Tell me, am I the only one scared to death to touch a light switch with wet hands?
You're standing at the sink, doing dishes and when your almost done, you need to turn on the disposal.
BUT YOUR HANDS ARE WET!
This usually leads to me knocking the phone off the wall holder when I try to hit the switch with my elbow.
And now I suppose you are all going to look down your noses
at me saying, "No, never happens to me."
Ha, I'll bet.
One other thing, this is a great trivia question:
and maybe, just maybe but I don't know for sure cuz I didn't check it,
UN-Google-able. Na, who am I kidding, everything is Googly.
In 1978, a famous actor appeard in a low budget horror movie that turned out to be a huge franchise hit. His name
is William Shatner, world famous Canadian.
The movie is Halloween.
I want to know what role he played in the movie.
Go for it.
_______________________________________________
Down by the pool we still have close to two hours left of light, but our table was taken so we were relegated to the second ring circling the pool.
I have no idea why they do it this way, separating the seating with rows of tall bushes and shrubs.
Except for this little children's pool in front of us, we might as well be sitting out in front of the resort, you couldn't even see the pool.
We took a table, then she opened up the dreaded Yahtzee.
I've told you she always beats me, right?
I don't get it, the game is a combination of a little skill with math and odds and numbers, and a lot of luck.
But Diane doesn't need the skill part, she doesn't even need the top half bonus, heck, she barely needs to keep her own score, she'l usually still win by throwing Yahtzees.
However, I knew my skill with numbers and grasp of the odds would pay off eventually, right? Tonight I was determined. I was the little Nebo that could!
First turn I scored a small straight.
Second turn got the full house.
Ok, good start, she's muddling along getting her 2's and 4's.
Third turn I was going for my 3's, and ended up with Yahtzee!
Holy cow, this doesn't happen to me, ,, I couldn't write that big 5-0 in there fast enough.
Smidgy was morose.
I wasn't quite sold yet, I still played with a cautious reserve. I also played with my Canadian Reserve, but that's ....something else, again.
Then I got 4 sixes on my sixes,, ok, the upper bonus is looking good! Maybe my luck has changed.
What a fool I am.
She was going for her 3's too,,, bingo, Yahtzee!
Or is that yahtzee, Bingo? She got the fifty points right back.
She almost got it again going for her sixes, ended up with a huge score on 4 of a kind with 4 sixes and a four.
I then couldn't catch a cold, and took a 2 on my ones.
She also rolled 3 ones on her first roll.
Next roll, a five and four. She kept the 3 ones.
Last roll, Yahtzee!
ON ONES!
I told her if I were you, I'd take a five on the ones, "That's how I'd play," but she wasn't buying it.
By now I had mentally given up, but still had to play it out.
As the match progressed, I still had an outside chance near the end,, she was in trouble now of getting the 35 point bonus, and I had that wrapped up.
"I think I can, I think I can."
But I still needed my large straight:
I also needed two fingers, straight, but that I could take car of.
( see above, Canadian Reserve)
I GOT IT! Got the large straight. This could be close, really close, her turn;
One roll, 5 fours otherwise known as Yahtzee.
Again.
Alas and alack, I was aghast, agape and agog!
Again.
I gave up. Actually it was over for me anyway.
That was also when we really wern't sure how this worked with multiple Yahtzee scoring:
by putting the numbers in the extra Yahtzee boxes she now has empty boxes on top that never got filled up.
I think we assumed that with each extra Yahtzee you would get a turn to go for what you are still missing.
But it is absolutely scary the way things will fall in place for her, it's just not natural.
I then asked her to go over there and step into the children's pool, I want to see something:
she did, and as you can see, I WAS RIGHT!
See that?
This is no photoshop, she is standing on the top of the water!
She then said the funniest thing;
"Do you want to play again?"
"Actually, I'd prefer to find somebody here at the pool to give me a shot
in the eye instead."
We then went and relocated near our table pool side that was still in use, but that was fine, we moved into a couple of lungers.
I had left my bionic ears up in the room cuz we were probably going to swim and I don't need hearing aids to hear Diane scream out, "Yahtzee", but she had heard something from the folks sitting at the, our, table that may or may not have come into play the next morning.
(yes, sometimes I specialize in convoluted run-on sentances.)
It got dark, we swam/floated around for a bit and I thought about going to the pool bar and buying her a fancy drink, she had been so good all day, going along with everything, but luckily, something distracted me and it looked like it was closed when I looked again.
We were getting hungry and went on up.
After making one more quick drink we headed to the balcony to enjoy the nightime view.
But first, apparently another huge mass murder/suicide took place with the love bugs on our balcony today, and we had to sweep them all over to our neighbor's again.
I kind of glanced underneath, and our old pile was still there, maybe the room is vacant?
This is a great view sitting here at nignt, just great, we have been extremely fortunate in most of our Disney room views.
I'm going to get to more of that a bit later, but in the meantime, while we are enjoying our drinks before we go down to have dinner at Mara, I want to get to something
that I can tell has many of you disappointed, and that's me.
Mainly, the fact I haven't been bleeding yet.
Or vomitting, squeezing cheeks, lying unconscious, rolling in pain, holding my crotch, arm, head, ,,, foot, back,,,whatever body pary you wish,,,I have been relatively
unscathed so far this trip.
And I know it saddens many of you.
The precedent was set from the very first trip report and has continued on to the very present one.
I know, before there was Tebowing, there was Nebo-ing, which unfortunately always involved pain, that only I could feel. There have beeb others whos backs have gone out and said they were "Neboing", but the pain is usually all mine.
(well, unless you were Japanese, like an old man or a little girl, again, really sorry about that.)
Anyway, so here we are heading into the home stretch of this trip, well, ok, I over exaggerated that, not really the home stretch yet,,, but anyway, we have been here for 11 days now, and I still haven't been humorously maimed, like normal.
I apologize for that, but what can I do, I'm just the reporter? I can't just make stuff up to please the Colliseum!
Although, with some of you hungry vultures waiting for blood, I think the Romans treated the Christians with more courtesy before feeding time.
But that' ok.
But really, I would think that surviving the trip down in the tropical storm and outrunning tornados would have "sated" the beasts in all of you.
But I can tell not.
You still want me to star in my own reality show like in the past:
something like:
"American Vitals"
or
"Survivor: DisneyWorld
or
"CSI: room 5436,
or
"Mending Nebo"
or even ,
"Dancing with the Scars",
but I'm not going to tell you if that happens on this trip.
It may, it may not, you'll find out eventually, I hate being one to bleed and tell. Or not bleed.
Back down at Mara, I couldn't believe it, I could now see in here.
No, not great, it was still a bit dim but I could definately function on my own.
Yes, this amazes me to no end, how the same room can be as different as night and day to see in,, when it's um,, night and day. Boy my eyes suck.
Can I donate my eyes to Newt Gingrich?
I couldn't tell you what Smidgy ordered, she may have gotten the chicken dinner, but I think I just got a cheeseburger and fries,,, which seemed just a little bit different from every other cheeseburger I've gotten from a Disney food court. One thing I noticed for sure;
Not as many fries on the plate here, as you would get from Pop or Music or Riverside.
Normally, I never finish my fries, but again tonight, I made "AAllllll GONNNNNNE."
Thinking about it now, it's possible it's not the quantity of the fries that has changed, but me.
Any reall smoker will tell you, that half way through the best meal in the world, they are already thinking about having a smoke, and maybe that's why I never finished my fries before, in too much a hurry to go out and smoke.
WELL I"M EATIN EM NOW, BABY!
One thing this burger made me feel was remorse:
I'm still mad at both Planet Hollywood and myself, them for raising the Cheeseburger price and me for not paying it.
By the way, I was on the menu there yesterday, and saying that it was updated in November, the cheeseburger and fries meal I love there is listed at 11.95, both lunch and dinner. WHAT??????
It was up to 15.95 when we went there, that's why I didn't get it.
BTW, I heard T-Rex is now part of the dining plan. If you do it and have kids, OMG, take them over there, they will love it.
With that, Friday, September 16th came to a conclusion.
______________________________________________
Saturday morning
This was going to be the name of the Moody Blues hit, but they kept putting it off, until 3 and a half days later.
(no, please don't tell me it was a Sandpiper's hit instead)
After lying in bed for a while, I finally cracked and got up and peaked my head around the edge of the heavy drapes to see what it's like outside.
Not a cloud in the sky, and no morning haze today either.
"So, what's it like outside?" She was awake too, and watching me.
"Sunny", and then I looked down at the pool to see two kids beating each other over the head with noodles,
"with a chance of meatheads."
Today is almost totally a nothing doing day.
No parks, no Downtown Dis.
Just hang around untill our appointment with Saana, for dinner.
Oh, did I say appointment? I meant reservation.
Ahem, yea, that's how much I was looking forward to spending actual money of our own to eat there.
I like nothing days, I feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of the resort then.
That's the best thing about being a DW veteran, you don't get all panicky feeling like you're missing stuff in the parks.
A little before nine I had my stuff and went down to the pool. She had kinda dozed off again with me muddling around and mumbled she'd find me down there.
She is good at that, even when I inadvertently make it difficult for her, like going to the piano pool instead of the calypso, or, remember she had a hard time finding me at the Jamaica pool? One time at WL I said I'd meet her at the pool, and changed my mind and sat in lungers on the beach to look at the lake.
She still found me.
On the way down to the pool, I made a personal revelation to myself that didn't surprise me at all;
This is day 3 at AKL, and after 6 days at BLT,,,,
I am sick of inside corridors!
Even though I like to sample all that Disney has to offer,
in my heart I am really a moderate, or even value, resort guy.
The one exception I will make for that is BCV. And not because of the highly overrated Storm-a-long Bay pool, but because it is so darn close to Epcot.
I remember I couldn't light a cigarette outside our room and finish it before we got to the turnstyle.
<sigh>
Down at the pool, first thing I notice is a big group of teenagers in the water. Turns out they were lifeguards in training.
From what I saw that morning, if you are ever in distress
in a Disney pool and need assistance:
work really, really hard on seeing how long you can hold your breath!
Or wait until you sink to the bottom of the pool, and then run, really fast to the side!
I headed to our table, and our loungers, what are the chances that they are open?
First thing to come into view as I got closer, was 3 loungers taken, just off to the side of where we were sitting the first day.
Doesn't look good at all.
A couple more steps revealed the two loungers,,, sorry, lungers in front of the table, and they were empty.
I crossed my eyes for luck;
ANNNNND,,,,, the table,,,,,,,,is,,,,,,,
EMPTY!
Yes, ALLL RIGHT! Mine, mine, mine, mine.....
Hold it.
May be a problem.
Sitting on the table is a solid metal, folded placard in bright red with white lettering on it, saying;
"Reserved", and I think the other side said, "For Dining".
So this is what's scaring everybody away.
I looked at it, looked around at the lack of other tables, then I looked at it again, read it again, turned it around and read the back side again, then I dropped it into the bushes next to the table.
Problem solved.
Hey, It's not quite nine in the morning, and somebody is reserving a breakfast out here? I don't think so, that's what room service is for,,,,, YOUR room.
Maybe it's from last night, I thought as I unloaded my stuff on the table and moved some of it to the lungers in front.
As I was settling in, a cast member was making the rounds and walked right up to me: Uh oh, I'm in trouble I thought, but no, she just wanted me to keep the walkway open, don't push the loungers to close to the pool.
Then whe went and told me the three most important things concerning the love bugs;
1. They are attracted by sugary drinks, even coffee if there is cream, and or sugar in it.
2. They are also attracted to each other's blood, so if you squish any that's only going to bring more of them.
3. Don't feed them after midnight. Wait, wrong critters.
3. They are also really attracted to white, the lighter the color, the more that will land on it.
That's why it's a good idea to hide your towels if you can.
When the unsynchronized swim team left I had a good 45 minutes of peace and quiet before Smidgy came down.
Hmm, maybe that didn't come out quite like it should.
But I had been very productive so far this morning:
I didn't just swing around the corner of the room and take that elevator down to the pool, but I went down to the 3rd floor so I could "LEAP", all the way down to the ground and go and check on the Santa Fe parked outside.
Yeah, I'm still, still, not sure they fixed that valve stem, but it looked ok to me. No, I still didn't have the quizzicals to use the tire gauge on it, I should have, but I didn't.
(I know, I know, what can I say?)
Back inside I hit the lodge's store for a Sentinel.
THis ia a very strangely laid out store, totally, totally I guess with handicapped in mind, after it was designed.
From lobby level, I think there are 3 steps down to get in the store. Oh yes, very, very easy for a Nebo eyed person to tumble.
However, next to the steps, is a ramp, for wheelchairs I presume. This ramp will take you all the way to Port Orleans, Riverside I think.
The grade is so small, this thing goes on forever. Yes, I used it, many times, easier than the steps that want to hurt me, but it has to be killing them to use up all this prime square footage on handicapped access.
When Smidgy showed up I showed her the warning placard I had removed from the table, and, Hey, aren't you proud of me for not letting it scare me away?
Yeah.
This was followed by something like;
"Huh?" "Well, geez, of course it was left here still from last night, I heard that family talking about trying to order their dinner for here."
Then she went and put the placard on top of a garbage can that was in the second ring from the pool.
And I went to punish myself like a good, stupid Dobby should.
Time just flew by sitting here today. I finished the paper, and made a lot of progress finally in Uncle John's Reader.
No, nobody ever bothered us about the table, I can rest comfortably knowing I made the right choice that others passed up. I did bring down the roll up sunglasses so I can get my own damn mug refilled, the only problem was, I needed at least a 15 minute leeway timeframe ahead of time to wear them, and then go and get what I needed.
No, I don't like wearing sunglasses all the time, I'm surrounded by Disney landscaping beauty, why do I want to dim it?
I'd like to step away from the story for a minute here;
Diane has so thoughtfully commented on me being follically challenged except for a moustache, so I went in search of some old photos. I couldn't find the one I wanted from my 50th B-day party where it was really long, but I did come up with this one.
I had to enlarge it to look at the date, and that's funny, it
was from only two months before the trip that turned into my first trip report, "If it's Tuesday,,,,,"
I must have decided that I didn't want to look like an old man down in DisneyWorld.
enjoy
Oh, by the way, that's Jackson I'm holding.
Sure enough, early afternoon a yellow jacket showed up
and the whole ambience was ruined, I really wish they would re think this whole entertainment by the pool thing.
What would really be entertaining to me now would be if she got too close to the water with a high powered WIRED microphone. I'd like to see Illuminations during the day.
Ok, that's enough, I seem to be getting wordy in my old age.
This is the last chapter before Christmas, and I hope you all have enjoyed the reading, to each and every one of you I want to wish a Merry Christmas, keep the true meaning in mind. steve
And no, not FP's to 20,000 Leagues. I may have been born at night, but I wasn't born last night.
