Officially Open....And they will come!!! LOL

I'm officially open and have over a dozen campers here already. And I am having a blast!

Takes me about an hour in the morning to make my morning outhouse round. Then I look for the campers that come in overnight when I'm in the house. Then it is time for the morning harassment of the campers here!!

And these folks all, so far, have the camper attitude. They are a blast to talk with and visit with. Just have to keep reminding a couple of them that it is the law that they have to keep their dogs on a leash. But so far, that has gone well and the dogs are all well behaved.

The fog is finally burning off and it is looking like there will be sunshine for the better part of the day. The closest rain is about 140 miles away!  YEA!!! Had enough sun yesterday that I was able to charge up batteries from the solar setup, run the frig and watch some tv and it still left a little charge on the solar set. So it will all be good as I get more and more used to the setup!!

Time to wander around some and work on a couple of the site sign posts that are loose. 

Have a good day, I'm going to!!!  :-)

What Warm Weather?? Heheh!

I've been here a week now, and so far not a day has gone by that it hasn't rained! It's like a mini-monsoon season! It is not a drowning rain, but it is a get everything real moist and drippy. And the nights have consistently dropped down to around 35-40 degrees. Yesterday was supposed to be a high of 65....I think it almost hit 54. I love it!

And it is so scenic here...snow covered mtns, pine covered mtns, steep grassy mtns and a very sweet river! It really is a great spot.

There are BIG deer and also elk. I haven't seen any deer yet here in camp, but the elk apparently come thru and leave their business cards all over the place. And there seems to be about 3 or 4 sizes of chipmunks and 2-3 sizes of ground squirrels and quite a few "normal" gray squirrels. I haven't really had time to do much photography yet, but that will come as I get my system down pat and have some time during the day to try to get some of the critters.

I had my first paying campers come in last night about 6:45pm. And of course it was raining when they pulled in. They are just a one nighter, headed to someplace else today. Have 5 more sites to finish getting ready, about 2 hours work, and then I will be ready for the season.

Already have 11 sites reserved for the weekend. One of them will be here for over a week. The max stay at the campground is 10 days.

About time to start my day. I have been starting around 8:30 or so since I got here....tomorrow will start being 7am days from here on out. 2-3 hours each morning, then 2 hours or so each evening...middle of the day will be piddle time....except for checking folks in....I think I can stand the hours!  At least I will be sleeping all night like an almost normal person!!  :-)

Enjoy these couple of pics. More to follow at a later date!! A couple of these pics are from the drive up. It was a really nice run!

I Have Arrived!!

I got into the campground on Friday, on time! I was really surprised. Bertha did an outstanding job of getting us here. She ran like a top, didn't use much oil (even thought there were several pulls of over 6 degrees and each a couple of miles long), and didn't even use much coolant. I think she had not been run "hard" for some many years, just sitting, that it has taken a good hard run to get her back into traveling shape! Of course, now she will be sitting here for the next 4.5+ months!  LOL

This place is beautiful! I'm in the Sawtooth National Forest, there are 47 campsites here, all "primitive"...which means here that there are no utility hookups...but each site has a paved pulloff for RV, gravel parking spot for vehicle, a boxed in gravel area for tents, a concrete pad with a metal picnic table, metal "cook" table and a firepit.  There are 6 or 7 "outhouse" bathrooms and a large covered "public" picnic area that is concrete with metal tables that will accomdate up to 60-80 people.

But my site is great...it is site #1...and I have a solar electric hookup to recharge my batteries and run off of for a few hours each day. There is also a septic hookup for Bertha...it is nice to have the bathroom working!! I will have water delivered to me each Monday and Thursday.  And I have my little golf cart! It is gas powered, so no worry about charging it up!

I've met Tom, he's the one that hired me. He has been with the company for 11 years. Like him, very easy to work with. Then there is Keith, he dropped by yesterday evening. Keith is the "Area Manager" for RRMoA (Recreational Resource Management of America, the company name). John, the maintenance guy, and his wife, Roseann, came by to bring me my paperwork, say hi, let me know about the water...and later brought my golf cart. They're all just so laid back....I do believe that I just might fit in here real well!!  LOL  :-)

The views here are superb! I have snow covered covered mountains to look at in 2 directions, the river is shallow and fast (they do rafting, canoeing and whatever those other little "boats" are called all along it). There are hot springs in the area, but not sure yet if there are any here. Wouldn't hurt my feelings if there were!

So far I've seen several hawks and a couple of, I think, small falcons. There are a multitude of small birds that I've never seen before, so it should be interesting trying to get pics of them and finding out what type they are. I've seen little chipmonks, just like the ones in AL, and what I think are ground squirrels, they are up to about 11 or so inches long. Yesterday morning I saw in the middle of my site entrance what I thought at first was a pile of dog poo....but upon closer inspection....it was NOT dog poo!!  So I am going to have to find out just what other wildlife is wandering around here!  LOL  :-D

I've got orientation at 11am today. One of the guys is going to drop by and give me a ride. It is at the Ranger Station back up the road about 2 miles.Tom let me know that I was officially on the payroll as of yesterday, so I will get a half months pay this month! Better than I had expected.

Guess that about covers it for now. I'll be adding posts about 1 or 2 times each week. I am totally roaming here, but have everything throttled down to where I am not using too much data transfer. I might just survive on 300mb each month!! :-)

Tomorrow, Tomorrow....I'm Leaving Tomorrow!!!!

I have been sitting at Tiffany's getting myself ready to roll out to Idaho for the past 2 weeks...and believe it or not, I am actually about to leave tomorrow!! Can you believe it!?!?!  LOL!!  

Not a bad pic considering it is with my watch!!!

I've gotten Bertha pretty well setup for the next 5 months...and it has been an experience to work this all out in my head....to think ahead for 5 months! And have worked most of the kinks out of her.  I am waiting until tomorrow lunchtime to be able to get a couple of new plug wires on her so that she will run smoother. One of the wires got cooked riding on the edge of the exhaust manifold!  I thought it was another one that got cooked by the header, but one had been moved around some and was laying right on the very rear edge of the manifold....and it was COOKED!!!!!

I believe that I have food loaded into Bertha that will take me thru the next 5 months...if you open any cabinet or drawer in here, you will either find food, utensils or pet food!!  LOL!!!  She is packed!

But I did get a Brita filter pitcher from Goodwill that looks new, and have been trying it out....and that Brita filter system works like a charm....it takes all the chlorine taste out and it has even removed that "plasticie" smell from the water tank out of it also.....which means my coffee tastes just like it is from bottled water!!  Yea!!!

With the generator removed from Bertha, I have a storage area that holds my oil/coolant, etc crate, water and sewer hoses, air compressor, hazard triangles...and even a little more stuff!  Which means I am able to move the cat box up to the front of Bertha where the passenger seat was....which means my whole floor is open in the house!!!  YaaaHooooo!!!!!  LOL!

So time to finish a little more cleaning....then shower....then wash last load of clothes....then try to sleep!!!  

More of the "early retirement saga of The Frog" in a day or two!!

Getting closer!

Each day pulls "us" a little closer to hitting the road. I'm down to the end of my list of things to get done. Hope to roll Friday, but it might be Saturday before we pull out. So instead of 150 miles daily I just might have to do 250! Hope I can stand the strain! LOL

My arrival date has been moved up to the 15th instead of the 18th, but it is all workable!

Time to get some few more things done so I'll close for now & add more tomorrow.

C'ya!

Zombies-shombies! Beware of the Mega-Bedbugs!!

http://nr.news-republic.com/Web/ArticleWeb.aspx?regionid=1&articleid=40956438&source=blogger

A Quick Update

Just wanted to let you know that all is still headed to a Friday departure from NRH to Idaho. I'm working 3 nights for Buster pulling guard duty at a construction site in north Dallas. But if all goes according to plan....I'll be pulling out of here sometime Friday morning and headed north. Tom, my "new boss" for the campground group, wants me to try to get up there by the 15th, so I won't be traveling quite as slowly as I had planned (as far as daily miles are concerned), but I will still just have to run about 250-275 miles daily...so that is peacefully enough for the run up!!  :-)

More to come in a day or so!!  

Next Address will be Idaho....in about 3 weeks!

Well, I will be headed for Sunny Gulch Campground, Stanley, ID in about a week...and when I get there I will be there until the end of September!! And I just can't wait!!

www.google.com/maps/place/Sunny+Gulch+Campground/@44.174664,-114.908325,1325m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x54a8f9d21ffd1539:0xc46e3e4e389e81b1

That is the link for Google Maps for the campground....and you need to take a look at it!  It is just down right gorgeous! The views are fabulous, I think my spot is next to the large building right inside the entrance...and I will be about 80 yards from the river....I can't wait!

In the meantime, I have been getting Bertha ready for the long haul up there. From here in NRH it is about 1,562 miles to the campground. And I plan on taking about 10 days getting there! I am going to just chill out and ease down (up) the road to ID....and if I make it 250 miles in a day or just 50....oh well!!...when I find a spot that I want to stop at for the night, I shall stop! Can't wait!

In the past two weeks I have been able to get the generator out of Bertha, sorted thru more of the stuff that I don't need and removed it from the house....and after my run to Alabama, I had even more stuff to sort thru and decide what to keep....and I have a ton of pictures to go thru to sort out for me and the kids.  

I've remounted the TV so that it is solidly in place and at the correct angle to view it well. 

Re-worked my storage area over the front of the house so that I have almost got all my things stored and in a place...now to just get used to always putting things back up where they belong every time I use them!!  LOL

The "storage area" where the old generator was is now a storage area...and one that has been sorely needed!  I'm going to get a lock hasp for it and close it up completely and that is where my jack, crate of oil/coolant/grease, couple of tool boxes, etc will be put.  Hopefully I will get that done tomorrow, because when that is done, I will be able to move Snickers' liter box up to the front, and it will be hidden except when I'm driving. It will them leave the entire floor of the house open for travel....and the toilet area will be completely available for me to get in and out of without having to move the box around!  OH...how the little things can be so great!!


The kitchen area has come right along also. I actually have counter space now and can use both sinks!  Everything "does" have a home....more or less!  Their homes keep changing at times. I am working on getting my groceries and supplies set up and "counted" out so that I will have food and needs to cover 4+ months on site! The closest real towns will be 95+ miles away and over at least one mountain in each direction...so I will not be making any runs into town for supplies once I get set up there! So I am having to think in 4 months of meals instead of 2 weeks of meals, which is what I am used to, so planning out what I will need has been an interesting task!  

AND.....as I have gotten more and more settled into Bertha, and it has become more and more "home"....I am finally getting around to "decorating" her up like the apartment that she has become! And it is really starting to feel like home!

 

   I do like having pictures up on the walls...and little "trinkets" on the wall that keep my favorite people in the front of my mind and thoughts! 

  There are still some areas of 

the house that need to have a "little" more work on them!  LOL  As in I still have to finish getting my files and paperwork things sorted and filed, but this too shall be taken care of before much longer!

  But I also have taken care of some of the necessities of life! As in the tv for entertainment, drawers and file boxes for storage...look closely in the right corner and you can see Snickers' little corner hiding place (and she actually spends quite a bit of time in & on it), and there is also storage directly behind the television. So I am getting things straightened out....just takes time to rearrange your life to live in a small space like this...and I love it!!!

I guess that pretty well catches things up...8 more days (plus or minus) and I will be headed north for the summer! And nightly temps there are still dropping below 32*, and daily temps are hitting mid-40's to high 50's....I can't wait!!

Stay tuned for more of the continuing saga of "Navigating towards Retirement"!!

Back in Texas! And storms rolling through!

Made it back to Texas with no problems!  And believe it or not, I actually accomplished everything that I had on my list to get done!! I was shocked!  Maybe I'm getting a little better with age of accomplishing tasks!!  It's only taken about 50 years to get there!!  LOL

I got my driver's license renewed (so I'm legal again!), the tags for Bertha updated, ordered a duplicate title for the rPod, spent time with the grandkids almost every evening (and got up and did the morning routine with them!!), and got at least 90-95% of the front room done at the E.G. house!!

Thanks to Tera for letting me use her little roller skate for the trip! It did great and the ride over and back was uneventful....and it has made me consider a Mazada2 for a vehicle! It really handled the run well. And I was comfortable during the drive. Of course...the only drawback is that as with all little cars....I get to "fall in" and have to "climb up & out" of it each time!  I still prefer climbing into and falling out of a vehicle!!  LOL!

Right now I'm watching a very strong line of storms pass thru the area...high wind, heavy rain, some hail in spots, possible hook signals on radar (tornado possibles)....and the winds are hitting up to 50mph!  And lots of lightening and thunder!!!  Fabulous weather!!!  Heheheh!

I have put up about half of the stuff that I brought back from AL. And almost have Bertha straightened up and cleaned up again!  Doing clothes tonight and tomorrow, cleaning up and putting up things. I have gotten rid of a ton of stuff...and I actually have storage room left over in Bertha. Still have to get my curtains done for the living room windows, and build my curtain rod setup for the overhead storage area. Trying to decide on just how/what I will use for curtains up there. 

I'm "house sitting" this weekend for the kids....which means....I'm watching over the pooches, cat, chickens....and thanks to the rains....I don't have a lot to worry about with the plants!!!  YES!!!  I do not have much of a green thumb!!  LOL!

I still have a few things to work on with Bertha....checking out the waste dump lines, checking out the propane issue (seeing if it holds well and hopefully my stove top/oven will be working. I still have not really decided if I want to try to use the water heater or furnace....just not too sure that I want to trust 38+ year old items like that! But we shall see.

That about brings us up to date and current with the continuing saga of The Frog and my "Navigating Towards Retirement"!

Have a good rest of the weekend and more to come next week!  :-)

Back in Bama!!

Abbie and I have made it to Alabama for a few days. Needed to get out here and renew my tags. And visit the grandkids....and see just what has and hasn't changed in a year here!  And there has not been much changed in the past year!

The drive out was uneventful. In fact, it was just a very pleasant drive. We ran into rain in Meridian, MS....but that was all. And I now know that I can't run like it used to. Stopped about 4 times after midnight....took a nap each time!!  Just can't run like I used to....too many miles on this old body!!  LOL

Got here about 0320 on Monday morning...caught a few hours sleep.  Then up and at'em!!!  Didn't get anything done at the Courthouse today, that will come in the morning after a good nights sleep!  

I spent about 3.5 hours starting going thru stuff at the EG house....this will be a project.  I will be there most of tomorrow and Wednesday....and there will still be a bunch of stuff to go thru even after that!

And I'm finding stuff that I didn't even realize that I still had! But the majority of the stuff is going out the door - for the trash or Goodwill types!!!

More on this continuing saga in coming days!!!

On The Road Again.....Kinda!! LOL

We (Abbie, Snickers & myself) are at Tiffany & Cary's. Had a pleasant drive up here from San Antonio, got settled in here and here we sit!  LOL  Waiting on another job to come open....or something to do. But it is nice to be able to sleep nights and relax.



It has been nice to just not really have any particular schedule. And the timing for my time off has been very good!  Because just a couple of days after I got here Tabitha and the kids were able to come out and visit for a few days. And it was so good to get to see them...and the newest addition to the herd!! Olivia! It was the first time that I had gotten to see my newest grandchild. And it was good!


Cary has been a big help with Bertha. While he was home of his off time he helped me to get a couple of things done on Bertha....we (he!) fixed my step that had almost been ripped off at the San Antonio site. 

Got it bent back into position/shape and he rewelded it to the frame....and now I have my step back without having to hang on to the house or put a wood block under it to keep it up. :-)  AND...then he was a major help in getting the air conditioner working again!  I believe it is the original unit...and it hadn't worked since I got Bertha, and it had never worked for the previous owner....and Cary was able to get the fan motor realigned and believe it or not,it is blowing COLD air!  YES!!!  I will survive August much better this year!  It is a closed system, meaning it can't be recharged with coolant, but it is still cooling just fine! Not bad for about a 37 year old unit!!

The girls and I made a run to Vale, AZ to pick up a Suzuki Samari for Cary. Had a chance to make a few stops...one of which was at the Rest Area outside Las Cruces, NM.  And there is a nice Rest Area outside Monahans, TX.  Cary found the truck on Craig's List, and it is in amazing condition. He had one as his first vehicle and when this one was found, it needed to be gotten for the price. It will be a great toy, and it will give him something that he can drive 

to the oil fields and back without

having to worry about whether he will get out there on time and not have to rely on someone else to get to the job. We loaded it up on the dolly and dragged it back. And it went real well!









I will be headed out to Alabama on Sunday to get some vehicle tags taken care of and go thru stuff that I have at the house to see what I want to keep and what needs to go away!  Some stuff will come back with me to keep with me in Bertha, some will go into storage....and the vast majority will be going away!!

In Round Rock for most of weekend

Bertha and I and the children (Abbie and Snickers....LOL) arrived in Round Rock at the folks Wednesday evening....amongst the beginnings of the rains!! And it has been raining here for the past 49 hours almost continuously.  And the temps have been running between 52 to 64 degrees! Just a little slice of heaven!!!

The folks are doing well. They have settled in pretty well. For the most part!

I worked out in the parking lot on Thursday and Friday....and actually got a "workbench" for Dad built. Not fancy, but it ended up pretty sturdy and solid...has enough room for what he wants to do...even has an edging so he doesn't have to worry too much about chasing tools to the floor on the back side of it....and it will still be able to have some more things added to it.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. 

The critters and I will be headed out for NRH in the morning...hopefully we will be there by tomorrow afternoon/evening....a 3 hour trip down here in a "normal" vehicle equates out to about a 7 hour excursion in Bertha!!

The trip up was quite quiet...had no issues with cooling (when you sit and idle, that big block seems to build up enough heat to make a slight leak out the overflow tube) ... but there was no overheating issues on the run up. She does seem to have a small leak somewhere on the gas tank...so half a tank at a time is all I put in until I figure out where the leak is exactly.

Generator has done fine. With the power consumption needs that I have changed in the past 7 months, a good hard charge on the aux batt lasts about  13-16 hours...I don't thing that is too bad for one battery. 

About time to go check on Abbie and Snickers. And it isn't raining too hard right now, so a good time to take Abbie out for a break!

Bertha's Charging Again!!!

Just got done with the RV repair guys...and the house is charging again. It took him about 2 hours to figure out what had been changed with the wiring! Not really the house wires, but the factory wiring under the hood.  I'm not even sure just what all he had to change, it wasn't but one or two wires....but it made the difference and he got her charging both the vehicle and the aux battery. So we can now head down the road in the morning.

Headed for Round Rock first for a few days, then headed for North Richland Hills for a little bit of rest and work on the house.  

From there I currently have no idea where I will be heading....time will tell!!  :-)

Getting Out of San Antonio??

I'm still sitting here working on getting out of San Antonio! And I do actually hope that I will be rolling out of here in the morning (Thursday 3/18/2015)! I spent the entire day yesterday replacing the alternator on Bertha....and to no avail!! She is still not charging and I have accepted the fact that I am not going to be able to fix her, so I'm sitting here waiting for two gentlemen that do RV repairs to get here about 10am. They work totally mobile and out of their vehicles, so I'm anxious to see how this works out!'

I have actually enjoyed being parked over here behind the security building for Christus Santa Rosa Hospital. It is on the top of a hill and there is always a breeze and pleasant and quiet and clean (very clean compared with the dirt/dust/mud of the site)! It is almost a totally pleasant respite!!

I've now had a week off from the job, and it has been very restful! I am actually sleeping at night for a while, and have been sleeping all night! 

When I finally get away from here I'm headed to the folks for a few days, building a work bench for dad. And just taking time to visit and relax. Then headed up to Tiffany and Cary's for a week or so. 

While at the kids place I am going to try to pull the sofa out of the house and turn it into a day bed situation, which will also seal of the outside access to the inside of Bertha. Plan on just getting a foam mattress for it with some throw pillows. Will increase my sleeping area by about 15-20%. That will be nice! Also working on the storage areas and will be putting up at least 3 sets of curtains. 

Mobile Mentality Again!!

Well, Bertha has moved for the first time in 2+ months....and she didn't fall apart!  But I had forgotten just how cold natured Mopar products were. 70 degrees outside and you would think it was below freezing!!  LOL  But, nothing fell (even if I did run over a few pots of monkey grass that I didn't see!!) and with a little power steering leak I had forgotten about, now to see just how well she does in the engine cooling area! 

 After sitting here for so long it feels like starting all over again with her!

I'm about to eat a little something, then take a nice hot shower, then take the car over across the street first, then move Bertha.  So bedtime tonight will be late, but it is on the top of a hill (even if I will be behind a building) so should have a fair breeze.

More to come later....probably tomorrow. I will be tackling the alternator in the morning to see if I can get her charging like she's supposed to be!

Guess it is time for an Update!! :-)

(Originally written 2/9/2015)

It has been a while since I got on here and did an update!  Sorry about that!

January ended up being a fairly good month. It did get pretty doggone cold for a few days down here in south Texas, but cold for here. I think the lowest temp was about 29*.....I do believe that I dealt with that just like a walk in the park!  Now, the "natives" down here were dressing like a bunch of Eskimos!! LOL  You would have thought that another glacier age was starting listening to them talk about how cold it was!  It was quite amusing!

Now what we did have down here was a massive amount of rain! Granted, they have been and still are in a drought, but there was enoung rain to raise the aquifer level several feet. And it did give me a chance to find the rest of the leaks in Bertha! But I have all but 2 of them taken care of, and those 2 are now just barely leaking, so we're almost there getting that straightened out.

I'm currently working on trying to get Bertha's wipers working again. The bushings on the movement arms finally dry rotted off and trying to get a new set into the same holes is almost an act of God! But I WILL get them fixed this week somehow!!

I also installed a set of 3 "puck" LED lights....and they are sweet!!! The pull almost now power, and talk about bright...they light up almost all of the house without being glaring! I'm going to get 3 more this week's check and in two weeks I'll get 3 more (they come in sets of 3). When I get them all installed....I'll have the whole house lit with them and will be able to see so much better, and it should increase my battery life by a couple of hundred %!

                         

Temperature Rollercoaster!!

I guess I had forgotten just how this area has temperature swings in the winter! It is just flat crazy! Most of last week the highs were in the low 50's and the nights were down to the upper 20's at times. And on top of that, it was drizzly and rainy and windy for the majority of the week. Then it jumped up to the mid 60's for a couple of days....and the past several days were in the 40's with lows in the lower 30's.  NOW....they are calling for a high of 74 today and pushing 80 tomorrow! The low last night was 35. And by Thursday it is supposed to be a very good chance of rain with a high only in the lower 50's.

I know that doesn't sound that bad, and to me it really isn't that bad....but....when you are dealing with a 30-40 degree swing in 24 hours....and the humdity level is high....the "cold" just bites thru you!  And even though I have not really gotten a cold or the flu....my chest stays clear and breathing is fine....the issue for me is my sinuses! They have always been an issue, and these swings are wrecking havoc on them!

Now add to that the fact that apparently I have once again acquired an allergy to the cedar trees that are rampant in this part of Texas....my sinuses are on a rampage about half the time!!  LOL  A little over a week ago I went and got some of the Walgreens generic Zartac (or whatever that allergy med is called) and started taking one a day.  It did the job and my sinuses dried up and my ears finally cleared....and I felt much better....for several days.  Then one morning I bent over to close my door and damn near fell out of the house! I felt like I had been on a 4 day drunk!  I immediately came over here and set down and broke out the blood pressure cuff....and you don't even want to know what my pressure was!  Let's just say that if it had been one of the mercury tubes I would have probably blown the top out of it!!!

Needless to say, I came off that med right that moment....and it took about 5 days for my pressure to get back down to an acceptable limit, and this morning it was down to 147/89.  I can live with that...literally!! LOL

Now on to catching you up on "Life in Bertha"!!  Have been working on the interior and it is coming along. Will have some new curtains up by next week, and have started working on getting "closeout" curtains up in front/over the overhead bunk area which is now storage. They will be a dark brown, I think, because that is the color of the ones that I got originally for the windows....but they will take too many panels....But I believe they will be enough to do the front top.  I want to find some nice pattern for the side curtains.

I'm also trying to decide on the color that I want to do the cabinet doors in.  It will be some shade of a moss or fern green...kind of a light pastel color. I just haven't been able to settle on just how light or green or pastel!!  LOL  But it will help lighten up the inside of Bertha.

Snickers and Abbie have finally started playing and putting up with each other. As usual, Abbie just doesn't know when to slow down and take a break....but Snickers is able to get her "point" across when she finally gets tired of it and wants to slow down. The only issue with that is that they have a tendency to play around my feet....so my legs sometimes inadvertently get the "point" also....dang little hypdermic needle claws!!!!!

I think I'll take a short nap and get ready for tonight. I'll be doing my laundry tonight...almost out of clothes again. I'm actually in shorts today...that's how nice it is today!

It has been a beautiful day here!  I just sat outside by my "porch" for an hour and a half....and it was glorious!  I'm in shorts and short sleeves and there is barely a breeze...and it is perfect!

It's about time to get ready for the night. So time to make some coffee, get my clipboard and check tire pressure! Then the circles begin!!!  More to come tomorrow and I'll have some pics of the site and Bertha. It is looking more and more like an apartment complex now!

C'ya!

The Crud!!!

It is Sunday morning...still overcast...supposed to be mid-50's today....at least it quit raining!  I have been tapped again by the crud/allergies/cold....whatever!  But feel better as of now.  I'm beginning to think that I will be fighting this garbage until Spring!  It just comes and goes...lasts about 24 hours and then it hides again. More of a pain in the you know what than being actually sick! Maybe the correct definition of it is that it is a hinderance to daily activities!  LOL 

Anyway....TODAY will be a good day....because as of 12 noon "Ice Bowl 2" starts....so it will be a good day!

I'll give an Ice Bowl 2 update after the game....maybe at halftime, depending on just how the first 2 quarters go!

10 Days into the New Year!!

It is 10 days into the New Year....and it fits just like the "Old Year"! You would think a new year would feel different....but the clock still has 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year...so, like so all times in the past....life continues on!

It has been quiet and a temperature roller coaster here for the past couple of weeks. We are having temp shifts of up to 30 degrees. And that make life for the sinuses very interesting! And I apparently have "regained" one of my allergies from the distant past...the one that had to do with the cedar trees in this part of Texas! I was miserable for a couple of weeks when the cedar count was bouncing between 800-1350! I thought my face was going to explode! But it has settled down and life continues on!

I have a new resident in my tiny house...and she is named "Snickers"! And I do believe that she will eventually get settled in....

..it be be a difficult transition for her, but I think we will weather it!!!  Heheheh









The one major improvement on my location here is the fact that I am also now on "hard power" out of the office trailer....no more diesel fuel issues!!! It is so nice to not have to worry about turning the generator off for several hours each night to make sure that there was enough fuel to last for the 7 days between fuel ups!!

It has been raining/drizzling here for the past 2 days...we were under a Winter Storm Advisory for the past 24 hours...got some sleet and ice....then tonight got a little more and, on top of that, a little thunder and lightening! So this has been a really fun "cold front"! 

I just got done watching 2 very good football games! Playoffs....with one more to go tomorrow....Cowboys vs Packers...."Ice Bowl 2"....they have not met in a playoff since the last one.....in 1967!  So this should be a good game. The Packers took the last one...let's see what the Cowboys have for this one!!

Well, it is time for another round here to make sure that the earth hasn't moved a little bit in the past hour or so! It is usually very quiet here at night, especially when the weather is like this. There is just nothing going on here! Which if really nice, as far as I'm concerned!!  :) 

Happy New Year!! Possibly!!!..Hmmmmm

Well, a new year has come and gone.....it is now This Year....as of 1/1/2015 00:01am.  And there are 364 more days and then there will be another New Year to look into....for a full :60 seconds!  Then THAT one will be THIS year also!!

But how did the past/old year go??? For me it was interesting...I went from an Independent Owner/Operator Truck Owner to a Contract Security person. Went from being in a different place every night to being in one place for 6+ months at a whack. Went from walking like a normal person to walking a lot like Walter Brennon! I'm now up to 6 grandkids! And one Chihuahua! (Lord knows I never expected to have a chihuahua with me as my "dog"!!)  When I let my hair grow out a little bit between shavings....it is a lot grayer (or should I say it is a lot whiter!!). 

Overall, the past year was full of changes, "learnings" & also a lot of the "sameness" of life. 

What do I expect for the next year....a lot of changes, more "learnings" & also a lot of the "sameness" of life!!

And that is the beauty of it all! Things change every day, we need to learn something every day (no matter how big or small, grand or trivial it is) and be prepared for the same things to happen in the coming year that happened in the year gone by.

The one thing that I look forward to is being able to grow a little more in wisdom/knowledge and hopefully a bit more in the area of experience.....and that experience is the experience of living each day to the fullest that I can live it. It might not seem "full" to me at the time, but when I look back on it....hopefully every day will offer "a something" new in my experience of life on this little blue marble in the middle of this universe....in the middle of whatever it is that lies above our heads!

I'm sure that there are many things that I can learn, experience and gain some sort of wisdom from in the coming days....I just hope and pray that I have the common sense to see those things when they are presented to me in whatever form they happen to be packaged in. Because if there IS one thing that I have learned over the past year or so, it is that we never, Never, NEVER know just where that next learning/experiencing/"wisdom-ful" thing is going to come from for us to broaden ourselves on/with!

Soooo,,,,,,so long, good-bye, good riddance 2014......Hi, Hello, Welcome, Howdy 2015!  May you be the same as last year and may you be so much more than last year....and may I have the common sense to see what all you offer me in the next 364 days!! 

Signed........A Traveler Thru The Year!!!   ;-)