BLOGGING.....IT ISN'T ALWAYS EASY

AWWWW, WHAT A LIFE

As much as I enjoy blogging, it isn't always easy to come up with interesting topics on a regular basis. Easier to do when traveling I think. My blogger dashboard tells me I've posted 410 blogs since September of 07. I probably have another 30 or 40 on Microsoft's My Space as well from a trip to the southwest 3 years ago. Blogging can be a spontaneous thing or a well thought out piece of work with re-writes & edits. I have a habit of falling into the first category but would recommend to new bloggers the second method. The second method will probably save you some embarrassment & regrets. It will also give your blog some spit & polish. I think the best scenario is to write the initial blog & then let it sit for awhile. Put it on a back burner if you wish & let it simmer. Add ingredients such as thoughts & ideas whenever they occur to you. Ideally, let the blog percolate for the night & come back to it the following day after having slept on it. Your final re-write might look a fair bit different than your original draft the day before & chances are you will feel more comfortable before publishing it on the web. For impatient bloggers like myself, the first category is the one into which we generally stumble. Whatever thought process occurs in the cranium instantly finds it's way onto the keyboard, up onto the monitor, & out onto the web. Not always a good thing. Words or phrases may pop into the mind that I normally wouldn't use and whooooops, there they go for the whole world to see. This is where it's important to put your blog on the back burner, give it some time, & then come back to it. Chances are when you read it a second & third time your mind will catch the mistakes & re-write them. This will save you from waking up in the middle of the night with that nagging feeling that you have written something in your blog that really didn't need writing in the first place. Take it from an old blogger who knows about such things. But, it's from our mistakes that we learn....or so I'm told:)) VIEW OF OUR SIDE YARD FROM ATOP THE MOTORHOME

And remember.......Make sure your skills levels match your confidence levels or at the end of the day you may very well end up a disappointed person. Not all people are created with the same abilities. Know your limitations & be realistic with both your optimistic & pessimistic views.......... In my opinion............................ realistic thinking is the key:))

And on a lighter note:
It was once said that a black man would be president when pigs flew. Well behold 100 days into Obama's presidency.............. swine flu!!

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GOT WHUPPED 6 OUT OF 8 GAMES

IT'S MY EAGLE EYED UNCLE LINING UP ANOTHER WINNING SHOT

As expected, I took another whuppin at the hands of my 93 year old pool shark Uncle Harry to-day over in Woodstock Ontario. He took 6 out of 8 games & I just got plain lucky on the other two. He was a bartender at the Army & Navy club in Stratford Ontario for many years & honed his skills on the billiard table there.

I am a part time mobility van driver for the months we are home so I was glad to receive a call from the company a few days ago letting me know they will need me again for another season. It's nice to be needed you know & I look forward to once again being on the road helping dis-abled folks to Doctor's appointments, hospitals, family reunions, etc.
ONE OF THE WHEEL CHAIR EQUIPPED MOBILITY VANS I DRIVE

Other than a very rainy drive over to Woodstock & back this afternoon, it has been a rather uneventful day. Oh well, maybe to-morrow................. EXITING THE SWISS CHALET WHERE UNCLE HARRY TOOK US OUT FOR SUPPER

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THE UP SIDE OF A POOR MEMORY:))

TRILLIUM FLOWER

All flower pics taken in front yard to-day.

With age & time there comes a certain amount of memory loss, but there is an upside to that down side. Back in the last of my old television days of the mid to late 80's my favorite situation comedy was Cheers. Probably saw most of the episodes from start to finish. Noticed a few weeks ago on a channel called Peachtree they are running Cheers episodes back to back for one hour every week day starting at 7 a.m. Now, some people might wonder at watching them all over again. Normally I would wonder that myself if someone told me they were doing that. But, in my case, all the episodes are like brand new. Occasionally a scene or two will remind me of something but basically, I'm watching Cheers all over again because I can't remember most of the shows in the first place. Amazing how the mind has the ability to re-entertain itself from it's own dusty files ........hmmmmm, wonder what else I've forgotten:(( A friend of mine sent me an email a couple of days ago with a few comments about my blog, "The Coming Home Blues. In it he writes, "Humans are never satisfied for long." Well, I think he's probably right & the way I see it, I think it might be kind of a good thing for some of us. His comment got to thinking (I occasionally do that sometimes) & I figured out that from 1965 to the present day I have moved 31 times in 24 years. Shortest permanent stay was 2 weeks & the longest I've ever lived in one place is right where we are now. We are coming up to six & half years here. This old rolling stone is starting to gather some moss I'd say!!!! Here's a comment I ran across recently in one of my saved files. It's from another RV blogger by the name of Wanderlust Nomad.
(Quote) "Sitting in one place for any length of time is repulsive in the extreme. Heck, I can't seem to be able to winterover in the same place for more than a month or so without moving to another space or at least turning around and pointing the other direction.
After sitting in apartments and being totally miserable for a few years, I decided enough was enough and I needed to completely disconnect myself from any fixed location. No connections, no place to come back to, leaving nothing behind, no destination, all new scenery, in search of whatever is over the next horizon. Fully self contained and 100% mobile was the only option.The RV is not an addiction. It's a natural progression....WANDERLUST NOMAD"(Unquote)
WHITE MAGNOLIA BLOSSOMS

To-morrow (Thursday) we are off to Woodstock Ontario where I will spend an hour or so being soundly defeated in about 10 games of billiards. I have played pool with this same fellow for 5 years now & we have probably played a total of about 50 or 60 games. He has won 95% of them. This either means he's very good at the game & I'm very bad or as I like to think, he's just got a bit more experience than me. He is my Uncle Harry & he is 93 years old & yes, he is very good. And, he beats the pants off me darn near every time!! THIS WAS MY APRIL 2008 DEFEAT

Well, I'm off to help unload a truck of trees & shrubs in the morning for our local garden center, The Rose of Sharon here in Bayfield. Better take an extra supply of Absorbine Junior with me. These old tired muscles just aren't as energetic as they used to be.............:((

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THE FROGS ARE GONNA END UP GETTING US KICKED OUT!!

Four years ago I decided to dig in a small fish pond about the middle of our front yard. Put some nice rocks around the outside, got me a little waterfall going, & planted a flower garden along the edges. All was well that first year..........but then came the following spring &...........THE FROGS!!

I don't know why frogs have to be so smart or how they ever found out about our place, but they did. Three years ago about this time there must have been a frog pilgrimage to our place or something. Like the Robert Redford baseball movie Field of Dreams....."build it & they will come." Well, I dug it & they came in droves!! Frogs that is. The croakers were so loud at night that Kelly couldn't sleep. And if Kelly doesn't get her sleep........big darn trouble!!!!
So, I was relegated to catch & remove the little green noise infested critters. Afterall, I was the guy with the bright idea to put a pond in the front yard. For 2 nights I was out around that pond with my little aquarium fish net taped to a long rake handle, a trusty flashlight, & a big half full pail of water. When I would get about 4 or 5 little froggy guys in the pail I would head off across the road, & down a narrow path through a stand of pine trees to a large pond on the other side. Here I would carefully dump my croaking collection of jumpers into the water & head back for another pail of frogs. No matter how many frogs I was catching I just never seemed to come to the end of the bulging eyed amphibians. It was the second night of stealth when heading to the big pond with my 3rd bucket load that I noticed coming the other way in the darkness along the narrow path a single file line of big bulging & bouncing eyes. My flashlight quickly identified them as FROGS!! Seems as fast as I was downloading them into the big pond, they were turning around & uploading themselves back into my little pond. And I swear that 3 of them were smirking as they went by, one was laughing, & two of them waved!! And I think the last guy gave me a frogs equivalent of the finger!! That was the end of my frog catching right there & then. Kelly was just going to have to get ear plugs. Well, that brings me up to to-day. Last night when I took the dogs for a walk after dark the cacophony of raucous frog hollering was such that I thought for sure the neighbor's were going to show up on our doorstep with baseball bats & pitch forks before the 11 o'clock news. It is normally so quiet in this park that you can hear somebody whispering in their sleep 4 blocks away. Imagine the loud racket numerous peeper & bull frogs create by cavorting about in their manically monstrous mating rituals. On & on, night after night & all night long too.......and the worst is yet to come. In a few weeks as the Peepers get down to the business of being good little Moms & Dads, the dreaded Hockey Whistle Frogs will descend upon us. They make the Bull Frogs sound like a Librarians convention. I'll let you know when they get here. Rumor has it there's so many of them coming this year they have rented a big 72 passenger school bus. This is absolutely frognacious!! When I went out this afternoon to get a few frog photos for the blog to-night, only one frog could be found. I'm sure the other 385 were hunkered down in their under rock frog bunkers somewhere waiting for the sun to go down. And I bet they were all smirking too:((

Our peace & quiet loving neighbor's are probably gonna kick us out of the park this time for sure.............................................:((

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BAYFIELD.....ALONG THE SHORES OF LAKE HURON ON ONTARIO'S WEST COAST

QUIET MOORINGS IN THE BAYFIELD HARBOR

Rod, one of our blog followers mentioned they had never been to Bayfield before & was curious as to what it was like here. I did take a bunch of photos of Bayfield last August & they can be found here..........................
http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/gallery/5845016_7pESE#362675509_zZfh9
When you get there just click on the "Slideshow" button to the right.

ALTHOUGH ON A LAKE, BAYFIELD DOES HAVE A SALTY SEA AIRE ABOUT IT

Rod's suggestion did bring up an interesting point that kind of harkens back to what I've been saying about the traveling lifestyle. I have always enjoyed that great feeling of excitement when first driving through or seeing a place I have never been before. Those first impressions are the ones that seem to anchor themselves in the memory & are often some the best images captured in the camera. Staying in an area for awhile adds to the depth & scope of memorable scenes but there comes a point when a line is crossed somewhere. Maybe it's a few days, weeks, months, or in some cases years, but at some point you become totally familiar with your surroundings & you begin "not seeing things." FINE DINING & ACCOMODATION

Case in point........... We have lived in the Bayfield area now for about six & a half years. The picturesque little artsy town of Bayfield is probably one of the nicest small towns on Ontario's west coast or as a matter of fact, all of southwestern Ontario. People flock here from far & wide for the old town ambience, & the beautiful sunsets from the cliffs overlooking Lake Huron. It's natural harbor is a boater's paradise & it's downtown charm is second to none. Bayfield is surrounded on three sides by rolling farmlands, quaint little villages, plus forests of pine & maple. There are many scenic attractions nearby & I have been drawn to this area ever since I was a kid. But, living here & visiting here are two different things. Because we have lived here for awhile now we have become too familiar with everything. I don't view the area with those excited visitor's eyes anymore & I have a habit of taking the scenery for granted.

AWAITING THE BEAUTIFUL SUNSET OVER LAKE HURON

So, spurred on by Rod's comment I am going to dust off the cameras & spend some time over the next little while getting myself re-excited about this truly wonderful place we live because I'm sure there are a lot of folks out there who have no idea how beautiful this country is here in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Because Bayfield is located on the western side of Lake Huron the area is commonly referred to as Ontario's West Coast...................................:))SUNDOWN ON THE PIER

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I CALL IT.....THE COMING HOME BLUES!!

THE PINK STORE IN PALOMAS, MEXICO

To-day's blog pics are from one of the most fascinatingly colorful stores I have ever been in. The Pink Store is located just a block from the Mexican border in Palomas Mexico which in turn is 3 miles south of Columbus, New Mexico. Pics taken in December of 2006....................................


The coming home blues is something fulltimers do not have to worry about anymore & people who never travel probably have no idea what I'm talking about. But I know there are snowbirders out there who feel as I do after returning home in the spring from an extended stay in the south. Maybe not the majority of snowbirds but to you birders with a sense of adventure, a love of nature, & a sense of freedom, you might identify with me here. GREAT FOOD AT THE PINK STORE AS WELL

This is our third springtime home & I have found it the hardest adjustment so far. I thought last year was difficult but it didn't have anything on this year. The past winter in the American southwest was our best ever and it made coming home that much harder. RVing, like most everything else just gets better the more you do it & with the superb weather this past season I just wish we could have stayed on the road. Besides all the standard RVing benefits like hiking, rock scrambling, numerous day trips, ever changing beautiful scenery, starry night campfires, morning desert walks, & a quiet relaxing lifestyle, I am fortunate to have an interest in blogging & photography which kind of ties everything to-gether for me at the end of each great RV day. This past winter I was able to put a blog together for every one of the 133 days we were on the road. The simple reason I was able to do that was our ever changing environment. It was the excitement of seeing & doing new things & the anticipation of new adventures ahead & wonderful memories behind. For fulltimers their adventures & memories are ongoing but for the snowbirder, the memories may remain but the adventures ahead are put on seasonal hold for another 6 months when they return home. The adventure comes to a grinding halt every spring!!!! I have had to reach deep into my little bag of tricks this month & dig out my attitude adjustment tool & do some very necessary tweaking these past few days. No point in walking around all gloomy & stuff. We are here for the summer & I had just better get on with making the best of it until we get the big wheels rolling again in the fall. Now, where's my calender...........................:))


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BLOG BREAK

Al's taking a blog break for awhile.

AFTER A FEW WRONG DECISIONS....HERE ARE SOME OF THE RIGHT ONES:))

BRYCE CANYON, UTAH


Decided to do a blog about some of the things we have done right in our RVing adventures instead of the usual things we have done wrong:)) (orders from headquarters this morning!!)

1. When our Hughes-Net modem died last year in New Mexico we were faced with the decision of getting another modem or moving to a different technology. Because we didn't know what killed the modem in the first place we decided to pack in the whole satellite idea & move to a Verizon Air Card. We have the UM175-USB modem....... That was a right decision:)) http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneOverviewByDevice&deviceType=BroadbandAccess%20Devices&lid=//global//phones+and+accessories//mobile+broadband+devices
VERIZON UM 175 PLUGGED INTO THE LAPTOP....And that's what puts you on the internet.

2. Two years ago while in Quartzite Arizona we decided to install a propane heater instead of using the in-efficient RV furnace so we had a Legacy Blue Flame heater put in......... That was a right decision:)) http://www.finesgas.com/cats/Space_Heaters LEGACY BLUE FLAME HEATER

3. We had an awning destroyed by a big Kansas wind while on I-70 one time & had it replaced with an acrylic awning also in Quartzite & co-incidentally on the same day the Blue Flame guy hooked up our heater. The slightly more expensive acrylic awning has served us well. That was a right decision:)) THE BOYS ARE PUTTING THE FINISHING TOUCHES ON OUR NEW AWNING

4. Also while in Quartzite a couple years ago we took out our completely uncomfortable couch, tub chair, & dinette. Sold it all to "The Gambler" in Quartzite. We then went to Ikea in Tempe about a week later & bought all new comfortable furniture plus computer desk for less money than what we got for all the old RV stuff.........That was a right decision:)) THE RIGS DINETTE IS READY TO BE TAKEN & SOLD IN QUARTZITE....in the desert 5 miles south of Quartzite, Arizona

5. When we bought our motorhome in Grand Bend we had been looking at another coach at the dealer there but Ron the owner convinced us we would be happier with the Damon Chevy Workhorse Chassis coach that we have now. He was right, and.......that was another right decision:)) http://www.fourseasonsperformance.com/

6. We spent a fair bit of time looking for a vehicle to not only be towed behind the motorhome but to be a second vehicle at home for Kelly. Finally decided on a 2003 Hyundai Santa-Fe 5 speed stick shift that we spotted on the lot of Goderich Hyundai. This has been a totally excellent little mountain goat for us.........That was a right decision:))
http://www.goderichhyundai.ca/
OUR RELIABLE LITTLE HYUNDAI SANTA FE MOUNTAIN GOAT...Chiricahua Mtns, Arizona

7. The Roadmaster Sterling Hitch assembly we had installed on the car & motorhome in London Ontario has worked well & been trouble free too........That was a right decision:)) http://www.trailerhitch.ca/ HITCHING THE THE CAR UP......(it's a joke, it's a joke:))

7. We eliminated the big blonky television & cabinet from the upper front part of the coach & installed a 23" flat screen on a side wall. That was a right decision:)) Having a woodworking friend of ours do that rather than me, was also a right decision!! 23" FLAT SCREEN TV MOUNTED ON A SIDE WALL

8. We had a Solar System installed (2 panels, 4 new batteries+monitors etc.) professionally in Slab City California a couple of years ago by Solar Mike at Sunworks. That was a right decision & we have had many happy boondocking days ever since:)) http://thesunworks.com/index.htmSOLAR INSTALLATION DAY & THAT'S SOLAR MIKE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LADDER....Slab City, California

9. Wanted to get away from that drab white coach interior so painted part of our coach interior an adobe color.......That was a right decision:)) ADOBE PAINT JOB......done in Casa Grande, Arizona

10. Hooked up a Sirius Satellite radio, Garmin GPS system, as well as a CB Radio inside the coach & that was 3 more right decisions:))

11. Decided early on in our RVing to avoid crowded & expensive RV parks & that has been a right decision:)WHY CROWD INTO AN RV PARK WHEN YOU CAN HAVE THE WHOLE DESERT TO YOURSELF....Darby Wells Road area west of Ajo Arizona

12. Buying a good used motorhome in great condition with low mileage & avoiding all that "new rig" depreciation was also a right decision:))

13. Deciding to spend our winters in the American Southwest instead of American Southeast has also proved to be a right decision & keeping on the move instead of sitting in one spot for 5 months has definitely proved to be a right decision as well:)) YOU WON'T FIND BEAUTIFUL SCENERY LIKE THIS IN FLORIDA...Ajo Mtn Range in Organ Pipe National Monument, Arizona

14. Getting our handy little well made, "Xpress Ready-Set-Go" cooker was a right decision:))
http://www.redisetgo.com/?gcid=S12579x066&keyword=ready%20set%20go_3
CHICAGO STYLE CHILE DOGS AT MILT'S DINER IN MOAB, UTAH

15. And last but not least.......Making the decision to try our hand at RVing years ago?? Well, that was the biggest right decision of them all......................................:))CULP VALLEY NEAR BORREGO SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA

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EMAILS.....MY FAVORITE FORM OF COMMUNICATION:))

GODERICH HARBOR ON LAKE HURON NORTH OF BAYFIELD

I think windy, cold, & rainy days are just Mother Nature's way of telling us to stay inside & get caught up on all that stuff we've been neglecting while outside enjoying her nicer weather. This morning was one of those mornings to take care of computer maintenance. Updates, scans, tweaking, installations, peanut butter sandwich's, de-fragg, system clean-up, compacting folders, coffee, re-starts, trouble shooting, un-installs, & just some plain good old fashioned cussing thrown in for good measure when the computer stuff doesn't go well. Gotta have that good measure factor you know:))

And judging from the feedback on Friday's blog, To Hat or Not To Hat.........I had better keep the hat.....& the hair!!!! 10-4:))

Lot of talk on the airwaves lately about a site called Twitter so I downloaded it about a month ago to try out. Not really sure what all the fuss is about but I did download something yesterday called TweetDeck & that made Twitter a bit more interesting. It interacts well with Facebook & you can have both sites side by side on the screen which I thought was kinda cool. I think people with cell phones might use it a lot.

Never cared for cell phones much because it just seems too hard to read the numbers & stuff. Never been much of a phone person anyway. Emails are my favorite form of communication because they give me time to think & quietly compose something in the comfort of my own mind. No pressure to come up with hurried answers. Thoughts can be changed, ideas added. I can go have a peanut butter sandwich between lines & no one even knows I've left.

Blogging is a bit like emailing. In fact I type all the blogs in our Outlook Express email program then copy & paste them to the Blogger format. I find that a relaxing way of doing things & if I don't finish it I can always save it to draft before picking it up again later..................................

FORGOT TO INCLUDE THIS PIC ON MY YUMMY-YUKKY BLOG A FEW DAYS AGO.

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ALL BLAB-BLOGGLED OUT:((

OUR FIRST RV BACK IN ABOUT 1996...IT WAS A 1979 DODGE CENTURION CLASS C:))

No blog to-night.....Mr. Blabberfingers is all blab-bloggled out:((

SOUNDS YUKKY - TASTES YUMMY

GRAND BEND........ABOUT 20 MINUTES SOUTH OF BAYFIELD

I first posted this on the blog last summer & since then nothing has changed so it's still current. A lot of RV people seem to be really food oriented so this is my little contribution to the food coffers. The following is a concoction of things that I whoop up every morning for breakfast & been doing it non stop for about a decade now. It has been many, many, years since I've had a cold or the flu or even been sick & I attribute that directly to the following morning shake routine:))

"Sounds yukky-Tastes yummy!!"

One 5 cup blender required & that's where all the ingredients go into:

Add: 1 banana
1 heaping tablespoon of mixed soy & whey powder
(I mix strawberry soy & vanilla whey to-gether)
1 small tablespoon of ground flax seeds
1 small tablespoon of ground raw sunflower seeds
1 small tablespoon of shelled hemp hearts (if I have them)
1 small tablespoon of oatbran
1 small tablespoon of wheat germ
1 big gob of large flake oatmeal
Are you still with me?? I usually combine the flax, sunflower, & oatbran together after mixing them in a coffee bean grinder.

Now comes the veggies................

1 big lettuce leaf. (romaine is best)
1 medium sliced carrot
1 medium sliced celery stick
1 cored apple including peelings

Your blender by now is about two thirds full. To all this I add skim milk to about the half way point in the blender. Hit the "on" switch, buzzzzzzzz, & "WALLAAA" I have myself one mighty fine tasting soy/whey shake every morning.
There are variables here & it doesn't hurt to experiment by adding or subtracting things. Apricot juice instead of milk works great as does orange or apple juice. If strawberries, raspberries or clementine's are in season, I throw a handful of them in as well. Seedless grapes work. If you want to slant the taste towards carrots, just add more carrots etc. The core ingredients for the soy shake though are the banana & the soy or whey powder. From there you can build whatever masterpiece you wish. Throw in some broccoli, etc. (think outside the box:)) Someone suggested apple cider vinegar once so I tried it......didn't work:((

But you can see now why I call it, "Sounds yukky-Tastes yummy!!" I know it's going to be hard for someone to get past the fact that your mixing milk & lettuce to-gether for example, but you've got so many other ingredients in there that you don't even notice the lettuce/milk factor. To me it simply tastes along the lines of a vanilla milkshake. I'm not kidding about all this, I really do mix up & drink one of these great shakes every single morning & have been doing so for about 10 years now. So good luck & happy yummy yukking........................................:))