

9 minutes ago, BonTexasNY said:

As a forever Seinfeld fan, I laughed just picturing the mayhem.  I'll have to check you tube for "Comedians..." if available.  Do the other Seinfeld cast ever make an appearance on that show?

I'm watching it on NetFlix. Very entertaining show. Still on the first season but Micheal Richards (Kramer) was in 1 episode & I believe  Julie Louise-Dreyfus (Elaine) is in an upcoming episode.   Each episode in 10-15 minutes long & it's really just Jerry and his guest hanging out having a conversation. Not your typical interview, talk show style. He's still just as witty as ever

41 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Assuming that the picture quality drop off isn't significant, I'd go for size over quality.  Whatever TV you end up buying, you will get used to it and won't have another better quality TV sitting next to it (like you do in a showroom) reminding you of the picture quality "sacrifices" that you made.  Any new, large TV will probably look great in your house.  But I can almost guarantee that a few months after the initial feeling that your new TV is HUGE, you'll start to wonder if you should have gone bigger.

 

Several times in my life, I've sacrificed something in the interest of saving a little money.  I often regret it later and wished that I had spent more initially.  If you can afford the extra $500-600, you won't later regret spending it.  You might regret NOT spending it though.  

All excellent points and once again, thank you for all your input.  Sometimes it's hard to shake old habits even when I can afford to pay extra so a little push is always appreciated.👍

8 minutes ago, BonTexasNY said:

I'm OK, I'm OK.  Thanks for the posts of concern. They meant a lot to me. @dani negreanu Dani, I never received your email and I even checked my spam folder.

 

I just haven't been in the mood to post on CC.  My daughter's MS (not sure I mentioned, she was diagnosed about a year ago) is not cooperating with her daily life.  Flair ups, in-hospital infusions, eye sight getting worse.  We wanted to go to NJ but she insisted she's doing "well" and is planning a trip here in a few weeks.  She's "fine" now, back to work and feeling good. She is so upbeat, she calls to lift MY spirits up.

 

I'm having umbilical hernia surgery in a few weeks.  Not major surgery but scary enough.  I've been to two surgeons for consultations and picked the one I felt most comfortable with, in bed side manner, in education, in experience with my type of surgery.

 

@DaniDanielle Marietta, may your friend RIP, strength to his wife.  May his memory bring blessings to all who knew and loved him.

 

@Ozark_Kid John, I smiled when you posted you were having a good day.  I wish so many more for you.

 

I've been popping in here and enjoying everyone's wonderful pictures of vacations, AI, cruises, soccer, food, it's all good.  Please continue to educate and entertain us.

 

 

 

 

Great to see you & best of luck to you and your daughter.  I probably missed the fact your daughter had MS but glad she is doing better to lift your spirits and more importantly, to come visit you.

I was thinking of you the other night. I'm watching Jerry Seinfeld's "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" in the opening scene of one of the episodes was filmed at our old stomping grounds,  Rockland Lake State Park. Once of the funniest scenes, he was driving the car - and old 1950's Porsche 356 roadster - down the sidewalk.  I wonder how much of the park they had to shutdown to film that 1 minute introduction

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Perfect.    Be packed and ready to leave from Cape Liberty tomorrow.    We have a 12:30/1:00 pm check-in

Urgent care prescribed cefdinir, said I have a "classic" ear infection but appears I caught it early on so Cefdinir should take care of it.     

I never had ear infections until about a year ago.   I hope this isn't going to become a regular thing with me.  

He said it would be okay if I have 1 or 2 drinks.     Guess he's never been on a cruise😁

Glad you caught & treated it in time. So many times in the past, I would always develop some sort of medical condition before a cruise or island vacation. Usually a tooth ache and I'd have visions of getting a root canal in Jamaica.   Fortunately, my dentist would see me right away & either prescribe  medication or tell me to stop clenching my teeth. Pre-vacation stress & sure enough, by the time day 1 of vacation was over, tooth ache gone.

5 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

You can't go wrong with a Sony.  I think they tend to be over priced because you're paying for the name, but there's no doubting the quality.  

Originally I wasn't even going to look at Sony as that was stretching my budget to the max. But after I asked the salesman if any of the TV's could be taken out of "Showroom Demo Mode" (or whatever it's called) so I could see what it would look like realistically, he said just with Sony. He must've seen the skeptical look on my face and quickly explained that Sony is so confident in their picture quality that it would still be just as good as other manufactures "Demo Mode" & none of the other manufactures are that confident.

I don't know if that's true but what I do know is true is that after a few minutes when my eyes adjusted to the dimmer or washed out pictures, they were still amazing. He played a variety of content for me so at least I was able to compare 5 different Sony TV's to each other.  Even the bottom of the line "value" (using the term loosely)  model was good with the next step up model  very, very good and still around $1,100.  From there, they do go up in $500 increments to get to QLED & OLED so now "budget creep" is setting it which is also very common for me.

Yes, the QLED & OLED are clearly better but are they $500-$600 better? Maybe, over a 10 year period that's only $50 more per year which is less than what I spend on beer at ONE (1) Ranger game.  I can justify anything in terms of beer. 🙂. Or I could down size to the 55 inch model, emphasizing quality over size.  FYI. my seating area will range from 8-10 feet away from the TV.

At the end, he did say Sony usually releases their new TV models in March so it's possible that the current models may drop in price later in March. No guarantee of course on price drop and availability.  Decisions, Decisions....

I'm pretty sure the sales guy @ Best Buy regrets asking "Can I help you?" 90 minutes later, I'm sure we talked about every TV under the sun. I think I heard him muttering under his breath and shaking his  as I left.

Just kidding, he could talked all weekend about TVs. A true professional. Meanwhile,my brain hurts. In addition to new stuff, I  also watch a lot of older stuff (think Seinfeld & old John Wayne movies). Apparently a TV that is good at upscaling should be my priority.  So forget about OLED, QLED, ,and mini-LED, it's all about upscaling older content to 4k. Of course,  the high priced Sony is best at this. So guess what's on top of my list right now.

Did I mention my brain hurts? Although honestly,  whatever I buy will be light years better than what I'm replacing. Gotta keep that in mind. 

I think I need a nap.

Thank you all for the excellent advice on TV's and  how & where to buy a TV. This is exactly the first hand info I was looking for.

I am now suffering from "analysis paralysis", which is actually very common for me as I will research something to death & then have information overload. 😀  Sometimes I wish I could make more spontaneous decisions. 

5 hours ago, dpostman said:

If you happen to find this LG model (LG OLED65B3PUA) at around the same price, likely a few hundred more, this has a much better picture and off axis viewing quality. I know you have a challenge because of the brightly lit environment, but this will only make a poor viewing angle TV even worse.

Ironic that your mention this particular model. When I first started this life-consuming odyssey of trying to pick the perfect TV at the best price, I had LG OLED B3 model in mind before being distracted by literally shinier objects, the TCL QM8 & other QLED TV's. Best Buy is having a 3 day sale & this model (LG B3) happens to be $200 off.

After weeks of research, I may have just ended up where I started!! Which takes me back to my statement above of needing to make more spontaneous decisions. I'm pretty sure it was $300 off during  the week leading up to the Super Bowl. 😒. Not a big deal but mildly annoyed at myself.

2 hours ago, Arzeena said:

I need to throw out Cliff Notes and get Bob Notes.

All your info about anything and everything that has bee asked here has been really helpful and very very informative. Need to make notes and file away. Thank you!

+1