kochleffel

On the Jade in May, it was stated explicitly that this wasn’t allowed. I had no reason to try.

Today I visited the Munch Museum. I’ll save pix for when Oslo is the port of the day. While I was there, I received voicemail and email from the dentist’s office in Copenhagen, trying to confirm an appointment for 5:30 p.m. today. It was a mistake: when I called on Saturday, the receptionist didn’t understand that I needed an appointment the same today, and put it down for today. When I explained and the dentist agreed to see me in an hour, the Tuesday appointment stayed in the file. I emailed back, thanking them for seeing me on Saturday and saying that I was OK (and in Oslo). It’s a good thing that the Junior Cat doesn’t go out, because if she caught a bat she would probably bring it in alive and ask me what to do with it.

Docked in Oslo. Bravo call to deck 1 and it was several minutes before they announced that it was only a drill. I slept until 9:30. Now having coffee and a croissant with smoked salmon in Café Promenade.

Tonight I had beef pie, made with Guinness, and did OK but chewing only on one side. In the roll call we were discussing the addition of both main-course pies and Indian dishes to the menus -- I remember that a Baltic cruise on the Serenade in 2019 had many British passengers, although no specifically British food. Also many passengers from Spain, but everyone I've heard speaking so far who wasn't American was speaking French or German.

I boarded the Voyager OTS at noon. So far I find it annoying, but that’s typical for embarkation day. OTOH, it seems to be less refined, more glitzy than the Radiance-class ships — and also freezing cold. I wish I could post a photo of Addison and Fergus, littermates who are now reunited at the Rainbow Bridge, but I don’t have one on any device that I brought. Many thanks for inclusion in the cares list. No pain or bleeding, so I think I’m OK.

The worst aspect of the dental emergency was not being able to eat lunch until late afternoon, when it would have been too close to dinner. Food in Copenhagen is too good to miss a meal voluntarily. And not being able to eat Danish bread at breakfast this morning, because it demands chewing.

As of 2018, there were stoppers. The sinks in studios aren't large but if you don't need to wash anything bulky it will be OK. I packed light (but checked a bag anyway) because I had dislocated my shoulder just before that cruise.

Back from having a failed dental implant removed. Dentistry is a relative bargain in Denmark: it was the same price as dinner last night.

I spent all of Friday outdoors but now it's raining in Copenhagen and I need to see a dentist. I also need to fill out the health form in the RCI app and do an emed test. Very good dinner last night at Cap Horn in Nyhavn and this morning they sent me a request for a review -- in Danish, which I can almost but not quite read.

There were many real dogs in Kongens Have but here's an alternative, an organic hot dog stand.

Currently sitting on a shaded bench in the botanical garden -- supposed to be in daylight to relieve jet lag but too tired to do anything. Copenhagen magpie:

Good morning from Schiphol, where I’m waiting for a flight to Copenhagen. Our flight landed on the Polderbaan, the outermost runway, and when it touched down, the flight display indicated that we were still five miles from the terminal. I feel like I walked about that much more inside the terminal.

I have a private tour booked for next week that doesn't allow canes or hiking sticks. The stated reason is that the terrain is unsuitable, but it's all city sidewalk. I think they just don't want anyone with impaired mobility.

Good news on a couple of fronts. First, I finally received the path report from my colonoscopy, which was on July 26. Nothing of interest, so next one can wait 10 years. Second, I put the new registration sticker on my car windshield, necessary because it would expire while I'm cruising around Norway. In New York the sticker goes on the inside of the windshield, and quite a few people, no matter how long they have lived here, don't know how to remove the old one. They scrape and scrape and scrape with a razor blade, but the correct tool is a wet sponge.

I think I visit Cartagena in 2023 on the Oosterdam for the Spanish Farewell. I didn't do much real work during the tent sale yesterday, but I'm exhausted from talking with people all day. The excitement today was driving 55 miles each way in thunderstorms for an office visit required by the RSV vaccine trial. They pay me for things like that--I've earned more than $500 so far.

The yard sale cleared just short of $900, with no rain until just before the end. I don't know whether the volunteers were pleased (I thought they should be), or disappointed, but as worn out by talking with them all day. I'm not prepared, in either practical or mental terms, to leave for a cruise on Wednesday. I can deal with the practical issues, probably not with the mental ones.

I've been to Boston once as a port of call, on a New England and Canada itinerary from New York, but I went to school there for my last encounter with higher education, in the 1990s. My organization is having a tent sale on the front lawn of our building today, a preliminary to a big rummage sale in the fall -- after two years without one, we have to sell some things to make room for new donations. Unfortunately, most of what the volunteers propose to sell is decorative stuff that no one would buy in 2019. The volunteers have exquisite taste and put high values on things that most rummage-sale shoppers don't want at any price. Our fall sale is probably the best in the county, partly because we don't sell anything that is stained or broken; it's just the decorative stuff that becomes a problem. It's raining now and there may be thunderstorms later. Ordinarily my job is to sell electronics and sporting goods, but we're not offering any today, so I have the assignment of providing lunch for the volunteers.

I would be fine with the meal suggestion, especially if the soba noodles are 100% buckwheat. Most soba noodles that you can buy are imported, but 95% of all commercial buckwheat in the U.S. is packed in my region, by a company that has been in business since 1795. Buckwheat is a traditional New York crop, having been introduced by Dutch settlers in the Hudson Valley. Grüner Veltliner is a favorite of mine, from my student days in Vienna (we won't say exactly how long ago that was); it's the typical grape of the Austrian Weinviertel, although this one is from Hungary. The variety is grown in some of our local vineyards. Speaking of Austrian wines, I had an exchange of email a couple of years ago with the wine columnist of The New York Times, who had written about Blaufränkisch, the grape of Burgenland, but didn't know that a fair amount of it is grown in the Finger Lakes, albeit under its German name, Lemberger.

I developed one a few days ago. Mayo Clinic says that people learn to ignore them; I've noticed that it disappears when I focus on something distant, like when watching a movie the other night on a big screen.

I've had the two Shingrix immunizations; no serious reaction to either, but as others have mentioned, my arm was painful for about five days. One consideration in the U.S. is that, although it will be covered by insurance, it's a Tier III drug in most plans, so the co-pay is high. If you have met your plan's deductible, the coverage will be better. I had no charges at all toward the deductible, and the only suggestion either a pharmacist or the insurer could offer was to get the first jab in the fall and the second in December, to increase the chance of having met the deductible for the year before the second. On the subject of immunizations, I'm participating in a clinical trial of an RSV vaccine and I'm scheduled for my final office visit on Monday. I don't think that I received the actual vaccine, because I had no reaction to it at all, and I have exaggerated reactions to many vaccines. I really wonder whether the clinical trial will have demonstrated anything at all, because probably everyone who volunteered took so many precautions against covid that we never caught anything at all during the trial period.

Another take on aviation

I like potatoes but seldom have them. I did drink a New Zealand sauvignon blanc, although not that one, on Monday in a restaurant in Cherry Valley, NY. In honor of Aviation Day, here are photos (from the EAA, which owns it) of the Ford TriMotor in which I flew on an excursion flight a few years ago.

I wondered about that! Years ago I had a job where the only thing I ever did that really impressed my boss was changing a tire quickly in the rain.

Yes, absolutely. Safety advisory: test all detectors when you return from vacation, in case a battery wore out while you were away.

I visited Acadia years ago, staying in a friend’s cabin on Cape Split. Cooperstown has been having beautiful weather, sunny but not hot. There is a chance of rain later today but most likely while I’ll be inside the theater.