Home again

We made it home yesterday.  It was a fast trip which equates to tiring but we really wanted to go and thought that missing out on the redwoods would just be silly.  Here's my report.

Trip Log - 60Yr-Trip

7:34 PM 6/15/2012
Spent most of the morning going back and forth with stuff for our trip.  I was dragging by the time we were ready to leave.

Got out of the yard about 13:00 - calm and quiet trip to Tonopah after hitting Scotch on the head four or five times to get him to shut up.  Stopped at Joyland RV Park - $10 PA - gravel lot - several small spaces but bigger ones are down the road a ways.  Signage for the park is ok but the GPS tried to get us to turn where there was no road.  There are five but only four are really usable; the last is both rough and access is poor.  We only want water and electric.  There might be cable; I didn't dig around for it.  The sewer in our spot is broken but it's our first day, who cares!

Went out to dinner at a Mexican joint (El Marques - kind of plain but not bad).  Who can complain about $3 XX beer?  They were selling lots of margaritas too but my wife wasn't interested.  Got diesel at the usual place in the middle of town; we do know that the stations on the North end and South end of town are
more expensive but easier to access.  Then found that the Rebel, off the main drag, is $.20 a gallon cheaper!  That's a difference of $3.69 to $3.49; the places on the edge of town with the better access were at $4.09.  We could get up to the Rebel with the trailer but would have to be careful turning around - one lane paved road only - limited hours but I think the credit card reader might work at other hours.  At any rate it IS do-able.

We could open the rig when we got home.  6K feet altitude has it's attractions.  There is WiFi - my wife can get on; I can't. 


6:13 AM 6/16/2012
The cat woke us twice in the night.  He is getting panicy in his old age & isn't used to the trailer yet.  The folks next to us got all packed up last night then took off at 05:00; as quickly and quietly as possible.  Class act.

Left Tonopah about 09:00 along with everyone else in the five space park.  We started out US 6 Eastbound but soon were headed north up NV 376 up through the Big Smoky Valley.  About half way up the valley we suddenly noticed these big power lines heading up the valley.  Sure enough there was a huge open pit mine up there.  We met US 50, the loneliest highway, and went west on it for a few miles.  We considered ourselves fortunate when we came to a huge hill and being westbound were on the 'mountain' side rather than the 'air' side.  After just a few miles we picked up NV 395 and resumed our northbound track. 

From US 50 to Battle Mountain, NV is 88 miles; no towns and pretty darn few people.  We didn't really check out Battle Mountain but got directly on I-80 westbound for Winnemucca, NV.  We found our park by about 15:00.  We were staying at the Hi-Desert RV Park.  It was a nice enough place but the space was
extremely narrow.  They outline the space with landscaping timbers so you really have to get it right.  A young guy showed us to the spot but let us park by ourselves (which we prefer).  They have all the amenities including wifi that actually worked.  We felt kind of 'racked and stacked' because the 'yard' was only about 8 feet wide but otherwise completely acceptable.  We had a celebratory drink and headed out to find dinner.  In the end we decided that nothing looked all that inviting so we went back to the rig and made burittos.  Early to bed because tomorrow is a long day - driving for six hours!

11:03 AM 6/18/2012
Yesterday was pretty interesting. Like the Chinese curse 'may you live in interesting times'!


Left Winnemucca on US 95 then turned off on NV 140.  Totally acceptable road but darn lonely.  Took some time but finally made it into Oregon; the road turned into OR 140 but otherwise....  There were a few surprises along the road.  We found a few mountain passes that weren't marked on our atlas but for the most part they were painless.  Then we started down!  The first major downgrade was an 8% grade that was signed for 25 mph.  I put the truck in 2nd gear and went down but it wouldn't hold 25, can you say steep?  We were very happy to be on the 'mountain' side this time especially since there was NO guard rail, no
road side, nothing.  Did I mention that at the very top of the grade was the famous Doherty Hang Gliding launch?  That wasn't on the map either!  So we wandered westward and soon enough came to another downgrade, only 7% this time and not as long but for part of the distance we were on the 'air' side.  It was marked at 45 mph. Third gear was capable of keeping us under control this time. 

we did finally come to Lakeview, OR.  There is some serious water in this valley; it was as green as possible.  Lots of farms growing mostly forrage crops.  There were quite a few cattle grazing as well.  We were headed north on US 395 then turned off onto OR 31 going northwest.  It is marked as a scenic road but we couldn't really see it.  It was lots more desert with a lake or two thrown in.  There was a nice little lake not marked on our map; then we came to Summer Lake.  That was a disaster.  It must have been a beautiful place at one time but now it is 90% dry and the sand blows across the little remaining water making
it just awful.  People who remember it from when it had water must be heartbroken. 

About 16:00 we made it to La Pine, OR and got onto US 97 heading north towards Bend.  Our campground was between La Pine and Bend; the Encore Thoushand Trails Bend-Sunriver Campground.  I want to get the name right because I words escape me when I try to explain how bad this place is.  This is to totally mis-managed and fouled up that I find it difficult to imagine We drove up to the gate behind a few other vehicles.  My wife had called for our required reservation and used her credit card so I got her to go into the office.  The office kid has worked here for three days and just didn't have a clue about what to
do.  An older guy was wandering around but wasn't much help.  Two women came wandering around with drinks in their hands; turns out one was the manager but she didn't bother to help with the confusion.  It took us 45 minutes to get checked in!  Customer service is totally non-existent.  You may as well ask the cat to wait on you.  All this BS and we have already paid for two nights!

During this time I was sitting in the truck with the animals.  After a while the cat started getting restive and I was afraid he was going to pee on my wife's seat so I held him in my lap.  Soon I started smelling this smell, yep, he peed on me!  Grrr!

 I got the trailer keys and put him back in the trailer.  Of course my clothes are wet with cat pee so I'm happy!  Finally we got in; we are told that of the whole place people who don't belong to Thousand Trails have to stay in Section H; way in the back.  So we trek back to Section H.  ection H is not properly maintained.  The rest of the park is obviously nicer.  The roads are much narrower than those in the
rest of the park.  Many camping spaces are slanted the 'wrong' way.  Of course this also makes it almost impossible to back a trailer into them.  We tried at least three spaces before we found one we could get into.  We also scratched the sides of both the truck and the trailer in the process.  Grrr!

The space itself is quite nice.  We are surrounded by pine trees, of course, the maintenance is bad here too.  The small saplings aren't being pruned out so that while they provide a visual barrier between spaces they will never grow well.  Also weeds and bushes aren't being trimmed so that in case of a fire this place will go up like a bomb.  No WiFi of course.  Would I come back?  Only in a pine box!  Of course now I get to call the cat "Piss-n-Boots". 

Today, Monday June 18, we just made a quiet day.  We had breakfast in the rig then went out to lunch in Bend; ate at a place called Pizza Mondo that my wife found on Trip Advisor.  It was ok but is really for a younger crowd; college age people though there were at least five small children in the place and it only seats about 30.  On the way home from Bend we stopped at Newberry National Volcanic Monument.  It is all about the Newberry Volcano which is just south of town.  There is a huge lava flow in the park where you can walk and a cone that you can drive up.  We didn't stray from the visitor center; it's only about 60 degrees and we were cold!

Went to the Village Pub & Grill in Sunriver.  What a pretentious POS pub - $10 hamburgers that were dry and not seasoned.  Grrr!  I had a Philly Cheese Steak - dry, unseasoned and probably from a packet.  The fries were certainly from a bag. 

This is white-bread country - have only seen one person of color in Bend & she seemed to be an adoptee.  Back to the rig and had a nice night's sleep.

7:54 AM 6/20/2012
Took off yesterday about 10:00 and had a nice drive up to Salem then up I-5 to Woodburn, OR just on the south side of Portland.  It was rainy much of the way; at least it washed off most of the tree pollen that we got at the TT park.  There was a 4500 ft summit then lots of downhill through a heavily forested area. 

This is the Portland-Woodburn RV Park.  Not a PA park but we get a 15% Escapees discount.  Got checked in within 5 minutes - such a great experience.  Got into our spot and relaxed.  They have WiFi but I can't get on; it's choked with users who don't sign off but are still 'there' to the system.  They as also next door to an outlet mall just in case you desperately need something.

It is a beautiful morning; one of those days that the Pac NW shows it's beauty.  Have to go get diesel this a.m.  Found it at Safeway, about 3 miles from the park.  Got a discount because we have a Safeway card.  Check out is noon but we would like to be in Gig Harbor (3 hours up I-5) by 14:00 or so.

As soon as we got on I-5 (11:10 a.m.) we switched to I-205 to avoid downtown Portland.  Traffic stopped almost before the first exit; no idea what it was but gradually it cleared and we only lost about 15 minutes.  Had a couple more slowdowns but nothing exceptional.  Had TWO people zoom past us on the right just as we were losing a lane; these people just don't want to live!  Found an 18 wheeler and followed him up to Tacoma where we got off on WA 16 for the peninsula.  The interchange was AFU but otherwise things were good.  Made it to the first set of relatives (wife's sister and brother-in-law) in Gig Harbor by 15:00.  Doing family stuff this afternoon & evening.  No WiFi since the relatives are computer challenged.

My wife had a wonderful time telling all about the Thousand Trails experience; it will be a long time before I hear the end of it!


5:59 AM 6/21/2012
Big party is today.  The in-laws have been married for 60 years today.  I woke early so am giving Piss-n-Boots a little people time.

Setting up for the party was a lot like work!  Carrying tables and the tent and all upstairs gave us a real workout but then it was done.  Party was excellent; catered so no cooking but I have had better food. 

9:38 AM 6/23/2012
Yesterday we drove the 70 miles from Gig Harbor to Squim to visit with the in-laws.  Got diesel in Gig Harbor for $3.79/gal.  Had a nice visit; this a.m. we are doing some chores then this afternoon will go over to Port Angeles for my wife's brother & sister-in-law!  No WiFi here or where we are visiting this afternoon; more challenged relatives.

Had fun with the relatives.  Visited one of their favorite winerys (Camaradarie Cellars) and left with a couple bottles.  They get grapes from Eastern Washington then bring them over here for processing.  Great conditions here for processing; not so great for growing!  Had bbq even though it was raining.  In the Pacific Northwest if you let rain stop you you won't be doing much!  We were back to the rig in Squim about 20:00.

5:50 AM 6/24/2012
Another quiet visit planned for today.  Going to to a little cleaning in the rig then probably eating and drinking too much again. 

Went to lunch at a local golf course; food was ok but nothing spectacular for $10 hamburgers.  Hit Safeway for a few essentials like coffee and juice then filled the truck so as to be ready to leave in the a.m.  More visiting during the afternoon then we came back and finished cleaning the rig.  It was sorely needed; the wet weather and vegetable matter meant the place was nasty!

Tomorrow we leave; headed for a park we know near Mt. St. Helens; not a long drive but it gets us out of the congestion of Seattle!

5:03 PM 6/25/2012
We managed to get out of the park by 10:30; not easily since the pointy little concrete areas are tough to escape.  We went down US 101; beautiful drive especially while we were next to Hood Canal.  In the little town of Potlatch, WA we found fireworks stands on every corner.  It's land owned by native Americans so they can do that stuff.  It's an amazing situation!  We got to I-5 and came down south.  we were planning on stopping near Mt. St. Helens but decided to go a bit farther.  Ended up in The Big Fir RV Park in Ridgefield, WA. just off Exit 11 in Washington.  It is interesting.  We are in deep timber with large trees all around; unfortunately most of the rigs look like they are permenantly here.  Indeed, some look like they are incapable of movement.  Had a couple of kids wandering around earlier but we are hoping that their parents will corral them for the evening.

We are eating in tonight.  My wife is addicted to Trip Advisor on her smart phone and the local places don't seem to inviting.  We'll try tomorrow night!


5:50 AM 6/26/2012
Should have a short day today just going down I-5 to the Escapees Timber Valley park in Summerlin, OR.  Woke to light rain dripping on the rig.  We've been lucky so far not to have to either park or break camp in the rain.  Hopefully it will be gone by the time we are ready to leave.

Had a dry hitch-up; then had rain showers the rest of the day.  Got in about 15:30 and set up in the dry!  Went to Pedottis Italian Resturant for dinner - nice place and acceptable food.  We've been here before.  Had chicken parm - kind of burned on the edges but nice and moist and tasty.  My wife liked her lasagna even though she had to send it back to be warmed up.

7:53 AM 6/28/2012
Decided we liked the Escapees park so much we wanted to stay another day.  Didn't do much; just some laundry and a little cleaning of the inside of the rig.  During this wet weather the dog brings in a LOT of crud on her feet.  It makes keeping the place clean difficult. 

We wanted to try a Mexican place my wife found on TripAdvisor.  Apparently it didn't go so well; the resturant at the address listed had a different name AND was closed.  So we settled on Abby Pizza.  Not bad food but $23 for a 13" pizza seemed a little high.  They serve there pizza with ranch salad dressing on the side.  No idea whose great idea that was but it doesn't do much for me. 

Off to Crescent City, CA today.  It could be a tough day driving through the mountains.

We dropped south on I-5 to Grants Pass, OR where we got off on US 199 "The Redwood Highway".  We were a little concerned about the highway but it turned out to be great.  It didn't hurt that we were on the 'mountain' side but really it was quite nice with plenty of guard rails and fairly small dropoffs.  The trees were spectacular as well.  There were plenty of 25 mph (40 kph) turns and quite a few places where the road ran between really large trees but there were also turnouts for us RV'ers to let the speedy folks pass.  All in all, a great road. 

We arrived at Sunset Harbor RV Park in Crescent City about 14:00.  The manager had just gone off somewhere but there was a maintenance man who suggested a site so we parked and left a note for the manager.  Hopefully we won't have to move.  The park is kind of interesting.  It has half full time residents and half fishermen and us.  We didn't find any resturants that were calling to us so we ate in and had a quiet night watching tv.

6:53 AM 6/29/2012
Sightseeing is our plan for today.  Gotta see those redwoods.

We started off walking over to the Good Harvest Cafe; it's only about a block and a half from the park.  It is highly rated on TripAdvisor and we were pleasantly surprised that it pretty much lived up to it's reviews.  One review mentioned being left by the door waiting for a table and we had that happen as well.  But the food was completely respectable; our breakfast for two was $20 plus tip.  They also have a coffee bar for those needing a latte fix.

Went in to pay for the site and got the Escapees discount - $19 a night; pretty good I think.  The cable in our site doesn't work so we are plugged into the next site (which is empty!).  Also the wifi doesn't have much get-up-and-go but the site itself is great - there are three on the end which have just grass behind them and we got one.  Everyone else is side by side and their rear view is another rig.  This is much nicer.

Drove down the coast a ways and checked out the trees.  These coastal redwoods are just magnificent.  We kept stopping along the way to check out the coast or the trees; tough decisions but we are tough enough!  Had lunch at a place called the Snack Shack in Klamath because of the reviews on TripAdvisor; not my favorite since it was a greasy mess.  Got back about 16:00.  I went out again and found Safeway.  They had a couple filets that were calling to me so we got out the grill pan and had steak and brussels sprouts.  Yum! 


9:06 AM 6/30/2012
Having a quiet morning.  Did a little sightseeing but nothing else.


6:19 PM 7/1/2012
Up and out by 10:00 or so which is pretty good for us.  The park worked for us but might not for everyone.  They put us in a space that backed up on a green area used for parking fishing boats.  Everyone else was racked and stacked. 

We went down US 101 in the fog to Acata, CA then turned east onto CA 299 - it's called the Trinity Highway for the Trinity River.  It was a beautiful drive.  The road runs along the river for miles and miles.  This means two things:  beautiful views of a very beautiful river AND zillions of 25 mph (40 kph) curves!  After Whiskeytown the road got better but it was still twisty.  For all those miles out in the desert where the power steering is a waste; well, today it earned it's keep!  It took nearly six hours to go 200 miles.  Amazing.  We got off the road at NUMEROUS turnouts to let cars pass.  Ok, I'm not a speed demon but we never had another rv backed up behind us.

Tonight we are parked at the Redding RV Park in Redding, CA.  It's a fairly nice park but definitely tight.  It is all paved, clean, organized but the next rv is probably 8 feet away and is looking into our windows.  Needless to say, there is another one on the other side.   It is also about a quarter mile from I-5 so there is some road noise.  Happily it is 91F now so the sound of the a/c will drown out the sound of the freeway.  LOL  We want to get on I-5 for about 2 miles in the morning then head southeast on CA 44 until we reach CA 89 when we continue on to Susanville, Reno and more!

Redding is a nice enough town of about 70,000 people.  The town straddles the Sacromento River; very pretty.


6:19 PM 7/2/2012
We left Redding about 09:30.  The first part of the trip was in trees.  When we got to Susanville, CA things changed pretty dramatically; the trees were gone!  When we got to Reno we took I-80 about thirty miles east getting off in Fernley.  We were going to get gas at a Pilot station but it was jam packed; we left and found a station in town that had no other customers for $.01 per gallon more.  What a winner!  We took Alt 50 east then picked up US 95 going south.

We've landed at the Whisky Flats RV Park in Hawthorne, NV.  Hawthrone is about 90 miles from Reno; 250 miles from Las Vegas.  It is a nice park with concrete pads for the RV.  Each space also has a picnic table and a small tree.  This is home to an Army munitions depot and that's about it.  I can't imagine living here so far from anything.  It's hot; 91F (>32 C) after the sun has gone behind the mountains at 19:17, but what do you expect in Nevada in the summer. 

Tomorrow we should make it home baring some accident.  It's something like 270 miles (435 km); not trivial but not difficult either.  It will be good to be home; it's been a great trip but we are all tired of the constant movement.


10:43 AM 7/4/2012
Got in about 14:30 yesterday afternoon.  Had a fairly quiet day cruising down US 95 until we picked up NV 160 to come into Pahrump.  Stopped in Tonopah for diesel; I went into the station the wrong way so had to turn around in the alley behind the place but it really was no problem.  Getting into our driveway is much more difficult!  But we managed that as well, motivation is a wonderful thing.  Got a few things unloaded; went out to pick up a prescription, get diesel and a pizza.  Nice combination, huh. 

When we set out the pickup had 27,899.7 miles (44,900 km).  When we unhooked the trailer on our return it had 30,898.7 miles(49726 km) - exactly 2,999 miles (4,826+ km) on this trip!  Amazing.  In 19 days.  It was too fast for real enjoyment but we wanted to make the trip to celebrate the family ocassion.  We added visiting the redwoods because for us to visit that far north in California is quite a trip in itself. 

A small update is in order.  We towed 2,645.3 miles (4,257 km); the remainder was wandering around probably looking for diesel!  Total cost of fuel was $1,151.10 - not nearly as bad as I was expecting!  Thanks to my wife and family accountant for the numbers.

Well, that's it.  It was a long, fast trip but a lot of fun.  As for photos, I took the camera but may as well have not done so.  I've got a total of about two photos using my phone.  I've no idea why I was camera shy; I'll try to do better in the future.  Now we are planning on a California trip next month.  Have a good one!

Not dead; nor is the dog!

I started this blog with the idea it would document our travels; turns out we haven't been traveling much.  However at this moment, we are.  Traveling that is!  With the dog who is actually much better.  True to our nature we've been on some back roads so the quality of the internet access has ranged from poor (here) to nil (most other places).  I'm developing a new way to judge the size of a town.  If TripAdvisor has only three or four comments on a restaurant, you know it's a small town. 

We are currently in Crescent City, CA checking out the local redwood trees.  I've never seen them so am enjoying the new experience.  These are coastal redwoods so are very tall; very impressive.  We both need our tree fix since Joshua trees aren't really all that tree-like. 

I'll submit a trip report with embarrassingly few photos when we get home in a few days.  This internet connection is making our home ISP look very good!  Hope you are having a good one.

Not good news

Our visit with the vet was less than satisfactory.  She basically has no idea why the dog's wound is weeping and the bandage she put on was single use and ineffective and cost $30.  She did take a sample of the material and sent it off to a lab to see if they can figure out if it is an infection or just part of the cancer.  So we are spending the next few days trying to control the weeping.  Fun, NOT!

I listened to part of President Obama's news conference this morning; I was rather surprised.  Everyone knows he is a great orator but he sounded like a bumbling newcomer this morning (or G.W. Bush on a good day).  There were more "and's" in his statement than any other word.  Then someone asked if he was angry about having some news leaked out; instead of saying 'Hell yes I'm angry', he wandered around and around verbally.  It wasn't until there was an implication that the leaks were from the White House as some part of a re-election strategy that he actually got angry.  I just thought it was a weird performance coming from such a fine public speaker.

Speaking of politics, the Republicans are going to have a very interesting summer.  I live in a very Republican area and Ron Paul is the flavor preferred.  Personally I find some of his opinions rather 18th century (a totally non-interventionist foreign policy) but I really like others (like drug decriminalization).  It will be interesting to see how the convention turns out.  If you think the Congress is divided by Democrats vs Republicans, the Republican vs Republican show should be interesting.  It wouldn't surprise me if it was even bloodier!  At our county Republican convention, the county chairman left after receiving threatening phone calls.  She was worried for her safety because " many of the party faithful were packing pistols".  How cool is that?  “I’m beginning to believe they are racist. They are after me because I’m a Filipino,” she said.  Yep, the national convention should be interesting!

Now I support the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution and even own several guns that I inherited from my parents.  I've had Concealed Weapons Permits (CWP) from the states of Washington and Florida.  But Nevada is something else.  First, the CWP process is cumbersome so people don't want to go through it.  Second, open carry is legal in rural Nevada.  (Rural Nevada is basically defined as everywhere except Las Vegas and Reno.)  So it's not unusual to see a man (or a woman) with a pistol strapped to their hip.  Only yesterday I saw an older guy come out of the drug store wearing a shoulder holster.  (Guess his belt wasn't strong enough to hold in his gut and his gun at the same time.)  It can be intimidating and I don't blame our Republican chair for heading for the hills.   

Enough politics.  There will certainly be more interesting news tomorrow!  Have a good one.

Working ....

Who me?  Work?  Well, kinda.  We have high hopes of doing some traveling this summer so it is time to get the rig looking like someone cares.  Washing, waxing, doing some minor modifications; it sure FEELS like work.  The only thing I really dislike is trying to clean the silicone caulk that rv manufacturers put on the outside where trim pieces join.  That crap gets black then it's almost impossible to clean.  I've been looking for ideas on cleaning it but so far it seems like the only fix is to remove it and replace it.  Not the answer I was hoping to find!  Oh well, if that's all I've got to complain about.....

After working on the rig for a few days I thought my back would like a little time on the inversion table.  Well, I was wrong.  For the past three days I've been barely about to creep about and spending any time on the computer was out of the question.  I'm getting better though, sitting is easier.  Hopefully I can get on with things tomorrow but coughing is still extremely painful. 

Did you hear about the possible security breach at LinkedIn.com?   Some time ago I started using a separate password for every site that I visit.  It's a giant pain in the ass but better than having to worry about 'cross contamination'.  (Of course, Google has it's own ideas so blogger, Google and all it's affiliates are tied together which I do not like!)  I've loaded all these passwords on a thumb drive and keep that with my car keys.  It's one of the Sandisk ones that has it's own security system.  Hopefully if I'm ever stupid enough to lose the thing it will at least give me time to change major passwords. 

On the bad news front, our dog's chest wound from her cancer operation has started weeping fluid again.  She doesn't seem to be in pain or anything but we are taking her in to the vet again in the morning for a check.  We bandaged her up with neosporin, padding and a tee-shirt but she really ought to be over the healing period by now.  We are hoping that she simply injured the wound somehow, maybe lying on some rough rocks, but it's not looking good.

Well, that's most of the news that's fit to print.  Have a good one.

More Vegas

My wife and I hit Las Vegas again on Tuesday on a slightly unusual quest - SHE wanted to do some shopping.  Now, most guys won't believe this, but my wife and daughter don't like to shop.  Yeah, I know it's tough to believe but it's true.  My personal belief is that they think things should just be brought to them so they are insulted by the need to look for stuff.  Anyway, they wanted to go shopping.  I got to come along.  And what did I do?  I went shopping.  Duh!

After dropping my wife off at the daughter's house, I went to the Man Cave Place:  Harbor Freight.  It really is a hoot to go into that place.  There are all these guys going around looking at every item thinking 'what does that do' or 'what could I make with that'.  We really are like kids in a toy store.  It's funny; and I have to admit that I'm as bad as anyone.  Yes, I walked up and down every aisle.  I had received a flyer from them and had a couple of coupons for things I wanted.  As it happens I bought ONE item that I hadn't planned on buying:  a pair of tweezers with a magnifying glass attached.  We'll see how that works out but old age and far-sightedness makes me appreciate magnification! 

One thing I knew I wanted was a solar powered pump to make the bird bath into a sprinkling bath.  I've read that the still water can harbor various nasties that make the birds ill.  Regardless of the truth of that, I thought having a little fountain out there would be cool.  So for $17 I got this little pump.  I've got to say, it's cool!  I've never done anything with solar except some yard lights.  This thing is so amazing.  If you cover maybe a tenth of the surface of the solar cell, it stops immediately.  When you let the sun hit it again, it's on.  Cool!  Yeah, I know, every rv-er worth their salt has solar but we don't so this is all new to me.  (Have towed our trailers over 60K miles though (>96,000 km)).  Of course the spray pattern is wrong so most of the water is being sprayed out on the rocks.  After filling the bath three times in about two hours, I brought the darned pump in!  Maybe we'll find another bird bath!  Maybe I can go back to Harbor Freight and look!

So here's proof:  see the water on the rocks on the left, I'm an idiot.  Have a good one and don't hurt yourself laughing at me.

Trailer repair - part 2

We left the house at 07:00 to get to our 09:00 appointment in Las Vegas.  Turns out we were about 20 minutes early but they are repairing the road to Vegas and we could easily have been held up.  I liked the guy who did the work right off; he came out as soon as he saw us and asked that we position the trailer so he could more easily move it.  These days having someone come out to your vehicle is rare!  He took one look at the worn tire and said we needed an alignment.  Heck, I didn't realize you could align tires on a trailer!  He also suggested that we have him put the spare on and use worn tire as a spare.  Better and better.  So leaving the trailer, we went to do errands. 

My phone rang about an hour later; trailer is done.  In addition to the alignment and tire swap he had discovered that the bearings need to be re-packed so he did that.  Cool.  And the $200 he charged was $1000 less than estimated by the guy here in town who was going to fix something that isn't broken.  We will be going back to Arrow Frame and Alignment; I just love it when people know what they are doing.  So now the trailer should be good to go.  We have fancy aluminum wheels on the trailer and the spare is just steel so I'll be visiting a local tire shop to get them to swap the tires but that's nothing much. 

While standing in the guys lot I happened to look at one of the tires on the truck.  Hmmm. There staring me in the face was a screw imbedded in the tire.  Grrrr!  I haven't taken it out yet but at least if it goes flat I'll be at home.  Hopefully this will get all the trouble with the truck and trailer out of the way for a bit.  We are planning on a couple trips later in the summer and it wouldn't hurt my feelings a bit if they were mechanically uneventful.

I was in Walmart today and saw a 70" (178cm) Sharp LED tv for $2498.  What in the world?  How can they be so cheap?  Yeah, I know, my wife is going to want one but honestly, that is just amazing.  I wonder what's coming in next week, a 10 foot (3m) tv?  If Walmart has stuff like that, what would an electronics store have? 

Here's to an amazing electronic world.  Have a good one!

All fouled up - as usual!

All my plans for the week have pretty much gone south; like that's something new.  But we'll get there I just feel it.  Monday we thought we'd go into Las Vegas but it was windy & ugly so we said why bother.  The only thing I really managed was to go to Home Depot and buy some more charcoal just in case I get the desire to smoke something.  I paid with my credit card and walked out to the car.  By the time I got there my cell phone was ringing; it was the credit card company!  They wanted to know if I'd just bought something at Home Depot then asked about a purchase from Shopcoonline - nope.  Turns out our credit card number is being used fraudulently.  The credit card companies have certainly gotten better at detecting fraud and I'm really happy about that!  Anyway, we cancelled the card and will get another in a couple days. 

Tuesday we took the trailer to our local RV sales/repair place.  That afternoon I got a call saying that we needed new leaf springs and two new tires - $1200 worth!  No, I'm not buying that.  It seems to me that there must be something about that one wheel.  So this morning we went over again and picked up the trailer.  I must say that the manager was fair; he said all they did was a visual inspection so there was no charge.  Next I called the dealer we bought the trailer from, Johnnie Walker in Las Vegas.  I no more had 'only one tire' out of my mouth and the service manager said 'you've got a bad spindle'.  Now that makes some sense to me so tomorrow, Thursday, we are towing the trailer to Las Vegas for repair.  The funny thing is that the RV dealer can't handle this work; they sent us on to someone else.  The young woman on the phone said the repair should take only a couple of hours.  Now that's sounding good.  Hopefully I'll be able to report a good experience.  We'll see.

Pahrump has moved into the summer a bit before Memorial Day.  We are in triple digits most afternoons (38+C) and only about 70F (21C) at night.  The local radio station has a contest for the first day that we are in triple digits for most of the day - like noon on.  It hasn't happened yet but should be in a few days.  It almost makes me happy to be inside scanning photos!  Almost.

I'm scanning photos that are in albums now.  One of the first albums I found is of our 1993 trip to Europe.  Jeez, next year that will be 20 years ago!  This album used some kind of fancy sticky pages with a clear plastic cover over the photos.  It was never meant to be left untouched for 20 years because getting the photos out is a real bear.  The plastic sticks to the page and the photo is very difficult to remove; it takes me longer to get a photo out than to scan one.  Grrrr.  I've scanned about 40 photos and estimate that I'm about a fifth of the way through the album.  I also found the notebook containing a sort of trip log.  It's kind of fun re-living our trip.  Here's a photo of a castle on the Rhine.  We were pretty fascinated by the whole castle thing & took way too many photos of them!

Y'all have a good day now.  Take care.

Getting ready

The last time we towed the trailer we recognized that the right rear tire was wearing strangely; in fact it was 'cupping' on the sides.  Tuesday we are taking the trailer to our local rv shop to see what they say about it.  It should be interesting; the last time I was there they had about 15 motorhomes in the lot and 2 towables.  There is a heck of a difference so we'll see what they know about trailers.  Also, the next day, we'll try washing the rig!  Should be fun.

My theory is that there is a slight difference in the towing angle between the front axle and the rear that accounts for the wear pattern.  You might want to fix that but on the other hand, you must replace trailer tires every four or five years because of the damage from the sun.  These are 2 years old already and haven't had much relief from the sun.  So should I:  1) fix the problem or 2) just rotate the tires or 3) fix the problem AND rotate the tires.  Hmmm...   Well, you should know that cheap me is thinking of leaving the problem and just rotating the tires.  After two years these tires are probably half gone just because of the sun; why not rotate them and kiss them bye?  So, we'll see how honest/intelligent our local guy is.

We have NOT done some of the less critical things:  wall off the utensil drawers from invasion by dog hair, replace the bathroom sink (it IS extremely small but replacing it is kind of daunting), and replacing some of the lights with LEDs.  I'm hoping that we'll at least wall off the utensil drawers before we go anywhere.  The problem with LEDs is that the amount of electricity used is not a matter of concern for us the way we use the trailer.  If we were boondocking it would be very important; for us but I doubt if we will boondock 3 nights this year.  Hmmm.  Any cost-benefit folks out there?  Who cares if the mid-summer folks like us pay a bit more for their power?  Well,  of course some folks are concerned about the extra $.50 a day but I don't think it bothers us on a yearly basis.

Tomorrow, Monday, we are planning on going to Las Vegas for supplies:  the list doesn't include any real basic things but more of the stuff that we miss as treats.  There is also a question of bedding -  our current trailer bedding is too small and we are still searching out something better. It's managed  to keep us warm for two years but you can believe I've heard about it every week or two.

Hope you have a good one!  I'm planning on it.  Take care.

Happy Belated Mother's Day

I hope all you mothers had a good day.  Hearing from the kids is good regardless of their age.  We did well:  called the remaining mother, got a call from number 1 son and a visit from number 1 daughter.  What could be better?  Daughter brought lobster for herself and her mom; steak for me (shellfish allergy).  It worked out beautifully.  She also brought a DVD from Redbox.  It is the first Redbox we've ever gotten that was in just awful condition.  Someone must have been handling it with peanut butter on their fingers.  It took half a dozen cleanings before the thing would play.  Nasty!

On Saturday I indulged myself in doing something I've always wanted to do:  create pulled pork on the bbq.  I started about 08:30 making a rub and soaking wood chips.  I stole ideas from a couple people on the instructables.com website.  My main guide was this instructable.  By 09:00 I had the pork butt on the bbq.  I was having trouble getting smoke, perhaps the fire wasn't hot enough, but had a serendipitous moment.  We had a couple of uncooked sausages that we wanted for a late breakfast so I tossed them on the bbq directly above the charcoal.  The fat dripping off the sausages onto the charcoal got the smoke and fire going very nicely.  I tried keep the fire low and indirect and was successful for a while.  After an hour or so though I was unable to stay in the 225F - 275F range (107C - 135C); got up to 300F (149C) for a while.  It went quite well though; this is a photo from about 13:00 - 4 hours into the cook.  That hard layer on top is a fat layer that was hopefully dripping down into the meat as well as the drip pan.

Finally about 14:30 I started losing heat.  I did not start with as many charcoal briquets as suggested by my guru (didn't have any more!) but I did have some lump charcoal.  Lump usually burns faster and hotter than briquets which is the reason I didn't want to use it but when I put it on top of the already burning briquets, it just lay there.  It didn't even smoke.  I've no idea what happened there!  Anyway, I needed heat so I turned on the gas bbq and moved the meat over to it.  I figured it had gotten a big enough dose of smoke anyway.  Using the gas (Weber Genesis) with one burner on as low as it would go and the other two off, we were sitting right at 275F - perfect.  I had to shove the bbq back next to the house so the wind wouldn't blow out  the flame but it worked!  It was almost 17:00 when I wrapped the meat in foil and took it into the house.  We prepared a salad and some vegies while the meat rested - we are trying to learn to rest meat after cooking but it sure is hard after you've been working on it for eight or nine hours!  We finally got to eat; and I must say it's good.  The wood chips I used were mesquite, not what the guru suggested, and we did find the meat has a slightly odd taste.  But it was what I had and it is very good; just a little odd.  I was pretty shy about making the rub too strong and as a result it was quite mild.  Next time there will be more zoom to the rub.  For a first try though, I'm very happy.

This week we have medical tests for my self and my wife and a return visit with the vet for the dog.  We sure do spend on the medical front!  Last time we talked with the vet she noted that the dog as cataract on both eyes.  "There are several vets in the valley who will remove that for about $3000 an eye."  Jeez, give me a break! 

I've downloaded a utility called TreeSize Free (via a link from CNET).  It lets you know how much space is being used in various files on your computer.  It has always bothered me that I can't get that information from the operating system but maybe I'm weird.  This thing though went through my computer in a few minutes and told me all kinds of interesting info.  For example, all the photos I've been taking and scans I've been doing are taking up 9GB of space!  And I'm no where near done!  I'm going to back everything up though.  Losing all those photos would just be a killer!

I've got to go.  Hope you have a good one.  I'll try to post a bit more; once a week is just bad. 

Scanner update and Guilty Pleasures

I'm still scanning; though it is getting less fun by the minute!  I did discover that I can scan negatives and get a decent image though it really helps if the negative is in good condition.  Some of the negatives I tried had been wrapped with a rubber band and getting them straightened out was a major pain. Still, it worked finally!  The film carrier is made of plastic and I doubt if it would last very long if I were doing hundreds of photos.  It's the same carrier used for slides but the slide portion is just holding the slide in position where the film strip portion is controlling the strip and holding it straight and flat. 

I must say there are things I miss about film.  I may have to get the old Nikon out one of these days and see if it powers up.  Here's a photo I took that I don't think I can recreate now.  (Of course I could do it on the computer but that's a different sort of thing!)

I was thinking this morning about Guilty Pleasures.  You know, things that you enjoy that you feel kind of silly about liking.  My wife and I both love slapstick so one of our Guilty Pleasures is the long running tv show "America's Funniest Videos".  Another Pleasure that is mine alone is a web site where people (mostly men) display what they carry in their pockets every day:  it's called EDC for Every Day Carry.  I take it mostly with a large grain of salt because I don't see a lot of people typically carrying around a $400 pocket knife or watch; much less a gun!  But it's still fun.  It has influenced me I must admit.  I bought a small LED flashlight (at Walmart for $3!) that takes a single AAA battery and added that to my load.  I'm really surprised how much I use the darn thing.  Now having seen the story about the baseball usher who saved some children from attacking dogs, I'm considering carrying a locking pocket knife.  My old Swiss Army knife is great and I wouldn't be without it but a locking blade would make a big difference if it was to be used as a weapon.

Speaking of things that are sliced up (what a segue!), it must be time for an update on our dog's surgeries.  Three of her cuts are doing really well but the wound on her chest is still looking pretty nasty and Monday is the three week anniversary of the surgery.  We are giving her keflex under the vet's prescription to treat infection but may be back to the vet to see if there isn't more that we can do.  I must say it felt rather silly to go the the pharmacy for something for the dog. 

Well, time for me to go do something even if it is wrong.  I'm making some shelves for the garage and you wouldn't believe how many hours I have wasted already and they aren't done.  Have a good one!

Not the best news...

We took the dog to the vet today to have the stitches removed from her surgery two weeks ago.  Three of the cuts have healed very nicely but the one on her chest is giving us some worry.  The vet explained that the mass they removed was neither liquid nor really a solid.  Again they could not remove all of the mass because it is too closely associated with the muscles of her chest.  She was also worried that the skin might be affected and that the wound might not heal.  Well, the skin has healed but there is still something distending the skin and making it warmer to the touch that it should be.  So the dog is on antibiotics again and we'll be stopping by the pharmacy this afternoon for more pills.  Well, at least we are only worrying about a dog!

I'm still copying old photos.  I think I've found most of the loose photos so now I'm starting in on those in albums.  We bought an Epson V500 Photo scanner for this project and so far I'm pretty happy with it.  I copied nearly 2,000 35mm slides.  It does four at a time; the downside it that it's pretty slow.  It takes pretty close to a minute a slide.  Enough time for the user to get really bored!  Photos also take about a minute but, because there is only one, it doesn't seem as bad.  I must be pushing a couple thousand of those as well.  This is a landscape that I took on a trip to England in 1990.  It was scanned from a standard 4x6 print (about 10 cm x 15cm).  The resultant image takes up 246k bytes.

Here is a slide from a 1981 trip to Leavenworth, Washington.  It runs to 300kb.

So I'm pretty happy with the scanner.  It's not archival quality or anything but my photos aren't either.  I do have a certain number of photos of the kids that would make perfect blackmail material if I were so inclined.  Big hair from the 1980's, leisure suits and cowboy outfits are the 'nice' photos!  I'm not worrying over much about removing dust or anything though if I spot something truly nasty I'll try removing it.  One photo, probably taken about 1965, had a fingerprint on it.  You didn't really notice it on the photo but the scanned version had a print good enough for the FBI.  The only real downside that I've found is that unusual sizes of film confuse the scanner.  I have some old 120 size slides and there doesn't seem to be a way to get the scanner to recognize it as a slide. 

I've got to say that going through these photos has given me some detective work.  Most are not marked as to year or subject or anything so I have to try to remember - when was I in Hibbing, MN or Farview Point (elevation 8819)?  It's kind of searching out those old memories helped along by the marvels of the internet.  The problem really arises when I don't remember the people!  There's no help for that.  I'd better get back to it though.  Have a good one!

Am I here?

Today I got an interesting email from Google-Blogger.  They are under the impression that I haven't accessed my account since 2007.  Hmmm.  Here is what they say:  "You are receiving this message because your email address is associated with an unmigrated legacy Blogger account. As we announced in April of last year, legacy accounts will no longer be accessible after May 30th, 2012 unless they are updated to the Google Account system. Any blog content associated with this account will also be unmodifiable after that date." 

So I haven't any idea what is actually going to happen here.  I'm playing with the addresses they offer for correcting the problem but am not really getting anywhere.  Actually, it might be a good idea to dump this blog entirely and create a new one whose name isn't 'tampabaystuff' - after all, it's 2,334 miles (3,756 km) away from here!  If I disappear, I'll be looking for something like 'nyecountydiary' for my new blog.  Just a warning!

We've had a lot of wind and cloud activity lately so I took the opportunity to make a run into Las Vegas.  Spent my usual $$$ in the liquor store then looked all over for semolina flour.  Jeez!  It took a visit to Whole Foods to find the darned stuff.  My wife has a pasta roller accessory for her Kitchen Aid and tried making pasta from ordinary flour.  It was really very nice but she wanted to up the ante to semolina.  Well, six or eight supermarkets later, I found a small packet of the stuff.  I probably spent more on gas going from store to store looking for it than I did for the actual product!  Anyway, I'll be able to report on the resultant pasta one of these days. 

I also took the opportunity to check out some of the stores we don't have; places like Best Buy (electronics) and Target (general merchandise).  It's funny but as I grow older I seem more resistant to the siren call of buying 'stuff'.  Well, we can hope anyway!  Bottom line is that I wandered through all those wonderful electronic gadgets and all and managed to spend nothing at all.  Cool! 

Today we have a return to calm and sunny weather so I'm going to spend some quality time working on the benches for our new seating area.  I've got one finished; two to go.  I'll post a photo when I get them done and installed.  Getting away from the computer is a good thing!  Have a good one.

Interesting Guy

Reading Ed's blog I read about another blogger (amazing huh?) named Fred Reed.  He is a writer who lives in Mexico and is putting his ideas about life into his blog.  I've dipped into his stuff here and there and find him quite interesting.  Not to say that I agree with his every word but he's got some interesting takes on life.  I just read one that kind of spoke to me.  It's about illegals coming into this country from Central America or Mexico and how difficult the journey can be for an uncomfortable existence in this country.  It spoke to me because my father-in-law's father was such a person.

I don't know much of his story but I know a little.  This guy came over the border in the 1920's or even a little earlier.  He figured that the best way to not get sent back was to be as far from the border as he could.  Personally I think he kind of overdid it; he went to South Dakota!  Somewhere he met an Irish immigrant woman and they married and had the kid that grew up to be my father-in-law.  They were dirt-poor farmers; working for maybe a share of the crop.  Even when he was a small child my father-in-law was working with his parents or doing something to provide for the family.  Farming, hunting, trapping, gathering berries or weeds or whatever, the young man did not have an easy life.  Most of the time they had a house but there were times when they lived in a dis-used railroad car.  If you don't know South Dakota; it can be 95F (35C) in the summer and -20F (-29C) in the winter.  That's a hell of poor excuse for a home.  Eventually the FIL joined the Navy and made his way in the world.  I'm not even sure when his parents passed away but Fred's words reminded me vividly of his story.

We are having a short spell of almost ideal weather.  It's in the mid 60's (18C) at night; almost 90F (32C) in the late afternoon.  We open the windows at night then close up about 09:00.  The house remains comfortable without any air conditioning.  We have eaten out on the porch the last two nights; last night we brought out some of the newly painted boards for our new seating area and enjoyed the sunset in comfort.  It's been a long time getting put together (and isn't quite done yet) but that seating area is going to be great.  The porch deflects a lot of heat from the southern aspect of the house but it does hold the heat for quite a while in the evening.  Being out away from the house is much more comfortable.

I'll close with a photo of a magnet we have on the car.  It's one of the Libertarian ideas we agree with.  The United States needs to get over this idea that we are the policemen of the world.  Have a good one.

Tough week

This has been a pretty tough week for us though in the grand scale of things it's a gnat's eyebrow hair.  Our dog went in for cancer surgery on Monday and just watching the poor thing is tough.  Here's a photo of her when we got her home.

She had masses removed from her right hip (shown), her left side, the inside of her left leg and from her chest.  The chest one and the one inside her left leg were cancerous.  The other two were not.  She was still pretty out of it when I took this photo.  The blue bandage was to keep her from bleeding all over; though it didn't do much of a job of that.  We were a little worried because she is, after all, eleven years old and for a large dog that's getting up there.  However she seems to be recovering quite well.  Here she is on Wednesday waiting for a treat (her pain medication wrapped in some cheese).

Animals are really quite amazing.

Wednesday morning I met Ed from the blog The Peregrinating Graybeard for breakfast and a chat.  He lives in his class C with his dog Patches.  It's easy to see who rules THAT roost!  Happily she treats her person rather well.  Being an idiot I didn't think of taking any photos.  Maybe next time.  Like many full-timers Ed prefers to park his rig in nice weather and in a couple months it's going to be really warm here so he'll be long gone but he'll be back in the fall.  I'd be doing the same if we were full-timing.

Since I'm doing photos this a.m. I'll close with one of the bird bath.  We usually have a selection of small song birds, a couple doves and maybe one pigeon.  Mostly the bird bath gets ignored; I think we've only seen one bird actually bathing.  This morning though was slightly different, the pigeons were enjoying the bath.  Sorry for the quality of the photo; I was using my cell phone and shooting through the venetian blinds.

Have a good one!

AWOL - reason DULL

I haven't blogged in quite a while mainly because life has been pretty dull around here.  We did get a little rain yesterday so have light snow on the mountains.  That makes the place look pretty reasonable!  Otherwise I am still on the photo copying jag.  Most of the photos are ones that I actually kind of remember taking but now I'm into the ones that my mother kept; little Donnie (5.5 months old) in the scale being weighed an all that stuff.  What on earth do I do with that mess???

I don't know how other people do it but we have boxes of photos that have never been put in an album; that's what I'm working with.  (We have tons of albums as well but that's in the future!)  It's kind of fun to stick your hand into a box and bring out a packet of photos not knowing what you are going to find.  Sometimes I find my ex-wife - eek!  Sometimes I find the Eiffel Tower in 1999 when they had a countdown to the new millennium going.

On nice days we've been working on benches for our new outdoor seating area.  Here is a photo of the prototype as it stands now.

As you can see, we aren't really into lawn mowing.  The 'T' shaped concrete pad is new as is the seating.  The seating is pretty minimalistic; just boards on top of concrete blocks but we just want to go out there for a drink at sunset so getting too fancy won't work.  It also has to be pretty solid to stay in place when the wind blows.  We'll do a little more work on it, like painting it, but not a lot.  Yet to be discovered/created/decided upon are tables for the ends of each bench and a fire-pit for the center of the 'U'.  Also, in the background, you can see the new spa.  Yes, those are concrete blocks on top of the spa; we've been having heavy winds lately and the top was straining at the clips that keep it anchored.  We figured we'd rather heave the blocks around to get into the spa than to have to chase the top across the road!  The little stumpy posts are electric outlets.  We had to run 240V electric to the spa so ran 120V to each concrete pad at the same time figuring that at some point we'll want it out there.  At the moment we are not thinking of covering either pad but the sun in July might change our minds.  We'll see.

At any rate that's enough of my dullness, have a good one!

Just a thought...

We hear constantly about obesity in America and how eating out is a primary cause.  Today I had an excellent demonstration of that.  We have a all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet here in town called The China Wok.  We never go because we don't eat enough to make it reasonable however we do get take-out from them.  Today I picked up some hot-and-sour soup for my wife and some chicken with broccoli for myself.  My wife has half of her soup left and I have a tupperware full of chicken-broccoli and another full of fried rice.  It's just amazing the amount of food you are offered; yet more amazing that some people actually eat that much!  Wow!

Yesterday we spent the day in Las Vegas.  We went to a place called Bachi Burger for lunch.  It's in a little strip mall well away from the Strip.  They do $7 to $25 hamburgers with an asian twist.  You can get Wagyu beef if you want and toppings include things like kim chee or hoisin mayo or a fried egg.  We each had the $7 burger and split some salt and pepper garlic french fries.  It was all quite good.  They did my wife's burger rare as she requested; mine was also rare though I had requested med-rare.  The fries were tiny - most were about an inch long and thin but they were quite good and the garlic aioli was excellent.  We'll probably go back but I couldn't rate it as fantastic.  The reviews are good, probably better than I would give it but that's what makes a horse race.

We also got to see our daughter's new cat.  She adopted a rescued animal and we think she got a nice little critter.  She's part Siamese with big blue eyes and has six toes on each foot.  The front paws are especially odd with four toes together then a gap and then two more.  Odd looking but the cat seems to have a great personality and is quite friendly.  She's supposed to be four years old and seems quite happy in her new home though she doesn't let our daughter out of her sight for long.

Otherwise we did our usual shopping; coming home with the RAV full of scotch and wine and paper towels and such.  Life in the fast lane!  LOL  It was a bit over 80F (27C) and we were both wearing long pants so we got to run the a/c for the first time this year.  No fear, it will be on every time we start the car before long.

When I can force myself to do it I've been copying old photos to the computer.  It does get dreadfully boring even for me and I took most of them.  Still, having them in digital format means we will be able to share them much more easily.  We haven't decided yet what is going to happen to the photos themselves; I think it will depend on the amount of space required.  I'm already got half a pail full of duplicate photos weeded out.  Anyway, here are a couple from Florida in the 1980's.  Have a good one.

To be tutored....

One of my favorite cartoonists is Scott Adams creator of the Far Side cartoons.  One of my favorites shows a dog yelling out the car window to the cat saying "I'm going to the vet to get tutored!"  Well, we got to take our dog to the vet today but only for her normal shots since she was 'tutored' many years ago.  Today's visit wasn't a big deal but she has some lumps on her body that we wanted the vet to see.  As we feared, the vet doesn't like the look of them at all and wants to remove them.  It was hardly a surprise, Sammie, the dog, has had cancerous tumors removed twice (2007 and 2010) and we are getting to know what it looks like.  She has four lumps that should be removed for a total cost of $800.  We haven't really decided yet but we'll probably go ahead and do it.  Watching the dog die of cancer doesn't sound like that much fun.

I made a little more progress on the seating area in the back yard.  I cut some of the support boards and moved the concrete blocks around to make them more uniform.  My wife is the official family painter so hopefully she'll get to paint a bit this weekend.  I still need to get some more wood so I guess I'll be in the queue at Home Depot tomorrow.  We still haven't figured out what kind of end tables we want; all I'm sure of is that they have to be higher than the dog's tail.  She can sweep a drink off a table with that tail of hers before you can blink!  I'd like to cast them from concrete with ceramic tiles inset but I'm not sure I have the skill. 

Last night we sat out there for an hour and a half or so just enjoying the view and the mild weather.  It was quite nice but as we sat there watching the sunset a cloud bank developed and the sky was mostly overcast by the time the sun set.  This morning dawned bright with hardly a cloud in the sky.  Odd stuff.  Now the forecast for tomorrow is for a sunny day but 25-35mph (40-55kph) breezes with higher gusts.  What's that old saw about March coming in like a lamb and going out like a lion?  Grrrr says the weather.

Here's a photo I took probably thirty years ago:  windows from a building reflected in the windows of a second building.  Have a good one!

Quiet day

This has been a fairly quiet day.  We got up and had breakfast and watched the Malaysian Grand Prix - or at least most of it.  We record the race on our DVR and always add an extra half hour or so in case there is some delay.  Well, this time there was a huge rain delay after 8 laps so even with our extra time we lost out on the last 10 laps or so.  We hate it when this happens but it's a bunch better than watching an hour worth of commercials!  Not to mention that the race is run at about 02:00 our time.  Fernando Alonzo driving a Ferrari won much to everyone's surprise.  Way to go Fernando!

We also took a walk out in the desert.  It's been quite a while since we've done that and the poor dog was really dragging by the time we made it home.  She is as out of shape as we are.  Now that the weather is getting nicer we'll all get back to walking regularly.  After the walk I filled up the sprayer and went weed hunting.  Our 'lawn' is all rock with a few cacti planted here and there.  Unfortunately that leaves lots of room for weeds to pop up.  Last year I sprang for the $100 bottle of concentrated weed killer and used about half of it.  We don't have anywhere near the same number of weeds so far this year so I'm hoping that bottle will keep us weed free for at least three years.  I can manage $30 a year but $100 was hurting my feelings!

Copying our photographs is taking time but I think it will be worth it.  I wanted to start with something good so I started with our 1993 trip to Europe.  It was a pretty good time though my wife did get ill from her allergies about half way through the three weeks we were there.  At the time we didn't know what was up and thought it was a flu or cold.  Now we know that if she doubles up on her medication she would be fine.

Having a glass of wine on the balcony and watching the Rhine go by was NOT tough duty!  The beard sure isn't that color any more though.  Jeez, it just occurred to me that next year will be the 20th anniversary of that trip!  OMG!  Hmmm, maybe we'll have to have someone keep the dog and cat so we can make a return visit. 

We are off to have some Thai food.  The people make pretty good food but can't deal if they have more than five customers.  Gotta go early.  Have a good one!

Vegas again!

Yesterday we made the big trip 'over the hump' to Las Vegas again.  This time it was for a kind of different reason:  we wanted to visit a museum!  Yeah, not exactly what Las Vegas is known for but they actually do have some decent cultural things.  This was the National Atomic Testing Museum.  As most people know, the US government carried on above and below ground testing of nuclear weapons in Nevada for many years.  The area that was used is known as the Nevada Test Site and is northwest of Las Vegas here in Nye County.  The southern edge is probably about 20 miles (32km) from here. 

It was an interesting place to visit; they try to cover everything from the development of the a-bomb to modern day nuclear science.  The a-bomb was, of course, developed elsewhere but after the war the government wanted to keep playing with it's new toy.  First they tried it out on some islands in the South Pacific but the commute was just too much for them and they decided to use someplace that was closer but pretty uninhabited; like Nye County, Nevada.  They did a lot of testing over the years and now are using the facility for storage of low grade nuclear waste.  We are told that this would be stuff like a pair of coveralls that were used in a nuclear facility and over time picked up a bit of radioactivity.  It works for me; the facility is out in the middle of nowhere and that stuff needs to be stored somewhere.  My only problem with the museum is that it doesn't have much focus; I mean they even had a section of the Berlin Wall and a piece of steel from the World Trade Center.  WTF has either of those things to do with Atomic Testing?

The museum had a special exhibit on Area 51 where all kinds of secret activities are supposed to have taken place from the development of the U2 aircraft to the storage of aliens from outer space.  I'm sure there were lots of secret things going on out there but the exhibit did nothing to enlighten one; it was titillating but that was about it.  Like so much in Vegas it was lots of show but no go.  You are charged extra for the exhibit and I cannot really recommend it.  Spend an hour on the internet and you will know as much or more than if you visited it.  Here are a couple of links:  for Area 51 and a map showing the location of the Test Site.

Enjoy and have a good one!

Not so regular posting.....

I've not been very regular about posting lately and I've noticed that quite a few of the blogs I follow are also becoming more irregular.  No idea why; let's blame the solar flare. 

We've been working (irregularly as well) at getting our outdoor seating area trialed.  I put up a prototype bench just to see if we thought it might work, then another prototype and now we have a good idea of what the thing will look like.  We even went out and bought a bunch of paint so that's serious intent!  These are just simple backless bench seats.  It's a  place where we can go out and admire the sunset on the mountains or the stars in the cold night sky.  This is such a lovely valley but you need to get out away from houses and lights to take full advantage of the beauty.  It is also a brutal place.  110F (43C) isn't unusual for a few weeks in the summer and 20F (-7C) is our usual low for several weeks in the winter.  Earlier this month we had wind gusts of 85 mph (135 kph).  Our furniture is being designed so we can leave it out year-round and need not worry about it. It is also designed so that if we decide we don't like it in a year, we can just get rid of it.  Minimal investment, maximum utility is our mantra.

I was reading in Glenn's blog how much he enjoyed reading "Blue Highways" by William Least Heat Moon.  He was so persuasive that I had to go rent it from the library.  My goodness, can that man write!  He convinced me I need to read the book from standing in the library reading the first sentence.  If you haven't read it, I can recommend it most highly.  The author is traveling the back-roads of America in 1978, visiting some amazing places and meeting amazing people.  Thank you Glenn!

I also must admit that this sort of travelog is one of my minor addictions.  I've even become addicted to Larry the Cable Guy's show on History channel "Only in America".  This is certainly NOT the only interesting country in the world but Larry does meet some amazing people while wandering around.  The folks he meets are a diverse group; country squirrel hunters, professional fishermen, rodeo clowns and a whole lot more.  It is presented from Larry's country boy persona but he manages to ask intelligent questions and is clearly impressed by the difficulty of people's jobs. 

I'm going to try to get back on this horse and do more posting.  I hope some of my favorite bloggers do the same.  Have a good one!

Happy Late St. Patrick's Day

I hope everyone had a good St. Patrick's Day; well, as good as an Irish protestant could wish for you.  My dad always claimed to be from the North of Ireland and relations with the Catholic saints have not been good for the last several hundred years.  Not that I give a rats a$$ about that since I'm not even a protestant!

Our neighbors in Florida always gave a big party on St. Paddy's Day and we have tried to make the traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner.  Last year the corned beef was just plain tough; this year it was much better though I'm not sure what caused the improvement.  At any rate, it was good, everything was good.  My wife even gave soda bread a try (from 'Beard on Bread' - remember cookbooks?) and it was really very nice.  In fact I'm expecting to put a hurt on the loaf this morning for my breakfast.  Yum!

To enhance the Irish experience our weather even cooperated and it rained the entire afternoon, a fine soft Irish sort of rain but quite a bit for us.  Weather underground says we got .73 of an inch (1.8 cm)!  I'm absolutely amazed. 

My wife and I needed a bit more Irish though so we watched 'The Quiet Man' with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.  Filmed by John Ford in Ireland in 1952, it's the story of a retired boxer who returns to the Irish village in which he was born and finds his true love.  I understand there was a 'chemistry' between Wayne and O'Hara and it comes through in this sentimental film  It works especially well though when you are full of corned beef and cabbage and Guinness.  Yes, I had to have a Guinness though the bottled version basically sucks.  Well, even the tap version that we get in this country isn't as good as they have in England and I'm hoping that the Irish would be even better.  Maybe I'll make it there one day and try it out.    

Until then, have a good one!

My ......

I don't know what to call this but the simple answer is 'my MG'.  It is a 1969 MG-B that I bought used in 1971.  There was a problem with the paint on the hood (bonnet) so I had the dealer re-paint it.  BIG MISTAKE; in a couple of years the paint wasn't even close to matching.  Oh well, guess I learned from that.  In this photo it has an aftermarket fiberglass top; it was ok but wore through the paint on the rear deck even though it was supposed to be mounted in such a way as to not put pressure on it.  This was when I lived in the Pacific Northwest and the additional protection from the rain and the cold was worth quite a bit!  I kept the car until 1996;  bought it in Texas, moved to Washington, moved to Orlando, back to Washington and finally sold it when we lived in New Jersey to a guy who wanted to restore it for his wife.  For much of it's life it carried my tool kit around in the trunk.  It's embarrassing how often I needed something from that kit!  I bought the RAC emblem before I had the car!  I'm that much of a nerd.

Photo copying is still in progress.  I should be done with the slides in another week or ten days.  Heaven only knows how the photo copying will go since just getting them out of the albums will be a chore!  Sent one to a friend and she responded the next day with a couple old photos of me.  Hmmm, I guess there are people in this world who are much more organized than I.  We were attending Western Washington University at the time and helping each other through Calculus.  I'll close with that.  Have a good one!

Quiet Day Today

Haven't done much at all.  The high point seems to be having loaded a new version of Quicken so I can see how our accounting is fairing.  Talk about life in the fast lane; I'm chasing the family accountant!  Actually I shouldn't make fun of accountants; when I was studying for my Computer Science degree, the accountants had lots more parties than the Comp Sci folks did.  I was even tempted to go for my CPA credentials but stupidly didn't do it.  Oh well, just goes to show that my current level of stupidity isn't the result of accident.  I worked for it!

The incredible geniuses at TD Ameritrade sent me a pamphlet entitled "Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options"  It was written in 1994; has 94 pages of crap about options.  Then there are 72 pages of supplemental information and 16 pages of supplemental information printed only in January and March of 2011.  Let's face it folks, options are NOT for the average investor.  Aside from a covered call, it's really dangerous territory out there.  This is ONE area that I'd consider marked 'For Professionals Only'. 

The thing is that options are investments that are based on your view of the future.  There are two ways to play them. 
1)   You buy the option (a call) of purchasing X at $5 within the next three months(time is variable but I'm just using 3 months).  If X is only selling for $4 at that time; your option is worthless.  If X is selling for $10, you can get it for $5 and look like a hero. 
2)  You sell a 'put' offering to sell X for $5 within the next three months.  A 'covered call' is when you actually own the stock; if you don't own it it's an 'uncovered call'.  If X is only worth $4; you have gotten the money from the 'put' for nothing.  If X is selling for $10, you are selling for $5 and look like a schmuck.  It's even worse if you were selling shares in X that you didn't own (yes, that is the uncovered call) so you  have to buy them for $10 and re-sell for  $5.  Yep, that can happen.  Lucky you!

OK; that was 'Options 101' - call TD Ameritrade and ask for their 170+ page booklet if you want to know more.  They will love you.  My OPINION is that aside from writing a 'covered call' where you own some stock and offer to sell it for some ridiculous sum in the future; you are crazy if you fool with options.  It is simply putting your money on the line about if you think a stock (or whatever) is going to go up or go down.  Kind of like gambling in Las Vegas.  And I DEFINITELY  cannot tell the future.  If you can, here's the way to great wealth. Go forward, grasshopper, with my blessings and envy. 

Wheeler Pass Rd.

Today I took a little drive up Wheeler Pass Road.  I suppose it crosses through the Spring Mountains but I sure didn't go that far.  It's gravel and I went about 8 miles up before I turned around.  I could probably go quite a bit farther but that was enough for me.  Our town's elevation is 2,695 feet (820m); my GPS said the place where I turned around was at 5,396 feet(1,645m).  It's not a lot but it was pretty continuously UP.  I down-shifted the truck to control the speed on the way down or I would have been on the brakes every inch.  It's a nice, wild place.  Needless to say I forgot my camera so we only have cell-phone photos.

 You can see that the Joshua Tree is doing well up there along with the usual desert scrub.  That is the same Mt. Charleston that is on the blog header; just with a bit less snow and from a different angle.  There are a lot of trails for ATVs and dirt bikes; it makes me want one!  Maybe we'll manage that another year.  The road is probably maintained as a fire road by the BLM.  It's a good gravel road wide enough to meet someone in most places.  In a couple places I saw horse droppings, there are wild horses up here but they were all hiding.

The trip was kind of an antidote to yesterday which we spent wandering around in Las Vegas.  We had a few errands to do and ended up getting home about 17:00.  That's a long day for this old goat and the city traffic is a pain in the ass.  However, we got spa chlorine and shoes and all kinds of stuff.  I like Las Vegas, I really do.  I think it was the errands that were all over the map that bothered me.  I've got to go over, sit in a casino and people watch.  That would be a great day!  Walmartians have nothing on the people you see in Sin City.

We did have breakfast in the casino here in town on Thursday.  It has a sign in the men's room that I've certainly never seen anywhere else.  I'm pretty sure it's not aimed at diabetics.

Ain't it a wonderful world.  Have a good one!

Did I mention rain?

The other day when we had all the wind, we got a few drops of rain.  This is an un-retouched photo of our bathroom window.

I have done nothing to it but make it smaller than the original.  You are looking at a concrete block wall with some evergreens beyond it.  Yep, looks like someone has been messing with the photo but it is just a dirty window.  Now I'm glad we didn't wash the windows for our visitors!  Here's a link to the local paper.

We have lots of clean-up but it's pretty minor stuff really.  Since we have no trees, we have no branches down.  Since our cars were in the garage, we don't have to wash them.  (The local car wash was still doing a great business today.)  We do have to clean the windows but they needed it anyway.  I'm happy!  We managed an 85mph (135kph) gust of wind according to the tv news.  Impressive, I must say.  We looked out at our new spa and the cover was trying to fly away.  I put 4 concrete blocks on it to dissuade it from leaving.  Worked like a champ too.  Of course, only in Pahrump to you need to have a stock of spare concrete blocks!  Our wind-sock blew down so I put it back up.  Fifteen minutes later it was at a 45 degree angle again.  Rats!  The second time I put in a new lower clamp that we've never needed before.  So far, so good. 

One thing happened that I've never heard of before but apparently it is a result of really low air pressure in our attic.  We have a simple attic entrance that consists of a piece of plywood fitted into a square in the ceiling.  Somehow it was pulled off the opening and insulation rained down on our floor.  That's why I noticed it; there was this white crap all over the hall.  Then I looked up and saw the plywood was moved to one side.  Amazing!  Went up there and didn't see any real damage.  I should re-position some of the insulation but that is definitely something for another day. 

So, here is to some quiet days.  At least we were dealing with nature.  Friends of friends in Mexico had a bit more of a problem with humanity.  Take care folks!

Vindy!

It's VINDY today - The Weather Channel says 20 mph (32kph) but they lie!  My cell phone info also comes from The Weather Channel and on it they say 38 mph (61kph) - that's more like it. I'm just going to have to get a weather station so I can monitor this stuff!

Had a great weekend with our son & daughter-in-law who came over from San Diego to celebrate his 40th birthday.  Wow!  How did that happen?  It the slides I've been copying he's only about 10.  Of course his mother and I are skinny and only about 30 ourselves in those photos.  We mostly ate out.  Here that is frought with difficulty.  We went to Stockman's inside the Golden Nugget casino.  The food was good but the wait between our salads and our dinner was almost an hour!  And that's one of the better restaurants in town!  There are others we can't take anyone to because they are so unreliable.  Going in to Vegas is investing about two and a half hours in driving before adding in the time to actually eat.  Grrrr!

When I worked in Seattle, we were on the 24th floor of a building that isn't even there any more.  We had good views though.  This would be when we'd get off the elevator on the 18th floor and walk up because we all needed the exercise.  Don't do stuff like that anymore! 

This is Elliot Bay from the old Pacific Northwest Bell building.  The light is kind of subdued because the windows were heavily tinted.  You can tell it's a nice summer day though, it isn't raining!  Have a good one.

Just fooling around

I haven't blogged lately because I'm not doing much of interest.  We DID get electric for the hot tub:  the two guys arrived at 08:00 and left at 19:30.  They were gone for about an hour for lunch and to return the trenching machine to the rental place.  We like this guy because he does a very professional job; including showing up on time which is unfortunately rare these days.

We've tried out the hot tub a couple of times.  We bought from a company called LA Spas; based in California but they have an outlet here.  We are very happy with it so far; the warm water is great and the jets feel pretty good on the old back too.  The owner's manual leaves a lot to be desired but... we can cope.  We aren't asking a lot from the thing so it should be ok.  No photos, sorry about that but when we are alone we keep the tub as a clothing free zone and this isn't that kind of blog!

I'm still copying old slides to the computer.  I bought a Epson V500 because it got pretty good reviews on Amazon without costing an arm and a leg; so far it's doing fine.  I've done 650 slides so far and estimate I've got a couple thousand more to copy.  All I'm doing is copying them and giving some identifiable names.  There is software that came with the machine to clean up the images but I tried it a couple times and wasn't too impressed.  Not only did it not do much of a cleanup job but it made the slow process of copying the slide even slower.  Hell, my photos aren't that special anyway!  Here's an example from 1980; see I was fascinated with shadow even then.

Today I'm building a prototype bench seat for our star viewing.  I say prototype because my wife and I have different views of what we need.  Neither of us is a good enough draftsman to convey what we want to do so a prototype is required.  Fortunately it's only a couple of boards and a few concrete blocks!  If I had to actually build something I'd need serious help.  I put wheels on a set of shelves a week or so ago and it took me two hours.  Grrr!

Gotta go.  Have a good one.