October 22, 2006

           Here is a shot of me, the bike rider, taken much later in the day. It is to show off the trimming effect of 650 miles of bike riding. It is inserted here for I’ve learned the lesson of putting a picture into the blog early. N’yuck, n’yuck, now I can “backpedal” to the events earlier in the day. Be advised the picture angle is over-flattering, since I am still 35 pounds overweight but it is my journal and I get to pick the best shots.

           The boat ride (y’day) tuckered me out, or more accurately, the whole body workout from snorkeling. I was only out there a half-hour but that was the first time under water in two years [since Ocean Reef 2004]. The connection here is that I slept right through to 9:00 AM and was almost late opening up shop. Now some good news.            Today we turned a profit. That is, after my cut there was money left in the till, in fact, twice as much money. Top items sold were a chrome meat-slicer, brace and bit set [hand drills], scented candles, suitcases, a folding chair and an acrylic antelope sculpture two feet high. While on duty, one of my former students, Howard the author (“In Search of the Perfect Whore”) came in (read the book before you make assumptions) and Alain called to chat.

           Since I’d forgotten my flash drive in the rush over, I had all day to get details taken care of on-line. Plus, I watched a movie written by Tim Conway, the actor on Carol Burnette (?). “Longshot”, about horse racing. He didn’t do too bad a job of it but not good enough by a “longshot”. A lady came in that took a real shine to me, but she reminded me of those 1950’s high school yearbooks where 9/10ths of the women looked really bad. Those beehive hairdos gag me. Sadly, where I lived that look lasted into the late 60s. She must have used the phrase “up close and personal” three times.
The Digital Concepts camera crapped out. Back to the old reliable Argus again. Doubly sad because on the way in, I got some excellent shots of the local police shaking down a street hooker. What is it with police and their strange fascination with hookers? Don’t give me any theories because it is always male cops and female hookers. “Oh no,” said the blonde, “not another breathalyzer!”

           After closing, I took the route home along Dania Beach Blvd and around the beach areas northward. I see they have constructed a beach club on stilts where the old pier used to be. I can’t recall if the pier has been replaced, but it seems to me it used to be on wooden pilings. Anyway, it is now a nightclub that most locals cannot afford.

           I strapped the DXG (digital video camcorder) onto my bicycle headlight bracket to test the view. It works great and nearly fantastic in some ways. Most people do not spot something that small as being a video camera. It looks like a movie chase, me heading down the Broadwalk with other bikes and people cutting in and out ahead of me. I must devise a better bracket because it does work very well and it is something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while.
           The weather has finally turned and will remain perfect for several months, with one cold spell in late December. While at the shop, I looked up Norwegian Cruise Lines. Typically corporate, the site assumes you know how their operations are structured and where to look, the exact things a newcomer does not know. For example, their American operations are separate from their Hawaiian operations. aybe they know something we don’t?

           As feared, the life on board is made less tolerable by having to share a cabin with three other people. However, one glance at the openings in their headquarters makes the on-board jobs look suddenly attractive. No doubt the cabin is next to the engine room and I would get three Filipinos – but what they don’t know is that I’ve already done similar things on land. Many times I’ve shared hotel rooms with native travelers in many parts of this world. Despite that, a private sleeping area would make things better.
           Once on ship, the job goes for seven days a week, ten hours a day. I understand the overtime is great and I know that long days are not that demanding by the hour. They may put you through the paces early on but things always slack off to a routine. It takes close to twelve hours to work ten hours and I sleep another seven. That is one full day. For those of you who don’t know, I used to be a dance instructor, so I will be very careful to make sure I am not stuck “pushing the old ladies around”. Cruises always have more women than men, but go back over what I said about beehives. If dancing is a requirement, I’ll quickly join the band or something.

           The rule is clear. You can date other crew but dating the passengers is forbidden and cause for immediate termination. Damn! With my luck, there will be an oily pretty-boy head waiter o
n each cruise that gets the one good-looking babe on staff. I notice non-Americans don’t have to pay withholding tax. This also means another day has gone by and I have still not achieved boredom.

           I am beginning to suspect that boredom requires more idle time than I have. Idle time turns out to be far more than having nothing to do (because there always is). You must create an entire isolated envi
ronment and the easiest way to do that is to make sure you have no skills. This requires years of greater effort than it does to learn things because I’ve noticed nobody can schedule a time to be bored.            It becomes much like how some people protect themselves from losing anything by having nothing. It works, but in the process they become the worst imaginable disrespectors of other’s property. That, plus they also become the worst complainers about having nothing. See the pattern?

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