Regularly scheduled programming

Back to regular life posts, LOL. Remember the little side table I commissioned dd to make? It turned out perfect and I was able to get it from her when we were at their place. I had to pay her back for the piece of wood (I had purchased the legs on my Amazon account), a whopping $15, but I added $50 for her time (she stained it with some leftover she had). I also gave her a $50 Amazon gift card for taking us to the cruise pier and picking us up.

I just got the bill for dh's prostate MRI. What the heck? There wasn't any provider adjustment for it! I don't think I've ever gotten an insurance explanation of benefits where they didn't write off part of it. Seems odd. So, they say I owe the whole amount of $2187 (went to deductible). The bill I got from the company that read the image, had a discounted rate. I just called my insurance company and asked about it and she said it's because the provider actually billed insurance at the contracted rate. I don't think I've ever seen that happen before! LOL. She said it's rare, haha.

What else is going on.....dh can't seem to get over this Covid. I'm pretty much over it. A little residual coughing during the day, but most of my energy is back to normal. 

I still have not received my mom's last social security payment. I suppose I should call on it, AGAIN, but it's obviously not doing any good to call. Maybe next week, I'll call, and see if I can get an update on it.

Remember a week or so before our trip I was stressing that dh's prescription refill wouldn't arrive in time, and he would run out a day or two before we got back? Apparently I cannot add! He still had like 2 weeks past that. I have no idea how I counted the pills/days left wrong, LOL.

I now have the shipping label to return dh's new computer to Dell. It's through FedEx and I thought I would just be able to run it into the little grocery store in town. I know they take UPS drop off packages. Well, decided to double check and they do not take FedEx. Nearest is in the city almost an hour away. Ugh. We do have a package being delivered by FedEx sometime tomorrow - I am hoping we can catch them when they come and give them the computer package at the same time. If not, I guess I'll be making a trip into the city.

The cruise - final part

When we got back after our Juneau excursion on Friday afternoon, dh took a hot shower and went to bed to try to sleep it off (we didn't know it was Covid until we got home and tested, but just assumed it was). Friends and I went to dinner in the dining room by ourselves. Our wait staff were very concerned and wanted to make sure he was ok. They had me take a little food and some tea up to him, when we were done eating. 

Saturday was an at sea day. DH was worse and with a terrible headache. We had booked a brunch and galley tour for Saturday, so dh missed out on that. The brunch was really good and the tour back in the kitchen area was interesting. So much food to prepare! Later that afternoon friend and I went to our massages we had booked, oh so long ago. That was nice and relaxing, of course. None of the 3 of us felt like sitting through a 3 course dinner meal that night, so the 3 of us just went down to the pizza restaurant and had pizza. Later, when I was back in the room, the maitre d called our room to see how dh was doing, since we didn't come for dinner. More of the amazing customer service. We all had really wanted to go to that dinner in the dining room - they were offering the extra (for extra $) menu, for free that night. I really wanted the filet mignon again, that I had had during our welcome lunch. Oh well.

By about bedtime Saturday I was starting to feel a scratchy throat and starting to cough. By Sunday morning I was sick too. Friend said she was just feeling very congested, but no cough. Sunday was porting in Victoria BC. We all had been there before, so weren't planning an excursion anyway. DH and I just stayed in bed and slept all day. By that point I was just counting to hours to get off the ship the next morning. We were at least glad we got all our planned excursions in before we got sick.

We had let dd know we were sick, of course, and would likely just head back home after she picked us up on Monday. We were originally supposed to take a shuttle with friends to get their rental car (they were staying in town until Tues eve) and they were going to drive us to dd's, but being sick we didn't want to be on a shuttle for 30+ minutes, etc. so asked dd to pick us up. SIL had Monday off work, so he suggested he follow dd down in our truck, so they could just hand off our truck right there (along with Amos, of course) and we could head straight home from the pier - thereby saving us a couple hours, not going out of the way to dd's house. That was a great idea and we were glad he thought of it.

We decided to use the "self-assist" departure, meaning we just carry our own bags off ourselves, so we were at the line to get off first thing just before 6:30am. At first dh wasn't very happy that we were getting off that early, but I said do you want to get off with thousands of others in an hour or two? (there were probably only a hundred or two getting off when we did, much better than several thousand!) They started letting us off right at 6:30. Friend had told us we had to go through customs as well, so I had told dd to try to be there at 7am, since I didn't know exactly how long it would take to get off. We did not have to go through customs and were over at the passenger car pick up area by 6:40. We found a bench to sit down and I called dd, as I had told her if she gets there before I call, just go to the cell phone lot to wait. She was still on the way and DD and SIL got there right around 7am and it was a quick and easy pull up for them. We loaded our stuff. DD - always the planner, had packed us some blueberry muffins (we had not had breakfast), some waters, gatorade and sandwiches for the road. She is the best. Said our thank yous and good byes from a distance and headed straight for home. 6 hours and 15 minutes later we were pulling in our driveway. Very happy to be home to go to bed!

The first thing we noticed pulling in our driveway was that the deer had been through and pretty much ate everything they could! Mrs Neighbor said they had come through both our yards on Saturday night.

If it weren't for getting sick we'd have been all over going on another cruise. It might take awhile to forget getting sick and want to cruise again. But, we are glad we went and it was great to see a little of Alaska.

Third stop - Juneau

 Juneau was our 3rd stop, on Friday. A much bigger town, LOL. It was a very rain day, all day.

We had brought an umbrella, so that helped, and dh also used his new rain jacket I had gotten him for the trip. We needed both! Our excursion was to see the Mendenhall Glacier, via bus, and then a second stop at a gardens place. We had to get off the ship and then walk that long ramp and then over near that red tent, where tour busses parked. 

Our bus took us out the a national park near the Mendenhall Glacier. There is a visitors center, which we started at - and of course so did everyone because it was raining. The only complaint was we didn't get enough time at this excursion. Only 1 hour! DH and I decided to go back outside and saw there were 2 trails to hike - one 1 mile roundtrip and the other 2 miles, roundtrip that went over to the waterfall, nearer the glacier. We realized that with now less than an hour left, before we had to be back on our bus, there was no way to do the longer hike, so we opted for the one that was half a mile each way. It took us to a closer lookout point and we grabbed some pics of the glacier and then headed back. 

Zoomed in

We all got back on the bus and went to some gardens place (I can't recall the name now). It was some private property some guy had been working for years and years to create. Again, still raining out, so not ideal. We did all get on some little tram type busses and they took us through the property. Afterwards we went inside their big greenhouse and got some snacks and hot chocolate, until our bus was ready to leave. I also purchased a Christmas tree ornament. It was an ok excursion, but dh and I thought it would have just been better to be able to spend more time at the glacier park, rather then add this extra excursion in, but it was a package type deal, I guess.

This is an "upside down tree". The guy takes fallen trees and buries them deep and then puts plants and flowers in/on the trees roots. They are kind of neat and quite a few all about the place.

It was at this point that dh was starting to feel sick and when we got back to the pier, he just wanted to go back to our room. We parted with our friends, who went and walked around Juneau just a bit. From then on we were mostly dealing with dh being sick and then me, the next day, Saturday night.

If I ever did the cruise again, I would spend more time researching the excursions and reading reviews on them. None of them are cheap, that's for sure. I just went along with what friend suggested we book, since they had been before. I think the only repeat excursion for them (and they went 10 years ago) was the train ride, so she was guessing as well, as to what would be the best excursions.

Sad news

It was a very sad day yesterday. My boss called me first thing in the morning to let me know our company owner had passed away the night before. Completely unexpected. He was due to fully retire in 2 weeks, just as he would be turning 67 years old. Definitely a shock to us all, that's for sure. While the company itself will be fine, it's still quite a loss to us all. 

I'll take a break today from the vacation update.

DH and I are still trying to get over Covid. I'm tired of coughing. His recovery is going slower, it seems. But, we are at least able to usually sleep through the night without coughing now and both have our appetites back. 

The weather has cooled down a lot, which is nice. It's 40 degrees out this morning and the high will be low 70's. That's perfect weather to me. DH got the sprinkler system blown out for the winter, yesterday (so nothing freezes). Probably one or two more mows and he'll be done for the season. Today is his semi-annual job to flush out the 2 propane tankless water heaters we have. One of our plumbing guys , when we built the house) and told dh how to do it, with vinegar, and save the $ from paying them to come do it. 

My aunt's funeral service will be broadcast live, on Saturday, so I will watch that.

I somehow remembered that it's been almost a year since I signed up for Hulu for .99 cents a month. I thought I had through November, but decided to log in and get it canceled while I was thinking about it. Good thing I did, because in a few weeks was going to be the full monthly charge at $9 a month. No thanks. I also cancelled a subscription I had (thru Amazon) for some multivitamins I've been taking. If nothing else, I'm sure I can find some that are much cheaper that work just as well (if they even do help).

I'm still waiting to get the bill for dh's MRI of his prostate. After whatever the the insurance w/o adjustment is, the rest will be to our deductible.  

I have to send dh's brand new computer back due to the CPU fan running so loud and fast. Dell is sending me a packaging box to send it back in and that should arrive tomorrow. His old computer still works, so I guess I will just have to hook that one back up, until we get the new one back. 

DD is looking into booking a European river cruise vacation for her and her dh next year. Sounds much smaller ships with only like 200 passengers (vs 5000) so much more intimate and less people. The prices seem to be similar to what we paid for our cruise, and she's finding flights to Europe pretty cheap. Her mother in law had to put a damper on their plans by telling them these cruises she is looking at are the "Walmart of cruises" - they, on the other hand, are spending $16,000 to do a wine type of cruise over there in Nov 2025. DD told me there's no way she and her dh are going to spend $16k, LOL.

Second stop - Skagway

Our second stop was Skagway. We enjoyed this stop quite a bit. Our excursion was a train ride that was about a 3 1/2 hour trip. It took us up White Pass, where the gold rush had been and actually turned around in The Yukon, in Canada, just over the border, when it got to the top.

It was raining lightly when we got off the ship, but it didn't last long. Again, we were trying to figure out food, because this was going to be during lunch and 3 hours. The line for the train ride was fairly close to the pier, but still a good walk. (I put in over 7000 steps that day). We had about an hour wait, so friend and I decided to walk over to town and see if we could find some sandwiches or something to bring back. No luck there. There were some sit down type restaurants and pubs, but nothing we could grab quickly. With all the people walking around the little town, I'm thinking a couple of food trucks would have done good business! By the time we looked around it was time to start hoofing it back over to our train line. Apparently the guys were getting worried we wouldn't make it back in time, LOL. We ended up making do with some of our leftover cherry gummy bears, nuts, and salmon jerky we had bought the day before, between the 4 of us.

I think they said the tiny town of Skagway usually only has a population of 300, but with the ships in, over 10,000 people are in town on those days. There were 4 ships in on our day and the ones across from us, all the people had to be ferried to the pier in little boats. We had an actual dock and could walk off/on.

The train ride was fairly long, up there and back, but the tour guide gal was really good. She was in our car, so we also go a bit more face to face with her. We were near the front of our car (where the little restroom was) and she was standing there telling us stuff before we left. She made a joke about it costs $5 to use the restroom. Later, she had to use the restroom. Our friend says loudly, after she went in, "that'll be $5". We all hear her voice say "I already paid". She was pretty funny. Our friend had gotten us all light up lanyards for our cruise passes. When we went through the dark tunnel the 4 of us lit them up and everyone started laughing.

It was kind of hard to get pictures from the train, The windows kind of reflected back, but I got a few that were ok. The history of the gold rush and the area was very interesting to hear.

This last picture is the border between the US and Canada

Again, we got back with no extra time to spend in town and had to get back on the ship, which was fine. Friend and I had already walked around town a bit anyway, and we were all tired from the long day. But, if I ever went again, I'd make sure to get off the ship early enough to have time to walk into town and visit the shops a bit.

First stop - Sitka

Our first port was Sitka. I didn't at first realize that the port is about 10 minutes from the town, so we couldn't see the actual town. Turns out we only ended up seeing it from a bus ride. We didn't plan this very well. We got off the ship a couple hours before our excursion time. There were several gift shops and a restaurant, but what to do for 2 hours then? There was a movie/history thing we could have paid to watch, but it overlapped with our tour time. I guess we didn't realize that's all there was when we got off. We did look through all the shops and killed about an hour, found some snacks to purchase. Why we didn't hop on one of the free buses that ran back and forth between town, I have no idea. It was like a 10 minute ride and we could have killed an hour in town and then came back for our bus tour excursion. BUT, in our defense, after we got off there was this non stop line of thousands of people getting on these busses to town, so I think that was our main reason for just staying put where we were.

The excursion we had picked out was to a bear sanctuary. It wasn't that great of a place, really. Kind of sad. About 7 or 8 bears, kept about 2-3 bears per area. It was also not that nice of facility. I think we were there less than an hour and then back to port. We were offered to be dropped off in town, but we would have only had a half hour or so and had to make sure we'd catch a bus to make sure we'd be back by 4:30 so we decided not to risk that. At least it was a nice day of like 60 degrees. 

A view from the ride on the tour bus. Both of our tour bus drivers (and the train ride guide) were great and full of information about the areas.

We got back on the ship around 4pm and were hungry, since we never had lunch and only the snacks we bought, so we tried one of the cafe's on the ship for a sandwich. We had to agree that all the sandwiches we tried on the ship were not that good, which was surprising, since all the other food was so good. Since our dinner time wasn't until 6:45 we needed something to eat that day, so a sandwich it was. We had tried to see if the buffet was open, but it was closed at that time, as they were getting ready for dinner.

Overall, though, we enjoyed getting off the ship and seeing the scenery around us. What little I saw of Sitka - it did not look like the movie "The Proposal", which is one of my favorite movies, LOL. (I think I read before they actually filmed it at a New England coast town and CGI'd the backdrop scenery in)

Back to slow internet

Taking a break from the cruise posts, today. Because I barely have internet. It's been really slow for 2 days now. I can hardly work, it's so slow. I called my phone company first thing this morning and after the tech having me do a speed test that wouldn't even register 1Mpbs, she was like OMG - you basically have no internet! So, she had to escalate it to a tier 2 technician level and 3 hours later I'm still waiting for a call back. Usually they are quick to call back, so makes me wonder if lots of people are having issues.

Also, I can't remember if I mentioned or not, but since day 1 dh's new computer has been intermittently running the fan super loud. It will sound like the computer is about to blow up. I called a couple days ago and talked to a Dell technician who tried having me update the Bios firmware. That has not fixed it. The fan went off last night and again this morning. Now it sounds like they will be sending me a packing box to return it, for repair, and then they will return it via overnight, asap. Wonderful. NOT.

DH got a fever again last night. Two weeks of this now. It's getting old. This morning he doesn't have a fever. But we are still both coughing, though most nights I manage to sleep without coughing, so that is good.

I'm supposed to watch our company quarterly meeting at 3pm, for like 2 hours. I'm hoping I have good enough connection to watch it. I may have to watch it from my phone data. I also hope that isn't when the technician decides to call me back. I think the meetings are recorded, so I can watch later, if necessary.

I'm glad it's Friday. I'm ready to be done with this week.

UPDATE: Well, I feel totally stupid! It was dh's new computer doing the sync/back up to Microsoft OneDrive that was using ALL the bandwith. I should have realized that. As soon as I put it on pause, my internet speed was all back to normal. Now I just have to figure out if there is a way to have it sync on a schedule and do it overnight, while sleeping, instead of when we are trying to work/use the internet. At least it was an easy/quick fix for the tech guy to figure out.