Donny and the Cruisers

Today we are staying on the ship as it sails from Greece to western Italy through the Strait of Messina. In other words, we're trapped and have to figure out how to entertain ourselves for a full day without passing out before the sun sets.

Oh the ship tries to offer diversions. Just in the morning there are shuffleboard and ping pong tournaments, trivia contests, cooking lessons, needlepoint lessons, and a trolley going around the pool making Bloody Marys. As I said, the challenge is not to pass out before sunset,

It's actually not that hard because we have met quite a few people who are fun and entertaining and the conversations are good value. I've put up some pictures from the ship - including one of some of our new pals - and you can see them here, but really a ship is not the most interesting place to take pictures.

Many of my new buddies have made me feel quite amateurish about this retirement thing I've been planning. Take Jaki and Robert from northern California. Jaki retired from her job and proceeded to open a small business that now takes up more of her time than her pre-retirement job. Her partner, Robert, is more traditionally retired from the business he owned, so he entertains himself by going online and learning how to do such things as put in a new bathroom and kitchen for their house - which he actually did.

Linda looked aghast when he told us this and made it quite clear that this would never be an option for me. It was an awkward moment. I had already had to tell Robert I did not ride motorcycles. Now my wife was explaining that I was not permitted to own most power tools (that is, those with sharp edges). I really did not expect that I would be trying to prove my manliness once I turned 60, but I did feel it necessary to let Robert know I was pretty cool with screw drivers, hammers and rakes. I was just forbidden to work with anything that had the ability to cut my hand off.

Some of the other retirees are also making me feel like I need to lift my game. Tomorrow Linda and I are sharing a tour with two other couples, and we met with them to plan. Both of the men are named Denny. Besides making us sound like a bad comedy skit - Denny, Denny and Donny - I need to differentiate them. At the risk of creating confusion with the restaurant chain, I will refer to them as Chicago Denny and Toronto Denny.

Toronto Denny talks like a man who has no trouble figuring out what he wants to do each day. He is organized yet casual. He seems like a suitable role model and I will ask him more about his approach tomorrow. Chicago Denny, however, is another story.

Chicago Denny talked about his retirement. He walks a lot, works out in the gym, and spends a couple of hours a day researching information for a professional newsletter and database one of his former clients runs. He also said that his daughter, who lives in another city, calls him most mornings while he is on his walk since she knows he has more than an hour when he is available.

He then added, "I decided early on that there would be no TV and no naps when I retired."

So two questions came to mind. First, if you decided to make rules about what you could not do during your retired days, why did you bother to retire? Second, how long does it take during your walk when you can take a phone call and do more than heavy breathing into the phone?

Actually, with not much to do on the ship today and writing about all these guys named Denny, a third question came to mind. I wonder if in-room dining would serve a Grand Slam Breakfast in the middle of the afternoon.