I'm here, I'm here, I'm here,
Marie and PHX!
I sent
Dawn/PlutoRocks a PM yesterday (Dawn, check your mail here - look for the notification in the upper right corner!) so she would know I read her message and was not ignoring her. And I posted in
Kim/kmedina's thread the other day for the same reason. I still have to answer some of the questions that
deejdigsdis asked when she got caught up on the TR, too (I combined all of her comment posts into one!), because there were a few specific ones that stood out that I wanted to address.
Yes, I'm on page 250 now. This is the point at which threads are usually closed. I've closed many a thread when it hit that golden '250' mark, or even just shy of that mark. The DIS won't blow up or have a terrible technical malfunction if anyone goes a page or two over that number (like if something - a game or whatever - is just about to finish and has to stretch past 250 to do that), but because the threads will have to be closed anyway we usually just close them at 250.
I've been purposely silent and inactive here because I didn't want to post until I had all of my "Retrospective" installments in order and could place them here one after another before I close the thread. I was/am afraid that one of my co-mods or one of the webmasters will swoop in and close the thread before I get those posted!
I don't know how many posts I will need just yet- it could be 3 posts, could be 5, could be 10. I have quite a few things I am adding in that I had not originally planned on adding in.
Each page of a thread typically has about
15 posts on it before it flips to the next page (although some folks have different settings that make the number of posts per page different), so I still have some space left here on page 250 to do my "Retrospective," but not much. (Keep that '15 post' thing in mind if ever you are about to put something in one of your threads that you do not want to be buried at the very end of a page, where it will likely be overlooked!)
As expected, I have encountered one problem after another in trying to complete my thread Retrospective - browser issues, general computer issues
and Photobucket operational issues (
how did the storage usage in my Pro account just jump from 39% to 64% within one week -- even though I have not loaded a single photo -- and then miraculously land back at 39% this morning? Seriously, Photobucket -- if you're out there, this nonsense related to the transition to the new website is getting old and ridiculous. Get your act together because I am tired of your shenanigans. No one wants to be old and ridiculous.).
And there has been massive work done on the apartment above me for the last few weeks, as the former tenant moved out and I guess the apartment is being prepped and upgraded for new tenants. That has caused a virtual
assault of noise, day in and day out. Sometimes the noise is right above my head. This is a 45-year-old building, with paper-thin walls, floors and ceilings, so you can imagine the fun I've been having trying to drown it all out. This deafening construction work has, at times, prevented me from doing anything on the PC, sleeping and even watching TV. I have not been able to concentrate....or hear.
I can't even open my windows most of the time because the noise is louder when I do. Plus, some fool is smoking upstairs (when I thought this was a smoke-free building) which sends the the smoke wafting into my apartment.
Oh, the joy of it all.
Anyway, one bit of good news is that, on July 21st, I will be headed across the ocean once again! That's right! Another seafaring adventure awaits me, courtesy of
Catalina Express' Free Birthday Boat Ride renewal!!
For the third consecutive year, Catalina Express is running its free birthday boat offer. As you may recall, I was not able to take advantage of it in the first year (2011) but last year I did (
see the blue link in my signature below for that TR, which is in a different forum). Because this is apparently the town of Avalon's 100th anniversary, the offer has been extended one more time. I think this will be the last time, to be honest. I don't see how the Express could possibly keep handing out free (normally expensive) boat rides
without losing money somewhere along the line. Maybe they will come back with a different kind of offer -- a revised offer with a lesser value -- but I can't see where it is very cost effective to keep giving away entirely free rides that would normally cost $70-ish, round-trip.
But, surely I'm not complaining. (
For some reason I just heard the late, great Leslie Nielsen's voice in my head saying, "And don't call me Shirley...", a reference that may be lost on some folks.) I will happily take advantage of this free offer a second year in a row and hop on that early, early (like pre-dawn) boat, scanning the vast ocean for signs of marine life.
I will once again explore the tiny streets and scenic nooks of beachy Avalon, camera at the ready.
I will once again rent a golf cart and clumsily attempt to navigate it around the hills and narrow paths.
I will once again visit the vaguely creepy Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Garden to face a most formidable foe -- the Endless Steps of Terror -- in the blistering summer heat.
I will once again take photos of lovely flowers playfully dancing in the breeze.
I will once again sneak past the ominous 'do not walk past this point' and 'beware of falling rocks' signs to visit my "thinking spot" along Pebbly Beach and beyond Lovers Cove. I will stare pensively out at the crashing waves as I try to unravel life's great mysteries.
I will once again stake out a prime spot on the Green Pleasure Pier, from which I will watch the fish below as they jockey for food
, and from which I will eavesdrop on other visitors' chats as they try to determine if it is, indeed, a blob of kelp or a menacing stingray mingling with the fish.
So, I am looking forward to that. Let's hope there will not be any freakish heatwaves (beyond a normal summer day in SoCal) on July 21.
And...I've got some other Disneyland plans in the works too (informally - nothing has been finalized, and no dates have been set). You can bet that, as usual, a
Halloween Time visit will be on the agenda.
I think I'll even do one of the parties this year (I don't need to go to the actual party every year - I can skip it here and there - but I think I'd like to do it this time around if possible). I need to take more photos for my
Halloween Time at DLR Superthread.
But -- as any of you who have followed this thread for a while will know -- what I look forward to all year long is, of course, the
Holiday Season (cue the harps and Christmas songs!). The brisk chill of the mornings. The Hallmark Channel Countdown to Christmas marathon that starts on the first weekend in November. The peppermint-flavored goodies. The excuse to sip hot cocoa. The Rankin-Bass clay puppet TV specials. The music. The lights. The trees. The colors. The whimsical Santas and snowmen adorning the rooftops and lawns of houses around the neighborhood. The overall cheery feeling and friendly vibe in the air. (I wish I could say "the snow" but we don't have that in the Los Angeles basin.) And...Disneyland, of course!
My
Disneyland at Christmas/Holiday Season Superthread has been unexpectedly hoppin' in the last couple of days. That seems to happen every year -- when the Superthread picks up at a random time that is nowhere the actual season. So I will once again lead the charge in the Theme Week Countdown (to the start of DLR's holiday season), beginning in early August, which is always a fun way to get people excited and intrigued about what DLR has to offer in terms of Yuletide merriment. But -- I will admit -- the Theme Week Countdown is also a good way to build up my
own anticipation of the season! It's become one of my holiday traditions, I guess you could say.
So, that's the scoop on what's been happening lately, why I've been absent from this thread and what could be coming up. The cacophony of construction is starting up again so that is my cue to step away from the PC.
I will be back soon (meaning, not in months but within the next couple of weeks) with the Retrospective installments -- remember, I am trying to put them together and post them all at once to use up the rest of Page 250, so it won't be a 'one post at a time' kind of thing.
And then,
THE MOST VIEWED TRIP REPORT IN THE DISNEYLAND TR FORUM will come to an end (now cue the violins). Hee hee! Sorry -- I just had to get that in! I don't normally 'own' that title in the way I should, and I make multiple excuses for why and how I got to be the Most Viewed TR in the DLR TR forum so as not to detract from the other wonderful TR achievements by so many other DIS'ers. One has to retain a scintilla of humbleness, after all. But, just for today, I will own it and proudly wear the crown! Lol.
Thank you, everyone, for sticking with me and for checking in on me!