"Fortune is merry, and in this mood will give us anything." (Julius Caesar)

Just got back from Applebees where I feasted on fried shrimp and french fried potatoes. I'm not fond of that restaurant, but Rhoda enjoys it. She had tilapia. Right now I'm taking a break from packing --a chore of which I am also not fond. How many socks? How many shorts? How many shirts, pants, jackets, underwear, shoes? And guesses are hazardous. But if I have my crossword puzzle book and Will Durant's "Story of Philosophy" I may never have to leave the stateroom. Room service is available 7/24 (or is it 24/7?). Oh, did I forget to say that we are leaving tomorrow morning for our cruise. You can read more about it in yesterday's blog, if I remember correctly. We'll be back on Dec. 16 so don't expect any more blogs from me until then. And at that time, I hope I have good news about our gambling fortune. But fortune is fickle.

Till then good friends, have a Happy Hanukkah. Don't forget to light the menorah.

"I love long life better than figs." (Antony & Cleopatra)

In my blog yesterday, I described the suggestion a reader gave me to buy a scooter as a "nudge". Then I realized that the word might be wrongly interpreted as a "noodge", the Yiddish word for a "nag". I meant nudge to be taken as a gentle urging which is what the reader meant, I'm sure. So, if he took it as a nag, I apologize. But it really doesn't take much work to go from nudgeing to noodgeing. Yiddish sometimes gets in the way of what you are really trying to say in English. Be careful out there. Another suggestion I received was that I should get a "Segway" and be the first at Huntington Lakes to have one. The Segway is one of those vehicles where the driver stands up on it and scoots along. Usually you see one of the security guards zinging along on it in the mall. The only problem I have with the Segway is that you can't sit down on it. Whatever. I do appreciate the concern and suggestions I am getting from loving sources. But meanwhile I'm in denial and under the delusion that my mobility will one day miraculously return. Then I shall return to the living.

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It won't be long now before Rhoda and I are off on our cruise to the Southern Caribbean with stops at Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada, Dominica, and St. Thomas. We are leaving on Dec. 6 and returning on Dec. 16. so there won't be any more blogs after this one until we get home. I like to cruise, but I keep thinking about the Titanic, and that we might also hit an iceberg what with global warming and all. One never knows, does one? At any rate, during the war, several wars ago, I had a parachute available in the plane, but never wore it; now on the ship, there will be a life jacket close by, but I'll look foolish wearing it to the dining room, so I won't wear that either. One problem with cruising on a ship that has gambling is how much cash to take with you. I always hazard a guess and find that I usually get lucky and take enough. I'm not a big drinker normally, but aboard ship I drown myself in Pina Coladas--knowing of course that I cannot be arrested for DUI.

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Now, good friends, I have to get back to playing my online game, Jewel Quest, which is driving both of us crazy because we are on Level 5-1 and cannot get out of it. It's a form of solitaire, and we've played this one about 100 times without finishing. I can't wait until Thursday when I won't be tempted to play it any more. Have a Happy Hanukkah.

"Though I look old, I am strong and lusty." (As You Like It)

The other day I received an email from one of my kids with a link to a web site that sells "scooters". Not the kind used by kids, but the kind used by handicapped people...mostly seniors who are not able to walk. Now, I am able to walk--but not very far--without pains in my hips. It's a vascular problem. Now this email, I take it, was a nudge to me to go out and buy one of these ubiquitous machines. Nowadays they are all over the place. Only the elite and chosen elders scoot around in them. The more sedate and lower echelon elderly simply crawl around leaning on their "walkers". And the lesser than the latter cane themselves around town accompanied by their Haitian "nannies". As for me and the "nudge", I just don't feel that I am mentally ready to join the prosthetic brigade, although I realize that physically I belong. When we leave on our cruise in the next few days, the bus leaves us a good distance from the ship, and I would find it to be a slow and excruciating walk. Thus, my spouse has surreptitiously arranged for a wheelchair voyage from bus to ship. I suppose that's a kind of "break-in" training trip as a precursor to the scooter phase of my life. I may have to write a sequel to my Memoirs book to include that chapter.

Cruising is something I never did until we moved down to Florida. It's hard to believe that I've been here retired for twenty-five years. I have thoroughly enjoyed these years, cruising, playing golf, performing in shows, eating out---eating out? We eat out a lot more than we eat in. When I came here I was a strapping youth of 58 looking a lot like Arnold Schwarzenegger, and weighing 162 lbs. of muscle. Now, because of the eating out part of retirement, I have gained a little over a pound a year and I'm now a flabby decrepit elder looking like Father Time. And why do we eat out so much you might ask? Well Rhoda is retired also and naturally doesn't care to cook as much as she once did--even though she is very good at it. I certainly don't blame her for cutting down, and if she doesn't feel like cooking--we go out. This way I will probably gain another pound-a-year so that in 2032 I'll weigh about 225 lbs.

On this cruise, then, I'll be off to a good start to that end, because besides gambling, the other thing you do on a cruise is eat. How can you refuse a juicy roll and butter and chocolate cake for dessert? And if you can't have chocolate cake when you're 83, when will you have it?