Guam tomorrow

Guam tomorrow
While the sun doesn’t exactly blast through the curtains as it did for a long while, it still is impossible to sleep with this degree of light in the room. There was rain (you could see the drops of water on the bottom of each run of the fence on the balcony) and the wind was still howling. The waves are about 8 feet high.
The Captain came on about 8 am and told us what had happened in history on this date; I try to remember some of it since it may come up in trivia. Ha. Well anyway, Elvis Presley went into the service on this day. Don’t ask me the year.
I’ve been reading to Ed some of the part of the book on Einstein about tensors and such. So this morning he started posing questions to me about great circles related to longitude (all yes) and Latitude (only at the equator) and then I discussed curved space with him (it’s that part of the story now) and how potentially there could be indefinite numbers of grand circles around the earth. When you fly to Europe, you do a circle (actually an arc as a part of a potential circle) over the Pole.
Passports
We had to pick up our passports this morning so we have them for Guam immigration tomorrow morning. I assume we give them right back to the ship since we won’t need them on US soil. There was a modest line at 9:05 am. I see the stamps for Papua New Guinea and for Australia are in there.
Shopping
Next I went to see if there was anything new in the atrium to tempt us. Not a thing new but then I pretty much knew that; I was just looking for better prices. Yesterday I picked up some World Cruise T-shirts for the Ft. Lauderdale to LA leg of it. We knew they would be marked down pretty good at some point. I got all of the small sizes though they are much closer to a medium and they really don’t shink.
Library
I finally did look up the anniversary gifts since that question comes up so often. I wrote them all down and will share with the group; hopefully one of us will remember if we get one again soon. If it’s too long away, Lord only knows.
Tri via
We accomplished a tie breaker status but the other team guessed the date closest to the opening of the Victoria and Albert museum. Ah well
Lunch
Two interesting topics of discussion today: travelling by freighter, and the interview/chat with Frankie about Rabaul and Chuuk. Regarding the former, this couple travelled for about 2 yrs for various periods of time on freighters. You dine and socialize with the officers. There is a Laundromat that works well and has no problems with being crowded. You must be willing to entertain yourself for long periods of time because it may be a long while (as much as 28 days in one instance) where you do not have a port. If you want more ports and more time in the ports, you select a general cargo ship. The cost is plus or minus $100 per day per person for comfortable accommodations; with lower prices, the accommodations go down in “quality”. You have free access to the bridge, including when the pilots are there, as long as you don’t speak unless spoken to and stay out of the way. But you get to experience all that is involved in going into and out of ports. There are no stabilizers.
The conversation with Frankie did bring up the issue of the ports we go into and the “appalling conditions” (apparently this is the term used by one whiner). All the others present put the complainer into his place. As I’ve remarked before: these folks should stick with large ships and chose the tours that take them to resorts.
Movie maker
So now, given the time and the hard drive space, I’m dangerous with editing videos. I also learned today—something I’ve been wanting to learn how to do for years!—how to take a single picture out of a video clip! Hurrah! The young man, Tim, who teaches these classes is so young and so cute. But more importantly, he is a talented teacher and takes you step by step through successful experiences.
Since I promised Ed he could have the computer at 3 pm, I’m simply catching up on the blog now and waiting for him to come back to claim it. I have not yet downloaded yesterday’s photos and I may not do that until after Guam. It’s a lot of trouble frankly as it not only involves downloading photos from our 3 cameras, but also recharging the batteries and reformatting the disks. I’m busy.
Well Ed came back from the lecture and didn’t use the computer… I spent more time reading Einstein until it was time to go.
Tour of the bridge
World Cruise, Elite, and Suite passengers are being invited to tour the bridge I gather. As you know, Ed is signed up for the Ultimate Ship’s Tour (if they ever have it on this ship) but this was the white bread version of the tour of the bridge. About 12 of us showed up at the assigned place—in front of the fore elevators on deck 8. As usual, two folks didn’t show and so the rest of us waited for them. Eventually we were escorted past the secure password protected doors, down the hall where all the plaques from all the ports are displayed, past the Captain’s cabin and conference room, into the bridge. It is always interesting to see how this ship is run, usually by auto pilot while we are there. It was too windy for us to go out onto the wing bridge where the Captain controls the ship while it is being brought alongside the jetty; there is even a window in the floor of this where he can see the side of the ship, water and the jetty as we get closer. Our host was a young fellow who had been in the Navy for 10 years before coming with Princess 3 years ago. Everyone looks so sharp in their crisp whites. I wonder if we’ll be going into dark uniform territory when we approach Korea.
TV: the technician came in today to redo the film something or another in this flat screen TV. I didn’t catch what his job was but I assume they have some system that requires that they do some fine tuning now and then as this has been working just fine. Ed has been flipping the channels listening in alternate sessions at the talking heads lambasting the health care bill, and those talking about dead bodies; sometimes I have the impression these are the same discussion.
Dinner
All present. Some discussion of Flying Squirrels, actually fruit bats (we saw them in Cairns) and how much noise they make eating fruits when they are dropping from ripeness. They also have transmitted a deadly virus that infected horses and contaminated some vets and trainers, most of whom died. Two who lived are still not right. They said it was the Hendra virus named after the location where it was discovered. I’ve never heard of it; another thing to look up on the net.
Missed lecture
I left dinner early to see the lecture I missed today while I was taking the video editing class. The title was “What do some Republican and Democratic Presidents have in common besides partisan animosity: Should their “roving eye” affect how we judge their presidencies? All that is playing is the lectures I’ve already seen; somebody goofed as these are reruns instead of a replay of today’s lecture. Well the best laid plans…. Back to Einstein I guess.
The comedy magic of Greg Hudson
This was tonite’s entertainment. We saw him the other night as the mentalist. I enjoyed that but this is the usual magical tricks with the ropes that you cut and such so I left and checked out our photos and then came back to the room. I made the laundry list, did my hand laundry (ugh! I really hate doing this), and determining our routine for tomorrow. We have immigration check between 8:30 and 9 am in the Cabaret Lounge; non-US citizens go to the Pacific Lounge. After that, we’ll take the shuttle into town and decide what we want to do from there.