Monday, April 26, 2010

Guess I've been gone.....

Well, not really. I've been here; just feeling like crap! I've got another pinched nerve or something in the middle of my back that is just fine most of the time then pulls me up with a jerk every now and then. It is especially virulant when I am fairly close to horizontal - like when getting into or out of bed or moving towards one's partner! Yep, haven't been able to make love as usual these days. I mean, we are in our 60's; it's not like we are going to make the bed move! But it would be nice if we could just have our fun.

Aside from that, things are great. We are headed for Vegas next week to check out the work that was done on the trailer but we are pretty confident it will be ok. They have even replaced the radio-CD player because the AUX plug didn't work well with our iPod. Haven't spent nearly enough time in Vegas; people who live 3,000 miles away know more than we! Next week we'll get to visit a few of those famous places. BTW, remember we are not kids; you won't hear about the best topless pool here! Well, unless we happen upon it! LOL Highly unlikely I should think.

Have a good one!

"One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been" ~ Will Rogers, on growing older - Too bad he didn't make it!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Five things I've never done...

Over at The Art of Panic, I found some lists; this one called to me!

Five things I've never done:

1. Made love with women of different races: when I was young, I wanted to sleep with women of many different nationalities and races. Black, yellow, red; I wanted them all. As it turns out, I've failed miserably at this.

2. Own fantastic cars. We had a BMW 325IS that was indeed fantastic. However, there are no Ferrari's, Rolls, Porsches and the ilk in my background - nor, I expect, in my future!

3. Live on a boat. We had thought we might move onto a boat for a couple of years but the economic times make it unlikely that we could re-sell any boat we purchased so we didn't do it. Do I regret it? Yes. Would I make the same decision again? Yes. We simply can't afford to have the odd $100K or $200K tied up in a boat that we can't sell.

4. Gone to war in Vietnam. This is a strange one. I was an Army 2nd Lt in the early 1970's when almost every 2nd Lt was off to Vietnam as soon as they got their bar. I was assigned to Ft. Bliss, TX and stayed there for my tour of duty. I have a vague sense of guilt that I never went; but, of course, that's silly. When in the Army, you go where you are told & do what you are told. Ft. Bliss was my karma.

5. Used my wife's name in this blog. I haven't shared the fact that I have a blog with her so using her name without her consent is just something I didn't want to do. It's not like it's unusual; probably one of the top 20 European/American names of all time but I just don't want to share it.

Guess that's it. Five things I've never done AND my feelings about it. Have a good one!

Long day

Had a long day today; well for us old retired farts it was long! Got up and had coffee, something to eat & all that then hitched the trailer to the truck and headed out to Vegas. The radio in the trailer sounded great except when we attached our iPod; then it sounded just screwed up. The dealer ordered a new radio & we needed to run the trailer over so they could install it.

Dropped the trailer off and went of for lunch and fun. We know almost nothing about Vegas so are planning on visiting as many casinos as we can. Today was the Cannery on Boulder Highway. MANY years ago we visited my wife's mom in Bullhead City, AZ. You'd get there by flying into Vegas and going south to Bullhead. Way out on the edge of town you'd see Sam's Town Casino. Now it's just another property on the Boulder Highway and the Cannery is somewhat south of it.

It was a nice enough place but nothing outstanding in our eyes. They did have a restaurant that had a $10 prime rib dinner - we might try that sometime. It's a small cut (I think 12 oz.) but who needs more than that? Being the big gamblers that we are; we each put $1 in a video poker machine. My wife lost hers; I was a big hero though and made $.30. Life in the fast lane!!!

Picked up the trailer, complete with new radio. Haven't tried it yet, like a couple of tree-stumps we didn't remember to bring the darned iPod! Anyway, brought the trailer home & parked it next to the house. Didn't get in the house until 16:45. We are talking about taking it over to Vegas in a few days to stay and see some of the sights and test out all the fixes that the dealer has made. Why live near Vegas and not visit? The trip was ok; wind is forecast for us tomorrow but we had plenty coming over the pass today. I always slow down in windy conditions; if you are going to get knocked around you have SOOOO much more time to respond. A couple of times I was very glad for our heavy pickup. Be safe!

"It never occurs to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united." Goethe

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Unsolicited Testimonial

As I wrote in an earlier blog, we had a problem with the slideout in our trailer; a protruding bolt caught on the floor and ripped up the linoleum.  We took it back to our dealer, Johnnie Walker RV, they took photos of the damage and contacted the maker, Heartland.  Heartland sent new flooring and Johnnie Walker's folks installed it.  I have to say it looks great!  They sent the right stuff and the dealer's service department did a great job. 

You might think that's not so tough but remember, rv's are built from the bottom up.  First they build a platform then they lay the flooring and last they build all the walls, closets & everything.  This means that to replace the linoleum they had to carefully cut it to fit WITHIN all those walls & closets.  They even had to remove and replace the toilet (couldn't really trim around it).  Then they had to trim around about 75% of the trailer to make it look finished. And they had to remove the little carpet we have so the linoleum would be under that.  They did a great job.  They offered to give us carpet instead, carpet is much more forgiving to install, but we wanted the linoleum for the ease of cleaning.  Honestly, both the company and the dealer did everything they could to make the customer happy.  I don't find that everywhere I look!

Now we have to reload everything back into the rig.  That should be a full day's work but leaving the stuff in there while all the work was being done didn't seem very wise.  We would have had sawdust everywhere!

If we want more brotherhood and goodwill, more intelligence, more clear thinking, more honesty and sincerity, more tolerance and human understanding we must concentrate upon cultivating these qualities within ourselves.  - Howard W. Hintz, D.D.

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Love it!

I believe that deforestation of our planet is a problem.  Haven't seen it demonstrated in quite this way before!

Friday, April 02, 2010

April???

Yep, it's April.  Our local paper had practically the entire front page devoted to one joking article or another.  Jeez, I wish they wouldn't do that.  The news is so weird anyway that people are probably going to believe it to be true. 

Here's a idea I'd support as the next amendment to our Constitution:
"Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States ."

Right now Congress has it's own medical plan; retirement plan & a zillion other perks.  Making that amendment retroactive would be even better but I doubt ANYONE in Congress would vote for that!

It's been windy here in the desert.  Ordinarily I don't care but because of the rain we've gotten this year there weeds growing all over our rocked in yard.  It looks pretty bad I must say.  However, because of the wind you can't really apply the weed killer.  Bah humbug!  Today, it's fairly quiet so I'm off to kill weeds after I get done here.  Life in the fast lane, huh.  

I've been trying to do pizza on the bbq.  There are plenty of recipes, even Epicurious has one but I'm having a terrible time.  I keep burning the crap out of my dough.  (Using store bought dough, btw, I'm lazy!)  I'll keep on trying but have to let the laughter (from my wife) die down a bit.  The idea is that you cook one side of the dough then flip it over and put on the toppings.  I'm thinking I'll remove the thing from the grill while I'm loading on the ingredients.  It will probably stick to the plate & never come off but I'll deal with that later!  Of course not putting so much stuff on the pizza might also be an idea, LOL, but where's the fun in that?

"Cookery is become an art, a noble science; cooks are gentlemen."  Robert Burton