Augie

Not at all! She seems quite content shackled in the basement. At least, I can’t hear her screaming any more, but that might be the awesome new sound bar on the TV. 😋 We are different in what we enjoy which makes the vacation thing tricky. I like small, quality cruises, she gets motion sickness but can pull it off with meds. That effectively crosses off my intrigue with a cool train ride (mostly in the bar car!) thru the mountains. Seems like once would be enough, but s bucket list item. She hates heat, I hate cold. I’d love to go to Hawaii, but the last time we flew to wine country she couldn’t wait to get off the plane, while half were continuing on to Hawaii. She felt bad for them, while I was jealous. Hawaii is too far for her, but she can fly to NYC to connect to Spain, no problem. There are certain places we both like to visit, but I’m getting sick of repeat destinations, hence the desire for new ideas. Now that Italy apparently canceled AGAIN I want to find something new and special without crossing borders.

I do very little caffeine, just an Arnold Palmer (half lemonade, half unsweetened tea) or two at lunch. The exception is when I’m driving long distance. Then I bring out the Big Guns and drink Diet Mountain Dew while munching on salt and vinegar chips. I don’t know how or when that started, but that is the routine. My wife used to do a Diet Mt Dew early in the afternoon until she realized how much she missed it when it didn’t happen. She decided to quit it all together and struggled. She’d even call or text on days when she fell of the wagon. She went thru a period of some pretty intense headaches trying to get off the devil’s juice!

I’ve got to tell you, I lived In Hilton Head, SC and work took me to Charleston and Columbia regularly. It was WAY hotter there than Sarasota. I promise! It NEVER hit 100 in Sarasota (the weatherman even said it, get past 95 and you get a thunderstorm. BOOM, back to 75), but did regularly in HHI. Like 3 straight weeks when I worked construction there during a summer in college. Funny story, I was nervous about SW FL after a dozen years in HHI. Moved to Sarasota in 1993, before everyone had a computer and printer in every room, and I went into a place to get resumes’ printed. The ladies in there were in a back room and didn’t here me come in. I heard one say “I just came back from the hottest two %$^ $%#^ weeks of my life in %^%^$#% Hilton Head!” That gave me hope!

Being an “east coast guy”, I’ve been mildly surprised by how many west coast options are here. Well……maybe not. I’m all about new stuff, so I find that kind of exciting. It’s easy for us to drive to Blowing Rock, or Highlands NC. But I know what to expect there. I want to experience new places and new things. My sisters have a thing for Christmas where they prioritize experiences over things. I absolutely LOVE it! One year my older sister skipped every gift all year (birthdays, anniversary’s, Christmas, etc.) and did a budget trip to Paris in the cheap December window. Probably didn’t PAY for the trip, but it went a long way. The other sister is a traveling maniac! This year they are in Kitty Hawk, NC for Christmas. It changes every year, and they have memories that will last far longer than those sweaters we got that we didn’t like, barely fit and wound up at Goodwill when we needed to make space.

The heat gets annoying, just like the gray and cold does up north. It’s not that any one day is so hot, or so cold, but the season lasts a LONG time. I happen to like the heat. My wife hates it. Hence, our (MY) goal is a place in FL for 6 months and a day, to qualify as a resident and avoid state income taxes and get homestead exemption (your property taxes can only go up like 2-3% a year as a resident) and have a place to avoid the heat and get a break in the hottest months. I kinda like it, but the wife can’t handle the duration. For close to 6 months in Sarasota it’s a low of 75 and a high of 90 give or take 2-3 degrees. VERY consistent, but too long for her. .

Let the legend begin!

Most of the middle of the state is farmland, miles and miles of farming, not marsh, that produces your citrus and tomatoes. As you get up near Ocala it’s horse country and looks a lot like Kentucky. Be careful @JaCrispy who you listen to here. Also be careful with your timing on a buy in the area. A lot of people have been looking at GA and SC as far less expensive alternatives, so that’s worth looking into as well. Still mild winters, and not so ridiculously expensive. .

He needs better friends. I think we all know that.

But is he……”Immunized”?

It gets hotter inland, just be aware of that. If you’re not in a flood zone the insurance isn’t too bad. Most people want to be near the water and beaches, however, and then you pay. Unfortunately, nowhere I know of in the state is reasonably priced right now. Not great timing. My goal in life is to get at least a part time place back in Sarasota. We lived there 18 years, longer than I lived in WNY leaving for college at 17. I looked a couple month ago at our old neighborhood of over 400 houses. Not a single active listing, so I expanded to the place we rented our last year there (so our son could finish high school where he started). Now this is over a thousand houses between two neighborhoods….and there was only ONE active listing. A few more listings now, but they feel they can ask anything they want. Sarasota in particular is a hot market, but I’m not sure what areas are much better. Smaller places with less “culture” are far more affordable, but it depends on what you are looking for. I’m OK without the symphony or the opera, but I like the restaurants and bars, etc Sarasota offers. I was an appraiser there for 13 years after my banking days and watched the ups and downs. Going up 35% two years in a row is insane! That means roughly a $200k house (the cheapest thing in Sarasota then) went to $365k in 24 months. That’s what happened back then. Unsustainable. Then came the first quarter of 2006, and you couldn’t GIVE real estate away there. I’m hoping my roughly 5 year time line works out to buy back at the next bottom. I don’t know your situation, but I’d be careful about buying at the top, then finding yourself under water. I hope you find your dream place, whenever and wherever that may be. Good luck! .

No idea what the conditions would be at cruise time, but have always wanted to see Vancouver. It would be a bummer to be there and not get a taste, but who knows what the rules might be at that point……or tomorrow.

IMO, no. This is a fluid situation, and you change as the information changes. Can they regret the timing? Does it suck on some level? Yep, of course, but reducing the number of games missed makes this a better league with more players eligible, and I think that’s what most people want.

I left the strip one summer day, and by the time we got to the Reservation it FELT like winter. It must have dropped 25 degrees. I had to buy the worlds UGLIEST sweatshirt to stay warm, which it felt like it was kind of a joke on us tourists. That thing went to Goodwill as soon as we got home, but should have stayed in the hotel room! Never did the train ride, but I am curious about those upscale trains thru beautiful scenery and mountains. Like Orient Express, but nobody gets killed hopefully. Also interested in an Alaskan cruise as I know the wife would like that, but then we are likely dealing with borders and such again with Canada. It can be fine when you leave, but the situation is so fluid I don’t know what to trust.

Wait, you said we are 100% out if we lose, but all kinds of other things have to happen. That does not sound like 100% to me.

I have twice, on trips to Vegas, taken the helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon for a little picnic. It is both breathtaking and humbling! (On the second trip friends surprised us with this rather extravagant adventure, and we didn’t have the heart to let on that we had done it before!)

I mean, I had heard of Sedona, but never really knew much about it. It certainly looks intriguing. The wife had a birthday ending in a zero last year, and her special treat was almost a month in Blowing Rock, NC and the thing we did most was hike. Nothing overly exhausting or difficult, but tons of nice trails. We were lucky to have friends with a place near there to show us the ropes and take us to the coolest spots. That could be part of our annual routine one day when the wife retires.

I want some of what he’s having!!! 😋

Sometimes the wife is working while there, and I still love it as I can catch a comedian or magician during the day, have a great dinner then catch another show together at night. Unbelievable entertainment options, and just laying by the pool people watching is one low key form of that.

Years ago we went to Bar Harbor and stayed at a BEAUTIFUL place. To that date it was the most we ever spent (of our own money, not the bank’s) for a room. It would have been awesome….except my wife was chairing the Catholic Charities Ball for the first time that year, and the Bishop basically nixed the entire plan, from the title of the ball to the location to the invitations. (She fought back on location, and won with “if you want people who are going to write $25k checks, it HAS TO BE at the Ritz. They don’t go to Denny’s.”). She worked the entire vacation for something she was doing as a volunteer, while I vacationed mostly alone. She knocked it out of the park, and he later acknowledged she was right. He even started coming to our son’s football games. I wanted to choke him, but we warmed up. Ahhh, memories…. Bar Harbor is indeed a beautiful and worthy destination! My sisters are pushing Bryce Canyon, and that is breathtaking! Is it near anything? Our only trip to Utah was a brief stop in Salt Lake City before a ski trip in Park City, which is nice. I’m done skiing (never loved it anyway), but I still like ski towns and a taste of snow.

Not really a gambler, but the wife will play some blackjack. Having said that, I’ve never been to Vegas without having a good time. There is SO MUCH more to do than gamble. Really, @plenzmd1, it’s true!

They went to Kauai and Maui and had a GREAT time. Even two plus decades ago I found that I preferred Sonoma to Napa for some reason. We would have benefited from better local knowledge I’m sure, but it was a FANTASTIC trip. We started in San Francisco and then went south seeing Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, Pebble Beach and all that. We went up to a spa in Calistoga (north of Napa and Sonoma I think) and did the whole wine country thing. Probably my second favorite vacation after Spain and a Windstar cruise form Barcelona to Lisbon. Only about 300 passengers on a ship with masts, not one of the HUGE ships with 4-5k. It was another Windstar cruise we were hoping to take (Italy and Croatia) the next year, but……Covid stuff happened. You might have seen it in the news.

Personally, I’ve always viewed him just as I do now, but a lot of people may have had their eyes opened this season. Some argue that his trying to skirt the Covid rules would hurt his MVP chances. I could play devil’s advocate and argue that helped to demonstrate his value, because WITH him I think they win that game.

You know I like it nice and warm!

Way back when, on our visit to wine country, we did a winery tour. My sister in Rhode Island kept our young kids while we were out there. I’m not sure how many wineries into the trip we were when we decided to send them a case of nice wine we loved as a thank you for keeping the kids. Later, when sober and I realized how much we spent, I had to call and say “HEY! That’s not cooking wine!” Haha My wifes favorite was Silver Oak Cabernet. I started getting her that for special events like anniversaries, birthdays, etc. We had a wine storage closet so I thought it would be fine. I saw a bit on the news that wine doesn’t last the way it used to. I went in and opened a bottle and sure enough…..it had gone bad! These things are like $100 each, and it went bad! We had a whole bunch of them at that point. We declared open season on the Silver Oak, and sure enough….the first one I opened was the ONLY one that had gone bad. We had some mighty fine wine for a while there!

It’s funny, but our “type” is not something I can define. We are NOT rustic camping types. Beyond that, we are wide open. My wife hates heat, and I hate cold. In February we will be married for 38 years, so we make it work. I will be just fine if I never ski again, but I love ski trips. I can visit cold and I love snow as long as I have a flight home already booked. We lived very near the beach for 30 years and rarely went, but now I love walking the beach and listening to the waves. I like college towns, the wife loves the mountains to avoid summer heat. We are WIDE OPEN, but desperately want to replace the nixed Italy trip with something nice. It’s not like we haven’t’ been anywhere in the last year. Our son got married in Asheville, NC (Grove Park Inn, which is beautiful!), Chicago for a wedding, Buffalo for the Bills opener, Sarasota, FL while she worked and I played, Blowing Rock, NC for 3 weeks for her birthday, and I’m forgetting stuff. That’s pretty good for 2021, but none were that “special vacation”. They were more like long weekend things.