Submarine family – Dec 27, 2003
Here are Shannon, Andy, and Mark in the dining area (mess hall?) of a WWII-era submarine in Baltimore. Great Art courtesy of my good old Minolta camera, taken during our holiday trip to Baltimore that year, and part of my famous Shannon, Machinery, and Vacation series.
My mom went home today. We had a very nice visit and she really helped me over some very large humps. More humps to go, of course, but she was here during a very difficult time. Thanks, Mom.
Mark and I had a quiet day. We stayed inside and pretty much relaxed. Had stuff from the freezer for dinner – not much excitement there, but it was fine.
I had a fairly long conversation with my PhotoDoc partner John this evening. His speech at the AAFS conference was today, and the response was excellent! He had several people come up to him after the speech and ask him how to get a copy of our software. We have it available for download as a demo, but I still haven’t set up the payment system for it. Need to get that accomplished this weekend.
My brothers and sisters got together and sent us a bunch of frozen meals! They arrived today. It all looks great! Thanks so much, brothers and sisters! Mark and I will get a lot of mileage out of that excellent stuff.
And now we come to what might be my best idea of the day or possibly my worst idea of the day. I was going through my emails today (including all the numerous emails directed to Shannon – I’m working on getting her various subscriptions undone) and I saw one from Carnival Cruise Lines. They’ve suffered a bit of bad PR in recent years, and the deals seem pretty good right now. I signed up for one leaving at the beginning of March and spending a week on the Mexican Riviera. Well, it spends a few days at sea, but there are two days in Cabo San Lucas and one day in Puerto Vallarta. The price was quite reasonable, and they’re not even charging me extra for occupying a cabin by myself.
I’m still trying to decide whether this is a good idea or not. I’ve been on a bunch of memorable cruises with Shannon, including one to the Mexican Riviera four years ago this month, and I’m very worried that being on a ship by myself and going places Shannon and I visited before will be too depressing for words. Even if that doesn’t happen, I’m worried being on a cruise by myself will be boring. Could happen. Especially if I can’t convince myself to get out of the cabin, be with people, and even – horrors! – make a friend or two.
Things in favor of going: I’ve always loved cruising, it may be really good for me to get away and think and be alone, I haven’t been on a real vacation since before Shannon got sick, and I really want to get my new life started.
Should I wait a bit longer? Maybe. I don’t know. Doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve already paid for the trip. I’m going. I asked both my sisters and my daughter if they thought it was a good idea, and the vote was unanimous in the affirmative. Plus, it’s already paid for. Did I mention that? And the price was great. I’ll try to remember to take some pictures.
Note to house burglars – Mark will still be home. So you can just go ahead and burgle somebody else’s house.
Emotions rose to the surface only once today. I don’t call that either good or bad. It’s just what happened today. All I know is I miss Shannon.
And I’ll let that be all for today. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: yawning chimp!
See you on Monday.