*OFFICIAL* CC Group Cruise 02/15/2014 Cupid's IV Southern Caribbean - Carnival Breeze

[ed_k_tx]

Good morning, Breeze buddies!

Here it is 6:10 and I am getting ready for the last 4 hours of the week. We are all on alert for Monday and if the storm gets close no day off for me all hands on deck. I do have a phone appointment with Social Security to sign up for my retirement so I will have to jet home for that for a minute. Since I am only 5 minutes away no problem.

Thanks you everyone for your well wishes for all the Florida Cupids. I also join that wish for Rick and also Lisa as I know Rick is on the West Coast of Florida and I think Lisa in toward Central. The whole state will be effected they just don't know how much. Did someone say Hurrican Party??lol

 

Well everyone have a super day and will check back later.

 

Hope all the Florida Cupids fare well through the the storm.

DW's brother retired and lives in Homosassa now. One of the first things they did after they moved in was install an emergency generator. As long as the gas tank doesn't float away they're set.:eek:

[HeidiHo]

Good Afternoon.

 

We just got back from the Bristol Renaissance Faire. It was good but hot and sticky so I'm going to take a shower as soon as I'm done posting this. I didn't bother taking one this morning because I knew it would be like that. I'm pretty dirty too. A lot of walking on dirt and since it's dry it's very dusty. My feet ar filthy. Can't wait to get cleaned up.

 

I have a work schedule next week that I'm not too crazy about. I work 5 nights, no lunches and close 4 out of 5 of those nights. My boss warned me that he was going to have to do this. it should be temporary. it's only because we are really short on hosts right now. We've lost several and some of the ones we still have are high school students and they aren't allowed to close on school nights. As soon as some new ones are hired and trained I hope to go back to my old schedule.

 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and stay safe if you are in the path of Isaac.

[Flick]

Let's talk about storms (hurricane and other) and preparations for same. I live on the West Coast of Florida in a 55+ age community that encompasses 2200 homes and lots of amenities. Strangely enough, although the last hurricane to strike this area was many decades ago if the authorities decide I have to evacuate then that is what I must do. To stay in my home is against the law and is foolish since NO emergency vehicles will be allowed on the streets so I will get no help if needed. We have three "safe houses" that we can go to if we have to leave. We have a "hurricane" kit consisting of food, clothing,cash,water, and other necessities to last for three days. The car is now full of gas since it is expected that gas pumps as well as ATMs will not be able to operate (same goes for credit cards). As you can see, we have to take these storms seriously even though they probably won't hit us.The nice thing about them is we get plenty of warning so we can make plans, unlike tornadoes which occur with little or no warning.

[Cruisin Dave]

Rick, sounds like a good plan. You be careful and get out in plenty of time.

[Cathy p]

Good morning, Breeze buddies from breezy Florida!

We have some wind, not sure what it is from, however, I don't think it is Isaac. They took down our Tropical Storm warning so i guess it is a waiting game.

 

Rick, don't forget the passport if you have to leave.Great job on taking it seriously. There is no home that is worthy risking your life. I just looked at the radar and it looks like clouds are starting to come in so maybe the small wind we have may be from that storm. How far are you from Tampa?

I am just hanging out in my jammies today no air on yet as the breeze is actually coming into our lanai. So very nice that is for a change. We have a pizza for lunch and homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner. Kenny makes great soup. YUM!

Sue, I hope that you are feeling better.

Heidi, sorry for the long shift and I know about those.

Ed not sure where Homasassa, however, I know it is a short drive from here to see those manatees. I hope he leaves if need be.

Well all my Cupid buddies, please stay safe and keep us informed as long as you can with the power on. I shall watch the radar really close and try and keep up.

God Bless everyone!

Edited August 26, 2012 by Cathy p

[momofzeke]

Hope all the Foridians are still safe!

 

Rick ~ better to be prepared and not have to evacuate than to be unprepared. Sounds like you are ready. Sure hope you won't need to go. Sorry about your computer troubles, but glad you are back up and running!

 

Heidi ~ hope you survive the week with that schedule! Not fun. Hopefully it will be only this week.

 

Dave ~ thanks, my knee is fine. Just a little sore now when I press on it, but as long as I don't try to kneel down it's ok. I've heard a lot of cussing in the corral, so yes, cowboys (and cowgirls) do cuss up a blue streak sometimes! ;) Sometimes I'm the one doing the cussing if a cow is chasing me....

 

Wow, the smoke was back yesterday like gangbusters! Not from our fire, I'm sure, because it's 90% contained. There are fires in Boise and California and other places. But it was really bad...trapped in the house ~ AGAIN. :(

 

Our creek is down to just a trickle of water. It's very stressful because we have to have water for the cows to drink. Dave took the backhoe up to the neighbors again and tore out the beaver dams again. The term "busy beaver" is sure true....they had their dams started already again from where he tore them out before. Plus he found one that he had missed last time.

 

The nights are very cool here, so that should help our water situation. I sure hope so! 2 of our 3 creeks are totally dry and 1 is barely hanging on. We do have water in the river that is in 1 field....but the cows would all be in the same field then and the grass would be gone a lot sooner. In order to eat the grass in all the other fields, we need that creek to hang on!

 

Have a nice Sunday, everyone. Hope that hurricane stays far away from our Cupids!

 

Cat ~ we were posting together.... glad to hear they took the tropical storm warning down. Stay safe!

Edited August 26, 2012 by momofzeke

[Flick]

Cathy, we are on the South side of Tampa Bay on the Manatee River. Tampa itself is about 45 minutes from here (plus or minus 100 years!)

Beginning to think we may dodge a bullet here but I remember Charlie in 2004 when we were supposed to get a direct hit and it turned 90 degrees South of us and went up the center of the state so until the storm is PAST us, I assume nothing.......

[Cathy p]

Rick, being from Virginia Beach I have been thru many hurricans and tropical storm and not to forget NorEasters. You can never be sure until it either is OMG here it comes or is it ever going to get cloudy.

 

I remember when my kids were little and they made me promise I would wake them up when the storm came. So here it come 80 mile per hour wind and my son gets up and looks at the window and says how come the trees are only bending over half way and not snapping.:eek: I am going back to bed, let me know if they fall on the house.:eek::eek:

Out of the mouths of babes!!:D

[MiMiof2]

Hello Cupids!

 

Central Florida checking in (Polk County).

Just alil rain right now.

We are under a "Tropical Storm Warning".

Schools are cancelled for tomorrow.

I work a double tonight 3p-7a.

However....if the oncoming nurses in the AM are unable to make it in,

I am mandated to stay. (A triple?!)

Hurricane kit ready here (except for the chocolate pudding the grand baby ate, lol).

Not looking forward to any tornado warnings.

It means we have to evacuate all residents into the hallways.

(I work in Long Term Care aka nursing home).

 

Okay, back to sleep now! Woke up to check school status ;)

[Flick]

Cathy, good point about the passports....I never gave them a thought. You want to hear irony, my passport expires 5 months and 29 days after we return from the Cupid cruise so I have to get mine renewed before I go or they won't let me on the ship! This will be my fourth one though so no big deal other than the fact the last renewal only cost $45.00 and this one is over $100.00............

[Cathy p]

We had a rain band come thru that you could hardly see. It lasted about 5 minutes but they seem to be coming faster.

Lisa, glad you are safe and so sorry to hear about the triple shift you have to go thru.

Rick, glad I remembered that for you.lol I saw smoke coming from upstairs so I go running welll not running outside and look. My idiot neighbor is grilling on his lanai. Illegal to do that in an apartment. I told him if he shared I would not tattle so I guess I need to tattle.lol Sure smelled good.

Hey Rick do you and your wife both collect social security and if so did you wait until full retirement age. Kenny waited until full retirement age and I am going at 62 to make sure I get some before it goes away. I wonder how that will work with both us. Any insight?

[Flick]

Cathy, we both took social security at 62, however, I had retired at 56 so it wasn't a big deal. We were told we would HAVE to live to 82 to make up the difference between taking it at 62 or 65. In fact we only lost about 20% monthly by taking it at 62. Kay was totally retired and I retired the SECOND time at 62. (I spent about 6 months at the the first retirement and felt at "loose ends". Since we had literally travelled all over the world I went back to school and got certified as a travel agent. I was very fortunate because as word spread that I was an experienced traveller who could recommend restaurants, hotels, etc. I gained an exclusive group of very rich people who used me to make their travel arrangements. For instance I had an elderly couple who had never been to Europe and I was able to given them a daily itinerary for a trip to France and Germany. That included all their transportation needs, both public and private car and driver. I stopped that when they started to book their own trips and asked me to clean up their mistakes......no money involved there!!)

[Flick]

Well we have dodged a MAJOR bullet here in Florida! It did have some good though. It has been years (since 2004) that we have had to prepare for a hurricane and people do get complacent. On the other hand, tropical storm Debbie reminded us that even storms like her can cause some damage and we shouldn't ignore them. It isn't even raining at the moment although it still is overcast. Ya gotta feel sorry for the folks in N'awleens though as they seem to be the bullseye this time.....AGAIN!!

[Flick]

whoops spoke too soon it is raining again......

[walkswife]

My friends daughter is stationed in Mississippi in the air force.... she is being evacuated tomorrow through Thursday..... told to be packed and ready by tonight..... her first hurricane.... her mommy is a little nervous....

[momofzeke]

You want to hear irony, my passport expires 5 months and 29 days after we return from the Cupid cruise so I have to get mine renewed before I go or they won't let me on the ship!

 

Rick, what do you mean? Are you saying if your passport expires within 6 months of a cruise, they won't let you on the ship?? That seems crazy! Ours expire 1 month BEFORE the cruise, so there's no question we have to renew them before we go. But I never would have known to renew them if there was almost 6 months before expiration?!

 

So glad the hurricane seems to have missed you guys.....hope it stays away. Poor New Orleans, they sure as heck don't need another disaster! Maybe it will veer away from them too.

 

Renee ~ hope your friends daughter is ok! That would be scary for sure.

 

I had bought jalepeno peppers to make poppers for when my sis came to visit....but she didn't end up coming, so yesterday I made the poppers anyway. Didn't want to let the peppers go to waste! They are super easy and so yummy...just cut peppers in half, I take out all the seeds and membranes because we don't like them hot, then fill the pepper with cream cheese (I use light cr. cheese), wrap half a piece of bacon around the pepper and bake at 400 for about 45 min. to an hour. Super delish!! We do NOT like hot things at all, but these are not hot if you take out all the seeds and membranes from the pepper. YUM.....

 

Going to get my hair cut today, Dave will go with me and we'll have lunch. His ranch pickup has been in getting worked on, so we'll pick it up today.

Edited August 27, 2012 by momofzeke

[momofzeke]

Didn't realize until I went to Facebook:

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HEIDI!!! :D

 

Hope you have a great day, girl!

[Cathy p]

Good morning, Breeze buddies!

Hi from rainy Central Florida. I am not sure what it did last night but all day it has rained pretty steady. It was suppose to stop early this morning. So much for predicting.lol

Rick, thank for the info on Social Security. I was suppose to get a call at 9:01 so there are a zillon offices closed in Florida including the 2 offices closest to me. One more question does Kay have her own SS or is she or either you going as the spouse. I am confused when it comes to that.

 

Renee, prayers go out to you and all the Gulf Coast people. Somehow I don't the NO is taking this as serious as they should. That will be a shame if it hits around there.

 

My Twinkie has has a Vet appointment today to follow up on that cruddy stuff that appeared by his neck. I think he will get a good review as he only has a tiny piece there. Kenny has washed that part every other day like he was told to and they both have special vet shampoo.

 

After that we are going to fill up . We have 3/4 of a tank but with the oil places shutting down those prices will probably climb again.:(

Well that is about it from here except safe travel to our Gulf Coast buddies and if you are hanging in there please watch the weather channel. Isaac is not predictable.

 

Chat later.

[Flick]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEIDI!!!!

 

Cathy, both Kay and I took social security seperately. Unfortunately for Kay.....she worked over 40 quarters paying into the system but because she became a teacher who didn't contribute to SS she only gets a pittance from SS. She does, however, have thirty years in as a teacher so she gets a nice pension for life. In fact, I am now a kept man since her income exceeds mine!

You can not leave the country and come back if your passport expires within 6 months of your return. As I told you earlier my passport expires 1 day before the 6 months.

Edited August 27, 2012 by Flick

[Cruisin Dave]

Happy Birthday

Heidi

[Cruisin Dave]

Good afternoon Cupids,

Looks like Florida missed the worst of Isaac and Now it is headed somewhere along the Gulf coast. One scenario has it hitting New Orleans but another is having hime hit Texas at Port Arthur and coming up through Texas. I hope it doesn't cause too much damage and at the moment it wi still a cat 1 hurricane.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Later,

Dave

[Cathy p]

Windy but the rain has stopped for a minute. I have a friend on the Imagination cruise I am going on and she had 12 inches of rain and lost power last night for a while. I look a bit ago and she was getting hammered again. We are blessed for the little we ended up with. Although we are suppose to have rain all week but that is Florida.

Happy Birthday, Heidi, I hope you are having a super day!!

[HeidiHo]

Thanks for the birthday wishes. We didn't do anything because I had to work. We might go out to dinner Wednesday night because that's when I'm off but that is also the day we have scheduled to get the new furnace and A/C installed. It just might depend on when they finish up. Although, we may have to reschedule it anyway because the money for it hasn't come through yet. If it doesn't come in by tomorrow we'll have to postpone it for a week or two.

 

Have a good night.

[Flick]

Good Early Morning to y'all. Since the weather has improved so dramatically we are going up to New Port Richey to visit friends we haven't seen in two years today. We are actually having a dawn today and it is supposed to be partially sunny.......Tomorrow I will have to take the grill out of the family room and the garbage cans go back outside etc. etc. In other words put our life back together instead of being on hold because of Isaac.

[Roe95695]

Happy Tuesday!!

 

Happy to read our Florida peps are all okay.. Praying for all those still in harms way.

 

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY Heidi!!!

 

have a great day