Monday, August 13, 2012

AND WHY ISN’T A FOOTLONG HOT DOG…..A FOOT LONG!!!!

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CAUGHT THIS CANADIAN TIGER SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY WITH MY LITTLE CARRY ALONG POINT & SHOOT CANON POWERSHOT SX210IS THIS AFTERNOON…TAKEN FROM OUR CAR WINDOW NEAR OUR MAIL ROOM WITH THE LENS FULLY ZOOMED

Only thing we did today was slip down to Mitchell & see Uncle Harry. He seemed to be feeling better than the last few weeks & Pheebs even got some smiles out of him. Harry has a bit of a problem talking on the telephone now so his sister, Jean (Aunt Jean) emailed us a letter for him & we printed it off & the photo below shows Kelly reading the letter to Harry this morning.

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ON THE WAY HOME OUR LITTLE BACK SEAT DOGGY SOMEHOW SLIPPED ONTO MOM’S LAP IN THE FRONT SEAT

Had an email from RETIRED ROD the other day wondering if we had considered buying & towing a small enclosed utility trailer to Arizona this winter. It would hook onto the Jeep behind the rig & we could load it with some stuff for our house there. Briefly thought about that but discounted the idea for several reasons. Don't think I would be real comfortable towing a combination like that for starters. We may have to go the long way round to reach Arizona this winter & I'm sure the extra weight of a trailer would chew through a lot more gas. I do need a utility trailer down there but it does not have to be anything fancy. Just a simple box on wheels like we have here in Bayfield. There's no room in the Jeep to put anything of size we might find at garage sales etc. Just need it to haul home some rocks & stuff from the desert & take garbage to the local dump. Paid $300 for our Bayfield utility trailer just about 10 years ago now & it has served us well.  (a big thanks to neighbor & friend Bruce who refurbished it two summers ago)

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SURE HAVE HAULED A LOT OF STUFF IN THIS SIMPLE LITTLE UTILITY TRAILER OVER THE YEARS

Kelly came across another RV Blogger's travel blog awhile back. Fellow's name is Andy Baird & you will find some very excellent nature photography here along with his narrative. Be sure to check out his MOUNT EVANS post photos of wild Mountain Goats. I have put him on our sidebar……but, like ED FREY'S blog, it doesn't update itself with each post so unfortunately it will continually sit at the bottom of the list.  I've never been able to figure that problem out.  At least you have some company down there now Ed:))

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Just occurred to me today that I missed my annual foot long hot dog back in the Spring. For over 9 years now I've made an annual trip to the south end of Bayfield for my foot long hot dog (with the works) at the Woodland Drive-In. Maybe I figured until they found the missing 3 inches, I wasn't going back because every year I went I would end up asking myself the same question!! Why isn't a footlong hot dog......a foot long?? I always suspected the foot long of being a shorty, so one day I took along my tape measure & measured the dog & sure enough it came out to 9 inches. Why is that!!!! If your going to call it a footlong hot dog then make it a foot long!! Does not 12 inches = 12 inches anymore?? Why can't the butcher & the baker get together & agree to match their products to 12 inches. (no, the Candlestick maker has nothing to do with this) Or, maybe the Drive-In should be advertising them as, "9 inchTube Steaks" or "Mini-Footlongs" or "Stretched 8 inch Dogs" or "Shortened Pig in a Blanket" or "Swine in Nine!!" Or maybe they should just knock off 40 cents an inch or something. I'm not singling out the Woodland Drive-In here & I bet anywhere one goes for a foot long hot dog it is probably going to come out on the shorter end of things. Throw a tape measure in your pocket & check it out next time.
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OLD FOOTLONG HOT DOG FILE PHOTO (looks like I may have already chomped an end off this dog)
And why is that every time I go to put an electrical plug into a socket it is never the right way round. The fat prong is always at the smaller hole & vice versa. And since when did extension cords have to have minds of their own. No matter how straight I lay out a long extension cord, as soon as I turn my back it twists itself up like a spastic pretzel & the longer I'm away the more spastiker it gets!! Tangled extension cords can reduce me to tears in seconds:(( And garden hoses.....where do they get off thinking they're so smart. Try & walk anywhere with a garden hose in your hand & it's going to snag itself on something. Even if there's nothing there to snag itself on, it's going to snag itself anyway just to be miserable. And to add insult to injury, it will kink itself as well. I call that a kink & snag!! Kinks & snags can also reduce me to tears in seconds:(( And how about whenever you bend over to pick something up, you have to drop it!! I call that...... pick & drop. Happens to me almost every time.  Bend over to pick something up, drop it, pick it again, drop it again, pick up again……well, you know how it goes!!  Hate when that happens.

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And why does the shovel, rake, or whatever long handled device you lean against a tree or something, have to fall over as soon as you turn your back. I have leaned garden rakes against things, stood there & stared at it to make sure it wouldn't fall, turned around to walk away......."clunk!!" And how come I can't hit a nail on the head like everybody else. Awhile back I was nailing up some old pine fence rails with 5 inch nails. No big deal except it would take me 10 swings at that nail to hit it twice. And when I did hit it, the nail would go in crooked or go flying off over the fence into the flowerbed somewhere!! Hammers & nails can reduce me to tears in seconds. And, don't even ask me about small gasoline engines:((
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DRIVE-WAY GATE TO OUR BACK YARD
I do have one good thing on my side though. A darn good handy & patient wife. I was trying to put air in one of the Santa Fe's tires one morning. Getting air into a tire for me has always been a major feat. I don't know why that is but it just is. Had the compressor going full tilt but try as I might the air just wouldn't co-operate again. Kelly walks over, picks up the hose, puts it on the valve & whoosh, all the happy little air particle guys merrily rush off into the tire. Same thing happened a few years ago on the Ranch in Arizona when I was trying to blow up a bicycle tire. No way Jose!! Kelly comes over & whoosh, away go the happy little air guys again. These kinds of happenings are almost a daily occurrence at our house but instead of looking on the negative side of things & my limited abilities, I have to look on the positive side & be thankful I have a mechanically patient, calm, cool, & collected wife who understands her husband is a bit of an impatient boob when it comes to handyman things. But hey.......I'm still pretty darned good at getting tightly stuck on jar lids off..............:))

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In Sunday's post I talked about our experience at the south rim of the Grand Canyon & a few people mentioned we would like the North Rim better. Couldn't agree more. I first visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in May of 1992 & Kelly & I were there back in November of 07 before swinging around to the south rim a few days later. No comparison between the two rims as far as people go. Both times at the North Rim there were no great hordes of people. Especially when Kelly & I were there. Maybe half a dozen cars in the parking lot, if that. Totally loved the North Rim & would like to go back & spend a week or so there sometime. In the meantime be sure to check out Chuck & Gerri's post over at HAPPY TRAILS. They have some great photos of a storm passing through the Canyon. They met another RV Blogger at the rim who was able to show them around. GAELYN is a Park Ranger there. We met Chuck & Gerri at Darby Wells Road near Ajo Arizona this past winter & we met Gaelyn near Congress Arizona this past March when we dropped in to see RV SUE & HER CANINE CREW boondocked in the desert near the end of Ghost Town Road:))

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HOPE TO RETURN & SPEND MORE TIME HERE ONE DAY

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day drinking beer. And, did you know that a fine is a tax for doing wrong & a tax is a fine for doing well.
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- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

- Home is where your pet is:))

- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)

- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward

- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.


stargeezerguy@gmail.com

17 comments:

  1. I have a solution for your plugs. Which end is up? Just put a dab of white paint of the up side then you'll always know 'this end up'.

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  2. I just measured my foot, and it is 9" long... there you go! Multi-year long question solved! :)

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  3. It's sort of like a pound of coffee being 10 oz. It's just a trick to make us think prices don't go up.

    I am under the impression that some states won't allow you to tow double. If you decide to do that, be sure you don't go through a state that will snag you somewhere along the route.

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  4. And what ever happened to the 20 lb bags of Charcoal??Now they are 18 lbs at the same price....do they think we are that stupid??

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  5. ... and mayonnaise!! My Best Foods mayonnaise now has a dimple in the bottom of the jar so that it looks to be the same size but that "quart" of mayonnaise is now 30 oz, not 32. But I did like your description of "swine in 9"!

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  6. swine in nine?..good one!!..you are making yourself sound like a 'bumbling' man..I am sure it is not that bad!!..I have a jar that needs loosening?

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  7. Dollar stores must think they are putting one over on us too. Some of their stuff is cheaper but their packages are smaller.

    My DH is liable to take a sledge hammer to something if he can't get it to work. If I have a project I wait until he is gone. I sure don't want any help.

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  8. Al, all the things that matter you do with panache - just ask Pheebs. The rest of it is just there to remind you that you should be playing with her or taking photos.

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  9. Another great post!
    Do you remember when power outlets only had two holes the same size? Oh the great days of power tools without so many safety gadgets to make any job twice the trouble. I was so happy to buy a Honda mower that keeps running when I dump the bag. It appears to be a step in the right direction.
    I do not have the money you have, so I bought a real cheap lens for my D-50. I will post some pic,s after I get halfway good with it.
    Thanks for all your photo tips.

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  10. I wonder if the child perspective comes into use on the foot long hot dogs, you know, how things looks so large when you were a kid. I remember as a kid my Grandfather would drive us 40 miles once a summer to Hot Dog Johnny's on 46 in the Delaware Water Gap on the New Jersey side, to have what was then reputed to be the best hot dogs in the world, and yes they had a foot long as you described that looked huge. A couple years ago on a visit to Pa. I went to Johnny's, yes it's still there but looking old and worn, and yes their foot longs didn't measure up either. Ah the reality of life is setting in. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna....

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  11. You must have me excused, Al, but I laughed my head of at your 'reduce-me -to tears-things'. But you can rest asured that you are not the only one with those little problems. Give me a rope or a garden hose and I will get it twisted. Even the darn dog leash I manage to twist. And then Bea comes and de-twists the stuff in a heartbeat.
    It has been like that my whole life.

    When it come to measures: Have you ever checked a 2x4 on its correct measures? Or a 2x6 or 4x4? Tell ya it's the same story. Somebody takes advantage of us dummies.

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  12. With everything going metric, all sizes have changed just to trick us into not raising the prices just making the products smaller.

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  13. Al, I can relate to your experience with tools, plugs, etc. Luckily, I'm also married to someone who can handle all these chores that I would mess up in a heartbeat!

    Gypsy is correct in stating that certain states do not allow double towing. Don't think we'd want to try that either. We're still getting use to the motor home pulling a toad.

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  14. You say that I now have some company at the bottom of your Fellow Blogger list. I have to say that I'm in good company with Andy Baird, a great blogger that was away for a while when his father died. He is also the 'Dean' of Lazy Daze modifications and other RV improvement tips.

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  15. Al, you were describing me almost to a T! In my case, add the things that disappear when you put them down. I can lay a screwdriver on the workbench while looking for the right screw, and when I return, the screwdriver is gone. So I put down the screw to look for the screwdriver, which I never find so I get a different screwdriver, and the screw disappears in the meantime. Same thing with hammers and nails. And when I bend down to pick up something, I look around for something else to do while I'm down there (old joke, I know). I certainly agree about hoses, rakes, etc. Good post.

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  16. While I can hammer some nails into place, for any sort of serious construction I've abandoned them for screws. Here in CA (the West Coast one not the Great White North one) most home improvement stores sell nice 3" screws with a "gold" finish that can hold all sorts of work together. Maybe someday my wife will let me buy a second drill so that I don't have to keep switching between the guide-hole drill and the driver bit!

    Craig MacKenna

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  17. Clothes hangers reduce me to tears. You get one to hang up a shirt and they spring out everywhere. I am also like you when hammering a nail. I am very careful not to get any fingers anywhere near that nail because the hammer heads straight for them bypassing the nail.

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