In with the Good Air, Out with the bad.

Between my mother, the guy who came to see the fish tank, and 'anonymous' commenter...  Starting to get the feeling my attitude about dealing with people to sell my fish tank is over the top.  Then the first two blogs I check out this morning are all about attitude adjustment.   I am definitely more flipped out about strangers coming to my house than dealing with the people themselves.  When someone would say they were coming to look, I would get myself all worked up, getting ready for them to come over, then I would be angry when they didn't show.  As you know, patience is not my strong point, and waiting for people to see the add, then follow up, is a process that takes patience.

The nice thing I woke up to is a show on HGTV called RV 2010. Show is at a big RV show, showing the newest RV's and the newest RV stuff. It was a cool show. Dreaming is good for the attitude.

Will my brain ever let me go? Probably not.  I need to give myself space to step back and breathe when I start getting on a roll.  I have to laugh.  Didn't I just make an entry about my tendency to move slowly and how I would enjoy that during this time off from work?   Maybe it takes me so long to do things because I'm busy buzzing in circles.  Winding myself up and getting nothing done.  Not a very flattering picture. 

As long as I'm fessing up to not very pretty sides of myself.  I released a BIG GREEN MONSTER yesterday.  Let it go.  Jealousy is not pretty and never leads to anything good.  I have been hugely jealous of a blogger I follow.  Jennifer is about my age and has just recently started on her full time adventure (Living in My Car).  I was jealous that she already had an income to live on while she was preparing, and once she was on the road.  Yesterday, I left a comment on her blog fessing up and wishing her well.  She is a great writer and takes interesting pics.  I will be following her closely and enjoying her adventure.  It felt good to let it go.  This is about me and the crazy dogs (please give me the 'crazy dogs' even though I am obviously crazier than them :0)  finding our way, learning, and having some fun along the way.

I will find my way in this process.  One way, or another, this is going to happen.  It helps to be able to share it here.  I've always kept a journal but it is different putting stuff out here, in public.  There is a different feeling to it.   

3 more days off from work.  I'm headed for Celestial Seasonings Wednesdy morning.  I may actually get some pictures up here for ya.  Pictures are always more interesting than just my blather. 

For today:  Grocery and Laundry.   Pretty exciting huh. 

• All those people that give up so much so I can have the time and space to work out my dreams.
• Dogs are sleeping in the sun.  HAPPY DOGS are a woderful sight. 
• Housecleaner coming tomorrow
• Air conditioning
• cool TV shows to remind me of the cool part of the picture

Take care all!  Be gentle with each other.

Update, Tank Sold?

May have sold the tank.  Someone actually showed to look at it and is interested.  He's willing to pay full price but can't take it to the new home until mid June.  Fine with me (as long as it's before Feb 2012 LOL).  Problem is he can't have the money to me until Thursday.  We'll see.  I'm not turning down any full price offers I may get before then.  He seemed like an honest, nice person.  

Fingers crossed everyone! I'll keep you posted. 

OMG People make Me Crazy!!

Still enjoying my time off.  Moving at the speed of me.  Playing with my music, watching movies.  Enjoying the weather and air conditioning. 

Their is a reason I only mess with Craigs List when I have time off.  I've had several calls of people that say they are coming by to look..  They don't show up.  Other people want me to call them on their phone number that is long distance.  2 have offerred to give me partial payment and I hold the tank from a week to 2 weeks before they can pick it up.  One wanted to write me a check now and pick it up on Thursday.  I just keep nicely telling them, first one to put full CASH payment in my hot little hands can pick up the tank at their leisure.  You all know that I don't like people much to begin with!  Dealing with this particular segment of the population is not fun.    I just don't get the point.  There's no reason for them to be messing with me over a FISH TANK for gosh sakes.  What gain do they get?  Sometimes I think people are just pains in the butt on general principle.   ARGH!!!!

O.k. Rant over. 

Going to do some picking up around the house today, some laundry, and maybe the grocery store.  It's a busy busy life for me :0)

Stilly Dying After All These Years :-)

So I'm starting off with a bad pun.  Don't like it? Build a bridge and get over it.  It's my blog and I'll pun If I want to!!  :0) 

 

How are you?  I'm awesome!  Still on vacation!  The big hair decision was made with the assistance of my fine hair stylist.  I'm still colored up but it's darker and this color will slowly fade over time.  Making my roots blend better as it grows.  I'm not a big style girl.  A pony tail or hair up in a big clip and I'm good to go.  She styled my hair really neat.  One of those styles that looked like I had spent hours on it to look like I had just rolled out of bed.  It even lasted all day.  Usually styles fall out of my hair in about 2.5 minutes.  I won't discuss trying to brush out the hairspray before bed.  It looked fabulous but it was for looking not for touching.  It's fun to do once in a while.

 

Fish tank sales are slow.  Selling stuff on Craig's list is a pain.  People say they will show up to look or call and they don't.  That's why I decided to wait until I had days off of work to sell this thing.   Oh well, it is free and gets lots of exposure, one can't have it all.  Someone is supposed to come look at it today after 4:00 we'll see if he actually shows. 

Truck will be in the shop until Wednesday.  I'm glad I got a rental.  No Dog Park until then...  SHH don't tell the crazy dogs that the plan is altered.  Work on the truck didn't cost as much as I thought, but will still be a dent in the pocket. 

I'm off to suck some coffee and check out everyone in blog land.  CYA!!  Take care and be gentle with each other. 

• Beautiful Colorado weather with air conditioning when it gets too hot
• Craigslist...  Where else could I go to post a huge fish tank for sale.  
• Good mechanic, I can rely on to be honest and only do the work he needs to.  
• Crazy dogs that make me smile everyday
• Not working for a week 

New Look?

I'm going to get my hair cut & colored today.  I can't decide whether to get my regular color, brown with highlights, or to go more natural.  Brown with highlights is the improved version of what my hair was in my younger days.  As I've gotten older I gotten more and more grey hairs.  I like the grey I'm getting.  It's the pretty, shiny grey.  I lucked out there.  Some of my family has the pretty, shiny, white, grey.  The others get this blah dull grey.  I know I won't be able to afford regular color jobs once I go full-time RV.  Home coloring is not my thing.  I like the salt & pepper look but it just doesn't have enough of the salt in it yet.  I'll see what happens.  I LOVE my hairdresser.  She is funny and smart.  She LOVEs being a hairdresser.  So nice to work with someone that really loves her work.  I've been letting my hair grow out, and boy has it grown.  It's finally gotten too long, even for me.  I could never have long hair while I was growing up.  My hair was always too thin and it just looked greasy/stringy, when I grew it out.  Couldn't hold a hair clip or tie in to save my life.  As I've gotten older, my hair has gotten thicker (is it those grey ones helping out?).   I will keep it long, but needs to be trimmed up a bit. 

Took truck to the shop yesterday.  Rented a Hyundai Sonata.  Cool Car!  Problem is, no dogs allowed in the rental.  No dog park visits until I get the truck back :0(  Got the big fish tank posted on Craig's List and I've had a few bites.  Guy is coming by the house to look at it this afternoon.  Hate having strangers in my house but I'll take all precautions.  I remember moving this thing to my house.  It was a 10 hour day with three of us working at it.  Glad I won't be doing that again. 

It's going to be an air conditioning day today, heating up around here.  Take Care All!

• Comfy chair to read blogs and drink coffee in
• Air conditioning on hot days
• A hairdresser I look forward to seeing and trust absolutely
• Good dogs to keep me company, make me laugh, and scare strangers.
• Good coffe that's inexpensive

Moving at the speed of... ME

One week off, what will I do with myself?  Lot's of exciting things.  Truck goes to shop in the morning, then hair cut & color day after.  Going to sell the biggest fish tank.  Grocery shopping and laundry are staples.  Lot's of dog park visits!!  Possibly a visit to Celestial Seasonings Tea factory.  Mostly, not working, enjoying this wonderful spring weather and taking my time. 

I don't think I'll have any trouble learning to slow down when I start RVing full time.  My baseline is turtle speed with occasional sit & stare thrown in for good measure.  Even when I was a runner, I was never making record time.  I can focus and 'get er done' if I need to.  I just don't like to need to.  With all that considered, I guess it's only appropriate that it's taking me 2 years to get on the road now that I've made the decision :0)

• Paid time off from work.  A whole week!
• Working with a co-worker that takes as many calls as I do today. 
• Special gems in my cassette music collection.  Music I couldn't find anywhere else and I had forgotten how much I loved.  
• Watching past Survivor episodes with commentary.  What a way to start my time off.
• Kind callers today that said nice things to me

Take care everyone. 

Thinking.... what to take and what to get rid of

Uh Oh! She's thinking again.

Diana of Life on the open road left a comment expressing a concern about my purging urges.  What I know about preparing for a life of full-timing I've primarily learned from the internet and blogs.  I know I don't want to leave anything in storage.  I've gotten the impression that there just won't be room (weight/space allotment) for anything that is not useful.  I've limited myself to one box of stuff that is just keepsakes.  Memory items that have no use but I like to touch and see sometimes.  I know I can take some pics to stick up on the walls.  I want to limit or eliminate fragile items since things can get so rattled around when driving the rig.  With this in mind, while I'm waiting for my time, I often look at things in my home and think...  'that can go' and 'I'm taking that for sure' and 'that will be hard to let go, but I can't take it' and 'I could give that to so and so'

I'm gathering a big pile of cassettes that are now in my computer.  They will go in a box for my garage sales to come.  It's all about the Eagles this morning!  Doing some dish washing dancing and having party flashbacks with my coffee this morning :0)

• Wonderful weather today so I can have all the windows open
• Housecleaner is here today.  Clean sheets and bathrooms for the week. 
• Good feelings to go with music memories
• Amazon.com having album information and art work for old albums I'm transferring to the computer.   
• Sleeping in, no alarms and no whining dogs today.   

Counting my Blessings and What to say

I've talked about my friend Kiki before.  Well, she's pregnant.  SOO happy for her.  Her and hubby are having a little girl.  It's so hard for me when my friends get pregnant.  I know it's an exciting time, and a scary time.  I just can't relate.  I'm glad there are people that want to have children and are good at raising them.  Thank GOD people do.  It's just not me.  I've occasionally had the urge to want to know what it feels like to be pregnant but never had a craving to have a child.  To me, they are a huge commitment, I don't want to have.  I know there are joys I will never know, without a child of my own.  I'm o.k. with that.  All I think about is another person demanding my time, attention, money and messing with my stuff :0)  The worry and potential trouble that come with a child is all I can think about.  You can call me selfish, and you would be right.  On the other hand.  If I had followed the traditional path.  Gotten married and had kids.  I'm sure I would have ended up on Oprah with my kid/s in therapy for the duration.  I'm glad I was raised in a time, and in a family where it was o.k. for me not to want children.  No one has ever given me a hard time about it.   But back on the subject.  How to express to Kiki how happy I am for her? How do I tell her how happy I am for her and hubby.   Let her know I think she will be a fabulous mom and wish her the best? I won't be a babysitting candidate.  I know I will see her less once the child is born, and her life is taken over with child rearing.  I will miss her.  I'm also glad that smart, kind, people like her and hubby are choosing to bring kids into the world.  She will be a beautiful, smart, kind, and well educated person that the world will be lucky to have. 

That brings me to the next paragraph of counting my blessings.  This is on of those instructions from my mother that still hangs around.  I have a tendency to get into a funk and start feeling sorry for myself.  Mom was constantly reminding me to count my blessings.  Even Oprah had a run where she was encouraging people to journal about 5 positive things a day.  She called it the gratitude journal.  I did it for a while and it did add a different perspective to my life.  I follow a blogger named Ali who puts a list of 'praises' and 'prayers' at the end of her journal entries.   It certainly sums up a day in the life of a person.  I think I'll try it.  I'll call it my blessings for now. 

• No children or attachments keeping me from planning my RV adventure (if I had followed a traditional path, my kids would be teens now UGH)
• great paying job that allows me to work from home most of the time and provides great benefits
• 2 wonderful dogs that make me smile every day
• safe, comfortable home
• reliable high speed internet to keep in touch with blog land and the rest of the world

Cya later.  Thanks for stopping by.  Be gentle with each other. 

Feeling Festive and Nostalgic

The last 4 tapes I've moved to the computer are Christmas music.  I have to listen to the music. after I've transferred it to the computer, to make sure the quality is o.k. and to label the tracks.  I had a little Christmas in May hour.  I had Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, which is all instrumental but beautiful.  Great music to open presents to.  Songs I don't remember hearing before.  Bing Crosby's White Christmas.  That boy could sing!!  I might have to track down some more of his stuff.  What other secrets might that other generation be keeping from us?

Going throught these tapes, and thinking of RVing as I do.  I've been running through my head about why we keep the things we do?  I've decided I will hang on to one bin of keepsakes.  Stuff that has no real function except memories for me.  I have one box of "keepsakes" I've been lugging around since I moved out of my parents house.  I guess I will have to go through that box before I hit the road.  I haven't been through the box in about 10 years and I wonder if there will be anything in there that I just have to keep longer?  I know, when family members have died, I pick one thing of theirs that reminds me of them.  I have a tie clip from one grandfather (that will go in my bin), an old baseball cap from another grandfather, and dog collars from dogs that have moved on.  Wonder what someone would choose if they wanted a reminder of me?  Interesting what we attach memories to. 

Only 3 more working days until I have a week off.  Today, tomorrow and Wednesday :0)

Phew!! I still have a job!!

We did my annual evaluation at work yesterday.  Everything went fine.  My "improvement I need to work on" is being more approachable when I'm working in the office.  I also need to work on my attitude, a little bit, when working in the office.  I can't argue with this, I HATE working in the office and I'm sure it shows.  I also don't understand why it's necessary to work in the office once per week.  I don't see that it helps anyone, I'm grumpier (obviously my co-workers don't enjoy that).  Surely I'm less kind to the callers when I am grumpier.  I've got no problem coming in when there is a reason; like clients visiting the call center or if we've got new people starting that need the support.  I just don't see why I need to wake up 2 hours earlier, put on uncomfortable clothes, leave my crazy dogs, drink cold coffee, and be surrounded by noise, just because the rule is that I have to work in the office one shift per week.    I thought I was doing well not being tacky with the dopey callers.  I guess they want more :0(  O.k. rant over. After my time off next week, I will work on being more approachable and having a better attitude when I'm working in the office.  I do still need this job for a couple more years. 

On the good side...  In the back of my head I kept thinking.  This would be a good time, next year, to clue my supervisor in on my plans to leave in Feb.  Won't That BE COOL!!!!  Big Smiles all around. 

I'm wondering if I am having another moment of 'things falling together' that future full timers talk about having when they are getting ready to go.  After work, I was talking to someone about my truck and that I'm going to have to sell it to get something smaller.  I started talking about what I will be able to get for it.  My research has shown I would be able to get $1300 if I'm really lucky.  Trade in value would be about $850.  I made it clear I wasn't ready to sell anytime soon.  So, this guy asks me.  "If you could get $2500 dollars would you sell it now?"  He has a friend that has been looking for a truck just like mine (I didn't ask why).  I said yes.  He's going to make a phone call and will get hold of me if it's a go. So I may be shopping for a towed sooner than I thought.  Good thing RV magazine had an article on good toweds, I cut it out to save.  The magazine is one my Dad got for free when we went to the RV show and he passes them on to me.  I just picked up the magazine when I went to lunch with mom this week. 

3 more days of work (working from home I might add) and then I have a week off.  Dog park trips are in the plan, selling the fish tanks, and having reg maintenance done on the truck is in the plan.  Maybe I'll also take a tour of the Celestial Seasonings tea factory in Boulder?

Hope all is well in blogland.  Take care and be gentle with each other. 

Churchill, Manitoba Polar Bears

Here are the photographers

These are buggies they ride in to go out and see the bears

bears come right up to check things out

It is called hibernation after all. 

There were a bunch of bear butt pictures! (no cropping needed here) I guess those bears don't stand still much.  They made me laugh, so I had to share. 

The white box on the back of the bus is a deck with a wire grate the visitors can walk out on during the tour.  The young bears come up to check it out. 

There was a crew making an Imax film this season.  They had their own buggy.  This picture gives you an idea of how many bears hang around this time of year. 

Excuse me, Mr. Imax.  May I be in your film? 

So here's the rig you need to RV out with the bears in Churchill.  This is a place where people can stay for several days.  They come out to pump the tanks and deliver propane almost every day.  Kind of a portable Hotel.

The water from showers is allowed to drain right on to the ground.  I guess the smells attract attention from the bears. 

Susan wants to make sure everyone is aware.  A telephoto lens was not used for the pictures.  The bears are REALLY this close. 

Come ON Hudson Bay..  Freeze Already!!  I'm Hungry! 

There were SO many Great pictures, it was hard choose only a few.  I think I picked a good sample.  Let me know what you think.  Going through these pics was fun.  Susan and Charles say it was most definitely the trip of a lifetime. 

Haven't I Been Productive?

By the end of the day yesterday I had:  A new dentist, clean truck inside & out, socialized with my mother, full dog food bin, restocked printer ink, a jump drive full of polar bears, empty trash cans, and full refrig.  By the end of today I will have clean sheets on the bed, appointments for further dental work, clean kitchen, more money paid off the credit card and a few more cassettes transferred to the computer. 

What's that you say?  You don't have a jump drive full of polar bears and you are jealous??  Don't be jealous, I'll share.  I have friends that went to Churchill, Manitoba last year.  That is the place where the polar bears hang out, waiting for the sea ice to freeze, so they can go hunt food.  They are in "walking hibernation" and Churchill has some places for tourists to get up close & personal with the polar bears.  There is not a way for my RV to ever get to Churchill, to see the polar bears.  They had made a CD/slideshow about the trip that was very informative but I wanted MORE POLAR BEARS.  Yesterday, she loaded up my jump drive with all the pictures they took.  One of my jobs for coffee today is to go through and pick my favs.  I'll post the coolest ones here when I'm done.

What happens when you want to blog but there's nothing?

I want to make a blog entry, keep contact with blogland, but I don't know what to say.  Nothing much going on here.  Working this weekend.  Same Old, Same Old.  People have been pretty civilized.  I haven't been called a nasty name in a couple weeks :0)   One of my callers took the time to contact my supervisor and say how wonderful I was.  That Rocks.   Always looks good on the yearly evaluation. 

I want to put more pictures in my blog but my camera just eats batteries.  It takes 2 AA batteries.  I put new batteries in and take maybe 20 pics over 4 days and the batteries are ready to be replaced.  That can't be right.  It's about 4 years old but I haven't used it much.  It's Pentax Optio.  I either need to get rechargable batteries or a new camera.  Something to think about. 

Besides work, I've been transferring my cassette tapes to the computer.  Glad I'm doing this now.  When I go to look up some of the old tapes at Amazon, I find that they don't make some of them on CD.  There have been a couple of tapes that I'm going to buy the CD's for.  The music just didn't make the transfer well.  Dan Fogelberg's Innocent Age and a couple of Pat Metheny albums.  Get the name of this Metheny album, "As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls".  His albums are primarily instrumental, and are a beautiful place to go when chaos is surrounding me. 

Tomorrow is a busy day for me.  Get the truck washed (there is some cat hair in there courtesy of Comcast).  Need to get that taken care of before I pick my mom up for Mother's Day lunch.  I also have a dentist appt tomorrow.  The dentist I have used for years is about 1 hour drive from me.  I'm trying one that is closer.  Just going for exam and cleaning to try him out.  I am one of those people that can't stand the dentist.  I don't like people in my personal space and I don't like loud noises.  Lay me on my back with one or two people surrounding my head, hands in my mouth.  It doesn't get much more 'in my personal space' than that.  Each time they scrape or mess with my teeth it echos through my head!  A whole new meaning to the word loud.  My hair is standing up just thinking about it.  I'll pick some of my new found music to take with me. 

Hope all is well with you.  Be gentle with each other.  Cya.   

“Look like a girl. Act like a lady. Think like a man. Work like a dog.”

Everybody has family sayings that are passed down from generation to generation. In my family, the one’s I remember come from my maternal grandmother’s line. This title is a quote that was scratched on a small piece of paper in my grandmother’s scrap book. We don’t know where it came from. There is no attribution to it. When my mother read it to me I just laughed and laughed. It sums up their whole female philosophy! No one ever said the phrase to me, when I was growing up, but I sure got the message.

A quick internet search shows the quote in many places. Still no attribution. There is one reference to a plumbing supplies dealer that came under fire for having the quote on cards they passed out. It was listed under the heading “4 things a woman should know”. There are many bulletin board posters that include the quote in their signature. Funny how things like that make the rounds.

As I was researching the quote I came upon something interesting.  Interesting or shows how dense I am.  I always thought the phrase "work like a dog" meant to work very hard and long.  Like a sled dog.  One of the discussions of this implied that it means work as little as possible.  Like my dogs :0)   HMM.  What does 'work like a dog' mean to you? 

Thought For The Day – There is no shortcut to anywhere worth going.

Title of this blog entry, and the blog entry itself, courtesy of Nick's Blog.  Nick's is the first blog I read when I sit down to coffee.  It's good for a giggle, or a thought, or a rant, and he makes an entry every day.  I look forward to the day I get to meet Nick and Miss Terry down the road.

This thought hits me right at home.  With all my nickel squeezing and eating right I have to remember where I'm headed.  It will be worth all the hard work.  It will be so much fun.  I started this blog to find some like minded people, but I've found it has another purpose.  I have to keep my goal in sight but remember that the journey is interesting too.  I am changing, slowly.  Not just getting in better shape and paying off debt.  These are good things that, I'm sure are contributing to my better outlook, but I am changing as a person.  There are fewer days when I feel like I am just hanging on for dear life.  Moments that are actually joyful and, dare I say, peaceful.  I think/hope that full time RVing will be my route to making those moments last longer.   Makes me wonder where other people find their peace?  If you would have told me in October 2010 (RV Dreams Rally in Kerrville), when I was trying RVing for the first time, that it would lead to this...  I would have rolled my eyes like a 14 year old girl. 

I am not taking any shortcuts (though, if I win the lottery tomorrow I think I could manage) and this is surely a place worth going :0)

Blast from the Past

Wow I've been tearful (happy tears) and smiling most of the day :0)  I have several boxes of cassette tapes that still remain.  I've purged some each time I've moved and transferred some to computer a few years ago.  At the time, I thought I would hang on to the remainder until I was ready to buy the CD's or let them go.  Which brings me to today.  I don't want to spend money on new CD's (that I will have to pack in the RV or sell) and I just couldn't bring myself to part with some of them.  This project will take a while.  All the tapes have to be recorded in real time, then labeled and transferred to my music program.  No time like the present to get started. 

These tapes are music that meant a lot to me in high school and college.  Even had a few mix tapes that were made for me by friends (and an ex, EEK!).  I had a tape that I bought at the first Ren Festival I ever worked.  Good old fashioned folk music.  Anyone out there remember White Snake?  "Here I go Again" had been played so much the tape was distorted.  I'll have to break down and pay for that one song again (I think this outfit can afford 0.99 for a piece of the soundtrack to my life in the late 80's). 

It's amazing how many memories and emotions a song can bring up.  Lucky for me, it was ALL good.  A special day right here in my Sticks n Bricks :0)  Maybe a taste of what it will be like when I get to scanning all the pictures from 3 large picture albums I've been carrying with me since I left my parent's house. 

Hope you all had good days too.  Take care and be gentle with each other. 

Daily Chores and a Couple of treats

I went to trade the cable box.  Short line, nice customer service.  That was easy!  I did some errands and went to the grocery store.  Found almost everything I was looking for and a few treats for my Wii activities.  I unloaded the groceries without incident, the dogs were behaved when I was gone (still exhausted from playing with the pack yesterday).  The day is getting better.  Now, the final hurdle.  Time to hook up the new cable box and get it activated.  Get the box out of the truck and there is white fuzz all over.  HMM.  Looking into the vents I find a new pet.  Is it a bonus gift from the cable company?  I think not!  Looks like cable box's previous residence had a white cat that was fond of the cable box.  I'm not talking about a little hair, but a full fledged guinea pig sized bunch of fur filling the inside of the box.  Now, I'm not one to be picky (especially when it comes to equipment rented from the cable company) but this looked like it may be another mouth to feed.  I AM trying to save money after all.  On top of that, I know it was cat fur because I immediately started sneezing and itching.  ARGH!!  Back to the cable office, where there is now a long line.  I got the new box installed with minimal trouble and only had to make 2 calls to customer service to get it all going.  Tonight...  I program.  Don't you love getting new electronics and having to put all your settings back in again? 

On a positive note, the customer service agent actually said she was embarrassed they sent the messy box out.  All the clerks and service agents, I came in contact with, were very nice today.  I only saw one road rage driver.   My Wii treats for myself were Guitar Hero and Dance Madness.  I tried them out, a good time was had by all but the dogs.  The crazy dogs cowered in the corner and stared as I flailed around the living room.  I am a rockin' dance star only in my own dreams, I will never be for public consumption :0)

Cable Box Is Being Petulant

How's that for a 'word of the day'?

I've mentioned before that I just LOVE me some TV.  So, when the cable box starts to go kaput, I'm a little bummed.  It started doing some weird things yesterday.  Giving a lot of "please wait" and "downloading" messages.  The DVR portion of the box has been flaking out a litlle but the whole box is now refusing to discuss anything with the cable company.  So, I'll have to break down the whole thing and take it in to get a new box tomorrow.  The good thing is that it has forced me to FINALLY down grade my cable service (leaving me another $40 a month to pay debt with).  I've been putting it off because I didn't want to deal with breaking down the whole set up and setting it all back up again.  When I moved to this place, my parents helped me fix my huge TV over the fireplace, and set up all the equipment it the adjacent bedroom.  It involved power tools and running wires, Not fun.  It took 3 people (including an electrician & a mechanical engineer), a LONG day,  but It looks really cool!  Just the flat screen TV is showing in the living room, none of the boxes that usually surround a TV.  That will mean dealing with more wires and using more brain power than I care to on a day off.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes.  Looking forward to some time of work in 2 weeks.  I'm getting vactionitis in a bad way.  I'm going to do something special for one day of my vacation but will mostly include enjoying the nice weather and not having to deal with work. 

Tornado

Tornado brings wind phobic to a whole new level!!!  I've seen in blogs that campgrounds will have a safe house to go to if a tornado warning is around.  It's usually the bathhouse.  That's a pretty picture.... My rather significant derriere, 2 crazy dogs (one terrified of thunder), all squeezing in next to the pit toilet while Dorothy flies by.   It wouldn't take more than one of those nights to keep me away from Tornado Ally during the season. 

Wind Phobic?

High Wind. I read about people, not having fun, when the wind is blowing. Sounds like an RV is not the optimum place to sleep or to drive when the wind is kicking up. I have a confession to make. I will tolerate ANY other kind of weather besides wind. Gusting wind, especially. It truly makes me disoriented, unhappy, and forgetful. It wears me out. I worked in a psych unit in Wyoming for a little bit. When I was there, we could anticipate more beds being filled when we had wind. In Wyoming, there would be 2-3 days of hard gusty wind at a time. I got out of there as soon as I could.  I can see myself moving my RV to avoid wind more than any other weather. I’ll have to make sure I can get wind predictions for my spots in my weather forcast. In Denver and living in a sticks & bricks, wind is not as big a concern for me. I will start watching the weather reports for wind predictions and see if they any more accurate than the other weather predictions :0)

Anticipated Oil Mess on the Gulf Coast.

'News' reports about the gulf coast oil spill are making me angry.  This is a horrible disaster that will have long term ecologic and economic impact.  It IS horrible and IS dramatic.  They really don't need to make stuff up.  I keep hearing reports that the government 'didn't act soon enough' and 'underestimated the severity' of the spill.  Well, the truth is, they assumed it would be the the largest spill ever, from the beginning.   Within 2 days of the fire, they had people, money and stuff en route to the area.  Containing and cleaning up the oil. 

The 'news' agencies make news that just isn't there.   I'm sure there are a ton of stories out there about why the automatic shut off didn't work.  The different clean-up tactics.  Companies that make the oil spill clean up stuff and how they are now having to work overtime to keep up with demand.  Interviews about what effects the oil will have (they can use file footage for the dramatic pictures).  How about interviews/pictures about the oil rig, how it's set up, how the fire started and how the fire effected the safety stuff meant to stop the spill.     Interviewing experts about what plans the oil company has/ or should have in place to handle an oil spill (I'm sure the oil company itself won't be giving any interviews)  It goes on & on.  There is so much interesting stuff to do, why spend so much time dogging on the government right now?  It's not helpful.

RV thoughts for the day: 
I hope all the clean up efforts work.  I'm looking forward to some RV time on the gulf coast.  I've only been in an ocean 2 times and never got to sleep with the sound of waves in the background.  The Gulf Coast looked like it would be the cheapest place for me to spend time near the ocean.  I'll keep my fingers crossed that it won't all be covered in sludge by the time I can get there. 

Hope all is well out there is blog land and you are not being blown down the road. 

Lucky Me!

Wish it were a post to say I made the lottery...  Not so much.  Yesterday I got to talk with my Mom.  We've both been busy and not connecting much recently.  My luck is with my family.  I have great support for my plan to hit the road!!  They don't treat me like I'm crazy or drill me much :0)  Maybe it's because they know I've always been baseline crazy.  Also found out that Mom has RV hook ups available at their place.  Always nice to have a spot to park.  Here's to being the crazy relative, living in an RV and traveling America!  Take care All.  I'm still plugging.  Tax refund checks made big dent in my debt and I'm back on track for being debt free before I move to the RV Feb. 2012.