HBE4

I love your "picture stories".

Good night tonight. Rangers beat Tampa 3-1 for a good start to thr hockey season. Rangers looked good, hungry and aggressive. They had complete control of the game from the first puck drop. Hope it continues for the next 81 games. Yankees won 4-1 and the Phillies beat Atlanta. A trifecta night. Could have been a quadfecta night if Seattle could have held a 9th inning lead against Houston. Train ride home was packed with giddy Ranger & Yankee fans. Twas a good night. 👍

I need to boost my post count so I limit my Floataway lounge participation. 😁😁😁

I think I read in an earlier post that it's about a 12 hour drive but you are budgeting about 14-15 hours for various stops. That sounds about right. Having done several long road trips recently one thing I didn't take into account - and it's a real obvious one - is that traffic conditions will change as you are driving. So Google Maps or Waze will give an ETA of 12 hours when you leave the house but as rush hour traffic jams form or accidents happens, they would slowly revise the ETA up in small increments so the actual driving time without breaks was 13+ hours. Another thing for me was at the start of a trip, I'd try to cover as much ground as possible before stopping, and then only real quick 5 minutes stops. As the day wore on - and I wore down - the stops would become more frequent and longer 20-30 minutes as I needed more time to stretch my legs, recharge, etc. Now I take them more frequently - but shorter - and that seems to keep me fresh and alert the whole day. I'd map out ahead of time where the highway rest area were or truck stops. One of my favorites go-to places is Loves Travel Stops which has everything a road warrior needs - gas, fast food, plenty of coffee, snacks, clean bathrooms, wiper blades, gifts, sanitary needs, etc - and they are always right off the highway exit ramps I actually download their app to my phone so I would know their locations along my route and plan my stops accordingly. The app also has other useful info such as current gas price, amenities at each location, etc. How long is a flight, 45 minutes? I once flew from New York to Boston (normally a 4 hour drive for me) and it felt like as soon as the plane reached cruising altitude, it started to descend. I think flying time was 40 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of taxiing on the runways at each airport. So true. I have 2 cars that have very different driving experiences. One is large, spacious, comfy seats and a very smooth quiet ride. Driving it is almost effortless. The other is a convertible that is a lot of fun to drive but it'll get tiring on long trips. Even with the top up, there is a lot of road noise and the sport bucket seats, firm suspension & super responsive steering means you are constantly paying attention to the road. Fun for short rides but tiring on the long, bumpy Interstate highways.

As you can see from the many quick replies, you already have an online support group. Feel free to vent as much or as little as possible or not at all. No trips planned? No problem. Weather updates, food porn, complaints about gas prices and pet pics are always appreciated. The effort you are putting in to take care of your mother is a testament to your character and to hers are well, for raising you to be the person you've become. As tired and frustrated are you may be, when all is said and done, you will be happy to know you've made the right choices.

I've been spending too much time discussing baseball on this thread and falling way behind on several of the live reviews. I didn't realize @bobmacliberty reached Hawaii and only made it as far as@A&L_Ont 1st day of his cruise. 😄 I got some catching up to do.

@John&LaLa I sorta went down a rabbit hole. The organization that is currently known as the Atlanta Braves (formerly of Milwaukee and Boston) was founded back in 1871 before there a MLB or even a National League. Prior to being called the Braves, they operated under several other names: Boston Red Stockings (not to be confused with the AL Boston Red Sox which were not yet in existence), the Boston Red Caps, and my favorite, the Boston Beaneaters. 😄 True story! They became the Braves in 1912. Regardless of the name or which league they played in, they can claim to be the oldest, continuously operating baseball team. Fun facts to tell at parties.

I just saw the baseball schedule for tomorrow. I had been hoping the Yankees would get the early day time game slot as I'm going to the Rangers home opener tomorrow night. But they have the prime time slot so there goes my plans to watching baseball during the day and attending hockey at night. Normally, I would record the Yankee game to watch later but I'm sure I'll be getting regular updates throughout the night.

I've done several day trips to Galveston when visiting Houston. My favorite spot is slightly different from your spot. It's aptly named The Spot. They advertise 5 different venues under one roof but it's really just 5 different rooms with each bar having with a slightly different theme. But I am a sucker for a beach-themed bar. https://www.islandfamous.com/thespot/

If the food is real bad, check out Giovanni’s. Personal opinion but I think it's better than Jamies on other ships. It's never disappointed me. Ossobucco was one of the better dishes.

When my step daughter was living in Houston, I made sure she had a steady supply of NY Yankee apparel. 😇

Rumor has it he was hungover during that game, although he denied it. Alcohol as a PED? I was picking the losers. 😉 No, I have not but friends have also told me I would like it. Braves go all the way back to Boston in the early 1900s.

The Astro's used to be the "other team" that I cheered on since my step-daughter was living in Houston at the time. That changed when they started to routinely beat the Yankees in the playoffs. 😊 Duly noted. Was the original name based on the gun or the malt liquor drink? 😁 I still think the Brewers are in the NL.

All excellent advice. I wasn't too keen on letting him outside at first as I thought he'd run off but it was my step daughters idea, which surprised me. And good point about the roads, even though we live on a dead-end street, it's a long one with roughly 14-16 homes past us & apparently some of them think our little side street is an Interstate highway. So far, we've kept him to the backyard. Regarding his predator instincts - a story you can appreciate - a few nights ago, Leonard starts pacing back and forth in front of the sliding glass door, meowing and jumping up on the glass. It's pitch black outside so I turn on the light and staring right back at us is a possum. 😲 Fox, coyotes, hawks and owls are the main predators in my area. My neighbor had a small duck pond enclosure with 3 ducks. Well, now 1 duck. Not sure which predator took are of of the other two. The remains of one was left behind but the other just disappeared. I've seen the owl go after groundhogs in the middle of the day & I've seen them swoop by the duck enclosure. Leonard will come when my step-daughter calls him. In fact, he will usually follows her like he's her shadow. Me? I have to shake a bag of cat treats to get him to come to me. Fleas and eating something are my main fears. Every time he'd been spooked, he's made a beeline right to the sliding glass door. Hope that continues.

I'm liking @John&LaLa picks, considering he went 0-4 in the wildcard round. 😉 Although I might substitute Houston for Seattle. 🙂

That's good to know. We have no intention of letting him roam outside unrestricted. In fact, he has no interest in going outside unless we are outside & he's always within eye sight. We will definitely keep his outside time limited. Can't wait to he sees snow for the first time.

First, condolences on your Mets loss. Wait until next year. Second, he did not, he spent most of the night sleeping. He has had a few exhausting days exploring the outside world. As he's been an indoor cat his whole life living in a 1 BR apartment, the closet to being outside was the 2nd floor balcony. Now he's got a 1/2 acre of yard to explore. First time, it took him 5 minutes to ssslllooowwwlly walk thru the sliding glass door. Very jumpy as his senses were overwhelmed. Lasted outside all of 2 minutes when a flock of crows started cawing, which sent him racing inside. Today, had him outside for an hour. Climbed his first tree. Don't let the scared expression fool you, he loved it.

My favorite Yogi-ism (regarding a popular restaurant): "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded" Honorable mention (regarding his famed sayings) "I never said most of the things I said".

Sound logic. Can't disagree.

You might be right. He knows his stuff & can go into excruciating detail about some minor details. He'd probably be better off as a bench coach or some other assistant type job rather than manager.

It's the curse of @John&LaLa. 🤣🤣🤣 Joking, of course. I don't think it would matter in what order the Mets pitched. 1 hit in this game & only 1 run scored in the 2 loses combined. Not gonna get the job done.

It's hard for the Mets to score with zero hits & walks. Is a possible perfect game about to happen? EDIT: Of course, as soon as I hit the post button, the Mets finally get a hit.

That picture is worthy of a Thomas Kincaid painting.

My trip down to Houston started end of July or more specifically, post# 67,222 which can be found on page # 2689. I was there for almost 2 weeks and posted randomly. But I’m pretty sure you are interested on the Cat-trip back. It was post# 68,297 (page 2732) where I introduced Leonard the Cat to Dani’s thread. Post #68,314 (page 2733) is where I asked for advice on long distance travel and received some excellent feedback in the following pages. That would have been August 9th. The road trip back was over 3 days. I’ll let you take it from there.🙂 The first hour or three, he was not happy. Howled a lot. We kept him in the pet carrier in the back seat & my step daughter sat back there with him. After several hours, he settled in nicely. Stayed in the pet carrier the whole time even though it was wide open & he could've wandered all over the inside of the car. And good luck! How long of a drive?

Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoy the spirited debates. I was just throwing my unsolicited 2 cents in. 🙂