Fun and Games Dept

I am currently at the local casino. Earl and I are trying our luck this evening and he is having better luck than I am. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just the way it is.
 
 There are a lot of drunk people here. Many are dressed in green and screeching about St. Patrick’s Day, which isn’t until the 17th but the celebratory parade in town took place today and people have been falling down drunk since 10 am or so. As a man with a lot of Irish blood in my veins (as well as the appropriate complexion, hair color and temperament), I kind of get offended by all these people running around coloring anything and everything green, getting stupid drunk and screaming that everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. It bothers me. I quipped to Earl that people would be offended if I got drunk and screamed “everyone is black on MLK Jr’s birthday!” I might have mentioned something about black face too but I don’t want to come across as overly insensitive.
 
 Honestly, I want to drink one beer this evening. A Guinness. Nothing more, nothing less. All the “Irish” folks are drinking chilled piss such as Michelob Ultra or Corona, because nothing scream about the old sod like a bottle of Corona.
 
 Perhaps when I find Guinness in this place I’ll be less disagreeable.
 
 

Earl and I decided to celebrate yesterday’s impending spring weather with a ride through the eastern part of The Empire State.

We started by following Historic US Route 20, which follows the original routing of the route through this area. Many portions were bypassed with a four-lane version of the road. I like following the original route because it passes through many small towns that were bypassed when they built the four-lane version of the road. The Village of Cherry Valley is one of these towns.

One of our goals for this ride was to enjoy a diner or two that we hadn’t been to before, and we found such a place at Gibby’s Diner in Delanson. We were served huge portions of great food and the staff was very friendly. We’d definitely go back there.

We made our way around the Capital District and found ourselves on the Taconic State Parkway headed south. I love driving the Taconic for the same reason that I like driving on the old version of US Route 20, it’s an older road with not as much traffic and it doesn’t have the hustle and bustle of the neighboring Thruway. One of the older service areas in the median has been opened up as a “Taste NY” tourism stop, featuring all locally made products. We picked up some pickles and other goodies.

On our way home we stopped in Middletown at a restaurant called Soho, which was a good experience. We were looking for another local place to eat but the one or two we had spotted closed early on Saturday nights, so that’s why we found this place outside of the Crystal Run Mall. The ride home was uneventful but enjoyable. It was just past 12:30 a.m. when pulled into the driveway. All in all a wonderful, relaxing day.

I’m up for the second time tonight. It’s actually 4:51 in the morning, but it’s still “night” as far as my sleep patterns are concerned. Actually, my sleep patterns are concerning because they’re in a bit of disarray because I can’t sleep.

This is the second night in a row that I’ve been unable to sleep. As a change of pace from other episodes of insomnia, it’s not negative thoughts that are keeping me awake, but rather just a barrage of thoughts in my head that refuse to shut up. In the past six hours of sporadic slumber I have dreamed about going to Sears (courtesy of writing the previous blog entry before bed), my happiness for a family I shall call “The Danburys”, giving presentations on software that I haven’t written yet and eating at Chick-Fil-A (please spare me your stories of horror about Chick-Fil-A).

I think the truth of all of this is that I have this growly feeling in my throat and I’m concerned it’s going to turn into something else. I’m downing orange juice like the best of them. I enjoy a vitamin C drop from time to time. I’m consuming Airborne when I’d rather be airborne.

I feel tired. I look tired.

That’s is. I’m going to finish this blog entry, close my MacBook and go to bed. End of story.

Sweet dreams.

I am loving this weather for the first week of February. It’s hard to believe we are just approaching the halfway point of the official season of winter.
 
 I am without complaint.
 
 

  
For the past week or two I’ve taken to watching reruns of the ABC comedy series “Happy Endings” during my morning workouts. Back in 2012 I had purchased the entire second season of the show from iTunes so that we could watch it when we cut the cord, but then iTunes got all funky and I forgot that I had the show in my queue until I moved to my new iPhone 6S Plus at Christmas time and all of my bandwidth for the month was used downloading the series to my phone.

In case you’re not familiar with the series, which was on ABC for three seasons, it’s kind of like “Friends” for the 21st century. There’s six folks, two of them are sisters, two of them are married, one of them is gay and he used to date another one of the ladies in college and one of them is super good looking and drives a food truck. The show is packed with rapid fire witty repartee, there are few winks and nods towards the existence of an audience watching the show sprinkled here and there all the while not taking itself seriously.

ABC really did itself a disservice by bumping this show around on the schedule in the third season and ultimately cancelling the show.

I am enjoying watching this second season that I never caught up on back in 2012 and I will probably end up watching the third season as well (don’t tell Earl until the iTunes bill comes along). While I may have thought that the quality of the show as borderline-ish back when it was in first run, the truth of the matter is that it is better than anything that passes for a sitcom today (“Two Broke Girls”, anyone?). 

If you’ve never seen the show, I suggest watching an episode or two and giving it a whirl. I think you’ll find it to be a good time.

The morning sun. A beautiful thing to shine in your window as you awake for the day.
 

Earl and I were reminiscing about previous Disney vacations last night. It is moments like that where having a blog for nearly 15 years has been helpful; if I have forgotten something I can look it up on the blog. Living life out loud like this has been very helpful.
 
 Looking up the 2005 trip led me to reading entries from that era. I realized that I haven’t changed a whole lot in a decade, aside from some middle aged crotchety-ness that has set in since my mid 40s. I need to calm down on that front and smile more.
 
 Though personal blogs have long ago faded in lieu of quick belches of Twitter and Facebook entries, I still enjoying capturing moments of my life from time to time.
 
 My words keep me grounded. And that’s a wonderful feeling.

The civil engineer in me always appreciates the designs on Disney properties. 

The castle say Magic Kingdom is lit up with thousands of white lights, similar in design as the icicle lights found on residential buildings everywhere. 

  

I immediately noticed that the individual icicles weren’t swaying in the wind, even though it’s been fairly breezy the two nights we have been here. Swaying icicles would break the illusion and that is something that Disney Imagineers try to avoid at all costs. 

Upon closer inspection, the icicle lights are attached to a grid of metal netting. While the lights are irregular in shape and placement, the grids are not, they are large rectangular pieces that can be assembled off site, installed and removed quickly and most importantly, maintain an illusion of rigidity like a real icicle out in the wild. 

Simplicity is sometimes the best answer. 

  

  

Earl and I are aboard Delta flight 2003. We are on vacation and so far it is off to a wonderful start. We are on a Boeing 717-200 en route to Atlanta, seats 2C and 2D. I’ll let you do the math as to where we are located in the cabin. 

This is my first official vacation since starting my new job in June. I’m still loving the new gig but it will be nice to have a few days away. Earl has always had Christmas at Walt Disney World on his bucket list, so I’m happy that we can enjoy this this season.

I turn into such a kid when I’m aboard an airline flight these days. I have headphones and music loaded up on my iPad, but I can help but just gaze out the window, listen to the sounds of the airplane and love every moment of the flight. I smile big as I look out the window. 

The flight was bumpy as we made our way up through the clouds. I know several pilots that enjoy bumps.  They don’t bother me like they used to. I’m starting to enjoy the challenge of flying in bumpy air as a pilot. I guess it’s part of my personal growth. 

I’m really looking forward to kicking back and relaxing on this trip. For now I’m going to sit back, relax and enjoy the flight.

Quick postscript – shout out to Shanice, our flight attendant on this flight. They entire crew is very friendly.  People should make an effort to smile back. I know I do.