reflect on their life?
So dear friend and I got back from our annual jaunt to South Carolina a couple of days ago. It was so warm and muggy, just the way we like it. I always say that hot, muggy weather is perfect unless you have to work outside. Then it’s miserable.
We visited our favorite restaurant, Alexander’s, with reservations I made four weeks before the trip. Dinner lived up to our expectations. Wiener Schnitzel and mashed potatoes. Carrots rounded it out. And of course for me, a dry gin martini with three olives. Yummy!
We had a few bumps in the road as traveling companions who were embarking on their 19th trip to the South. I admit I was a little stressed from having to arrange transportation, including a car from TURO. Let’s just say that was a learning experience.
Dear friend likes a drink, or two or three with dinner, and then finishes the night off with a couple glasses of vodka on ice. Hence the bumps in the road. She gets a little confrontational, and being that I’m usually ready to sleep by that time, well, it can strain the relationship sometimes.
Anyway, here are some things I observed on our trip. First, I noticed (actually I noticed this ages ago) that some people are savers and some are immediate users. This pertains to the little cookies you get on the plane. Or the pretzels they give you. Or the bottled water they pass out because they say there isn’t enough time to bring out the beverage cart, and because they ran out of cookies on the last flight. I find it interesting that some people gobble and drink everything right away and others stow it in their carry-on for later. So dear friend is an immediate drinker and eater, and I save everything for “later.” I have actually come across little packages of cookies that I’ve stowed on previous vacations while packing for a new vacation. I guess I always want to be sure I have a little something if I get stranded in a cave or something. The same is true of the tiny sanitary wipes they pass out as you enter the plane. Our last flight on our way back didn’t hand any out, so I suppose they ran out of those, too.
Another thing that you can hardly not notice is that since the pandemic the service industry is going downhill. The high end hotel we treated ourselves to all but dispensed with maid service. You could ask at the front desk for anything you might need, but needed to give 24 hour notice to ask for maid service. The safe in our room didn’t work. On one of the rainy days, bath towels were left one the floors in front of the entrance to the hotel I guess so no one would slip. Although one could easily trip on the towels. It was weird. Also, my seat on one of the flights had a pocket hanging down to the floor, containing the emergency information. The guy next to me pulled down his tray table and it fell to the ground. Yup, things aren’t getting fixed. What will things be like in five years if this crap continues?
Well, I guess that’s all my rants and musings for today.
Adios
Musings over 50 