The Fleet Report and Daily for Wednesday July 10th, 2024

[Seasick Sailor]

I have been called for jury duty twice in the 4 years we've been in Texas. Online, there's a box to check if you are a caregiver.. Case closed!!

[aliaschief]

2 hours ago, RedneckBob said:

It was very scary. I didn’t realize my toes were not straight any longer! 😀

I was so relieved to hear about your crooked toes!

[kochleffel]

Oh dear. Does Vanessa need to add RNB's toes to the care list?

 

[marshhawk]

I too have DH's doctor write a note stating that I am a caregiver.

 

  But the said part is I always get out of jury duty, when they ask if you have been the victim of such and such crime....raise your hand....and I always get excused when they do that.  The only thing that hasn't happened is I haven't been murdered yet.  However my second husband did plant a pipe bomb in the wood burning stove when he left.  Luckily a friend found it before I lit the fire. 

 

@JazzyVDH's surgery is Friday at 11 am.  Third attempt at getting the blockage out of the stents in his legs.  If it s a no go this time, they will reschedule, and reroute the blood flow, but that is a lengthy surgery and he will be in the hospital for several days.  So we want this surgery to work!  

 

When we were at the vets this morning, a woman asked if she could see the kittens, she fell in love with Turnip.   Asked for my email, she sent me an email, and I replied that once he has his rabies shot, he will be good to go.  DH was telling her that all of them were up for adoption.   ...Jersey's new mom will take her the first weekend  of August, again, once she has had the rabies shot.  So far these kittens have cost us over 1200 dollars, I asked for a discount based on the fact that they are caring now for 6 of our cats.  Nope.

 

DH said he wanted to keep Ollie, and the fact that Ollie has a hernia, that he has to be watched all the time, makes me think, we dont get rid of Ollie.  And Quiff is such a mess, little vampire, I dont want to get rid of her.  So only two will go. But Turnip is the sweetest of the bunch.

 

At least when Jersey leaves we can go visit her.

 

 

 

 

[Haljo1935]

Oh my @marshhawk on the Continuing Tale of the Neighbors Tree 🌲

 

🤞 @kazu you have a quick, easy sale and are successful in getting what you want.

 

@smitty34877 prayers 🙏 that Tana is comfortable w/her decision and that it helps her.

 

Congrats @durangoscots for making Page 1. A win is a win no matter the circumstances.

😎

Edited July 10 by Haljo1935
Typo

[AroundWithMAPTravels]

8 hours ago, RMLincoln said:

Started looking at cruises again for my 70th this fall but nothing is clicking. Asked myself what I’d really enjoy, and the things that came to mind are kayaking and seeing the stars like we used to!  I’m looking at cabin rentals in upstate NY. Had thought about Cape Cod and Niagara Falls but I really don’t want to deal with any crowds. We’ll see where these ideas go.  
 

Not sure if you are up to it… windjammers in Maine and NH have awesome star views. Not a far drive from NJ ( have done several).  Once out in bay at night, stars are Everywhere! We don’t normally see anywhere near that quantity in in rural, but still full of light pollution, NJ

you do need to be able to do stairs, ladders.

some are basic, but others are relatively “cushy”, just need to find the right one. 
AND it’s on the water😄

 

[St Pete Cruiser]

@StLouisCruisersMany of us, myself especially, have been envious of your extended Zuiderdam cruise to Europe this spring/summer.  To cruise from Ft Lauderdale and return to Boston is the makings of a "Grand Cruise" without the premium fare.  It does seem the latter portion has indeed suffered a weather black cloud, which is unfortunate for all onboard.  If it makes you feel better, much of the US has been under heat advisories and the thoughts of icebergs is not at all bad!  

 

Remember a little over 2 years ago when the cruise lines were begging us to book with low fares, freebies and images of ships with less than half capacity?  I also remember Holland America's new president Gus assuring us they would survive their near bankruptcy scare.

 

 

[Cruising-along]

9 minutes ago, marshhawk said:

I too have DH's doctor write a note stating that I am a caregiver.

 

  But the said part is I always get out of jury duty, when they ask if you have been the victim of such and such crime....raise your hand....and I always get excused when they do that.  The only thing that hasn't happened is I haven't been murdered yet.  However my second husband did plant a pipe bomb in the wood burning stove when he left.  Luckily a friend found it before I lit the fire. 

Yikes Annie!

The thing about voir dire, one side would want you, the other side wouldn't.  So it's hard to tell which way it would go.  DH's brother was murdered when he was 29, but neither of us has been called for a murder trial.  (they did ask if anyone in my family had been a victim of such and such crime.)

On my forms, there are several possible reasons to be excused (including that the person summoned is deceased.) Financial hardship, health reasons (attach doctor's letter if under 80), caregiver, already served within the last 12 months, no means of transportation or live near bus line, active military duty, parent with no child care, full-time student.

[marshhawk]

@AroundWithMAPTravelsDH and I have done the Heritage Windjammer twice, never saw any stars, we were sound asleep by 8 each night.  However, if it's stars you want on the east coast, try Cedar Key Florida (which is where we are going this October) there are no neon signs, the streets are not lit up, the sidewalks are rolled up by 6 and in January/February there is a dark sky party where "amatuer astronomers" come from all over the country, set up telescopes and let the public do the viewing.  Oh my!  Absolutely fabulous!  But on this trip, I'll probably be asleep at 9.

 

Donna finally called her "tree guy" she gave up, this is going to be a man in the tree cutting the limb that broke that landed on another limb that is as good as broke.  But he never showed up today, and she has been stuck at home.  I would offer her some of my meatloaf, but DH said it wasnt a good batch.  I told him to throw some BBQ sauce on it, and not say a word.  But he's right.  I dont have a loaf pan anymore, and I used a brownie tin, as it was not as deep, it got over cooked.

 

Back to work I go until 11 pm,   Boss was again super rude today to me.  DH says it's because I ask good questions, and I know more than the boss does.  I think its his much younger managing style...but why do 4 hours at that desk seem like 8 and 4 hours off, seem like 1?

[1ANGELCAT]

Another Animal Tale.   This one should be called Where’s the Beef. WGAL Lancaster Pa app is reporting a Texas Longhorn bull escaped this afternoon while being loaded into a trailer on I-83 in York County.  Great photos 

He was captured after an hour long chase . 
Have a good evening everyone.

Edited July 10 by 1ANGELCAT

[sailingdutchy]

 

This is why we will never forget Sihanoukville !!! 

 

I just have to also show this about Sihanoukville from our last cruise before the  Covid outbreak and all borders suddenly were closed ,when we were forced to circle the seas to find a place that would accept the Westerdam to land after 11 days at sea ……….. You can see after they closed the Terminal in Taiwan and we were not allowed to go to the Philippines , Japan  and Thailand than Cambodia finally welcomed us to come back to Sihanoukville 

 

 

Our daughter in New York emailed us this  “ I believe Mum and Dad are in the NY Post " from when we were not sure yet where and when we would be able to get on shore .

 

That photo was taken from inside the crowsnest  and we were sitting at this table , while we were watching and discussing why the Thailand Navy ship was shadowing us so close 

 

 

 

 

We had to wait a few hours before we could bring out the gangway while the World Press was waiting for something...... 

 

 

Overnight we all received a shawl “ Made in Cambodia “  from the Government of Cambodia , even father did .

 

 

You can see a lot of stress had disappeared from 11 days at sea to see what would be happening to us .

 

 

Nobody could go on shore yet we were all standing on the railings with big smiles …..

 

Waiting for the dignitaries …….

 

 

The President of Cambodia is coming and is landing on pier with 2 helicopters 

 

 

 

President of Cambodia gets out makes a speech and a lot of busses are rolling in 

 

 

 

Captain, officers and Seattle staff are presented by the president with flowers

 

 

 

 

Over the next 4 or 5 days all of the passengers on board ship had to get transported to Phnom  Penh either by charter flights or on a 4 hour bus ride 

 

 

 

We all had to get another quick medical test and official papers so we could enter Cambodia 

 

 

Embassy Personal from the USA , Canada and the Netherlands came on board ship 

 

 

 

 

They were finally rolling out the Gangway and the first few busses were loaded to go to the Airport about half an hour away with the first Chartered airplanes , we were one of the lucky ones to get off after a few hours , some passengers were stuck on board with a lot more medical tests to undergo before they could make their way , most of them on a long 4 hours rough bus ride .

 

 

 

There was a lot of military presence in the Port and also the Airport 

 

 

 

Chaos at Phnom Penh airport 

 

I believe these are all masks manufactured in Cambodia being flown all over the world in the Passenger Hall

 

There is a lot more to this story a lot of people were taken to a hotel downtown Phnom Penh for at least 3 , 4 or 5 days . Special HAL personal were flown in to organize flights for each and everybody   ( Remember we all had flights booked from Singapore or other cruise Ports down the road ) 

Other folks were kept on the Westerdam for about another 5 days .

 

The CEO of HAL came to Phnom Penh .

 

We were very lucky we stepped on shore the second day only stood in line at this airport for about 5 hours waiting for the the counter to open because NOW  there were rumours going around one of our passengers was supposedly found positive in Bangkok from the planes that left the 1st day .

Only about 5 more flights were allowed to leave the second day, including us . 

 

I stood in line with the new HAL person who was arranging flights for another couple of hours we were than booked flying to Seoul  with a 10 hour stop over and than had a direct flight to Toronto in Premier seating  from HAL .

 

And proof that we were World News !  ( Dutch newspaper , sailingdutchy standing in the centre under the little Blue Balloon waiting to get a flight arranged by HAL ) 

 

 

Tired but relieved we reaches Seoul , S Korea . The rumours that somebody of the Westerdam passengers had Covid were found not to be true 

 

 

NO MORE pictures from me today……….. I have to get off my …. And do something 

 

Tony 😍😅

 

[rafinmd]

I'm not sure if Maryland has an age cutoff or not, but I've been summoned a few times, once for federal court, and a few for county court.

 

The federal court is in downtown Baltimore and I went in a few days but was never selected.  One thing I remember is that we got a mileage allowance.  A new highway opened while I was serving but the reimbursement was listed as the round trip miles times the number of days and I can't remember how I dealt with the different miles on the old vs new route.

 

I was summoned to the county court.  The first time I made the preliminary cut but was excused on one of the defenses pre-emptory strikes.  I got several more summons over a few years.  We were given a juror number and had to call in every day for 2 weeks to see if we would be needed the next day with the lowest numbers called first.  There were 2 or 3 times that I had to be excused because I had a trip planned in the next few weeks.  I think the last time was in 2008 and I had a transatlantic cruise that ended in about two days into the jury period.  I called and requested that I be allowed to serve but excused for the first 2 days, which made sense had a high  juror number so it was extremely unlikely I would be needed then, and the court clerk agreed.  I was never required, and that was the last time I was called.

 

Roy

[RMLincoln]

@Cruzin Terri Terri, I’m glad you can arrange for help. Where we were we couldn’t hire help, too far away from town!  Yes, I’m younger, turning 70 now, DH is turning 82, 12 yrs apart. Blessings for your video ortho visit and a positive direction!  You’re making great progress, managing a lot of fronts!  I remember the very long process of settling your brother-in-law’s estate. You have a lot of “stick-to-it-ness”. 

My poem: 

DH and I are old. 

We used to live in the cold. 

When finally we’d had enough, 

We were swamped with too much stuff! 
 

I’ll look at Windjammer!  Sounds like a nice adventure. We’re still able to do stairs, ladders are more challenging!  

m—
 

[Haljo1935]

@sailingdutchy great pictures and narrative. Thanks for taking the time to post them.

[Seasick Sailor]

Garden Club:

 

Our crepe myrtle were trees last year. The cold winter damaged them. They came back this spring as shrubs and I love them! There are birds nesting in both of them.

 

 

 

[kochleffel]

In California I saw a lot of creative ways to be excluded from jury service, all different ways to make the lawyers on one side or the other fear that you might be crazy. That was one of the cases where I knew that I would be challenged.

 

The opposite was in Massachusetts, where there's no voir dire and unless you are dead or in jail you will probably end up on a jury. Even police officers serve on juries (in civil cases) and the judge in a case where I served was just back from jury duty in another court house where the court personnel at least wouldn't be on a first-name basis with him. I was a full-time student when I was called; there's no exemption for that, but I could postpone it until the end of the semester.

 

The first time I was called was in Ohio, strangely in the jury pool for a paternity suit. Once the lawyers got a look at the prospective jurors, they settled the case. While we were waiting, someone said that no one who owned a business should be required to have jury duty; instead, they should fill the juries with chronically unemployed people who would be grateful for the $12/day that it paid.

 

The most recent time, here in New York, was for a shaken-baby case. They filled the jury before getting to me, but I would have had to tell the judge that I had lived in Boston during the Louise Woodward trial and had followed it closely.

 

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

Good evening.  It's still hot, 86F,  but the good breeze made the golf cart ride pleasant.  We had a call yesterday from DH's brother who lives just north of The Woodlands, and he did all right during Beryl.  He did not have power, but his generator was running the refrigerator and a/c unit in his bedroom.  He is in Montgomery County, and said 80% of the county was without power.  There was no power in The Woodlands except the 55+ neighborhood.

 

7 hours ago, bennybear said:

Late good morning and thanks to all!  Another hot one,  they are thinking we will break our all time record ever today!  Eek!  
 

Sorry to hear so many are dealing with Breast  cancer!  @Vict0riannhoping your radiation doesn’t leave you too fatigued.  I decided to go to France immediately after, probably not the best decision.  Prayers  for your sister Bonnie, @Seasick Sailor   Prayers for your good friend @doobieb

 

@luvteaching so sorry to hear of your mom’s fall,  always is so hard when you’re away! 

 

@kazu glad you have a date, but sorry you have so much to juggle right now!  You and Ivan are soulmates.   I’m sure that real estate strategy will pay off!  
 

@smitty34877 so much to navigate,  I remember a discussion with a nurse when my brother was needing more pain meds, and she was worried about addiction when his condition was terminal,  sigh!  Sending extra hugs!  

@cruising sister my friend went on that ship earlier this year with her family, her first cruise and had a ball!  

so pleased with my peonies right now! 
 

 

 

 

Thanks for the beautiful flower pictures, Brenda.

 

7 hours ago, Seasick Sailor said:

Great poems today! 

 

Thank you for prayers for Bonnie. She has her MRI tomorrow,  so she has been on my heart today.

 

Joy, I hope all goes well for Bonnie tomorrow.

 

3 hours ago, marshhawk said:

I too have DH's doctor write a note stating that I am a caregiver.

 

  But the said part is I always get out of jury duty, when they ask if you have been the victim of such and such crime....raise your hand....and I always get excused when they do that.  The only thing that hasn't happened is I haven't been murdered yet.  However my second husband did plant a pipe bomb in the wood burning stove when he left.  Luckily a friend found it before I lit the fire. 

 

@JazzyVDH's surgery is Friday at 11 am.  Third attempt at getting the blockage out of the stents in his legs.  If it s a no go this time, they will reschedule, and reroute the blood flow, but that is a lengthy surgery and he will be in the hospital for several days.  So we want this surgery to work!  

 

When we were at the vets this morning, a woman asked if she could see the kittens, she fell in love with Turnip.   Asked for my email, she sent me an email, and I replied that once he has his rabies shot, he will be good to go.  DH was telling her that all of them were up for adoption.   ...Jersey's new mom will take her the first weekend  of August, again, once she has had the rabies shot.  So far these kittens have cost us over 1200 dollars, I asked for a discount based on the fact that they are caring now for 6 of our cats.  Nope.

 

DH said he wanted to keep Ollie, and the fact that Ollie has a hernia, that he has to be watched all the time, makes me think, we dont get rid of Ollie.  And Quiff is such a mess, little vampire, I dont want to get rid of her.  So only two will go. But Turnip is the sweetest of the bunch.

 

At least when Jersey leaves we can go visit her.

 

 

 

 

 

Annie, I hope they can unblock the stent Friday.

 

3 hours ago, 1ANGELCAT said:

Another Animal Tale.   This one should be called Where’s the Beef. WGAL Lancaster Pa app is reporting a Texas Longhorn bull escaped this afternoon while being loaded into a trailer on I-83 in York County.  Great photos 

He was captured after an hour long chase . 
Have a good evening everyone.

 

Quite a lot of excitement with all the animal escapes today.

 

2 hours ago, sailingdutchy said:

 

This is why we will never forget Sihanoukville !!! 

 

I just have to also show this about Sihanoukville from our last cruise before the  Covid outbreak and all borders suddenly were closed ,when we were forced to circle the seas to find a place that would accept the Westerdam to land after 11 days at sea ……….. You can see after they closed the Terminal in Taiwan and we were not allowed to go to the Philippines , Japan  and Thailand than Cambodia finally welcomed us to come back to Sihanoukville 

 

 

Our daughter in New York emailed us this  “ I believe Mum and Dad are in the NY Post " from when we were not sure yet where and when we would be able to get on shore .

 

That photo was taken from inside the crowsnest  and we were sitting at this table , while we were watching and discussing why the Thailand Navy ship was shadowing us so close 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had to wait a few hours before we could bring out the gangway while the World Press was waiting for something...... 

 

 

Overnight we all received a shawl “ Made in Cambodia “  from the Government of Cambodia , even father did .

 

 

 

You can see a lot of stress had disappeared from 11 days at sea to see what would be happening to us .

 

 

 

 

Nobody could go on shore yet we were all standing on the railings with big smiles …..

 

 

Waiting for the dignitaries …….

 

 

 

The President of Cambodia is coming and is landing on pier with 2 helicopters 

 

 

 

 

 

President of Cambodia gets out makes a speech and a lot of busses are rolling in 

 

 

 

 

 

Captain, officers and Seattle staff are presented by the president with flowers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the next 4 or 5 days all of the passengers on board ship had to get transported to Phnom  Penh either by charter flights or on a 4 hour bus ride 

 

 

 

 

 

We all had to get another quick medical test and official papers so we could enter Cambodia 

 

 

Embassy Personal from the USA , Canada and the Netherlands came on board ship 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were finally rolling out the Gangway and the first few busses were loaded to go to the Airport about half an hour away with the first Chartered airplanes , we were one of the lucky ones to get off after a few hours , some passengers were stuck on board with a lot more medical tests to undergo before they could make their way , most of them on a long 4 hours rough bus ride .

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a lot of military presence in the Port and also the Airport 

 

 

 

 

 

Chaos at Phnom Penh airport 

 

 

I believe these are all masks manufactured in Cambodia being flown all over the world in the Passenger Hall

 

There is a lot more to this story a lot of people were taken to a hotel downtown Phnom Penh for at least 3 , 4 or 5 days . Special HAL personal were flown in to organize flights for each and everybody   ( Remember we all had flights booked from Singapore or other cruise Ports down the road ) 

Other folks were kept on the Westerdam for about another 5 days .

 

The CEO of HAL came to Phnom Penh .

 

We were very lucky we stepped on shore the second day only stood in line at this airport for about 5 hours waiting for the the counter to open because NOW  there were rumours going around one of our passengers was supposedly found positive in Bangkok from the planes that left the 1st day .

Only about 5 more flights were allowed to leave the second day, including us . 

 

I stood in line with the new HAL person who was arranging flights for another couple of hours we were than booked flying to Seoul  with a 10 hour stop over and than had a direct flight to Toronto in Premier seating  from HAL .

 

And proof that we were World News !  ( Dutch newspaper , sailingdutchy standing in the centre under the little Blue Balloon waiting to get a flight arranged by HAL ) 

 

 

Tired but relieved we reaches Seoul , S Korea . The rumours that somebody of the Westerdam passengers had Covid were found not to be true 

 

 

 

 

NO MORE pictures from me today……….. I have to get off my …. And do something 

 

Tony 😍😅

 

Tony I've enjoyed all your pictures today, but especially the last batch.

 

1 hour ago, Seasick Sailor said:

Garden Club:

 

Our crepe myrtle were trees last year. The cold winter damaged them. They came back this spring as shrubs and I love them! There are birds nesting in both of them.

 

 

 

 

Joy, those bushes are huge and pretty.

 

Lenda

[sailingdutchy]

4 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Excellent photos Tony.

Commiserations tonight to the Netherlands.

This was the best England have played in the Euros so far.

 

Thank you Graham @grapau27, yes besides taking a lot of time posting pictures here on the Daily today we watched the Tour de France first which is always nice , we like cycling and seeing all the beautiful places in France . Than of coarse we watched the football ( which btw is played with your feet ) and dressed in Orange , " We " scored a beautiful first goal and than the drama began . 

Of coarse we do not agree with the penalty decision people will be talking about that for a long time , but I agree with you that England especially played a very good defensive game and did not give the Dutchies a lot of space to built an attack .

Congrats and strength on Sunday !  Spain is playing very well and they deserved the win over France . 

Tony 

[superoma]

Well, to add to the running loose animals, seems we have two sheep running loose on our cross town expressway.

[Haljo1935]

26 minutes ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

...We had a call yesterday from DH's brother who lives just north of The Woodlands, and he did all right during Beryl.  He did not have power, but his generator was running the refrigerator and a/c unit in his bedroom.  He is in Montgomery County, and said 80% of the county was without power.  There was no power in The Woodlands except the 55+ neighborhood...

Thank goodness your DH brother is OK, even though w/o power. Generators are indispensable. 🙏 he gets power soon and remains safe.

I lived in Kingwood several years ago and worked in New Caney (Montgomery County). There are reports someone died trying to help his neighbor; so sad. Also read >180,000 still w/o power as of today. That's never good, but especially in the high heat & humidity. 

I saw these pictures of some of the flooding in the area - unfortunately, anyone who has lived there has seen this too many times. It's always unsettling to see.

And then there's this - we may be torn and ragged, but we survive.

[Cruzin Terri]

2 hours ago, RMLincoln said:

@Cruzin Terri Terri, I’m glad you can arrange for help. Where we were we couldn’t hire help, too far away from town!  Yes, I’m younger, turning 70 now, DH is turning 82, 12 yrs apart. Blessings for your video ortho visit and a positive direction!  You’re making great progress, managing a lot of fronts!  I remember the very long process of settling your brother-in-law’s estate. You have a lot of “stick-to-it-ness”. 

My poem: 

DH and I are old. 

We used to live in the cold. 

When finally we’d had enough, 

We were swamped with too much stuff! 
 

I’ll look at Windjammer!  Sounds like a nice adventure. We’re still able to do stairs, ladders are more challenging!  

m—
 

Maureen, we both have about 10 years on both of you so you can see where I am coming from.  If we were younger i think I would jump at the chance of moving.  Right now I feel that, while our house is a bit on the large side, we do have room if I need to get live in help.  

My one problem is that I do not have a support system.  We have no relatives and that makes it very hard.  No one to fall back on.  Everything is on my shoulders.

Terri

[Haljo1935]

June 6 is the date of my trip to ER for kidney stones, so tomorrow is 5 weeks. The bruise from the failed attempt at the IV (single attempt) is hanging on, but finally showing signs of fading. No mark at all at the site where they did put it in.

My leg was itching last week - this is what I saw when I started to scratch it. Clearly something got me. I didn't scratch it when I saw the entry point - the bruise must be from the bite or sting. I don't recall ever bruising like that in reaction to a bite or sting.

[grapau27]

9 hours ago, Seasick Sailor said:

Garden Club:

 

Our crepe myrtle were trees last year. The cold winter damaged them. They came back this spring as shrubs and I love them! There are birds nesting in both of them.

 

 

 

Beautiful photos.