Today was a rather nice wonderfully warm day as we puttered around in the campground during the morning.... I didn't do much, but was outside draining the tank..... you know the icky one...
We have a flush out and you have to change the water hose over to it to rinse it out... And then since the water here is so much nicer and softer than the Arizona water that was in the fresh water tank, I drained it...
Then I let the nice soft SD water refill the tank from the hose connection... We have a valve to switch the water inlet over to the fresh tank... And once it fills, it overflows the tank outside hose fill next to the front door... I let it run for a while to further purge the water in the fresh tank... It was still dripping out of the air intake late this afternoon..... Guess it is really full...
And then I was washing the concrete off back under the rear of the coach... The trees drop all sorts of junk back there so I was cleaning up... Or was I just standing out in the shady sun and enjoying a summer like activity.. Anyway I also washed out the waterlocker bay on the rig as well.... It gets all sandy back under there as hoses are put away dirty. Also there is a big hole in the bottom of the locker for the sewer hose and the rear wheel throws up junk from the road....
Eventually Loyce announced that she was going to the quilt store in La Mesa.... Uh, I wondered how long that would take..... I suggested that she have a nice time..... but no..... I was taking her....
So once clean with a shower and fresh clothes, we were on our way.. I kind of drove around the quaint little shopping area while she spent her hour inside... I parked along the curb of this little cottage style store and worked on my handheld two way ham radio for a while as well....
After that was done, we went to a Wal Mart back about half way toward the campground... I used the GPS to find it as a point of interest... It was becoming hot in the car, so we took turns staying out with Biscuit while the other shopped for our needs.... Loyce was in there a lot longer than me.....
Oh, and tonight at dusk we were out along the silver strand beach as the sun was setting... Turned around at the Del and came back the same way... After it was dark we were driving in Imperial Beach along the Ocean... There is a row of beach homes that goes way South into the slough that separates the USA from Tijuana..
We were just slow driving looking at the homes and the ocean between them and eventually turned around at the very end where you can go out on the beach... It was dark so we didn't leave the car... But you could see all the lights on the hillside cliff across the inlet of Tijuana.. Loyce and I were discussing that you couldn't cross here but had to go over to San Ysidro. As we were pulling away I notice we had a white full sized SUV sitting quietly behind us.... With a large green emblem on its door...
Yep the US Boarder Patrol... They get paid to be stealthy and inquisitive.. We were just being touristy... But hey how do they know...? He followed me all the way back up the beach and was eventually satisfied that we were not there to pick up an illegal.... The Toyota has a Kansas plate... wonder what he was thinking...
Tonight it is getting cool again as we are only about two miles from the bay....
Retired Rod
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Beaches
Today we decided to go to the beaches along the outer Western edge of San Diego and then on North to La Jolla.... There are several beach jurisdictions along that distance...
We drove right up to La Jolla past the Sea World peninsula and Mission Bay... Stopped for some gas in Pacific Beach at a station that had $4.19 a gallon... From Gas Buddy, I knew this was a favorable price.... We have seen $4.59 in places...
We always enjoy the beaches up in La Jolla... We pull in along the beach parking and just sit there and enjoy the view... The wind coming off of the ocean was quite cool to cold even though the sun was blinding...
Still the younger folks had shorts and t shirts as they rode their skate boards along the beach walks... As older folks, we had the windows almost closed... How does that work...?
We wandered up thru the University of California's San Diego campus and the Torrey Pines area, before coming back rather quickly on the I 5... We stopped somewhere along that road for an In and Out burger...
In the late afternoon we were wandering around Mission Beach and then the Sunset Cliffs area North of the Navy Base and Point Loma....
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| Mission Beach, and the channel causeway... |
We drove right up to La Jolla past the Sea World peninsula and Mission Bay... Stopped for some gas in Pacific Beach at a station that had $4.19 a gallon... From Gas Buddy, I knew this was a favorable price.... We have seen $4.59 in places...
We always enjoy the beaches up in La Jolla... We pull in along the beach parking and just sit there and enjoy the view... The wind coming off of the ocean was quite cool to cold even though the sun was blinding...
Still the younger folks had shorts and t shirts as they rode their skate boards along the beach walks... As older folks, we had the windows almost closed... How does that work...?
We wandered up thru the University of California's San Diego campus and the Torrey Pines area, before coming back rather quickly on the I 5... We stopped somewhere along that road for an In and Out burger...
In the late afternoon we were wandering around Mission Beach and then the Sunset Cliffs area North of the Navy Base and Point Loma....
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| Lifeguard station at the South end of Mission Beach
When we decided to get back to the RV, we passed the South side of the San Deigo Airport... I found this interesting as we drove right past the old old barracks that were the Naval Training Facility from World War II and also during Viet Nam... Some of my sailor buddies and I spent several nights there while we were stationed up in the Oxnard area back in the 60s...
All of the windows are broken or gone now, and the buildings are beyond repair.... I understand that the buildings are beyond any use, but wonder why they are still even there... Perhaps the Navy doesn't want to use any money on removing them....
We were back here in the park about 5:30... But it seems much later with the sun beyond the big cliff to our West and the time change that we are not used to....
Retired Rod
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Buzzing around in SD
It doesn't help to try and sleep in a little longer when your in a strange time zone, cause you wake up just the same.. And so it was at 6:30 this morning... I was trying to sleep in but it just didn't work...
The front of the motorhome was covered in bugs so after a breakfast of WHITE Sausage Gravy and Grits........... LOL.... no that was for Ricks benefit as he wrote a blog about library paste and the like, yesterday....
Well we did have some pancakes and eggs... cooked on a new grill that I got at Wal Mart yesterday.... Cheap one, $42 but it has the right size to fit on our counter... So breakfast was a good one...
Then I was outside with the brush and a bucket scrubbing all the nasty bugs we collected coming over here.. Eventually I had the hose out rinsing the windows.. I kept eyeing the park workers wondering if I was breaking the rules about washing the rig...
They never did come over and ask or tell me to quit...
When we finally left the park, we went around to the South end of the Silver Strand Beach. The wind was blowing in from the Ocean but it was in the 60s and sunny.... The beach was deserted..... The campground was closed and appears to be closed permanently...
Then we headed up to the beach North of the Hotel Del Coronado... There were a lot more people there, but they were playing on the beach and sunning themselves... Still there were no parking places...
Again I didn't grab the good camera so these are cell phone shots...
First is the Hotel and the Beach in front. This is more built up every time we are here.
If I had the panoramic camera these two pictures could be added together as the buildings overlap... There are some people out on the beach but they aren't in the water...
This is looking straight out into the Pacific... If you look more to the North, you are looking at Point Loma which is where the Navy Submarine Base is located.... But this would be looking Southwest..
We then ended up downtown driving in the traffic.... San Diego is a business center as well... People in suits and ties.... carrying thick legal briefs in thick accordion files.... and the ever present homeless.... such a contrast...
Then down to the waterfront... which we spent time on a number of years ago... It was back when we came here with our employer, but we couldn't remember what year it was or where we stayed..
We did remember taking the whale watching tour on the Hornblower out into the ocean along the Mexico coast... We also did the tour of the Navy docks that year too...
I'm not sure where the afternoon went, but we were on the North side of the bay along where the Airport is looking back at the city docks....
We came home driving past the big hotels and the convention center.... As the day ended we were back at the RV park scrubbing the bird do do off of the car....
Seems we have some attraction in the trees here that is attracting a lot of black birds, or ravens... I thought it was a mini production of the movie the Birds about 6 PM... Ravens everywhere...
We enjoyed seeing the familiar sights around here today, but haven't discussed where we will go tomorrow...
Retired Rod
The front of the motorhome was covered in bugs so after a breakfast of WHITE Sausage Gravy and Grits........... LOL.... no that was for Ricks benefit as he wrote a blog about library paste and the like, yesterday....
Well we did have some pancakes and eggs... cooked on a new grill that I got at Wal Mart yesterday.... Cheap one, $42 but it has the right size to fit on our counter... So breakfast was a good one...
Then I was outside with the brush and a bucket scrubbing all the nasty bugs we collected coming over here.. Eventually I had the hose out rinsing the windows.. I kept eyeing the park workers wondering if I was breaking the rules about washing the rig...
They never did come over and ask or tell me to quit...
When we finally left the park, we went around to the South end of the Silver Strand Beach. The wind was blowing in from the Ocean but it was in the 60s and sunny.... The beach was deserted..... The campground was closed and appears to be closed permanently...
Then we headed up to the beach North of the Hotel Del Coronado... There were a lot more people there, but they were playing on the beach and sunning themselves... Still there were no parking places...
Again I didn't grab the good camera so these are cell phone shots...
First is the Hotel and the Beach in front. This is more built up every time we are here.
If I had the panoramic camera these two pictures could be added together as the buildings overlap... There are some people out on the beach but they aren't in the water...
This is looking straight out into the Pacific... If you look more to the North, you are looking at Point Loma which is where the Navy Submarine Base is located.... But this would be looking Southwest..
We then ended up downtown driving in the traffic.... San Diego is a business center as well... People in suits and ties.... carrying thick legal briefs in thick accordion files.... and the ever present homeless.... such a contrast...
Then down to the waterfront... which we spent time on a number of years ago... It was back when we came here with our employer, but we couldn't remember what year it was or where we stayed..
We did remember taking the whale watching tour on the Hornblower out into the ocean along the Mexico coast... We also did the tour of the Navy docks that year too...
I'm not sure where the afternoon went, but we were on the North side of the bay along where the Airport is looking back at the city docks....
We came home driving past the big hotels and the convention center.... As the day ended we were back at the RV park scrubbing the bird do do off of the car....
Seems we have some attraction in the trees here that is attracting a lot of black birds, or ravens... I thought it was a mini production of the movie the Birds about 6 PM... Ravens everywhere...
We enjoyed seeing the familiar sights around here today, but haven't discussed where we will go tomorrow...
Retired Rod
Monday, February 25, 2013
On to San Diego
As RV days often go our day today was compartmentalized... We awakened to the wind flapping our awning slide out toppers... Shaking the entire coach...Flop, flop, flop...... 5:30 AM... The electric heaters were running full force...
We didn't turn on the gas heaters so space heaters were all we had going... Later after a shower I stepped outside and learned that is was quite cool along with the wind...
I buzzed off to Wal Mart for some more quick groceries to make breakfast... Compartment one... Once on the road we were battling the wind as we crossed the sand dunes out by Oglby Road...
You can't see it from this shot, but the wind was blowing the sand across the road like it was snow. The dust just filled the air in almost a brown out.... We headed for the Imperial Valley where the crops hold the ground together....
On the West side of the Valley we stopped in a rest area for a bite of lunch and to make a day camp because we were now an hour ahead of Arizona and suddenly it was barely noon... It was only 100 miles from here to San Diego and we would be there before checkin otherwise...
But first we had to climb the mountains with the big boulders....
These are just some of the rock piles as you go up to 4200 feet.. Another one of those compartments as now the wind was gone but it was barely 50 at the top of the mountain....
At about 40 miles from the campground you start down the big hill into SD... I was using the Jake Brake engine retarder as we buzzed down hill.. Some of the folks I was following rode their brakes all the way down.... You could smell it by just following them....
Suddenly we were in the city on the freeways....... Yet another compartment.... As we were to turn South to come to the Campground a big truck rode along my passenger side and absolutely refused to move away.... Riding me right past the intersection, forcing me to continue on I 8... So then my GPS did one of those recalculating bits and we had to go to the 805 South..... longer.... I got in the very outside lane so I couldn't be railroaded again...
We pulled into the Metro KOA at the 805 and US 54 intersection.. Not far from the bay... Using the GPS it led me under the road to a serene park right in the center of town... The place is pricey for a campground... but we aren't staying for too long so we will enjoy it while we are here... The last compartment for our day... Seems peaceful here.... But a Navy helio just flew over....
We usually wouldn't pick a place like this but we like to go over to the outer island and hang out by the ocean so its convenient..
Our internal clocks keep telling us its later than it is and we have a large cliff to our West that blocks the afternoon sun..
You can see it behind the campers and the two story camper cabins... That was a first for us too...
The trees here will keep us from connecting our satellite TV I'm sure, but in the center of San Diego we should have fairly good antenna reception I would think..
Again the cell phone pictures aren't all that good but they are convenient as they upload to blogger the instant you take them....
I'm not sure what we plan to do here other than enjoy the change from the desert... Everything is green and you can smell the ocean in the air.... Seems like spring is here...
Retired Rod
We didn't turn on the gas heaters so space heaters were all we had going... Later after a shower I stepped outside and learned that is was quite cool along with the wind...
I buzzed off to Wal Mart for some more quick groceries to make breakfast... Compartment one... Once on the road we were battling the wind as we crossed the sand dunes out by Oglby Road...
You can't see it from this shot, but the wind was blowing the sand across the road like it was snow. The dust just filled the air in almost a brown out.... We headed for the Imperial Valley where the crops hold the ground together....
On the West side of the Valley we stopped in a rest area for a bite of lunch and to make a day camp because we were now an hour ahead of Arizona and suddenly it was barely noon... It was only 100 miles from here to San Diego and we would be there before checkin otherwise...
But first we had to climb the mountains with the big boulders....
These are just some of the rock piles as you go up to 4200 feet.. Another one of those compartments as now the wind was gone but it was barely 50 at the top of the mountain....
At about 40 miles from the campground you start down the big hill into SD... I was using the Jake Brake engine retarder as we buzzed down hill.. Some of the folks I was following rode their brakes all the way down.... You could smell it by just following them....
Suddenly we were in the city on the freeways....... Yet another compartment.... As we were to turn South to come to the Campground a big truck rode along my passenger side and absolutely refused to move away.... Riding me right past the intersection, forcing me to continue on I 8... So then my GPS did one of those recalculating bits and we had to go to the 805 South..... longer.... I got in the very outside lane so I couldn't be railroaded again...
We pulled into the Metro KOA at the 805 and US 54 intersection.. Not far from the bay... Using the GPS it led me under the road to a serene park right in the center of town... The place is pricey for a campground... but we aren't staying for too long so we will enjoy it while we are here... The last compartment for our day... Seems peaceful here.... But a Navy helio just flew over....
Our internal clocks keep telling us its later than it is and we have a large cliff to our West that blocks the afternoon sun..
The trees here will keep us from connecting our satellite TV I'm sure, but in the center of San Diego we should have fairly good antenna reception I would think..
Again the cell phone pictures aren't all that good but they are convenient as they upload to blogger the instant you take them....
I'm not sure what we plan to do here other than enjoy the change from the desert... Everything is green and you can smell the ocean in the air.... Seems like spring is here...
Retired Rod
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Hello from Yuma!
Everything was in the house.... almost all of our supplies and all the stuff it takes to live on a daily basis went in the house when we got to Arizona, so do you just go buy it all over again, when we are leaving in 5 or 6 weeks for Kansas....?
So we have been sorting our belongings and deciding what should be in the Motorhome and what should be left in the house... Trips back and forth to the coach, I was killed last night....
And then again today all the food needed to go out since the fridge ran all night on the heavy drop cord to the garage... It kept tripping the ground fault breakers... I kept on turning off stuff in the coach.. Finally it stayed on... And cooled the fridge and charged the batteries...
Once we left about noon, it wasn't all that far down here to Yuma.... There was a big traffic jam around the Wild Horse Pass Casino and we sat dead in our tracks because everyone couldn't get off the freeway... Stopped....... Eventually I made it over into the center lane away from the three lanes trying to exit on a single lane exit and we crawled past the exit...
As we passed thru Maricopa which is another long slow down we did a proverbial wave at JB and Brenda as we went over Papago Road.. From there on it was quick sailing... But it is amazing how full the interstate is even at $4 bucks a gallon...
So when I took this picture there wasn't a car or a truck anywhere, well over on the opposite side..... LOL
This is kind of typical of the Western side of Arizona.... Scrub brush and trees for miles and miles.... Most of it belongs to the BLM, the US Government....
We are parked out in the Fortuna Hills area South of the Interstate on South Fortuna Road.... A few more blocks on West on the frontage road and then South we found a spot at the Sunset Palms RV Park... She said that they keep a couple of spots for overnighters, but that I was lucky because she had rented one of them to a couple for a week.... Things are full around here this time of year...
I had called on the phone last week and she wouldn't make a reservation for me because I only wanted one night... A week, then maybe, otherwise stop on by and see what we have open.... Don't you just love that kind of certainty..?
But we have full hookups with cable TV for $22 but that had to be in cash.....LOL........
Tomorrow we are going to head on West for the San Diego area.... where we do have a reservation.....LOL. But that means we have to make it that far and I never like Have To's..... did that in the work world for years.....
See you from California...
Retired Rod
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Let's go RVing
We have the motorhome out in front of the house here in Mesa.... That's a big no no of course, but I needed to air the tires and wash up the outside...
Oh, and discretely wash out the pink stuff from the water system... I started with the air in the tires mid morning... That was when the neighbor to our South asked me if I was working on the motor home... Cause if I was, that was against the rules..........
Well, I'm putting air in the tires..... is that against the rules.? And next I'm going to wash it.... She replied that those things were OK.. Well now what got into her....?
RV's in housing developments seem to bring out the worst in people.... They immediately think you are trash if you have an RV... And heck they just rent the house next door... Perhaps they were given a big list of what they couldn't do...........
Well anyway once she was gone the washing began and the pink stuff somehow leaked out of the water system and was washed down the storm sewer... The water tank is now filled with fresh water and the electric cord is plugged into the garage....
It will charge the batteries up over night... Oh ya, I took the inside step cover off of the golf cart batteries and filled them up with filtered water from our sink filter system in the house... Its not distilled, but close enough... I was happy that each cell was only down about half a tea cup full of water...
I don't think those have been checked since last summer... I was looking on the blog for when I did it, but couldn't find it...
We hope to run down to the Yuma area tomorrow and stay for a couple of days.... Couldn't find any overnight parks that would make a reservation over the phone... Everything is long term down there... or fill in by just showing up... If worse comes to worse, we can park out at the casino on the interstate corner where you go to Algodones. That's kind of last resort because the truckers use that lot and they run their engines all night...
This is all very loose knit and we really have no plans other than to just get away for a few days..... Hey, lets go RVing!!
Retired Rod
Oh, and discretely wash out the pink stuff from the water system... I started with the air in the tires mid morning... That was when the neighbor to our South asked me if I was working on the motor home... Cause if I was, that was against the rules..........
Well, I'm putting air in the tires..... is that against the rules.? And next I'm going to wash it.... She replied that those things were OK.. Well now what got into her....?
RV's in housing developments seem to bring out the worst in people.... They immediately think you are trash if you have an RV... And heck they just rent the house next door... Perhaps they were given a big list of what they couldn't do...........
Well anyway once she was gone the washing began and the pink stuff somehow leaked out of the water system and was washed down the storm sewer... The water tank is now filled with fresh water and the electric cord is plugged into the garage....
It will charge the batteries up over night... Oh ya, I took the inside step cover off of the golf cart batteries and filled them up with filtered water from our sink filter system in the house... Its not distilled, but close enough... I was happy that each cell was only down about half a tea cup full of water...
I don't think those have been checked since last summer... I was looking on the blog for when I did it, but couldn't find it...
We hope to run down to the Yuma area tomorrow and stay for a couple of days.... Couldn't find any overnight parks that would make a reservation over the phone... Everything is long term down there... or fill in by just showing up... If worse comes to worse, we can park out at the casino on the interstate corner where you go to Algodones. That's kind of last resort because the truckers use that lot and they run their engines all night...
This is all very loose knit and we really have no plans other than to just get away for a few days..... Hey, lets go RVing!!
Retired Rod
Friday, February 22, 2013
Warmer until the afternoon, and SIL goes home...
It was down in the 30s again last night, and even though we broke the dawn with sunshine, the temps didn't rise very quickly....
Loyce's sister was scheduled to fly out today so they were in catch up visiting mode, so I just slept in for a while... They didn't need me in their conversation....
It became noon, and the temps were still in the 40s but by about 2 they made the 50s.... I did the internet thing... But I have to be careful, as I am really tight against our limit of gigs... I might fall off of the earth when we reach the top....
Anyway, I decided that it was just too cool to brave the temps on the motorcycle..... As about when we reached 55, the sun disappeared and the dampness of the cool air really took over...
I did go for a Wendy's and shopped at the Home Depot late in the afternoon, but took the car... Then over to the motorhome, where I re installed the water heater anode bar plug in the heater.....
I also tested the water hydrant in the far end of the lot, but found that it was shut off sometime this winter... It did work last fall..... But that doesn't help me much......
We had the 5 bushes that I purchased inside the garage for yesterday and last nights snow storm, but today I carried them out into the back yard... They were dry and needed to be watered... So they sat in the sun for the afternoon today.... And tonight I put them on the table inside the patio roof... Still open on two sides, but at least any falling frost can't get at them....
I can't continue to carry them back and forth to the garage every night... We might be flirting with frost for a couple of more night this next week so perhaps they will be pinched as well.......
We do hope our SIL made it into her housing tonight as when we checked, her flight was on schedule to land back in the snow covered Midwest... She didn't have to travel far, but still we are concerned and wish her the best...
Too bad she had to be here for the first snow in the Phoenix area in many years.... Still she thought it was nicely warm here compared to Iowa. The bright sunny days have a way of giving that impression....
Retired Rod
Loyce's sister was scheduled to fly out today so they were in catch up visiting mode, so I just slept in for a while... They didn't need me in their conversation....
It became noon, and the temps were still in the 40s but by about 2 they made the 50s.... I did the internet thing... But I have to be careful, as I am really tight against our limit of gigs... I might fall off of the earth when we reach the top....
Anyway, I decided that it was just too cool to brave the temps on the motorcycle..... As about when we reached 55, the sun disappeared and the dampness of the cool air really took over...
I did go for a Wendy's and shopped at the Home Depot late in the afternoon, but took the car... Then over to the motorhome, where I re installed the water heater anode bar plug in the heater.....
I also tested the water hydrant in the far end of the lot, but found that it was shut off sometime this winter... It did work last fall..... But that doesn't help me much......
We had the 5 bushes that I purchased inside the garage for yesterday and last nights snow storm, but today I carried them out into the back yard... They were dry and needed to be watered... So they sat in the sun for the afternoon today.... And tonight I put them on the table inside the patio roof... Still open on two sides, but at least any falling frost can't get at them....
I can't continue to carry them back and forth to the garage every night... We might be flirting with frost for a couple of more night this next week so perhaps they will be pinched as well.......
We do hope our SIL made it into her housing tonight as when we checked, her flight was on schedule to land back in the snow covered Midwest... She didn't have to travel far, but still we are concerned and wish her the best...
Too bad she had to be here for the first snow in the Phoenix area in many years.... Still she thought it was nicely warm here compared to Iowa. The bright sunny days have a way of giving that impression....
Retired Rod
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Real Snow in Phoenix.....
It wasn't really rain, or hail, or snow for that matter........... It was white and mostly frozen and was coming down from the sky... First up over North Scottsdale and then out here in the Mesa valley....
Sleety hail was what I would have called it, but the weather man called it wintery mix.... You know the pink part of the weather map, were the snow is above the line and the green rain is below...
We had gone out to the Olive Farm South of Queen Creek this morning in the heavy rains that came right down since early morning... The gals spent time picking out those tasty olive oil treats.. And I grappled for a parking spot outside as a lot of folks decided that the farm was the right place to go on the rainy day....
In the afternoon we wandered all around the city of Mesa driving thru some of the RV parks we have stayed at for the last several years... And finally ended up in Downtown Tempe, where we drove and walked Mill street.. This is the college town area for Arizona State.. And of all the neat places to stop...........
We ended up going into the 5 guys place for some peanuts and a burger.. Since it was lunch, we held back and had small one patty burgers... That one is still a hand full compared to a Wendy's junior.... Still hungry,,,,? Eat some more peanuts, as there is a case of them over on the counter.
The sky was turning really black up North beyond the Red Mountain freeway.... It looked angry.....! So we made our way back East before it got us... That was about the time that Scottsdale was getting hammered with the snow..
After outrunning the wall of slush, we have stayed put for the rest of the evening... Loyce says my car has a bunch of snow on it, but I didn't go out and look......... I'm from far enough North of here to know what it looks like.....
Maybe the sun will come out tomorrow and melt it all off before I have to deal with it..... Ya think...
Retired Rod
Sleety hail was what I would have called it, but the weather man called it wintery mix.... You know the pink part of the weather map, were the snow is above the line and the green rain is below...
We had gone out to the Olive Farm South of Queen Creek this morning in the heavy rains that came right down since early morning... The gals spent time picking out those tasty olive oil treats.. And I grappled for a parking spot outside as a lot of folks decided that the farm was the right place to go on the rainy day....
In the afternoon we wandered all around the city of Mesa driving thru some of the RV parks we have stayed at for the last several years... And finally ended up in Downtown Tempe, where we drove and walked Mill street.. This is the college town area for Arizona State.. And of all the neat places to stop...........
We ended up going into the 5 guys place for some peanuts and a burger.. Since it was lunch, we held back and had small one patty burgers... That one is still a hand full compared to a Wendy's junior.... Still hungry,,,,? Eat some more peanuts, as there is a case of them over on the counter.
The sky was turning really black up North beyond the Red Mountain freeway.... It looked angry.....! So we made our way back East before it got us... That was about the time that Scottsdale was getting hammered with the snow..
After outrunning the wall of slush, we have stayed put for the rest of the evening... Loyce says my car has a bunch of snow on it, but I didn't go out and look......... I'm from far enough North of here to know what it looks like.....
Maybe the sun will come out tomorrow and melt it all off before I have to deal with it..... Ya think...
Retired Rod
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Sedona again....
This time we had Loyce's sister along and decided to change it up a little with a tour out in the desert on a Pink Jeep...
We headed out on the highway that goes thru West Sedona like we were headed to Cottonwood....
But before we hit the end of town he turned North up into the desert.... The first part of the roads were blacktop... But that ended rather abruptly...
We were buzzing right along and I had to hang on once we were on the hard pack roads of the Forrest Service... Rocks stuck up everywhere...
I had the camera in Sports mode and took shots as we were bouncing along..
Eventually we stopped and this was looking back toward Sedona from on top of a really large dirt knob....
This area is called Bear Mountain and is quite a ways away from what you can see from the usual highway pictures....
There is a hike that is listed as very strenuous, that climbs 2000 feet to the top of the mountain... People have to be rescued from this activity and sometimes even the rescuers have lost their lives.... We stuck on the Jeeps with known roads and trails...
This is looking across the valley toward Cottonwood which is down in the draw.. At the very right side you can see the mine tailings from the Jerome mines...
These Jeeps aren't just a simple stock vehicle, but rather are completely customized to carry much larger loads over heavy desert settings... Look at that back spring set up...
Our guide for the tour was Paul.. He has lived in the area for over 20 years and said he had been guiding for Pink Jeep for the last 5 years..
Up front they had stabilizer bars and long travel shocks and springs... This thing is a serious piece of equipment....
This is a dammed up creek bed where the cattle around this area come to drink..... You had to watch your step around the water hole as there was cow plops all over the place...
The trip was to last two hours, and it was all of that, out in the quiet of the sand stone rocks and desert..... Paul kind of talks all the time but otherwise it was nice out there...
We are on the beginning of a big storm coming in and the wind picked up as we were completing the tour... It was only in the upper 50s anyway so we were glad that the fun was over as we were back in town..
The girls browsed the shops for a while and I just hung out on the main street... But when we left, I headed out towards Jerome...
By now the skies went overcast so I didn't get any more pictures.. Its about 15 miles from Sedona thru the town of Cottonwood.....
In Jerome, its all about the old and really old shops and buildings on the side of the cliffs.... This is an old copper mine town that has been closed for years... The mines filled with water and ended their fun...
We stopped for some supper in a Cracker Barrel over in the West end of Mesa as we arrived back in town...
It was a long day, but we always enjoy a trip to Sedona... And our first time on the Pink Jeeps was a success... The actual rock climbing tour is called the Broken Arrow, and is another more strenuous jeep outing.... I didn't schedule that for Loyce and her sister as I didn't know how they would take to it for a first time thing...
Maybe the next time when we are by ourselves........
Retired Rod
We headed out on the highway that goes thru West Sedona like we were headed to Cottonwood....
But before we hit the end of town he turned North up into the desert.... The first part of the roads were blacktop... But that ended rather abruptly...
We were buzzing right along and I had to hang on once we were on the hard pack roads of the Forrest Service... Rocks stuck up everywhere...
I had the camera in Sports mode and took shots as we were bouncing along..
Eventually we stopped and this was looking back toward Sedona from on top of a really large dirt knob....
This area is called Bear Mountain and is quite a ways away from what you can see from the usual highway pictures....
There is a hike that is listed as very strenuous, that climbs 2000 feet to the top of the mountain... People have to be rescued from this activity and sometimes even the rescuers have lost their lives.... We stuck on the Jeeps with known roads and trails...
This is looking across the valley toward Cottonwood which is down in the draw.. At the very right side you can see the mine tailings from the Jerome mines...
These Jeeps aren't just a simple stock vehicle, but rather are completely customized to carry much larger loads over heavy desert settings... Look at that back spring set up...
Our guide for the tour was Paul.. He has lived in the area for over 20 years and said he had been guiding for Pink Jeep for the last 5 years..
Up front they had stabilizer bars and long travel shocks and springs... This thing is a serious piece of equipment....
This is a dammed up creek bed where the cattle around this area come to drink..... You had to watch your step around the water hole as there was cow plops all over the place...
The trip was to last two hours, and it was all of that, out in the quiet of the sand stone rocks and desert..... Paul kind of talks all the time but otherwise it was nice out there...
We are on the beginning of a big storm coming in and the wind picked up as we were completing the tour... It was only in the upper 50s anyway so we were glad that the fun was over as we were back in town..
The girls browsed the shops for a while and I just hung out on the main street... But when we left, I headed out towards Jerome...
By now the skies went overcast so I didn't get any more pictures.. Its about 15 miles from Sedona thru the town of Cottonwood.....
In Jerome, its all about the old and really old shops and buildings on the side of the cliffs.... This is an old copper mine town that has been closed for years... The mines filled with water and ended their fun...
We stopped for some supper in a Cracker Barrel over in the West end of Mesa as we arrived back in town...
It was a long day, but we always enjoy a trip to Sedona... And our first time on the Pink Jeeps was a success... The actual rock climbing tour is called the Broken Arrow, and is another more strenuous jeep outing.... I didn't schedule that for Loyce and her sister as I didn't know how they would take to it for a first time thing...
Maybe the next time when we are by ourselves........
Retired Rod
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Buzzing around the airport.....
We went over to the airport last night and drove around the gauntlet while waiting for our plane to land... With the rules about not standing in front of the airport terminal, since that might cause a terrorist attack, there were police along the front pickup area of the terminal waving you on as you slowed looking for your people....
Of course we were two folks in a car so Loyce hopped out and went inside to find her sister... That worked as I was able to park back away from the terminal drive while things came to a conclusion...
I slipped back in line and went directly to them when they were ready...
This was late at night and by the time we got back to the house it was after 11PM.. That was after midnight back in Iowa where Cici had departed a few hours before... We went right to bed...
Today was spent at a leisurely pace as I was out riding the cycle shopping over at Costco.. I purchased some of my over the counter meds there at quite the savings.... And I filled the cycle with gas after yesterday's long ride...
The girls were busy doing girl things when I returned home, so I hung around reading blogs and reading a paper book, but eventually I bored of that and went back out on the bike to a distant Wal Mart looking for specific light weight shirts that I like....
And even though I hadn't found any in the closer stores, I lucked out scoring two shirts over by Falcon air field... Of course that burned a bunch of the gas that I just purchased...
Our day here was in the upper 70s and gorgeous... We have one more day of nicer weather until it all goes away on Wednesday with rain forecast and mid 50s for a daily high.. Seems like we just can't turn the corner into spring..
We have a road trip scheduled for tomorrow, but I am not letting the cat out of the bag on that one..
Retired Rod
Of course we were two folks in a car so Loyce hopped out and went inside to find her sister... That worked as I was able to park back away from the terminal drive while things came to a conclusion...
I slipped back in line and went directly to them when they were ready...
This was late at night and by the time we got back to the house it was after 11PM.. That was after midnight back in Iowa where Cici had departed a few hours before... We went right to bed...
Today was spent at a leisurely pace as I was out riding the cycle shopping over at Costco.. I purchased some of my over the counter meds there at quite the savings.... And I filled the cycle with gas after yesterday's long ride...
The girls were busy doing girl things when I returned home, so I hung around reading blogs and reading a paper book, but eventually I bored of that and went back out on the bike to a distant Wal Mart looking for specific light weight shirts that I like....
And even though I hadn't found any in the closer stores, I lucked out scoring two shirts over by Falcon air field... Of course that burned a bunch of the gas that I just purchased...
Our day here was in the upper 70s and gorgeous... We have one more day of nicer weather until it all goes away on Wednesday with rain forecast and mid 50s for a daily high.. Seems like we just can't turn the corner into spring..
We have a road trip scheduled for tomorrow, but I am not letting the cat out of the bag on that one..
Retired Rod
Monday, February 18, 2013
All the way around the San Tan Mountain...
Another big long motorcycle ride this afternoon going out to our South again but on some different streets.. Eventually you end up on the Hunt Highway because there is a big mountain out there called the San Tan..
I came into the town that I have mentioned before called Anthem by Del Webb... Folks have questioned that before here on the blog, so I stopped and looked things over to see if it really is Anthem... And here is a picture....
Sure enough, it is really Anthem.....
But after some internet search, I have learned it is Anthem at Merrill Ranch... This is in addition to the one up by Sun City..... There seems to be Anthems all over the place, because they listed one in Colorado too...
Not too long after that, I was in the town of Florence to the South...
This is the Pinal old county court house... This town is antique, in many ways but typifies the old Arizona Community..
This is the historic downtown main street and has several old businesses along its path... That cop in his car was watching me take this picture with the cell phone, but I was in a parking place and stopped so all he did was wave at me as he passed...
From there I rode over to Coolidge which is 5 or so miles to the West... This is the town where the actual ruins of the Casa Grande are located... But I've blogged about that in previous years so I just rode on thru the town.... If you go to the link there are a bunch of pictures of the indian ruins taken a few years ago..
From there I took the old US highway 87 back up toward Chandler... This road actually parallels I 10 but about 5 miles to its East... Its 65 mph most of the way but is a two lane blue road... Not too much traffic but the cars want to speed along it so I just went 60 and let them pass me...
Once back up in Chandler I stopped at a Wendy's for that small burger and a free senior coke.... I made it a double burger so it was $2.80... Big spender.....LOL
It took me quite a while thru the city/country streets in the South end of our town to get back out here to the East end of the valley..
Total ride 94 miles.... and it took over two hours... Sunny and 77 degrees..... and I have a little sun burn from the endeavor as well.... Maybe its more like wind burn as I can feel it in my eyes....
Better get toughened up, as that is nothing compared to some of those Romeo lunches we went on last year..... LOL
Loyce's sister is coming in on the commercial jet tonight, so I have to ring this off for now.....
Retired Rod
I came into the town that I have mentioned before called Anthem by Del Webb... Folks have questioned that before here on the blog, so I stopped and looked things over to see if it really is Anthem... And here is a picture....Sure enough, it is really Anthem.....
But after some internet search, I have learned it is Anthem at Merrill Ranch... This is in addition to the one up by Sun City..... There seems to be Anthems all over the place, because they listed one in Colorado too...
Not too long after that, I was in the town of Florence to the South...
This is the Pinal old county court house... This town is antique, in many ways but typifies the old Arizona Community..
This is the historic downtown main street and has several old businesses along its path... That cop in his car was watching me take this picture with the cell phone, but I was in a parking place and stopped so all he did was wave at me as he passed...
From there I rode over to Coolidge which is 5 or so miles to the West... This is the town where the actual ruins of the Casa Grande are located... But I've blogged about that in previous years so I just rode on thru the town.... If you go to the link there are a bunch of pictures of the indian ruins taken a few years ago..
From there I took the old US highway 87 back up toward Chandler... This road actually parallels I 10 but about 5 miles to its East... Its 65 mph most of the way but is a two lane blue road... Not too much traffic but the cars want to speed along it so I just went 60 and let them pass me...
Once back up in Chandler I stopped at a Wendy's for that small burger and a free senior coke.... I made it a double burger so it was $2.80... Big spender.....LOL
It took me quite a while thru the city/country streets in the South end of our town to get back out here to the East end of the valley..
Total ride 94 miles.... and it took over two hours... Sunny and 77 degrees..... and I have a little sun burn from the endeavor as well.... Maybe its more like wind burn as I can feel it in my eyes....
Better get toughened up, as that is nothing compared to some of those Romeo lunches we went on last year..... LOL
Loyce's sister is coming in on the commercial jet tonight, so I have to ring this off for now.....
Retired Rod
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Spots!!! Off with those darned Spotts!!!
I've had some questions about using The Solution on the bike.... Most of us know of The Solution from its use in the RV world.... And it is fine stuff.... And would work well for the bike too...
But when my son Chris and I were buying cars at the KC auctions we ran into what most of the dealers use on their cars just before they went thru the sales lanes.... It's a Meguiar's Product... called Quick Detailer...
They advertise mist and wipe.... This seems to have a little more carnuba wax in it than the solution... And when you shine it out it gleams nicely...
So that is what I am using to remove the water spots.... Cheaper?? Na, its $10 for a quart spray bottle, so they all know what each other are charging.......
Retired Rod
But when my son Chris and I were buying cars at the KC auctions we ran into what most of the dealers use on their cars just before they went thru the sales lanes.... It's a Meguiar's Product... called Quick Detailer...
They advertise mist and wipe.... This seems to have a little more carnuba wax in it than the solution... And when you shine it out it gleams nicely...
So that is what I am using to remove the water spots.... Cheaper?? Na, its $10 for a quart spray bottle, so they all know what each other are charging.......
Retired Rod
Remember when the bike looked new?
 |
| Goldwing on the day it was new.... |
But it has also been rather cool outside for most of January and lots of February too.... But today was the day that we were to be up almost to 80 degrees...
I would like to have been out riding all day on such a nice day, but....... That bike had to be cleaned up.... And our driveway is fairly steep in front of the garage, so it was out on the sidewalk where this would take place...
With the hose connected and reeled out into the street and a bucket of soapy water and a big sponge, I started in... There are so many little nooks and crannies all over a motor cycle.. And down on your hands and knees to wash off the wheels....
It was up on its center stand so the back wheel could be turned... The brakes make all kinds of black dust that sticks on the shiny wheel, its a mess...
Our water out here in East Mesa is water spot heaven... And the sun was drying stuff before I could get it rinsed.... so it was slow going... Eventually it was in the garage to be chamois off.... I still have spots...
Its much cleaner now and seems more like it did when new... I rode it up to the Wal Mart for some supper groceries tonight at dusk and it was a pleasure not to have that red Arizona dust all over the dash and handle bars... This is the first time I have completely washed all of the bike...
Seems like you just wash at it all the time doing the windshield and the headlight... Or the back top box....
And I did see 80 degrees for a little while this afternoon on the bike dash thermometer... Also the big thermometer in the garage was in agreement...... I just knew it was nice!
We grilled out tonight on the weber grill.... Nothing fancy, just some small steaks and microwave baked potatoes.. But it was really nice to have the sliding door open all day.. Biscuit likes the fenced yard with the door open so she can go in and out by herself...
But she has a bad habit of howling at the neighbor's dogs that she can only hear over the tall wall... Of course they howl back...!
If it wasn't going to be down in the thirties on Wednesday of next week during the night, I would have begun to replant some of the new bushes... But alas, I won't take that chance.. I did go around with the hose and water each bush that I think will pull out from the frost.... Only time will tell on that one...
Retired Rod
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Plugging Forward... And the arrival window!
Seems like we never get anything very big accomplished in this retired life, but ever so slowly we seem to plug along forward...
Ours isn't this bad, but you get the idea.... Stock photo from Photo Bucket...
And so it was again today as I had no idea when the windshield installer was supposed to arrive and install that new Toyota windshield... The lady said she would call me back late on Thursday but that didn't happen...
So this morning I waited during breakfast for a knock on the door or a phone call.. Didn't happen.... I gave up and called them..... They didn't remember who I was...........................................
"Oh ya, I couldn't find an installer that wanted to go way out to the East end of Mesa!" Huston we have a problem..... "I'll need some more time...." she went on.... "I'll call you back!"
Then she called me back asking more about the wiring on the windshield.... Which told me she didn't even have the new glass ordered.. I all but gave up..
But in about 20 minutes she called back and told us they would be here between two and four in the afternoon.. So there went my day... I had to hang around here and wait for them...
They did arrive about 2:30 and it took less than an hour to get it all done... Of course I was told not to drive the car for a couple of hours and not to take the squirrely tape off of the new windshield for a day....
That did it I just parked it back in the garage... Loyce was off with the Ford so that meant my shopping was going to be on the motor cycle.... Awe geeee....... That was what I would have taken anyway.. LOL
So a Wendy's burger was acquired at about 4 and from there it was off to Wal Mart for a replacement tooth brush... As my Sonicare shot its last bullet yesterday... Wal Mart had three models from cheap to expensive, and as usual I took the middle priced one...
When I got back home, Loyce announced that we were going to Fuddrucker's....! Because she didn't get to go out last night for Valentines........ Well, heck yes, that last burger was small....
But she did think it was kind of odd that I just got the smallest burger and no fries... Didn't hardly put any toppings on the burger either... But a burger from Fudds is always good........
So now we are ready to go follow the Motorhome really close and get a few rock dings..............again!
Retired Rod
Ours isn't this bad, but you get the idea.... Stock photo from Photo Bucket...And so it was again today as I had no idea when the windshield installer was supposed to arrive and install that new Toyota windshield... The lady said she would call me back late on Thursday but that didn't happen...
So this morning I waited during breakfast for a knock on the door or a phone call.. Didn't happen.... I gave up and called them..... They didn't remember who I was...........................................
"Oh ya, I couldn't find an installer that wanted to go way out to the East end of Mesa!" Huston we have a problem..... "I'll need some more time...." she went on.... "I'll call you back!"
Then she called me back asking more about the wiring on the windshield.... Which told me she didn't even have the new glass ordered.. I all but gave up..
But in about 20 minutes she called back and told us they would be here between two and four in the afternoon.. So there went my day... I had to hang around here and wait for them...
They did arrive about 2:30 and it took less than an hour to get it all done... Of course I was told not to drive the car for a couple of hours and not to take the squirrely tape off of the new windshield for a day....
That did it I just parked it back in the garage... Loyce was off with the Ford so that meant my shopping was going to be on the motor cycle.... Awe geeee....... That was what I would have taken anyway.. LOL
So a Wendy's burger was acquired at about 4 and from there it was off to Wal Mart for a replacement tooth brush... As my Sonicare shot its last bullet yesterday... Wal Mart had three models from cheap to expensive, and as usual I took the middle priced one...
When I got back home, Loyce announced that we were going to Fuddrucker's....! Because she didn't get to go out last night for Valentines........ Well, heck yes, that last burger was small....
But she did think it was kind of odd that I just got the smallest burger and no fries... Didn't hardly put any toppings on the burger either... But a burger from Fudds is always good........
So now we are ready to go follow the Motorhome really close and get a few rock dings..............again!
Retired Rod
Friday, February 15, 2013
My Two Foot Tall Valentine...!
The picture was taken with the cell phone, and has a big white spot from the crummy LED flash on the phone... But its good enough to see what a two foot tall card looks like....... Loyce thought it kinda looked like Biscuit... I was surprised!
Loyce left it in my chair when I went out tonight to go buy some replacement bushes over at the Home Depot... I had stopped in on my afternoon cruising with the motor cycle... They are beginning to put out the outside plants in the parking lot... Annuals that are not tolerant of the cold... What do they know about the weather that the rest of us don't...
Perhaps they just have enough money that it doesn't matter how many plants get killed by a frost... Anyway I purchased 5 bushes and brought them home.. They are in the garage for tonight, but it is to be warm over this weekend... There were lots of customers in the garden department this afternoon... We were in the high 60s and it seemed warm...
I was biking all around the community and ended up over at my insurance agent's office mid afternoon... We have a broken windshield on the car from going home to Kansas in the snow storm.. They have a preferred shop and helped me make arrangements...
My agent is a motorcycle rider, and we spent some of the time out in the parking lot looking at the Honda... He's barely 40, so I'm not sure how much he actually like my grandpa ride.... But of course he said he liked it and it was his idea to go out and look at it..
I spent the afternoon riding on the bike so not much to report... Other than the big grin on my face when it is warm enough to ride at will without protective clothing...
For a brief moment I pulled over and took a picture of the computer Odometer on the bike, as it reached the 1000 mile mark.. That seemed like kind of a milestone for just buzzing around town here for 6 weeks..
But the ride seems more and more like it is my bike and not something new and different that I have to get used to...
It will be interesting to get back on the black scooter that is in the garage in KC... I'm sure it will seem small and light... To put the 1000 miles in perspective, the Suzuki only has about 9000 miles on it in the last three years..... The Suzuki will be going to the Lake place, and I'm not sure what will happen to the Red Kymco.... It barely has 2500 miles on it..
Retired Rod
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Getting ready for Valentines Day!
Things warmed up more quickly today, and I was off on the cycle to go get a haircut... It was still only 54 outside when I left, so a heavy sweat shirt was the order of the day...
It amazes me that nothing has really changed over at my barber shop of choice here in Mesa... I haven't been there in well over a year, but it seems just like the magazines on the table haven't moved much... People are the same too.....
And unfortunately the old guy that I always don't want to cut my hair was the one that was done when it was my turn.... After explaining exactly what I wanted and showing him my part on the left.... I looked up and he had parted me on the right and was busy cutting it backwards....
I said I wanted it parted the other way, and he was almost indignant to change it back to the way I do it.... I have always parted it on the wrong side for a right handed person....
The wife thought I looked OK when I got home, so that's the only test it has to pass....
Later as it did get up to 64 on the bike thermometer, I was out riding between stores looking for some cut flowers for tomorrow's valentine celebration... I ended up at Target, as the Wal Mart flowers seemed to be kind of poor around here... Of course Target was charging about twice as much too...
Stopped for a couple of those small Wendy's burgers and the free senior diet coke... Big spender!! And then buzzed right back home to get the flowers in water..... Once here, I realized that with this being a new place and not much time to acquire things, we didn't have any vases...... Not one.... Had to put the flowers in a plastic glass....
I sat here and stared at that for a while and decided that just wasn't going to cut it... So back out on the Bike, this time to Wal Mart for a vase... But who do I see in the parking lot but Loyce... Oh, well I'll just try not to get caught.....
And I thought I got away with it too, as I purchased the vase and got back here in time to put the flowers in their new look.... But after a while Loyce came to me and asked if I was at Wal Mart because she saw the bike out front...... Of course the next question was if her flowers were from Wal Mart.......
Well the vase is, but the flowers came from Target..... "Are you sure" she asked? I had to show her the Target bags....... But she took them right into her sewing room and put them on the table... Must be OK.....
Happy Valentine's Day!!
Retired Rod
It amazes me that nothing has really changed over at my barber shop of choice here in Mesa... I haven't been there in well over a year, but it seems just like the magazines on the table haven't moved much... People are the same too.....
And unfortunately the old guy that I always don't want to cut my hair was the one that was done when it was my turn.... After explaining exactly what I wanted and showing him my part on the left.... I looked up and he had parted me on the right and was busy cutting it backwards....
I said I wanted it parted the other way, and he was almost indignant to change it back to the way I do it.... I have always parted it on the wrong side for a right handed person....
The wife thought I looked OK when I got home, so that's the only test it has to pass....
Later as it did get up to 64 on the bike thermometer, I was out riding between stores looking for some cut flowers for tomorrow's valentine celebration... I ended up at Target, as the Wal Mart flowers seemed to be kind of poor around here... Of course Target was charging about twice as much too...
Stopped for a couple of those small Wendy's burgers and the free senior diet coke... Big spender!! And then buzzed right back home to get the flowers in water..... Once here, I realized that with this being a new place and not much time to acquire things, we didn't have any vases...... Not one.... Had to put the flowers in a plastic glass....
I sat here and stared at that for a while and decided that just wasn't going to cut it... So back out on the Bike, this time to Wal Mart for a vase... But who do I see in the parking lot but Loyce... Oh, well I'll just try not to get caught.....
And I thought I got away with it too, as I purchased the vase and got back here in time to put the flowers in their new look.... But after a while Loyce came to me and asked if I was at Wal Mart because she saw the bike out front...... Of course the next question was if her flowers were from Wal Mart.......
Well the vase is, but the flowers came from Target..... "Are you sure" she asked? I had to show her the Target bags....... But she took them right into her sewing room and put them on the table... Must be OK.....
Happy Valentine's Day!!
Retired Rod
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Fighting to print just one more file, and nothing changes with the state of the union...
Again we never made 60 here... But we had some sun in the afternoon... Loyce and I spent time trying to print out a pattern that she had bought from a private individual on the internet...
Hey it was just a .pdf file, that can't be to tough, but she was striking out... So I jumped in... But she had downloaded it numerous times trying to get it to print... and every time was stalled with an error....
It took quite a while to bring each version up and cancel it out... So just print one out and be done... Wrong.. For some reason that I never determined, every time the we pushed print on the PDF reader under Windows 8 it would error out.... We tried and tried... Our version was up to date, but something was amiss...
It wasn't just the one file, she had purchased three, and it wouldn't print any of them...
So I dropped back to my windows 7 laptop and it wouldn't sign on as Loyce under gmail... Seems it had cookies that told gmail who I was... Had to blow away the cookies and then I was nobody... Which let me be Loyce... Luckily I had selected which cookies to blow away so I didn't loose everything..
The W7 adobe client loaded the file and printed itself right out... I even printed all three files, except I ran out of ink... And I had to change the cartridge mid file.... This is fairly typical of any of my normal printing experiences..... I hate printers...
The epson that I purchased in December, is a network printer and resides on the network with wifi connection... As such you send your job off to print, and even when watching with the printer daemon under windows, you wonder what is happening as it seems to take a lot longer to get the file to the printer... It just sits there....... doing nothing..... I guess I am too impatient... By now our afternoon was mostly shot... But Loyce has her printouts, and it was too cold to go on the cycle anyway....
Tonight I watched the state of the union message from the President... Which seemed to be a cheering rally for the causes that he holds dear... With the probable outcome of the Republicans sitting stoic on their hands and the Dems standing at each thought he presented..... It would seem that we continue to be divided exactly on party lines just like normal... On to the fight over sequestration!!! This should be fun.... Hope medicare doesn't get whacked too bad...
Retired Rod
Hey it was just a .pdf file, that can't be to tough, but she was striking out... So I jumped in... But she had downloaded it numerous times trying to get it to print... and every time was stalled with an error....
It took quite a while to bring each version up and cancel it out... So just print one out and be done... Wrong.. For some reason that I never determined, every time the we pushed print on the PDF reader under Windows 8 it would error out.... We tried and tried... Our version was up to date, but something was amiss...
It wasn't just the one file, she had purchased three, and it wouldn't print any of them...
So I dropped back to my windows 7 laptop and it wouldn't sign on as Loyce under gmail... Seems it had cookies that told gmail who I was... Had to blow away the cookies and then I was nobody... Which let me be Loyce... Luckily I had selected which cookies to blow away so I didn't loose everything..
The W7 adobe client loaded the file and printed itself right out... I even printed all three files, except I ran out of ink... And I had to change the cartridge mid file.... This is fairly typical of any of my normal printing experiences..... I hate printers...
The epson that I purchased in December, is a network printer and resides on the network with wifi connection... As such you send your job off to print, and even when watching with the printer daemon under windows, you wonder what is happening as it seems to take a lot longer to get the file to the printer... It just sits there....... doing nothing..... I guess I am too impatient... By now our afternoon was mostly shot... But Loyce has her printouts, and it was too cold to go on the cycle anyway....
Tonight I watched the state of the union message from the President... Which seemed to be a cheering rally for the causes that he holds dear... With the probable outcome of the Republicans sitting stoic on their hands and the Dems standing at each thought he presented..... It would seem that we continue to be divided exactly on party lines just like normal... On to the fight over sequestration!!! This should be fun.... Hope medicare doesn't get whacked too bad...
Retired Rod
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Doctor's with a smart phone....
The Arizona deep freeze continues, as we are only 4 degrees warmer here than in Kansas City... Makes you wonder........... But we are to warm up again by the end of the week...
But during the day here today we only barely made it to 50 degrees late in the afternoon.. It was overcast and then rainy but by mid afternoon the sun came out... Didn't get any warmer, but sunny and barely 50...
I sat around and wasted some more of those precious gigabytes... And no we don't download any you tube videos and do reduce our pictures to 800 pixels before we up load... But remember we each have a laptop and two tablets as well... oh, and two smart phones..... And the printer is on the cloud, and the car blue tooths by itself onto the phone.... Let's see, what did I leave out.......?
I was playing around on a web site that tests the veracity of our passwords this morning trying to decide if my passwords were any good.... Do you know how strong your words are.... Try this Password Meter...! It doesn't actually send your passwords anywhere but is a program that calculates how hard it would be for the average cracker program to solve your so called secure lock on things..... Like your bank account.. Some of my security was awfully lame.... Scoring about 20%.... had me checking into some things this morning and adding extra characters to existing codes....... Still only 45 degrees outside....
My Doctor back in KC at the University of Kansas Hospital is a fairly young fellow and likes his smart phone..... ALOT! Does everything by email... Don't call his nurse... none of that...... just send him and email.
He likes early morning messages, because he checks things during the lunch hour.... I sent a short note asking for a refill script.. about 11 AM.... By 12:30 he had returned a short note saying he was taking care of it right now... And by 2 in the afternoon I had a call from Target Pharmacy over by the airport that they had my script filled.....! Man, its an electronic world.....
But still it was only 48 outside, and I decided the bike was out of question for the pill run... Of course I passed several brave souls on other bikes but, good for them.....
I did see 50, at about 5:30... for a few brief minutes... But I was warm in the front seat of the car....
We are to be below freezing again before morning.... but hey they are calling for 75 for Saturday and Sunday.... I think I'll stay here..... it has better potential than KC......
Retired Rod
But during the day here today we only barely made it to 50 degrees late in the afternoon.. It was overcast and then rainy but by mid afternoon the sun came out... Didn't get any warmer, but sunny and barely 50...
I sat around and wasted some more of those precious gigabytes... And no we don't download any you tube videos and do reduce our pictures to 800 pixels before we up load... But remember we each have a laptop and two tablets as well... oh, and two smart phones..... And the printer is on the cloud, and the car blue tooths by itself onto the phone.... Let's see, what did I leave out.......?
I was playing around on a web site that tests the veracity of our passwords this morning trying to decide if my passwords were any good.... Do you know how strong your words are.... Try this Password Meter...! It doesn't actually send your passwords anywhere but is a program that calculates how hard it would be for the average cracker program to solve your so called secure lock on things..... Like your bank account.. Some of my security was awfully lame.... Scoring about 20%.... had me checking into some things this morning and adding extra characters to existing codes....... Still only 45 degrees outside....
My Doctor back in KC at the University of Kansas Hospital is a fairly young fellow and likes his smart phone..... ALOT! Does everything by email... Don't call his nurse... none of that...... just send him and email.
He likes early morning messages, because he checks things during the lunch hour.... I sent a short note asking for a refill script.. about 11 AM.... By 12:30 he had returned a short note saying he was taking care of it right now... And by 2 in the afternoon I had a call from Target Pharmacy over by the airport that they had my script filled.....! Man, its an electronic world.....
But still it was only 48 outside, and I decided the bike was out of question for the pill run... Of course I passed several brave souls on other bikes but, good for them.....
I did see 50, at about 5:30... for a few brief minutes... But I was warm in the front seat of the car....
We are to be below freezing again before morning.... but hey they are calling for 75 for Saturday and Sunday.... I think I'll stay here..... it has better potential than KC......
Retired Rod
Monday, February 11, 2013
Sunday without Football....?
Another cold day that didn't make 60 degrees no matter what we did.... It doesn't matter too much to Loyce because she works in her sewing room and seems content..
But for me, I can only stand it so long... I looked up the data usage for our computers and phones and found that we are over half of our allotment in only 12 days.... If it stays cold like this we will be calling Verizon and buying additional gigs for sure..
So even though it was only 55 outside I dressed in all the riding clothes and the full face helmet and went on the bike.......... It wasn't too bad until I decided to go back to the West.... And about then it went overcast.. I about went right home....
But I stuck it out and rode about 30 miles, mostly in town as it was cold once you reached 50 mph... I think I saw 59 on the thermometer for a little while but as soon as it began to fall again I was back home in a flash...
Back at that internet wasting those gigabytes again.... Maybe I need to watch TV more.... but no they have those watch shows on there and that costs me if I weaken... Which I haven't done for quite a while....
It is supposed to remain cool for the next several days, which seems to dampen our excitement, but we are not shoveling any snow and no one in Kansas got to ride their bike today if they are sane......
And we made it thru the day without football, but watching the golf tournament seemed an awfully lot slower...
Retired Rod
But for me, I can only stand it so long... I looked up the data usage for our computers and phones and found that we are over half of our allotment in only 12 days.... If it stays cold like this we will be calling Verizon and buying additional gigs for sure..
So even though it was only 55 outside I dressed in all the riding clothes and the full face helmet and went on the bike.......... It wasn't too bad until I decided to go back to the West.... And about then it went overcast.. I about went right home....
But I stuck it out and rode about 30 miles, mostly in town as it was cold once you reached 50 mph... I think I saw 59 on the thermometer for a little while but as soon as it began to fall again I was back home in a flash...
Back at that internet wasting those gigabytes again.... Maybe I need to watch TV more.... but no they have those watch shows on there and that costs me if I weaken... Which I haven't done for quite a while....
It is supposed to remain cool for the next several days, which seems to dampen our excitement, but we are not shoveling any snow and no one in Kansas got to ride their bike today if they are sane......
And we made it thru the day without football, but watching the golf tournament seemed an awfully lot slower...
Retired Rod
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Listening to the weather forecast....
I was just out listening to the radio on the Goldwing in the garage.. Seems that it is the most convenient way to get the weather radio here in our Arizona residence... We have a couple of ham radios but no 12 volt power supplies.. Also we do not have an outside antenna for the two meter radios... What kind of ham am I .....?
But the bike has the weather band built right into the on board radio... Tonight snow down to 2500 feet... and freezing or there about temperatures.. And that's for the next four nights... Yuck!
Last night right after I went to bed, we had high winds and rain. I didn't even notice it as I was out like a light... We put extra insulation in this house when we built it, thinking of the hot summer sun, but it also has the effect of blocking out outside noise... It takes a really nasty event before we hear it inside...
It did snow to our North, as Al up in Congress reports tonight on his blog.. So while we didn't get three feet of snow like Connecticut, we aren't immune to winter weather either...
Today we saw about 55 degrees here during the afternoon, but it was totally overcast with heavy dark clouds... They were wind driven at altitude which convinced me rather quickly that motor cycle riding was out of the question...
So we had an inside day with the computers and the TVs... And that's OK because yesterday was outside all day long...
But the problem is that this is forecast for the next four days.......! We are still paying for the really nice weather we had all fall.......!
Retired Rod
But the bike has the weather band built right into the on board radio... Tonight snow down to 2500 feet... and freezing or there about temperatures.. And that's for the next four nights... Yuck!
Last night right after I went to bed, we had high winds and rain. I didn't even notice it as I was out like a light... We put extra insulation in this house when we built it, thinking of the hot summer sun, but it also has the effect of blocking out outside noise... It takes a really nasty event before we hear it inside...
It did snow to our North, as Al up in Congress reports tonight on his blog.. So while we didn't get three feet of snow like Connecticut, we aren't immune to winter weather either...
Today we saw about 55 degrees here during the afternoon, but it was totally overcast with heavy dark clouds... They were wind driven at altitude which convinced me rather quickly that motor cycle riding was out of the question...
So we had an inside day with the computers and the TVs... And that's OK because yesterday was outside all day long...
But the problem is that this is forecast for the next four days.......! We are still paying for the really nice weather we had all fall.......!
Retired Rod
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Busy on Friday....
Today it was warm first thing in the morning, as we are to have cooler weather moving in during the afternoon... So the motor cycle ride was moved up to the earlier before noon time....
Today I again rode out the Bush Highway from Power Road... Its kind of pretty out there as the Salt river runs along the side of the road with Red Mountain across the river... And I had plans with the camera too, but left it sitting on the printer when I was putting on my riding pants... The cell phone does such poor job, that I didn't even stop...
With the rain we have been having, the desert is pushing up some new shoots of green grass.. So things are greening up nicely.... won't last much past May, but for now its cool...
This road is up and down thru washes and around twists and turns... Speed limit is 45 and in some places 35, but I was actually doing the twistys at the speed limit... I'm becoming more acclimated with the new bigger bike...
Out at Saguaro Lake I wandered around on the Lake Roads, but you are supposed to have a current park pass, and I didn't have one, so I didn't stop anywhere.. They can pull you over and ask for your pass if they want to and the sheriff has an office right on the lake... I kind of looked around to see if Jim Dixon was there, by looking for his truck, but there are numerous ramps so it was like looking for a needle....like they say..
Back in town, I went to Wendy's for a burger and a value fry.. And then rode back to the house.... Enough messing around on the cycle, as I needed to do some work...
When I went after the new bike in January, I used the trailer to take the old cycle over and bring the new bike home... I didn't want to be all wobbly legged riding away from the dealership in the middle of town traffic.. It was better that my first experience with the bike was out here in the suburbs...
But that left the trailer on the outside of the motorhome in its stall. Usually it is in the back of the stall.. And also I'm not certain when the rig was started last, but I think it was before Christmas... Its the 8th of February...
So with the car, I went over to storage and hooked onto the trailer... With my tools I loosened the tongue jack and re positioned it. Last year we had the Honda which has a way low hitch, but this year our hitch is much higher with the Ford... So adjustments needed to be made......again..
That took about an hour and then the motorhome was moved to put the trailer back in the back of the stall... I also started the generator set as it hasn't been run for a long time either... It started hard!
Our fuel prices here seem to be on the skyrocket, and some stations are poised to go to $3.55. for gas, with Diesel right at $4.. Using Gasbuddy on my cell phone I scanned the stations and found a Fry's grocery station at $3.85.. It was about 5 miles away but I needed that drive to exercise everything..
Once there, I jammed the tank full... Not sure that is a good thing to do, but I did have the 5 mile run back to storage to burn off some of it.. The generator ran the entire time...
It was almost 6 PM when I got back home.... But Loyce was waiting and wanted a hamburger so we thought about where to go.... and not Wendy's or Fuddruckers either...
Remembering Rick's blog about In and Out vs 5 Guys, I voted for 5 Guys.. So I put that into the GPS... It was clear over on Val Vista, but we were looking for something different so we went....
Big burgers!! With the works...., and that's a big long list of stuff... We can't do that very often... Not the tiny little burger I get at Wendy's....
A busy Friday for sure...
Retired Rod
Today I again rode out the Bush Highway from Power Road... Its kind of pretty out there as the Salt river runs along the side of the road with Red Mountain across the river... And I had plans with the camera too, but left it sitting on the printer when I was putting on my riding pants... The cell phone does such poor job, that I didn't even stop...
With the rain we have been having, the desert is pushing up some new shoots of green grass.. So things are greening up nicely.... won't last much past May, but for now its cool...
This road is up and down thru washes and around twists and turns... Speed limit is 45 and in some places 35, but I was actually doing the twistys at the speed limit... I'm becoming more acclimated with the new bigger bike...
Out at Saguaro Lake I wandered around on the Lake Roads, but you are supposed to have a current park pass, and I didn't have one, so I didn't stop anywhere.. They can pull you over and ask for your pass if they want to and the sheriff has an office right on the lake... I kind of looked around to see if Jim Dixon was there, by looking for his truck, but there are numerous ramps so it was like looking for a needle....like they say..
Back in town, I went to Wendy's for a burger and a value fry.. And then rode back to the house.... Enough messing around on the cycle, as I needed to do some work...
When I went after the new bike in January, I used the trailer to take the old cycle over and bring the new bike home... I didn't want to be all wobbly legged riding away from the dealership in the middle of town traffic.. It was better that my first experience with the bike was out here in the suburbs...
But that left the trailer on the outside of the motorhome in its stall. Usually it is in the back of the stall.. And also I'm not certain when the rig was started last, but I think it was before Christmas... Its the 8th of February...
So with the car, I went over to storage and hooked onto the trailer... With my tools I loosened the tongue jack and re positioned it. Last year we had the Honda which has a way low hitch, but this year our hitch is much higher with the Ford... So adjustments needed to be made......again..
That took about an hour and then the motorhome was moved to put the trailer back in the back of the stall... I also started the generator set as it hasn't been run for a long time either... It started hard!
Our fuel prices here seem to be on the skyrocket, and some stations are poised to go to $3.55. for gas, with Diesel right at $4.. Using Gasbuddy on my cell phone I scanned the stations and found a Fry's grocery station at $3.85.. It was about 5 miles away but I needed that drive to exercise everything..
Once there, I jammed the tank full... Not sure that is a good thing to do, but I did have the 5 mile run back to storage to burn off some of it.. The generator ran the entire time...
It was almost 6 PM when I got back home.... But Loyce was waiting and wanted a hamburger so we thought about where to go.... and not Wendy's or Fuddruckers either...
Remembering Rick's blog about In and Out vs 5 Guys, I voted for 5 Guys.. So I put that into the GPS... It was clear over on Val Vista, but we were looking for something different so we went....
Big burgers!! With the works...., and that's a big long list of stuff... We can't do that very often... Not the tiny little burger I get at Wendy's....
A busy Friday for sure...
Retired Rod
Friday, February 8, 2013
Remembering our roll over and a trip into North Phoenix
We have fallen into a rut of a routine here as the sunny days begin to outnumber the nasty ones.... Breakfast in the morning while we either sit in the sunny southern rooms of the house or out on the patio...
Then morning computer sessions and then clean up for mid day outings... Today we were waiting for the morning delivery from UPS of my medical supplies... They shouldn't sit out in the sun for very long as they have adhesive parts and the heat messes them up...
But as we were deciding where to go, suddenly we recalled a February day back in 2009 when we were leaving our vacation trailer, for an unfortunate afternoon sight seeing trip...
We ended up rolling the car in the desert down South of Maricopa..
Every year we have remembered this anniversary on its precise day, but this year we managed to go over the date and not remember... It was on February 2, 2009... I blogged about the accident when we got back to the RV that night without our car... And the next day posted pictures..
But after 4 years you can still see the scars on my knee where I crawled out of the car in the broken glass..... I also had a broken rib but didn't figure that out for another day or so when the pain just got worse instead of better....
So every year we kind of watch our travel steps along these days.. So today we stayed in town, but took the car over into Phoenix... It was about 40 miles over to one of Loyce's favorite shops, Quiltz up in North Phoenix.. We drove on the interstate most of the way as this shop it just off of US 51 a limited access freeway...
She has been searching for specific fabrics for a quilt she has planned and as we have visited many different quilt shops, she was successful today in finding three more colors in the scheme of the pattern... Mostly the fabrics are out of production now so it is a real hunt to find bolts still remaining in various stores...
It was late in the afternoon as we made our way back thru downtown Scottsdale on the main street... Scottsdale Blvd.. The traffic was a zoo, but we enjoy going thru that area every once in a while.. Too expensive for us to live there, but rather only visit occasionally .
It was almost dark when we got back home, but at least the car was in tact unlike four years ago...
Nothing too exciting but it keeps us busy...
Retired Rod
Then morning computer sessions and then clean up for mid day outings... Today we were waiting for the morning delivery from UPS of my medical supplies... They shouldn't sit out in the sun for very long as they have adhesive parts and the heat messes them up...
But as we were deciding where to go, suddenly we recalled a February day back in 2009 when we were leaving our vacation trailer, for an unfortunate afternoon sight seeing trip...
We ended up rolling the car in the desert down South of Maricopa..
Every year we have remembered this anniversary on its precise day, but this year we managed to go over the date and not remember... It was on February 2, 2009... I blogged about the accident when we got back to the RV that night without our car... And the next day posted pictures..
But after 4 years you can still see the scars on my knee where I crawled out of the car in the broken glass..... I also had a broken rib but didn't figure that out for another day or so when the pain just got worse instead of better....
So every year we kind of watch our travel steps along these days.. So today we stayed in town, but took the car over into Phoenix... It was about 40 miles over to one of Loyce's favorite shops, Quiltz up in North Phoenix.. We drove on the interstate most of the way as this shop it just off of US 51 a limited access freeway...
She has been searching for specific fabrics for a quilt she has planned and as we have visited many different quilt shops, she was successful today in finding three more colors in the scheme of the pattern... Mostly the fabrics are out of production now so it is a real hunt to find bolts still remaining in various stores...
It was late in the afternoon as we made our way back thru downtown Scottsdale on the main street... Scottsdale Blvd.. The traffic was a zoo, but we enjoy going thru that area every once in a while.. Too expensive for us to live there, but rather only visit occasionally .
It was almost dark when we got back home, but at least the car was in tact unlike four years ago...
Nothing too exciting but it keeps us busy...
Retired Rod
Thursday, February 7, 2013
On the spur of the moment from a comment.....
I found the following comment on the blog this morning...
"I guess I'll have to read that Lincoln book as I really like historical stuff like that."
Which was left on the post by Rick.... It sort of surprised me since he had referred to the author as a Wacko....
So I thought about it for about a moment and tossed the book into the motorcycle top case and took it to the Post Office.. Moments later it was on its way to Desert Hot Springs........... I sent him an email giving him permission to tape over the authors name while he was reading it... LOL
Loyce was mad at me for purchasing the book in the first place because she claims to have another copy back in Kansas so I told Rick to pass it along when he gets done..... Have some fun Rick!!
And then when I came back home I noticed the lady post mistress over at the mail pedestal.... She was putting all the mail in the boxes... And in my mind, I thought "you don't suppose?"
When she was gone, I was right over there to look in our box..... and Yep, You Guessed It...... Right in the middle of the color coupons and the bills for garbage service........ was a big brown envelope that didn't flex at all..... the motor cycle license plate!!!!
So rail about something and the very next day you will be appeased! Well not always...
This afternoon, I was out and about on the motorcycle and dropped thru the RV park where Jim and Sandie have their lot... And low and behold they were there sitting outside in the warm Arizona sun....
We got carried away talking about everything under the sun.... The day slipped away when I was supposed to be out going to Wal Mart for some spaghetti sauce... Then Loyce was mad at me for not taking her along if I was going over to the Dixon's... Of course it was just a spur of the moment thing when I was riding up North of Apache Junction...
I thought about taking a picture of the neat Arizona license plate on the back of the black couch, but came to my senses that I shouldn't put the plate numbers on the internet..... And blurring them seams a little weak, so you just have to take my word for it....
Retired Rod
"I guess I'll have to read that Lincoln book as I really like historical stuff like that."
Which was left on the post by Rick.... It sort of surprised me since he had referred to the author as a Wacko....
So I thought about it for about a moment and tossed the book into the motorcycle top case and took it to the Post Office.. Moments later it was on its way to Desert Hot Springs........... I sent him an email giving him permission to tape over the authors name while he was reading it... LOL
Loyce was mad at me for purchasing the book in the first place because she claims to have another copy back in Kansas so I told Rick to pass it along when he gets done..... Have some fun Rick!!
And then when I came back home I noticed the lady post mistress over at the mail pedestal.... She was putting all the mail in the boxes... And in my mind, I thought "you don't suppose?"
When she was gone, I was right over there to look in our box..... and Yep, You Guessed It...... Right in the middle of the color coupons and the bills for garbage service........ was a big brown envelope that didn't flex at all..... the motor cycle license plate!!!!
So rail about something and the very next day you will be appeased! Well not always...
This afternoon, I was out and about on the motorcycle and dropped thru the RV park where Jim and Sandie have their lot... And low and behold they were there sitting outside in the warm Arizona sun....
We got carried away talking about everything under the sun.... The day slipped away when I was supposed to be out going to Wal Mart for some spaghetti sauce... Then Loyce was mad at me for not taking her along if I was going over to the Dixon's... Of course it was just a spur of the moment thing when I was riding up North of Apache Junction...
I thought about taking a picture of the neat Arizona license plate on the back of the black couch, but came to my senses that I shouldn't put the plate numbers on the internet..... And blurring them seams a little weak, so you just have to take my word for it....
Retired Rod
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Arizona DMV, my luck remains in tact....
Rick is always teasing me with his comments about my luck with the DMV's in the various jurisdictions where I have licensed vehicles..
My luck almost always is bad.....! And since I was trading cars along with my son several years ago, I tend to buy and sell vehicles all the time.. Seems like I never make any money doing this, but rather just manage to keep the fleet newer....
But back to the Arizona DMV..... I have no experience here as I have dodged registering vehicles, but when we got the Camry here, I ended up going back to Kansas and paying the sales tax over again because of paying it in Arizona first...
Anyway, I broke down and said OK register the new bike in Arizona, because we will not be back to Kansas in 45 days... That's all the longer you can buy a temporary plate here..
But, the 45 days is almost gone now, and guess what ?? No license plate!! My luck is intact!! I have trouble everywhere.....!!
So today the first place I rode the "black couch" to was the motor cycle dealer...... Asking if the license plate was to be sent to my home or to them..... They assured me that it wasn't to be sent to them.....
The sales manager and the general manager were hanging out together, and they both looked in their computer system to make sure that it was sent in correctly.... Bottom line is that it should be here any day.....!!! Ya, right!
I spent part of the day waiting on hold with a credit card company because they cancelled my online signon... Why? I was told they didn't know why but they just did, so we spent a bunch of time on the phone getting reinstated.... The paper bill goes to KC so if they want paid.........
And then I got to fooling around with pinterest uploading my own pictures and connecting them to blog posts that I have made... You can upload a picture and make a comment and post a link... With the link being the blog that goes with the picture..
I don't plan on putting all of my blogs on Pinterest, but for certain ones like the Honda Oil Change and things of interest like that, I plan to use that venue as another source of exposure...
Its getting lighter for longer now which has allowed me to be out riding later into the evening.. But along with that it will become too hot in the afternoon to go out within the month... Hard to realize that we are about to have another couple of months with absolutely perfect weather, but Arizona never fails to have Feb and March as super months....
Oh, hey, I finished the Lincoln book and there was nothing political in it anywhere that would relate to modern day situations.....
Retired Rod
My luck almost always is bad.....! And since I was trading cars along with my son several years ago, I tend to buy and sell vehicles all the time.. Seems like I never make any money doing this, but rather just manage to keep the fleet newer....
But back to the Arizona DMV..... I have no experience here as I have dodged registering vehicles, but when we got the Camry here, I ended up going back to Kansas and paying the sales tax over again because of paying it in Arizona first...
Anyway, I broke down and said OK register the new bike in Arizona, because we will not be back to Kansas in 45 days... That's all the longer you can buy a temporary plate here..
But, the 45 days is almost gone now, and guess what ?? No license plate!! My luck is intact!! I have trouble everywhere.....!!
So today the first place I rode the "black couch" to was the motor cycle dealer...... Asking if the license plate was to be sent to my home or to them..... They assured me that it wasn't to be sent to them.....
The sales manager and the general manager were hanging out together, and they both looked in their computer system to make sure that it was sent in correctly.... Bottom line is that it should be here any day.....!!! Ya, right!
I spent part of the day waiting on hold with a credit card company because they cancelled my online signon... Why? I was told they didn't know why but they just did, so we spent a bunch of time on the phone getting reinstated.... The paper bill goes to KC so if they want paid.........
And then I got to fooling around with pinterest uploading my own pictures and connecting them to blog posts that I have made... You can upload a picture and make a comment and post a link... With the link being the blog that goes with the picture..
I don't plan on putting all of my blogs on Pinterest, but for certain ones like the Honda Oil Change and things of interest like that, I plan to use that venue as another source of exposure...
Its getting lighter for longer now which has allowed me to be out riding later into the evening.. But along with that it will become too hot in the afternoon to go out within the month... Hard to realize that we are about to have another couple of months with absolutely perfect weather, but Arizona never fails to have Feb and March as super months....
Oh, hey, I finished the Lincoln book and there was nothing political in it anywhere that would relate to modern day situations.....
Retired Rod
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Superdome Power Outage/ Bike ride for a flower....
I was surfing the web trying to decide what actually happened to the power at the Super Dome last night... Boy mum is the word for my searches... No one is saying anything....
I finally found one site where they explained that a piece of equipment that monitors the condition of the power and the amount of current draw had sensed an anomaly and had powered down one of the major feeds from the power company....
I had visions of the many power closets all over the stadium with dropped breakers.. And way too few people that had authority and the keys to these facilities... Just having the knowledge about where these lockers were located and how to recognize the tripped breakers would be huge..
Remember that this place runs on 208 volt three phase lines for its most simple power, so its not like going to the basement and snapping a few switches... Much of the power is measured in the thousands of volts.... So 34 minutes was probably quite good for a response time...
Word had it that Beyonce had her own generators for the special effects and lasers for her show, so she wasn't to blame at all...
I waited until this afternoon when it was 70, and took the Goldwing out for another long ride to our South.. Down Ironwood Rd several miles at highway speeds.. Used the cruise control for most of it... That's a cool option on a bike...
Just beyond the intersection with Octillo is a greenhouse that I have visited several times before... Its named A & P, reminding me of the old grocery store chain...
So I went inside and out the back doors into the bushes and trees... They have some, and most were not damaged from the cold... But I was on the bike so I only purchased a small flower with tiny red blooms on it..... Stuck it in the saddle bag on the right side with my jacket liner wrapped around it...
They hope to have a lot more bushes in a few weeks, but again were worried about the possibility of an upcoming freeze... But they had a big plastic enclosed hot house that was full of plants...
My glasses immediately fogged over when I stepped in there.... But I didn't want to take plants out of that protection and expect them to survive 35 degree nights, like we are supposed to have this weekend...
I'm just nervous that we lost so much of our plantings and want to do something..... Anything.....
Loyce was surprised when I gave her the flower after I came back from the ride.... "How'd you carry that in the bike, she asked?"
It does have rather large bins on the back, if you open them up...
Retired Rod
I finally found one site where they explained that a piece of equipment that monitors the condition of the power and the amount of current draw had sensed an anomaly and had powered down one of the major feeds from the power company....
I had visions of the many power closets all over the stadium with dropped breakers.. And way too few people that had authority and the keys to these facilities... Just having the knowledge about where these lockers were located and how to recognize the tripped breakers would be huge..
Remember that this place runs on 208 volt three phase lines for its most simple power, so its not like going to the basement and snapping a few switches... Much of the power is measured in the thousands of volts.... So 34 minutes was probably quite good for a response time...
Word had it that Beyonce had her own generators for the special effects and lasers for her show, so she wasn't to blame at all...
I waited until this afternoon when it was 70, and took the Goldwing out for another long ride to our South.. Down Ironwood Rd several miles at highway speeds.. Used the cruise control for most of it... That's a cool option on a bike...
Just beyond the intersection with Octillo is a greenhouse that I have visited several times before... Its named A & P, reminding me of the old grocery store chain...
So I went inside and out the back doors into the bushes and trees... They have some, and most were not damaged from the cold... But I was on the bike so I only purchased a small flower with tiny red blooms on it..... Stuck it in the saddle bag on the right side with my jacket liner wrapped around it...
They hope to have a lot more bushes in a few weeks, but again were worried about the possibility of an upcoming freeze... But they had a big plastic enclosed hot house that was full of plants...
My glasses immediately fogged over when I stepped in there.... But I didn't want to take plants out of that protection and expect them to survive 35 degree nights, like we are supposed to have this weekend...
I'm just nervous that we lost so much of our plantings and want to do something..... Anything.....
Loyce was surprised when I gave her the flower after I came back from the ride.... "How'd you carry that in the bike, she asked?"
It does have rather large bins on the back, if you open them up...
Retired Rod
Monday, February 4, 2013
Rain and no Ride....
Super Bowl Sunday is another day like New Years Day.... A day when all the stuff on TV keep you inside and captivated.... But today started out rainy anyway....
I thought that that was bad when I got up this morning, as I was hoping to get a ride in before the game.... But then I got to watching the Iowa Basket Ball Game with Minnesota... We both suck as teams, but I had hope we could beat them.... But it was up in Minneapolis, and not to be as we were behind by one point at the end and had to foul...
Of course they hit their free throws as the clock ran out and we missed a desperation three pointer at the buzzer..... Another loss.......... drat.
Then on to Golf, that was taking place here in Scottsdale... Kind of neat being right here where the national TV is originating... Congratulations Phil...
And of course the Super Bowl, which lasted even longer because of the power outage... San Francisco almost had the gift of a season as that unplanned intermission killed the momentum of the Ravens... Probably a good thing the Ravens hung on for the win, as otherwise there would have been untold investigations...
And I didn't read any more of the book, and think I will let that subject go as its author seems to be too political to even bring up...
Retired Rod
I thought that that was bad when I got up this morning, as I was hoping to get a ride in before the game.... But then I got to watching the Iowa Basket Ball Game with Minnesota... We both suck as teams, but I had hope we could beat them.... But it was up in Minneapolis, and not to be as we were behind by one point at the end and had to foul...
Of course they hit their free throws as the clock ran out and we missed a desperation three pointer at the buzzer..... Another loss.......... drat.
Then on to Golf, that was taking place here in Scottsdale... Kind of neat being right here where the national TV is originating... Congratulations Phil...
And of course the Super Bowl, which lasted even longer because of the power outage... San Francisco almost had the gift of a season as that unplanned intermission killed the momentum of the Ravens... Probably a good thing the Ravens hung on for the win, as otherwise there would have been untold investigations...
And I didn't read any more of the book, and think I will let that subject go as its author seems to be too political to even bring up...
Retired Rod
Sunday, February 3, 2013
More on the Lincoln book...
Good heavens, its late at night.... I got to reading this Killing Lincoln book and lost all track of time..... I'm to the point where Lincoln has just been shot and Booth has ridden off into the night on a fast horse...
The story is told like you are reading a novel... As though it was a here and now depiction of the events.... I'm sure that some of it has to be conjecture as what each man was feeling and thinking would have to be... But it is as though you are right along side of Lincoln and Booth as the scene unfolds...
This book is written by Martin Dugard, who has some experience in writing history and does a good job of it in the present tense... And as a celebrity author, Bill O'Reilly lends his name as well... O'Reilly has the advantage of being a history teacher from high school, so his abilities in the matter are also worthy... He has a graduate degree from Harvard..
There seems to be no political agenda or bias one way or the other in the telling of the story.... The opinions expressed are only those of the people that are the central players of the story in 1865...
I did read that some of the facts behind the story are not exactly correct, and that the people at present day Ford's Theater wouldn't sell the book... But I wonder if that isn't politically motivated... The facts in error were dates of a fire in Ford's Theater and the president's office being called the oval office which would be wrong because the actual oval office was built in 1909..
So far I haven't found any reference to the oval office in this edition, so I wonder if that hasn't been subsequently corrected....
Anyway not much else has happened around here today as we just watched the TV and made a few meals... Loyce of course works on her quilt projects and is totally happy at that...
The motorcycle stayed parked even though it was a sunny and bright 73 degree day.....
I really didn't get started reading the book until later in the evening, but it is hard to put down once you start on it....
There have been over a million copies of this book sold, and to the extent that it teaches the history of events surrounding this period in time, it should be a positive thing...
Oh, and a commenter made reference to not wanting O'Reilly to make any more money from him on the book... But I do think that O'Reilly has stated that profits from his books all go to charity... And on his web site, he goes into extensive explanation of which charities those are.... O'Reilly Charities
I agree that O'Reilly can be a rather polarizing news commentator, but none of that positioning seems to be present in anything I have read in this book so far... Perhaps there will be some castigating at the end.......
Retired Rod
The story is told like you are reading a novel... As though it was a here and now depiction of the events.... I'm sure that some of it has to be conjecture as what each man was feeling and thinking would have to be... But it is as though you are right along side of Lincoln and Booth as the scene unfolds...
This book is written by Martin Dugard, who has some experience in writing history and does a good job of it in the present tense... And as a celebrity author, Bill O'Reilly lends his name as well... O'Reilly has the advantage of being a history teacher from high school, so his abilities in the matter are also worthy... He has a graduate degree from Harvard..
There seems to be no political agenda or bias one way or the other in the telling of the story.... The opinions expressed are only those of the people that are the central players of the story in 1865...
I did read that some of the facts behind the story are not exactly correct, and that the people at present day Ford's Theater wouldn't sell the book... But I wonder if that isn't politically motivated... The facts in error were dates of a fire in Ford's Theater and the president's office being called the oval office which would be wrong because the actual oval office was built in 1909..
So far I haven't found any reference to the oval office in this edition, so I wonder if that hasn't been subsequently corrected....
Anyway not much else has happened around here today as we just watched the TV and made a few meals... Loyce of course works on her quilt projects and is totally happy at that...
The motorcycle stayed parked even though it was a sunny and bright 73 degree day.....
I really didn't get started reading the book until later in the evening, but it is hard to put down once you start on it....
There have been over a million copies of this book sold, and to the extent that it teaches the history of events surrounding this period in time, it should be a positive thing...
Oh, and a commenter made reference to not wanting O'Reilly to make any more money from him on the book... But I do think that O'Reilly has stated that profits from his books all go to charity... And on his web site, he goes into extensive explanation of which charities those are.... O'Reilly Charities
I agree that O'Reilly can be a rather polarizing news commentator, but none of that positioning seems to be present in anything I have read in this book so far... Perhaps there will be some castigating at the end.......
Retired Rod
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