I have alluded to an upcoming vacation a few times on The Havens. This morning as I was making coffee and putting Jim’s lunch together, he came up to me and put his arms around me and pulled me close, and said gleefully “Three weeks from today is Mike Hahn’s birthday party.”
This makes no sense unless you understand that Mike Hahn’s “Birthday” Party is an EVENT, held annually on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. It involves large quantities of blues musicians getting together out in the woods with a similarly large quantity of blues fans, food, alcohol, and includes a bonfire. This is an event much anticipated by our community, and this year it also marks the official beginning of our vacation, because we are going straight from the party (an all night event) to the airport from whence we fly to Spain.
We are going on another Seabourne Cruise. This time we are starting from the Spanish coast on the Mediterranean, sailing through the Straights of Gibraltar, and across the Atlantic to Florida. Since the cruise actually begins the day before Thanksgiving, we decided we were not interested in flying to Europe, or anywhere for that matter, during that particular holiday, so we decided to leave for the cruise early and spend a few days at the port where we are meeting our ship.
We have been planning this for over a year, saving for it, paying for it. Jim has been surfing the web and finding good places to eat. We already have our plane tickets to Spain and home from Florida, hotel reservations, we already have our train tickets from Madrid to the coastal city where we meet our ship, and we already have it all paid for plus a substantial amount of spending money set aside. Needless to say, we also have credit cards with rather large (unused) credit limits for emergencies, but we don’t anticipate having to use them. So, when we get home, we won’t be spending the next year paying for our vacation. Instead, we can start planning the next one.
Anyway, there has been quite a great deal of excitement around the Havens surrounding this event. The tuxedo had to be altered, as the gentleman who wears it has lost quite a lot of weight since it was originally acquired. I can testify that schlepping boxes of produce around for several hours each day will encourage weight loss as well as nice development of pectorals and biceps.
I have had a secret desire for strappy silver sandals ever since I was in my early twenties, and I finally succumbed to the blandishments of Zappo’s website and ordered up a pair. They are all that anyone could desire, and they fit too. Personally, I think they are darned cute, and they satisfy some atavistic desire that I have been harboring for several decades.
Yep, them’s my feet they are on, you can tell by the dragon tattoo. I don’t want to hear any guff about heels ruining my knees, hips, and ankles either. They aren’t much of a heel and I don’t intend to do much walking in them. I figure that they should last me the rest of my life, given how often I wear dress shoes.
I moved the plants into the house, and as per its usual custom, the Christmas Cactus got religion and proceeded to bloom like crazy. It is ornamenting the dining room plant shelves quite spectacularly.
I’ve been doing so well with the pink african violet my friend Sharon gave me several years ago when she moved to Nevada, that one of my clients showed up with a new one for me. This one is a gorgeous royal purple. I love it. Hope it loves me.
Out in the front garden the fall blooming crocuses are putting on a show.
Look at all the shoots at the base of that cluster. There will be blossoms for several days, especially since the nights have turned cool. They really are lovely things, especially when you get up close and personal.
Well, I’d rattle on, but we are going on a DATE tonight, out to a place up on the Lake where one of our friends’ bands is playing a gig this evening. We are going up early to eat, and will probably even Dance….
Gotta go take a shower and think about what to wear!
the havens 