larry and linda's excellent adventures

To toast or not to toast..........

2009-10-27T20:46:00.002-04:00

Ok, so we are out to dinner a couple of weeks ago with our youngest son Glenn and his wife, our daughter-in-law, Janet, and after we sit down and everyone pulls out their I-phones and Blackberries, and checks emails, text messages, instant messages, and facebook status updates, we start a conversation. Naturally, one of the first subjects to come up was toasters, and toaster slots. What? You don’t talk about toaster slots at the dinner table? How boring! Anyway, the conversation centered on four slot toasters and the ubiquitous slot label, “single slice”, and the associated arrow designating that particular slot to be used for toasting a single slice. Now, this subject begs at least two questions: first, why do you have to use a particular slot for cooking or toasting a single slice, and what would happen if you fail to follow these very explicit instructions?

Second, since there is a particular slot labeled for a single slice, one would first assume that is where the first slice would be inserted if you are actually toasting more than one slice, but where do you insert the second slice? Now, there is a real question!!

Let’s talk about the ramifications of inserting a single slice into a slot other than the one labeled “single slice”. I mean, will the toaster just stop working? Or even worse, will it explode? Being a conformist, I have always used the labeled slot, but now I am questioning that procedure. Does that make me a wimp? Should I just close my eyes, and insert that single slice of Wonder Bread into any random slot? Should I just step off that cliff without knowing what lies below? This is a major, major consideration that quite frankly, I am not ready to make.

Now let’s talk about the order of insertion. If you look at the top of your multi-slice toaster, and locate the “single slice” slot, it is typically in located towards the center. If the slots are numbered (left to right while facing the darkness dial), from 1 to 4 (assuming you have a 4 slot toaster), then the single slot is usually the second slot in from the left. My procedure has always been to insert the first slice into the single slice slot, and then the second slice into slot number 3 which is the slot to the right of the single slice slot. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with this. Actually, I originally assumed that it was pretty much standard procedure and that everyone did it that way. Boy was I wrong as I was duly informed by my family. At the very least, I was advised that there are several ways to insert the slices including the first slice into slot 2 (i.e. single slice slot), and then the second slice into slot 4!! To me that is just amazing. I have never tried that procedure, but in my mind it would lead to total failure with the toasting being totally unacceptable, with toast being either too dark, too light, or unevenly toasted. You ask me why I believe this and I tell you that it falls into the same category as believing that you HAVE to use the single slice slot for a single slice.

The real question moving forward is whether I will plow new ground by trying a single slice in other than the single slice slot, or even more daring, will I try multiple slices in some random order of insertion. This is going to require a lot of thought.

Speaking of thought, have you ever wondered why there are even toasters that have more than two slots? I mean, how do you even butter up more than two slices after they are toasted, without the slices getting too cold to melt the butter!

An interesting new product

2009-05-30T22:32:00.000-04:00

Anytime I travel in the motorhome I take an LCD projector with me. I do this for several reasons. First, I use the projector in my work to give seminars on electrical safety. Second, I use the projector for viewing my photos. Third I like to project movies on the side of my motorhome for friends and family to enjoy, and finally, once a year the group I camp with gets together to watch the Ohio State Buckeyes play the Penn State Nittany Lions and we use the projector to view the football game on a large screen.

I recently became aware of a new product on the market that attracted my interest. The Benq Joybee GP1 Mini Projector. On the surface this is a very clever tool, weighing in at 1.4 lbs. and fitting in the palm of your hand.

Anytime you can reduce the size and weight of the equipment you carry in your RV it is an advantage and this device showed a lot of promise in those areas so I got hold of one to see if it lives up to its promise and if it also provided an image suitable for the above uses.

Being a typical male, when I received my projector, I took it out of the box, plugged it in and fired it up without looking at any of the instructions. At first I was puzzled by the lack of tactile feedback from the control buttons on the top of the projector until I realized that the buttons are sensor type and there is an audible click when you "press" the button. Once I realized this, the control interface was very pleasant. The first thing I did was connect the projector to my computer to verify that I could use my powerpoint presentations. Benq provides a cable that plugs into the back of the projector an terminates at the other end with a USB plug and a set of RCA jacks. I plugged the USB connector into my computer and it quickly recognized the projector and my desktop screen appeared on the projected image. One thing I noticed very quickly was that there is no zoom adjustment and what you see is what you get as far as size is concerned. You do have a focus adjustment and there is a software keystone setting, but if the picture size is not right, you have to move the projector or the viewing screen.

Before I continue with my observations on the operation of the projector, it became obvious that one way they made the projector smaller is by moving the DC power supply out of the projector and putting it inline in the power cord. On my regular projector the power cord is just a power cord. On the Joybee, the cord has a fairly large "block" halfway up which is the DC power supply for the projector. You can see these differences in the photo above, and please don't misunderstand, I'm not complaining about this necessary component, just commenting about where it got put.

All in all, this device is a nice piece of equipment. I found it is necessary to use the included remote control in order to take advantage of features I need or want to use, particularly the direct reading USB port, but that is not a major problem.

When I was doing side by side comparisons with my original projector I noticed that the Benq device did not get very hot while my Optima was very hot. The side by side brightness on the screen was comparable.

I like this device and will be using it in my work. I would like to see them provide a carrying case for all the parts I need including the cords and cables. That would make use much more convenient. I'm thinking the ideal use for this projector is going to be when I make sales calls in a customer's office because it can be used with no other equipment and a USB jump drive loaded. I will also be using the projector in the motorhome to watch movies projected on a screen. This seems to be an ideal way to get large screen video without the investment in a big screen TV. Admittedly at about five hundred bucks the projector is pricey, but considering the life expectancy of the lamp is 20000 hrs. much of this might be made up in bulb replacement cost alone.

Black Licorice

2009-05-10T23:15:00.002-04:00

Hey, let's face it, I like black licorice! I'm not going to make any excuses because it is my favorite. Actually, I like all kinds of soft chewy candy including gummy bears, gummy worms, coke bottles, sour gummy worms, good and plenty, and even laffy taffy. My candy preference is really very limited when it comes to hard candy. I remember at Christmas time, at our house, we had some of both and when Christmas time was over, we always had to throw out those red and white minty things that stuck to the bottom of the serving dish because no one ever ate all of them, including me. Somehow there is a satisfaction associated with chewing candy that just isn't there with hard candy. Maybe it's because you can eat soft candy while hard candy you must crunch it or some other sort of barbaric activity. Yes, soft candy is the way to go, no doubt.

However, there is one very special soft candy that just can't be beat and that is chewy black licorice. Left on my own, with no restrictions, I can probably put away as much black licorice as anybody, probably more than is really good for me.

Actually, twizzlers (which is a brand name) don't contain true licorice, but are made to taste like licorice and are much less intense. Real licorice can actually work to raise your blood pressure while twizzlers won't have that effect. I prefer the taste of the real licorice but can pound down a bunch of twizzlers just as quickly.

I like eating gummy bears and all the rest, but for real pleasure, give me a bag of fresh, soft, chewy, real black licorice.

Swimming pool project

2009-04-27T10:59:00.009-04:00

Midnight on the intercoastal waterway!

It was a busy week, last week. Jr. had company and we spent a lot of time visiting with them, eating out and also taking a ride on the boat one night to dock at a really neat waterfront cabana with live entertainment.

Saturday Linda and I started repainting her parent's swimming pool. Neither of us had ever done anything like this so we relied on a local supply house for material and also the gentleman there gave us suggestions on how to apply the urethane based paint. Linda managed to actually get some paint on the pool in between painting her legs, her feet, her arms, her hands, her eyes, and other body parts. We think it turned out very nice and hope it will hold up when the water goes in.

Today is our last day here in Fl. We are packing up today and will leave here early tomorrow morning for N.C. I am hoping the motorhome remembers how to move and I hope I remember how to drive it. Time will tell.

We are encouraged in this move by the weather reports from home which were 85 and sunny over the weekend. Talking with Glenn and Janet over the weekend and apparently they are taking advantage of the nice weather to get work done on their motorhome. It sounds like things are progressing and we are hoping they will take their maiden voyage over Memorial Day weekend.

Last night was bath night for the pups and today is packing day for the motorhome. Somehow we got all this stuff in when we left Ohio and hopefully it won't be like Christmas morning where you can never get the stuff back into the box it came out of.

An old adventure......

2009-04-17T14:18:00.011-04:00

I'm kinda "dredging up" this old adventure due to "popular" demand. Sometimes it's the oldies that are the best. I kinda doubt that will be the case here but I will give it a try. Was that too negative? I'm sorry, I'll try to do better. :)

A couple of years ago, while planning a trip to Disney World in Florida, and while talking with my friend Jim, he mentioned that he would be at Disney before we left from Ohio, and during his stay in Florida, he was planning to drive to Blacksburg Va. for a Virginia Tech/Florida State football game. Further, Jim actually had an extra ticket. One thing led to another and we (Jim and I) ended up planning to meet in Blacksburg to attend the game. This was an interesting situation for several reasons and very complex arrangements went into the event. In addition, the way it played out, there was and interesting and humorous twist along the way.

Here is a little bit of the planning: Jim and his family traveled down to Disney in their motorhome, or actually Jim traveled and the family flew down to meet him when he arrived. Jim also towed his Jeep Liberty behind his motorhome. Meanwhile, Linda and her sister Rene' drove down to Florida in our Jeep, to visit with their Mom and Dad for a week. So, we have Jim, Donna, and Maddie at Disney world and Linda and Rene in Sarasota.

The day before the football game, I left Youngstown in the motorhome and drove to Blacksburg and Jim left Orlando in his Liberty to drive north to Blacksburg to meet me at the "Interstate Overnight RV Park" in Christiansburg Va. Planning ahead, Jim also brought his towbar with him in the Liberty so that we could tow it back to Orlando after the game. Jim and I met at the RV park Friday evening to spend the night, and then planned to attend the game on Saturday morning.

For those of you who don't know Jim, NO adventure with Jim is calm or normal. I'm sure I'll leave things out, but there was the issue with the tow bar in the parking lot where we had to literally hammer the tow bar into the hitch to get it properly attached. I was attending to this (in the dark) while Jim attended to Punky's needs. This, for Jim, took a GREAT deal of discipline as Jim is NOT a dog lover at all, preferring the feline over the canine. Of course that is a whole 'nuther story which we will leave for another time.

Then there was the thing with the shower room. Mind you, we are staying in my motorhome which has all the conveniences of home including a hot shower. For whatever reason, Jim chose to use the mostly inadequate campground shower room. Unfortunately for Jim he did not remember to take his shampoo with him and ended up washing his hair with bath soap. I won't even get into the "where I used it last and where he used it first" thing. Suffice to say that I have used bath soap on my hair and the results are less than wonderful.

Somehow we made it through the night and woke up on Saturday morning full of expectation for a great game. One minor problem, yes, it is Virginia, but it is also November and it is also COLD! Keeping in mind that we are on the way to a week in Florida and you can only imagine how poorly prepared we were for a cold football game. So, off to the RVers friend, Wally World, known to civilians as Wal*Mart, to acquire suitable attire for the frozen tundra. Remember that think about this being Virginia? Well apparently the local WM didn't realize it was November and had failed, for the most part, to anticipate the temperature, and their stock of winter garments showed that. Being desperate, we bought up two sets of insulated long johns, ear muffs and gloves, and hoped for the best. Personally I thought a down insulated parka was in order, but there wasn't a single one on the rack.

After this, Jim and I went to breakfast at the local Cracker Barrel, over Jim's protestations. I'm still not sure why Jim is averse to eating at CB, but I like it and that was that! We met up with my nephew Matt, who is my brother-in-law's wife's second son, and had a pleasant time getting caught up on things. Jim of course, was his usual effusive self, offending Matt withing 5 minutes after meeting him. But that is Jim and we love him despite his failings.

Well, time was fleeting and there was a game on the horizon so we made our way back to the campground to walk Punky and then don our newly acquired garments. Then we jumped into the Jeep and started down the road.

To understand what happened next, you almost have to know Jim a little better. I am fond of describing Jim this way, "he never lets the truth get in the way of a good story!" Meaning Jim is at his best, and seems most comfortable weaving a tall tale which he presents, with a straight face and sincere look, as being close to gospel truth. Most of the time it is harmless fun, but it is always a good idea to be on your toes when around Jim. Word to the wise, "be prepared!" Well, we jump into the car and head out to the game, and suddenly Jim shouts an expletive and announces, "I forgot the tickets!!!" I refer you to the above explanation to understand my response which was less than excited. Unfortunately, this was one of the few times I have known Jim to actually tell the truth. He had left the tickets back at the motorhome. So, we turned around and backtracked to Interstate Overnight RV park to fetch the necessary documents.

This we did and then drove to Pine Grove Elementary School where we picked up a shuttle bus to the game. Jim had done this before and assured me it was the best way to go. Unfortunately most of the folks on the shuttle were Hokie fans and our Florida State hats were a dead giveaway as to our leanings. Did I just use the word "dead"??? Yikes. Fortunately, most of the folks on the bus had not yet had a chance to become inebriated so the trip to the stadium was uneventful.

After arriving safely at the stadium we made our way passed the numerous turkey leg vendors and to our seats which were about 2 miles up in the stadium. The view was spectacular and a fresh breeze was blowing. Fortunately we were dressed in our newly acquired duds. Unfortunately, the wind took that as a challenge and even more unfortunately, the wind appeared to be winning the battle. Standing around corners or next to a wall didn't help and I gradually lost the feeling in my fingers and toes. Luckily the game started and there was a distraction from our pain.

On a more positive note, the spectacle of the game and all it's trapping was well worth the suffering. Unfortunately for Jim, FSU lost big time and the Hokies went on to win for old alma mater. We managed to stiffly limp down the steps to the bus and returned to the school where we climbed into our car and drove to the campground. We disconnected the camper umbilicals, connected the car and headed south to Florida.

There was more, but I will leave that for another time. Till then, thanks Jim for a good time.

Our family, Florida, golf outing.

2009-04-15T09:49:00.008-04:00

Trying to catch up here. Monday this week dawned as a beautiful day with blue skies and a warm breeze. During dinner on Sunday we had discussed going golfing to take advantage of the weather and thus we did. We first went to grandma and grandpa's house to pick up grandpa, then off to Larry Jr.'s house to get him. Then to the golf course for our 1:07 tee time. Grandpa was driving Larry's cart and Linda was driving mine. About half way through the game Larry had convinced grandpa to try his hand at the game. What you need to know is that grandpa, in his prime, was a scratch golfer, meaning he would play a game and finish right at par for the course. Grandpa has not been on a golf course for about 38 years so it took some convincing just to get him out of his easy chair, but when he had the club in his hand, it was just like old times.

After selecting his club, Grandpa stepped up to the tee and clobbered the ball about 250 yards down the fairway. Ok, maybe that was an exageration, but still not bad for an 86year old who hadn't golfed in 38 years.

All in all, the outing was a success and we had a great time. Just a word of caution: when playing on a course in Florida, it is probably a good idea to avoid water. While this is true for most golf courses, it is particularly true in Florida. Further, if you happen to hit your ball into the water, my advice, leave it there and let Al the Alligator have it!!

What has happened to all the good professions?

2009-04-14T11:38:00.001-04:00

For just a brief minute, I am going to get on my soapbox and do a little preaching here. Please forgive me this moment of self-indulgence and then I will return shortly to my normal, cheerful self!

Many years ago, when I was young, I was taught to respect certain people because of their position. These people included our family doctor, the local policeman, the minister at our church, and of course, our school teacher. These people were looked up to in our community. They held positions of responsibility and in some cases, authority and when you encountered one of them, you greeted them in a respectful manner and treated them as you had been taught to by your parents.

The family doctor’s opinion was always listened to and his advice was followed, even if it had nothing to do with medicine. Policemen were addressed as “yes sir” and their instructions were followed without question. If they made suggestions, you listened and reacted accordingly. Our minister was respected for his position and his word carried a great deal of importance to our lives. Teachers! What can I say about teachers? Teachers were looked up to and in some cases revered. Their word was law and they commanded respect in and out of the classroom. Woe to the poor student who foolishly chose to transgress a teacher’s path for a swift trip to the office would result, along with a similar fate when arriving home from school.

This brings up another disrespected profession, that of parenting. We were raised in an environment where we simultaneously loved, respected and feared our parents and what they said commanded immediate action.

Fast forward 20-30-40 years to the present and ask yourself where is that respect of long ago and is it still deserved? Visit a doctor’s office and you will probably encounter a receptionist who does everything in her power to shield you from seeing the doctor. Instead you will be handled by a series of supposed medical professionals, none of which went to medical school, and most of which are aloof and detached from your personal situation. If you are fortunate enough to actually see the doctor, it is in your status as a number and certainly not for more than 5 minutes.

I will concede that there are probably a great number of policemen in uniform who perform their duties in a professional manner however, there is a malaise of corruption which pervades police departments and which is splashed across our TV screens seemingly on a daily basis with stories of dishonest cops. There is no personal relationship with police and very little if any respect.

There is so much negative news about churches and religion that it is difficult to find any respect left in our society for ministers. Churches have generally failed to provide the necessary moral leadership for our society and as a result we see a general decline in morality among our citizens, particularly young people who have been raised in this era of no respect. Add to this the frequent stories about ministers who have affairs with members of the congregation, or run off with the offering and this guiding light of our society has gone dim.

The sad situation that exists in our schools today is well documented in the news media. Witness how they grab onto every new story about yet another teacher who has a sordid love affair with a student and the resulting loss of respect throughout the country for the entire teaching profession.

Finally we have to look at parents and adults in general, and what we see is a sad picture. All too often the sad truth is that adults are far more concerned about their own well being at the expense of their children. There is little or no discipline exercised, and many parents believe the best way to raise their children is to give them everything they want and the children will somehow find their own way to adulthood. Just don’t bother mom and dad as they are busy enjoying life.

Life seemed to be a lot simpler back in “the good old days”. I liked doctors you could see, talk with, and trust. I respected policemen who were honest. I honored ministers whose lives you could follow and whose word presented truth. I learned from teachers whose presence in the classroom commanded respect and attention. And I loved and honored my parents for the lives and examples they lived.

We need to return to those lost values and resurrect professions and professionals with whom we can invest our trust.

A little bit more Webster

2009-04-09T11:45:00.001-04:00

Webster has been working on his soccer dribbling skills and he can now block out his sister Kassy and dribble around her. We're thinking a contract with some european club may be in the offing soon!!

2009-04-07T20:28:00.001-04:00

You have to look closely at this one. I took this about a mile from where we are staying and was fascinated that the state of Florida would be this elaborate with traffic controls leading from a dumpster. Notice the stop sign at the "end" of the road. I wonder if they get a lot of traffic coming from that particular dumpster?? But....at least after you drop off your trash, you have the choice of turning right or going straight ahead!

You may have to use your imagination on this one and I actually had several people say, "is that how you spell it?" Suffice to say that I no longer have to ask, "can you show me how to get, how to get to...........", because I have actually been there, and now I know the way, and I can show you.........."how to get to Sesame St."

By the way, if you are interested, it is in North Port Florida.

Attention span, Kassy

2009-04-06T09:32:00.013-04:00

We have been spending time with Linda's mom and dad while we are here in sunny Florida and some of those times we take our pups with us because it gives them the opportunity to run free in the the fenced in back yard. During these times, Kassy has discovered the little lizards that are everywhere here in Florida.

They crawl on the window screens and they crawl on the fence and on the trees. I'm told they are harmless and they are fun to watch as they skitter up and down.

Anyway, Kassy has become aware of these little guys and is fascinated by them to almost to the point obsession and her attention span while observing them is close to amazing. She has discovered that by sitting on a wicker box located on the back porch of mom and dad's house that she has a strategiv view of the entire back yard, including the fence and the grapefruit trees. Naturally her perch includes an excellent view of the screens that enclose the back porch. All of these are target rich environments for lizard viewing and Kassy has taken to sitting for what seems like hours, watching for her buddies to appear. When that happens, she gleefully announces to all the world that the lizards have arrived by yelping excitedly. This, of course, is time for dad or mom to step in and quiet her down. This goes on pretty much for the entire time we are visiting with grandma and grandpa.

There is, however, at least one lizard we strongly encourage Kassy to avoid irritating and that would be the 6 ft. alligator who recently went gliding by our campsite in the lake. I spoke softly to Mr. Alligator and encouraged him to just keep going. Hopefully he did as I asked. I've heard the attention span of alligators is fairly short.

Our family

2009-04-01T21:09:00.004-04:00

One of the great things about this trip to Florida is being able to spend time with family, including my brother-in-law, Rik, and sister-in-law, Rene, and their family. We were fortunate to have them all here last week and we had some excellent events including a couple of really good meals at Larry and Krista's house, Linda's chicken paprikash at Mom and Dad's, a really good tenderloin at Larry's that was grilled by Chef Rik, and some good times at various restaurants. Of course there were the usual projects including new carpeting, an outlet repair, and several odds and ends to deal with. All in all, you can't beat this group for fun, pleasant conversation, and genuine caring and affection. Thank you Lord for my family.

high flight

2009-04-01T10:02:00.004-04:00

Came across this while surfing the web and thought I would share it with you all. This is an old TV station signoff video, before they were called videos! :) By the way, turn up the sound.

Perspective and proportion

2009-03-31T09:07:00.005-04:00

Now double that. And add $170 Billion. That's the price tag of the bailout...

Sometimes we just have to put things into the proper perspective in order to view them properly.

Is this just my problem??

2009-03-25T09:08:00.001-04:00

There is something I don’t understand and I’m hoping someone can explain it to me. I guess you could call this complaining, or maybe it is just this compulsion I have to make the world a perfect place when it comes to all the little things in life. I recognize I don’t have any influence on the big things and have relegated myself to working on the small stuff and letting the important people take care of the big stuff.

But I digress. I had started to talk about one of those little, annoying things we seem to run into in this world that defy reason, briefly annoy us, and then we move on with absolutely no progress being made to correct the offending action.

Ok, so what am I talking about? It’s magazines, or more specifically magazine page numbers. What could possibly be wrong with magazine page numbers you ask? Ok, take a typical magazine, just about any magazine, and look at the contents in the front of the magazine. Wait, let me digress for just a brief moment here to talk about something else that bothers me. Question: were you actually able to locate the contents of the magazine? In a great number of magazines I read, the contents are cleverly hidden after several pages of ads in the front and then the contents are spread out in such a way as to allow even more ads to intersperse into the contents. It becomes a chore just to find and read the contents.

Ok, that digression is over and we will move on. Let’s say you have succeeded in locating the contents with all the promise of fascinating articles with Pulitzer Prize level of journalism. You wade through the contents and actually locate the article you want to read and, sure enough, the table of contents dutifully lists the page number in the magazine where the article appears.

But wait, before we proceed, there is one other thing we need to discuss. One other minor item regarding magazines and the table of contents. Have you ever picked up a magazine, looked at the cover, and became interested in the cover article, only to turn to the table of contents to locate the article in the magazine, only to find the article was missing, or cleverly hidden under a totally different or unrelated name than the one listed on the cover? I would like that one explained to me also.

Ok, let’s get back to the original rant if we can only remember where we were. (Actually, I’m the one who has to remember. If you are reading this, all you have to do is start at the beginning and refresh your memory. If you get to this point in the article a second time, just skip this section and move on because you are caught in an endless “writer’s” loop.) We had located the article we were interested in reading in the table of contents and checked the contents listing for the page number of the article. Then we turn to the listed page and read the article. But…….where is the page? I mean the article is supposed to begin on page 37, and we try to turn to page 37, but there doesn’t seem to be a “page number 37”!! Oh, there is probably a 37th page no doubt and it is physically located after the 36th page in the magazine, but there is no actual page number on the 37th page nor is there an actual page number 36 to help guide us. In fact, better than half the pages don’t have page numbers on them so we are left to find a page number somewhere in the magazine, totally unrelated to our chosen article, and then begin the arduous process of counting the subsequent pages until we reach our destination. Why can’t they simply number ALL the pages? Is ink that expensive that they can’t afford to print the page numbers? I don’t think so. It is just simple laziness on the part of whoever does the page layout. I realize it has to get really boring typing in all those consecutive numbers. Either that or there is a more personal aim here and the guy just wants to annoy all of the readers of the magazine.

My problems are two: first, am I the only one who notices this or is bothered by it? I certainly hope not or I’m going to feel really lonely out here, blathering endlessly about what every other person in the world either doesn’t notice, or doesn’t consider to be a problem. And second: what can be done about it? Are there enough of you OCD types out there who really care about problems like this or am I left standing here, all alone to fight the good fight, to right all the wrongs of the world, at least all the ones small enough for me to be concerned with.

Don't you all even try and act like you already knew this!!

2009-03-24T08:29:00.000-04:00

I can’t take credit for this one, it was forwarded to me by my sister-in-law. However, I do appreciate the new awareness.

Don't you all even try and act like you all ready knew this either.I had to go into the kitchen and check this out for myself. Whoever looks at the end of your aluminum foil box? You know when you try to pull some foil out and the roll comes out of the box. Then you have to put the roll back in the box and start over. The darn roll always comes out at the wrong time.Well, I would like to share this with you. Yesterday I went to throw out an empty Reynolds foil box and for some reason I turned it and looked at the end of the box. And written on the end it said, Press here to lock end. Right there on the end of the box is a tab to lock the roll in place. How long has this little locking tab been there? I then looked at a generic brand of aluminum foil and it had one, too. I then looked at a box of Saran wrap and it had one too! I can't count the number of times the Saran wrap roll has jumped out when I was trying to cover something up.I'm sharing this with my friends. I hope I'm not the only person that didn't know about this.

A couple more photos

2009-03-20T10:57:00.004-04:00

Today I have uploaded a couple more photos of the shuttle launch showing the smoke trail left by the shuttle and the solid rocket boosters, including right after separation of the boosters. Sinc e the launch took place shortly after sunset and since we were looking towards the east, the setting sun, reflecting off the smoke trail, lent a particularly spectacular glow to the trail. The people in this photo are my SIL and BIL, gazing at the smoke trail, while a palm tree waves in the breeze.

As I am writing this I am watching NASA TV and their coverage of the deployment of the new solar panel on the ISS. Thus far everything seems to be going well.

I am still trying to find time to transfer my videos over to the computer and hope to have that done shortly. It has been a busy week, what with supervising the install of carpet over at Mom and Dad's house, and then taking Linda to the Dr. office yesterday. I think all the pressing issues have been cleared up and hopefully we can get back to a normal schedule soon. This retirement thing is hectic and I need a lot of rest to keep up with all the demands! :)

Today is Friday and it is the first day of spring. Believe it or not, this isn't a major event here in Florida! Up north we live for this day, and it's promise of warmth and flowers. In Florida, it is just another warm, sunny day. Hohum!! :)

We have several potential pastimes this coming weekend and don't know which of them will actually happen but stay tuned for an update. You never know what excitement we will be involved in.

Later

Spectacular launch STS 119

2009-03-16T14:54:00.004-04:00

I'm not going to make a long post today, simply because my brain is fried and still recovering from yesterday's events. The trip to the shuttle launch was great and the actual launch was spectacular. If there is any chance at all that any of you can make a personal trip to Kennedy Space Center to witness a launch, I highly recommend it. However, do NOT try to leave the area around there the same day, it is a disaster!

Above are three photos I took as the shuttle engines ignited and the orbiter began to lift off. We are able to see the shuttle even after it was over 400 miles down range! What an amazing experience. I have more photos and some video which I will get to as soon as possible.

By the way, here is a list of the remaining shuttle launches, scheduled into 2010. Get busy making your travel plans soon!!

Feb. 12, 2009 — Discovery (STS-119/15A) will kick off a five-flight 2009 by delivering the final pair of U.S. solar arrays to the space station.

May 15, 2009 — Endeavour (STS-127/2JA) will set sail with the final permanent components for the Japanese Kibo Laboratory on the space station.

July 30, 2009 — Atlantis (STS-128/17A) will launch carrying science and storage racks to the space station.

Oct. 15, 2009 — Discovery (STS-129/ULF-3) will place spare components outside the space station.

Dec. 10, 2009 — Endeavour (STS-130/20A) will close 2009 by delivering the final connecting node, Node 3, and the Cupola, a robotic control station that provides a 360-degree view around the station.

Feb. 11, 2010 — Atlantis (STS-131/19A) begins the first flight in 2010, carrying a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module filled with science racks for the laboratories of the station.

April 8, 2010 — Discovery (STS-132/ULF-4) will carry an integrated cargo carrier to deliver maintenance and assembly hardware, including spare parts for space station systems.

May 31, 2010 — Endeavour (STS-133/ULF-5) will carry critical spare components that will be placed on the outside of the station.

An excellent adventure.

2009-03-13T09:14:00.002-04:00

I have been busy lately and my blog posts have suffered, not because there is nothing to write about, but because there is TOO MUCH!!!

In the last week we had the opportunity to go out on the gulf in Larry's boat. This was fun and exciting. Then a day later, we also helped Larry move his boat into a "rackominium". This is a place where they store your boat inside a building where there are huge racks to set the boat on. The rackominium company uses this huge forklift to snatch the boat out of the water and carry it into the building where it lifts the boat up onto the rack for storage. When you want to go out on the water, you call ahead and when you arrive at the dock, your boat is in the water, ready to go. Really a neat concept which also protects your boat from the elements. Unfortunately, this project came up rather suddenly and I didn't have time to get my camera. Next time we are at the rackominium, I will take pictures.

Today we have some running around to do and then the day will unfold. I will try to post some updates later on the status of the shuttle launch which is now scheduled for this coming weekend.

RV awnings

2009-03-09T09:11:00.005-04:00

A typical recreational vehicle (RV) comes equipped with an awning which can be deployed by the RVer to provide a degree of protection from the prevailing weather, either sun or rain. Generally these awnings are attached to the side of the RV and are constructed to provide for ease of deployment/retraction and storage.As a rule, the RV travels down the highway with the awning attached to the side of the RV in the retracted position. Of necessity, the typical RV awning is constructed from lightweight material to reduce weight. For this reason and to introduce adjustability and strength, the construction of the typical RV awning is an assembly of arms, latches, slides, and various adjustments. Because of this the typical RV awning is strong enough to provide the desired protection, but it is not designed to withstand another force of nature, namely wind! If you have your awning deployed during a strong wind, there is a very good chance it will be damaged, typically by wrapping itself around itself and up over the top of the RV to which it is attached. Because of this typical awning wind damage also introduces a bit of associated RV damage, both to the attachment points and even to the roof and sidewalls where the arms come crashing into the RV.

It goes without saying that you need to give some consideration to the condition of your awning if you are aware that a strong wind is imminent. That consideration should include whether your awning is deployed or retracted and if deployed, is it attached to a fixed object such that the awning will not be damaged by the expected winds. In addition, any potential damage can happen in the blink of an eye, even when you are least expecting it. For this reason, it is not a good idea to have a short attention span when your awning is deployed and there is a strong wind blowing. Better to take the time to retract the awning and then move on to other activities.

If your attention span has kept you reading this far, you may wonder why I have photos of the space shuttle and the crew. Well, this weekend I got confirmation from a campground over on the east coast that I have a site reserved for this coming Wednesday night. The campground is about 5 miles from Kennedy Space Center, and I will be able to watch the shuttle launch from our campsite. Launch is scheduled for Wednesday at 9:20 PM. The shuttle crew flew from Houston Sunday and arrived at Kennedy at 2:45 PM. Here's hoping the launch will go off as scheduled and I will have photos to post later this week!

why did the chicken cross the road.......quickly??

2009-03-06T07:56:00.001-05:00

I am probably safe in saying that the vast majority of Americans drive to wherever they need to go. Granted they may walk a little when they arrive, but in general, the first step in any journey is picking up the car keys. Since we spend so much time driving, and so little time walking, it occurs to me that we (myself included) are losing the ability to cross roads, primarily busy roads. I realized this a while back, when I had to cross the street separating my business location from the auto repair shop “over there” on the other side. My wife’s car was in for repair and when it was finished I walked over to pick it up and recognized how little recent practice I have had crossing streets and how much I had to focus on the task at hand. The road is two lanes and normally quite busy from both directions. That day was no exception. I had to look left, then right, then left again until it was clear. As I started across the street I realized that it takes a really looooong time to walk across a busy street. You have to see the oncoming traffic, judge their speed and calculate how long you have to make it across, not to mention the possibility that I might trip and fall. Yikes!! Why am I even doing this??? Granted, I reached the other side and retrieved my wife’s car and DROVE it back across. Based on this hair-raising experience, I can now understand why we drive places. Whatever you do, don’t forget the attention span that is required to cross a road.

2009-03-04T07:55:00.005-05:00

I lost an old friend yesterday. Sad to say, one of my favorite jeans finally became too shabby for even me to wear. As I was sitting at my computer yesterday the top of the left leg unilaterally parted from the bottom of the leg, as I was sitting there watching!!! Later in the day, a similar situation happened with the right leg. It was as if there was some kind of vast left leg conspiricy concocted against me, that the right leg was dupped into joining. Hey don't laugh, it happens!! Anyway, this particular pair of jeans had a lot of history with me, as do many of your jeans I'm certain. Understand, I am not a very imaginative person. I know what kind of jeans fit me and when I need a new pair of jeans, I go to the same store I went to last time, and buy the same brand, size and style I bought last time. This procedure requires no thought, no planning, no effort, and most of all, does not require me to disrobe in the store's changing booth, a process I rank up there on the "unpleasantness factor", with the my last root canal! However, this particular pair of jeans was different. It was not Levi's 505, medium cut, straight leg, 32w, 30l, but rather it was a pair of those trendy jeans with all the pockets sewed onto the butt and the legs, and with a loop on the side, ostensibly I assume, to carry my hammer. I have had this particular pair of jeans for several years now and originally received them from my son Larry Jr. as a Christmas present. I seem to recall this was his attempt to get dad to dress up to the times. I have to admit that early on, I didn't like the jeans because they were "different". However, as time went on, I grew attached to them and developed a fondness towards them which now causes me a great deal of sadness to see them depart. I tried a while ago to patch the jeans with iron on patch material from JoAnn, but the holes kept appearing and the fabric kept disappearing until it just got to the point of diminishing returns.

And so today, March 4, 2009, we celebrate the passing of my jeans, my different jeans. Today, I am wearing a brand new pair of jeans. These are Levi's 505 jeans and are made from a bright blue jeans material. They are stiff, but they fit and with time will develop the character that old, comfortable jeans develop, but they will never take the place of my "different" jeans. They don't have the hammer loop on the leg!

Vulnerability

2009-03-03T09:18:00.003-05:00

I like Sally Field as an actress. I am old enough to remember Gidget movies, and the flying nun. Ms. Field is cute, perky and talented, having won two oscars. What makes her stand out in my mind is her willingness to publically express her vulnerability in front of her peers at the oscar ceremony in 1984. In her speech she said, "I haven't had an orthodox career, and I've wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn't feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!" This was a very vulnerable moment for her and many media figures made fun of her for expressing herself in such a manner.

It a similar way, we put ourselves out there for public ridicule when we post on the internet. Sometimes the scorn and ridicule is made worse because those heaping the scorn are protected by the anonymity provided by the internet.

In some ways, the internet is an amazing source of information. You want to learn about ANYTHING? Just type it into your favorite search engine and within .00093 seconds, you have 2,367,000 results! In other ways the internet has opened up a window on our collective soul that often reveals a darker side of human nature. Further, if you are willing to put yourself out on the internet in a vulnerable way, that darker side of human nature is able to attack or embarrass you by exploiting that vulnerability. It is a shame that some internet users rely on this curtain of privacy as this makes being honest a more difficult option. One must always be on the lookout for internet bullies when posting personal information or feelings. But consider that Ms. Field survived and is doing well despite the ridicule to which she was subjected. Regardless, the internet, good or bad, is here to stay.

Back to work

2009-03-02T09:12:00.003-05:00

Wow, it's been a long weekend here on the suncoast, but it's Monday morning and we are back to work here so the rest of you can relax! The weekend started out on Friday with a birthday party for Mom Hodson. I will be politically correct and not reveal her age, I just hope I am doing that well when/if I reach it.

We had a good time visiting with mom and dad, eating chinese food plus the birthday cake, then finished the evening splitting two games of 500.

Saturday Linda went to St. Pete with Larry Jr. and Krista to check out a strawberry festival. the reviews I heard were not great, but Linda got a chance to do a little walking and apparently it went well. I stayed home to work on the screen room and got things set up just in time for the 35 mph winds to knock everything down so the rain could get in and soak everything. :(

Sunday was very windy with rain so we spent most of the day inside watching TV. In the afternoon we went over to Larry's to watch the race. The pups got a bath so they would look nice for their visit to their cousins house. The pups played the whole time we watched the race and then slept soundly all night. If you watch nascar at all you will know that Kyle Busch crossed the finish line first! :(

Today the wind is still blowing, but the sun is shining and we are expecting 80 by the end of the week. :) We will try to get the screen room put back together and then get going on some other projects. Busy, busy, busy!

more attention span

2009-02-27T08:24:00.003-05:00

My normal morning proceedure is to get up, turn on the coffee maker, take the puppies for their morning walk, turn on the TV to Fox news, and then sit at my computer to get caught up with what's happening in cyberspace. Part of that is to create the day's blog post. Of course there is always pressure to make the blog informative and entertaining, and hopefully educational as well. After all, if we don't learn, we don't progress, which brings to mind one of my favorite lines, "if the opposite of "pro" is "con", what is the opposite of "progress"?? ( http://www.instantrimshot.com/ )

Ok, moving on, while sitting here, and watching the news, Geraldo mentioned that we as a nation have a short attention span, when it comes to national politics. I think he was referring to our lack of ability to remember what our national leaders do in the conduct of their jobs, particularly when we go to the polls, thus confirming that my favorite malady affects our national politics as well.

On a totally different subject, it is right now, ten degrees BELOW zero in Bismark N.D.!!! Why does anyone live there? I can't figure it out when they could be here in the beautiful sunshine.

But, we digress (another symptom) from our rambling ruminations. (Look that one up!!) It is Friday and we need to plan out the weekend. The weather forecast may not cooperate with waxing the motorhome so we may just curl up around a good book.

One final thought on a Fox news bit: they were just talking about a new phenomena appearing in the Florida real estate market known as "home managers". As I understand it, a home manager is hired to live in a home which is for sale in the very depressed Florida market. The reason being that a lived in home typically sells more quickly and for a higher price than an empty one. The home manager typically pays the utilities and about 30% of the going rent which is cheap for the property they are living in. Down side is that you never know when you are going to have to move. Thus.........yep, you guessed it, have a short attention span and all is well.

Shifting gears

2009-02-26T07:57:00.003-05:00

Today we're going to shift gears and spend some time pondering a recent event that has captured the imagination of much of our country. I'm talking about what has been dubbed, "the miracle on the hudson", or more specifically the crash of U.S. Airways flt 1549 on January 15. You don't have to be a pilot to appreciate what the crew of this flight accomplished that day, and much has been written about the event. In this age of ego and "me first", it is refreshing to listen to the pilot, Chesley Sullenberger, testify and describe the event. In my mind, Sully is the kind of guy I would like my kids to have as a hero. He is obviously an accomplished pilot, but he is also modest. A combination seldom found in the aviation business. Sully has also demonstrated a keen insight, both of himself and the aviation industry. I don't know what his politics are, but I wish more people like Sully would get into the political arena. It is certainly easy to see why this event has impressed the public so much. First, it had a happy ending with no lives being lost. Second, the main character is so likeable, and so capable and modest. I have no doubt the story will be made into a movie soon and I hope Hollywood gets this one right, no "superheros", just a super hero.

What prompted me to write this was that this morning I received the attached photos from a street in E. Rutherford N.J., in an email from a friend and wanted to share them with you. Just imagine waking up to an airplane driving down your street! Pretty impressive. I wonder if this one will end up on NatGeo and Mega Movers?

An update.......

2009-02-25T10:47:00.008-05:00

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2009. I’m sure most of you already know that, but I have to put it in for my benefit! Today I’m planning to kind of sum up our stay here at Encore Campground in beautiful Bradenton Florida. We arrived here about the middle of the month. We set up the essentials including electric, sewer and water and then settled in to wait out the existing cold weather. Now I know I will be subjecting myself to criticism for talking about cold weather when it really wasn’t cold compared to the weather our family and friends are experiencing up north. I recognize this and the only defense I can propose is that our reaction to the weather is a relative thing which is framed by our expectations for Florida. Psychologically we expected sunny skies, and mid 70s when we got here. Instead we got low 60s for highs and sometimes it was down to below freezing at night. When you add to that the winds, it was a pretty miserable experience. Keep in mind that a camper can get really, really small when it is cold outside and you might be able to imagine our state of mind.

Not to belabor that point, let’s move on. The weather here has gotten better and we typically have mid 70s and sunny during the day and mid 50s at night. This is certainly a LOT better than what we have had. Again, I am not minimizing the miserable conditions up north, and I feel badly for those folks and what they are going through.

During the several weeks we have been here, I have been busy taking care of some maintenance items on the motorhome. I had to rebuild the commode to eliminate a bad gasket. I will leave it to your imagination to determine how important that one was. I also fixed a shower head hook, am working on the icemaker, replaced a broken basement door latch and did some cleaning on the exterior. The porch light was burnt out and when we first got here the chassis batteries were bad so I got new ones and replaced them. Additionally we got a screen room to install outside to add to our living space and I am in the process of installing that. I also had to beef up the bracing on the picnic table here on our site so we would feel safe sitting on it.

Shortly after we arrived here I noticed the front brakes on the Jeep were very hot and even smoking. The next day I noticed that the transmission was leaking fluid and finally the steering was, to put it mildly, scarey! So, it was off to the repair shop to have things corrected. Now, before you start “tsk, tsking” me, everything described above was stuff I had fixed just before we left for Florida. Now I had to get it fixed again. The repair shop had our car for three days and when I picked it up the steering was still not right so it was back to the repair shop for another day. Finally it was close enough that I was able to adjust the toe-in myself and I finally have a car I feel safe driving.

Now, we don’t want to forget about the puppies. As anyone who knows us will attest, we love our pups, and value their company. However, shortly after we got here, Larry Jr. noticed they were showing signs of the return of the giardia parasite they had when we first got them. So it was off to the vet for more treatment. That seems to have gone away now, thanks to the medication.

Of course we can’t forget about Linda’s knee. A while back she tore some cartilage in her left knee and it was not responding to treatment and was quite painful. So, Larry jr. introduced us to a local orthopedic surgeon he works with and Linda scheduled her arthroscopic surgery for last Wednesday. Unfortunately her progress hasn’t been smooth and we went back to the Dr. yesterday for a recheck. Linda is having a lot of pain and some other problems but we are hoping that it is just a matter of time before she is doing a jig as she runs around the campground.

I don’t mean to complain, and please don’t take it as complaining. I just wanted to get everyone up to date on happenings in our little family.

On a bright side, our campground here is beautiful and I have included some photos to show that here. We are enjoying the time we get to spend with Larry and Krista and their pups, and also the time we spend with Mom and Dad Hodson.

We will get back to more pleasant topics tomorrow, and in the meantime, here are some photos for those who prefer visual input!

Attention span: Goldfish

2009-02-24T19:30:00.003-05:00

While I was researching my book about attention span, it became apparent that there is a fairly large sub-culture that exists which concerns itself with the attention span of goldfish! Yep, it’s the truth. Don’t believe me, check it out!

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/bscienceb-schoolboy-bowls-over-goldfish-memory-myth/2008/02/18/1203190696599.html

There are actually groups of people who have done studies to determine the attention span of goldfish, developing elaborate scientific experiments to determine said attention span. As best I can determine, the results of these experiments and studies have concluded that indeed, goldfish DO have an attention span and as near as they can determine, it is about 4 seconds.

Now, I don’t have a problem with this. If that’s what they determined, so be it. Actually, I can’t dispute it because I don’t want to go to the trouble of checking it out myself to see if it’s accurate. Besides, what are the real consequences of an inaccurate measure of a goldfish’s attention span? I don’t see it creating havoc on the highways, or resulting in some foreign war being fought. So, I will accept what I hear and move on.

Except…….I really have to wonder if there isn’t some better, more useful and productive activity these folks could involve themselves in, better than attempting to determine the attention span of goldfish.

And finally, we have a very nice video of our puppies playing with their Florida "cousins" DJ and Kasey Kahne. Talk about attention span.......................

Attention span Feb. 20, 2009

2009-02-20T09:20:00.000-05:00

It occurred to me that in order to write anything at all about a subject, one should be somewhat familiar with the subject. In the case of attention span, it would probably be a good idea to have an attention span. However, if the subject focuses on a short attention span, it might be helpful to have a short attention span. Now, psychologists tell us that a persons attention span generally increases as the person grows up, with estimates of 3 to 5 minutes for each year of age, which probably means I am about 3 years old, despite my outward appearance, and the fact I recently started receiving social security.

In order to resolve this conflict, I resorted to the good old standby of testing, and found an “attention span” test on the internet. If you are interested, here is the link:

http://psychologytoday.psychtests.com/cgi-bin/health/transfer_health.cgi?partner=pt&test=attention

I scored a 56 out of 100, which I guess indicates I’m a little above average, which doesn’t say a whole lot about the rest of you. However, if you have managed to stay with me this far, you aren’t doing too badly. If you are concerned about your attention span and want to do something about it, there are exercises you can do to improve it. I’m told this only works on single men as married men are too far gone and their attention span has attritted beyond hope.

Webster

2009-02-19T08:44:00.002-05:00

Webster is my puppy. Webster is a West Highland white terrier who, at the time I wrote this, was 8 months old. Now I ask you, what better topic is there to include in a book titled “Attention span”, than an 8 month old terrier? Talk about short!! Maybe non-existent. Actually there is one thing that manages to hold his attention for more than the famous “New York Minute”, and that is food. I mean this puppy defines the phrase chow-hound. You name it, he has eaten it. Sticks, twigs, bugs, small birds, toads, and other sources of non-traditional protein are all on his menu. Despite his proclivity for unusual dinner fare, Webster is loved by me and Linda and his antics make us laugh. Attention span? I don’t think so. One white bundle of fun? Absolutely!!

Attention span

2009-02-18T10:23:00.000-05:00

I’ve always wanted to write a book, but the biggest problem I’ve had thus far is coming up with a theme or idea that would last long enough to be a book, and of course, make it a giantic best seller. I have really, really great ideas, but they only last about 2 to 3 minutes. Then I forget them or give up on them. So, one day, while driving along in our motorhome I decided to write a book consisting of a bunch of short ideas, events, stories, and philosophies. I plan to call the book “attention span”. The book may be long, the stories however, will be short, just like my attention span. Since I have this blog going, I am going to experiment here with some of my attention span ideas. Every once in a while, the concept of attention span hits me as I travel through life. When it hits me, I will try to share it here with you. Stay tuned, if you have a long enough attention span……………

Get to know the PDGA!

2009-02-16T10:13:00.004-05:00

Ok, study subject of the day is the PDGA, otherwise known as the Professional Disc Golf Association. If you clicked on the videos above, you have some idea what I am talking about. We had the opportunity this weekend to play some disc golf and found it to be interesting and a source of good exercise. Some of you might have heard of disc golf by another name as it is commonly refered to as "frisbee golf". However, since frisbee is a copyrighted name, it cannot be applied to this sport without permission. So, someone designed discs which are very similar to frisbees and markets them to be used on a public area set up as a disc golf course. This is a very elaborate proceedure since there are discs for every purpose on the course, similar to a bag of golf clubs. There are distance drivers, fairway discs, and even putter discs. The "holes" if you will, are actually elaborate contrivances consisting of a tray, over which there is mounted an assemble of chain link strands. The chains serve to absorb the energy of the disc when it arrives at the hole, causing the disc to drop into the tray, thus completing the hole. Strokes or slings of the disc are counted as in golf with all holes being a par 3. As I said, good exercise and the price is right, free.

My studies led me to the PDGA website, http://www.pdga.com/, which explains the rules and proceedures of the game. In addition, there is a list of disc courses throughout the USA. I found it remarkable that there are soooooo many of these courses around. Until recently I didn't even know they existed. If you have been paying attention to the news you may have heard that part of the new federal stimulus bill, just passed by congress, included funds for construction of at least one such course. Apparently congress is ahead of me on this one. :)

Just one more subject to add to your storehouse of knowledge.

The Question Ends Here

2009-02-12T08:43:00.003-05:00

The following dissertation is from http://incompetech.com/gallimaufry/care_less.html and covers a topic of great concern to me. I have had this discussion with some of my more erudite friends and despite the evidence at hand, there are "some" who still disagree with me about this.

"I could care less" vs. "I couldn't care less"

When one usually states "I could care less", they usually mean "I could not care less". [e.g. "I could care less about linguistics."]
In order for one to "care less" about a subject, they must first care about it somewhat. Saying "I could care less about ... " does indeed imply, nay dictate, that there is some degree of care.
I've put together a handy chart to help visualize...

And so, I'm certain this should be the final discussion regarding this subject. As the title suggests, "The Question Ends Here". But there are some stubborn individuals who will continue to say it wrong. But, you know what? I couldn't care less! And I mean that!

Settling in

2009-02-11T11:15:00.004-05:00

I think I am beginning to comprehend the meaning of the phrase, "settling in", as it applies to retirement living. Mind you, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a difficult adjustment. I mentioned a few days ago about the difficulty in keeping track of how long I have been retired, albiet somewhat tongue in cheek. (BTW, this is from Wikipedia: Tongue-in-cheek is a term used to refer to humor in which a statement, or an entire fictional work, is not meant to be taken seriously, but its lack of seriousness is subtle. The origin of its usage comes from when Spanish minstrels would perform for various dukes in the 18th century; these dukes would silently chastise the silliness of the minstrel's performances by placing their tongue firmly to the side of their cheek.)

Anyway, the settling in process includes the somewhat difficult attempts to keep track of time, and the mental and physical adjustments to retirement. For years I have trained myself to keep emotions in check when difficulties arose. This was necessary in a business where difficult situations were our stock-in-trade. Now those emergencies are gone and the normal day to day emotional highs and lows have settled down and I am having to adjust. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if this is going to make me more sensitive, or less sensitive. I guess only time will tell.

BTW, the above explanation of "tongue-in-cheek", is one of the new features of this blog, and I am going to try to provide some new topic each day to review and discuss in my efforts to educate the world. Hope you enjoyed it.

Larry

P.S. stay tuned tomorrow for a clear cut explanation of a commonly used (misused) phrase.

I think warm weather is finally here

2009-02-10T08:27:00.002-05:00

It was beautiful here yesterday, and it is going to be beautiful here today, and tomorrow, and the next day...............you get the idea. We are finally starting to experience what we came here for!! Yippee!!

Yesterday was a busy day for us. Before leaving for Florida, we took the Jeep in to have it serviced. We had the transmission fluid changed and the brakes replaced. Well, over the weekend I noticed transmission fluid on the ground and sure enough, the transmission was low on fluid. Meanwhile I had also noticed that the new front brakes were sticking and getting hot. So yesterday we took the car in to have it serviced. We got a rental car to use while it was in the shop overnight. Just got off the phone with the shop and "we have three of our best men on it" was the response. Ohhhhh boy!!!

One reason we got a rental car was because Linda had a Dr. appointment yesterday to have her knee checked and we needed transportation to get there. Long story/short, Linda has an appointment to have her knee surgery next week on Wednesday. Hopefully this will cure her knee problems.

Today I am trying to get up the nerve to tear out our commode in the motorhome. It seems to be leaking a little. Should be a bit of a job, but time will tell.

More tomorrow.

Took the weekend off

2009-02-09T08:39:00.002-05:00

Although, how I knew it was the weekend, I just do not know. One more thing that retireees have to endure. We don't get to look forward to sleeping in on the weekend. EVERY day is a Saturday!! But I digress. Today is Monday and Linda is getting ready for us to walk to the clubhouse for free Monday morning coffee and donuts. Temperature today is supposed to be 78, and of course there is the usual Florida sunny and blue sky as well. Had a nice weekend puttering around, spending time with Larry and Krista, as well as Grandma and Grandpa Hodson. My mantra is "relax, relax, relax"

Today I am going to spend time waxing the coach and maybe working on the Jeep. Saturday I did redo the caulking on the bathroom sink, so it is not all just fun and games here. There are important tasks that need done.

Hope you enjoy the photos. See you tomorrow.

Larry

Friday, Feb. 6, 2009

2009-02-06T09:11:00.002-05:00

Today is Friday and what a glorious morning! When I first went out to walk the pups, there was frost on the ground, but within 5 minutes of beautiful sunshine it was gone! Today the temperatures are going up to mid 70s and it will be 80 here within a few days.

Under the subject of future activities, I have been watching the progress of the next shuttle launch which was originally scheduled for next week, on Thursday. However, it has now been postponed until the 19th of Feb. My hope is to be able to travel over to Kennedy Space Center to watch that event. Other than the Columbia and the Challenger, shuttle launches have gotten to be sort of matter-of-fact, but it still inspires me as a massive accomplishment, harnessing that power in a positive direction. I have always wanted to witness a shuttle launch (actually, I have always wanted to participate in a shuttle launch, or even be a passenger!) and this may be the only chance I will ever have.

If you have been paying attention to national news lately, hopefully you have been following the inspiring story of the US Airways plane landing on the Hudson river. Most recently the cockpit voice recordings of the conversations between the pilot and departure control were released yesterday and to listen to that conversation was, to me, chilling. Having done a bit of flying myself, it is still difficult to put myself into Captain Sully's seat during this emergency. To say he was cool under fire would be to dramatically understate the circumstances.

Today I am going to set a goal of getting some better pics of the campground where we are staying, and hopefully I will be able to share them with you. This is truly a very nice place that is well maintained, not to mention our site is very nice with the lake in our back yard.

Have a wonderful day!

When will it get warm here?

2009-02-04T13:22:00.003-05:00

Today is (in addition to being Feb. 4th, and the 35th day of my retirement) college football letter of intent signing day. This is the college equivalent to the NFL draft and sets the stage for college football's national championship for several years.
Having said that, I am happy to report that Professor Tressel at THE Ohio State University showed up on signing day and has captured 7 of the top 100 national prospects so far, leaving OSU with one of their best recruiting classes under Coach Tressel, and one of the best in the nation. Players signed will fill holes left by departures to the NFL from last years Fiesta Bowl champions and will keep the Buckeyes quietly in the hunt for yet another national championship.
Moving on to less enjoyable subjects, it is cold here in Florida today. I'm not saying cold, like in Ohio cold, cold like in Florida cold. It won't get about 58 today, and there is a strong wind blowing. It is supposed to go below freezing tonight and be cold again tomorrow. I know, I know, I am not going to get any sympathy from my friend up north and that is as it should be. Just to let you know I am NOT laying on the beach, sucking up rays, but rather, sitting in the motorhome trying to keep warm.

The opening photo is kinda neat. You may remember that Larry and Krista took us to a concert last week. This is a photo of them standing in line to get our tickets.

Until next time, stay safe.

Super Sunday is over

2009-02-02T13:00:00.013-05:00

Thoughts on the game: Exciting and enjoyable, but, the wrong quarterback won the game. Oh well, what can I say? One interception made the difference. However, the representatives from the Buckeye state showed up and certainly made a difference. Santonio Holmes from "The Ohio State University", James Harrison from Kent State, and of course Big Ben from Miami of Ohio. We leave this NFL season as we have so many in the past, "wait until next year". The Browns have a new coach, a new setup in the front office and the NFL draft is just around the corner.

It is raining here in not so sunny Florida. According to the National Weather Service, it is going to rain all day. The good news is sunny tomorrow, but not real warm. There is an interesting mental disconnect going on here. I know there is snow and cold up north because I see it on the news. But being here makes it seem so distant or unreal. Then when we look out the window and see rain, we are sad that it is not nicer, failing to consider what we could be in at home. Just a thought. Haven't quite figured it out yet.

On a lighter note, I am going to try to upload some video of the pups. We will see what happens.

Let's get back to work.........

2009-01-30T11:29:00.004-05:00

or not. I mean, I AM retired, sort of. So, I shouldn't have to work. Except, as discussed the other day, I have a major problem keeping track of how long I have been retired. Now I have to really put forth a major effort to solve this problem because time is rapidly running out for me.

Let's review: As of today, January 30, 2009, I have been retired for 30 days. That part is easy. I know that because I am still in the first month of my retirement. However, it gets really complicated starting Sunday because we move into another month and now I have to keep track of the days in two months. Yikes!!! So, I am looking for a better way to keep track of the number of days I have been retired.

My friend Chuck suggested instead of using the Gregorian calender, I should use the Julian calender. I did some research on this and don't know for certain if this is an easier way. I mean, take a look at the above picture of a Julian calender which archaeologists dug up. There is a lot of explanatory information on the web, concerning Julian calenders, but it doesn't hold a lot of promise for a simple means of keeping track. Consider this, in the Julian calender yesterday would have been julian day 2454863.5. Sorry Chuck, I tried.

So, then I thought, how about the excel serial date? Seems to make sense to me. But that didn't work too well either. Consider that yesterday in the excel serial date calender would be 39845. Now, hopefully I will live long enough to be retired for 39845 days, but by then I would probably lose track anyway.

Finally, I stumbled across the iso 8601 calendar. This seems to hold the promise of keeping track of at least the first year of my retirement in a convenient format. Consider that today's date in the iso 8601 calendar is 2009-030. Tomorrow would be 2009-031, and the best part, Sunday would be 2009-032. Yes!!! I think we have found the short term answer to our problem. Now all I have to do is go to my local Staples or Office Max and get a brand new, shiny Iso 8601 calender! That was easy!

Thursday Jan. 29, 2009

2009-01-29T09:59:00.003-05:00

Today's post was going to be a continuation of our study of calendars. However, a situation came up yesterday that I just have to discuss. In the early afternoon, Larry Jr. called to ask if we would be interested in going to a concert to see Celine Dion! Duh!!! Truth be known, going to a Celine concert was one of the things on my bucket list. Granted, I don't necessarily agree with her politics, but my opinion is that her voice is the purest and has the greatest range of any entertainer on stage today. Who hasn't had "the power of love" or the theme from Titanic running through their mind? So, we went to St. Pete Times Forum fully expecting to hear her sing beautifully. We did not expect to be blown away by the total program. What an amazing show. Obviously Celine sang all her well known hit songs and we, the audience, did our level best to sing along. But the overall visual images, the dance numbers, the musicians, and the backup singers, along with the computer images, the stage mechanisms and the lighting were almost overwhelming. It was interesting to watch the huge monitor up by the ceiling when they showed closeups of her while singing. Celine had been on this particular tour since last February and still appeared to be enjoying herself while performing. Her facial expressions were amazing and her interaction with the audience appeared to be real. All in all, this was a truly enjoyable concert. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect was that the audience actually remained in their seats during the performance, allowing everyone to totally enjoy the concert. Speaking of seats, since we got our seats so late, we were concerned that we would not be able to see what was going on. However, even though we were up high, we were able to see everything and I looked around and am convinced we had some of the best seats in the house as we had a view which allowed us to take in the whole performance.

Wed. Jan. 28, 2009

2009-01-28T08:57:00.004-05:00

I guess this is day 28 of my retirement. I only know that because today is January 28th. and I retired on Jan. 1. I am now beginning to realize I am facing a real problem in a couple of days. When the date switches over to another month, I will lose this easy way of keeping track and will actually have to start adding the number of days in each month in order to determine how long I have been retired. Maybe I should start keeping track of the hours or minutes since this manner would be a continuum, rather than starting and ending like the months do. And for those of you considering retirement, take note of what weird things go through your mind when you have nothing better to do. Be afraid, be very afraid!

Moving on, we passed our first week in Florida yesterday (see, there is that time/space continuum thingy again). Generally the weather here is really nice. I've noticed a weird phenomenon when we watch the news from up north: while sitting here in 74 degree weather with beautiful sunshine, and seeing snow, sleet, wind, ice, etc. you develop a mental detachment which makes it impossible to actually sense the pain of the cold weather. It just doesn't seem real as though we are watching a disney fantasy or something.

And finally for today, above is the requisite cute puppy photo.

Until next time:
Larry

Today is Tuesday......

2009-01-27T10:34:00.004-05:00

and the only way I know that is because I looked at the calendar, and because American Idol is on Fox tonight! This is what my life has distilled down to, marking my time based on a TV reality show! Oh, woe is me. I feel like Bill Murray in the movie, "Groundhog Day", "I keep reliving the same day over and over". I guess the good news in the end, Bill gets the girl and there is a happy ending. If you haven't seen the movie, check it out. Groundhog day is coming up soon and we all need to be prepared. Hopefully this horrible weather will end soon!!

Captain's log: stardate 3245.6

2009-01-26T08:58:00.002-05:00

Our mission: to explore this desolate island to determine if it is suitable for human occupation. Thus far we have encountered large "humonoid" machines which appear to be able to roll across the tundra, although they seem prone to consume mass quantities of fossil fuel doing it. These interesting machines also appear to be equipped with crude life support systems which the early occupants referred to as "refrigerators", "stoves", etc. Fortunately we have carried our replicator and bio-matter resequencer with us from the mother ship, and as a result we are managing to survive. It appears the occupants, all of whom exist in an advanced age, with stooped shoulders, grey or white hair and whithered muscular systems, survive mostly on a compote type of food they refer to as "rice pudding" and spend their time engaged in an activity called "shuffleboard" which seems to produce no useful results.

2009-01-24T09:23:00.000-05:00

Today is Saturday, January 24, 2009 and I have been on this lonely island for almost a week now. All hope of being rescued is vanishing. I think the rest of the world has forgotten about us. Food and water is still in abundant supply, but we are starting to miss our friends and family. Yesterday we saw an airplane flying overhead but by the time I started a signal fire, it was gone! (Of course by the time I got the signal fire going, the campground management had also called the local fire department!!). We spend our days wandering aimlessly, exploring our island. We have seen evidence of other occupants, but we have been afraid to approach the natives. They are different than us and we are afraid they might not be friendly. We will continue to observe them and maybe try to make contact in the future.

2009-01-23T08:01:00.000-05:00

Weather update from Sarasota: currently 38 degrees and sunny, with a high today forecast at 65. Tomorrow is expected to get up to 70. Sorry, not commenting, just reporting. Hopefully our friends up north are surviving.

Yesterday we took the pups to Petsmart to have them groomed. This included a bath and a haircut. Gotta say we were pleased with the results.

Interesting day on wall st. yesterday. Market is up, market is down. Where is this all going? Nobody knows. (except maybe Warren Buffett)
Having an interesting discussion on RV.net about the economy and what is driving this recession. Some are blaming the media for having a strong, negative influence. This is an interesting opinion which I believe has some merit. Beyond that, the real question is how do we get out of it. Our new president seems to think government stimulas is the way to go. Only time will tell, but I do wish him all the best in his efforts.

More later,
Larry

Lafayette, we are here!

2009-01-22T10:32:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I'm not General John Pershing, but we are finally in Florida, and we are getting settled into our site at the campground. It was quite an odyssey getting out of the snow and cold in Ohio and arriving here in Florida. Of course, Florida put out the welcome mat the last couple of days, trying to make us feel right at home (home being Ohio) with temperatures approaching freezing and high winds. Add in a very noisey rain storm the other night, coupled with overcast skies and we were feeling like we never left northern Ohio.

Here is a photo from our yard at the campground, taken this morning. You can decide whether to feel sorry for us or not.

If we had global warming,

we wouldn't have temps of 20 below.

If we had global warming,

we wouldn't be shovelin' snow!

Not to be totally negative, and while the temp this morning was 34 when we got up, I will say the sky is blue and the sun is shining, and we are expecting temperatures in the 70s this weekend. Way better than what the poor folks at home are experiencing.

Trying to get going:

2009-01-17T13:02:00.000-05:00

Here is a story to help your imagination: Started packing all the last minute stuff last night and decided to wait until this morning to leave. Got up early and started to work on last minute loose ends. Got pretty much finished about 10:00 and decided it was time to fire up the Cummins and get ready to leave. Keep in mind it went down to -12 last night and was pretty much unchanged at 10:30. Tried to crank up the motor and it just was not ready to go yet. So I dragged out the torpedo heater and aimed it under the back of the coach. Meanwhile I also checked to make sure the block heater was working. Well, the breaker was tripped and the heater was not doing anything. Ran an extension cord from the house to the block heater and with that, along with the torpedo heater, I am hoping by 2pm I might be able to get 'er going. During all of this, I was also putting air in the tires of both the coach and the car. Getting 105psi into those tires on a good day is tough, getting it in when the temps are -12 is a real SOB!! I estimated I could handle, maybe, 10 minutes of the cold at a time. Of course the various air hoses and power cords really don't like to uncoil at -12, so that really hindered the process. So, I am now sitting here on the couch, waiting for the motor to heat up so I can try it again in a while. Of course the good news is that the weather in Florida is COLD!! So why am I doing this???

And yet we wait..........

2009-01-15T18:59:00.000-05:00

Here we sit, waiting for the weather to get better. Maybe the weather will be better in Florida? Who knows?

However, there is hope on the horizon. Tomorrow is Friday, and Linda has hinted that she might just be ready to go. Oh, be still my beating heart!!!

We may be leaving tomorrow afternoon, or perhaps as late as Saturday afternoon. We still have a lot of packing to do, but can't do it until we are actually ready to go. Meantime, we sit and wait.....

Stay tuned for our exciting departure attempt. Our driveway is not only 400' long, but it is downhill, snow covered, slippery, and clogged with ice and snow right at the very bottom of the drive, right where we have to make the sharp right turn to get onto our road. Oh, and did I mention, when we turn onto our road we immediately begin an uphill climb to the next street? Thought not. Probably should mention our street is not very wide and right at the end of our drive, on the other side of our narrow road, there is an open ditch. That is right at the end of our downhill, slippery, snow covered drive!! What am I planning??!!

Foiled again......

2009-01-14T20:46:00.000-05:00

in our attempts to get started on our trip to Florida. Mother Nature is just not cooperating. We have had about 10" of snow since last Friday. It is snowing now and more tomorrow. On top of that, we are expecting temperatures to drop to about zero tonight. Yikes!! We have some loose ends to tie up, and then we hope to hit a weather window and head south. Lookin a lot like this weekend might just get it done. Time will tell.

The BIG day has come!!! January 2009

2009-01-13T19:47:00.000-05:00

Well, it appears the big day has finally arrived and I am going to retire. Actually, to be perfectly correct, I have already retired and have actually signed up for Mr. Obama's social security benefits. It is a new year (2009) and we (me and Linda) are starting our new life as we head down the road to Florida for a couple of months to rest, thaw out in the sun, and ponder what may be around the corner for us. With some time on our hands (hopefully) I will try to post some photos of our adventure as it unfolds and will try to make it entertaining if I can. You are welcome to come along for the ride and I hope it's a smooth one.

Larry

2007-12-14T19:20:00.001-05:00

Ok, this is sooooo weird. I just realized that I started this blog two years ago and it is still sitting here, almost empty. The start date is Dec. 2005, and it is now Dec. 2007. Seems like I better get busy putting something on here to read.

Actually I am going to be posting on the RV.net blog as an expert in RV electrical systems. Should be interesting. Check it out.

2005-12-03T14:29:00.000-05:00

Today is Saturday, Dec. 3, 2005. As I mentioned yesterday, it is getting cold here, going down to 21 last night. The blowing wind made it seems worse. Today is a little better because the sun is shining. Spent some time today working on the motorhome. Had to make a modification to the GPS radio and some other minor items. I am beginning to feel the effects of cabin fever setting in and want to get out on the road, maybe go someplace warm for the rest of my life.

2005-12-02T15:09:00.000-05:00

I realize this is getting boring for anyone who reads it, but I am just learning how to do this, so bare with me.

Larry and Linda's excellent adventures

2005-12-01T20:55:00.000-05:00

Today is Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005
This is the first day of our blog. On this link, we hope to post interesting stories and information about our RV'ing adventures.

Right now, our RV is sitting in the driveway with a light coating of snow. However, in a little over a week, we will head out to Michigan and Indiana