Somehow the Freedom of the Seas seems roomy

With somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 folks on Freedom of the Seas, I had the notion that the ship would seem more crowded than any of the cruises I’ve taken with my dear wife Karen. Not so. Somehow, the space planners made this shop seem roomy, from the promenade lined with shops and restaurants…

Before you can cruise you gotta get there

My dear wife Karen and I booked this vacation 15 months ago. That’s when our fearless vacation-on-the-seas leaders Brenda-and-JoAnn told the group that they’d like us all to go on the big ship out of Port Canaveral to Coco Kay, St. Thomas and St. Martin, and my dear wife Karen surprised me very pleasantly by…

Action, camera, Lights?

My dear wife Karen and I are fans of Lights on the Lake. The past several years, we’ve taken the chance to stroll along the path at Onondaga Lake Park when they’ve opened the annual blazing-lights tradition along the trails on the shore. We’ve even taken Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle. Now that I work…

It’s looking like autumn outside Nichols

Yes, the temperatures are falling when the sun goes down here in Central New York. There hasn’t been frost on the pumpkin yet, as the saying goes, but as the calendar flips to the month of that orange gourd today, the folks at Liverpool grocery Nichols are ready for the season. Fall, that is. Autumn.…

Now that’s a non-starter

So I jump in my car after a quick after-work stop at Dick’s Sporting Goods hoping to find a pair of new bowling shoes for a new season – nope, this suburban Syracuse location of the gigunda corporation doesn’t carry any bowling equipment, the kind associate told me – and push the flip switch on…

Drip, drip, drip goes the faucet

It’s more than a bit disconcerting when you turn the faucet to the right for your morning ritual, and all that comes out is the merest of a trickle. That was my situation after my iPhone 6 alarm sounded at 6:20 a.m. Tuesday in the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. And…

Neighborhood joint advice

On a quick trip to Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood bar Shifty’s for a Saturday lunch with good friends Michelle, Kristin, Jeff and my dear wife Karen, I noticed a bunch of cool signs behind the bar. One struck me on this day as perfectly appropriate. It wasn’t just my glass of Merlot, no. Can…