Apparently as soon as I crossed the border into the state of Michigan some one painted a sign on my head, back, arms, legs, feet and other parts of my body that will not be listed here. This neon, flashing sign must say, "BITE ME!" because since I have arrived here I have become the deluxe buffet, (better than the one at all you can eat Chinese place), for the entire mosquito population of this state.
Which is really pretty funny since I live in Florida and one of the first things anyone says to you when you tell them you are from the Sunshine state is, (and this is always said with a look of horror on their faces), "OH MY GOD, HOW DO YOU STAND THE BUGS?" If you knew anything about Florida you would know that all the bugs are DEAD because it is so freaking hot !
I have lived in Southern Florida for over 15 years and not ONCE have I been bitten by a mosquito. Honest . . . Not one mosquito bite in 15 years. And that includes trips into the Everglades. If ever you would be eaten alive by mosquitos it is in the Everglades but in all my visits there I have yet to be bitten. (There is a much greater likelihood that you will be strangled by a Burmese Python or eaten by an alligator than getting bitten by a bug.) I do remember camping in Florida with my family when my kids were little and there were LOTS of mosquitos all over the entire state but for whatever reason the population of these blood suckers has dwindled over the past 40 years. I guess the tourist trade has a lot to do with the periodic spraying for these annoying pests, the mosquitos that is, not the tourists, although that would probably be a GREAT idea too.
MICHIGAN on the other hand has not discovered the use of poisonous insecticides. I really don't care that the chemicals in insect spray can cause cancer in rats. The rats aren't being eaten alive by the damn bugs and anyway, who needs rats. I AM the one who has about 50 itchy bumps all over my body, in some of the most insane places. How the HELL did a mosquito get into my shoe, never mind my underwear. I swear to you I have never had so many mosquito bites in my life. You open the car door and fifty thousand little bastards swarm into the car and have a feast as you are trying to slap them while driving. The theory of "open the windows so they fly out" is a total waste of time because as soon as you open the. window the mosquitos who are already IN the car start calling their friends off the side of the side of the road and you end up with twice as many flying carnivores.
All this is bad enough without having The Man look at me in total bewilderment as if I am a crazy person swatting at the air and cursing like a lunatic. It seems that mosquitos do NOT care for the blood of Mr. Man. I think he is just too skinny for them so they just head right for the big juicy feast that is me.
Sunday, June 30, 2019
Friday, June 28, 2019
SITTING IN THE DARK
There isn't much to do at 5 AM especially when you are trying to be VERY quiet and not wake anyone. Even though there is a part of you yelling, "IF I CAN'T SLEEP THEN NO ONE WILL SLEEP!" But then there is the other part saying,"Please don't wake up I need this quiet time alone." I think that part is the exact reason I have not slept one second this entire night. That and the possible fact that I haven't slept in a real bed in so long I just can't get comfortable without being tangled up in a sheet and blanket that won't stay on the bed when ever I move. OR perhaps it is because I did not take the good pills that my doctor was kind enough to call in to a pharmacy in Alaska because I was having trouble sleeping in all the daylight. The funny thing about those pills is that it says on the bottle, "Do NOT take unless needed." WHAT ?? If I didn't need them I wouldn't have asked for the prescription and how do I know if I'm going to be awake all night until I AM awake all night? It's like the advertisements on TV for different medications that give you the endless list of side effects, including death, then close with the statement, "DO NOT TAKE IF YOU ARE ALLERGIC TO THIS DRUG!" Well DUH, how the hell do I know if I'm allergic to the drug unless I TAKE IT????
So as I sit here in the pitch black night I have lots and lots of time to think, which is a VERY dangerous thing for me to do. ( I realize that Husband and The Man wouldn't believe that I think at all, but it is just the opposite, I am thinking constantly.) Tonight at 11 PM I was thinking about why I hadn't fallen asleep yet. At midnight I was thinking that I needed to stop thinking. At 1 A.M. I was wondering if I should get up and sit in the "parlor". (Houses in the country don't have "Living Rooms" they have parlors. Go figure?) At 2 A.M. I was wondering if I should go back to bed after having gotten up and sat in the parlor for an hour. At 3A.M. I decided I was hungry so I got up and went into the kitchen to bring the box of Captain Crunch cereal, (My all time favorite), into the parlor and sat down to continue thinking. By 4 A.M. I was so done with the whole not sleeping thing that I ALMOT went out to the RV to see if I could sleep there. But since it was SO dark I really didn't want to go outside because any one of the nocturnal creatures who come to feed on the hot dogs that I wrote about last night before I tried to go to sleep, might be looking for a snack.
And so by 5 AM when the sky was starting to lighten up in anticipation of the 5sunrise, I tried to quietly go into the back bedroom to get my computer. This being an old farmhouse that is not so easy a task. I have to avoid all the creaky boards in the floor, but since EVERY board creaks that is impossible. Thankfully the sky was getting lighter so at least I could see the 52 pieces of furniture stuffed into this tiny house. I have to tell you I am NOT a fan of "country", 1930's decor, In fact I will go so far as to say I HATE country furniture and country music, both of which are found in great abundance here in this part of Michigan. But being a "guest" here I put up with it, except when I trip over an ottoman, (Does anyone still buy ottomans? Does anyone know how they got that name?) in the wee hours of the morning. Not only is there WAY too much big, clunky, old wooden desks, dressers, tables, and other pieces of shit all over the place it is impossible to avoid them without getting your feet tangled in a rag rug, of which there are more than enough. (In my world even one rag rug is WAY too many. I mean what the hell? It is "rug" made out of RAGS for God's sake. I get that the pioneers had to make due with what they had and so the rags got woven into rugs to help keep you warm in the winter. BUT THIS IS 019 . . . . throw the dam rags out and buy a nice carpet!) There are no less than 8 rag rugs in this house on which to trip. They do NOT stay in one place when you step on them. In stead they come alive and either wrap their nasty rags around your ankles in an attempt to trip you or totally slide out from under you also causing great bodily harm. (I am suspicious that every time I come up here there seem to be MORE rag rugs stratigically placed in my path. Am I missing a message here?)
Well the bottom line to all this is that I have spent the ENTIRE night wandering between the bedroom and the parlor, navigating by dim light on the screen of my cell phone. (The flashlight feature is way too bright at 2 AM), I have survived and am now sitting here watching the rain in the grey light of dawn. I have managed not to wake Dwayne with all my wanderings which is a very good thing because he is going to need all the rest he can get in order to put up with me today. I am a real BITCH when I don't get my usual 12 hours of sleep.
(Oh, and by the way, please pardon all the typos because in all my wandering in and out of the bedroom I never once thought to grab my glasses.)
So as I sit here in the pitch black night I have lots and lots of time to think, which is a VERY dangerous thing for me to do. ( I realize that Husband and The Man wouldn't believe that I think at all, but it is just the opposite, I am thinking constantly.) Tonight at 11 PM I was thinking about why I hadn't fallen asleep yet. At midnight I was thinking that I needed to stop thinking. At 1 A.M. I was wondering if I should get up and sit in the "parlor". (Houses in the country don't have "Living Rooms" they have parlors. Go figure?) At 2 A.M. I was wondering if I should go back to bed after having gotten up and sat in the parlor for an hour. At 3A.M. I decided I was hungry so I got up and went into the kitchen to bring the box of Captain Crunch cereal, (My all time favorite), into the parlor and sat down to continue thinking. By 4 A.M. I was so done with the whole not sleeping thing that I ALMOT went out to the RV to see if I could sleep there. But since it was SO dark I really didn't want to go outside because any one of the nocturnal creatures who come to feed on the hot dogs that I wrote about last night before I tried to go to sleep, might be looking for a snack.
And so by 5 AM when the sky was starting to lighten up in anticipation of the 5sunrise, I tried to quietly go into the back bedroom to get my computer. This being an old farmhouse that is not so easy a task. I have to avoid all the creaky boards in the floor, but since EVERY board creaks that is impossible. Thankfully the sky was getting lighter so at least I could see the 52 pieces of furniture stuffed into this tiny house. I have to tell you I am NOT a fan of "country", 1930's decor, In fact I will go so far as to say I HATE country furniture and country music, both of which are found in great abundance here in this part of Michigan. But being a "guest" here I put up with it, except when I trip over an ottoman, (Does anyone still buy ottomans? Does anyone know how they got that name?) in the wee hours of the morning. Not only is there WAY too much big, clunky, old wooden desks, dressers, tables, and other pieces of shit all over the place it is impossible to avoid them without getting your feet tangled in a rag rug, of which there are more than enough. (In my world even one rag rug is WAY too many. I mean what the hell? It is "rug" made out of RAGS for God's sake. I get that the pioneers had to make due with what they had and so the rags got woven into rugs to help keep you warm in the winter. BUT THIS IS 019 . . . . throw the dam rags out and buy a nice carpet!) There are no less than 8 rag rugs in this house on which to trip. They do NOT stay in one place when you step on them. In stead they come alive and either wrap their nasty rags around your ankles in an attempt to trip you or totally slide out from under you also causing great bodily harm. (I am suspicious that every time I come up here there seem to be MORE rag rugs stratigically placed in my path. Am I missing a message here?)
Well the bottom line to all this is that I have spent the ENTIRE night wandering between the bedroom and the parlor, navigating by dim light on the screen of my cell phone. (The flashlight feature is way too bright at 2 AM), I have survived and am now sitting here watching the rain in the grey light of dawn. I have managed not to wake Dwayne with all my wanderings which is a very good thing because he is going to need all the rest he can get in order to put up with me today. I am a real BITCH when I don't get my usual 12 hours of sleep.
(Oh, and by the way, please pardon all the typos because in all my wandering in and out of the bedroom I never once thought to grab my glasses.)
Thursday, June 27, 2019
WELCOME "HOME"
I am using the word home quite loosely because in the past two and a half months I have had 3 homes. I left my HOME in Florida back in May. I KNOW that Florida is my home because that is where my favorite bed is. And my TV with all my favorite shows from Netflix, Prime and HBO just waiting for me to plop on the couch and binge watch "Lucifer" or "Game of Thrones". (I LOVE G.O.T and can't wait to return to FL to watch the very last episode which I missed by 3 days. DON'T tell me what happened . . . The suspense is killing me but that is what makes it all the more enjoyable.)
Home #2 is here in Michigan with Mr. Man. I do love it here and enjoy my time in the slightly cooler weather and the lovely country with animals that come every night to feed in the field behind the house. They didn't show up tonight because I think they are pissed that Dwayne has been away so long and no one has put corn or hot dogs out to feed them. (The man actually puts anything and EVERYTHING that is left over out on the grass for what ever critter shows up during the night.) I like to believe it is the deer who are eating all this stuff but I REALLY don't think deer eat hot dogs and I don't want to consider the other possibilities. Home #2 is comfortable BUT the water is weird and the internet is sooooooooooooooooooooooo slow that I could send my blogs by snail mail and they would get to you faster. I also miss going out to eat at some place where you don't have to talk into an intercom and where no one asks if you want fries with that. (Not that the man would go out to eat anyway because of the oxygen he is on but it's nice to have the option of a restaurant if you really wanted to.)
As for house #3, well it is now parked in the back of house #2 and is in the process of being emptied and cleaned in preparation for our next journey in the fall, God willing. The RV served us well and it was WONDERFUL in all regards except that it isn't home. I don't know how the "Rich and Famous" do it, having multiple homes in multiple cities. Do THEY wake up every morning wondering where the Hell they are ? "Am I in Lisbon or Paris today?" I just wake up each day and wonder if my computer is working in whatever place I happen to be. It seems WiFi is more important to me than the palm trees, the deer or the snow capped mountains.
All that being said I am happy to have "landed" some place where the shower is in the same building as the bed and the bed doesn't have a fold down the middle of it.
Home #2 is here in Michigan with Mr. Man. I do love it here and enjoy my time in the slightly cooler weather and the lovely country with animals that come every night to feed in the field behind the house. They didn't show up tonight because I think they are pissed that Dwayne has been away so long and no one has put corn or hot dogs out to feed them. (The man actually puts anything and EVERYTHING that is left over out on the grass for what ever critter shows up during the night.) I like to believe it is the deer who are eating all this stuff but I REALLY don't think deer eat hot dogs and I don't want to consider the other possibilities. Home #2 is comfortable BUT the water is weird and the internet is sooooooooooooooooooooooo slow that I could send my blogs by snail mail and they would get to you faster. I also miss going out to eat at some place where you don't have to talk into an intercom and where no one asks if you want fries with that. (Not that the man would go out to eat anyway because of the oxygen he is on but it's nice to have the option of a restaurant if you really wanted to.)
As for house #3, well it is now parked in the back of house #2 and is in the process of being emptied and cleaned in preparation for our next journey in the fall, God willing. The RV served us well and it was WONDERFUL in all regards except that it isn't home. I don't know how the "Rich and Famous" do it, having multiple homes in multiple cities. Do THEY wake up every morning wondering where the Hell they are ? "Am I in Lisbon or Paris today?" I just wake up each day and wonder if my computer is working in whatever place I happen to be. It seems WiFi is more important to me than the palm trees, the deer or the snow capped mountains.
All that being said I am happy to have "landed" some place where the shower is in the same building as the bed and the bed doesn't have a fold down the middle of it.
Monday, June 24, 2019
WITHDRAWAL
Good thing I"m not a drug addict because I would NEVER be able to get off them. I HATE goodbyes !!! I can NOT say good bye to anyone OR anything without going through at least 10 minutes of tears.
Husband used to make fun of me all the time and tell people "She cries about EVERYTHING". And he was right but he used to say it like it was a negative thing. I consider tears to be very cathartic and soothing once the sobbing is over and all the snot dries up. I DO in fact cry over lots of things. I have to laugh at myself when a TV commercial sets me off or a Hallmark greeting card gets me going. (I NEVER watch the Hallmark TV channel for just this reason.)
This past month has been a particularly difficult time for me. There have been too many cases of withdrawal. First and foremost has been my sporadic separation from the internet. (I bet you thought I was going to say "family". They do rate up there in the top 10 but I honestly think I'm having more trouble in not having internet connection on a regular basis.) I din't realize how "connected" I have become. With no texts and e-mail I have been "cut-off" from my friends and family. I love being in touch with everyone and have become so spoiled with just picking up a phone and either calling or FaceTiming or emailing or texting. My family is just a push of a button away when I can't see them in person. My friends are at the other end of some electronic device that I can pick up at anytime of the day or night.
All that changes once you leave civilization . . . as in traveling to the U.P. of Michigan or going across the ENDLESS miles of Canada. Thankfully Alaska is more "connected" than Michigan so at least I had the opportunity to talk with family while I was visiting in Fairbanks. That wasn't the case for most of our travels in Valdez, Homer, Seward or Anchorage. To be fair to the state of Alaska we were traveling through a shit load of mountains and I guess it is pretty hard to put up cell towers on a glacier or on top of some massive mountain.( Maybe they could come up with a way of putting "cell tower hot spots" on mountain goats ? ) At least Alaska has an excuse for no internet or cell phone reception. I have yet to figure out what the problem is with Michigan. (I personally think the problem is Dwayne and his $12.00 a month phone and internet bill. I mean, what do you expect for that price!)
Moving on with my list of withdrawal issues . . . I am missing family and friends. Not getting all those hugs and smiles from my grand kids is a killer. I love how they light up when they see me and those shouts of, "GRAND MA!!!!!" are the best.
I miss yaking with my friends just because I can. I miss going out to lunch with my friends at any one of ten thousand GOOD restaurants near my house. I miss my bed, my TV, my house and my car. I miss picking up and going someplace when ever I want.
I REALLY miss sleeping in the DARK ! Holy Crap . . . do you know how hard it is to sleep with 21 hours of daylight ?
I miss eating HEALTHY . . .I know you will find that hard to believe but I honestly just want a week of healthy food and a good salad once in a while.
I miss having a LARGE kitchen with all sorts of pots, pans and utensils and a pantry that is stocked with my favorite foods.
I miss my shower and not having to carry a "bathroom bag" and a towel with me.( Camp ground showers are usually nasty.) Showers at other peoples homes are never as good as your own shower and forget the weird water that you find in other places including Florida. Let me tell you there is NOTHING like East Coast water. That water is the freshest and cleanest in the country. This well water shit that comes out of faucets in the rest of North America just plain stinks, literally !!
But the thing I am having the hardest time leaving are the adventures and people of the past month. This trip was fantastic and I HATE leaving it all behind. Today as we finally drove out of the last of the beautiful mountains in British Columbia, the Yukon Territory and Alaska I had a serious melt down. Withdrawing from that amazing world and knowing it would be at least another year until I can see the awesome people I just spent time with hurt worse than I expected. With tears rolling down my face I said good-bye to it all and got ready to travel on.
I HATE GOOD-BYES !!!!
Husband used to make fun of me all the time and tell people "She cries about EVERYTHING". And he was right but he used to say it like it was a negative thing. I consider tears to be very cathartic and soothing once the sobbing is over and all the snot dries up. I DO in fact cry over lots of things. I have to laugh at myself when a TV commercial sets me off or a Hallmark greeting card gets me going. (I NEVER watch the Hallmark TV channel for just this reason.)
This past month has been a particularly difficult time for me. There have been too many cases of withdrawal. First and foremost has been my sporadic separation from the internet. (I bet you thought I was going to say "family". They do rate up there in the top 10 but I honestly think I'm having more trouble in not having internet connection on a regular basis.) I din't realize how "connected" I have become. With no texts and e-mail I have been "cut-off" from my friends and family. I love being in touch with everyone and have become so spoiled with just picking up a phone and either calling or FaceTiming or emailing or texting. My family is just a push of a button away when I can't see them in person. My friends are at the other end of some electronic device that I can pick up at anytime of the day or night.
All that changes once you leave civilization . . . as in traveling to the U.P. of Michigan or going across the ENDLESS miles of Canada. Thankfully Alaska is more "connected" than Michigan so at least I had the opportunity to talk with family while I was visiting in Fairbanks. That wasn't the case for most of our travels in Valdez, Homer, Seward or Anchorage. To be fair to the state of Alaska we were traveling through a shit load of mountains and I guess it is pretty hard to put up cell towers on a glacier or on top of some massive mountain.( Maybe they could come up with a way of putting "cell tower hot spots" on mountain goats ? ) At least Alaska has an excuse for no internet or cell phone reception. I have yet to figure out what the problem is with Michigan. (I personally think the problem is Dwayne and his $12.00 a month phone and internet bill. I mean, what do you expect for that price!)
Moving on with my list of withdrawal issues . . . I am missing family and friends. Not getting all those hugs and smiles from my grand kids is a killer. I love how they light up when they see me and those shouts of, "GRAND MA!!!!!" are the best.
I miss yaking with my friends just because I can. I miss going out to lunch with my friends at any one of ten thousand GOOD restaurants near my house. I miss my bed, my TV, my house and my car. I miss picking up and going someplace when ever I want.
I REALLY miss sleeping in the DARK ! Holy Crap . . . do you know how hard it is to sleep with 21 hours of daylight ?
I miss eating HEALTHY . . .I know you will find that hard to believe but I honestly just want a week of healthy food and a good salad once in a while.
I miss having a LARGE kitchen with all sorts of pots, pans and utensils and a pantry that is stocked with my favorite foods.
I miss my shower and not having to carry a "bathroom bag" and a towel with me.( Camp ground showers are usually nasty.) Showers at other peoples homes are never as good as your own shower and forget the weird water that you find in other places including Florida. Let me tell you there is NOTHING like East Coast water. That water is the freshest and cleanest in the country. This well water shit that comes out of faucets in the rest of North America just plain stinks, literally !!
But the thing I am having the hardest time leaving are the adventures and people of the past month. This trip was fantastic and I HATE leaving it all behind. Today as we finally drove out of the last of the beautiful mountains in British Columbia, the Yukon Territory and Alaska I had a serious melt down. Withdrawing from that amazing world and knowing it would be at least another year until I can see the awesome people I just spent time with hurt worse than I expected. With tears rolling down my face I said good-bye to it all and got ready to travel on.
I HATE GOOD-BYES !!!!
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
WIRED
This RV is a perfect match for anyone who requires Electricity to survive. The previous owner was a genius and must have known that down the road the vehicle would be owned by someone like Dwayne. Between the multiple oxygen machines and other electronic devices this house on wheels is made for us.
Let me begin by saying I DO take advantage of the power sources in this vehicle. Like every other person on this planet over the age of 6 months I NEED to "PLUG IN" at least once a day to keep the computer and cell phone charged. (Not so much the computer as it is new so it holds its charge for days but my cell phone makes up for that by needing a charge about every 5 hours if I am using it for ANYTHING. (I should buy a new battery but I know that would just lead me to buying a new phone and I'm not ready for that quite yet.) So if we tally up the electric outlets required to keep me plugged in we have, at most, TWO. And that is most likely not needed at the same time.
NOW . . . consider The Man and his energy needs. Let me begin by telling you about this AMAZING RV and it's power sources. The previous owner added a couple of really great things to make sure there would ALWAYS be electricity. First and foremost he put solar panels on the roof which provide energy through a "converter". I totally understand NONE of this but I do know there is a small black box in back of my seat in the cab of the RV that has 3 outlets in it. D keeps his primary oxygen concentrator plugged in here so it is ALWAYS running. (The fact that this wire goes across the cab of the RV is of little concern to anyone except the person who has to climb our of HER seat and crawl into the back.) The little black box of energy is totally tucked out of the way and you wouldn't even know it was there. Energy source #1.
Moving into the main portion of our home on wheels there are multiple outlets that were probably added by the previous owner. There is an outlet OVER the sink which when you think about it is a disaster waiting to happen but it actually comes in quite handy. Just below that and off to the side we have another outlet on the side of the kitchen counter. The biggest issue that I have with these 2 outlets is that they are both right above Dwayne's head when he is sleeping. THANKFULLY through no intelligent decision of my own D chose to sleep in the bed on the "kitchen" side of the RV. This is perfect for him because he has all these places to plug in. (I had the forethought to bring a small adapter that plugs in and allows you to plug in 3 things in stead of one.) So now the man has the capability of being connected to SIX different electrical devices at THE SAME TIME.
I TOTALLY expect to wake up one morning to a corpse who has been strangled to death in the middle of the night because ALL SIX wires are hanging down at the head of Dwaynes bed ALL THE TIME ! (When I'm at home I have one or two spots out of the way that I will leave the charger plugged in but here in our LIMITED SPACE housing I unplug every time and put the charger away so it doesn't get in the way or stepped on.) Not so much with the other member of our party.
Our counter top space in the RV is "limited" to say the least. The kitchen counter holds a 3 burner gas stove and a small 2 basin sink. There is some space around the sink most of which is between the back of the sink and the camper wall. This happens to be the space nearest to the 6 outlets so I'll let you guess what this space is filled with. Did you guess:
#1 A NEBULIZER . . . that needs to be plugged in
#2 A SPACE HEATER . . . that needs to be plugged in (The man go NOWHERE without this)
#3 AN ELECTRIC RAZOR . . .that needs to be plugged in
#4 A PHONE CHARGER . . . that needs to be plugged in
#5 THE CHARGER FOR A TABLET . . . that needs to be plugged in
#'s 6 - 27 ALL SORTS OF ASSORTED INHALERS, COUGH DROPS, COINS, NAIL CLIPPERS, AT LEAST 42 BOTTLES OF MEDICATIONS AND TISSUES IN MULTIPLE STAGES OF USE. (Thank God none of which need to be plugged in.)
So much for any counter top space on which to work. This is not a problem here in Fairbanks where I have not had the need to cook in the RV but once we hit the road again tomorrow all this SHIT needs to find a place so it doesn't go flying around as we hurl down the road back to Michigan. AS for the two hundred and seventy six mile of electric wire snaking it's way through the living space of the RV, lets just say that Stanley and Livingston didn't have it nearly as challenging when they were slashing their way through the jungles of where ever the hell they were.
OH, did I mention the two outlets on the OUTSIDE of the camper ??
Let me begin by saying I DO take advantage of the power sources in this vehicle. Like every other person on this planet over the age of 6 months I NEED to "PLUG IN" at least once a day to keep the computer and cell phone charged. (Not so much the computer as it is new so it holds its charge for days but my cell phone makes up for that by needing a charge about every 5 hours if I am using it for ANYTHING. (I should buy a new battery but I know that would just lead me to buying a new phone and I'm not ready for that quite yet.) So if we tally up the electric outlets required to keep me plugged in we have, at most, TWO. And that is most likely not needed at the same time.
NOW . . . consider The Man and his energy needs. Let me begin by telling you about this AMAZING RV and it's power sources. The previous owner added a couple of really great things to make sure there would ALWAYS be electricity. First and foremost he put solar panels on the roof which provide energy through a "converter". I totally understand NONE of this but I do know there is a small black box in back of my seat in the cab of the RV that has 3 outlets in it. D keeps his primary oxygen concentrator plugged in here so it is ALWAYS running. (The fact that this wire goes across the cab of the RV is of little concern to anyone except the person who has to climb our of HER seat and crawl into the back.) The little black box of energy is totally tucked out of the way and you wouldn't even know it was there. Energy source #1.
Moving into the main portion of our home on wheels there are multiple outlets that were probably added by the previous owner. There is an outlet OVER the sink which when you think about it is a disaster waiting to happen but it actually comes in quite handy. Just below that and off to the side we have another outlet on the side of the kitchen counter. The biggest issue that I have with these 2 outlets is that they are both right above Dwayne's head when he is sleeping. THANKFULLY through no intelligent decision of my own D chose to sleep in the bed on the "kitchen" side of the RV. This is perfect for him because he has all these places to plug in. (I had the forethought to bring a small adapter that plugs in and allows you to plug in 3 things in stead of one.) So now the man has the capability of being connected to SIX different electrical devices at THE SAME TIME.
I TOTALLY expect to wake up one morning to a corpse who has been strangled to death in the middle of the night because ALL SIX wires are hanging down at the head of Dwaynes bed ALL THE TIME ! (When I'm at home I have one or two spots out of the way that I will leave the charger plugged in but here in our LIMITED SPACE housing I unplug every time and put the charger away so it doesn't get in the way or stepped on.) Not so much with the other member of our party.
Our counter top space in the RV is "limited" to say the least. The kitchen counter holds a 3 burner gas stove and a small 2 basin sink. There is some space around the sink most of which is between the back of the sink and the camper wall. This happens to be the space nearest to the 6 outlets so I'll let you guess what this space is filled with. Did you guess:
#1 A NEBULIZER . . . that needs to be plugged in
#2 A SPACE HEATER . . . that needs to be plugged in (The man go NOWHERE without this)
#3 AN ELECTRIC RAZOR . . .that needs to be plugged in
#4 A PHONE CHARGER . . . that needs to be plugged in
#5 THE CHARGER FOR A TABLET . . . that needs to be plugged in
#'s 6 - 27 ALL SORTS OF ASSORTED INHALERS, COUGH DROPS, COINS, NAIL CLIPPERS, AT LEAST 42 BOTTLES OF MEDICATIONS AND TISSUES IN MULTIPLE STAGES OF USE. (Thank God none of which need to be plugged in.)
So much for any counter top space on which to work. This is not a problem here in Fairbanks where I have not had the need to cook in the RV but once we hit the road again tomorrow all this SHIT needs to find a place so it doesn't go flying around as we hurl down the road back to Michigan. AS for the two hundred and seventy six mile of electric wire snaking it's way through the living space of the RV, lets just say that Stanley and Livingston didn't have it nearly as challenging when they were slashing their way through the jungles of where ever the hell they were.
OH, did I mention the two outlets on the OUTSIDE of the camper ??
Monday, June 17, 2019
A MOST DISGUSTING HABIT
Of all the habits that people develop I think the absolute most DISGUSTING one has got to be chewing tobacco. I can take people biting their finger nails, cracking their knuckles, smoking, drinking even picking their noses but chewing tobacco has GOT to be the WORST !
If you need nicotine for what ever reason just keep smoking or chew nicotine gum but to put a wad of tobacco in your mouth, tuck it into your cheek and then SPIT every ten seconds is just GROSS !!
WHY ?? Why would anyone choose to do this ? Seriously! Not only are you creating a nasty nasty glob of nastiness IN YOUR MOUTH but then you are going to share it with everyone around you ??
The whole "spit cup" is the grossest thing I can think of. At least if you have a spit cup please make sure it is NOT made of clear plastic or glass. Talk about destroying your appetite in one easy lesson !
I am making myself nauseous just writing this.
I think I have been in Alaska too long. Things here are starting to get to me and my New York/Palm Beach is starting to take over and everything Alaska is starting to gross me out or piss me off. The people are nice, the country side is nice but I just want to get back to NOT COUNTRY ! I miss civilization !!
Tonight we had an excellent steak dinner cooked to perfection by DJ out on the barbecue . After dinner I chose to head into the RV for a quiet night of computer games and relaxation. Dwayne followed me out and turned on our Roku TV which we have yet to totally master. Neither one of us was in the mood for a movie so naturally he went directly to Fox News. (What is it with the men in my life and freaking Fox News?) Because it is Sunday night there was NOTHING even on Fox News so the man started surfing, which is interesting because he has never heard of any of the channels offered with the exception of news and NETFLIX. Netflix has been lousy lately so I stupidly suggested You Tube. Are you ready for this ? . . . D had NO IDEA what youtube was !!!! Not a clue !! Who doesn't know about youtube ???? Seriously !! So in my explanation of what this new channel was all about I used the example of, (How could I be sooooooo stupid), HALIBUT FISHING. For the past hour we have been watching video after video of people on boats pulling in fish and beating them to death with large clubs.
It was so bad I had to open my computer and resort to blogging about Chewing Tobacco.
If you need nicotine for what ever reason just keep smoking or chew nicotine gum but to put a wad of tobacco in your mouth, tuck it into your cheek and then SPIT every ten seconds is just GROSS !!
WHY ?? Why would anyone choose to do this ? Seriously! Not only are you creating a nasty nasty glob of nastiness IN YOUR MOUTH but then you are going to share it with everyone around you ??
The whole "spit cup" is the grossest thing I can think of. At least if you have a spit cup please make sure it is NOT made of clear plastic or glass. Talk about destroying your appetite in one easy lesson !
I am making myself nauseous just writing this.
I think I have been in Alaska too long. Things here are starting to get to me and my New York/Palm Beach is starting to take over and everything Alaska is starting to gross me out or piss me off. The people are nice, the country side is nice but I just want to get back to NOT COUNTRY ! I miss civilization !!
Tonight we had an excellent steak dinner cooked to perfection by DJ out on the barbecue . After dinner I chose to head into the RV for a quiet night of computer games and relaxation. Dwayne followed me out and turned on our Roku TV which we have yet to totally master. Neither one of us was in the mood for a movie so naturally he went directly to Fox News. (What is it with the men in my life and freaking Fox News?) Because it is Sunday night there was NOTHING even on Fox News so the man started surfing, which is interesting because he has never heard of any of the channels offered with the exception of news and NETFLIX. Netflix has been lousy lately so I stupidly suggested You Tube. Are you ready for this ? . . . D had NO IDEA what youtube was !!!! Not a clue !! Who doesn't know about youtube ???? Seriously !! So in my explanation of what this new channel was all about I used the example of, (How could I be sooooooo stupid), HALIBUT FISHING. For the past hour we have been watching video after video of people on boats pulling in fish and beating them to death with large clubs.
It was so bad I had to open my computer and resort to blogging about Chewing Tobacco.
Sunday, June 16, 2019
A NEW KIND OF AEROBICS
Have you googled Aerobics lately looking for just the right exercise plan for you? I have NOT since exercise is not in my vocabulary but I am sure there are at least 12 thousand programs to choose from. There are water aerobics, very popular in Florida among the senior population, chair aerobics which are very popular with the Senior senior citizens who don't like to get wet and probably bed aerobics for those of us who really don't like to exercise but since our doctor says we should do something physical for 30 minutes a day we can justify laying in bed an extra half hour in the morning wiggling our fingers and toes. (I'm really not so sure about the validity of that last one but I'll bet anything there is some sort of video out there for bed aerobics.)
I DO NOT EXERCISE . . . It is a know fact that I will flat out lie to my doctor every 6 months and tell her, with a straight face, that, "Of course I exercise daily!" She knows full well I am lying through my teeth but she just humors me and we move on. I consider a walk to the bathroom, fridge and bed the complete exercise program needed for someone my age. That was until I moved into this 6 wheeled rolling gymnasium.
Once upon a time I lived in a house with stairs. Stairs to the basement where I had to go almost daily to do laundry. Stairs to the top floor where the bedroom was, so that was at least 3 trips a day, down in the morning, laundry up during the day, change of clothes a few times a day and of course, going to bed at night. There were even a few steps from the front walk up to the front door. Lots of opportunity for exercise.
When we bought a condo in Florida we bought one on the second floor thinking it would be "safer" and maybe breezier. That got old pretty fast when you went to the grocery store and had to lug 6 bags of groceries up that HUGE flight of steps. (It wasn't that huge but it did take the wind out of you when you were carrying a six pack and a pizza.)
FINALLY we bought the Florida house that had ZERO steps. Now that was heaven. The only steps we felt with were the 4 steps into the pool. When I sold that house and rented condos the prominent factor was ALWAYS " NO STAIRS"! And so for the past 19 years of my life I have not had to move this body up or down more than on step a week.
Fast Forward to the rolling gym. Moving into this thing for a month is a challenge enough but add to that the daily aerobics program I'm sure I will be dead by August. Aerobics are supposed to make you healthier but RV aerobics are more like the Iron Man marathon or the Olympics, all without the reward of a gold medal. The aerobics program here started even before we left the drive way so I was lured into believing I could actually manage this.
We begin slowly with the basic KNEE BEND AND STRETCH. (Usually a warm up activity) While standing in the stationary RV you bend down to place items in the cabinet under the sink and then stretch up to put more items in the overhead compartments. Because the overhead compartments are made for someone with the reach of a giraffe I have to get the little one step step stool. So far so good.
Once this exercise is mastered we have the step up/ step down of 3 steps that are about 12 feet high. Going from the ground up on to the pull out step, then on to the bottom step of the RV and finally up into the RV itself. Thankfully there is a handrail on the left outside the door and one on the right inside the RV. Not only do I get the leg exercise of stepping up and down but my biceps/triceps are getting HUGE from all the pulling I am doing trying to get myself up the 3 steps.
NOW we are ready to add the ultimate factor to this already strenuous program. START YOUR ENGINES and lets get rolling down the road. Once "air born" we can add the SIDE BEND AND STRETCH. This exercise involves sitting in the front seat and bending sideways and stretching backwards until your shoulder joint pops out. It is a painful exercise and should never be attempted from the drivers seat while the vehicle is in motion. This stretch usually leads into the bend and crawl because when an item can not be reached with just the bend and stretch it is necessary to bend so far sideways that you fall out your seat and crawl into the main portion of the RV. Once in the cabin you attempt to stand. As simple as this sounds it is necessary to factor in the road hazards of Canada and Alaska. Unlike anywhere else on the Northern Continent the roads in Canada and Alaska do not develop potholes. They rather buckle and roll like the worst roller coaster at Six Flags. This "permafrost" phenomenon (which I have yet to fully understand), produces a rolling road that equates to paddling a canoe in 8 foot seas. The RV hits these "rolls" which cause the front to fly into the air while the back is slamming down. (Sort of riding a bucking bronco in a rodeo, although I think that might be easier.) All this motion leads us into the JUMP AND BOUNCE portion of the aerobic program. While being bounced up and down you are also being tossed from side to side like the ball in a pin ball machine. All this motion strengthens your ankles and wrists since they are taking the brunt of the exercise. (NOTE . . .Helmets and shin guards are recommended during this portion of the program.)
BUT the ultimate test to the jump and bounce is when you are standing in the moving RV and working with food. All the previous exercises have only been a lead in to the FINAL test. Can you stand in the kitchen doing all these exercises at the same time and still make a bologna sandwich ?
Hopefully knives are NOT involved and the mustard will not become airborne just as you are ready to spread it on the bread. I have learned NEVER to serve grapes with lunch as they roll off the plate way too easily and fly all over the RV floor. When this happens you just kiss them up to God and move on, hopefully not stepping on them as you make the return journey to the front seat.
As for getting back into the front seat while balancing a sandwich and drink, (water for the driver something a LOT stronger for the passenger) it is necessary to incorporate all exercises and to also add the ROLL OVER PLOP ! This is the last exercise for the day and it involves a deep knee bend, a slight turn sideways and a roll over the seat arm and a plop into the seat, all without dropping lunch or falling sideways into the drivers lap at 80 miles an hour.
Once the days journey is ended you get to cool down with a gentle fall out of the seat and onto the ground where you can remain until morning and start this all over again.
I DO NOT EXERCISE . . . It is a know fact that I will flat out lie to my doctor every 6 months and tell her, with a straight face, that, "Of course I exercise daily!" She knows full well I am lying through my teeth but she just humors me and we move on. I consider a walk to the bathroom, fridge and bed the complete exercise program needed for someone my age. That was until I moved into this 6 wheeled rolling gymnasium.
Once upon a time I lived in a house with stairs. Stairs to the basement where I had to go almost daily to do laundry. Stairs to the top floor where the bedroom was, so that was at least 3 trips a day, down in the morning, laundry up during the day, change of clothes a few times a day and of course, going to bed at night. There were even a few steps from the front walk up to the front door. Lots of opportunity for exercise.
When we bought a condo in Florida we bought one on the second floor thinking it would be "safer" and maybe breezier. That got old pretty fast when you went to the grocery store and had to lug 6 bags of groceries up that HUGE flight of steps. (It wasn't that huge but it did take the wind out of you when you were carrying a six pack and a pizza.)
FINALLY we bought the Florida house that had ZERO steps. Now that was heaven. The only steps we felt with were the 4 steps into the pool. When I sold that house and rented condos the prominent factor was ALWAYS " NO STAIRS"! And so for the past 19 years of my life I have not had to move this body up or down more than on step a week.
Fast Forward to the rolling gym. Moving into this thing for a month is a challenge enough but add to that the daily aerobics program I'm sure I will be dead by August. Aerobics are supposed to make you healthier but RV aerobics are more like the Iron Man marathon or the Olympics, all without the reward of a gold medal. The aerobics program here started even before we left the drive way so I was lured into believing I could actually manage this.
We begin slowly with the basic KNEE BEND AND STRETCH. (Usually a warm up activity) While standing in the stationary RV you bend down to place items in the cabinet under the sink and then stretch up to put more items in the overhead compartments. Because the overhead compartments are made for someone with the reach of a giraffe I have to get the little one step step stool. So far so good.
Once this exercise is mastered we have the step up/ step down of 3 steps that are about 12 feet high. Going from the ground up on to the pull out step, then on to the bottom step of the RV and finally up into the RV itself. Thankfully there is a handrail on the left outside the door and one on the right inside the RV. Not only do I get the leg exercise of stepping up and down but my biceps/triceps are getting HUGE from all the pulling I am doing trying to get myself up the 3 steps.
NOW we are ready to add the ultimate factor to this already strenuous program. START YOUR ENGINES and lets get rolling down the road. Once "air born" we can add the SIDE BEND AND STRETCH. This exercise involves sitting in the front seat and bending sideways and stretching backwards until your shoulder joint pops out. It is a painful exercise and should never be attempted from the drivers seat while the vehicle is in motion. This stretch usually leads into the bend and crawl because when an item can not be reached with just the bend and stretch it is necessary to bend so far sideways that you fall out your seat and crawl into the main portion of the RV. Once in the cabin you attempt to stand. As simple as this sounds it is necessary to factor in the road hazards of Canada and Alaska. Unlike anywhere else on the Northern Continent the roads in Canada and Alaska do not develop potholes. They rather buckle and roll like the worst roller coaster at Six Flags. This "permafrost" phenomenon (which I have yet to fully understand), produces a rolling road that equates to paddling a canoe in 8 foot seas. The RV hits these "rolls" which cause the front to fly into the air while the back is slamming down. (Sort of riding a bucking bronco in a rodeo, although I think that might be easier.) All this motion leads us into the JUMP AND BOUNCE portion of the aerobic program. While being bounced up and down you are also being tossed from side to side like the ball in a pin ball machine. All this motion strengthens your ankles and wrists since they are taking the brunt of the exercise. (NOTE . . .Helmets and shin guards are recommended during this portion of the program.)
BUT the ultimate test to the jump and bounce is when you are standing in the moving RV and working with food. All the previous exercises have only been a lead in to the FINAL test. Can you stand in the kitchen doing all these exercises at the same time and still make a bologna sandwich ?
Hopefully knives are NOT involved and the mustard will not become airborne just as you are ready to spread it on the bread. I have learned NEVER to serve grapes with lunch as they roll off the plate way too easily and fly all over the RV floor. When this happens you just kiss them up to God and move on, hopefully not stepping on them as you make the return journey to the front seat.
As for getting back into the front seat while balancing a sandwich and drink, (water for the driver something a LOT stronger for the passenger) it is necessary to incorporate all exercises and to also add the ROLL OVER PLOP ! This is the last exercise for the day and it involves a deep knee bend, a slight turn sideways and a roll over the seat arm and a plop into the seat, all without dropping lunch or falling sideways into the drivers lap at 80 miles an hour.
Once the days journey is ended you get to cool down with a gentle fall out of the seat and onto the ground where you can remain until morning and start this all over again.
Friday, June 14, 2019
IDITAROD WANNABES
When someone mentions Alaska to you what do you picture first ? I'm pretty sure SNOW is in your thoughts at some point and with snow I usually think Dog Sleds in Alaska.
I'm learning a lot about dog sledding because Dwayne's grand daughter volunteers at a sled dog training facility. She has run several races these past couple of winters and she usually finishes in the top 10. There is also a neighbor on the street who has worked the Iditarod for years and loves working with the "mushers". Between the two of them I'm picking up a few bits of knowledge about this sport.
For one thing it's not just huskies that are used. All sorts of breeds are used including some smaller dogs. It is very important to choose the right dogs for your sled. They have to be smart, sociable AND strong. The "alpha" dog gets put in the front so the other dogs follow it's lead and the 2 strongest dogs are placed right in front of the sled because they do most of the pulling. If your dogs fight with each other you will never get anywhere.
At last years Iditarod the guy who was way out ahead stopped his team for a rest and 2 of the dogs got into a fight. Instead of pulling them apart he YELLED at them and the dogs the dogs didn't like that so they just sat down and wouldn't pull any more so he lost the race.
All this being said, there is a collection of dogs living on this street that could probably put an Iditarod dog team to shame. They probably couldn't pull for shit but they have the barking part down pat. On this small street of maybe 8 houses there are at least 9 dogs. This house alone has FOUR (4) LARGE dogs. (And I do mean LARGE!) Three of them are some sort of Labrador and the fourth looks like a Weimaraner. She is a sweet old thing and can barely make it up the front steps these days but put someone on a bicycle riding down the road and she is right out there with the other 40 dogs barking and running and scaring the living daylights out of the unsuspecting slob who made the mistake of turning into this street. The "pack" consists of about 5 different Labs, Dakota the Weimaraner, an Akita that is enormous and one springer spaniel. None of them fight with each other but they are a formidable looking group when together.
Now the reason I bring all this up is that today D and I decided to take a short nap around 1:00 in the afternoon. Having had a terrible night's sleep last night I was out like a light in a matter of minutes. Apparently someone dared to walk, drive, ride down this street and the dogs went NUTS. They were all out there barking their heads off which did NOT wake me because it is such a common occurrence I just block it out and roll over. What DID wake me was Mr. Man slamming the window of the RV open and yelling at the top of his lungs, "CUT IT OUT!" Which of course all the dogs totally ignored and just continued with their vocal attack.
So much for a quiet afternoon nap!
I'm learning a lot about dog sledding because Dwayne's grand daughter volunteers at a sled dog training facility. She has run several races these past couple of winters and she usually finishes in the top 10. There is also a neighbor on the street who has worked the Iditarod for years and loves working with the "mushers". Between the two of them I'm picking up a few bits of knowledge about this sport.
For one thing it's not just huskies that are used. All sorts of breeds are used including some smaller dogs. It is very important to choose the right dogs for your sled. They have to be smart, sociable AND strong. The "alpha" dog gets put in the front so the other dogs follow it's lead and the 2 strongest dogs are placed right in front of the sled because they do most of the pulling. If your dogs fight with each other you will never get anywhere.
At last years Iditarod the guy who was way out ahead stopped his team for a rest and 2 of the dogs got into a fight. Instead of pulling them apart he YELLED at them and the dogs the dogs didn't like that so they just sat down and wouldn't pull any more so he lost the race.
All this being said, there is a collection of dogs living on this street that could probably put an Iditarod dog team to shame. They probably couldn't pull for shit but they have the barking part down pat. On this small street of maybe 8 houses there are at least 9 dogs. This house alone has FOUR (4) LARGE dogs. (And I do mean LARGE!) Three of them are some sort of Labrador and the fourth looks like a Weimaraner. She is a sweet old thing and can barely make it up the front steps these days but put someone on a bicycle riding down the road and she is right out there with the other 40 dogs barking and running and scaring the living daylights out of the unsuspecting slob who made the mistake of turning into this street. The "pack" consists of about 5 different Labs, Dakota the Weimaraner, an Akita that is enormous and one springer spaniel. None of them fight with each other but they are a formidable looking group when together.
Now the reason I bring all this up is that today D and I decided to take a short nap around 1:00 in the afternoon. Having had a terrible night's sleep last night I was out like a light in a matter of minutes. Apparently someone dared to walk, drive, ride down this street and the dogs went NUTS. They were all out there barking their heads off which did NOT wake me because it is such a common occurrence I just block it out and roll over. What DID wake me was Mr. Man slamming the window of the RV open and yelling at the top of his lungs, "CUT IT OUT!" Which of course all the dogs totally ignored and just continued with their vocal attack.
So much for a quiet afternoon nap!
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
CINDER . . .F---ING . . . ELLA
When is a vacation not a vacation ? When you are the female who ends up doing EVERYTHING because you are the stupid one who always says, "Here, let me help you with that".
Let me venture to say I am not alone in this phenomenon. I was talking to my daughter today who is "On Vacation" in Wyoming with her family and living in an RV for 2 weeks. (It is not a SMALL RV but it is a house on wheels non the less. They have been on the road for 8 days and today was her Cinder f---ing Ella day. ( I have hit my "I'VE HAD IT" day several times in the past 3 weeks but today also was my worst day yet. Maybe there is a full moon or something). Vacations ARE fun but only when things are running smoothly. And how do things run smoothly ? Well, that happens when someone steps up and makes sure everything that needs doing gets done. And who might that someone be you may ask . . . Well, we know FOR SURE who it ISN'T ! And apparently it isn't just my man because it was always the same with Ger and now it seems it is the same for my daughter. (I guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree.)
The thing that REALLY pisses me off is that I, (and Keri and just about every other woman I know), cause my (our) own problem. We think we are being helpful when instead we are creating monsters that come to depend on us for EVERYTHING. My mother was my example and it seems I have become a terrible example for my daughter. We want things to run smoothly so we "take charge" of everything and in doing so allow/encourage the men folk to just sit back and let us run with it. As much as I piss and moan about the men in my life I see that they are extremely smart creatures, They get us sucked in to thinking we are so smart and capable that we should handle everything and then they just sit back and reap the rewards, And if we complain about being over worked or stressed they just say, "But I thought you wanted to be in charge." Or as Ger used to say, I become a "control freak'. That man was extremely good at letting me grab the reins and run with them. When something fell flat on its face he could just shrug his shoulders and point a finger at me and say, "I thought you wanted to take control".
It's not even a question of "control" as it is a matter of just getting things done in a timely fashion. We all know that men do not know how to tell time, except when it is time for a sports event to start. Then they know EXACTLY what time it is and what needs to be done in order for them to be set in front of the TV with a beer in their hand. When it comes to anything else there is not a clock in their realm so they have no schedule at all. Dinner can be served at 2 in the afternoon or 11 at night. they don't care as long as it IS served. We on the other hand are running around all day making sure the laundry is done, the house is cleaned and the chicken gets into the oven at a particular time so it can be served at a reasonable hour. And should we as for help with one of these things the answer is ALWAYS the same . . . "Sure Dear, I'll GET TO IT." Translation of that is, "Don't bug me now the ......... game is on"
All this is the same whether you are at home or traveling three thousand miles across the United States. YOU are the one who is responsible for having all the blankets, pillows, food, water, clothes, toiletries, reservations, snacks, and what ever while the man sits behind the wheel and hums "Yankee Doodle". And when you land in a spot it is YOU who gets to "take Charge" and have dinner on the table for everyone even though you have spent the entire day "babysitting" for your hosts kid while doing all the dishes from last night's dinner and . . . . . . . . . (Sorry, Now I'm just venting.)
I'm tired ! Keri is tired! We are all tired and just want to go home to our own quiet house where we don't have to cook or clean or do ANYTHING on anyone else schedule but our own.
I Booked my flight back to Florida today and July 12 can't come soon enough. I don't care that it is 101 degrees in Palm Beach Gardens. As long as my bed is there, my TV is there and NO ONE else is there!
Let me venture to say I am not alone in this phenomenon. I was talking to my daughter today who is "On Vacation" in Wyoming with her family and living in an RV for 2 weeks. (It is not a SMALL RV but it is a house on wheels non the less. They have been on the road for 8 days and today was her Cinder f---ing Ella day. ( I have hit my "I'VE HAD IT" day several times in the past 3 weeks but today also was my worst day yet. Maybe there is a full moon or something). Vacations ARE fun but only when things are running smoothly. And how do things run smoothly ? Well, that happens when someone steps up and makes sure everything that needs doing gets done. And who might that someone be you may ask . . . Well, we know FOR SURE who it ISN'T ! And apparently it isn't just my man because it was always the same with Ger and now it seems it is the same for my daughter. (I guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree.)
The thing that REALLY pisses me off is that I, (and Keri and just about every other woman I know), cause my (our) own problem. We think we are being helpful when instead we are creating monsters that come to depend on us for EVERYTHING. My mother was my example and it seems I have become a terrible example for my daughter. We want things to run smoothly so we "take charge" of everything and in doing so allow/encourage the men folk to just sit back and let us run with it. As much as I piss and moan about the men in my life I see that they are extremely smart creatures, They get us sucked in to thinking we are so smart and capable that we should handle everything and then they just sit back and reap the rewards, And if we complain about being over worked or stressed they just say, "But I thought you wanted to be in charge." Or as Ger used to say, I become a "control freak'. That man was extremely good at letting me grab the reins and run with them. When something fell flat on its face he could just shrug his shoulders and point a finger at me and say, "I thought you wanted to take control".
It's not even a question of "control" as it is a matter of just getting things done in a timely fashion. We all know that men do not know how to tell time, except when it is time for a sports event to start. Then they know EXACTLY what time it is and what needs to be done in order for them to be set in front of the TV with a beer in their hand. When it comes to anything else there is not a clock in their realm so they have no schedule at all. Dinner can be served at 2 in the afternoon or 11 at night. they don't care as long as it IS served. We on the other hand are running around all day making sure the laundry is done, the house is cleaned and the chicken gets into the oven at a particular time so it can be served at a reasonable hour. And should we as for help with one of these things the answer is ALWAYS the same . . . "Sure Dear, I'll GET TO IT." Translation of that is, "Don't bug me now the ......... game is on"
All this is the same whether you are at home or traveling three thousand miles across the United States. YOU are the one who is responsible for having all the blankets, pillows, food, water, clothes, toiletries, reservations, snacks, and what ever while the man sits behind the wheel and hums "Yankee Doodle". And when you land in a spot it is YOU who gets to "take Charge" and have dinner on the table for everyone even though you have spent the entire day "babysitting" for your hosts kid while doing all the dishes from last night's dinner and . . . . . . . . . (Sorry, Now I'm just venting.)
I'm tired ! Keri is tired! We are all tired and just want to go home to our own quiet house where we don't have to cook or clean or do ANYTHING on anyone else schedule but our own.
I Booked my flight back to Florida today and July 12 can't come soon enough. I don't care that it is 101 degrees in Palm Beach Gardens. As long as my bed is there, my TV is there and NO ONE else is there!
Monday, June 10, 2019
DA Duh DA. DING
This sound that Dwayne's phone makes when some one sends him a text message.
Da duh Da DING!!
It's that DING that really gets your attention. And when the phone DING'S at 2 in the morning or at 7:00 AM it REALLY gets your attention.
F----------------------------------K is the sound that Dwayne makes when his phone goes off at 2 in the morning or 7:00 AM. ( I won't even begin to tell you what I have to say at these times but you know it isn't nice. And the crazy thing about this is IT IS ALWAYS the same person texting at these stupid hours. Why she has to text at these times is beyond our understanding All we know is we are going to KILL her the next time we see her.
I understand how people who never travel can forget that there are time zones across the entire world. Here in the good old US of A we have 4 different time zones and folks living on the East coast can sometimes forget that here in Alaska we are at the total opposite end of the country and thus are FOUR hours behind the time in Maine. When it is 5 PM in Portland, Maine it is 2 PM in Portland Oregon. (Only a 3 hour difference there.) Come up to Alaska and we are even earlier than the East coast. If it 11 AM in, lets say Michigan, it is ONLY 7 IN THE MORNING in Alaska. DON'T CALL!
If it is 11 PM in ALASKA it is 3 IN THE MORNING in Michigan or Florida or wherever on the East coast we happen to be.
You know the battle cry, "REMEMBER THE ALAMO"? I am having a sign made for this person who lives in Alaska that reads, "REMEMBER THE TIME DIFFERENCE"!
It is bad enough when we are in Florida and she wakes us at 2 AM but now that we are here in Alaska SHE has traveled to Michigan and is now waking us at 6 or 7 AM.
Now you must be thinking, "Well, if you have to get in touch with someone about something important then it rally shouldn't matter what time it is. Yes, I agree ! BUT . . . Here is a sample of the massages we get at 2 AM . . . "HI DWAYNE!" . . . "ARE YOU AWAKE?" . . . "HOW ARE YOU DOING?" . . . It could be any one of these three same messages at any given time. There is nothing earth shattering needed, no deaths or births to report, no tornado warning, NOTHING of any importance. Just the same REALLY annoying text. Again and again and again.
We have tried everything from answering right away but that encourages more texts. If we ignore the message the phone just continues to DING so we have to at least wake up enough to find the freaking phone and read the message. Not responding is usually the best way to handle the situation except for the times when the sender must have nothing better to do or possibly have had way too much beer to drink and will persist until they receive an answer.
So far Dwayne has NOT allowed me to send a response because he knows it would not be very nice and we really have to at least be civil.
My solution is to fling the phone as far into the yard as possible and then run it over with a truck. (I would prefer to fling the sender of the message into the yard and run her over with a truck but I would probably end up in jail. Although I think any jury who heard the circumstances probably would acquit me.) And so for now I have D sleep with the phone under HIS pillow so at least it won't wake me up.
Another solution would be to get a new phone that can be shut down at night but that is pretty radical.
Da duh Da DING!!
It's that DING that really gets your attention. And when the phone DING'S at 2 in the morning or at 7:00 AM it REALLY gets your attention.
F----------------------------------K is the sound that Dwayne makes when his phone goes off at 2 in the morning or 7:00 AM. ( I won't even begin to tell you what I have to say at these times but you know it isn't nice. And the crazy thing about this is IT IS ALWAYS the same person texting at these stupid hours. Why she has to text at these times is beyond our understanding All we know is we are going to KILL her the next time we see her.
I understand how people who never travel can forget that there are time zones across the entire world. Here in the good old US of A we have 4 different time zones and folks living on the East coast can sometimes forget that here in Alaska we are at the total opposite end of the country and thus are FOUR hours behind the time in Maine. When it is 5 PM in Portland, Maine it is 2 PM in Portland Oregon. (Only a 3 hour difference there.) Come up to Alaska and we are even earlier than the East coast. If it 11 AM in, lets say Michigan, it is ONLY 7 IN THE MORNING in Alaska. DON'T CALL!
If it is 11 PM in ALASKA it is 3 IN THE MORNING in Michigan or Florida or wherever on the East coast we happen to be.
You know the battle cry, "REMEMBER THE ALAMO"? I am having a sign made for this person who lives in Alaska that reads, "REMEMBER THE TIME DIFFERENCE"!
It is bad enough when we are in Florida and she wakes us at 2 AM but now that we are here in Alaska SHE has traveled to Michigan and is now waking us at 6 or 7 AM.
Now you must be thinking, "Well, if you have to get in touch with someone about something important then it rally shouldn't matter what time it is. Yes, I agree ! BUT . . . Here is a sample of the massages we get at 2 AM . . . "HI DWAYNE!" . . . "ARE YOU AWAKE?" . . . "HOW ARE YOU DOING?" . . . It could be any one of these three same messages at any given time. There is nothing earth shattering needed, no deaths or births to report, no tornado warning, NOTHING of any importance. Just the same REALLY annoying text. Again and again and again.
We have tried everything from answering right away but that encourages more texts. If we ignore the message the phone just continues to DING so we have to at least wake up enough to find the freaking phone and read the message. Not responding is usually the best way to handle the situation except for the times when the sender must have nothing better to do or possibly have had way too much beer to drink and will persist until they receive an answer.
So far Dwayne has NOT allowed me to send a response because he knows it would not be very nice and we really have to at least be civil.
My solution is to fling the phone as far into the yard as possible and then run it over with a truck. (I would prefer to fling the sender of the message into the yard and run her over with a truck but I would probably end up in jail. Although I think any jury who heard the circumstances probably would acquit me.) And so for now I have D sleep with the phone under HIS pillow so at least it won't wake me up.
Another solution would be to get a new phone that can be shut down at night but that is pretty radical.
Saturday, June 8, 2019
I NEVER MET A DONUT I DIDN'T LIKE
Driving around in your house has it's advantages in that you ALWAYS have your food supply with you. There is never a moment when you are out in your car and decide you REALLY need a snack but you are 200 miles, (or feet) from the nearest Mac Donalds. (There are almost as many Mac Donalds as there are Walgreens stretching across this nation AND Canada. This is a fact that we have researched! You may be hard put to find a Burger King but NEVER a Mac Donalds. They are EVERY WHERE ! (Well done Ray Kroc !)
Any way . . . this idea of always having food at your fingertips has been a delight for Mr. D and a bane for me. We will be barreling, (note I use this word often and for good reason because it really does describe our rate of travel.) down the road and the man will get a hankering for a snack. (And if you believe that is it Dwayne's idea to snack then you really don't know me that well.) But who ever gets the brilliant idea first makes no difference because we both know that a snack is only a few feet away in the back of the RV. There I can find a full fridge with enough goodies to keep the French Foreign Legion marching for weeks. Not to mention the snack cabinet above the fridge that is full of all sorts of happy things. First and foremost in this arsenal of food are the bags of donuts. My man Dwayne is a sucker for sweets . . . cookies, cake, donuts and sticky buns, (which for some reason the middle of the country has the market cornered on. I have never tasted such amazing sticky buns as the ones you get from Michigan to Alaska). All these calorie packed goodies are top in D's daily menu. First thing in the morning we MUST have a cup of coffee and a sweet. (And the man NEVER gains an ounce while I am packing on the pounds by the mile.)
Along our journey West I have the job of making the morning run into the gas station "quick shop" to get the morning coffee while D fills the RV with gas for our day's journey. Along with the coffee I go on the safari hunt for the morning sweet. Most places just have the generic muffins, sweet rolls and donuts pre packaged and tasting of cellophane. (Not that the taste of cellophane has stopped us yet). I will choose something to munch on with our coffee as we roll on down the road to our next stop. So far we haven't found anything extraordinary, with the exception of the sticky bun that we got in a diner in Anchorage when we met Ruth for breakfast. That thing was the size of the tires on the RV. It could have fed a family of five with some left over. Ruth ordered it, ate about 3 bites and had the waitress box the remainder for us to take with us down the road. OH MAMA !! Was that ever good.. After that it was back to semi stale but still satisfying goodies from the gas station stops. UNTIL !!!! . . . About 4 days ago I was checking out the selection of goodies while D gassed up and I picked up a bag of HOSTESS mini donuts. (As I was getting out of the RV D said, "See if they have any donuts so it was donuts that I had on my radar.) There are certain criteria that must be followed when choosing snacks for the RV.
#1 . . . The snack has to be small enough to hold in your hand while driving.
#2 . . . The snack can not be messy. No dripping syrup, Not too sticky, No sugar falling into your lap and GOD forbid,
#3 . . . NOTHING THAT IS CRUMBLY !!!! We can not have crumbs flying all over the cab.
So when I saw this bag of mini donuts with a sugar glaze I figured they just might fit the bill.
HOLY COW DID WE HIT THE MOTHER LOAD with these little suckers. Neither one of us has ever had such a good donut in our lives. Not Dunkin donuts, Not Crispy Cream and not even Publix, who has the very best bakery in the world can compare to this little bag of HEAVEN ! We did manage to nurse the bag for 2 days but by the time we got into Fairbanks we were on our last bite. Since we had to go to the store for a few other items we just happened to come across the Hostess donuts where we bought our next bag of minis. Unfortunately they did not have the awesome glazed ones so we had to branch out and try the "crunch" donut which is coated in a sugar glaze and then rolled in coconut. (Normally this would be a No No because D doesn't care for coconut AND the coconut has a tendency to flake off all over the place. But seeing how we were going to be stationary for a while we thought we would give them a try.) They are pretty good but not as good as the original bag. But now the quest is on to try EVERY type of donut that Hostess makes to determine, (In the name of Science), just which donut type is the very best.
I will be sure to include this scientific study in my medical history when I go for my next physical and am 20 pounds heavier than before.
Any way . . . this idea of always having food at your fingertips has been a delight for Mr. D and a bane for me. We will be barreling, (note I use this word often and for good reason because it really does describe our rate of travel.) down the road and the man will get a hankering for a snack. (And if you believe that is it Dwayne's idea to snack then you really don't know me that well.) But who ever gets the brilliant idea first makes no difference because we both know that a snack is only a few feet away in the back of the RV. There I can find a full fridge with enough goodies to keep the French Foreign Legion marching for weeks. Not to mention the snack cabinet above the fridge that is full of all sorts of happy things. First and foremost in this arsenal of food are the bags of donuts. My man Dwayne is a sucker for sweets . . . cookies, cake, donuts and sticky buns, (which for some reason the middle of the country has the market cornered on. I have never tasted such amazing sticky buns as the ones you get from Michigan to Alaska). All these calorie packed goodies are top in D's daily menu. First thing in the morning we MUST have a cup of coffee and a sweet. (And the man NEVER gains an ounce while I am packing on the pounds by the mile.)
Along our journey West I have the job of making the morning run into the gas station "quick shop" to get the morning coffee while D fills the RV with gas for our day's journey. Along with the coffee I go on the safari hunt for the morning sweet. Most places just have the generic muffins, sweet rolls and donuts pre packaged and tasting of cellophane. (Not that the taste of cellophane has stopped us yet). I will choose something to munch on with our coffee as we roll on down the road to our next stop. So far we haven't found anything extraordinary, with the exception of the sticky bun that we got in a diner in Anchorage when we met Ruth for breakfast. That thing was the size of the tires on the RV. It could have fed a family of five with some left over. Ruth ordered it, ate about 3 bites and had the waitress box the remainder for us to take with us down the road. OH MAMA !! Was that ever good.. After that it was back to semi stale but still satisfying goodies from the gas station stops. UNTIL !!!! . . . About 4 days ago I was checking out the selection of goodies while D gassed up and I picked up a bag of HOSTESS mini donuts. (As I was getting out of the RV D said, "See if they have any donuts so it was donuts that I had on my radar.) There are certain criteria that must be followed when choosing snacks for the RV.
#1 . . . The snack has to be small enough to hold in your hand while driving.
#2 . . . The snack can not be messy. No dripping syrup, Not too sticky, No sugar falling into your lap and GOD forbid,
#3 . . . NOTHING THAT IS CRUMBLY !!!! We can not have crumbs flying all over the cab.
So when I saw this bag of mini donuts with a sugar glaze I figured they just might fit the bill.
HOLY COW DID WE HIT THE MOTHER LOAD with these little suckers. Neither one of us has ever had such a good donut in our lives. Not Dunkin donuts, Not Crispy Cream and not even Publix, who has the very best bakery in the world can compare to this little bag of HEAVEN ! We did manage to nurse the bag for 2 days but by the time we got into Fairbanks we were on our last bite. Since we had to go to the store for a few other items we just happened to come across the Hostess donuts where we bought our next bag of minis. Unfortunately they did not have the awesome glazed ones so we had to branch out and try the "crunch" donut which is coated in a sugar glaze and then rolled in coconut. (Normally this would be a No No because D doesn't care for coconut AND the coconut has a tendency to flake off all over the place. But seeing how we were going to be stationary for a while we thought we would give them a try.) They are pretty good but not as good as the original bag. But now the quest is on to try EVERY type of donut that Hostess makes to determine, (In the name of Science), just which donut type is the very best.
I will be sure to include this scientific study in my medical history when I go for my next physical and am 20 pounds heavier than before.
REALLY REALLY CLOSE QUARTERS
This "camping" thing is a real test of my ability to "play well with others". I think I am a people person but I DO have my alter ego that is one step this side of hermit. I LOVE my alone time and having my space to do what I want when I want so driving 3,300 miles sharing a space the size of a booth at Mac Donalds is quite a challenge.
Yesterday we arrived in Fairbanks and I will admit I have very mixed emotions. I'm sorry to see the "adventure" part of our journey end but I'm very happy to finally have a place to park "The Bee" for a couple of weeks and have some space to roam. Dwayne's son had a huge piece of property in a wonderful wooded community with dirt roads and a river just a short walk away. (There are also bears and moose in the woods so I don't roam very far off the roads. Being a "city girl" I don't like the idea of encountering anything larger than a squirrel or a neighbors dog. 0 There are plenty of dogs in the neighborhood, 4 of them live right here at DJ's. Dakota and Coffee are 11 and poor old Dakota is showing her age since the last time I was here. She sort of walks like I do when I get up in the morning and every bone in my body hurts. Coffee is still going strong and is one of the sweetest, mild mannered dogs I have ever met. Then there is DJ's dog who is 7 and Ava's (Dwayne's grand daughter) dog who is a 1 year old PUPPY with way too much energy. All 4 dogs are LARGE to say the least. Add to the mix the neighbors lab and it is a free for all out in the yard. Living in the country all the dogs, except the puppy, run loose so it is an obstacle course to get from the RV into the house. D and I are living in the RV in the driveway for the next two weeks because both grand daughters are here and we don't want to take a room away from the youngest, who is here for a month with her dad. (Emmy lives in GA with her mom most of the year)
So, even though we have landed in Fairbanks for 2 weeks we are still living in our little home. If I ever thought living in a 4 bedroom house with 3 kids and Get were a challenge this is a true test of sharing space. The BIG difference here is the man that I am sharing the space with, unlike my past experiences, Dwayne actually is AWARE of his surroundings. If I am standing in the front of the RV and need to move to the back it is not like passing a water buffalo in the aisle of CVS. D sees what is going on and actually moves to make things easier. It is amazing the difference this makes in keeping sane. For what ever reason, maybe because he was in the Army all those years and learned how to play and live with other people in close quarters, it really has been NICE living in this little space with this man. (With the exception of the 3 miles of oxygen hose that I have already written about.)
Our biggest challenge is what to do with the laundry. No matter how you do it there is ALWAYS laundry accumulating somewhere. You take off dirty clothes, (and I do mean dirty, considering we are camping) and they need to go somewhere. There are no closets to toss them in, no space under the beds to hide them in, the refrigerator is full of beer and the bathroom barely has enough room for a body never mind a bag of wash. There is the shower, (YES, we actually have a shower), and so that is the space used to toss the laundry. Except when we want to take a shower we have to move the bag onto the step into the RV. It is a juggling game but if this is the least of the problems of space we are doing good. I have considered just opening the camper door and tossing underwear out into the yard until there is enough of a pile to do a wash but I think the neighbors may have a problem with their dogs running over, grabbing my dirty undies and dragging them through the neighborhood.
This little house on wheels is very well laid out with more than enough closet space over the beds. Trouble with this is I have the need to FILL the space so I will continue to buy souvenirs to fill the closets. No thought given to how all this is EVER returning to Florida with me at the end of this journey. Hopefully I won't be filling my suitcase with dirty laundry so there will be room for extra stuff.
Yesterday we arrived in Fairbanks and I will admit I have very mixed emotions. I'm sorry to see the "adventure" part of our journey end but I'm very happy to finally have a place to park "The Bee" for a couple of weeks and have some space to roam. Dwayne's son had a huge piece of property in a wonderful wooded community with dirt roads and a river just a short walk away. (There are also bears and moose in the woods so I don't roam very far off the roads. Being a "city girl" I don't like the idea of encountering anything larger than a squirrel or a neighbors dog. 0 There are plenty of dogs in the neighborhood, 4 of them live right here at DJ's. Dakota and Coffee are 11 and poor old Dakota is showing her age since the last time I was here. She sort of walks like I do when I get up in the morning and every bone in my body hurts. Coffee is still going strong and is one of the sweetest, mild mannered dogs I have ever met. Then there is DJ's dog who is 7 and Ava's (Dwayne's grand daughter) dog who is a 1 year old PUPPY with way too much energy. All 4 dogs are LARGE to say the least. Add to the mix the neighbors lab and it is a free for all out in the yard. Living in the country all the dogs, except the puppy, run loose so it is an obstacle course to get from the RV into the house. D and I are living in the RV in the driveway for the next two weeks because both grand daughters are here and we don't want to take a room away from the youngest, who is here for a month with her dad. (Emmy lives in GA with her mom most of the year)
So, even though we have landed in Fairbanks for 2 weeks we are still living in our little home. If I ever thought living in a 4 bedroom house with 3 kids and Get were a challenge this is a true test of sharing space. The BIG difference here is the man that I am sharing the space with, unlike my past experiences, Dwayne actually is AWARE of his surroundings. If I am standing in the front of the RV and need to move to the back it is not like passing a water buffalo in the aisle of CVS. D sees what is going on and actually moves to make things easier. It is amazing the difference this makes in keeping sane. For what ever reason, maybe because he was in the Army all those years and learned how to play and live with other people in close quarters, it really has been NICE living in this little space with this man. (With the exception of the 3 miles of oxygen hose that I have already written about.)
Our biggest challenge is what to do with the laundry. No matter how you do it there is ALWAYS laundry accumulating somewhere. You take off dirty clothes, (and I do mean dirty, considering we are camping) and they need to go somewhere. There are no closets to toss them in, no space under the beds to hide them in, the refrigerator is full of beer and the bathroom barely has enough room for a body never mind a bag of wash. There is the shower, (YES, we actually have a shower), and so that is the space used to toss the laundry. Except when we want to take a shower we have to move the bag onto the step into the RV. It is a juggling game but if this is the least of the problems of space we are doing good. I have considered just opening the camper door and tossing underwear out into the yard until there is enough of a pile to do a wash but I think the neighbors may have a problem with their dogs running over, grabbing my dirty undies and dragging them through the neighborhood.
This little house on wheels is very well laid out with more than enough closet space over the beds. Trouble with this is I have the need to FILL the space so I will continue to buy souvenirs to fill the closets. No thought given to how all this is EVER returning to Florida with me at the end of this journey. Hopefully I won't be filling my suitcase with dirty laundry so there will be room for extra stuff.
Friday, June 7, 2019
DECISIONS - DECISIONS - DECISIONS
Some things never change. I hate being the one making the decisions. You know how when you are with a group of people and no one can decide whether to order the fish or the steak and you are STARVING and just want food of any sort so you have to be the one to say, " For God sake order the steak and get this dinner on the table!". . . that is what makes me nuts. Some people just can not make a decision to save their soul.
Every day we wake up and are faced with a hundred decisions starting with "Should I get up or just lie here in the bed for another hour or two?" Then there is the decision of what to wear for the day, what to have for breakfast, when to leave the house to get the maximum amount of things done that are on the "to do" list for the day. It goes on all day long ! Most of the time the decisions are not earth shattering and will not alter the universe but some times the decisions put so much pressure on one person that it causes us to drink.
For the past 50 years I have been put in the position of being the decision maker. As a mom it is a natural role to play. No problem there, my decisions only altered the lives of my three children. But no pressure ! The decisions that make me nuts are the "travel" decisions. For what ever reason the men in my life seem incapable of making spur of the moment decisions. They are great at making plans for a three thousand mile trip but when it comes to the decision to pull into THIS gas station or the NEXT gas station they are totally incapable of making a decision. We will be barreling down the road at 65 miles an hour and the man will suddenly ask, "DO I TURN HERE?". And there we have it . . . the decision is mine . . . turn or not too turn, that is the question. And the answer to that question is going to affect the next 3 hours of the journey because if I make the wrong decision we are off the beaten path and lost for eternity. (Or at least that is how I feel).
Today we took a tour into the Denali National Park. It was "interesting and unique" to say the least, And I made the decision to take this particular tour. Yesterday as we came into the park we stopped at the "bus depot" for all tours of the park. Because D has his Oxygen it is usually my job to jump out of the RV and go into the buildings to take care of business. The biggest decisions I make usually involve the size of the cup of coffee, what blend of coffee and what flavor creamer to put into the coffee. Some times when things get really tense I have to decide whether to purchase donuts or sticky buns to go with the coffee. BUT yesterday I had to make a BIG decision . . . what tour to take in the National Park. The scenario is ALWAYS the same, we discuss what we want to do as we're driving down the road, (good plan), We pull into the parking lot and as I am climbing out of the RV the man starts giving me two thousand other things to remember when I get into the building. NEVER FAILS! ALWAYS HAPPENS ! But now I'm used to this so I just put my ears on silent mode and keep moving. Once in the building the pressure is now getting intense. Will I make a good decision, will I make the "right" choice? Yesterdays decision was based on the length of the tour because we have to factor in the battery life on the oxygen machine. So I chose the 4 hour tour into the park titled "history" and something of Denali National Park. The very young girl assured me we would be traveling into the park and see lots of animals. NOT ! We got on the "tour" bus which is just a school bus painted a non discript color so it blends into the landscape. (As if the moose and other creatures can't tell there is a freaking BUS full of tourists stopped to gawk.) We leave the bus terminal and amble off into the park for 26 miles with 3 stops along the way. The three stops are basically "potty" stops and there is NOTHING outstanding at any of these places. Stop number one was a gravel path into the woods to a small log cabin that is used by the dog sled teams in the winter. There was a man stationed there to tell us about how the cabin came to be at this particular spot and that was that. The path had been made to circle around back to the parking area where the bus waited. We saw white spruce trees and lichen. You can only imagine how EXCITING this stop was. (D was smart and opted to remain in the bus where at least it was warm.) The next stop was even more exciting because we had a real live Athabaskan native girl stand on a little pile of dirt and give us a quick history lesson about her people. She was a sweet girl but it was so damn cold all I could think about was getting back to the bus. (there were also potty's at this stop.) Once back in the bus we journeyed another 10 miles or so until we came to a turn around where we headed back down the mountain only to stop once again for a potty break at a third turn off. (Nothing at all to see at this one.)
The "tour" took four and a half hours and all the wild life we saw consisted of 5 moose and a fox. The tour guide/bus driver was a young woman who, although very knowledgeable, NEVER stopped talking and pointing out trees and holes in the ground made by glaciers. By the time we got back to the bus depot I was ready to shoot myself. D never left the bus and although he never questioned the validity of this tour we both knew that this was NOT one of my better decisions.
But then again, that's what life is all about . . . never knowing where a decision will take you but being flexible enough to go with what ever you get and make the best of it. My decisions after that trip today were to return to the RV, make a nice strong rum and coke, warm up a hot dog and write this blog before I fall sound asleep for the night and hopefully block this whole day from my memory. Tomorrow is another day of our journey and I'm sure I'll be challenged with a whole bunch of new decisions that I will hopefully have more success with than today.
Every day we wake up and are faced with a hundred decisions starting with "Should I get up or just lie here in the bed for another hour or two?" Then there is the decision of what to wear for the day, what to have for breakfast, when to leave the house to get the maximum amount of things done that are on the "to do" list for the day. It goes on all day long ! Most of the time the decisions are not earth shattering and will not alter the universe but some times the decisions put so much pressure on one person that it causes us to drink.
For the past 50 years I have been put in the position of being the decision maker. As a mom it is a natural role to play. No problem there, my decisions only altered the lives of my three children. But no pressure ! The decisions that make me nuts are the "travel" decisions. For what ever reason the men in my life seem incapable of making spur of the moment decisions. They are great at making plans for a three thousand mile trip but when it comes to the decision to pull into THIS gas station or the NEXT gas station they are totally incapable of making a decision. We will be barreling down the road at 65 miles an hour and the man will suddenly ask, "DO I TURN HERE?". And there we have it . . . the decision is mine . . . turn or not too turn, that is the question. And the answer to that question is going to affect the next 3 hours of the journey because if I make the wrong decision we are off the beaten path and lost for eternity. (Or at least that is how I feel).
Today we took a tour into the Denali National Park. It was "interesting and unique" to say the least, And I made the decision to take this particular tour. Yesterday as we came into the park we stopped at the "bus depot" for all tours of the park. Because D has his Oxygen it is usually my job to jump out of the RV and go into the buildings to take care of business. The biggest decisions I make usually involve the size of the cup of coffee, what blend of coffee and what flavor creamer to put into the coffee. Some times when things get really tense I have to decide whether to purchase donuts or sticky buns to go with the coffee. BUT yesterday I had to make a BIG decision . . . what tour to take in the National Park. The scenario is ALWAYS the same, we discuss what we want to do as we're driving down the road, (good plan), We pull into the parking lot and as I am climbing out of the RV the man starts giving me two thousand other things to remember when I get into the building. NEVER FAILS! ALWAYS HAPPENS ! But now I'm used to this so I just put my ears on silent mode and keep moving. Once in the building the pressure is now getting intense. Will I make a good decision, will I make the "right" choice? Yesterdays decision was based on the length of the tour because we have to factor in the battery life on the oxygen machine. So I chose the 4 hour tour into the park titled "history" and something of Denali National Park. The very young girl assured me we would be traveling into the park and see lots of animals. NOT ! We got on the "tour" bus which is just a school bus painted a non discript color so it blends into the landscape. (As if the moose and other creatures can't tell there is a freaking BUS full of tourists stopped to gawk.) We leave the bus terminal and amble off into the park for 26 miles with 3 stops along the way. The three stops are basically "potty" stops and there is NOTHING outstanding at any of these places. Stop number one was a gravel path into the woods to a small log cabin that is used by the dog sled teams in the winter. There was a man stationed there to tell us about how the cabin came to be at this particular spot and that was that. The path had been made to circle around back to the parking area where the bus waited. We saw white spruce trees and lichen. You can only imagine how EXCITING this stop was. (D was smart and opted to remain in the bus where at least it was warm.) The next stop was even more exciting because we had a real live Athabaskan native girl stand on a little pile of dirt and give us a quick history lesson about her people. She was a sweet girl but it was so damn cold all I could think about was getting back to the bus. (there were also potty's at this stop.) Once back in the bus we journeyed another 10 miles or so until we came to a turn around where we headed back down the mountain only to stop once again for a potty break at a third turn off. (Nothing at all to see at this one.)
The "tour" took four and a half hours and all the wild life we saw consisted of 5 moose and a fox. The tour guide/bus driver was a young woman who, although very knowledgeable, NEVER stopped talking and pointing out trees and holes in the ground made by glaciers. By the time we got back to the bus depot I was ready to shoot myself. D never left the bus and although he never questioned the validity of this tour we both knew that this was NOT one of my better decisions.
But then again, that's what life is all about . . . never knowing where a decision will take you but being flexible enough to go with what ever you get and make the best of it. My decisions after that trip today were to return to the RV, make a nice strong rum and coke, warm up a hot dog and write this blog before I fall sound asleep for the night and hopefully block this whole day from my memory. Tomorrow is another day of our journey and I'm sure I'll be challenged with a whole bunch of new decisions that I will hopefully have more success with than today.
Thursday, June 6, 2019
A BLOG ABOUT NOTHING
We have been busy busy busy these past couple of days so I haven't been on line much. That coupled with the "internet" issues kept me from writing anything. The last camp ground we were in was in Seward, AK. A great little coastal town that is surrounded by mountains and ocean. It amazes me how every place we have been is just so different from the last and has such beautiful scenery. I really liked Seward as a town, Quaint and small and friendly ! We camped in a military "resort" there that was amazing. They had cabins, motel, tents, Yerts and campground. (Did you catch the "YERT" reference ?) I was walking around the camp ground checking out where everything was and got chatting with a woman who was coming out of the laundry. I asked her what the funny little buildings standing along a strip of grass were. They were cylindrical with a tent type roof. They actually looked like something you would find in a rice paddy. The woman told me they were yurts. Sort of a cross between a cabin and a tent.. They are just big enough for 2 people to sleep in. Something I have never seen before. The whole "resort" was very nice and had everything a tourist would want for the night or two that you might be there BUT their internet was terrible. That is something that ALL the places we have been in have in common. I guess the fact that we are in ALASKA might have something to do with that but in this day and age I just assume EVERYONE has internet. We have actually driven for hours without any cell phone signal because there is NOTHING around but forest, mountains and water. All of which are mind blowing in their beauty but frustrating as hell for someone like me who wants to check my mail or write a blog. The horror that I must sit for hours and just look at the amazing scenery. Good Grief !! This trip would be a night mare for my grand kids who can't get their noses out of the iPad or what ever they stare at for endless hours on end. Just think, they might have to look for moose or bear along side the road. They might have to search for the bald eagles and wolves or even, God Forbid, keep a journal because they can't text their friends.
Not to say I am not guilty of having my nose in the camera or endlessly posting pictures on facebook every time we get to a town and I can get a signal on my phone. It is just too beautiful here not to share with everyone.
Today we left Seward this morning and drove to Anchorage where we stopped to visit with a friend of D's. This tiny lady is a native of Florida and ended up in Alaska because her husband was stationed here back in the 80's. They have retired but are still here for the summers and traveling south in the winters. I really liked her a lot and it made for a nice lunch stop. We left Ruth and continued on up the road to Denali National Park where we will stay for the next two nights. Needless to say the internet is "iffy" to say the least. We are staying in a private camp ground about 7 miles North of the park because the park camp ground has no electric or water. Our RV is self contained with it's own water supply and propane heat but with no internet I draw the line. It was nice to pull into a spot, plug in and have a hot meal while watching our ROKU TV that we have finally figured out how to use. Although we have a full bathroom in the RV the shower is a challenge to keep the water in and the cold air out so I'll walk over to the bath house and shower there, I'll keep you posted on how that works out because I have to pay $4 for the shower. I got a token that goes in a box on the wall of the shower. This will supposedly give me SIX (6) minutes of "very hot" water. (Thats what the lady in the office told me. ) I'll let you know how this adventure works out.
Not to say I am not guilty of having my nose in the camera or endlessly posting pictures on facebook every time we get to a town and I can get a signal on my phone. It is just too beautiful here not to share with everyone.
Today we left Seward this morning and drove to Anchorage where we stopped to visit with a friend of D's. This tiny lady is a native of Florida and ended up in Alaska because her husband was stationed here back in the 80's. They have retired but are still here for the summers and traveling south in the winters. I really liked her a lot and it made for a nice lunch stop. We left Ruth and continued on up the road to Denali National Park where we will stay for the next two nights. Needless to say the internet is "iffy" to say the least. We are staying in a private camp ground about 7 miles North of the park because the park camp ground has no electric or water. Our RV is self contained with it's own water supply and propane heat but with no internet I draw the line. It was nice to pull into a spot, plug in and have a hot meal while watching our ROKU TV that we have finally figured out how to use. Although we have a full bathroom in the RV the shower is a challenge to keep the water in and the cold air out so I'll walk over to the bath house and shower there, I'll keep you posted on how that works out because I have to pay $4 for the shower. I got a token that goes in a box on the wall of the shower. This will supposedly give me SIX (6) minutes of "very hot" water. (Thats what the lady in the office told me. ) I'll let you know how this adventure works out.
Monday, June 3, 2019
TUBING THROUGH ALASKA WITH DW
In case you aren't sure if you are reading this right I am talking about TUBE . . . as in inner tube, raft tube or in this case OXYGEN tube. No, I have not been rafting down river rapids in a tube, nor has Mr. D. Rather we are in close quarters in the 21 ft. RV for 2 full weeks, as of today, with the man being attached to at least 200 feet of oxygen hoses. And YES, I am talking multiple hoses, not just one!
Once again I will say that "I GET IT" . The poor guy is hooked to an oxygen hose 24/7. Not a life I would choose for myself but all things considered he does not let all this get in his way. Rather it gets in MY way. LITTERALY ! If I have fallen over the damn hoses once I have tripped on them a hundred times. It isn't too bad when we are at either of our homes because there is SPACE to move around the hose, and you can SEE the hose. Note I say HOSE . . . as in ONE hose. Not so on this trip. Because the man can not breathe without oxygen it is NECESSARY to be connected to some sort of tank or machine that gives him the added oxygen required. AND because we are on the road in Alaska where you can go for hours without seeing a town, no less a hospital, it is necessary to be prepared with plenty of O2. As a result of this we have in our tiny space 2 full size oxygen concentrators that are about the size of a mini fridge on wheels AND a small portable machine that draws oxygen from the air to give D a boost when he breaths in. This little machine is only used when he walks a very short distance. For anything else he needs the O2 from the bigger machines. He only needs one machine at a time but if one machine malfunctions he needs to have a back up. I totally agree with this and I don't have a problem with these 2 machines taking up space in the RV. In fact they fit very nicely behind the drivers seat and are able to plug in with a minimum of "trip wire". The electric chord runs across the RV behind the seats so it is sort of out of the way. Add to this the plug in for the little portable machine that he keeps on the floor NEXT to the drivers seat. That one is plugged into the cigaret lighten on the dash board along with the wire from the RV back up camera. This gives us a total of FOUR (4) electric wires crisscrossing the front of the RV cab. Now add to that the 300 feet of oxygen tubes attached to all three machines and you have a recipe for disaster every time the man says, "Hey Cathie, would you climb into the back and get me . . . (insert sandwich, water, tissue or what ever else he is in need of.) The fact that we are barreling down the bumpy, winding road at 60 miles an hour is challenge enough without the added challenge of playing Double Dutch jump rope with 3 sets of hoses.
It is wonderful that the oxygen company provides all this hose, all wrapped up in a nice tight bundle until you open the plastic bag and it springs out like a King Cobra in attack mode. Suddenly there is 25 feet of plastic hose curled up on the floor like a large green slinky. It conveniently keeps its coil so it "takes up less space" BUT because it is all coiled up it is so easy to get it wrapped around your leg, shoe, ankle or any other body part that it comes in contact with .
The "aisle" in the camper between the 2 bench seats is maybe 2 1/2 feet wide. Wide enough to walk through when the camper is stationary and the hoses are coiled up on the seats. (Note I say, "HOSES" plural. ALL THREE oxygen machines have equal lengths of hose attached so that no matter which one the man is attached to he can get in and out of the RV to pump gas or help hook up the electric and water when we stop for the night." ). BUT . . . if we are hurling down the road and I need to climb out of my seat and get into the living space I almost ALWAYS find myself wrapped up in the octopus like mass of O2 tubes. I'm forever getting about 2 steps in before I feel the tug on my leg that signals the attack of the hoses. It takes me 10 minutes to untangle myself before I can move on with my mission.
But the absolute worst is in the middle of the night when the bench seats are folded down for sleep and there is only about 8 inches between the beds. I wake up and lay there deciding just how badly I have to pee. Is it really worth the battle of the hoses? Yup, got to go so I SLOWLY swing my feet onto the floor and feel around with my toes to see just where the attack hose is hiding. Sometimes I luck out and find it right away so I can grab it and place it up on top of the man but then there are those other times when either my brain is not fully awake or the hose is lying in wait to attack. I slide my feet slowly forward, feeling no resistance so I move forward and WHAM, I'm brought to a screeching stop tangled beyond belief in the dark and having to pee like a race horse.
At this point I am tempted to grab the hose and wrap it around the sleeping man's neck. So far I have resisted this urge. And so I sit, untangle from the mass of hoses and move on with my mission knowing full well that I have yet to return to the bed without killing myself.
Come morning the man wakes up fully rested and can't understand why I am still so tired. I'd rather her wrestling alligators. At least you can see them!
Once again I will say that "I GET IT" . The poor guy is hooked to an oxygen hose 24/7. Not a life I would choose for myself but all things considered he does not let all this get in his way. Rather it gets in MY way. LITTERALY ! If I have fallen over the damn hoses once I have tripped on them a hundred times. It isn't too bad when we are at either of our homes because there is SPACE to move around the hose, and you can SEE the hose. Note I say HOSE . . . as in ONE hose. Not so on this trip. Because the man can not breathe without oxygen it is NECESSARY to be connected to some sort of tank or machine that gives him the added oxygen required. AND because we are on the road in Alaska where you can go for hours without seeing a town, no less a hospital, it is necessary to be prepared with plenty of O2. As a result of this we have in our tiny space 2 full size oxygen concentrators that are about the size of a mini fridge on wheels AND a small portable machine that draws oxygen from the air to give D a boost when he breaths in. This little machine is only used when he walks a very short distance. For anything else he needs the O2 from the bigger machines. He only needs one machine at a time but if one machine malfunctions he needs to have a back up. I totally agree with this and I don't have a problem with these 2 machines taking up space in the RV. In fact they fit very nicely behind the drivers seat and are able to plug in with a minimum of "trip wire". The electric chord runs across the RV behind the seats so it is sort of out of the way. Add to this the plug in for the little portable machine that he keeps on the floor NEXT to the drivers seat. That one is plugged into the cigaret lighten on the dash board along with the wire from the RV back up camera. This gives us a total of FOUR (4) electric wires crisscrossing the front of the RV cab. Now add to that the 300 feet of oxygen tubes attached to all three machines and you have a recipe for disaster every time the man says, "Hey Cathie, would you climb into the back and get me . . . (insert sandwich, water, tissue or what ever else he is in need of.) The fact that we are barreling down the bumpy, winding road at 60 miles an hour is challenge enough without the added challenge of playing Double Dutch jump rope with 3 sets of hoses.
It is wonderful that the oxygen company provides all this hose, all wrapped up in a nice tight bundle until you open the plastic bag and it springs out like a King Cobra in attack mode. Suddenly there is 25 feet of plastic hose curled up on the floor like a large green slinky. It conveniently keeps its coil so it "takes up less space" BUT because it is all coiled up it is so easy to get it wrapped around your leg, shoe, ankle or any other body part that it comes in contact with .
The "aisle" in the camper between the 2 bench seats is maybe 2 1/2 feet wide. Wide enough to walk through when the camper is stationary and the hoses are coiled up on the seats. (Note I say, "HOSES" plural. ALL THREE oxygen machines have equal lengths of hose attached so that no matter which one the man is attached to he can get in and out of the RV to pump gas or help hook up the electric and water when we stop for the night." ). BUT . . . if we are hurling down the road and I need to climb out of my seat and get into the living space I almost ALWAYS find myself wrapped up in the octopus like mass of O2 tubes. I'm forever getting about 2 steps in before I feel the tug on my leg that signals the attack of the hoses. It takes me 10 minutes to untangle myself before I can move on with my mission.
But the absolute worst is in the middle of the night when the bench seats are folded down for sleep and there is only about 8 inches between the beds. I wake up and lay there deciding just how badly I have to pee. Is it really worth the battle of the hoses? Yup, got to go so I SLOWLY swing my feet onto the floor and feel around with my toes to see just where the attack hose is hiding. Sometimes I luck out and find it right away so I can grab it and place it up on top of the man but then there are those other times when either my brain is not fully awake or the hose is lying in wait to attack. I slide my feet slowly forward, feeling no resistance so I move forward and WHAM, I'm brought to a screeching stop tangled beyond belief in the dark and having to pee like a race horse.
At this point I am tempted to grab the hose and wrap it around the sleeping man's neck. So far I have resisted this urge. And so I sit, untangle from the mass of hoses and move on with my mission knowing full well that I have yet to return to the bed without killing myself.
Come morning the man wakes up fully rested and can't understand why I am still so tired. I'd rather her wrestling alligators. At least you can see them!
Sunday, June 2, 2019
BEEP - CHOO CHOO - HONK
Yesterday was a day of unique adventures. First a 5 hour ferry ride in almost total fog and then a ride through one of the most unusual tunnels I have ever experienced. I have been through this tunnel once before back in 2006 when G and I took a train from Fairbanks, AK to Whittier, AK as part of a Land/Sea Alaska cruise. (NO, the boat did not come up on the land, that's just how they refer to touring AK by train and then boat. Silly!) Any way. . . the train travels through some beautiful scenery but the last 10 minutes are the most amazing yet no one realizes it. You must get from one side of the mountains to the other in order to reach the sea. For decades gold miners climbed up and over these massive mountains but then in the very early 1940's someone decided there had to be a better way of doing this so in 1943 this unique tunnel was opened. The tunnel is two and a half miles long, which is not so unusual BUT it is only one car/truck/train width wide and high. The size restrictions are no vehicle higher than 15 feet or wider than 11 feet can get through. It IS large enough for a train to fit but when you think about it, trains really aren't that huge in height or width. There are probably some tractor trailers that would not fit although there are large motor homes driving through. To put it in perspective picture a hamster running through one of those large tomato juice cans. It is not an experience for the faint hearted or anyone who is even mildly claustrophobic . Get would have freaked and would have needed to be sedated and locked in the trunk for the 6 minutes it takes to go through this thing.
At each end of the tunnel there is a large parking area where cars, trucks, mobile homes and other various vehicles that are towing other various vehicles such as boats get to line up and wait for their turn to drive through. Once every hour the traffic is cleared coming from one direction and the opposite end of the tunnel is allowed to drive through. BUT . . .if you are as lucky as we were there will ALSO be a freight train waiting on the tracks next to you and it gets to go through before you. THEN you have to wait an additional 40 minutes while they clear the smoke from the train out of the tunnel with massive vents hidden GOD only knows where inside this amazing creation.
When it is your side of the mountains turn a massive traffic sigh alerts your parking lot to start filing through the teeny tiny opening in the mountain. From the parking area the opening in the mountain doesn't look big enough for a Volkswagen but since you just saw and entire freight train get swallowed up you know your little motor home should and will fit. So when it is your turn the red light in front of your lane turns green and off you go saying 20 Hail Mary's and an Our Father just to make sure. One of the most unique things about this tunnel is that when you are heading toward the entrance you suddenly realize you are merging with the rail road tracks that are now imbedded in the surface of the road so that the journey through the tunnel's one lane is done ON RAIL ROAD TRACKS !
Once inside it is dark and unlike any tunnel you have EVER been through. There are no fancy cement or tile walls like the Lincoln Tunnel in NYC, this is ALASKA so you are actually driving through ROCK. The walls are rock, the ceiling is rock and the floor is rail road tracks in a road. It is wet from the water dripping through the mountain and back in 2017 they had to close the tunnel because of falling rock. (This fact was not known by me before hand but after when I researched this man made gerbil tube I realized that those metal plates on the ceiling about mid way through were probably put there to prevent any more avalanches.
At each end of the tunnel there is a large parking area where cars, trucks, mobile homes and other various vehicles that are towing other various vehicles such as boats get to line up and wait for their turn to drive through. Once every hour the traffic is cleared coming from one direction and the opposite end of the tunnel is allowed to drive through. BUT . . .if you are as lucky as we were there will ALSO be a freight train waiting on the tracks next to you and it gets to go through before you. THEN you have to wait an additional 40 minutes while they clear the smoke from the train out of the tunnel with massive vents hidden GOD only knows where inside this amazing creation.
When it is your side of the mountains turn a massive traffic sigh alerts your parking lot to start filing through the teeny tiny opening in the mountain. From the parking area the opening in the mountain doesn't look big enough for a Volkswagen but since you just saw and entire freight train get swallowed up you know your little motor home should and will fit. So when it is your turn the red light in front of your lane turns green and off you go saying 20 Hail Mary's and an Our Father just to make sure. One of the most unique things about this tunnel is that when you are heading toward the entrance you suddenly realize you are merging with the rail road tracks that are now imbedded in the surface of the road so that the journey through the tunnel's one lane is done ON RAIL ROAD TRACKS !
Once inside it is dark and unlike any tunnel you have EVER been through. There are no fancy cement or tile walls like the Lincoln Tunnel in NYC, this is ALASKA so you are actually driving through ROCK. The walls are rock, the ceiling is rock and the floor is rail road tracks in a road. It is wet from the water dripping through the mountain and back in 2017 they had to close the tunnel because of falling rock. (This fact was not known by me before hand but after when I researched this man made gerbil tube I realized that those metal plates on the ceiling about mid way through were probably put there to prevent any more avalanches.
Saturday, June 1, 2019
TECH SUPPORT PLEASE
I'm a baby boomer who has an iPhone and a MacBook Pro and a Smart TV. (I do NOT have Alexa! I had to draw the line somewhere.) I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to technology but the ROKU TV in the RV, ( that could be a great country western song . . . "The TV in the RV") , this Smart TV has got me feeling pretty stupid.
Consider the Boomer and before generations born before 1950. We were born at a time when the TV picture was Black and White if you had a TV. Families were lucky to have one car, air planes had propellers and kids walked 5 miles up hill to school every day. The phone, (one per house if you were lucky) sat on a table in the living room and you had to stand next to it when you talked because the cord only reached about 2 feet. There were no computers, no rockets to the moon, no internet, cell phones or microwaves. It was a simple world where kids entertained themselves with a bag of marbles and a pink Spalding ball that could bounce as high as your roof. If you wanted to tell your friend something you got on your bike and rode over to their house where their mom would probably invite you to say for dinner. Since you didn't have to be home till the street lights came on you always stayed and then ate again when you got home.
The world has changed drastically for us "Old Timers" and some of us have managed to keep up with many of the changes but since things are "improving" at an alarming rate of speed many of us have just thrown in the towel. Get was a classic example of that. He barely knew how to turn the TV on and as for cell phones . . . well that was just too high tech for him. He did own a small "flip" phone but never knew how to work it. Dwayne is a bit more in tune with technology in that his phone is one step up from a flip phone, (no fancy iPhone for him). If you suggest he get an iPhone he breaks out in a cold sweat. But he does have a very good mind for mechanical things.
Enter the Roku TV . . . We are both totally at a loss when it comes to how this crazy thing works. It seems to have something to do with the internet, we have figured out that much but beyond that we are at a loss. The second or so day out in our RV we decided to give the TV a shot and tried to turn the damn thing on. That should be simple enough but for the life of us we could NOT get it to turn on. I have been told that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over with the hope of getting a different result. WE MUST BE INSANE !! There sat the two of us pointing a remote at a blank screen pushing the same button over and over with no result. After two days of this I got serious and started to try something different. I found a control panel above the TV, Then I discovered that inside a cabinet the TV was not even plugged in. By day 7 we actually were able to get the Smart TV turned on. Now it was a case of figuring out how to actually get something to play on this thing. That only took another 4 days.You should have seen the two of us when we actually got Fox News on the TV. (Naturally 'we' had to check the news before anything else.) From Fox News we managed to get Netflix. Now we were really on a roll! But when it came to trying to find a hockey game it all went to hell. For what ever reason the whole thing just fell apart and we were back to square on with NO TV reception of any kind. Being in a camp ground we had WiFi but for some reason the TV just stopped picking up the signal so it wouldn't connect. Once again the "insanity" began of pointing the remote at the TV and pushing the same button OVER AND OVER with hopes of a different result. I finally got wild and crazy and decided to think outside the box. Remembering how every time I call the cable company at home with a problem the first thing they tell you to do is UNPLUG the TV. Then UNPLUG the router and UNPLUG the modem. Since we are in an RV I had no idea if we had modems or routers so I just started un plugging and turning off EVERYTHING ! Unfortunately turning off the heat, refrigerator and the microwave had no impact on the TV. BUT turning off a switch on the TV control panel and unplugging the TV resulted in our regaining a connection just in time to catch Fox News just before D fell asleep. He missed the victory dance I did around the camper but I did it anyway.
Sadly we had to pack up this morning and leave that camp ground so we will ge to go through all this once again when we get to our next stop. Maybe he will catch my dance then.
Consider the Boomer and before generations born before 1950. We were born at a time when the TV picture was Black and White if you had a TV. Families were lucky to have one car, air planes had propellers and kids walked 5 miles up hill to school every day. The phone, (one per house if you were lucky) sat on a table in the living room and you had to stand next to it when you talked because the cord only reached about 2 feet. There were no computers, no rockets to the moon, no internet, cell phones or microwaves. It was a simple world where kids entertained themselves with a bag of marbles and a pink Spalding ball that could bounce as high as your roof. If you wanted to tell your friend something you got on your bike and rode over to their house where their mom would probably invite you to say for dinner. Since you didn't have to be home till the street lights came on you always stayed and then ate again when you got home.
The world has changed drastically for us "Old Timers" and some of us have managed to keep up with many of the changes but since things are "improving" at an alarming rate of speed many of us have just thrown in the towel. Get was a classic example of that. He barely knew how to turn the TV on and as for cell phones . . . well that was just too high tech for him. He did own a small "flip" phone but never knew how to work it. Dwayne is a bit more in tune with technology in that his phone is one step up from a flip phone, (no fancy iPhone for him). If you suggest he get an iPhone he breaks out in a cold sweat. But he does have a very good mind for mechanical things.
Enter the Roku TV . . . We are both totally at a loss when it comes to how this crazy thing works. It seems to have something to do with the internet, we have figured out that much but beyond that we are at a loss. The second or so day out in our RV we decided to give the TV a shot and tried to turn the damn thing on. That should be simple enough but for the life of us we could NOT get it to turn on. I have been told that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over with the hope of getting a different result. WE MUST BE INSANE !! There sat the two of us pointing a remote at a blank screen pushing the same button over and over with no result. After two days of this I got serious and started to try something different. I found a control panel above the TV, Then I discovered that inside a cabinet the TV was not even plugged in. By day 7 we actually were able to get the Smart TV turned on. Now it was a case of figuring out how to actually get something to play on this thing. That only took another 4 days.You should have seen the two of us when we actually got Fox News on the TV. (Naturally 'we' had to check the news before anything else.) From Fox News we managed to get Netflix. Now we were really on a roll! But when it came to trying to find a hockey game it all went to hell. For what ever reason the whole thing just fell apart and we were back to square on with NO TV reception of any kind. Being in a camp ground we had WiFi but for some reason the TV just stopped picking up the signal so it wouldn't connect. Once again the "insanity" began of pointing the remote at the TV and pushing the same button OVER AND OVER with hopes of a different result. I finally got wild and crazy and decided to think outside the box. Remembering how every time I call the cable company at home with a problem the first thing they tell you to do is UNPLUG the TV. Then UNPLUG the router and UNPLUG the modem. Since we are in an RV I had no idea if we had modems or routers so I just started un plugging and turning off EVERYTHING ! Unfortunately turning off the heat, refrigerator and the microwave had no impact on the TV. BUT turning off a switch on the TV control panel and unplugging the TV resulted in our regaining a connection just in time to catch Fox News just before D fell asleep. He missed the victory dance I did around the camper but I did it anyway.
Sadly we had to pack up this morning and leave that camp ground so we will ge to go through all this once again when we get to our next stop. Maybe he will catch my dance then.
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