Snow Day

I was snowed-in yesterday, Groundhog Day, and used my unexpected day off to do a whole lot of nothing. I didn't even remember to watch one of my favorite movies, Groundhog Day, in honor of the date.

So I'll likely pop that DVD in today. No, instead I watched a few old episodes of The Love Boat, which have been airing on MeTv lately.

Many of the guest stars are very well-known and it is interesting to see how different they looked back then. One episode had Jamie Farr, whom I loved on MASH, although I never watched the show while it was on in prime-time. Like The Love Boat, I only got to watch it in syndication, but enjoyed it immensely.

A long time ago, Jamie Farr was in Chicago performing in a play called "Lend Me a Tenor" and stayed in my apartment building. I saw him waiting in the lobby several times but never had the courage to try to strike up a conversation with him. Once, I said hello and he said hello back with a nice smile. One of the doormen told me he was a very pleasant, friendly person; this was high praise from that particular source as he was wont to gossip about many of the tenants.

Back to The Love Boat.....I've been on a couple of cruises, enjoyed them quite a bit, and hope to go on more someday. Visiting several different places for a day each, without having to live out of a suitcase and coordinate travel between each destination, is perfect for me. My favorite part of cruising, though, is just sitting on my balcony gazing at the ocean, and watching the world go by. It's a very low-maintenance way to vacation, and I love that aspect of it.

During the Superbowl, there was a commercial for Carnival Cruises that had an excerpt of a JFK speech given at the 1962 America's Cup. As he died before I was born, I didn't immediately recognize his voice and had to look up the quote; now I very am glad I did.

It was/is quite moving, and definitely has inspired me to actively plan, at the very least, a visit to the ocean again soon, if not another cruise. :-)

For those who did not see that commercial, here is the speech that was used:

I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea,

except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes

and the light changes

and ships change,

it is because we all came from the sea.

And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have,

in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood

that exists in the ocean, and,

therefore, we have salt in our blood,

in our sweat, in our tears.

We are tied to the ocean.

And when we go back to the sea,

whether it is to sail or

to watch it we are going back

from whence we came.