CSE-- Pg. 74 SATAN'S HAMMER, Ch.18, pg.160 "Goodnight Sweetheart" epilogue

[Backstage_Gal]

Ohh, I think I know the answer to this one.
It's when a guest suddenly decides to give birth with the new popular "under water method" they have recently brought back, and give birth to a Velociraptor in the middle of the Hippy Dippy Pool, ergo, Code V.

Nebos years of travel to WDW shine through yet again!

 

[nebo]

Yes, I realize I still have another homework paper to grade, but I need to get to the feature presentation before It gets too late.
Yes, there's a chance I may be re writing parts of it again.
theres a good chance that a year from now, I'l come out with "directors cut" version of these next two chapters. And with that convolsationing finished, I shall return to the diary of a mad housenebo.

And to Monica and Kyle, I'm sorry, but don't give up yet, still lots of games left ot make up these lousy 3 games you need. But I eould NOT count on a wild card slot,,, no,, if the Tigers or the wonderful White Sox team from Chicago make the playoffs, it will more than likely only be by winning the Central division.

Why do I think Monica is going to be cheering as she's reading this chapter?

 

[fsmith2845]

Even as a kid when I first heard that expression I used to say, to the point of being annoying, "You mean their breath smelled like nightcrawlers? YEWWW"

Being from the coast and fishing mostly salt water in the Chesapeake Bay, breath wouldn't smell of nightcrawlers, but of sun baked squid... double yewww!!

Frank, you came intot he DVC early on in life , compared to most folks. If that would have been us we'd probably be like you, but since we started out looking for any and every deal we could catch to go there, we ended up with the "scattergun" system, trying all of them, whichever was cheapest at the time.

But I'll e honest, our friends have OKW as a home resort, and we never want to stay there. Visited it a couple times, but , uh uh, and the feeling is mutuel for Saratoga Springs, they just seem too much like an over 55 retirement community in Arizona.

But man,, when the DVC opens at Grand Floridian,,,, that would be a dream come true.

Defintely agree with you on the GF... That place is on my and the misses bucket list of places to stay.. one of the places we;ll be staying when we hit the lottery!!! First class all the way baby

 

[fsmith2845]

Oh, look! A Baby Ruth!

OMG had a flashback to the scene in Caddyshack.. and Bill Murray in full protective gear taking a big bite!!!!

 

[fsmith2845]

Even as a kid when I first heard that expression I used to say, to the point of being annoying, "You mean their breath smelled like nightcrawlers? YEWWW"


ok, boys, at the risk of being annoying....the word is "bated". "bate" means: to lessen the force of; moderate; as in "to bate one's breath".

so if you are waiting with bated breath, you are not breathing as much, like holding your breath.

hey, I gota correct nebo when I can! (you guys know that)

Totally busted!! Sorry!!! i'll behave now.. forget the squid comment above.. .

 

[queenbetsey]

I have my thoughts as to what happened to Nebo. I maybe way off base, but I had a hammer last year too.

I was thing the same thing after reading that last chapter...... I so hope I am wrong. I would feel bad for laughing at all those other trip reports that kept me thinking "Well at least I don't have the only husband who needs to be wrapped in bubble wrap."

 

[nebo]

I know I have been sayin this redundantly lately, but as i kept going over this chapter, and adding, subtracting, re writing it forever, well,,, sigh,,, no,, I don't have a word processor so i'm writing it in the little box on the Dis, but I have a feeling this chpater is huge, so, again, don't feel you need to break it down again if you don't want.
My only hopes are that you enjoy it, as you can see, alongwitht he next chaptyer,,, I put a lot into it.
nebs




We are now well into Hot Fudge Sundae, only problem was that I didn't know it, to me it was still "Magic Kingdom Sunday, and yes, even though they can be the same date, there can also be a huge difference, so let us pick up where we left off.

We get the fastpasses for Space Mountain, they finish climbing the Treehouse and we meet back up at the Lunching Pad. After taking a trip on the People Mover, we had lunch at Cosmic Ray's , which was a madhouse already in there. And there is nothing like the laughs you can generate while 5 of you all head off to different order stations and then try to meet back up in a communal eating ground.

Since we are out of pocket still, and spent a lot so far I just got a hot dog, while Diane got the whole Maine lobster and fillet combo with the crab cakes appetizer and Napolean's bonyparts for dessert. .
Yeah, kidding there, no idea what she got. It might have been the rotisserie chicken that for some reason they leave all connected yet to groos you our, or she may have gotten the chicken all connected to gross you out and connected ribs to gross you out and try to make ribs shooo across the aise when you take a plastic knife and try to foolishly separate them.

The best way to eat and cut the ribs here is to take your plate over to the Carousel in Fantasyland , and hopefully a cast member will take pity on you and release the Excalibur from the stone so you can cut your ribs with that sword.
( Uh oh, c'mon, just look at this, Buzz, he's killing time, really, he's just babbling putting it off. I know Marie, but what can we do about it? I guess nothing, even threatening to do play by play birthe scenes hasn't affected him, we are totally at his mercy right now.
When he's finallly done with his stupid cliffhangers, you just watch how fast I find a new trip report to hang around. heck, I may even try a Universal report!.
Oh, you wouldn 't Marie, not really, would you?)

And now it's time to find out a new Disney eatery change, and of course, again and again, not for the better.

I just can't believe that the most simplest things have to be changed, modified, altered, swithched and bewitched by Disney.


It's the hot dog bun, strangest thing I've ever seen!

Ok, C'mon with me here, we all know what a hot dog bun looks like; two long halves, hopefully still connected on one side, with a slit down the longways center to put the doggie in. If you don't pack it too much, it will semi close so you can grab it when you eat it and kind of keep most of the condiments inside the bun.
Right?

Not this abomination.
That's right, if you are going to mess with my hot dog for the worse, it's an abomination.

It's a lot wider than normal, with a slit down one side, not the middle. Like on the left hand page. And the slit doesn't go from end to end, the ends are still solid, meaning that the dog could not slip out the ends.

But it doesn't close either, i'ts now more of an open face sandwich, with all this useless extra "bun" that you'll just rip off anyway. This also prevents you from putting too much on it, since you can't close anything up around it.
I should have taken a picture of it.
In other words, this thing it totally STUPID!
And even if you put just a little bit on the dog, mustard, relish, whatever, I guarantee that a lot of it is going to be in your moustache, no way to avoid it, just ask Diane.

No no, I'm not saying that Diane has a ,,,,, I mean she was sitting across from ,,,,, oh, forget it! this will only get worse.

We did get good seats down in front for the entertainment, Sunny Eclipse, but that turned out to be a waste, only person watching ol' Sunny was me.
Heck, I've gotten to where I'm now singing along with him to Yew Nork, Yew Nork. And, "I get paid weekly, very weakly."

After eating they used the fastpasses for Space, and then Todd and Jackson used the ones Smidgy and I didn't use for a second ride. kim came and joined us back under the Lunching Pad again to wait. Like I said, he is now fearless, at first he said he kind of liked it, but once was enough, doesn't want to do it again.
But by the time they reached the end of the moviing exit conveyor,,, "You know, if you really wanted to, I could very much like to do that ride again."
We knew it was a good idea to get the fastpasses even if we didn't use them.

Even with the passes this took a long time, and Smdigy had gone and gotten passes for Buzz a while ago, when Todd and Jackson came back that window was now open to ride also.

My problem right now wasn't passes, it was gasses.

Well, except for me, I had important stuff to take care of as the lunch didn't quite agree with me. Boy, nobody or nothing ever agrees with me anymore, so I told them I'd meet them at the exit to Buzz.

I thought we'd be leaving finally now to go head back, but , uh uh, they want to hit Monster's Inc before we leave. I like this but now I'm starting to twitch, we are way past our "go back and swim" time, I'm so used to being in control that now when this is not done correctly, well, like I said, I start to twitch.
Remember that guy from Faulty Towers?

Caught a pretty good show, although none of us were singled out, no, I still haven't been, "That Guy" yet, lately they've finally been leaving me alone. About time.
Everybody said they like the show, but they weren't in awe with the technology like I was when I first saw it.

"Todd, you realize you just watched a cartoon monster hold a conversation with a real person in the audience?"
"Yeah, I figured there's a guy behind the screen talking."

Well, ok, but he, too seems more interested in making sure Jackson is haveing the best possible time, and not really letting himself appreciate the magic Disney has.

We are finally then heading back to the resort, but it's like, 1:30 already, no time at all to relax before it's time to turn around and come back. And even though you bypass the TTC on a Disney bus, no matter what resort you'dre in, it's still an awful long bus ride. So far since park opening, all I've done is Splash, Big Thunder, ROTC, Jungle, Wedway, and Monster's Ink. Oh, and a mini train ride.
That's ok, we'll see how the eveing goes, looking forward to making sure they do Wishes the right way, smack in the middle of Main Street where I can then stare at Jackson the whole time watching the amazement on his little face, maybe even put him on my shoulders to see better.
Right!

R.O.T.C." hmmm missed that the first couple times. No wonder it was so boring this time.

Like I said, not much time to relax and we changed and met down by the Hippy Dippy hide your Bippy pool, and yes, the yellow jackets were in full swing.

And Jackson had a blast with them.

They were playing some kind of game like Hot Potato, with water balloons, and he learned to manipulate the system and become the center of attraction by intentionally getting caught with it, and having it busted over his head.

Ok, let's crank up the ol' projector once again:

After only about a half hour, tops, a voice comes over the microphone telling us all to evacuate the pool and pool deck because there's lightning in the area. Lately it seems they have become extremely cautious concerning lightning, much more than they used to be from my experience. I think they are mainly worried about the Yellow Jackets' sound equipment getting struck, that would be expensive.

Geesh, again?But you can't even sit at a table, and it's not even raining at all.

I suggested we go for a "resort walk" , they still haven't really seen much of it yet, so we headed into the seventies, past the foosball players and then down by the lake.

And again, in my imaginative mind, I pictured them all going "Ooh, aah" as they saaw all the over sized icons, but I guess it's just me that has the mind of a child, or maybe the problem is that they've seen too many pictures already, on line.

I did talk them into ONE picture, and I know if you think about it, you would figure out which one:

I have kind of gotten a thing about having to take a picture there every time we stay there at Pop, since a photo taken of me there was in my very first trip report, which was GASP! now over six, SIX years ago!
Ha, that was when I was called Bruce Willis; since then I have gone through the actor ranks until I bottomed out at Mr. Magoo.


While I'm at it, I had pumped so many pictures last chapter at you I had to leave some out, so, if you don't mind, shall we get to them?

For those of you that have never been in T-Rex:

The normal salient color in there is blue, it only turns this bright red when a meteor storm hits, which happens I think every 20 minutes.

And as you now know, the Hammer was not part of this puny storm.

The next two pictures are from the front of the train station, waiting for the Welcome Show out in the courtyard, this is usually where Smidgy and I always end up waiting for the show to start. Last picture was looking off the top of the station down onto Main Street, it was about now that they were all getting restless, having to WAIT for the stupid train!

This was taken somewhere that morning, but offhand, I have no idea where, maybe I'll know when I see it full size.

Kim, Jackson and Todd.

And finally, Jackson found something at the exit of Splash Mountain I have never seen before; A little kid's size, "Laughing Place." Diane wasn't with us at this moment, and when she saw the photo later even she had to ask where this was taken, amazing how after probably 40 trips on Splash Mountain, you can miss something every single time!

And that pretty much does it for pictures, and I mean, Completely!

Do I seem like I'm dawdling?
You in a hurry?

(Ponzi, com'on, you and Nebo are best buds, you have an in with him, please get him to hurry this along a bit, PLEASE? I Really, really, need to know what happens, and soon! I can't take it anymore so pleased TALK to him,,,get HIM to talk.

Well, Ok, I'll try again, but you just may have noticed that he has been using me as "open season" lately, so not exactly sure how much he's going to divulge to me, I'm sorry Smidgy, I really can't help you.")

(yes, I always find ways to amuse myself)

On our way back down Memory Lane, we kept going until we got to the fifties, and cut back past and through, the pool there.

This was great, really, Disney great.

The Fifties pool was open!
The Sixties is closed due to lightning, but apparently this is a lightning free county all the way over in the fifties section.

All I can figure is that they already had a lightning strike in the bowling pin pool and they think that lightning won't strike twice in the same place.
Jackson and Smidgy took another dip now in this pool.

Now that it's football season again, a kid on the pool deck was throwing a football to a kid in the pool, and vice versa, but this kid kept getting a bit too close to our table.
It was now turning darker in the sky, and I had my back to the pool trying to get the umbrella to stay up if it started to drizzle.

I couldn't see the kid in the pool or where he was throwing it, but I had one foot balanced on a chair to kind of support myself as I lifted the heavy umbrella when the football slammed into the table, scared the crap out of me and I jumped! The chair my right leg was using as a lift flipped over, but I caught myself in my usual dextrous, athletic style that I have worked on perfecting all my life.

The umbrella came back down and closed.
Again.

Todd picked up the football and threw it back.

I did notice though that once again, no,not nearly as bad as two days ago, but all the sudden movement made me a tad disney.

I mean dizzy,

But no where near as bad as the other day when I just "plopped" down in the chair.

Just then as I'm still hanging onto the umbrella, there was a huge flash of lightning followed almost immediately by a huge boom of thunder.

Not sure if I even felt that in my fingers, a little bit a twitching, or static electricity running through them.

Screw it, I quit on the umbrella, now they closed the pool anyways and we all went back to our rooms.

Then we headed back to change, again, it was almost time to leave if we want to get anything done.

But first, I went on an ice run.

Yes, once again, C'mon now, everybody, "The Iceman Cometh, Again! The sequel that never made it.
Not even enough time for a respectable cocktail hour!

It barely rained. A lot more bark than bite and 20 minutes later the sun was back out making people sweat again.



After a rapid change of clothes, I took my plastic cup 'highball" for a walk around the second floor, something I used to do back in my smoking days, and it now still feels funny not to be lighting one up hiding in my Yo-Yo. And for some reason, I miss smoking the most when I'm at Disney. Why is that? It's just that sometimes it would be a real treat to go and find a DSA after not having one for a while.

That was also when you would strike up conversations with complete strangers, or, sometimes incomplete strangers. And there was usually no point in asking where they were from, it was almost always New Jersey.

By the way, a "highball" is basically now whiskey and 7-up, or ginger ale, Squirt, something on that line.

Back in the room, I had time for one more quick drink, and we made a couple of Sunny D's for the bus ride there,
no, not even bringing any little bottles with, that's not what tonight is all about.

Yes, I was really looking forward to tonight, still lots of new stuff to show them. And I felt pretty good, I looked at the safe where my pills are and just turned away, nope, don't need any tonight.

With 5 minutes to kill before our neighbors were ready next door, I sat at the table and picked up my book again. In it:
It's Tuesday, the day Hot Fudge Sundae is going to either hit or miss, and I couldn't wait to have a block of time to get back to this, you don't want to waste this when you're in a hurry, it's a really exciting part!

Funny thing though, the last day as I was reading this, the book is disintegrating as I turn the pages. Really, they are just falling out when Im done reading and turn it, and now the cover itself is just about totally fallen off. I got tired of picking them up so I'm just taking clumps of them and tossing them out when I'm done. But only the pages I've read, the others are glued in just fine, at least until I turn the pages.

Yeah, this was the final time anybody was going to be reading THIS book.

I showed it to Smidgy but she didn't think it was odd at all, she always complains about how I treat books.
Or, rather, MIS treat them.
I admit, I'm a bad "lay it down open", "fold it over" person. Hey, I bought it, I can read it how it's most comfortable for me. This is why I hate hard covers, they don't fold over.
And if it's a monster Stephen King book, it can knock you out if you doze off reading it in bed!
The "Stand" almost killed me one night!



But she did pause for a second and then say ;
"Remember how in your last trip report (which really wasn't the last one, but never mind) from last year you kept referring to "The Beast", and how it kept following us?"
"Well now all I'm seeing you read is "Lucifer's Hammer", even the Bathroom Reader is forgotten." "You do know that Satan is often referred to as the Beast, right?"

"Yeah dear, of course I do. Things just happen."

It was nice and hot and steamy when we pulled into the Magic Kingdom for the second time today.

I had thought that since a lot of the biggies are knocked off, they's want to listen to wise old Nebo and Smidgy on how to tackle tonight.

How could I be such a fool?

Kim has the Park App on her phone, and found out there are still BTMR fastpasses left, even though standby is 50 minutes, so once again, we went straight up to the train and took that back to Frontierland.

I did get Jackson sitting next to me though.

I had visions of doing Carousel of Progresso, , Philharmagic, Haunted Mansion, just to get things rolling, but the 4 times on BTMR weren't enough, now we have to come back in an hour for the fastpass time.

Ok, I don't care, I can do it again. In the meantime, we went back now to Liberty Square and did the Haunted Mansion.

Now that they have the interactive line, there's really two lines there now, with two entirely different wait times.

Unfortunately, we skipped the good stuff line, and only had a 15 minute wait on our side in the Wham bam thank you ma'am line.

It's still bright daylight out, so my enjoyment inside was going to be by audio only, and I took a beating just getting to a Doom Buggy.
I know this sounds extreme, but I am really considering getting a cup to wear for the dark lines at Disney, I hardly ever do karaoke anymore, and I don't need to hit the high notes anymore in Lonestar songs.

"I'm so in love with you, it just keeps getting better,,,er,,,, er!

They all loved the ride.
They loved it so much they wanted to immediately do it again!

I bowwed out, I love it too, but at nighttime, and Smidgy stayed with me, she didn't want to do a double either.

We kind of pointed and showed them where we'll meet them, over near the front of Columbia Harbour House.

There was a kind of stone ledge you could sit on there, but before we got there, a family beat us to it, so we basically stood, or looked for something to lean on.

I was next to a pole of some sorts; sign post, light post as in street light? Not sure. But I got tired of standing and kind of crouched down in a squat.

I do this a lot when I'm tired and don't want to stand anymore, i'll squat. You're not sitting on the ground, but you're not standing either.
From that position I just people watched, Smidgy was behind me somewhere, she may have gotten someone to move over on the ledge. Or she may have thrown some insurgent off the legde herself, not really sure.
But I think if she had, she would have then offered me the seat, that's the way when she rolls in terrorist mode.

Although it was still way too crowded, it was a nice night, the bit of rain did cool things a bit and it's close enough to dusk that the sun hasn't had enough time to really heat things up again.

After a while, from behind me I hear Smidgy say, "Oh, look, here they come."

From my position I couldn't see them, but I didn't doubt her and I worked on getting up out of my crouch/squat.

At first, the knees weren't exactly willing, but they gave in when the mind said they have no choice.

But there were other anatomical parts that the mind at times has no jurisdiction over.

As I was in the process of performing the simple act of "standing up", well, then all kinds of strange began to happen all at once.

Once my knees agreed to supoort me and I made it half way up, my ears started ringing something fierce! Not a "tinitus" type ring, more, a buzzing.

Right after that, the world turned a new shade of grey, everywhere, like all color was being removed from the landscape. It was Ted Turner's evil twin brother making amends for all the damage Ted did colorizing the classics!

I barely had time to contemplate these developments as I was still in the act of standing when things turned much worse.

The ringing in my ears had reached Chain Saw decibel levels, and by the time I reached my full height of 6 foot, 1 inch, my new, greying world had quickly faded to black.

Solid black!

In a last moment of cognizance, I knew I was in major trouble, and not just that I am in the process of fainting.
But that I am at full height, and not just crumbling into a pile.

Oh no.

I am falling straight backwards, as if I was standing at the edge of a pool, with my back to it.

I am sure that I said a silent, "Oh Shist" to myself, and again, not because I'm fainting, but because I am fainting straight backwards, and this now makes it serious, my head is a long way down to solid concrete.
No, ain't no little gardens of 'tunias or 'pashuns near me, just lot's of concrete.

In a last act of total desperation, even though I was pretty much already unconscious, I thrust my arm out hoping my hand could grab that post and save me.
Grab it, grab it, squeeze it, then just hang on, the feeling will pass, everyting will be allright and we can go on as normal, so just grab the damn post!

It missed.

 

[queenbetsey]

Whoops, slight miscalculation on today; just gotback from ye doc, all dialated again and can't see. Anyway, the eyes look stable, but my comments wil be limited.



buzz, there will probably be a report open,b ut the problem is, we will be down there, I hope, right when you are due.


That's ok we will all still be here running amuck as usual

 

[jmm476]

Well that's terrible! Not only that you passed out and I'm guessing hit your head pretty badly, but that you didn't even finish the story...

When I was a kid, I used to black out and faint in church on a weekly basis. My stepmom used to tell people it was because I was possessed and the demon in me couldn't stand being in church for a whole hour. She's a lovely woman, really.

Well I hope you resume your story soon. Obviously you're ok now, but I'm curious about what made you pass out.

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Leave it to Nebo to build up to yet another major cliff hanger!

Man, that does sound scary, im happy to know you are still alive though

 

[anut4disney]

All I can say is...

I was so tense while reading this that I had to take an Advil and it still isn't over. I know Smidgy must have been scared out of her mind.

Waiting for the next chapter.

 

[TeresaNJ]

Oh no! How could you stop there??? I'm on the edge of my seat!

You are an incredible story teller! Funny, amusing, quit-witted, etc! Okay, enough of the compliments. Can't wait to find out what the heck was going on with you, and I sincerely hope you are fully recovered.

I so understand how you feel when taking "newbies" to Disney, and they don't have the reaction you are expecting them to. It's a total let down. We took DH's parents a few years ago during the F&G Festival, and thought DH's dad would be in awe, as he loves to garden. He barely uttered any reaction at all. Oh well. Haven't taken them back since, and it's been almost five years.

 

[queenbetsey]

ohhhhh nooooo! poor nebo!

 

[pkondz]

I see there's a new chapter... but before I check it out...

Oh, we're all adults here, we can take it. Except maybe Ponzi, he just a dolt.

Usually I appreciate a good pun... So as soon as I see one, I'll let you know how I feel about it.

So there.

(okay, actually, even though it was at my expense... I liked it.

Don't let it go to your head.)

Is this Tammi? For some reason she doesn't like me, that's why I have referred to her in my brain as the most intelligent person on the trip report boards.

No, she goes by Queenofallthings on the boards.

I came within an eyelash of being a lot worse, ,,, I wasn't going to include the "ten years in the future part."
See what I do for you, my good bud?

With friends like you, who needs enemas?

Um, excuse me,,, wait,,,,, EXCUSE MEEEEEEE! but I wasn't the one who first mispelled the word, I was just copying it over from Frank's post, and I thought it was polite NOT to correct him and his spelling, since it reallyn didn't matter, you know, take the high road?

Copying it. Check. That's what you call it.

"No, honest Miss Finkel, I was just copying all the incorrect spellings from everybody else. I do know how to spell. I do! I do!"

Nebos years of travel to WDW shine through yet again!

Nice one!

 

[cjlvsccm]

A valiant effort on grabbing for the post! Ya had more presence of mind than I did, the couple of times I passed full out. I think I was "lucky" enough to crumble. :-/

 

[Thumper_Man]

Instead of naming the song "Hammer to Fall", I should've titled it "Nebo to Fall."

All kidding aside though, that is just scary. What ever it is that happened, I'm glad you're still around to tell the story. "Dead men tell no tales."

 

[jedijill]

OMG, so scary! I've keeled over before....hate that ringing in the ears..you just know what is coming but can't stop it....but luckily I usually hit something soft except that time I passed out and hit my head on the checkout counter at the grocery store (working there). I'm on the edge of my seat.

Jill in CO

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Poor Nebo doesn't even have hair to cushion the fall

Sorry, Nebo, I do feel your pain, really I do, J/K

 

[ddstratton]

Oh my!!! I'm glad you're on the mend, but that must have been SCARY!

 

[dwheatl]

Oooh, that sounds awful. I hate that last ditch effort to grab onto something before the fall, and you miss. Did you know the blood bank now tells you to clench the buttocks (your own, not somebody else's) when you feel faint? True story.