IOP and Patriot's Point

Today is Thursday, 10/16. I do not believe we have burned more than 20 calories over what our basal metabolic rates would need to sustain life. We have had a sedentary day. The previous two days were more energetic.

Tuesday we went to the Isle of Palms. It is an over-developed exclusive little barrier island covered in expensive homes. Having said that, I think the next picture represents housing perfection. This is the intracoastal waterway. These people have docks on a little spur off the waterway, with deep water and no wakes. There is a 50 foot lot (that would be dirt only) with a dock for sale - $1.9M. Yep, that's a capital M.


This is lovely, as well. This is the style of home built on the island.

This is right on the ocean. It's huge. They're all huge. Hugeness abounds.


Here is the beach and the Atlantic Ocean. Are they not lovely?

Little sea bird, looking for lunch.


Yesterday, after nearly melting down after talking to my credit card company, we went to Patriots Point. It's a museum with an aircraft carrier, destroyer, coast guard cutter and a submarine you can tour.
This is a memorial to all of the submariners who served during the Cold War. The sail and fairwater planes are from the USS Lewis and Clark, a decommissioned fleet ballistic missle submarine. Charleston was a huge Navy base during that period of time.


This is the aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown.


I love this bridge. It reminds me of the bridge over the Tarn River in Millau France. I took this from the dock walking up to the Yorktown.


Flight deck of the Yorktown.


Jim sitting in a Grumman Panther, an early Navy jet fighter.


It was a well done museum. Jim enjoyed himself. The most interesting bits were how the service men had to live in these really uncomfortable environments. It's always sobering to think how many people have died in armed conflicts, how many families broken.

As I said, today we did bupkis. Our feet were ready for a break. It was a glorious day, high 80s, low humidity. Just delightful.

Oh yes, the credit card company. We put the deposit for the 5th wheel on the ATT Universal Master Card. It was a lot of money. FICO scores are influenced by the ratio between debt and credit limit at the end of the billing cycle. So, I did a mid-billing cycle extra payment to get the debt/credit limit ratio back into a more favorable range. Guess what - their autopay software does not look at credits for the billing cycle (like extra payments). So, they debited my checking account for the full deposit amount. I now have a HUGE credit with Master Card due to that extra payment. They took money I did not owe them. They'll be happy to cut me a check in two or so weeks, but no, they can't just put it back. Yes, they get many complaints about this feature, but no, they do not plan to fix it in my lifetime. I am so peeved with these people; no where on the web site do they mention this policy. On the web, it looks like the balance has gone down, but no, the autopay software runs in a parallel universe. So, that's how yesterday started. I hate them.