Come as You Will Be party

 Yesterday, I took part in a fun party on Zoom. It was a Come as You Will Be event. The premise is that we were our 2026 selves, after having achieved the goals that we set for ourselves waaaay back on New Year's Day of 2021. We were to dress as our future selves, and tell everyone what we had accomplished, how we had reached our goals, what pitfalls we had to avoid, who helped us along the way, and so on.

I dressed for the beach, as my goal is to have a shore house.  I had my tankini top, a beach coverup, sun had, sun glasses, battery-operated fan, and my beach radio., Behind my head, on the mirror behind the sofa, I had a whole bunch of summer-related window clings.

I was hobnobbing with folks who were published authors, audio book narrators, and folks who had started their own companies. One lady had pics of her house in Hawaii, and a few people had magazine covers from Time, Smithsonian, and Rolling Stone with themselves on the cover. 

Then we had a question that I hadn't been expecting. Where did we see ourselves in the next five years, in 2031?

My answer was that I expect to be renting houses at the shore to other people, so that others can enjoy the shore as much as I do.

The truth is that this is a realistic answer, when you get right down to it. There is no reason why I can't do exactly this, if I play my cards right. There are people who use rental income to pay the mortgage and property taxes on their shore properties, and I see no reason why I can't be among them.

One thing at a time. First, we have to have the one shore house. Preferably, one that is either a duplex where we can rent out one floor, or has a separate in-law's quarters so we can rent the main house (or if it's a duplex, get two rentals from it). Once that has been achieved, and I have already notified Mark that I fully intend to see this through, then we can figure out what the next steps look like.

I am all about it. Watch this space.

Vacation in the times of COVID

Vacation in the times of COVID:
Socially distant beachgoing
Pizza delivery for dinner
Sitting on the porch, people watching, in the evening

My kind of day! 😀

I'm HOOOOOME!

My vacation began at 3:30 this afternoon, upon my logging off from work. 😃

I promptly turned off all weekday alarms (for getting up, logging on, conference calls, and logging off). Sleeping in is now a thing.

My inbox will probably be overflowing with faxes upon my return. That's OK. Call it job security. I'll get them done ASAP when I am back to work again. Till then, it's RELAXATION TIME.

Medium Post

It dawns on me that I have got a Medium post sitting waiting to be completed and edited. Fortunately, it does not have time-sensitive content, but it has been sitting for a couple of weeks as I have grappled with computer gremlins.

Well, now that I have the new computer, I am not dealing with random freezes and crashes while I am trying to work, so IMO it behooves me to get this document edited.

I can get to work on that after work.

Also, there is now a Wildwood Tram Car app. Now we can pay fares with cashless transactions, the better to protect everyone from COVID this summer.  Needless to say, I downloaded it as soon as I found out it was available.

Song of the Day, Day 8

We're home from the shore, the kitties are home from the vet, and all is well. Let's celebrate with a little Barry. :)

Packing, Day 8

Just a quick note as we load up the car to head back. The Song of the Day will come later. In the meantime, here's the walking total for yesterday:

Feet came first, Day 7

Before bikes and skates existed, there were FEET. We just walked to the far end of North Wildwood and back. Round trip: 3.5 miles door-to-door. :)

Couldn't help but sing "Under the Boardwalk" here. The view from below:

More "Under the Boardwalk"  moments:

Most of our walk was out in the open, on a ground-level path that runs parallel to the boardwalk. However, one part of said path is being repaired, so we circumvented the heavy equipment and walked in the shade for a block or so. 

You can't go farther north than this on JFK Beach Avenue.  The Atlantic Ocean meets the Hereford Inlet here.

Bonus Song of the Day, Day 7

They say you know you're a grownup when your knees heal. I guess I'm still a kid. :)

Oops, Day 7

Yeah, that would be a four-Band-Aid-worthy abrasion. I need a new set of skating knee pads before trying this on a sidewalk again. Oh, well, what's a little bloodshed in pursuit of adventure?

Song of the Day, Day 7

I actually DO have a brand-new pair of roller skates, and it's my intent to take them out on their maiden voyage in a little while. We'll see how that pans out. :)

Cape May Lighthouse and Cape May, Day 6

We decided to turn today into a day trip to see the Cape May Lighthouse and also Cape May itself. I think that was a wise move, as I had just a bit too much sun yesterday during our walking tour of Stone Harbor, particularly the part where we sat on the beach to watch the volleyball. I actually think I wound up with a bit of heat exhaustion after that, and this is WITH rehydrating with three large bottles of Propel during the course of the afternoon. If I hadn't drunk all that water, I might have needed some first aid when all was said and done.

But I digress. We started off by driving to the Lighthouse, which was easier today than on Tuesday night for multiple reasons. One, it was light out so the signs were easier to see. Two, we had some experience already in finding it because we'd just been there on Tuesday evening. And Three, we actually used the GPS this time instead of relying on a printed sheet of directions. Long story less long, we got there with no problem.

There is no elevator. And, as I discovered via the magic of Google, the Lighthouse has 199 steps inside. So we embarked on climbing. There are 6 landings on the circular staircase, which is good, because it allows for the person climbing to pause and catch their breath. I did need that brief break, because it's July and it was FREAKING HOT in there. Note to self: next time, do this in the early morning before the sun has a chance to beat down on the building for very long. Lessson learned, lol. But  on the way up, we did see some cool things. 

Porthole window. 

View from porthole window.

Finally, we arrived on the level of the observation deck. There were more steps that led up into the part of the lighthouse that is in operation, but those stairs were off-limits to the public. 

However, as  you can see, we were VERY close to the workings of the lighthouse. Here is the actual light itself, which rotates around 24/7. Judging from the pair of beams I saw emanating from the lighthouse on Tuesday night, there must be two lanterns spaced 180° apart from one another. 

The first thing you will see, as you are about to step out the door and onto the observation deck, is this:

I suppose there were people who were trying to shout down from the deck to companions who were waiting on the ground because of difficulty climbing stairs, fear of heights, claustrophobia (that tower is NARROW inside!), or other reasons. If that's the case, I can see how that would get really old, REALLY fast for everyone else within earshot.

I must say, the climb was TOTALLY worth the effort. The vista was breathtaking, and the brisk sea breeze felt phenomenally good, all the more so because it was all kinds of hot inside the tower.

This is what the view looked like when I aimed the camera straight down:

Once I got to the ground, I took this image from the base of the lighthouse and posted to Facebook that I'd both climbed AND walked down the entire staircase inside the lighthouse:

From here, we visited the information center and the museum that are also on the Lighthouse grounds. They gave us driving directions to Cape May proper (which is about 1.25 miles away. We had a little sliipup when we arrived. Even though both Mark and I spotted the sign on the parking lot describing that there is a fee for parking from 10 AM to 10 PM, while we were driving into the lot, by the time we chose a parking spot that little detail had slipped both of our minds. So we sort of forgot to freaking pay for parking. Walking up and down 398 steps in a sweltering hot tower will fry your brain like that, lol. So we toddled off to see the sights, and since we were both hungry, we stopped in what proved to be a REALLY nice restaurant. Pricey, yes, but worth every cent. I can't say enough good things about them It's called That's Amore, and if you are ever in Cape May, go there for Italian cuisine. 

I knew I was going to love these people when I saw they serve fresh-baked bread, not with butter, but with "Sunday Gravy". I'm in the "it's GRAVY, not SAUCE" camp. And Italian-American tradition involves making it on Sundays for the huge, Sunday afternoon family dinner. 

And yes, their gravy was VERY good! As was everything else.

Only after we finished eating did Mark ask me, "Do you remember if we had to pay for parking in that lot?" Ummmm, now that you mention it... oh crud. So he headed back to the car, and I wandered into one of the stores. Sure enough, he discovered that within fifteen minutes of our arrival, we'd gotten a parking ticket. Shoot. Well, THAT'S an error we won't be making twice. Live and learn.

But while I was in the store, I got a great picture of an "iWatch". Or should I say, "Eye Watch".

And now, for the South Philly contingent... doesn't Our Lady Star of the Sea look a whole lot like Epiphany in Philly?

We went home not long after visiting the church and a few more stores. And that was a good thing, because within an hour of our getting back to the house, the SKIES opened up with tons of lightning and thunder. I thought there was going to be an ark floating down the street any minute. But it didn't come as a total surprise to me that we got a storm, because I'd been getting alerts on my phone all day about Philadelphia's bad weather. I figured that if they were getting it in the afternoon, it might hit the NJ shore later on. Even though we lucked out yesterday (and Philly's bad weather hit Atlantic City and other points well north of here), tonight we got Philly's rainstorm. Oddly, yesterday we got loads of threatening-looking clouds, only to see them go away and have the sun come back out. Today, the skies looked just fine right up until the storm was about to hit. Then, KABLOOEY. 

The good news is, the forecast calls for the humidity to break. We have had lovely, sunny weather all week, in the 80s, which is ideal. But HOLY COW it's been humid. At least for our last full day here, it might not be muggy. That'll be nice.

I'm hoping I'll get some skating in tomorrow. I've been itching to try out those new skates.

Song of the Day, Day 6

To switch things up a bit, today we're going to take that day trip to Cape May that we discussed on Tuesday night. Why not? Our interest was piqued by seeing the lighthouse in person, it's a short drive, and it's a nice day.

Trial on the Isle, Day 5

Today is Mark's birthday. We celebrated with a trip to Stone Harbor to see the Flyers prospects in their annual Trial on the Isle. Photos will be limited, temporarily, because the Internet connection is laggy today. I can always edit the posts later when the Connection Gremlins go find someone else to harass.

Mark on the path to the 96th Street beach

The events began with the prospects doing calisthenics on the beach. 

Then, guys had to answer a question correctly in order for their three-man team to get permission to start the race portion of the workout. I'm not sure if the questions were about the history of the Flyers, or facts about one another, as I couldn't quite hear everything that was being said. Here are some of the teams beginning their sprint. 

I have more of these images, but I trust you get the idea. ;)

Fast-forward to when the three-man teams returned. Immediately, they began doing sand sculptures, for a contest that'd be voted on by fans. 

I happened to be standing next to a heap of baby clams (think 1/2" wide or less) that had been left behind by the receding tide. They resembled tiny pebbles, but I knew what they were from growing up seeing little critters like these. One of the players working nearby spotted them, too, and scooped a bunch into a bucket to use them to decorate the sculpture. I remarked, "Baby clams. Good idea!"

He peered into the bucket. "These are clams?" I affirmed that yes, they were baby clams. 

And now, they will be able to tell all their clam friends about their foray into performance art. Here they are, adorning a freestyle Flyers logo. 

Some other logos:

Following this, everyone headed over to the bay. Mark went in search of an ATM, so I walked to the yacht club myself. 

The three-man teams proceeded to create rafts out of four inner tubes, in any configuration they wished. They could then climb on and swim/paddle/navigate around the bay with said rafts, under the watchful eye of a flotilla of lifeguards.

We did have some horsing around at the finish line when one guy swam from his raft, to the raft of the team in front of him, and started pulling on the feet of one of the swimmers. The two of them proceeded to bop each other like a pair of kids. :)

After this, everyone headed to the local elementary school for autographs. 

The school was easy to find. ;)

Mark's new nickname: Slapshot. 

First, the hockey clinic...

Then, the autographs. 

There was a volleyball tournament after this, with 16 teams comprised of two players and two fans. But my battery was shot after using the camera all day (including dozens of pics not posted here). So I didn't get pictures of that. 

But here's a picture... We got TONS of walking in!