Vacation 2012 Part One

We made it to Florida and back for our vacation without too much incident.  We made it to Florida in one piece and without much incident.  We flew out on Saturday on Southwest and our boarding group was first so the girls both got window seats.  Kris had some interesting characters sitting next to her on the flight to Florida and on the flight coming back.  More on that later.

Our first full day in Florida was spent just knocking around my parents' house.  It was our anniversary and Kris and I didn't really want to do anything in particular.  We drove to Walmart to get a few things and then took the girls to the flea market in Marion for Sunglasses and cases.  The rest of the day was spent pretty much lounging around while the girls swam.  Then we went to some Greek place in Lady Lake for dinner with my folks.  We went to bed early because Monday we had planned on going to Hollywood Studios.

The park opened at 9:00 AM on Monday and the plan was to get to Hollywood Studios between 9:30 and 10:00.  I figured that would give us plenty of time to let the traffic thin out and we wouldn't have to worry about the crowds getting in.  Boy was I wrong.  First, once we got off of highway 27 we hit a traffic jam.  So it took almost 40 minutes to go about 7 or 8 miles.  Then, once we got to Hollywood Studios there was a huge line to get in because everyone had to go through security and have their bags searched.  That took another 10-15 minutes so it was almost 10:30 by the time we got into the park.  Plus, it was HOT!  The day topped out at about 95 degrees, but the heat coming up off the pavement felt like walking on a lava field.

 

The first thing we did was get fast passes for the Tower of Terror and then got in line for the Aerosmith roller coaster.  This was Alison's and Sarah's first time on roller coasters.  Sarah was all for it, but Ali was very apprehensive.  I pretty much told her she was going on so she whimpered and whined about it while we were in line.  She kept asking if there were loops and I kept telling her no (because they were corkscrews, not loops).  But I had forgotten that there actually were a couple of loops too.  My bad.  Oh well.  After we got off Alison was mad, and crying, why I don;t know exactly, because it was all over.

 

Then, as soon as we got off the roller coaster, it was out time at the Tower of Terror.  That one was like pulling teeth to get everyone to go on it.  Alison was even worse with her crying.  Sarah and Kris were ok, though afterward I had to hear about how much they hated it.  Sarah actually bit Kris's shoulder during one of the drops.

But now it was over and done.  I don't think it was all that bad, but I was alone in that assessment.  The other attraction we wanted to go on was the Toy Story Mania one.  However, we found out while in line for the Rockin' Roller Coaster that there was a 2 hour wait for it, and the fast pass time was between 5:30 and 6:30 PM.  Then by the time we got off of the Tower of Terror, the fast passes were gone for the day, and we didn't want to sit in line for two hours in the heat, so we skipped it all together, which was sort of a bummer.  The rest of the day was spent going to shows and other filler type attractions (the 3-D Muppet movie, special effects tour, Indiana Jones Stunt Show).  It was pretty much stuff where we were either in air conditioned buildings or in covered areas so we could avoid the direct sun beating down on us.

My mother had told us to avoid going to the Disney parks on Monday because that is the day when everyone who comes into Orlando over the weekend will go, plus, it was the start of the summer vacation season, so the parks were going to be crowded.  But we were trying to avoid the rain that was forecast for later in the week and Monday was the best chance to not have any.  I am just glad we didn't go the the Magic Kingdom, because that crowd would have been even worse.  By about 5:00 the girls were burned out (and so were we) from the heat just walking around the park from attraction to attraction, so we left for home, and as soon as we got back, we hit the pool to cool off and then just tried to relax for a bit before going to bed.

Tuesday was the day we were planning on going down to Clearwater Beach.  Sarah wanted to go hit the tourist shops and St. Petersburg was recommended to us.  My plan was to leave late in the morning and then go down the full length of the beach in St. Petersburg.  My parents' neighbor came over and when we told her where we were going and what we were planning on doing, she told us to make sure we went to John's Pass.  By the time we got there is was early afternoon and very hot.  We stopped at a small t-shirt shop in Clearwater Beach and Sarah and Alison each found a couple of things for very cheap.  I told the girls to not get bogged down with buying things in the very first shop, because we had 30 miles to go down the beach.  So we drove slowly (actually the speed limit) looking out at the Gulf and the inner channels and hotels/condos, keeping an eye out for some nice looking shops.  There were a few, but they seemed to be chain stores, because we saw them at every beach along the way.  We finally got to John's Pass and there was a little shopping village just across from the beach, so we stopped and walked around for a bit going into all the shops.  We got a few things, some unique things we didn't see anywhere else, and after about a hour and a half, we took off.  We kept driving down the beach and I showed the girls the hotel that I stayed at when I was 12 or 13 on Treasure Island.  I couldn't believe it was still there, or at the very least hadn't been knocked down for a big, high rise type hotel or condo.  When we stayed there it was a Howard Johnson, but now it was just some private hotel.  The restaurant is now a Waffle House, which is probably a good thing.  The girls weren't all that impressed.  Maybe next time we'll go and lay out on the beach for the day.

Coming back though we got stuck in a traffic jam in Tampa.  I hate driving in Tampa, and I was hoping that the rush hour would be over (about 5:30 when we got going), so it took a little longer to get home than I had planned.  But again, once we got home it was pool time to cool off and relax for the night.

Last Day

Friday was the last day of school for the year, and it was a very busy one for us.  We got the girls off to school and then had to start running errands to get ready for vacation which starts tomorrow.  We started off by dropping Alison off at school and saying a thank you to her teacher.  Ali really thrived under her this year and we were very grateful for that.  Then we managed to get a couple of things done before we had to be back three hours later to get Ali picked up.

After getting home, I needed to get the grass cut quickly while Sarah ate some lunch and started getting ready for her "completion ceremony".  Why they can't call it a graduation ceremony, I have no idea.  Unless they didn't want to tell the kids who didn't graduate that they didn't graduate.

So after the grass was done it was time to get ready.  Sarah's ceremony started at 5:00 PM but she had to be there by 4:00 PM.  We figured, what is the point of going home.  Besides, we would be able to choose a good seat in the auditorium. I videoed the majority of the ceremony, so maybe I'll upload it if I have the ambition.  The ceremony was scheduled to last from 5:00 - 7:00 which was a pretty good estimate.  We cleared out at about 6:45 and we were one of the last ones there.  Afterward, we headed home to finish packing for vacation.  So all in all it was a very busy, hectic day.  It'll be nice to finally get some rest.

End of the Year

Since Sarah isn't going to school tomorrow today was her last official full day of junior high.  She has a half day on Friday where she will go, get her yearbook, and she and her friends will sign them and do whatever else they need to do to clean out the remainder of their lockers.  Then she comes home around lunchtime, with her graduation ceremony at 5:00 Friday evening.

Alison's last full day is tomorrow.  She got her yearbook on Monday, but I am not sure when they are going to have their signing.  I assume it'll be Friday as well since they too have a half day.

Both girls pretty much can't wait for the end of the year so they can start summer vacations

One Last Add

OK, I lied, this will be my last word on our recall election, because it has been bugging me all day and I need to vent after seeing and hearing all the excuses from the Democrats.

Sure you'll hear from Walker's opponents that Walker forced them into the extreme measures they took, that Walker started this, that they were justified.  Or that the steps Walker took to balance the budget had nothing to do with fiscal responsibility and everything to do with breaking the unions' stranglehold they have had on the state for the last 50ish years.

Opponents will say that the unions had agreed to concessions prior to Act 10 being enacted but Walker refused.  While that may be true anyone with half a brain knows this was just a ruse by the unions to buy time.  That is what unions do.  It is why the Democrat senators bugged out of the state, to buy time.  It is what the national union bosses told them to do and like good little foot soldiers, they followed their orders.  It is SOP for them.

The state union heads have little power over the union locals.  The negotiated contracts have to be done by each union local with the district school board. (Note, I am describing a teacher's union, but it works across the board) Walker knew the tactics the unions employed from his time as Milwaukee County Executive when he tried to cut costs to balance the budget of the county. Every move he made was blocked by the union, so he knew any move he made at the state level would likewise run into the same obstacles, which is why he needed to address the collective bargaining issue.  They (the unions) will offer to negotiate, and then drag out negotiations (remember, that's what they do, buy time) sometimes for years, all the while keeping the old contract in place.  If they don't get their way, the union locals just hold out until the next election until they can pack the school board (or city council/board with their hand picked people who will give them what they want.

The boards and bodies they already have do not bargain hard, in fact they don't bargain at all.  They give into the union demands because they union has bought and paid for them.  These contracts are a bend over and take it deal for Joe Taxpayer without so much as a thank you in return.  Look at Milwaukee as an example.  MPS rammed through a deal before Act 10 was passed.  It was approved by a bunch of union approved stooges, and after the budget reforms went through, MPS was saddled with the terrible deal that they had already approved.  When they realised their mistake they went back to the union local asking to reopen the contract so they could make some minor concessions.

The Milwaukee teachers union gave the board the big middle finger and told them where they could go, because they don't care if a couple hundred peons get thrown under the bus, as long as the teachers higher up the ladder get to keep their free benefits.  What a wonderful negotiation huh?  This is they way is has been for as long as I can remember.

Then of course we have the WEAC scam called WEA Trust.  An insurance company set up by the teachers union to provide health insurance to its members.  The union forced the local districts to purchase the member's insurance from their company and then proceeded to charge rates which were at least 25% higher than equal coverage policies from other, private insurance companies.  And the taxpayers couldn't do anything about it, because their boards were the ones approving the contracts, you know, the ones that were bought and paid for by the unions.  This is how WEA trust became the cash cow for the union.  Does one really believe the union syndicate would EVER give up this racket in contract negotiations?

So face it, there was no good faith on the part of the unions of having an honest negotiation on this issue because unions do not negotiate in good faith.  As much as they will tell you the do, they do not.  They never have.  When you figure how much this scam had cost the taxpayers over the years, and how much of the $3 billion deficit was due to them, the only right they had earned was to lose their collective bargaining privileges (and they are privileges, not rights) which had been so graciously granted to them by the taxpayers of the state so many years before.

If you want to say Act 10 was a power grab, then it was grabbing power back for the taxpayer, not the Republican Party.  If the Republican Party benefited from it, the only thing that the unions can blame for it is their own greed.

I also heard a lot of "this recall didn't have to happen" and that "Walker broguht a polarizing brand of  conservative policies that most Americans, including some conservatives, don't agree with".

This is a fantasy developed by media liberals who have no idea what the real world is like.  They live in their small little bubble of like minded people in their ivory towers.  They think they are the reasonable people and that anyone who disagrees with them are polarizing and divisive.  It was these same mental children who couldn't handle the fact that when they were told they could no longer have their chocolate chip cookie at 3:00 PM every day who acted out like the spoiled brats they are at the State Capitol.  Then when they didn't get their way after throwing their tantrums, they brought this whole recall mess for no other reason than their own selfishness.  They were the ones who poured the poison into the well.  They are the people who polarized the politics of Wisconsin.

So now that Governor Walker has been elected for a second time in two years by a majority of the residents of Wisconsin, these people will understand that it is not Walker's brand of politics that has been rejected by the people, it's theirs.  I am hopeful that most will realize the days of the free lunch are over, but sadly, I think there will always be those deluded individuals who will never accept that people just don't agree with them.

There, my political rantings are now done.  Back to happy family issues.

Finally!

I usually try to keep certain things off of this blog as I know they are hot button topics and this isn't a place for arguing about it.  But At last!  After 17 months, we are finally done with all this recall crap!  We thumped the Democrats again.  In the last 18 months or so I have gotten so sick and tired of the garbage that was being pulled in Madison.  So now after trying to recall about every one of the Republican Senators, crying foul after getting thumped in the Supreme Court election, and now going down trying to recall the Governor for balancing the budget and jump-starting the state's economy, you guys can all suck it!  We have taken it from the unions for too long and there is a silent majority that isn't so silent anymore.  So rather than passing legislation to make it harder to do business in this state, lets finally remove the shackles. 

There, my rant is over and we can take a break from the barrage of political ads that have been running non-stop for more than a year.  Because we know that in just two months or so we'll start seeing the presidential ads and I'll get annoyed all over again.  ON WISCONSIN!

Summer Reading

Sarah told me today that as part of her honors language class for next year she has to read two "classics" over the summer.  She got a list but she left it at school, so she was asking me if I knew of any that she could read.  As I was rattling them off she was saying "That one was on the list", or "No, I don't recognize that one".  So now I am trying to figure out which ones would be good for her to read.  I don't think she'll find Pride & Prejudice very interesting.  But I am sure we'll get a couple picked out.  I may even read them with her.  It has been quite some time since I read some good, classic literature.  Progress will be noted.

Plumbing

Well I am able to check one thing off of Kris's Honey Do list.  After some discussion late last week, I decided to finally try and fix the sink in the downstairs bathroom.

I had a pretty good idea what needed to be fixed on it.  The last time I had the trap off to fix a clog, I noticed some serious rust deposits in the pipe going into the main line.  So my plan was to replace the pipe altogether and start fresh.  The problem was to do that, I needed to cut a hole in the wall to get access to the pipe.  I really didn't want to do that, but I figured it wouldn't get better unless I did. 

So after cutting the hole, I found some very interesting things.  First, the elbow joints that we in the wall were put at some weird angled, and they look like they were in there first, and the wall was built around it, because I couldn't unthread the elbows due to the placement of the studs.  I don't know how that would actually be replaced short of breaking out a torch and cutting it out. 

Then the chrome pipe going into the elbow was not threaded in, it was a press fit into the elbow.  I think the person who put it in place may have actually even used some loctite to seal it, because it was a bear to get it out.  But once I got it pulled, and got in there I was able to chisel away some of the gunk and deposits in the pipe to clear it.  Then I ran to Home Depot and spent about $20 on new drain pipes.  once I got home, it only took about 30 minutes to put back together.

I still have a hole that needs to be patched up under the vanity, but that can get fixed later.  Right now at least I have a working drain.