Ladies Shoes

After a considerable amount of walking the past few days I've have been noticing something strange to me.   I've given up my flippers on the long walks in favor of a pair of socks and running shoes.  My shoes have given me the support that I have needed.  No sores or blisters, just some tired puppies at the end of the day.  I'm back in my flippers before dark.

Ladies, on the other hand, are a complete puzzle to me when it comes to shoes.  First, how can anybody walk in 3 inch stacked heels without falling face down.  Second, those heels with the pointy toes.  No wonder so many women are paying for pedicures so often!  Third, those flat soles shoes.  There is no way that those flat things are giving these girls any of the arch support that they need! Fourth, girls and women shell out $100's of dollars for a pair of Uggs.  I'm sorry, but the cold season in the South is far too short to justify a pair of Uggs.  Fifth, cheap shoes from pay less.  You fill up you closest with these things, and the next thing you know, a heel has popped off, or a strap has snapped, or a buckle is not missing.

A woman can have fifty pairs of shoes in her closet, and as soon as a new style comes out, off to the store they go!  A women shouldshould be able to make do with 10 pairs of shoes.  A man, after all, only needs five pair:  one black, one brown, one athletic, one boot and one pair of flippers.

So ladies,  what's with these multitude of shoes in the closet, and none of them purchased for comfort????


       

Take me to the Zoo!

One of my bucket list items has always included a trip to the San Diego Zoo.  My opportunity came this week when the Spousal Unit brought me along on a business trip.

I'm not much on doing anything solo, but with the spousal unit in conferences for most of the trip, I'm on my own.  If there is one thing to bring plenty of, its money, money, money!  Got a cranberry scone, cinnamon swirl roll and cranberry juice for $10, which was a whole lot less than the $24 breakfast buffet.

I had planned to go to both the Zoo and the Animal Safari, until I found out that the taxi fare each way was a minimum of $90.  Since I decided to narrow it down to one place, the $20 taxi ride to the Zoo won out!

I don't do taxi rides much, but here it is pretty much a necessity.  Some of the cabbies are full of good information, while others are just full of it!  The taxi ride was a short one, taking me thru some interesting parts of the city.  San Diego is a very urban city, with lots of inhabitants living in fancy, expensive condos and others living on the streets below.

We passed through Balboa Park on the way to the zoo.  I noticed what looked like a "tent city" and one cabbie said that was exactly what it was.  Accommodations have been set up in the park to see to the homeless, with lots of consideration to military veterans that have lost their way.

Soon as we made the turn, I knew we had arrived.  The parking lot was already full of cars.  The entrance was packed with families, young and old, pushing strollers and wheel chairs.

The money changers greeted you at the gate.  A fee for admission ($46), a fee for the 4D movie, fee for the locker, stroller or wheel chair if you needed one and also the electric scooter.

The zoo is built on hilly terrain, so not all exhibits are accessible by the handicapped.  Your price of admission included a guides tour bus trip thru 70% of the park.  This ride gives you a great first look at the zoo before you begin your trek by foot.  There are also bus pickup stations throughout the park if your feet can't take it anymore.  Also, a gondola ride will take you to opposite ends of the park.

Midway thru my visit, I stopped to get some lunch.  A wrap, fries and water were only $21.  Taking time out for food breaks can be a relaxing time.  You can sit back, enjoy your food, and take in a
All of the animal calls you can hear in the background, sounds like babies crying, kids screaming, and other languages being spoked at every other table.  I looked up, after hearing one infant in particular that was screaming his little head off!  Before I could guess which end was the problem, that momma had whipped out her feeding station, and before you knew it, that baby was in milk heaven.  Tried posting a pic on FB, but it must have fit a certain profile, and it would not up date anything.  Oh well, I think you have a mental picture!

The Zoo more than met my expectations.  The exhibits were well designed and maintained.  I was surprised by how much vertical space was used.  It was as if we were the ones being put on exhibit!

$20 more and i was back at the hotel.  $9 later I was sitting back writing this blog post with a snicker bar and a diet Pepsi.  Time to rest up a bit, before the spousal unit gets here and wants to do something fun.  (My poor tired aching feet!)

Tomorrow I tackle the USS Midway and hopefully that truck food that I missed on Friday.

Still having the time of my  life.  Glad I'm able to share some of it with you thru these blog posts!  God bless!

Take Me out to the Ball Game

Having a free high, tvendors?sal Unit and I decided to take in a baseball game at Petco Park.  Tonight it was the Padre's vs the Mets.

I had ordered the tickets wth a will call pickup.  This afternoon I walked from the hotel to the park and back.  Naturally, once I got to the park wouldn't you know the ticket office was on the other side!

On the trip I walked through the Gas Lamp District.  This is a historical section of town full of bars and restaurants.  If I was twenty plus years younger, I'd give it a run!

Petco Park is nestled within the downtown area.  So!e of the older buildings have been incorporated into the design of the park.  It is very compact, with very little wasted space.

The Padre's year has not been very good this year, but you couldn't tell it tonight, winnoimg 6-0.  The walk along the concourse was full of activity.  The Wall Street Journal was giving away t-shirts and blankets with you signing up for delivery.  There were booths selling Padre souvenirs, but they were also selling used Padre baseball equipment, including balls, bats, jerseys and bases.

And the food vendors, OMG!  I had heard that different ballparks have specialty foods.  This place had it all?  They had beer vendors, the had wine vendors, and even tequila vendors!  The food was unbelievable!  I had a southwestern cheese steak that was out of this world.  It was a hard choice, bit man it was good!

I met a retired school teacher that has season tickets.  I was amazed at her knowledge of baseball, and especially Padre's baseball.  She also gives tours on the USS Midway, and I'm going to look her up on Monday.

We enjoyed our experience so much that we are going to seek out other ball parks on future trips!  Given the chance, treat yourself to America's past time, and go to the ball park!

Hotel Del Coronado

Wow.  San Diego is a city compacted into a small space.  Here I'm thinking I'm going to the big ole State of California and this town is gonna be spread out for miles!

We took a taxi from the airport and a hop, skip and a jump, we were at the harbor.  We immediately saw four "food trucks" parked on the curb, next to all places, The Cheesecake Factory.  Just might have to make the journey back there during our stay to sample all five!

We also passed by the USS Midway, which is now a museum.  We have an event scheduled there that won't be missed.  I took this picture from our room of it from the 18th floor.

Even though this wasn't a super carrier, I was expecting it to be bigger.  It was commissioned in 1945, so it served on the tale end of WWII, through the cold war til 1992.  It just blows me away to think those pilots had to first find it, approach it, then stick there landing on the thing they called home out in the middle of the ocean!

Since we got here in the middle of the day, we were not about to waste it.  Room wasn't ready,so it was off to a nearby restaurant called Sally's.  It was right next to the pier.  No way were we gonna eat inside!  There is a nice concrete board walk along side the pier.  Lots of tourists strolling by, along with the skateboarders, bicycle cabbies and segway tours.

Back at the hotel, the spousal unit made an inquiry with the concierge desk about the Hotel Del Coronado.  Its located on the beach side of an island in the bay.  Access is by taxi over this huge bay bridge, or by ferry.  We chose to go by Taxi to get the "lay of the land".  Glad we did!

Our taxi driver was a young guy from Russia, who is now a citizen, who first settled in Rochester NY.  I asked him why the move to San Diego?  His reply,  " tired of the cold!".

As we were crossing that huge bridge, we got some interesting information from our taxi tour guide.  The bridge is so high so that all the naval vessels can pass under.  He told us to look at the hills on the left.  That was Tijuana Mexico, that close!  I asked him if he had to go back across empty, or could he nick up a rider along the way.  He services the City of San Diego, and there is a $1,000 fine if he is caught picking up a fare in Coronado.  Of course there are lots of strategies around that, but why risk it?

He dropped us off at the front entrance of the Hotel Del Coronado.  Total fare was around $25.  What a grand place this is.  All the wood moldings and trim were amazing.  We read the history about it along the historical wall.

 The gift shops do a great job promoting the movie star history that evolved.  Marilyn Monroe filmed a movie here, and their was a lot of Judy Garland items for sale.

As we made our way toward the front of the hotel, we passed a lady reading a book just outside of her first floor room.  It was a bungalow setting with beach view access.  I could just imagine the "stars" that have occupied these rooms during the 40's, 50's and 60's.

The beach and beautiful blue water was in sight! There is a convenient concrete boardwalk along the sand's edge.   The hotel staff had begun taking down all the beach cabana setups.  They do more than just chair and umbrella setups.

 You know me, I'm immediately taking in the lay of the land.  No naked women, no thongs, and no surfer dudes!  We saw a group of body boarders catch a wave or two.  There were quite a few lifeguard towers along the beach.  California takes beach safety very serious.

  Off came the shoes and socks!  We made our way across the powdery sand to waters edge. This is not the surgery white sand of the gulf coast.  The beach area is outlined with rocky edges.  A lot of work must go into maintaining this beach for the citizens, hotel guests and tourists. Red flags were up, I'm guessing they mean the same as those along the Florida panhandle.  The first wave caught us by surprise, OMG was that water cold!

You could see ocean going vessels in the distance.  It wasn't long before someone spotted porpoises in the distance.  They entertained us for quite a while!   A future visit here will include a whole day on this beach.

We eventually made it back to the front of the hotel.  We decided to take a taxi to the bayside and take the ferry.   You pay $4.25 each way for the ferry ride, which comes and goes every 30 minutes.  We landed in front of the convention center, and began our walk back to the hotel, taking the boardwalk along the pier.  Business must have been slow, as we were asked to take a ride in lots of bycyle taxi's along the way.  I tried to imagine who the people were as we walked by all of the yachts in the harbor.  I wondered what itr would be like to take a short trip on one of these, with your own personal chef, preparing what ever came to mind, with the freshest of ingredients.  I then chuckled to myself!  We do that at home every weekend in our neighborhood!

We eventually made it back to the room.  Plans were made for more adventures, stay tuned......

Delta Delta Delta

Spousal unit road trip began mighty early, as on the nights before.  Since everything is electronic now, I went online to check on with Delta Delta Delta.

They get ya coming and they get ya going.  My ticket was a frequent flyer that cost $10 to process.  Then you pay $25 for one checked bag.  Only the beginning.

I finally got all the papers printed, then the spousal unit asks "why didn't you do the electronic boarding pass"?  "I do it all the time, and you're killing trees"!  Well darling, its been over two years since I've been on an airplane!

Son's girly friend dropped us off at the airport, all uneventful.  That is until we got to the security gate.  I get a big chuckle when we reach the gate.  I immediately had a flashback to the spring when I went through the screening process to work for TSA.  I quickly came to the conclusion that these people had no documented medical history, because they wanted medical history from every doctor I have seen over the last twenty years.  And these folks were bigger than me!

Spousal unit goes thru the line, hands them her cell phone and they set it on some kind of devise that reads the fancy bar code, on to the next station.  I get up to the head of the line and the guy just looks at my paper boarding pass.  Then he asks " why nights you have the electronic pass?  All business travelers use them.  I was so tempted to tell him my name was Rip Van Winkle who woke up one day at the age of 55 to discover that I had been retired, but, cooler thoughts prevailed.

All of a sudden the sensors went off.  The spousal unit and her two bionic hips done sent the system a blaring.  Those high priced TSA agents went to work!  A million questions and full body pat down.  I'd a just dropped my pants and showed them the two scars!

Flight to Atlanta was a rough one due to weather so no free coke.  Just water and a cookie.  Luck would have it that our departure gate was in the same terminal.  Haven't been thru Atlanta's airport in a long time.  Spent years on American, Southwest, or thru other Delta terminals.  I didn't realize there was an express lane in the terminal.  Two little bitty  fellers just about ran me over!  That would not have been a pretty sight!

I was hoping for a Cinabon  or something like that once we got to Atlanta.  No such luck.  Found a fancy breakfast item.  After I ordered it, I asked the prep girl " now do you call it crap or crape?". She giggled and said "we just call it food"!

Waiting for the next leg was far from boring.  Saw a man with a weird looking toe, so I just had to take a pic.  Spousal Unit went to the rest room, then some feller took her seat.  Another woman got up to get something out of her bag, and some woman took her seat!  And I've never seen so many toe rings on my life!

Next flight was on a brand new airplane.  Somebody forgot to hook up the a/c because it was just blowing hot air.  Stewardess began passing out head phones for a small fee.  WiFi was $7.50 an hour or three hours for $15.  If you wanted a sammich that was $7.99.  I was afraid to go to the head in fear that it was a pay toilet!  Four hours later we had reached our destination, San Diego!

Noticed a lot of bags were  hard skin suit cases.  After seeing them come flying off the conveyor belt, you wonder why people spend that kinda money on them!

Thank you Delta Delta Delta for the safe flight and attempting to empty my wallet!  Now time to plan some adventures!

Bucket List

Heading to San Diego this weekend on a work trip with the Spousal Unit.  Ever since the boys were little, I've wanted to go to the San Diego Zoo.  I mentioned that this was one of my bucket list items on FB and somebody asked me what else was on my list.

Well, here are ten things on my list, but they are in no particular order.

BUCKET LIST

1.  Trip to the San Diego Zoo. Been wanting to do this forever, but the only time I've been that far was a trip to Bakersfield, California to see some friends.  Got Disneyland taken care of during that trip!

2.  Key West, to see the sun rise and sunset in the same day.  This would be watching the sun do a 180 with an unobstructed view.  Figure with an umbrella, chair and my margarita machine, I can "get her done"!

3.  Mardi Gras.  I'm approaching 58 years of age, and I have never been to New Orleans during Mardi Gras season.  Some things ya gotta do once in your life.

4.  Harry Potter ride.  I was too damn big to be able to ride the Harry Potter ride during our last trip to Universal Studios in Orlando.  Kids have been with us down there so many times, they don't enjoy going anymore.  Maybe, just maybe, I will have lost enough inches for the safety harness to come down over my shoulders.  If not, there is always another frozen butter beer!

5.  Take my Grandchildren to Central Florida to the amusement parks.  Boys don't like going much anymore, but hey, there is always hope for the next generation!  Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, Bush Gardens, and even Lego Land are on the list!

6.  Washington DC.  Lots to see there, just never found the time to go.  That's about as far north as I care to go.  The further north you go, the faster things move and happen up there.  That's about as far north as my southern roots can stretch!

7.  Grand Canyon.  Not sure why its on the list.  Long way to ride to look at a big ole hole in the ground.  There is a glass walkway out into the canyon in Arizona (I think), but that ain't my cup of tea.  Something to do with a "respect" for heights!

8.  Ski Trip.  Don't want to ski, mind you, but drinking hot chocolate in front of a fire, tubing down a ski slope, and hot tub dancing with a bunch of naked women can more than make up for busting my ass on a ski slope!

9.  Weddings.  Got two more weddings I want to attend.  Weddings of Son#1 and Son#2 will do me just fine, thank you very much!

10.  Grandchildren.  Guess I gotta have the grands before number 5 can happen.  Just think, its kinda nice to be able to go pick them up, wear them out doing all kinds of wonderful things with/to them, then take them back to their parents at the end of the day, all spoiled and rotten.

This is a pretty simple list.  I think its manageable.  Nothing crazy like bungie jumping, sky diving, or doing a triathlon.  Wev'e got enough timeshare weeks to get most of it done in a reasonable time, if I can keep the spousal unit off the beach!

Pretty Women

I thank God for putting Pretty Women on this planet of ours for me to enjoy.  There is not a day that goes by that I don't spot one, whether its the car in the other lane, the grocery store, some restaurant, or just on the street.

I tend to look for something besides the knockout body or the pretty face.  I must say, the blondes to tend to be the first to turn my head.  A killer smile is usually what knocks me over.  The eyes. Tend to melt my soul.  And the voice is somewhat hypnotic.
There is a lady that works at one of the Home Depots that I work at.  She has some age one her, and you could say that her better years are behind her.  She still wears her hair long, flowing over her shoulders and down her back.  She is quite the sight to see, because her makeup is a bit overdone times ten.  But,  I love to listen to her talk.  She sounds like the first time you hear a songbird in spring.  I always make it a point to say hello to her each visit, just so I can hear her again.

The other day I looked up and three of the sales associates were trying to help this young lady with some brick for a path and retaining wall.  Its unusual to see three of these guys within ten feet of each other, so I knew something was up.  A closer look revealed a young blonde, great figure, complete with tanning booth tan.  I just had to get a closer look.  I went to get a push cart for my trash and to get a little bit closer.  Wow!  No wonder she had three helpers, surprised it wasn't more!

You have heard of the movie "the Bridges of Madison County".  Well, there is also the " Women of Madison County".  When I work over there, I tend to get there early, before the say heats up.  I'm usually set up near the pool chemicals because of the shade.  I'll be working away, and will occasionally be interrupted by one of the many female residents that come in for pool chemicals and such.  These gals are dressed presentable enough, often enhancing their figure, if you know what I mean.  Suddenly, they will turn around, and OMG!  Not a stitch of makeup on!  At Home Depot!  These women would not be caught anywhere else with a naked face!  But, they are working in their yard or pool, end up needing something, and here they come!

The worst ones are the ones I met years ago that knew that they stolen my soul the first time I laid my eyes on them.  These are the ones that can read through my poker face instantly!  For some reason I have never been able to tell any of them "no" to any favor request they make.

Recently, I was power washing one of the entrances to the subdivision.  Lots of cars came and went.  Few took the time to acknowledge I was there.  But then, this car pulls up, window goes down, and a woman with those killer eyes and a smile to boot, said "thank you for what you are doing".  The eyes and smile more than made up for all those others that were too busy!

So, Thank you God, for sending these ladies my way.  It tends to bring sunshine on what are usually boring cloudy days!