The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.
If you are a fan of our sports programming and I am finding out many of you are because you are telling me how much you miss it when you recognize me behind my mask. You know that, in a normal year, once football season begins in late August and basketball season ends in late March, all of us on the RCN4Sports team are extremely busy.
Couple that with the fact that almost every weekend is filled with both sports. It is extremely rare to have a Friday or a Saturday free and basketball serves up four nights of broadcasts. I am not complaining at all. I love doing the games.
However, my wife and I certainly look forward to the end of basketball season because there is a lull until baseball begins and that is our time to go off, reunite, and take our vacation.
We had a great one planned this year. We are cruisers, taking at least one a year and often two. We were especially looking forward to this year. We were going to take a “repositioning” cruise. That means the ship, Adventure of the Seas, would leave one port to start and finish the cruise at an entirely different port, in other words, it would “reposition”. In this case we would board a plane in Newark, fly to Ft. Lauderdale, and finish the cruise at Cape Liberty in Bayonne in twelve nights, where we could be home in a little over an hour. It was perfect.
Since we only needed to fly one-way, I decided to buy a first-class ticket for the first time ever. We were actually looking forward to the flight. We were to board the ship on May 3.
We would be making five stops at the following ports of call:
Aruba
Curacao
Bonaire
Antigua
St. Thomas
We had been to all of them before, but nor for quite awhile. They are all beautiful, offering up beautiful beaches, great island cuisine, and interesting tours. We especially were looking forward to our return to Antigua. We had vacationed there for 12 years in a row and had so many fond memories. We looked forward to meeting up with our long-time driver, Glentis Cole, who had become a friend while getting us to all the wonderful destinations on the island and making sure we were safe. He is in his eighties and this might have been our last chance to reacquaint.
In addition, we would have 6 ½ days of just being on the ship enjoying all the good food, entertainment, and scenery a cruise has to offer.
But it was not to be. Instead, we move from living room to family room to kitchen to garage to office to bedroom. The scenery is okay, the meals are adequate, the entertainment rather blah. No one makes our bed; there are no eggs Benedict in the morning, no hot tub, no one offering unlimited lobster tails, and no Las Vegas entertainment. In other words, there is no vacation.
I still have my vacation days available – now, will we get the chance to use them? And if we do, where will we safely be able to go? That remains to be seen. In the meantime, I can only dream about what we missed virtually. But isn’t that how we are doing most things right now? And, believe me, it is NOT nearly as enjoyable.
Stay safe.
ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)
- The NFL schedule came out this week with no mention of the virus stopping play. The Eagles start and end with the Redskins. They will play four primetime games – two on Sunday night, one on Thursday, and one on Monday Night Football. Sounds good (if they play).
- What a difference Tom Brady makes to a team. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team not often shown in our market, will get five prime time appearances this upcoming season (one Thursday, two Sunday nights, two Monday nights). They will, also, get at least two of Fox’s featured games of the week. Tom Brady interest seems to be at an all-time high.
- I was able to get out and play golf last Sunday. Each player had his own cart; the starting times were staggered enough that we never met up with the players in front of us. You could putt into the hole and lift the ball out with a pulley device, using just your putter. Touching the flag was not necessary and only you touched the golf ball. It was fun and safe.
- So far, every event that we would normally bring to you – the high school baseball league and district playoffs, the McDonald’s banquet and football game, some Grandview Speedway racing, and the Lafayette spring game have all been cancelled. The Blue Mountain League is our only holdout at the moment. They have postponed some early games, but holding out hope to play a partial season. I’m ready when they are.
- This quarantine situation is so bad that I am actually enjoying cutting the grass.
