Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
Random mutterings
If you’ve subscribed to my blogs via email (all three of you), you might have noticed that ads suddenly appeared in the email notifications. The email notifications are handled by WordPress’ Jetpack plugin, and the ad injection is apparently a recent addition.
Despite the note that say “This post is ad-supported”, these ads weren’t inserted by me. I’m not a fan of the ads just suddenly appearing like they did and I really don’t like that it says “This post is ad-supported”, implying that I’m the one doing the ad injection and that my posts and blog are ad supported.
Except for the occasional referral link that might appear in a post here and there, none of my posts or blogs will ever be ad supported.
If the ads in the email notifications bother you, feel free to unsubscribe. You won’t hurt my feelings. In the meantime, I’ll see what happens and investigate other options for email subscriptions.
Update: Looks like while I was leaving a comment on the Github issue, the Jetpack devs undid the ad injection.
For future reference (and in case anybody else needs to know).
My Fossil watch (Grant Collection, FS 4736) takes a SR621SW type battery.
Naturally, it’s a different type of battery than all the other button cell using devices I have.
Also for future reference, this is a nice cross-reference chart for button cell/watch batteries.
Today is the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. A day to pay respects and honour to the millions that served and died in The Great War and the wars that followed.
In Flander’s Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.– Lt. Col. John McRae (1872-1918)
At 11AM, bells will ring in remembrance across the US. When you hear them, stop a moment and remember their sacrifice.
Got to spend two and a half days wandering around parts of Disney World over the weekend.
Drove down to the Orlando area Saturday, stopping at IKEA in Jacksonville on the way to check out cabinets that we’re planning on putting in the laundry room at some point. Of all the IKEAs we’ve been to, the one in Jacksonville is a bit of an oddball, since it’s only a single level.
Stopped at Skycraft Parts & Surplus in Orlando to browse. Really wish there was a store like that here in Charleston. I’d probably end up spending a lot of time there.
After checking in to the hotel and getting unpacked, we headed off to Disney Springs to pick up my Epcot ticket and trade in Connie’s old 4-day Park Hopper pass with one day left from back when they didn’t expire for a new ticket. Spent most of the evening wandering around Disney Springs and had a good time.
Tasty tip: Stop at Cooke’s of Dublin and get the Hog in a Box.
The next day (Sunday) we went to Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort. We had tickets for the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue later in the afternoon so they let us in to park early. We spent our time before the show resort hopping to check out and wander around some of the nearby resorts. Took a boat to the Wilderness Lodge, and then to the Contemporary Resort. From there we hopped on the monorail to the Polynesian Resort where we had lunch, and then the Grand Floridian Resort (very fancy place). Finally, we got back on the monorail to go to the Magic Kingdom where we walked around the entrance a bit (didn’t go in) and then caught the boat back to Fort Wilderness to meet up with friends.
The Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue show is an entertaining hour and a half or so of music, song, and dance accompanied by an all-you-can-eat dinner of fried chicken buckets, pails of ribs, bowls of baked beans, corn, and mashed potatoes, and topped off with strawberry shortcake.
We all quite enjoyed the show and the food.
The next day, Monday, was Epcot Day! Epcot is our favourite Disney park.
Epcot Day started off bright and early with us arriving at the parking lot gate at 7:30 AM, right when the parking lot opens. The parking lot Cast Member asked us how we were doing, and Connie responded with an enthusiastic “We’re awesome! We’re at Epcot!” I guess Connie’s enthusiasm was contagious, because she waved us on by and we didn’t have to pay the $25 for parking.
After parking close enough that we could walk to the entrance, we waited for the security lines to open, then hopped on the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center and back. The ride offers a nice view of parts of Disney World and on the way back makes a loop through Epcot’s Future World.
About 10 or 15 minutes before the rope drops, the gathered crowd is entertained by the JAMMitors, a percussion trio playing on trash can lids and pails. Then, at 9AM the rope drops and the crowd rushes into the park.
Any way you do things, spending the day at Epcot is tiring. We took it easy, weren’t rushing anywhere, took breaks, enjoyed rides, and were still exhausted by the end of the day.
The Epcot International Food & Wine Festival was happening while we were there, so we got to sample a few dishes while we wandered around.
Pro tip: If you’re buying stuff at Epcot, you can have them delivered to Package Pickup (located at The Gift Stop by the park entrance) and pick up your goods on the way out. That way you don’t need to lug things around while you’re exploring the park. The cut-off time for getting purchases sent to Package Pickup is 6PM but if you’re going to do it, have your last purchase sent to Package Pickup well before that. If you’re staying at one of the Disney resorts, you can have your purchases sent to your resort which makes things even easier.
Wrapping up the evening was the IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth show. Last month there was an announcement that the IllumiNations show was going to be retired in 2019 and replaced with something else. It was important enough to Connie that we see the show together that we cancelled the cruise we had planned for May 2019 to make the trip to Epcot instead. The show was a fantastic spectacle of music, fireworks, lasers, video, water, and fire. Really big fire. It’s a pretty awesome show and definitely worth waiting around for.
