working out for Disney

[HouCuseChickie]

I'm glad your family sounds like they are doing better. It sounds like the vaccine is working if they are only getting mild cases.

This is for your girls' softball with some time with your family mixed in, rt? Can you cancel or is that up to the softball team/organization? OK, never mind. I see you were asked that.

What would it take for them to cancel this tournament?

I guess they have good days and bad days. No fever and congestion has greatly improved, but my mom said they are feeling really dizzy and drained today. I guess it comes and goes.

I would have to assume it's like things here when it comes to named storms. For a tropical storm, it probably would not be canceled unless there was lightning, torrential downpours, and/or the fields had too much standing water. I don't think evacuation orders usually come into play until it hits hurricane status. My parents lived in a Zone A when they were in the Saint Pete area. I don't think they ever dealt with anything more than a weak Cat 2 when they lived there and I know they never evacuated even though they were waterfront. That being said, for a softball tournament, I could see them canceling a day or 2 out if it looks like the area is going to get a hit involving a hurricane. Based on the projected storm timeline, it looks like this kind of decision would take place on Tuesday. Panama City is still on the western edge of the cone of uncertainty, but models are currently putting landfall in the Fort Myers area.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

If they don't cancel will it affect travel? Is there any chance it can be rescheduled?

We will be there by the time it's at the decision making point. Right now, I'm just going to hope that the forecast keeps moving it to our east.

 

[Sans Souci]

I'm sorry all that happened to you! Why would they charge you extra if you were going to return the car at the same time. I don't get that part at all

It's because we were picking it up after midnight. I think there is a shortage of cars and they don't want any sitting around, unused. Before we pulled the plug, we were looking at hotels near O'Hare that we could take an uber to or had shuttle service, sleeping there for the night, then picking up the car mid-morning. Then we would check into our hotel near my gram's nursing home that we booked into. They said no, it was a violation of the contract. They guy on the phone told my husband he should have gotten onto an earlier flight. Well, my husband had to work yesterday and this flight out was what worked for him.

I've been feeling lately that the travel sector thinks you should inconvenience yourself to avoid penalties, losing bookings, etc.

These places are not ready for prime time, we arrived at the airport at 6:30 PM--most restaurants were closed. It was mostly like those little sundry shops with snacks and little gifts that we open. The food courts were closed. It was just weird.

 

[Sans Souci]

Both vaccines should have full FDA approval before the end of the summer. Maybe that will persuade him? They've also been in development for well over a decade. Maybe that will help him understand the process more? Good luck

We've all been working on him. I've been listening to his concerns and tried to answer to the best of my knowledge. I was even going to call our doctor for a Telehealth meeting to see if he could explain things better than I could. He wasn't interested. He just shuts down and I've been really careful not to shame him for his choice. In my experience, that never works and only shuts down discussion.

I've even tried a little "mom guilt."

 

[Sans Souci]

I have heard so many flight and airport horror stories of late. For the bag, I have had so many instances of our bags flying ahead of us. We often arrive early and if it's a destination with a lot of flights, we've had our bags leave on one of the earlier flights. They still go through all of the security protocols...they just don't fly with their owners. Either way, I hope your bag arrives. We've had at least one or two instances of having a courier bring us ours.

The rental car matter is interesting. I don't pay for my rentals until check in and don't usually have to put a credit card on file for it, but I'd still be livid if I were delayed and they had no rental car for me at 2am. Wow.

That's a good point. Security has changed since those things happened. I'm so fried, I didn't even think about that. Duh.

We booked the car beforehand because were worried about shortages. I guess a lot of companies sold off some of their fleet to stay solvent during the worst of this pandemic and they are short of inventory. I guess that bit us in the backside, too. lol

 

[Sans Souci]

Hello-

I did walk and do yoga yesterday, but I haven't done anything today. It's raining, so no walk yet. I might do a 30 minute yoga practice or another type of workout later. We didn't get home until 1 and it took a while for me to unwind my mind. I woke up at 6, so I just feel a bit tired. I might take today as a rest day, I'll see how I feel.

I did a quick Target run because we all have some toiletries in the suitcase, I bought one of those little face mask packs. So, I think I'll have a mini spa night later on.

The upside is I got to bring home the rum cake I'd made for my grandma (I'll bake a fresh one for her on my next attempt at a visit), it's the holiday weekend and my wedding anniversary is Sunday. I'm focusing on that.

 

[Figgy1]

Hello-

I did walk and do yoga yesterday, but I haven't done anything today. It's raining, so no walk yet. I might do a 30 minute yoga practice or another type of workout later. We didn't get home until 1 and it took a while for me to unwind my mind. I woke up at 6, so I just feel a bit tired. I might take today as a rest day, I'll see how I feel.

I did a quick Target run because we all have some toiletries in the suitcase, I bought one of those little face mask packs. So, I think I'll have a mini spa night later on.

The upside is I got to bring home the rum cake I'd made for my grandma (I'll bake a fresh one for her on my next attempt at a visit), it's the holiday weekend and my wedding anniversary is Sunday. I'm focusing on that.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

That's a good point. Security has changed since those things happened. I'm so fried, I didn't even think about that. Duh.

We booked the car beforehand because were worried about shortages. I guess a lot of companies sold off some of their fleet to stay solvent during the worst of this pandemic and they are short of inventory. I guess that bit us in the backside, too. lol

I know they started doing a lot more with screening after they figured some things out with the bombing of Pan Am 103.

That's part of it, but it's all tied into the overall car shortages. We've stopped seeing local car ads just because inventory is so low.

 

[MinnieM123]

It's because we were picking it up after midnight. I think there is a shortage of cars and they don't want any sitting around, unused. Before we pulled the plug, we were looking at hotels near O'Hare that we could take an uber to or had shuttle service, sleeping there for the night, then picking up the car mid-morning. Then we would check into our hotel near my gram's nursing home that we booked into. They said no, it was a violation of the contract. They guy on the phone told my husband he should have gotten onto an earlier flight. Well, my husband had to work yesterday and this flight out was what worked for him.

I've been feeling lately that the travel sector thinks you should inconvenience yourself to avoid penalties, losing bookings, etc.

These places are not ready for prime time, we arrived at the airport at 6:30 PM--most restaurants were closed. It was mostly like those little sundry shops with snacks and little gifts that we open. The food courts were closed. It was just weird.

Over the past 2 days, I've seen multiple news reports from various large airports around the country. Cancellations are an issue (and not just referring to legit, weather-related ones), lines are long, etc. You hit the nail on the head about staffing -- we need more people, and it looks like that's going to take a while. Again, sorry to hear of your experience.

 

[Sans Souci]

Thank you very much.

 

[Sans Souci]

I know they started doing a lot more with screening after they figured some things out with the bombing of Pan Am 103.

That's part of it, but it's all tied into the overall car shortages. We've stopped seeing local car ads just because inventory is so low.

My husband and I were waiting that this t-junction stop light that faces a car dealership yesterday afternoon. I'd say about 2/3 of the lot was empty. Even the showroom looked empty. This was a Jaguar/Land Rover dealership, too. I was a bit shocked to see a high end dealership picked clean of a good percentage of its inventory. Wow.

Tangentially related, we've been getting loads of unsolicited texts, phone calls, letters in our mailbox asking if we'd like to sell our house. I know there is a housing shortage, but it's a bit much.

 

[Sans Souci]

Hello-

I did an hour of yoga after I got a good night's sleep. I'm going to go for a walk later on. I hope it will be dry enough to get out. I didn't do any sort of physical activity yesterday. I was really tired and I just felt like a day off was what my body needed.

We got our suitcase back. We had to go to the airport to retrieve it. It is damaged, but it's only a missing wheel. You can buy wheels on line. It looks like an easy fix. There were so many suitcases at this office waiting to be claimed. There were a lot Thursday night, but there were even more yesterday. On the upside, it was a quick pick up. It was so quick, we didn't even get charged at the short term parking.

I'm just happy tomorrow's weather looks great (except for a chance of an afternoon shower). We're just going to keep it simple and chill in the backyard.

 

[Figgy1]

I couldn't have timed this better if I tried. I got all my steps in today and most of them were outside. I got my hair and eyebrows done today(waxed not threaded, not ready for that yet) The morning rain stopped just when my hair was done so I walked down to get my eyebrows done and it still wasn't raining so I got my steps in before going home The rain started back up just as I was getting into the house

 

[Songbird76]

On one hand, I think it's great to see such an emphasis put on education, but you'd like to see similar care put into matters of health.

Exactly. I don't object to the mandatory school. There's no such thing as a high school drop out here, which I think is great. Everyone gets at least a basic level of education. But I think it's weird that parents don't have more say over their minor childrens' health. I don't think 15 year olds are necessarily equipped to make decisions like that. Their brains aren't fully developed, the last part to develop is the part that deals with making judgements and understanding the consequences of our actions...exactly the type of thing needed to make a major health decision. Plus, teens don't have much life experience. So we're letting them make life or death decisions without having the experience OR the necessary skills to make them. It just doesn't seem wise. Obviously kids have to be given autonomy at some point, but isn't that why they are considered "minors" until they are 18? I'd say E has a really good head on her shoulders, but we still have rules because she's not an adult yet. A needs more guidance, but even without the Autism, he'd still need boundaries. I guess I'm confused about where exactly they draw the line about parental control. It seems kind of random.

 

[Songbird76]

They never told us why we kept getting delayed. They only info the gave was over the app and that was updated flight times. We didn't even know they'd changed gates until I looked at my phone. Nobody announced anything at the gate. There was a lot of poor (none, really) communication last night.

When we got the the CS desk, she never told us what the problem was. She never said it was our weather, weather at another hub or what. Lots of people were very angry and I felt badly for the CS agents. They don't create this mess. I guess people haven't heard the saying that you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. I'm not going to lie, the agent we were working with really didn't care, it was a lot of "uh, huh", "yes", "Mm hmm" while not really engaged. She was just waiting for us to stop talking. She wasn't going to give us anything, but my husband really pushed the fact that they messed with our return flight and that we paid more money to fix an issue they created. She tapped some keys and nodded her head. She gave us what we paid minus the $76 pp exit row cost. She also told us that they could get our suitcase for us, we just needed to go to to Luggage Claim office. That was the first thing we asked about. Well, after waiting 45 minutes in line, the agent there said she was wrong and that our suitcase was going to Chicago.

He did flag our suitcase for us and it should be coming back today or tomorrow. He said they might courier it to our home or we might have to pick it up. I am hoping they will deliver it, but I have the feeling since we backed out, we'll have to pick it up. Honestly, I am hoping it doesn't get lost. (Personally, from a safety point of view, I was surprised they let a bag without its owner go on a flight. I am pretty sure terrorists have done this with a bomb in the suitcase.)

My husband said he felt badly for this guy. He was trying his best to help people, but he kept getting phone calls from other employees inquiring about luggage and he kept calling other agents to come down and help him. They are so stretched so thin and it shows. I don't think it's right to expect front facing employees to bear the brunt of operational decisions made by someone who never sees the consequences of their decisions.

And because we would have landed after midnight, the rental car company would have considered us a no show and charged us. Then we would have had to pay for another rental. My husband was shocked about that. People are on delayed flights all the time.

Wait.....so, they tried to get you to move your flight, then when you actually did cancel, they didn't want to reimburse you? Did you have all the texts they sent you asking you to change your flight? Do you know if they did actually oversell? The whole thing just seems so unethical! So will you go later or did you just cancel it altogether?

 

[Songbird76]

The misinformation comes from entities that know a divided nation is a weak nation. What makes it dangerous is when you get a significant proportion of a country believing the misinformation.

My son just thinks it's "too new," which is more comforting to me as a mother than nano-particles (although this mRNA technology has been while). Funnily enough, he kept that mask bolted on his face last night at the airport. He ordered a milk and didn't even fully take his mask off to drink it. We even went outside to wait while my husband waited to talk to an agent, he kept it on.

That is awful about your daughter's friend. Hopefully staying with her mom will be a more calming supportive presence in her life. Nobody needs a step-parent agitating things in the house.

Well at least he was being as safe as he could without the vaccine. Was he upset you ended up not going?

Yes, I feel really bad for this girl. Some of the things she's told E are so sad. I guess the stepmom is constantly threatening to leave and take their daughter with her so he'll never get to see her again, and of course she probably doesn't even think about the fact that that means she won't see her siblings anymore either, and I it doesn't sound like she really cares what it does to her kid, she just wants to manipulate the situation. E went over to their house once to work on some homework assignment or something and the stepmom was glued to her phone the whole time and E and her friend were basically put in the position of babysitting the little sister because stepmom was completely ignoring her. The friend introduced E and stepmom barely looked up from the phone to acknowledge her presence. When the girl is with her mom and E goes over there, the mom offers them snacks, the other little sister ADORES E and drags her all over to show her toys and drawings and everything and requested E as a babysitter the last couple of times they needed someone. For the friend's birthday, the mom asked all the girls for pictures of their friend group for something she wanted to make for her...she seems really involved and interested in her kids' lives and in their friends. Stepmom seems really interested in her phone and not much else and uses their daughter as a pawn. The friend has sent E texts before when her dad and stepmom were fighting and being really loud and the little sister was scared and even the girl was scared, saying this fight was bad and stepmom was threatening to leave with the girl again, etc. And now I guess she just found out she's pregnant again. I have a suspicion that that may be part of the reason for the friend to decide to stay with her mom. She doesn't get along with stepmom anyway, and with them constantly fighting, and now stepmom is pregnant. I think she probably just doesn't want to deal with it. I can't say I blame her. But it's kind of no wonder that she's confused about misinformation and whatnot. She's used to manipulation, gaslighting, etc.

 

[Sans Souci]

Wait.....so, they tried to get you to move your flight, then when you actually did cancel, they didn't want to reimburse you? Did you have all the texts they sent you asking you to change your flight? Do you know if they did actually oversell? The whole thing just seems so unethical! So will you go later or did you just cancel it altogether?

I do have the texts. The CS agent gave us credit for our flights minus the $76 pp exit row seats we had to purchase if we wanted to get on the return flight that they messed up for us. We are rebooked for mid-August we had to pay much more money even with the vouchers to purchase these flights.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a class action lawsuit. The wait times to speak to an agent we 4+ hours or a wait 4 days for an agent to call you. If you're trying to salvage a vacation, time is essential. So many people just went online and paid to change flights. A nice little revenue stream for them. They could have contracted with a 3rd party to provide additional phone support if they wanted, but they chose not to. They deserve a hostile takeover from a crappy airline.

It's in the rearview mirror and it could have been worse. We didn't have to worry about getting a hotel or worrying about how to get back. We just got into our car and went home. It wasn't so easy for other people. Some people in line were talking about how they couldn't get out until Saturday or Sunday. This was Thursday night.

 

[Sans Souci]

Well at least he was being as safe as he could without the vaccine. Was he upset you ended up not going?

Yes, I feel really bad for this girl. Some of the things she's told E are so sad. I guess the stepmom is constantly threatening to leave and take their daughter with her so he'll never get to see her again, and of course she probably doesn't even think about the fact that that means she won't see her siblings anymore either, and I it doesn't sound like she really cares what it does to her kid, she just wants to manipulate the situation. E went over to their house once to work on some homework assignment or something and the stepmom was glued to her phone the whole time and E and her friend were basically put in the position of babysitting the little sister because stepmom was completely ignoring her. The friend introduced E and stepmom barely looked up from the phone to acknowledge her presence. When the girl is with her mom and E goes over there, the mom offers them snacks, the other little sister ADORES E and drags her all over to show her toys and drawings and everything and requested E as a babysitter the last couple of times they needed someone. For the friend's birthday, the mom asked all the girls for pictures of their friend group for something she wanted to make for her...she seems really involved and interested in her kids' lives and in their friends. Stepmom seems really interested in her phone and not much else and uses their daughter as a pawn. The friend has sent E texts before when her dad and stepmom were fighting and being really loud and the little sister was scared and even the girl was scared, saying this fight was bad and stepmom was threatening to leave with the girl again, etc. And now I guess she just found out she's pregnant again. I have a suspicion that that may be part of the reason for the friend to decide to stay with her mom. She doesn't get along with stepmom anyway, and with them constantly fighting, and now stepmom is pregnant. I think she probably just doesn't want to deal with it. I can't say I blame her. But it's kind of no wonder that she's confused about misinformation and whatnot. She's used to manipulation, gaslighting, etc.

I think he really wanted to see my grandmother and he was supposed to meet up with an old friend. I am relieved that he kept his mask on, so there was very little exposure. So, that was a silver lining.

That stepmom sounds really emotionally abusive. Adolescence can be difficult enough even in a loving, supportive home. I can't imagine living in a chaotic environment where your stepmom is threatening your father with leaving and fighting with each other. This girl probably feels like she will be lost in the shuffle when the new baby comes along.

Her friend's mom sounds like a much more calm and supportive presence for her. I wonder why she didn't choose to live with her from the get go?

 

[Sans Souci]

Hello-

Happy belated 4th of July! I hope everyone had a fun and festive day. We just took it easy. This year, I decided to buy pre-made stuff at the store. I thought, it's my anniversary and a holiday, I am going to make this easy for myself. We just relaxed outside, until a rain shower forced us inside for 10 min. It was a very low-key weekend and I loved it.

We went out for a nice meal last night. Even though it was 90, my husband wanted to dine outside. I was a bit worried about being too hot, but I was actually very comfortable. There was a nice breeze and the sun was setting.

I've been doing 25-30 min circuit workouts this week. Since my husband is off this week, I've been staying up later and getting out of bed later. I like to do yoga as the sun rises. I'm still getting out for my walks, too.

I found out a friend of mine is staying at the Swan the same time I am at the Dolphin. She is going to the Boo Bash the same night as I am, too. I haven't seen her since Sept. 2019, so it will be good to catch up a bit. Our flights are scheduled to arrive 5 minutes within each other. (Although I wouldn't bank on it really happening that way.).

 

[Sans Souci]

Good morning

I am checking in with a 30 minute yoga practice + a 10 min. core workout. I want to walk, but my husband is still asleep. I'm wondering if I should go without him. I would usually wait, but it's going to be 96 today and I want to get out while it's cooler.

Just for kicks, I just checked our Southwest flight to see if the prices changed. I was able to rebook the same flights and get a $150 credit for future flights. We'll definitely use them for either Thanksgiving or Christmas (Or maybe I will go to WDW myself.) I'm kind of pleased with myself about that.

Since it's hot today, I am just throwing a bunch of things in the Crock Pot and calling it dinner.

Stay cool.