{"id":401,"date":"2013-09-09T05:48:28","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T15:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/?p=401"},"modified":"2013-09-09T05:47:47","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T15:47:47","slug":"memories-are-made-of-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/?p=401","title":{"rendered":"Memories are made of this"},"content":{"rendered":"

The wife and her friends went to some video pitch for a\u00a0cruise last week.<\/p>\n

Someone said “Let’s cruise”, her eyes lit up and she was off.<\/p>\n

I didn’t go because that’s about the same as going to a free time share dinner in my book.<\/p>\n

So she comes home all fired up with us taking an Alaska cruise next year.<\/p>\n

With her friends, of course.<\/p>\n

I was saying “okay, whatever you want” and everything was fine until she got to this part:<\/p>\n

“It’ll make memories for us in case one of us dies.”<\/p>\n

Whoa, huh?<\/p>\n

“If you die I’ll have memories of you and if I die you’ll have memories of me.”<\/p>\n

You have to understand this is her being romantic.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I have to take what\u00a0I can get.<\/p>\n

We’ve been together 20 years.<\/p>\n

I got so many memories I have to open my brain once a month and shake some out to make room for new stuff.<\/p>\n

\"cruise-shuffleboard-sized\"<\/a>Regardless of what the salesperson told them, you go on a cruise to eat, drink and sleep and watch the water.<\/p>\n

Or if you’re on Carnival Cruise, drift with no electricity, toilets or food for a week.
\nThe new version of camping out.<\/p>\n

I’ve been on cruises before she and I met.<\/p>\n

Back when I was a TV news guy, we went on a\u00a07-day around the islands cruise for a story on the industry.<\/p>\n

We stopped at Kona, Hilo, Maui and Kauai each for a day\u00a0so people could go ashore and buy stuff like puka shell necklaces and t-shirts saying stuff like “I saw Hawaii from a ship”.<\/p>\n

My problem was the cameraman with me was a boozer and spent so much time in the ship’s bar his video was mostly worthless.<\/p>\n

Interesting trip.<\/p>\n

In between trying to get a nice story, I ate a lot, sat around a lot, hung on the rail watching things a lot, and watched him drink a lot.<\/p>\n

Cruises make lots of stops so people can go on tours so you have other things to do besides sit around a lot.<\/p>\n

The concept today is a floating hotel that finds you in a different city each day.<\/p>\n

Cruise ships also have lots of on-board activities\u00a0to keep people from getting bored.<\/p>\n

This one has tea tasting, beer tasting, yoga,\u00a0learning Windows 8, topped by a tour of the ship’s kitchen.<\/p>\n

Geesh, I can do that stuff at home if I wanted to.
\nWhich I don’t.<\/p>\n

I suppose some people find that exciting.
\nI don’t see how.<\/p>\n

I’m betting what she finds exciting is the all the time she can sit around and talk with her girlfriends.<\/p>\n

I think I might understand now what she was saying.<\/p>\n

That stuff is going to kill me and she’ll have her memories.<\/p>\n

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