Ponderings and Musings

A quiet day at Walt Disney World today. We didn’t have park plans today so we decided to take a boat to Port Orleans Resort and walk around where we first stayed here together in 1997. We then took a bus to the Magic Kingdom and rode both monorails, first passing through the resorts in the Magic Kingdom Area and then taking the monorail to EPCOT. Our intention was to then try the Disney Skyliner gondolas, but they’re not near the monorail stop so we didn’t do that.

We’re back from “Drawn to Life”, the Cirque Du Soleil-Disney joint adventure replacing “La Nouba”. We’d seen “La Nouba” several times and always enjoyed it; “Drawn To Life” is similar but not as focused on the Cirque Du Soleil part. The acrobats and other feats are not as plentiful as in the first show, and I didn’t find the musical score as memorable, but we still had a great time.

I was surprised to see the audience only half full. In fact, the attendance in general seems a little low; perhaps it’s just that time of year.

Tomorrow is suppose to rain impressively, with some high winds and thunderstorms thrown in for good measure. That should keep things interesting.

I am back from a two mile walk around the resort here at Disney. The weather is windy and cloudy but still quite enjoyable. On this side of the country they have this thing called humidity. It’s making me sweat.

Walking along the parking lots I’ve noticed a huge increase in the number of pickup trucks, very large pickup trucks at that, parked here and there. It would appear that a decent number of families have opted to drive very large pickup trucks as their family vehicle. A part of me wonders if the trucks are larger than the homes some of these people own.

I don’t see the Tesla CyberTruck being adopted by these types of folks anytime soon, though that prediction could be way off base because I’ve completely lost touch with the way American society thinks these days.

Many of these pickup trucks seem rather large for their purpose. I guess it was just crazy that my grandfather managed a beef farm with a late 1970s Ford F250.

In today’s world he’d probably be chastised for using his truck as a truck and not the family station wagon.

We are enjoying our time mostly off the grid. Today was a lot of fun, with an excellent dinner, lots of laughs, and some rides we hadn’t been on before.

We are off to Disney World for the next six nights. It’s been a long while since we’ve been to WDW and much, much longer since it’s been only the two of us visiting the House of the Mouse. We have just a couple of days at the park planned, and a few other goodies in between, but the focus of this vacation is relaxation.

I always snicker at the fact that when you live near a non-hub airport you need to get up at 4:30 in the morning to start a relaxing vacation. We’re both in good spirits despite the early hours. Truman is ready to spend the week with the rest of the family and will do his best to maintain law and order in my absence.

I ran across one too many political posts and/or comments on Instagram today. It’s time to take a break.

An interesting video about McDonald’s the change in their portion sizes over the decades. I’ve been trying to eat “1950s” portions for the past six weeks. I’ve lost some weight and my clothes are fitting a bit better. I call it the “Leave It To Beaver” diet. Pearls extra.

Article and video on Pretty Sweet.

We have been enjoying season two of “The Gilded Age” on HBO Max. While not as zesty as “Downton Abbey”, the storylines are enjoyable, the costuming is impressive, and nowhere else will you hear Nathan Lane bellow through a script like Foghorn Leghorn.

I don’t know if the show has been renewed for season three. I’m not following social media much these days and I’ve been steering clear of the gossip and such around this show.

My favorite character is Carrie Coon as Bertha Russell. One must admire a person that knows what they want and does everything to obtain it, especially in this age of society and wealth. The character is well written and enjoyable portrayed.

I’m sad to see this season coming to an end in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully we’ll get more drama from The Gilded Age next year.

Our friends Aidan and Joe hosted a holiday party this evening. We saw several friends, including Homer and Matt, at the gathering.

Aidan and Joe go all out with the decorating. I especially liked this old style silver tree with matching ornaments.

It was a very nice time.

And so ends my last full week of work in 2023. For the rest of the year I’ll be working shorter weeks, with a vacation placed within the frivolity as my husband and I head to Walt Disney World next week.

I’m looking forward to the downtime.