Old So What

  The Island of Grenada is pronounced in English as Gruh na duh with a long “a” as in the words: “gate” and “date.” Not Gruh nah da (a city in Spain). (Actually, I think both are OK but the island and cruise ships say the long A version.) With apologies to grammarians, my computer will not comply with the proper symbols for all of this, although I know what they should be...I think!

  What to do with all that money and time? I’m talking about those who can afford to stay at luxury, high-end hotels on view now on YouTube. So, you’ve checked in with your Louis Vuitton luggage. Right after you’ve checked the luggage to see if it’s all there, then what? Have a complimentary bottle of Perrier…or something stronger and…? What do you do in such a hotel? Shop? Explore? Swim in the many inside/outside pools? Take a tour of the town? Read a book; take a nap? Well, all of the above. In this economy most of us would really love to have these sorts of questions as our primary worries.   Bring them on!

  You can see just what it’s like to live in another land; practice another religion; eat different food without having to literally do it. Treat yourself to an adventure (or have you already been there, done that?)

  Stumbling Around The most terrifying thing is waking up and realizing that you forgot that you have someplace to go, or worse, realizing that you forgot you have no place to go. It was the first morning since it happened that I went out by myself. The first of November, and the temperature had turned an unnatural 77 degrees, with the sun glaring so that it seemed to have sucked up all the oxygen until the world fell breathlessly around me. Noises sped past my ears like ammunition and I started and jumped at the most innocent of sounds: an unseen neighbor yelling to someone else, a horn sounding at the intersection. Rather like an alcoholic with a hangover except that my disorientation was not due to liquor but more like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.   I started up the treeless hill toward the Suburban Trolley and waited on the right side of the tracks on a surprisingly clean brown-metal bench. The other side of the tracks had a sign on its bench: "Use the tracks ...

  is the glowing optimism of Cecilia Blomdahl, the host.   She looks at all glasses as being half full. She glories in the Arctic cold and wind and snow in the winter months, and in the yellow Arctic Poppies in the summer. She smiles and draws a kind of life force from the Northern Lights (Those exquisite undulating waves of color that float so high above in the sky; technically the aurora borealis.) Frankly, Cecilia is a life force all her own; seeing the adventure in life as something to run toward, something to enjoy.   She expects the best and makes the best of whatever the results turn out to be. Her optimism is contagious! Cecilia is a life force of positive expectations that just like dreams in a Disney movie, really do come true.  

  Svalbard does not allow cats because of the potential for them to escape their indoor homes, and run loose on the tundra; then perhaps stalk and eliminate the local bird populations, of which there are many during the warmer months, including: Common Cranes and Purple Sandpipers. Also, the island does not allow anyone to remain when they can no longer financially or physically take care of themselves. There are no services or care homes for the elderly, or any form of public transportation. I personally find this discrimination in its worse form:   Age-based instead of ability-based.   But would I want to live through the rough conditions, including carrying a gun to scare away (and try not to actually kill the polar bears unless absolutely necessary)? No thank you!   I pass on that one.  

On the streaming channel that has videos on absolutely everything, there lives a channel hosted by Cecilia Blomdahl. She is Swedish but. I think that it is Norwegian that she’s speaking to her boyfriend, Christopher, and her fluffy, furry Finnish Lapphund dog, Grim. As someone who has some Norwegian heritage in her somewhere, I really enjoy hearing the language. It has a happy lilt to it! Grim is always smiling and so it seems is their spoken word, There is a happy relationship, too, between Cecilia and Christopher, both in their relationship to each other and the frozen world they inhabit inside the Arctic Circle, 500 miles from the North Pole.   But they’d be the first to admit that the true star of the show is Grim! He is a phenomenon of beauty, grace and affection.  Watching him is a total treat and you never have to worry about his care (which I always do when viewing animal shows.)  Grim is cared for superbly by his human companions.  This is a total love...

  What a juicy name! (I want to get a dog and name it Yakutsk.) Yakutsk, Siberia, Russia. Where it’s cold, the temperature regularly falls below -58F/-50C in January. (But can go to +86F/+30C in summer.) This is the coldest city in the world. So cold that they put the water pipes above ground. And there is a tour of the permafrost museum. (Permafrost is the frozen layer of soil, sand, gravel and ice, which as the name suggests is permanently frozen and is just on or just under the Earth’s surface.) Yakuts are the indigenous people (about 450,000 of them) who are smart enough to survive here through the conquest of most obstacles that would stop the rest of us in our tracks, and with the ample employment of fur: reindeer, muskrat and fox. Dress warm for Yakutsk when visiting October to April.

  When I last saw the travelog, it cost $1,800 for one night in a 5-star hotel on the Gulf. I don’t recall everything included in that. Something in the range of many pairs of slippers in the bedroom and living room (Why so many I don’t know); breakfast in the room (Although the commentator reported everything was cold because they didn’t include lids on the platters. Maybe that costs extra.) Also included were luxury bath products; complimentary juices and bottles of champagne; beautiful views; a comfortable bed with enormous pillows; access to indulgent swimming pools (including an infinity); access to a beach made in heaven; fine carpets and gold-colored trash bins. There was a butler in there somewhere, though I never saw him. Well, that’s the idea. Actually, it seemed a little boring and bland, a let-down There didn’t seem to be much imagination employed here, no surprises, but that could just be me.   Still for that money I would have enjoyed the option of the room det...