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Praetorium Honoris

Monday, April 3, 2023

Excitement all 'Round

 Well, Campers...It's been an excellent week at Rancho Juvat this past seven or so days. Even after a long return from our Wine Cruise down the Danube river with our Winemaker and Winedrinker friends last week.  All ramifications from a broken British Airways jet in Budapest and running through subsequent airports were cured with a 16 hour sleep session.  We have now reset our nocturnal clocks to coincide with the sun's orbit.  


Re: The Cruise, we got on the boat at Vilshofen an der Donau and cruised to Budapest.  That involved 7 Days, 3 oops 4 Countries (seems I forgot the Czech Republic in my list of Germany, Austria and Hungary), beautiful scenery, good food and great wine.  HIGHLY recommend AMAWaterways River cruises.

Yes, Beans, that's unpaid advertisement.   

British Airways was a bit of a disappointment, but they did have one feature I liked, and for some reason, used virtually the entire flight.


Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make it do an aileron roll.  

Rats!

Got to Munich and met up with our van driver and were off to meet the boat.


As one can see, this isn't an ultra large ocean liner.  It holds a max of 162 passengers (~120 on this trip, 28 of whom were confirmed Texan wine consumers, the rest would be converted) so the atmosphere on board was quite pleasant.

Set sail and saw quite a few interesting sites.

Interesting photography courtesy of our new Friend, Nuncio Previtera.  I think it's a cool shot.

The following morning we got our wine business out of the way with our first wine tasting.  Open to all passengers, it went quite well with a lot of comments along two lines.

1. "I didn't know they made wine in Texas."

2. "Wow, this is very good wine."

Gary, the winemaker.  Mrs. J is ready for the toast

 So...Mission Accomplished.

Lots more sites to be seen as we got further south. One of the more interesting, historically, was this castle.


This castle was where King Richard I (AKA Richard the Lionheart) was imprisoned on his way home from the Crusades.  It is also the location where I updated my understanding of the difference between the word "Can" and "May".  There was a Hiking tour option with a hike up to the Castle itself.  "May" implies permission, "Can" implies ability.  

No, I didn't visit it.

Stopped at a very old abbey and inspected their wine cellar.


Did I mention "Very Old"? No, they wouldn't allow us to taste it.  (I was ok with that.)

It did have a very nice Chapel though.



So early on in the cruise, we're back on board after an exhausting day exploring castles and drinking wine and I'm sitting at a table with one of the other guys from Mrs. J's group.  Doing the usual "get to know you" routines and I mentioned that I'd been a pilot in the Air Force.  He said that so had he.  I asked the usual questions assigned to that "get to know you" track. You know..."What did you fly?" He said "F-4's"  Well, the conversation got fun after that.  I asked where he'd gone to Pilot Training.  He said "Laughlin".

Talk about coincidence.  So had I, but about 5 years before him.  Meanwhile, one of the other guys on the tour was sitting at a table nearby.  He leaned over and said he'd gone through Laughlin also.  He'd gone through a couple of years later than my new friend and had then flown C-130's in the Guard.  I asked my F-4 friend when he'd gone to Lead-In and which squadron.  He'd said 1985 and the 435TFTS.  Talk about Coincidence Squared.  I was an IP in that squadron at that time.  There's a good probability I'd flown with him.  The three of us had a great time telling flying stories (commonly referred to by mere mortals as "Tall Tales").

But it was a good time.

This picture was courtesy of Milly Young, the F-4 Driver's better half.  She showed it to me and I knew it had to put it in the post. Thanks Milly.
Per Beans Request, Panorama of Budapest taken from the Castle on the Buda Side.


On a different subject, it's been a while since I've updated Miss B's status.   Bottom Line, Up Front.  She's doing well and making progress.  The pulmonologist has given permission to start weaning her off supplemental oxygen and she's handling the reduction quite well

She also passed a couple of significant milestones this past week.  First, she's gone over 12 lbs and the fact that she's putting on weight is a very good sign. Another good sign is this.


She's able to sit up (for a short period) by herself.  You GO, Girl!

On a final note, I had to run to Austin yesterday for a Top Secret Mission.  Secrecy had to be maintained until the forces were successfully redeployed and the target maneuvered into the proper setting. 

 

Mrs J was able to distract LJW by taking her shopping for Baby Stuff.

Apparently, Little Juvat was able to align the gravitational forces of the Moon, Sun, Jupiter and Mars and teleport himself from Honk Honk to Texas.  A little quick thinking and a misdirecting comment by yours truly of LJW while He and I were RTB'ing from Austin kept the game afoot and...

Voila'!  A little Family getting re-acquainted time for a week.

Dad and Miss B reintroducing themselves.

Life is Great!  Peace out y'all!

 

40 comments:

  1. Excellent post juvat, good to see Miss B improving so much and a family reunion also! River cruise ship under 200 passengers = much better than sailing on saltwater with thousands crammed in like sardines. Scenery is more varied also. Like the photos..... :)

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    Replies
    1. Nylon,
      Thanks, yeah having the gang all together is very satisfying. MBD and MG are coming over today and spending a couple of days also. So...Even Better.
      Before sailing, I was a little concerned about being bored on the cruise, nothing could be further from the truth. We docked every day, sailed while still daylight so one could sightsee and explore every day. The crew was fabulous and the layout was quite comfortable and efficient. As I said, highly recommend and Mrs. J is already starting to plan our next river cruise.
      Thanks, my iPhone's camera was having "issues", but both Milly and Nuncio had actual cameras (and the ability to use them) which filled the gap.

      Delete
  2. Nice to get such a positive Baby Report. :-)

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    Replies
    1. Michael,
      Yes it is indeed! Thanks!

      Delete
    2. I'll second that. It makes for an outstanding last few days. I belong to a small Social Club. A couple that belongs there has a little girl we call Missy. Missy was born with a deformed Pelvis and could only walk with a walker. She went into the hospital right after Christmas. Well Thursday evening the buzzer for the door sounds and Jen, the bartender opens the door and starts squealing. Missy comes walking in under her own power, with no crutches. They broke her Pelvis and were able to realign everything and now she's totally mobile. She turned 7 while she was in the hospital. One of her favorite things is watching the NASCAR race with us Sunday afternoons. So yesterday we threw a belated birthday party for her complete with a new bicycle. The Docs say that the bike will be good for her.

      Delete
    3. JimC,
      Wow! I can only imagine how exciting that must have been. Might have needed a hankie or two had I been there. Well Done, Sir(s) and Ladies!

      Delete
    4. She's got about 150 self-proclaimed Aunts and Uncles. She went to school yesterday for the first time on her own feet. Looking forward to hearing about it.

      Delete
    5. JimC
      I'll bet! Again, Well Done!

      Delete
  3. Good news about Miss B.

    I think that all my at sea time would have been greatly improved by wine!

    Coincidences.
    We were staying at Shades of Green some years ago and I asked a military ball cap wearing older gent what he did in the Army.
    A few moments of idle chatting later we found out that I worked with his son at the airport.
    It's sometimes a very small world if you just talk to people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JiP,
      Yes it is. It was very cool to see her and Little J interact when he first walked in. Remembering she was just a month old or so when he left. So when he walked in, her eyes got very wide and a bit of a smile crossed her face. That was cool! I don't think he's put her down yet, (Ok maybe to bed, but....)
      It is a small world. I was standing outside the baby store yesterday after the meet up waiting for the ladies to pay up. There was an older couple in the vicinity talking about finding something to eat. I walked over, told them I lived here and could I help? Noticed the gentleman had a ball cap with a small purple heartshaped medal attached. I asked him where he earned that. Turns out he was a Marine in WWII and got it at a place called Tarawa.
      Very Lucky Guy!
      Glad I offered to help.

      Delete
    2. Ugh, Tarawa, vicious little patch of death that was. Good for you for helping one of the few remaining vets from that particular section of hell-on-Earth.

      Delete
    3. Beans,
      Yep. Tide Charts can make a huge difference in people's lives. Just sayin'

      Delete
    4. After that, they sent subs to measure tide movements and such. To avoid another cluster-copulation like Tarawa, Bloody Tarawa. I've walked on reefs during slack tide (when the reef is exposed) and there is absolutely no cover at all on the atoll when you're out there.

      Delete
    5. Beans,
      Well at least they learned the lesson and acted on it. Nowadays....

      Delete
  4. Thanks for the update on Young Miss.

    " a 16 hour sleep session"

    I've never been able to pull off that much sleep. Even after getting maybe 6 hours in 3 days,

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    Replies
    1. Joe,
      My pleasure.
      It kinda surprised me also, must be the getting older. (Gotta run that by the source of all aging knowledge, AKA Sarge, to confirm)

      Delete
    2. When Mrs. Andrew first met me and we started shacking up in sin before becoming right with God (if you know what I mean) my allergies were so bad that I could sleep 24 or more hours straight. I'd zombie up, go to bathroom, zombie back and get horizontal again, all while asleep.

      Amazing what one can do when one is tired.

      Delete
    3. Beans,
      When I got into the first staff tour, we'd deploy from Hawaii to various headquarters in the northwest part of the CINCPAC AOR. (You know where I'm talking about.) Our objective was to quickly deploy and start building the plan to handle whatever the "Crisis" was. Humanitarian Assistance through to Conventional War. That generally entailed about 3 days with little to no sleep as both CINCPAC and the Joint Staff were in significantly different time zones. So, yeah, I understand Zombie. But, I was informed by several people that some of my best plan ideas came in those Zombie moments. Who knew?

      Delete
  5. Great vacation, granddaughter is improving, and now your son gets to come home for a bit.

    Ain't nothing better.

    (As to sleep ... What's that?)

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    Replies
    1. Sarge,
      Nope, there isn't.
      I believe Sleep is the Ancient Egyptian Word for "horizontal tossing and turning while simultaneously throwing blankets off or pulling them back on, typically done during hours of darkness".
      I could be wrong.

      Delete
  6. Juvat, welcome Home! I always found it comforting to step off a plane and be on "Texas soil".
    Really great news about Miss B's progress and her Daddy being able to hold her, even if for only a week. Before he knows it, she'll be asking him for keys to the car.
    Cletus

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    Replies
    1. Cletus,
      Yeah, although if think it really becomes more comforting when I exit Dripping Springs west bound, and even that point in space seems to be moving west.
      Little J is doing a lot of that holding thing. Agreed about the car keys.

      Delete
  7. Thanks for the wonderful pictures Juvat! It sounds like you had a grand time.

    Many shouts of "Huzzah" for Miss B's continued progress, and well as the last minute visit home!

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    Replies
    1. THBB,
      Thanks, lots of things to be thankful for lately.

      Delete
  8. How is AMA? We took Avalon, which is apparently not one of the best, but we would have disagreed had we been asked. Waytago Miss B! (And LJ)

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    Replies
    1. Tuna,
      It was fabulous. A few of the folks in our group had been on other river cruise lines and said this one was far better than any others they'd been on. Food was great, service was also. In fact, it didn't take long before they stopped being crew and became more the role of a friend whose house we were visiting. Didn't hear a single gripe from the group and some of them were, well...quite needy!
      LJ and Mrs. J have been planning this RDVS for a few months now. That we were able to keep it a secret was probably directly related to the fact that ONLY the three of us knew about it. Trust me. The arrival episode was worth it.

      Delete
  9. Great news on Miss B. And also that Little Juvat was able to come home for a short leave.

    That cruise sounds like fun was had by all. Had a friend take a similar cruise last year that was to go all the way to the Black Sea (or close) but got stopped at Budapest because the river was so low.

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    Replies
    1. BillB,
      Thanks, yes it is (on both counts.)
      Yeah, when Mrs. J was doing the research on it, water level was a key consideration. Too early in the season, the boat can't get under the bridges, too late and the opposite occurs, which sounds like what your friend encountered. Fortunately, the rain gods seemed to favor us this time.

      Delete
  10. Ah, the fabled cities of Buda and Pest! I hear it's a wonderful dual city/single city to visit.

    As to that castle? That's the castle that broke England financially. That whole "Prince John is robbing the country blind" was so he could pay off his feckless brother's debts from going crusading and then getting captured. Pore John, always catching the stinky end of the stick. Only one other English king got such a bad rap, and that would be Richard III (hey, that rhymes!)

    Good news on the LJ family! Now that the Monsoons have arrived in SE Asia, the chance of the ChiComs getting frisky with Taiwan are vastly lowered. Does he have any dealing with the ChiCom stories he can share?

    As to the wine cruise, sounds totally wonderful. Just one question. How much of a hassle was it to import Texan wine into the EU?

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    Replies
    1. Beans,
      Update above with Panorama of Budapest.
      As to importing Texas Wine, that was handled by Gary, the winemaker, but I don't believe it was an issue. He sold the wine to the cruise line and therefore it became just another wine they had available. He did have to ship it to them, it was probably 10 cases, so I think the cruise line just "handled" it. Don't know.

      Delete
  11. 12 pounds!!! You GO GIRL!!! Pretty soon she will be able to lose not only the Oxygen, but the feeding tube as well!!
    The look on her Mom's face is priceless!!

    Very nice pictures to remember your trip with. I do like the castle ones. Although I don't think I am quite brave enough to go to Europe just yet, I have often thought the river cruises looked like a great way to see a lot of country fairly easily.

    Have a wonderful Easter with your family.

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    Replies
    1. Anon,
      Thanks, Suz! ;-)
      Looking forward to further progress. The Gummint won't even begin to look at travel papers until she's fully up to speed, so, while we love having her around, being around her parents is more important and her parents being together is every bit as important as that. Which is why we went to great lengths (as did Little J) to surprise her and have a little together time.
      I think like most of my world, folks are getting pretty FXXXXXG fed up with being told what to do or not do by, charitably, incompetent or more probably, totally corrupt politicians. Europe was no different. Virtually everybody we met was friendly and helpful. And I definitely felt there was some top cover in the wings if something went hayfire. So, take that for what it's worth. The cruise was fabulous and you're right, river cruise is an outstanding way to see a country.
      Thanks, Same to you, Sister!

      Delete
  12. Suz....stupid computer

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  13. Glad the cruise went well, and yes, military vets are EVERYWHERE!!! LOL Great news on the little one also!!!

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    Replies
    1. Old NFO, I only got to talk to him for a short while and we did NOT discuss Tarawa, but...he was an interesting guy anyhow.
      Thanks

      Delete
  14. Great to have you back home safely. How much weight hopped on with all the good food and wine?
    Baby et al looking GREAT! I can feel your excitement. What fun to have them together. Hope you thought of the blessing God gives to everyone who knows your family when we see God Workings.
    RE: BOAC HUD. No pickle button, I assume, no radar ranging, no tones. But I love the look. Good thinking from someone in marketing😉 migsweep recieved this pm. Lots of good stuff there including a challenge to make March mustache month through to October. My wife may kill me.Til the reunion in Kentucky.

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    1. D4,
      Thanks. Fortunately, we did a lot of walking on the cruise (with some minor to medium ups and downs, no top of the ridge castle visiting), so the weight gain was manageable. No, my Doctor will gripe at me in a couple of weeks, but that's par for to t course.
      Re: blessing the Lord. I do that multiple times a day. Lots of Thank You's and a few Please...
      Re: the HUD, Nobody so fare has realized that Sarge is in that picture. A pickle button with a TOF icon and a simulated explosion on the target would have made the flight SO much more fun.
      Re:MigSweep. She's got to know by now that Fighter Pilot's got to Fighter Pilot. That having been said, Mrs. J has several subtle ways to convey her order to trim beard and 'stache. Those are almost certainly followed by "Yes, Dear".

      Delete
  15. I didn't comment on that display on BA previously. If that is what I think it is , an artificial horizon, altmeter and compass, it is great for aviators. More than once back in the 90s when I flew out to Utah from DFW ( and back) quite often for AF Reserve duty, I flew at night . The yanking and banking during departure gave me mild or worse vertigo because my seat-of-the-pants sensors were talking to me and I had no references. A display like that would have kept my "gyros" from tumbling

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    Replies
    1. BillB,
      Been there done that, it's even worse when the window seat occupant insists on putting the shade down. The HUD option was pretty cool, although with 3500+ miles to go, the ETA didn't go down very fast.

      Delete

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