Home again

We spent last week in Florida--our annual pilgrimage to Disney World with Bob's folks. I always waver about whether I should announce to the world that we're going to be gone; not that I think there are people out there just waiting for us to go out of town so they can burgle our house, but you never know, I guess.

I had decided not to take the laptop, mostly because it's just so heavy to lug around, but also, when I do take it, I end up spending way too much time on it, reading and answering email, and of course I end up reading websites and wasting time on it, and it just takes too much time, and I really wanted this time to be relaxing. So I took three books and ended up reading about half of one, and I took two knitting projects and only knitted on the plane.

A lot of the time, I slept. Not during the day, of course, but we went to bed fairly early most nights, and I slept in most mornings. Bob and his dad would get up early and hit the park, while his mother and I slept in, piddled around in our rooms, and met them for lunch. Then, after lunch, Bob's mom and dad would do something together, and Bob and I would go off by ourselves, then we'd all meet back up again for dinner and the rest of the evening.

It worked out well. I really didn't spend that much time in the parks at all, and hardly rode anything, but we've been there so many times that the rides don't really matter that much to me, and I decided not to worry about it. I had thought about getting up early on Wednesday morning and going to the Magic Kingdom and riding all the "classic" rides--Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Small World, etc., but by the time I got up, showered, dressed, got breakfast in the food court, caught a bus, etc., I thought, "oh, well," and just rode the People Mover, which is actually probably my favorite ride, and about as exciting as the carousel.

That afternoon turned out to be the most fun of the week for me, I think. Bob's folks were going to have lunch at Epcot, in England, but I didn't really want to, so I met Bob and we went to the golf course for lunch. While we were there, Bob said he had been thinking about playing golf--he'd decided not to play at all during the week, and hadn't brought his clubs--and I said, why not?

He rented some clubs, bought a glove and balls and a collared shirt (we searched until we found the cheapest shirt in the pro shop), paid $8 for me to ride along as a non-player, and he played nine holes. I got to drive the cart, something I'd never done. It was a really enjoyable afternoon, just the two of us out in the wind and the sun, on the beautiful course. I helped him look for lost balls, and brought him clubs, and held the flag while he putted.

I had been really annoyed about my phone that day, too. I hadn't gotten any calls or messages for a couple of days, but that wouldn't be all that unusual. Then I called Bob around 11:30 to see where he wanted to meet me for lunch--I thought it was a little funny that he hadn't called me, but I figured he and his dad were having fun--and when he answered, he said, "Well, finally!" Apparently he'd been trying to call me all morning, and kept getting a busy signal.

When we got together, he tried calling me again, and got a busy signal with me sitting right there, with my phone in my lap. He figured I'd done something to it to make it not work, so, being Bob, he took the phone and went through all the menus, but couldn't see anything that I might have done to tell it to not only accept no calls, but also not to even let them go to voice mail . . .

So I called the customer service line, went through the whole thing about being out of town and my phone not working, and after about a half hour of being put on hold, trying various things, etc., the customer service person said she had no idea, and would have to put in a trouble ticket. Then it came about that it would be "24 to 48 hours" until a service technician would even look at the ticket, and since I was going to be home the next afternoon, there was no point in even bothering to submit it.

After we'd gone through the whole program, of course.

And then they always say, "Is there anything else I can help you with?" Well, no, I guess not. Thanks a lot.

The next morning it was working fine. I figure it's sunspots.