Tuesday, January 13, 2015

ALWAYS ENJOY HELPFUL FEEDBACK NOT ONLY ON MY BLOG BUT OTHER BLOGS AS WELL

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IT IS GREAT CLOUD PATTERNS LIKE THIS WHICH LATER IN THE DAY MAKE FOR GREAT ARIZONA SUNSETS

Had us a fiery splash of pastel colors stretching across our evening sky as another Arizona sunset settled in over our distant western horizon.  Colors playfully bounded overhead streaming from cloud to cloud touching each with an artists palette of golds & yellows, rose colors, & blushing pinks.  It was a site to behold.DSC_2810

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CAN YOU SEE EYES IN THE BIG CLOUD WATCHING YOU

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It is well known I do not like hot weather but I do like to be on the warm side.  Through winter months desert nights can be uncomfortably cold.  It’s just the way it is here in the southwest & staying cozily warm while out in the boonies can be a challenge.  In their latest post Cherie & Chris from Technomadia address’s those cold nights with tips & advice on how to stay warm & conserve energy & heat.  Kelly & I differ in our heat level comforts.  When we had our Class A Damon with our Legacy Blue Flame heater hooked up I was cozy as toast in the front half of the rig each night with temps hovering well over 70 while Kelly in the back half of the coach would often sleep with her window open while temperatures hovered somewhere down around icicle level.  A few posts ago I included a link to Peter & Bea's post about their struggles against a fierce Alberta winter while living in their travel travel.  A Michigan couple also toughing out the winter in their 5th wheel are having a bit of a time with it as well…… The Mysterious RV Refrigerator.

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Happy times over at Miss Adventure Travels as Doug Laning brings Yuma Arizona Laning home today.  It was a long process since Doug first laid eyes on Yuma back on December 27th.  I think it’s the start of a great friendship & these 2 guys are going to end up being best of Pals.  Doug even thinks he & Yuma look alike.  Slip on over & you be the judge who’s the best looker at their house now:))

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Heavy clouds & lite rains returned during our overnight dark hours.  Upside of our recent rains make digging in hard desert dirt easier for me.  Yep, still working away at my various little cactus garden projects.  DSC_2816

Hey I just made it through a paragraph without having to use a word I use way too often & one which bugs me just about every time I use it.  I am determined to minimize it wherever I can re-write my sentences around it.  What is that word??  ‘The’……Geeeezzzz, now I gotta work on another overused word which I just used 6 times in 3 sentences.  It’s that word ‘I’ which too many times dominates my writings………………

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A commenter over in our Shout Box has obviously not read my blog for any length of time or if the commenter has he/she would not have had a reasonably intelligent reason for leaving that comment.  I do again suspect a he.  It is true we have made an extra effort to see a few more folks recently but it is still not the norm for us.  And why would it bother someone anyway unless of course it is my usual antagonist still throwing stones.  I will just file that comment under ‘Sour Grapes’.

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It wasn’t a long run in the Jeep we had but at least Pheebs & I made it to Congress’s Dollar Store for a quart of milk this afternoon.  Of course when I walked back out towards our Jeep she was all wonkers thinking I had one of our usual Tuna Sub’s for us to split.  Sorry Pheebs, gotta wait till we get back to our country road runs in Bayfield.  Heading back home we stopped at Congress’s B&B garage to inquire about one of our new burnt-out headlights.  Just had it installed October 20th but no warranty on it.  No choice but to pick up a another new one at O’Reilly’s in Wickenburg & see if I can hook it up myself.  Think I got a screw driver around here somewhere & if not I have my trusty fix-all hammer.  No idea why a less than 3 month old head light would burn out:((

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Had one little section of cactus garden to dig up this morning & figured after last night’s & this morning’s rain I would be able to dig easier in our hardened driveway gravel.  Nope, almost bent the shovel blade in half.  Remembered my big 22-10 ton steel shanked & steel toed work boots from years ago when I was helping with some tree cutting in our 5 Seasons Park.  And yes with all that steel in them it feels like they weigh 10 tons too.  With heavier boots I was able to bring more power to bear on my shovels steel blade & eventually managed to turn over some very hard gravelly dirt.  Not often I work up a sweat anymore but by golly I sure did just that this morning finishing up my last little cactus bed project.  Well, I always say it’s my last project but then……………….scuffle, dig, scrape, grunt a bit, swear a lot, dig some more, grunt some more, & darned if I’m not at it again!!  I have a couple small painting projects in our house so I had better get myself turned around a bit & some priorities straightened out.  Scuffle, scrape, grunt, & swear.  Better get at it & better take care:))

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HAVEN’T HAD THESE WORK BOOTS ON SINCE BACK ABOUT 2005

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MANAGED TO DIG ME IN 2 OF SOME 40 ALOE VERA TYPE PLANTS THIS AFTERNOON

Skies cleared about mid morning once again lifting our Spirits.  Amazing healing powers old Sol has.  Kelly a few days ago noticed one of our neighbors had thrown a whole bunch of dug out Aloe Vera type plants into a ditch by his place.  Seeing him today Kelly asked if he was throwing them out & if so could we have them to which he replied ‘sure’.  Well we weren’t long in getting over there with our wheelbarrow & scooping about 40 plants.  May go back for more tomorrow.  We already have some of these plants & they do very well spreading out creating a great ground cover.  I’ll have my work cut out for me Wednesday morning getting them all planted.  It was a bonus find:))

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MOURNING DOVES BATHED IN TWILIGHT’S GLOW

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SILHOUETTED DOVES ON A WIRE

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A GREAT ORANGE GUERILLA WITH ARMS UP LEANS FORWARD OUT OF A HEAVY GRAY CLOUD

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AND HERE I SEE A BLACK SHEEP LEAPING OVER A GREAT GORGE OF FIRE

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Some mighty fine helpful feed back on not only my Tuesday night post but Steve's post as well in regards to the ‘what if’ factor regarding his or anyone else’s pet care should anything happen to them while away from their RV.  Good positive suggestions & I thank reader’s & fellow RV’ers for that.  Might want to go back & check some additional comments on both mine & Steve’s posts.

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And I was encouraged to also see feedback from fellow RV’ers on Janna's blog this morning as well as my post several days ago regarding socializing.  It seems a lot of folks came out to say how they felt about it & I must say I was surprised to see so many people feeling very similar to how Kelly & I feel about the whole RV social scene.  Maybe we are not quite as different in our thoughts as I thought we were.  It’s just that some of us express our thoughts & opinions about it more often & more openly than others.  I always like it when ‘iffy’ topics are brought out into the open & ‘take off’ with folks helping each other & talking responsibly about things.  Nice:))

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GROANER’S CORNER:(( A woman had gained a few pounds. It was most noticeable to her when she squeezed into a pair of her old blue jeans. Wondering if the added weight was noticeable to everyone else, she asked her husband, "Honey, do these jeans make me look like the side of the house?"  "No, dear, not at all," he replied, "Our house isn't blue."  He is almost over the cold he caught sleeping in the garage for 3 nights.

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A wife had suffered for a week from a really nasty virus and it left her feeling completely wiped out. On the first day that she could crawl out of bed, she discovered a "silver lining."  Pulling on a pair of jeans, she called out to her husband, "These jeans fit! They finally fit!"
"That's great," the husband replied, "but they're mine."

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- 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.

14 comments:

  1. Those cloud photos are just beautiful. I wondered why I had so many hits on my blog till I came over to yours. Thank you. Love showing off my new best friend.

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  2. Beautiful Sunset pictures, clouds really make a sun rise or set a beautiful show.

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  3. Love the cloud idescriptions! You hit it square on. Maybe "Sour Grapes" has sucked on too many lemons. Whatcha think?

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  4. Love the doves on the wire photo. I have always had aloe vera indoors in pots, and wonder if they are the variety that can live outdoors. They are descendants of a plant my grandmother gave me back in the 1980's, which I've carried with me all over the country as well as to Ireland and back. It's about the only succulent I love.

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  5. We second Doug's comment on all counts...thank you! Happily, the fridge fix worked. We are currently at 10 degrees below zero and the Norcold is keeping the ice cream solid. We do have priorities! :)

    Your cloud photos are stunning, Al.

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  6. Just love the Arizona skies, miss them so much already. Keep those pictures coming.

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  7. Stunning is the word for your cloud series. Life is too short to be sour grapes. I sure wouldn't give him any press time. it's your life, blog and opinions. You are entitled to have them all anyway you like. I say delete him as soon as you see him.

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  8. I think that big cloud winked at me ... Nice photo's!

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  9. First and foremost great pictures as always and we also look for animals or faces in the clouds.
    I still have a pair of my old work boots from back before the plant closed and find them the best shoes to wear any time I find myself on the end of a shovel or on rough terrain.
    After reading your post I realize that there are times that we all tend to get hooked on using certain words. Now I'll be paying more attention to that.
    As for being sociable Kathy and I tend to attend a few get-togethers but try not to make a habit of doing so. It tends to grow thin after a while.
    As for what you write about in your posts it is totally your choice because you are the author. It doesn't matter whether you use your blog as a soap box expressing personal views or as recollection of the day's activities.
    If you are running your headlights and decide to turn them off while driving down the road that is the time the filament inside the lamp is most brittle and will cause the lamp an early demise. If you run with your lights off or just leave them on until such time they can totally cool down with the vehicle not bouncing down the road the lights will last much longer.
    Be safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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  10. Miss Adventure Travels links to you posting of yesterday for me. Is is me or you?

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  11. Love the magic of clouds, and the variety in your photos is wonderful! One of the hardest words to avoid in a journal is "I" - but it is fun to try to find an alternative :-) One man's thinning is another's filling in - 40+ plants is quite the score for the price of a wheel barrow trip!

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  12. Hey Al, I do agree words mean something and the frequent use of some of therm, like I sometimes do need to be re-considered, like me says sometimes.

    Now about sour grapes and social visits. There do seem to be a few folks that just are not happy unless they are trying their best to make others not happy too. Nothing is ever in balance for the, It's a shame. Amazed that there would be anyone anywhere that would throw stones at YOU of all people. I believe they are simply jealous that you are such a straight shooter and they are not!
    Keep on keeping on, you do a great job of maintaining balance and always a positive outlook.

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  13. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with those aloe plants. I am enjoying your gardening and its giving me the itch but about 4 months early! I def need a pair of sturdy work shoes mine are worn slap out!

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  14. Great content material and great layout. Your website deserves all of the positive feedback it’s been getting. Luckies journal

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