Where Can I Sign up for the Extended Warranty?

Sometimes I feel like a used car whose warranty just expired and all the parts now need replacing.

Especially lately. Because in the past couple years I’ve been diagnosed with two bone spurs in my left foot, arthritis in my right knee and in the last week I found out my formerly pretty darn good teeth are now all shot to hell and need dental work to the tune of thousands (and thousands) of dollars.

Too bad we don’t come with an extended warranty. I would’ve signed right up for that.

I’m also a glutton for punishment. Last week, when we were preparing for 15 guests for our Father’s Day celebration, I was busy chopping and cutting and mixing and baking like a mad woman. I was determined to be well prepared ahead of time. And mostly I was. I had containers with all manner of food that merely needed to be mixed together or put out on plates and platters. And all those containers were labeled.  So I was pretty proud of myself for not procrastinating this time.

But it all came to a screeching halt late Friday night when I decided it was time to bring some of the containers of freshly chopped veggies and a big bowl of pasta salad to the downstairs fridge.

Vince, who was in charge of the meat, was soaking and tenderizing and marinating like a mad man. When he heard me say I was going downstairs and saw me loaded down with food, he asked me to take a plate of half-frozen steaks down to the fridge. And he proceeded to set the plate on top of the big bowl of pasta salad.

I said I didn’t think I could carry it all.

And this, folks, right here is when I should have put my foot down and said “No!”  Because I couldn’t carry it all. I got about ten steps into the hallway and that plate of half frozen steaks slid right off the container of pasta salad – and landed sideways on my second toe right behind the nail bed.

The good news is that the plate didn’t break. The bad news is that my toe did.

I yowled. I think there were actual tears. And I may have even said a couple bad words.

Vince, to my dismay, thought it was funny. He chuckled and said, “Hunh. I guess you couldn’t carry it all!”

But when I took my sock off and we watched my toe swell and turn purple before our eyes, his laughter dried up. He truly didn’t know I’d hurt myself. 

I guess that maybe I’m a bit of a drama queen when it comes to stubbing my toe or running into walls and bashing my elbow. And because I do that sort of thing all the time, he has gotten used to me not really hurting myself. But complaining about it. Loudly and with colorful words.

Except this time. Oh, man – did my toe hurt! There was no more party prep that night. Instead, I elevated my foot and applied an ice pack to my throbbing and swollen toe.

The next morning, I woke up to find my toe a lovely purplish-black color all the way to the base. It was pretty clear I was going to lose the toenail. And I could barely walk on it.

I certainly couldn’t put any pressure on it – so I limped my way through the day. Sadly, I couldn’t stop working because I still had a list of things to get done before our party on Sunday.

Because it was so swollen, the skin split and now there was blood. Oh joy. But I have good friends and family who were willing to help – and they’ve played nurse with the gauze and tape and Neosporin. I'm not saying they are experts at wrapping...but they've done a better job than I could.

At least it's wrapped.

And it’s getting better. But I still can’t walk normally on it. And I look a little silly with two toes taped together and a big white bandage on my foot. Plus, I need a pedicure. But that’s not happening anytime soon.

Fast forward a few days and I’m at the dentist’s office. I’m there to get a tooth removed. Why? Because it had cracked below my gum line and couldn’t be saved.

I’d been having some pain in my jaw in recent weeks and went to a dentist to have my tooth looked at. He said I needed a root canal and he proceeded to drill away. But then he stopped because he said my tooth was cracked too far down. This was my first root canal and I wasn’t happy about joining the club. And the worst thing was that it didn’t fix the problem.

Figures. Mine is the non-treatable one.

So he sent me to another dentist. This one took X-rays of my entire mouth and gave me the bad news that most of the teeth that had those old amalgam fillings needed some repair work. Some major repair work. And she agreed with the first guy that the tooth I was complaining about needed to come out.

So she sent me to a THIRD guy. Who knew that dentists nowadays were so specialized that one only does root canals and another does the tooth pulling? Not me, that’s for sure.

Back in the day, we went to our family dentist and Dr. Kelleher did it all. Cleaned teeth. Pulled teeth. Filled teeth. I’m sure he did root canals and crowns, but back then the worst thing my teeth needed were fillings.

The last filling I had was when I was about 12. And then when I was in college, I had to have four teeth pulled to prepare my mouth for braces. Two years of braces, and that was pretty much the end of my extensive dental work.

For years and years afterwards, I would go to the dentist who would clean my teeth and tell me I was good to go. I didn’t need root canals. I didn’t need crowns. Or implants. Or any of that stuff. So I thought I had pretty good teeth.

But throughout all those years, I would ask various dentists, “Shouldn’t I have these old fillings replaced? They’ve been in my mouth since I was 12.”

The response I invariably heard was, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

I THOUGHT they were good teeth. Bad ones were lurking in the back!

So I thought Dr. Kelleher must have done an ah-mazing job on those fillings that they’ve lasted this many decades.

Well, I’m sure he DID do an ah-mazing job – but no filling is going to last forever.

As I recently found out.

The teeth have cracked around those fillings and they all need some sort of repair work. Fortunately, only the one tooth is cracked below the gum and needed to be removed.

But lemme just tell you – I don’t like going to the dentist and I did NOT want to have this procedure done.

When I had those four teeth removed before I got braces, it was an awful experience. Four strong, healthy teeth in a teenager’s mouth do NOT want to come out easily. So Dr. Kelleher pulled and yanked and those teeth cracked and crunched before finally giving up and coming out. While it didn’t hurt because I was shot full of Novocaine, the sound was so extreme, I was in tears.

 

And to this day, I vividly recall the sound.

So when I had to go in this week to have my tooth removed, I brought an ear plug. And while it wasn’t fun, it was not as traumatic as it was back in the day.

But now I’m literally hurting from my head down to my toe.

And I’m wondering where I can sign up for an extended warranty. 

I Miss You, Dad. Happy Father’s Day.

Typical "Dad" pose. Arms crossed - probably saying, "Yes, Dear."

I’ve been spending a lot of time this past week thinking about my dad and missing him. Not only because Father’s Day is coming up and it will be our first Father’s Day without him, but because I keep remembering last year at this time. When he fell and hit his head and we spent many sad, dark days in June by his bedside at the hospital and in hospice until his death on the 25^th.

Although he was still alive on Father’s Day last year, he was in the ICU and was no longer responsive. My siblings and I had all mailed cards to him earlier that week, thinking that he was going to be all right.

But he wasn’t.

On Father’s Day, I stood by his bedside, opening each card and reading it to him while tears slid down my face. I wanted him to wake up and tell me it was all going to be okay.

But he didn’t and he couldn’t.

Later, when one of the nuns visited him in the ICU, she picked up all those cards and re-read them out loud to him. She told him he was so loved by his family and that God loved him, too. And if he was hanging on to care for his wife (our mom) who has dementia, he could let go because we were going to take good care of her.

When she called me later to tell me all this, I cried listening to her. I didn’t want dad to let go because I was being selfish – and wanted him still here with us. By that point, I knew there was very little hope and if he survived, he could no longer be the man we knew and loved.  His brain had suffered too much injury.

So I knew I didn’t want that either.

And so my dad missed Father’s Day 2016 and will miss all the Father’s Days to come. He missed his 90^th birthday by a few weeks. And he missed his 64^th wedding anniversary by a few days.

But we miss him even more. And even though mom no longer really asks about him, I know she misses him. He was her rock; the one person she knew she could count on and the one person who got her through each day.

Over the past few years, I would ask dad to come to Columbus for the weekend for whatever holiday we were celebrating because I didn’t want my parents to be alone.  They used to travel a lot and would usually be at one of our houses for every holiday. But Dad started hesitating before saying “yes” whenever I asked.

This was something he hadn’t done before and I thought he was merely being considerate of my time because I had to drive to Alliance, pick them up and then turn around and drive back to Columbus – a five hour undertaking that I would have to repeat once the weekend was over.

What I didn’t realize – until now – was how difficult it was for him to get mom out of her rocking chair and out of their house. She didn’t want to leave it. It was where she was most comfortable and where she felt most safe.

When she visited us in Columbus, there were distinct moments of real confusion. One Christmas morning she woke up thinking it was Easter and they were in a hotel. She was upset because she thought she had lost her glasses and she wanted us to call the Lost and Found to search for them.

She was talking about glasses she hadn’t worn in about 10 years.

It took over an hour for us to get mom calmed down and back to some semblance of normal. Dad said he hadn’t seen her like that before and it seemed almost more than he could handle. So I was at least glad I was here to help, but it made me realize how difficult it was sometimes for dad to care for mom.

Only he never ever complained.

It has only been in the last year since dad has been gone and mom is here with me in Columbus that I’ve realized how much work it was to care for her.

And I’m not even doing much of the work!  Mom is in a memory care unit and my only “duty” is to visit with her. Most of the time, she’s settled in her rocking chair and she’s fine. But whenever something is out of the normal routine for her – like when I have to take her to a doctor’s appointment – she asks a million questions about what we’re doing, where we’re going and why. Well, basically she asks those three questions. But she asks them over and over again – so I think it probably adds up to a million. At least.

My point is that this is what dad had to deal with when I asked the relatively simple question, “Will you and mom come to Columbus for the weekend, Dad?”

I wish I could tell him how much I appreciated what he did for mom. And what he did for all of us. That if I could be half the person he was, I’d feel like I should be fitted for those angel wings he clearly must have hidden under his light blue button down shirt. 

And I would just like to hug him one more time and tell him I love him.

So when we take the time this weekend to celebrate dads, I’ll be missing mine. But I’m grateful that I had such an honorable, good man as he to guide me through life. And even though he’s not here with us every day, I think he’s still watching out for us.

He just doesn’t have to hide those angel wings under the light blue button down shirt anymore.

I miss you and I love you. Mom and I will have a glass of wine together in your honor, okay? 

And I thank you, Dad – for everything.

Until we meet again.

The Queen of the Night Owls is Now Officially an Old Fogey

It’s an interesting thing getting older. What you once could have sworn described you to a T is no longer necessarily true.

Like, for instance, I used to be the reigning queen of the Night Owls at one time in my life. In my 20s, friends used to marvel at how I could pull all-nighters to study or finish college papers, work all day and then attend classes that same evening without missing a beat.  

They used to tell me, of course, that it would all catch up to me one day.

Clearly, “one day” is here. And, okay, so for me, “one day” occurred sometime around the turn of the century. But now every time I try to do the night owl thing, it only serves to remind me that I have officially become an Old Fogey.

These days if I don’t get at least 7.25 hours of sleep per night, I am a basket case the next morning as the bags and dark circles under my eyes will attest.

When Vince and I went on our first cruise together, we selected the later 8 o’clock seating for dinner. This allowed us plenty of time for the daily activities on the ship or at port as well as time to unwind on the balcony with a glass of wine before dressing for dinner that evening. We’d attend a show or performance after dinner and felt thoroughly entertained. Then we’d get up early the next morning and do it all again.

It worked perfectly.

Then on our next cruise (a couple years ago) we went with friends who are the early-to-bed/early-to-rise-type of folk. They wanted the earlier dining slot, so we acquiesced to accommodate them. It worked out well, except we lost out on the relaxing happy hour on the balcony.

Don’t get me wrong, we still enjoyed a glass of wine on the balcony…but it was a little more rushed than we had experienced on our earlier cruise.

So on our latest cruise, we once again selected the later dining time.

We were mostly able to enjoy our wine time on the balcony, but more times than not, we ended up drinking wine in the cabin while I got ready for dinner. I’d apply some makeup, take a swig of Pinot Noir, pat, swirl and blend (the makeup – not the Pinot) and then take another swig. It was not quite as restful and relaxing as sitting out on the balcony watching the sun set and the waves roll by.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. Getting through dinner was fine, but finding the energy to do anything after dinner was the problem.

Apparently, once you hit 50, time moves at warp speed. And what I could do at 50, I can’t do a few scant years later.

By the time our meal was finished somewhere between 9:30 and 10PM, I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was head back to our cabin and go to sleep.

Sad, isn’t it? My partying days are over.

There were one or two nights during the cruise when I managed to keep my eyes open long enough to watch a show or attend an event. And that was enjoyable. But for the most part I was okay with going back to the cabin for a little shut-eye.

I think Vince would have liked to have seen a few more shows, but the only reason he didn’t protest was because he had caught a cold and was sneezing and coughing and generally feeling miserable. He was happy enough to pop a Nyquil and drift off for a short snooze before his next coughing jag woke him up.

Needless to say, we had no drinking and dancing ‘til dawn debauchery on this cruise. (Or the last cruise, for that matter…or the cruise before… or… Oh heck. Let’s just say it has been a LONG time since there was any debauchery going on!)

Ah well.  I’m okay with this new regime. I have to be. If I stayed up ‘til dawn these days I’d need a vat of Visine to get the red out and I’d be applying concealer with a trowel. And I simply don’t have the energy for that sort of nonsense these days.

So lesson learned. Looks like we’ll be selecting the “Old Fogey” dinnertime on our next cruise. We’ll be sound asleep before there’s even a whiff of debauchery going on. We’ll leave that to the reigning Queen of the Night Owls.

Aw man. Just writing about this is wearing me out. Might be time for a nap.

Yeah. I’m an Old Fogey. And the title no longer even bothers me.

That, my friends, makes it official.

The Elusive Insulated Drink Cup

This was my fourth cruise so I figured I’m pretty much a cruise expert by this point – right?

Well, not so much.

It might have been my fourth cruise, but it was my maiden voyage on Royal Caribbean. Turns out all cruise lines work just a little differently.

On our last cruise with Celebrity, our drink package was offered as one of the perks, so it was never a problem getting any sort of drink we wanted – fresh squeezed juice, soda, alcoholic beverage, fancy coffee, bottled water. Whatever. It was all free. And it was definitely the way to go.

But I discovered that Royal Caribbean doesn’t offer drink packages as a perk. So we opted to pre-pay for one because our last experience worked so well. I didn’t want to worry about how much we were spending every time we wanted something to drink on the ship, no matter what it was.

Once on board, we found out that Royal Caribbean provides insulated cups to those cruisers who have drink packages and there are soda/juice machines placed throughout the ship for self-service convenience.

Great, I thought. That will make things easy.

Famous last words.

As a person who only grudgingly drinks coffee and has a very specific acceptable coffee formulation, which can only be concocted at home (for a minimal price) or at Starbucks (for a premium price), I usually opt to get my caffeine fix with Diet Coke while on vacation.  Makes it simpler. And cheaper.

So I was thrilled with the idea of being able to fill my insulated cup whenever I wanted.

We headed to lunch on that first day and I saw numerous people walking around carrying insulated cups. When we asked where they got them, we were told they had been in the cabin upon arrival.

But when we arrived in our cabin after lunch, not an insulated cup was to be found. And, believe me, I searched.

So I knew then that we were going to have to go on a treasure hunt to find ours.

First we stopped at Guest Services and were told that the cups were in our cabin. When we said they weren’t, we were directed to the guy selling drink packages. On his table, there were dozens and dozens of those shiny plastic insulated cups. I think I started salivating, just a little. (Oh, and by the way, there were a LOT of people selling a LOT of stuff that first day – drink packages, internet packages, spa packages, port tours, fancy watches – you name it – they were selling it!)

We waited while the harried salesperson finished selling several drink packages and handed the cruisers their prized insulated cups. When he turned to us in anticipation of selling us a drink package and we told him we’d already purchased it, we pointed to the cups on his table and said we just needed two of those. But he dismissively told us that if our drink cups were not in our cabin upon arrival, they would be delivered there later that day.

Okayyy. By this point, we had threaded through the long lines at Embarkation and had wandered around the ship trying to get our bearings, and had been to lunch where I’d only had a small glass of water. I was still parched, but figured I would eventually get my drink cup and my thirst would finally be quenched.

Ha.

We again went back to our cabin where we found our suitcases awaiting us (a major relief!) so we unpacked our bags to be all ready for our week-long vacation.

I was still pretty thirsty, but was trying to be patient about my drink cup.

We met our stateroom attendant (who was new to the job). I gave her a big tip hoping to get good service throughout the week and asked her about the cups. She said she would check on them and we should have them by the end of the evening.

So we changed for dinner and wandered around the ship a little more and eventually found a bar. Oh, who am I kidding? You can find a bar every five steps on a cruise ship. But maybe I should say we found one that looked like fun.

So we asked the bartender for lots and lots of water, but also ordered several mixed drinks. Fortunately, insulated drink cups were not required for mixed drinks. And, also fortunately, our badges proved we had paid for the drink package, so we didn’t have any hoops to jump through to get a simple gin and tonic.

We sucked down those drinks – probably because we were both so thirsty by that point. This certainly didn’t help our dehydration problem any, but we were just glad to have something cold and wet to drink. While there, we met some fellow passengers and had ourselves a fine ol' time.

Eventually, we headed to dinner, which was also fun, not to mention tasty.

By the time we returned to our cabin late that night, we fully expected two shiny, brand-new insulated cups to be sitting on the table awaiting our first fill of caffeinated bliss the next morning.

Nope. Not there.

Hunh. I was getting a little perturbed by this point. I mean, how many people I gotta talk to to get a stinkin’ plastic cup??

Fortunately, it was nighttime and I was not in any dire need of caffeine. But I knew I couldn’t last two days without it.

Vince, on the other hand, wasn’t as concerned about the cup as I was. He drinks very little soda. For him, caffeine comes in a simple cup of hot, black coffee. Or three. He’s easy. But he also wasn’t caffeine-deprived like I was.

When we got up the next morning and saw our room attendant, she reported that the cups still had not materialized. 

Arrrgghh!

So we walked to the main dining room. You should know, by the way, that our cabin was in the front of the ship and the dining room was in the back of the ship. I could get all fancy and go all “fore” and “aft” and “starboard” and “port” on you – but I’d have to look it up to be sure I knew what I was talkin’ about and I don’t wanna ‘cause I’m getting mad all over again about my drink cup!

Anyway, suffice it to say, it was a L-O-N-G walk from the front of that ship to the back.

Okay, I couldn’t stand not knowing this part, so I did check so I could estimate how many miles a day we walked. Allure of the Seas is 1,188 feet long and we walked to the main dining room and back twice a day. Not to mention all the other places we walked to on the ship. And all the places we got lost on the ship and had to backtrack. Yep, just as I suspected – that’s a lotta walkin’!

Vince kept telling people if we invented an “Uber” for getting around the ship we could make a lot of money. And most people agreed with him.

Anyway, we went to breakfast in the main dining room and I was – seriously – so dehydrated that I could barely form enough spit in my mouth to speak. When the server asked if I wanted coffee, I just looked at her and started crying, which rather shocked and horrified me (not to mention her).  But I plaintively cried, “I…just…want…a…Diet Coke!”

Then I blubbered out the whole story about the apparently impossible-to-get insulated cup. She solicitously patted my shoulder and scrambled to get me a Diet Coke – all the while probably wondering what sort of crazy person she was dealing with.

And then she called over some other lady who looked pretty official. I mean, she had on a white shirt with epaulets and everything. So that lady called someone and told them to get the insulated cups to our cabin stat.

They probably had a good laugh later about the deranged blonde woman who cried over not having an insulated cup – which I could hardly blame them for – but they were nice enough not to laugh in front of me.

Vince and I finished breakfast (where I had not one but TWO small glasses of Diet Coke, so I was sufficiently caffeinated by the end of the meal). And, because our first port of call in the Bahamas was that day, we disembarked without any cups. But, fortunately, there was a guy on the gangway handing out bottles of cold water, so we weren’t at risk of further dehydration.

Once we arrived back on the ship and returned to our cabin, there was a knock at the door and – voila! – our room attendant was standing there with a big grin on her face holding up two insulated cups!! I shouted, “Bless you!” and all but snatched them out of her hands. She just grinned some more and then apologized for the delay.

I didn’t care – I was just happy to have them!

But here’s the interesting thing. I didn’t spend much time on the level where the drink machines were – consequently, I didn’t drink a lot of Diet Coke on the ship.

But at least I had enough to quench my thirst and get sufficiently caffeinated so as not to annoy Vince. 

Oh, and by the way, both the server and her supervisor sought me out later that evening during dinner to make sure that I (a) got my insulated cup and (b) was not having any further meltdowns over caffeine and/or plastic drinkware. 

That was brave of them, eh?!

No, but seriously, I was touched that they followed up like that. And no more tears were shed the entire rest of the cruise. This is a good thing because, after all, I was on vacation.

We made a habit of loading up on the beverages whenever we stopped at one of the many pool bars. We'd order a bottle of water, a can of Diet Coke, and a fancy mixed drink with fruit stuck in it. We wanted to make sure the fridge back in our cabin was well-stocked. Well, except for the fancy drink with fruit stuck in it. Those we drank sitting by the pool and hot tub. 

When we were gathering all our belongings at the end of our trip and it came time to pack up the drink cups, I considered NOT bringing them home with me. For about a second and a half. After all, we have a cabinet full of insulated drink cups and these, frankly, didn't keep the ice from melting like some of our other cups do.

But there was NO WAY I wasn't going to bring these suckers home given how much I had to go through to get them! So in our bags they went. And when I look at them now, I can only shake my head and laugh. 

And, really, I wouldn't have had to write two L-O-N-G blogs about this vacation if our shuttle bus driver had taken us directly from Point A (Miami Airport) to Point B (the correct Hyatt Place hotel in Ft. Lauderdale). And if my drink cup had been in the cabin upon arrival. I mean, what else could I have talked about? 

The monkeys in St. Kitts? The pretty jewels Vince bought me? The production of "Mama Mia" we saw? 

Yeah. Maybe. But they may not be nearly as entertaining. I'll work on it...