Big things ahead

In my previous post, I said I wanted to “eat healthier, catch up on travel and rely less on ‘convenience apps.” The first one is going well enough, and I’m working on the second one as I type this (I might have something fun planned for the second half of this month)… and the third is a work in progress.

What I didn’t mention was, I want to stop living in fear of my previous editors and get my novel out there. I also want to put out a shorter book about my life in Baltimore which has the added benefit of enabling to delete all or part of my blog posts from 2009-2014 (as, believe me, no-one is reading them) which would free up a considerable amount of space for future writing/photos. The problem is, I don’t know if I have enough material for the latter book (as the copies of said posts on my laptop are long gone due to a transfer error on my previous computer. #techisfun), and it’s a bit late to start adding to it now.

I have other plans, some of which I can’t make yet due to the pandemic (I think have or, at least, had COVID at some point) as many events are either cancelled or postponed. For instance, Universal Orlando has not announced the dates for its Mardi Gras celebration (though Busch Gardens has :p), and Family Kingdom in Myrtle Beach, SC has no operating hours through the end of April.

Unfortunately, I just spent the past hour trying to fit multiple attraction visits for the second half of the month into my itinerary and my budget. I wasn’t accounting for “we downsized our routes to smaller airports” wall. All I want to do is fly into Sanford on my return trip so I can get some pictures of the Central Florida Zoo (that closed the day I came back from Baltimore last year) and then take the Sunrail back to downtown so I can transfer to… you know, I think I’ll just fly into MCO and be done with it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, my groceries are here…

2021 resolutions

So, the New Year is upon us. A year of hope, opportunities and boundless adventures… and lots of undeserved trauma that will very likely keep me from having a pleasant thought ever again. Oh, yes, and a chance to begin anew, and how do I that? New Year’s Resolutions!

The first and most important: Rely less on “convenience” apps. I just saw a story on Google News about how delivery apps like Door Dash and Instacart, as important as they are in our “contact free” age, are killing the very businesses they are purporting to help. The poor driver is not only caught in the middle, but they are essentially shafted pay wise.

Thankfully, now that the I-Ride Trolley is back to at least a partially normal schedule, I can go back to shopping in store again… four days a week anyway with it’s advertised “15-20 minute” waits ballooning to an hour – or more – with fewer vehicles running/less drivers working in other words: less gas, fewer paychecks. Okay, so it’s not that much of an improvement, but it’s cheaper than taking Uber/Lyft to the grocery store.

The problem is, the four-day schedule requires more advanced planning than Uber/Instacart does. I don’t need milk today or tomorrow, but I might on Wednesday which is too bad since trolley service is (for the moment anyway) “THURS-SUN only.” Yes, I know, there’s a 7-Eleven 500ft outside my bedroom window, but that doesn’t mean I can do ALL of my shopping there.

Besides, if I’m going to eat at least a little healthier (a phrase with a certain amount of wiggle room), I’m going to have to cut down on the amount of junk food I buy. The easiest way to do that is to remember I’d have to CARRY IT from the store, across the parking lot and eventually to wherever the nearest trolley stop is. Whereas, Instacart shoppers can buy all the ice cream, cookies, chips, etc. I want because they have a CAR to load it into.

So, why not just use Uber or Lyft? Easy – because I did! Given the most direct route to the nearest Publix, my fare comes out to $7.65 plus tip… and how much does it cost to come back? Therefore, it was cheaper to pay the $9 “delivery fee” for Instacart (later lowered to $3) than it was to go round trip to the store myself. Also, there was less chance of catching viruses that way.

Speaking of which, now that the vaccine is available in Orlando (as well as a shiny new mutation!), I can play catch up with all the travel I had planned for last year. My trip to Baltimore in March was supposed to end with a weekend in Sanford (as my flight was on Friday and Sunrail back to downtown only runs on weekdays… unfortunately, Friday was the day Governor DeSantis issued his “Stay-at-Home” order for the state. Even the check-in woman at the hotel said I was “stupid” for doing so (yes, that’s a quote, as I’m supposed to just intrinsically know these things when I’m 3500ft in the sky with no access to news/information).

I had also planned a week in Charlotte, NC (home of Carowinds – owned by the same company as Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, which I also planned on visiting). Obviously, I would not spend the entire week at one park, as I’m sure there are museums, galleries, and other attractions to see in Mecklenburg County. Probably a wide variety of food and drink options as well.

If everything goes according to plan, I won’t be stepping foot in Disney until March or April… that’s assuming I pay down my Instacart and Lyft bills first.

Transit troubles

Note: These are some actual updates from my Facebook page of the same name about my day going to\getting back from seeing the new exhibit at Orlando Science Center (a traveling one at that). Some of said stats have been edited to fit a more detailed narrative timeline.

 

10:56am – Chased out of the apartment by the obnoxious noise the landscape crew was making with their mowers and whackers. I got everything together to go out… just in time to see them packing up as well. Maybe a little adventure will give this headache a chance to go away…

11:35am – Disembarked at Lynx Central Station and immediately traded my transfer pass for a Sunrail card as I figured (wrongly as it turned out) that an 11-minute train ride would be easier than a 25 minute bus ride… or it would have been except the last morning train left six minutes ago…and “mid-day” trains come at TWO HOUR INTERVALS?

11:55am – I am strongly considering opening my Lyft app and requesting a fricken ride. The only problem is the battery on my phone is running out so I shut it down for the remainder of the afternoon to conserve power.

12:25pm – I am hungry, and decide to go into the actual station itself to get something to eat. It turns out, the building itself is pretty bare bones with restrooms (complete with not-at-all-creepy “these restrooms are being monitored…” sign #eww), vending machines and a rack of schedules across from the entrance (which was closed due to maintenance).

12:47pm – I just finished lunch at their tiny in-station café. No menu, no tables and the cashier tried to rip me off, but it filled 15 minutes so whatever. Yeah, meanwhile, I am sitting here realizing how noisy it is out here: birds, buses coming\going, station announcements and guys with leaf blowers (because someone hates me today).

-1:13pm – Only fifteen minutes to go. ^_^

-1:28pm – After watching two Amtrak and one southbound Sunrail train zoom past me, the Northbound train to Orlando Health finally arrives.

-3:38pm – On my way back from Orlando science center. I was there to see their temporary exhibit #AstronautOSC. I haven’t decided if it is worth writing a review of or not. I like space stuff, but this exhibition was kind of #meh.

-5:04pm – Got on at the wrong bus at the transfer so the driver rudely threw me off at the last stop. He did begrudgingly let me back on 15 minutes later with a condescending lecture about it being “YOUR responsibility to make sure you get on the right bus.”

Sorry, I keep forgetting I CHOSE to have a brand-new car totaled by a teenager I never saw coming. The best part, the state rewarded my pain and suffering by revoking MY license forcing me to deal with assholes like this. 😡

-5:21pm – Thanks to that blunder, I arrived at The Florida Mall about 40 minutes later than I planned. I have less than 20 minutes to get dinner on the opposite side of the mall before my transfer pass expires (as he refused to issue me a new one). Fortunately, it’s a food court, so it shouldn’t be too hard.

–6:20pm – On my way back now, I had to use my last remaining ones as my transfer pass expired just as I was leaving the food court… but I still haven’t decided if I’m doing a full write-up my visit to OSC. Fortunately, I have just over a half-hour to make up my mind…

Misadventures in Sanford

10:19am – A later start then I would have liked, but I am ready to go out and take photos today. I never did post those pictures from Epcot International Festival of the Arts as they’re still on my phone…the one I forgot to plug in before I got in the shower. Eh, whatever, I’ll be back before it dies anyway.

11:20am – I was starving when I got off the bus across the highway from the Sunrail station (the closest the driver would drop me off as she INSISTED Sunrail doesn’t operate on weekends) so I stopped at the McDonalds adjacent to said station. I’d already missed the 11am train so I had a bit of time to fill anyway.

-1:06pm – I arrive at Sanford Sunrail Station, the expansive parking lot is empty and there are no buses or cabs in sight. I put the zoo’s address into Google Maps and let the friendly GPS lady (whom I can barely hear) guide me.

-2:01pm – Google sent me Rand Yard Rd, which is a one-lane service road for the distributor on the corner and after traipsing through several acres of scrub grass I found myself in some kind of landfill\processing center (looked deserted, but it was a weekend). The latter was fenced off (10 feet from the connection street Google wanted me on) but no, I was the correct route so I was forced to backtrack all the way back to the main road and follow their DRIVING directions to the zoo.

-2:53pm – Finally arrived, with slightly under 2 hours to see everything. I haven’t even gone into their iconic pink\red gate yet, and I’m already exhausted.

-4:09pm – This very well could be a post of its own, but I’ll put in here anyway. No, I’m not going into a tirade about their tiny cages stacked on top of each other. No, my complaint here is that after I left the zoo, I asked the worker at “Admissions” window (couldn’t find “Guest Services”) to call a cab for me.

She looks at me like I’m stupid: “Duh, just open your Uber app, and they’ll…okay, fine, I’ll see if I can do that for you.” She disappears behind the wall for a moment and comes back to give me a sticky note with a phone number on it: “You can call them whenever you’re ready.”

“I don’t have the reception or the battery life for it,” I said showing her my phone with its 22% power that’s supposed to last until I get back.

“Nah, you can do it,” she said with a shrug. “After all, YOU’RE the one who wants it.” Yes, she actually thinks she’s doing me a favor. But at least she pretends to “believe” in me.

I go over to the parking area and do MY due duty as a cab wanting citizen. “I’d like to or… I said I’d like a cab to… I SAID ‘I’D LIKE A CAB TO…’“

Like I said, a huge fucking favor. People are staring at me because I am literally screaming at the top of my phone, and he STILL “can’t hear” me, but, hey, the girl at the “Admissions” window said I “could do it” so why disappoint her?

Finally, I get far enough away from the kiddie rides that he can finally hear me, and at 4:25pm, a black minivan (they sent a minivan for ONE person?) finally pulls up to the curb outside the gate.

-4:48pm – Cab driver conveniently “missed” the station saying ‘’don’t worry, we take the entrance around back.’’ Nice try, I saw the back of the station, there is no “entrance” there. Any other lies you’d like to throw at me?

-6:05pm – Arrive at the Sandlake Station. I spent the next ten minutes waiting on the only bus serving the station on weekends before stupidly deciding to get dinner at the Denny’s adjacent to the station (I should have used the dwindling natural light to find the next regular bus stop). Don’t get me wrong, I was hungry and the food was good, but service was definitely of the turn & burn variety (even though there were only five other patrons in the entire restaurant).

-6:47pm – It is pitch black outside, save for half lit store signs across the street and the blinding glare of the speeding cars. Oh yeah, perfect conditions for finding a bus stop in an unfamiliar area – especially since I now have an extremely expensive brick in my jacket pocket.

-7:39pm – After waiting at the unlit stop for approximately 15 minutes (my only source of time is a dead phone), the bus I wanted finally arrives. I take a seat and fight sleep for the next hour.

-8:49pm – Arrive safely back at the apartment. I’m glad I’m out of quarters since my feet will probably need all day tomorrow to recover from that “shorter route” Google Maps suggested (that ADDED an hour of walking to my trip). Don’t expect any updates from me before noon.