January 20 - “And we’re off”

After a great day at church we bolted as quickly as possible.  It was tough for Chris to break away, since it was dinner on the grounds and all, but the other Seasiders pretty much insisted that she was not welcome in the kitchen.  Thanks for that, guys.  Nathan and April and Cailyn arrived at our house shortly after we did, and we were loaded and on the road to the terminal.

Boarding was amazingly easy.  Well, after April took care of the parking guard’s attitude.  The only incident came when my new knee set off the security alarms.  They didn’t seem to care, though.  All the guy did was touch it and say, “Feels like the other one to me.”  We did see a few of the folks we knew from Denver.  Couldn’t find the Eggler’s, though.  Jim and Pat ... if you read this, get the chat option on your Carnival app.  Or come see us sometime.  Room 8233.  We grabbed a hamburger while we waited for our room to be ready.  It wasn’t a long wait, though.

The room itself was nice enough.  Kind of like a small hotel room.  Even smaller bathroom.  We unpacked and began our search of the premises.  We couldn’t help but compare everything to the Alaska cruise.  That one seemed more elegant.  A little grander.

Dinner was a highlight of the day.  We met up with the Richardsons and eight or so of their best friends.  I was privileged to be seated at the head of the table.  Randy was in the middle.  Between us we entertained the group.  Randy is a real card.  He inspires me to greater heights of knuckleheadedness.

We finally retired to our stateroom.  That’s when the “fun” began.  By then we were well at sea, and - how shall I say this - it was easy to tell.  Let’s just say we had our ups and downs.  And ups and downs.  And ups and downs.  Way rougher than I expected.  We still don’t really have our sea legs under us.  And it was made much worse because the door to our balcony was not shutting properly.  That meant the room was filled with an obnoxious whine that just wouldn’t go away.  I tried to get it to seal, but finally gave up and called guest relations.  They promised to send someone right up.  We waited 15 or 20 minutes.  By then it was 10:30.  We were both exhausted.  Well, I sure was.  It was Sunday, after all.  I then hiked down to the service desk to ask if there was any kind of ETA.  She was very kind, but of course couldn’t promise anything.  I went back to the room and waited.  5 or 10 minutes later someone finally showed up.  First he said he had to check it from the outside, but he left the room.  Just disappeared.  He finally returned, went into the bathroom, flushed the toilet, and declared it fixed.  Uh ... what?  I explained that the toilet was fine.  He was there to fix the door.  Oooh.  Nope.  That’s not his job.  He made a phone call, told us to call guest relations again, and left.  The guest relations girl was very nice again. She promised that the “joiner” would be in shortly.  Wonderful.  It actually didn’t take him long.  He whipped out his power screwdriver and went to town.  I think I could have done a fix in less than half the time he took, but finally. We had some quiet.  I don’t know what time it was when we finally got to sleep, but we welcomed it.  Of course the incessant rocking was still a force to be reckoned with ...

Matthew 6:33 says, “but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Father, we could use some calmer seas out here.  Thanks.  Amen.