I have noticed many things as a result of my recent vacation to that wonderful land of children and that world-famous mouse. After visiting that fantasyland at least 30 times, we finally became the family of the day. What does that entail? Well, for us, it was being upgraded from a room with a garden view to a two-bedroom suite with no view. Whether we received a better view or not I'll never know because of the trees blocking any view whatsoever, but we did receive much more interior space and a little card that said we were the Family of the Day. Twice previously, we had rooms at the Polynesian where the view was blocked by a giant Palm. If I had planned my engineering projects like this, half of Texas would be dead today.
My husband is one who does not get into the hooplah that encompasses the family of the day and refused to even have his picture taken when we arrived. He seemed to forsee that it wasn't what it seemed to be. It turned out that the hotel was busy with many conventions and I would not doubt that we were upgraded to make room for the conventioneers that did not have a room. Whether or not they looked at our past stays is speculation. We were thankful for the extra space.
I suppose I should have seen the handwriting on the wall when the parking lot was full and the next parking lot, the convention center parking lot, was being paved. The guard failed to explain this and we ended up parking a mile away. Not nice for someone with an injured leg.
Prior to leaving on vacation and, being the klutz that I am, I fell in the garage and hurt both legs that have yet to heal fully. I learned that people who are in crowds feel anonimous to everyone around them. They are the only ones who are enjoying themselves and no one else matters. I had to constantly be on the lookout for anyone who would abruptly change directions, so that I would not suffer another unlucky fall.
I also noticed that in the restaurants which were open in this low season, half the people were saving seats for others and the other half were sitting and talking after finishing their meals. I marched back and forth across a large restaurant four times before finding an empty table.
Also, in the fantasy portion of the amusement areas, people were constantly being run over by people pushing double baby carriages and by wheelchairs occupied by people who appeared fully capable of walking. I appreciate the idea that people need baby carriages and people who are handicapped need wheelchairs, but most of the people I saw took no regard for average people and tended to overrun them. I was hobbling due to the fact that I was injuried, but many in wheelchairs would get out of those chairs and walk naturally. Also, many of the double baby carriages that were running people over had no children in them. None at all.
What I have learned from my last vacation is that I need to find a much quieter place to vacation. Crowds of people tend to act like drowning rats in a bucket. When too many people are involved, they tend to climb all over everyone else caring nothing for anyone else.
In the end, it was not as bad as I expected, but not good enough to go back. Heavy sigh.
I just returned with my husband from the latest nut and fruit gathering session. And no, he's not the nut I gathered, not this time anyway.
When I bought the trees, I bought several different varieties. As it turns out, they mature at different times. On one tree, the nuts are turning brown and falling while on the others they are smaller and still white.
If you'll notice in one picture, there's a larger nut. That's a black walnut that fell a couple of weeks ago from a 50-foot tree at the side of the house.
