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)