Time is flying. Can't imagine why.

Lots are happening. Not very exciting though. We have company coming to visit the end of April, Amy from EMF has a meeting in TX so she is spending a weekend with us. We are excited about the visit to come. We will be taking her up to the Dallas area for her meeting and we will proceed from there on to Bristol for the summer. So our migration is about to start. One big problem with our life style is dealing with mail. When we headed out of CA we did not have an address to get mail delivered to. Mindy said we could use their address. I did a change of address to her address and for the past year she has been receiving mail for us. I know it has to get old. One year has passed and she still is getting our mail and now we have two other addresses where mail can arrive. It is hard to get it when you are not there. We paid a large amount of money to the USPS to forward our mail once a week to Mindy for 6 months as we did not have an address in Bristol to send it to. Anyway we have finally signed up for a mail forwarding service for full time rv'ers. It is a sweet solution that is about half the cost of USPS. Having an address to get mail and have it forwarded to us is only the tip of the iceberg when dealing with the problem. We have mail coming to 3 addresses that needs to go to one address. This requires an address change take place. So I set out to tackle this problem. So far I have spent days on this and am about 2/3rds the way done as best I can tell. Identifying all the mail and potential mail we get and then finding out what is required to change the address and getting it done is quite the chore. Most are now changable thru the internet. However to do this you have to have an account on the internet for each entity. So I have been taking care of business and having to keep track of every where I have been so I can do it again should the need exist. I think I could write a book on the subject of changing addresses. My list got so long of addresses to change that I ended up sub dividing the list to make it more managable. I ended up with 3 priorities for getting the address changed. P1 had all currently active accounts/subscriptions etc and TX specific items. P2 was TN specific items. I figure I could change these later as we are headed there soon so we can access the mail box. Note our friend Ken has been taking care of our mail box there. P3 is items that we still get mail from but are no longer active entities, like AARP, Good Neighbor Sam, etc. We have not renewed our relatonships with these folks but continue to receive mail monthly from them trying to get us to renew. AARP has been doing this for over a year now. You would think they would get a clue, especially since I sent them a note saying I disagree with their position on health care coverage and would not be renewing. I think they have spent more in postage then it cost to join. I guess they would have been better off just renewing our membership for free. NOTE to AARP, read your return mail. I really don't know what to do about this category as changing the address may make them think I am interested in getting their mail. Sorry Mindy I think those items may keep hitting your box for awhile longer. Just pitch it. After several days, I have one more p1 item to get changed and I even have a few P2 items done. I am tired of this project but it must be done, so I press on but the pase is slowing as the more challenging ones are facing me. I feel procrastination pressing in all around me, I must resist. We had a water leak in TX in the kitchen. The drain pipe in the kitchen sink popped apart and I was running the dish washer. Most of the water actually got down the drain but enough didn't so the cabinet constructed of particle board got a bit mushy. The cabinet was ordered but never got to the house. It finally arrived and today we are getting our new cabinet put in. Finally! Cam comes over today so this will present a challenge as he likes to go to the kitchen and climb into the cabinets that are empty. Yes empty. We have empty cabinets that are a fertle play ground for Cam. So today I must get creative and block the kitchen. I just love a challenge. So it is about time for me to wake up and get busy preparing for our Cam visit. I have this part almost down pat. Raise window shades so Cam doesn't pull on them. Block off the pantry area where Cam could get into stuff we don't want him to, like Lizzie's food and water, not to mention our trash can. Sweep the floors to make sure there is nothing for him to stuff into his mouth. Close off rooms that are not child proof. Like grandma and grandpa's bedroom. Too many old people pills in that room. We love Cam's visits, he is so much fun. I really enjoy nap time as well. Cam naps and grandpa naps. Naps are good. I have rambled enough for having nothing going on. I hope to be more interesting in the next post.

Happy Birthday to Ed today?

Stock market down 250+ points
Nuke plants in Japan are in the process of self destructing
US economy is in the toilet and the flush plunger is half way down while Washington points fingers at each other instead addressing the REAL problem.
One person is addressing the problem and now the unions are waging war on him.
.....
Oh, wait, Cam is coming over. Yee ha, fun day. I'll deal with the above ya hoo's later!

Good day in Austin. Lovely weather.

Hay, we did a little running today and came home. A couple of days ago we purchased a long picture frame that looks like a film strip and you put pictures in each frame of the film. The images for one of them was 1.5 inches by 2 inches so I had to create a sheet of picture paper with a bunch of shrunk down pictures on them. It turned out cute. All Cameron. The second one was like a film strip only the frames are 4x6 images. A lot easier to setup. Yep all Cameron. Both strips are hanging in our family room. Really cute.

Then I decided to make egg salad again. Boiled a dozen eggs. Lost one that cracked during the boiling. Had a nice eggsalid on toast for dinner. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Cleaned up some of the junk laying around the house now that my pictures are mostly done. We have one frame that holds like 18 4x6 pictures. We have to decide what we will put in it. Maybe different homes or something like that.

Made for a satisifying day. Pictures of the pictures to follow. Maybe a quick video. What do you think?

I suspect my ways will never change.

What is up with that?

So much is happening in the world. People of Japan are trashed by an earthquake and Tsunami. Now the nuke plants are close to melting down. I was listening to the reporting and thinking why they don’t have backup generators and battery systems to take care of the cooling. As it turns out they do have that. So what happened to the systems? I guess a wall of water pushing its way through the facility would cause some damage. It is so hard to consider the amount of force associated with a wall of water. The video footage is so hard to comprehend. My prayers are with them.

Then you see the union thugs brought in to praise the demo's who abandoned their posts because they did not want allow the democratic process to proceed forward. Think about this. The unions that state government belong to spend millions to put the governor in or keep a person out of the office. They end up being the dictator of the state government. How does that fit with standing up for the employees of the state? They, as best I can tell, don't represent the political positions of the majority of the union members. They are allowed to compound this situation when you can't work for the state government unless you belong to the union. If you don't have to belong to the union in some states, you are still required to contribute union dues. How is that for a funding source? Then if I heard correctly, the dues are paid for the union members by the state in some cases. So the union has guaranteed funding, and don't have to account to the members for their activities. They can put into office whomever they want that will best serve their positions with regard to politics. Sweet deal that smells rotten to me. After spending 35 years in a state where the teachers union controlled the governor’s office no matter who was in the office, I believe it is time for what Wisconsin is doing. Wake up America, our political machine is broken badly and it is about to destruct the very fabric of our society.

I would love to know how many of the people in Wisconsin protesting are from Wisconsin. Union's need new rules to run under. Do we really need unions for putlic employees?

Can I improve? Let's see.

Well March 1st is here. Time is flying. It is about time for the Blue Bonnet's and Indian paint brush to show if last year is typical. I am looking forward to shooting pictures again. Things have been brown and blah for the past couple of months. Rain has been minimal, I am hoping this doesn't keep them from showing up.

We made an appointment to visit the dentist and that all went well. I found, though, that I have a significant change in attitude that has happened. I don't like to have appointments. Having something I have to do by a certain time is an irritation. All our lives we have lived by appointments daily. You have this that must be done and that etc.
So why is it that having appointments are now irritating? I just don't understand how this could be so different in such a short time.

My little buddy on the other hand is a blast. He is so cute and I am sure he is making my days go so fast. I love watching him change daily. He is learning and at such a fast pace. I finally put child proof locks on the kitchen cabinets to keep him out of trouble. We have one cabinet that he likes to open the doors and climb into. So cute.

Linda and I are starting to explore a little more now that things are slowing around the house. We went to the airport. I have a favorite picture that I shot several years ago in Sac at the airport. It was a 737 Southwest Jet coming in for a landing. It was at about 500 feet and I shot a picture out my car window. The jet is set against a beautiful blue CA sky. I want more pictures like this, so I am scoping out the Austin Airport. I found two runrays and have a good picture shooting spot for one of them. I need to find a good spot for the longer runway. I hope to shoot some pictures soon. Will post some when I finally get them.

As we watch the world in chaos, including our country, you can't help but think about Christ's return. So much happening and earth quakes, some in places you don't really expect them to be. Is the end of the world at hand?

Hello, My name is Ed

So there is a pattern here and instead of getting better, my detarmination to update seems to be worse than ever.
I have been working hard to make our house a home here in TX. The guest room is in good shape now. It even has a mirror on the wall. No pictures yet but soooooon. My printer is working now and I have been printing and mounting pictures on the walls. 13x19 to 2x3 sizes. The bed in the guest room is reported to be one of the most comfortable beds. Mom and Dad loved the bed.
There is a make shift TV that at present that can only display what is on the DVR in the master bedroom. So limited selection. Mostly Fox Friends etc.
The Garage is actually getting straightened out, and at some point I think we could put 2 cars in it. But we only have one car so if you drive to visit us you can put your car in the garage.
It is fun putting personal pictures on the walls. We had our house staged so long in CA, like 3 or 4 years, that generic images on the wall becamse the norm.
Projects seem to stay in front of me, I am puting up window dressings at present. Famly room is done with valances only. The master bedroom will have curtains which are laying over a chair in front of me. The rod is standing in the corner. Soon to be on teh wall. Now if I could only figure out how to get the wrinkles out. Maybe I will lay them on the floor and run the steamer over them. What do you think? Good idea... Bad idea...

Attic my third home.....

Ya know, I would think that builders these days would be savy about computers. They use them daily. So why is it that they don't put in network wiring when they do the phone and coax wiring? Do they assume that everything will work using wireless. NOT!! I have just spent the past two weeks crawling around the attic through the mounds of cotton, identifing where wires, water pipes, wall headers and the like.

This house had no wiring to speak of, there were three wires sticking out of the bricks outside to bring telephone into the house. Two were cat5 and one was cat who knows. The cat5 wires went to phone jacks in the kitchen and the master bedroom. There were 4 coax lines there as well, one to each bedroom and the entertainment center. When AT&T installed our DSL service they put a box on the house and terminated the three wires for phone service.

After hours on the phone with AT&T, I ended up with the DSL modem connected to the phone line in the kitchen. Centrally located yes, good place, NO.

From the kitchen, I proceed to string up wires using pvc utility poles to provide network access to the various areas that I needed service. Bedroom, Family room both ends, master bedroom.
Along with these wires I decided to put my dvr security cameras up to evaluate the location I wanted to place cameras. So now my home is starting to look like a ruarl road with wires running everywhere.

There are lots of devices that want to chat on the internet for updates etc., not to mention my computers. I decided to make my network center in the master closet. It is where the security alarm system is centered and there is a phone line there so I can connect the DSL modem. Behind this wall is the family room entertainment center. Also this was the place I determend I wanted my security cameras. They can see the entry doors front and back.

I cut a hole 14+ x 14+ inches for the wiring box for my network. I got a good look at the dropped ceiling area over the entertainment center. It was a nice area wide open for wiring. I took advantage of that and installed 4 network drops in the entertainment area. I could also mount my cameras and run the wires through this area. A great start for networking.

It took two days to get my dsl modem to work correctly in the closet. I ended disconnecting the wires running to the kitchen and master bedroom to get the service stabilized. While I was at it I tied the wires from the kitchen and master bedroom together to use as a network drop between the two. One of those, I did it because I could, for no particular reason.

After several weeks of having wires strung around the house with pvc pipe holding them out of the way of a certain grandson and some old folks shuffeling feet, It was finally time to get wires in the walls and disassemble my temporary wiring.

I scanned for studs in the walls, I think I used two batteries in this process. I was amazed and dumbfounded to find fireblocks between every stud. This is not normal where I lived for 35 years. I finally decided to drive over to another community where my builder was actively building. I wanted to see what a house in the tooth pick stage looked like. Maybe it would answer some questions. I found one and jumped out of the car and camera in hand started snapping pictures. I was half way throu the house before I realized that the floor plan was our house. I slowed down and started taking more detailed pictures. Since these are cookie cutter houses, I figured it would be worth while.

Early the next morning, like 4 AM. I was going thru the pictures using an application that allowed me to quickly zoom to 100% and even 400% size. I was evaluating the structure. The more I saw the more I wondered if I could get wires inside the walls in some places. I finally had a plan in my head and had made enough trips to Lowes, Home Depot and Frys to collect enough stuff to do the job, I THOUGHT.

My plan, after consulting friends around the country, was to place some plywood flooring around the attic so I could make many trips with ease. I purchased 4 4x8 sheets of ply wood and had them ripped into 2 x 8 sheets. It took me one whole day to get all that into the attic. I was thinking 16 inch centers and 8 feet long would work well. I then found out that our house is built with 24" centers, not 16". I proceded to rip the 8 foot boards to 4 feet. A lot easier to manage when in the attic.

I took a simple broom and started moving the insulation out of the way. New problems arrise. Power wires run over the top. Putting plywood down would pinch the wires, I was not going to do that. So back to the hardware store. I picked up some strips of wood to place on the rafters so the wires would be protected. Now I start laying my yellow brick road. Very slow going. lots of hazards along the way. Can lights in the kitchen were the first. I had to shift my path about 12 feet into the process when I ran into an AC duct. Fortunately the AC ducts are attached to the rafters so I could go under them. Several days later, I finally reached my primary destination, the closet in the master bedroom. I had already cut a hole in the wall and mounted a box to hold all my nice wires.

Another handy recommendation from my cool friends was to poke a wire through the ceiling where I needed to run wiring. This worked great. I put 4 wires through and when I got into the attic I started spotting the wires. It made my job of finding wall headers and drilling a lot easier.
The work begun but still I was concurned about the ability to get wires down the walls with cross bracing. My first hole was into my box. No problem there as the box is mounted at the ceiling.

Now the fun begins. The easiest wire to run is in Cameron's room. It backs up to the master closet. I cut a hole in the wall to mount a low voltage wiring frame. I sat a lamp next to the hole hoping that when I drill the hole in the attic I would see light. I stretch over from my yellow brick road and drill a hole in the header. Light was visible, but not directly. The stud in the wall half way up was there. I figured I would have to use a long drill bit extension to drill through the block. I put it in the wall but never hit the stud. This was baffeling as I expected it to be 4 feet below me. My drill shaft was 5' long. I pulled it out and then put in a rod that was 10' long. it went down until I had 2 fee showing. I was at the floor. I put my wire down the hole and it went down 8'. Piece of cake.

Now the challenging holes were to come. Across the family room where my computer desk is setup and down the wall in the master bedroom is for the tv in there. The master bedroom has 3 walls which are outside. Fire breaks and insulation for sure. The 4th wall is full of doors and other stuff. After studying the pictures above, I though I may have a chance in the corner of the inside wall but it meets a hip joint in the roof so space would be limited. I pre-cut holes in the walls for the wire termination, made my way across the attic to the remote areas using temporary plywood steps and was able to get the wires down the walls. It is amazing how the insulation seems shallower then before I started.

It took days but finally I was able to tear down my utility poles in the house. I have one more drop to pull in the guest bedroom. I have two more security cameras to install for the outside so my work is on going.

The house is returning to normal slowly and now I can start thinking about my next mission, should I choose to accept it!

Longer between post. How can it BE.

Hay, now that everyone has given up I can post here and no one will know.
We are back in Texas. It was a smooth trip. Since we had a lot of stuff from the Pod that needed to get to Texas, I had to rent a trailer and tow it back with the RV. This meant that the Ford got a break in not having to be towed, but Linda had to take on a long drive. It took us 3 days to make the journey. Wellllll, not really. We left in the late afternoon on a Thursday, like 3PM. We got to Nashville and kicked back in a road side rest area. I pulled between a bunch of semi's. I left the parking lights on so a semi would see us between the trucks. It was a dark night. Unfortunately I did one other thing that I did not think about. I left the key in the ignition. Most vehicles this is not an issue. In the RV when the key enters the ignition there are a number of things that take place. Anyway by morning the lights were dim. Dim enough to keep the engine from starting. I started the generator so it could start charging the battery. I don't have jumper cables. Evidently they departed my company in the move, like so many things have. Anyway we ended up calling AAA and waiting for a jump. By the time he got there we had been charging for a couple of hours. I was just about to try to start the engine when AAA arrived. He used a little hand held battery to jump us and it worked. So we didn't get on the road until about 8AM. We traveled thru the rest of TN and into AR. Most of the day was spent there. Along the way, a log hauling semi that was empty entered the freeway at a high rate of speed, whiped into the lane in front of me and was dumping all knids of wood chips. They were bouncing all over the road and off the RV. Along the way, the truck kicked up a rock that smacked the windshield. Yep, left a small crack.
We wrapped up the day in Texarcana, TX. We found a KOA campground and checked in for the night. Texarcana is being rebuilt all around Interstate 30 so we had to find our way to the campground, not and easy thing. We spent the night which was great after a night in the Road side rest area.
All refreshed, we headed out about 9AM and made our way to Austin. I immediately started unloading the trailer. First thing was I found a small dead mouse under the trailer door. I wondered what that cat in TN was doing diging at the door of the trailer before we left. I thought it was about the mouse that I found in the trailer after I had loaded it. I suspected the cat had put it there. It didn't take long to unload, but back in the trailer I found several little mice, all dead. I was getting suspicious. The couch we brought to TX had been in the garage for several months. I checked it over before putting it in the trailer and didn't see anything. So I got rid of the mice. I tried to get rid of the trailer but it was just after closing at the drop location. UHaul said they had a night drop. How d0 you night drop a trailer and know it won't be ripped off? So I held on to it. Next day we had some shopping to do, so we went to Sams Club and got several large items since I had the trailer. We went to load the stuff and guess what I found in the trailer when I opened the door? Yep! We loaded everything took it home.
Anyway that was our trip. It was great seeing the kids and Cameron had grown so much. he was a kick. We have had time to take care of Cameron a few days. He is a lot more work these days but such a joy. He is such a happy boy. NO BIAS applied, he is the best grandson ever.

We have been working on making our house a home and are really close to being there. We finally have internet which really makes us feel in touch. Unfortunately there are no network wires in the house so I am working on plans to install wiring in the house. I will soon be in the attic drilling holes and running wires. So many pieces of equipment need access to the network, TV, Blue Ray, Sat Ctlr, etc. Family room, bedroom, etc. Just don't understand why they don't do that while building. So much easier at that time.

One thing got lost in the move from TN to TX, my camera. I could not believe I would forget that. I brought the tripod, monopod, even the caring case for the tripod. I could not use the tripod or monopod as the heads were in the camera case. I looked all over and the camera was not here. I went to the storage lot and checked the RV twice. I finally looked at the security video at TN and could not see the camera sitting where I normally put it. I finally figured I had left it in the van in TN, that was the only place it could be. I remembered seeing it there just after Dave Smith's visit to TN. I also remembered thinking I need to remember to get this out of the car before we head out. I figured I had left it there. Ken picked up the mail in TN and gave a call while taking it to the house. After dealing with mail, I asked Ken to check the van. To my surprise it wasn't there. He then checked the rest of the house and no camera. It was fun watching him look for it as I connected to the security system. I finally bought a new camera as I had kind of planned on doing that anyway, but I was not happy at the loss. I finally went back to the rv and checked again. I found the camera. It had slipped behind a chair and it was so dark I could not see it there. I didn't see it even this time when I checked. I finally stuck my hand back there and there it was. Black case in the shadows! Still I am happy to have found it.

Well here we are. I have been off work since Oct 9th last year, so one year already. As of the week of Christmas we will have been out of our home in CA for a year. That will be soon. Then early Jan, 2011 Linda will have been off work for a year. Then Jan 20th or there abouts we will have been out of CA for a year. WOW! lot's of anniversaries for us.

The sad part is we miss all our friends we haven't seen for a year. We pray you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We do have guest rooms in TX and TN. They have comfortable new beds. We would love to have you visit.

Fall without falling.

Well, we are seeing Fall all around. Trees are changing daily. Still slight in Bristol but up in the mountains, things are well on the way. We visited a place called Grandfathers mountain. It was a beautiful place. We got to the top of the mountain and found a swinging bridge one mile above sea level. Only about 80 feet above the ground though. You can see for miles. It least that seems to be the case. My sister and brother-in-law came down for the weekend, they arrived Friday evening and we went out all day Saturday visiting the beautiful Fall colors and mountains. They left this morning at 7AM. So a whirl wind visit, but a lot of fun. We went sight seeing with Ken, Teddy, Wayne, Kathy, Linda, Lizzie and myself. That was a care full of fun.
I have been installing a camera security system in the house. Three out of 4 cameras have been installed and wires run. Only one more camera to install and some power and network lines to run to finish the physical installation. Then I have to figure out how to get the images out the firewall. Seems small boxes end up being big projects. I have a couple more boxes out in the garage that will be projects soon. Then there is the yard!
A retirees' work is never done? Is that a saying??????

5:30 AM up since 3:00 Doggie had to go out.

Well we had a busy weekend. We took a drive Friday to cement that I knew how to get to some of the places we have been over the past several weeks. Then Saturday we went to the Apple festival in Erwin TN, The place was packed. We topped of the Erwin trip with a stop in Jonesboro TN at a quilting shop. We had Breakfast at Pardners in Piney Flats and then Lunch in Jonesboro. Jonesoro has quite a history. It was the capitol of the State of Franklin. Did you know we had a state called Franklin? Named after Ben Franklin. It emcompased Eastern TN, part of Western NC, and Part of Western VA, maybe even some of Eastern KY. Jonesboro was the first town, and so it is the oldest town in TN.
After church today, Linda and I drove out a road we had not traveled and found a beautiful park with a busy stream running by. It has lots of mini rapids. I need to return and take some pictures.
Then we stopped at subway and picked up lunch and headed home so I could watch the Nascar race. We missed the first few laps but caught most of it. Hay a Ford won. That doesn't happen much lately. I don't understand why though. There were some interesting dynamics starting to play out on the track with the drivers in the chase. Trend starting????? Huh Nascar???

Companies coming. Kathy and Wayne are coming this next weekend and at the end of the month Dave from CA is heading here. Love having company. Room's a waiting.

Lots to get done here so I have to knuckle down and getter done!
TTFN~ed

Hi, I am Ed. ... It has been a long LOOOOng time.

Well we have been busy. My mom and dad stopped by on the way back to Florida and spent a couple of days. It was great spending time with them. We have continued our quest to get the house basically completed. The den is looking lots better. It will be the last to complete, I'm sure. We picked up a couple of area rugs for the great room. One in the family area and the other under the table. Lizzie has given this her whole hearted approval. Running on wood floors is tough for a dog. She streatched out on the carpet and rolled around. She is a happy doggie.
My workshop in the basement is finally shaping up and I have been working on computers for the past 2-3 weeks. My sister's computer died while mom and dad were there so they brought it by. I have it rebuilt with a new hard drive. Strangest hard drive failure I have experienced. Drive spins up but doesn't respond like a drive. I suspect circuit card failed.
I fired up my test computes two of which were loaded with pre-release Windows 7. So the update time had expired. I had to re-install the OS on both systems. My multimedia system is getting close to functional with some strange recovery problems and my multi-touch table system is back together. Now I have to build a table again. I trashed my table I was building in CA. I broke my home grown first serface mirror while packing and as we got the pod loaded it was clear that there was no room for the table. I pulled it apart and it ended up in the trash. All that experience was all I brought with me and the projector.
My R1900 large format printer is not loving the move and i am having trouble getting it cleared out and printing. I need some cartridges and none are available locally so I guess I need to order some online.
Linda's computer from CA is being a problem, so I am trying to fix it. I updated drivers on the mother board from the MFG (MSI) and went from bad to worse. The sound was not working. Now the onboard sound, onboard video, and onboard network are not working.
I have a mother board from Fry's I had purchased several months before we moved and tried to use it but the Pentium D processor would not work in it. So..... I ordered another processor from Tiger direct and hope to get it working so I can get Linda on line with sound.
I have been having a bug problem in the basement not related to the PC's that are full of bugs.
It stated with worms coming in and having to clean them up every morning. I used foam sealer everywhere I could find and the worms were gone. Now I am having crickets by the bucket load. I found that the mat I put outside the door on the grass, was a breading ground for them. It seems that the area is having more crickets than old time locals have ever seen. They were coming under the door. I adjusted the door jam up to seal better but they are still getting in but only a few each day. I sprayed all around the basement for bugs. Got a few spiders who decided thay didn't like the spray so they have been showing up belly up. Now I see that stink bugs are in abundance this year. I have only seen two or three outside.
Now for the yard. Or should I say the weed garden. The front yard is all weeds. I sprayed a weed killer a couple of weeks ago and it killed the weeds. Guess what, No green exist in the front yard after that. The back yard has only a few weeds and I sprayed it. It looks much better. I have a mess for sure. I need to get out there.
I have a camera system I bought to put in the house. It will allow me to monitor the house over the internet which will be great when we are gone. It will send emails along with pictures when motion takes place. I turned it on and got a couple hundred emails in about 6 hours. I think it works. Now I have to install it. THE HARD PART.
Ken, Carmen and Linda and I went to DollyWood. That is a great park. We really loved it. Awesome music groups and shows. Steam train ride that is really cool and a bold eagle bird of prey recovery facility. Carmen and I topped it off with a wood roller coaster ride. We headed to local communities that Linda and I remembered as kids. They look a lot different now. Grown up these past 40+ years. Serierville and Gatlinburg areas. There was an old car evet going on in Gatlinburg. We crawled down the main strip and thousands of people were sitting along the road watching the activity. Every parking lot was full of old cars and muscle cars. Ken and I were drooling all along the way. We wrapped up our day with dinner at 10PM in Johnson City.
The same weekend was an event in Bristol called Rhythm and Roots Reunion. This is a full weekend of bluegrass. Bluegrass has it roots in Bristol. We attended the event Saturday until after midnight and then Sunday after church until it ended at 6pm. As with the Nascar event they shut down State Street, the VA, TN state line road and set up venue's on side streets, in theaters, and in local shops. There were lots of groups of verious tallent performing. It was a great weekend.
This past Tuesday, after bible study, Ken and I went to a Bluegrass jam session that is around the corner from Bristol Motor Speedway. The place only holds bout 30 people. It was awesome. Different people show up there and they just jam. Some professional players and others new to music like one young man who is in high school was playing. It was really fun being there and listening to the music and having people share their tallents like that. All accustic instruments. Ken pointed out how as people left as the night wore on that the accustics of the room changed and got crisper. When we arrived I noticed the bass was very soft and almost hard to hear and it was only 10 feet from me. By the evening the bass was crisp, rich and vibrant.
Along with all the other computer stuff I am trying to get going, I purchased a program to identify duplicate files so I can clean up my pictures and file system in general. It found that my notebook had about 60 percent of the files duplicated, some several times. I am cleaning that up in the mornings for an hour or two before I get out of bed. I have a long way to go. Thousands of files are duplicated.
So if you have seen Collin's post on FaceBook of the picture of Lizzie and I crashed out on the couch with surround sound and remotes and drink you will understand that it was a well deserved nap!

Lots to share. Still getting it together.

Well, LouAnn spent a weekend with us. It was great having her here.
We continue the quest of making our house a home. Linda has been working on the Den. It actually has the floor open. Things are appearing on shelves and it won't be long before it is functional. At least it will be when I rebuild her computer. It seems to have an issue that developed prior to moving out of our CA house. It is time to resolve the issue... As soon as the basement is ready, YEA that's it.
Speaking of the basement, I finally finished out the extra circuit I had run. It only had one plug in the basement, so while having the circuit run for the rv, I had them pull another circuit for the basement. There are two drops, so I have a 20 amp circuit to run my computers on. While I was at it I picked up a couple of light fixtures and mounted them. the basement has 4 individual light bulbs in the celing. One switch down in the basement to turn them on. Strange arrangement. I added a florscent light fixture and replaced an indivigual bulb fixture with a three light arrangement that is directional. I have also run some more wires up through the wall into the master bedroom and the family room so we have more options for our tv viewing and computer stuff. Seems that a number of devices require network connectivity in the tv area these days.
I also did a tour of duty in the Attic over the garage. Fortunately there is an entrance to the attic in the garage. No insulation so it is relatively easy to get there. At my age and conditioning, attic's and easy are not something that belong in the same sentence.
I put a full sized antenna in the attic. Spreading out the radials amongst the rafters was an expierence. I pulled a coax and a computer network wire through the wall in the garage to make connections. the coax for the antenna and the cat6 wire to drop a network connection to my computer in our family room. That little project is still in the works. Not as easy as I had hoped. Yep another trip to the attic. Should be cooler in the next couple of days. Maybe I can spend a few more hours up there without having to come down and cool off as often.
So it has been a busy time since our last blog. We are expecting more company, the sheets are clean, so make your way here and we will enjoy some hugs and a good time. Hope to add some pictures before long. Time for the second half of my nights sleep. Good night.

Yep another week has passed.

Well we have had a busy time. Lots going on. We made major progress on the house. The place is finally relatively un-cluttered. We have pictures on some of the walls, we have the place organized so it can be lived in. The guest room is ready and already used once. My mom and dad arrived from Florida and spent the night on the way to Cincinnati. It was a stressful trip for them but they arrived ok and we were able to go to dinner and spend an evening together. We had breakfast the next morning and then they headed to Cincinnati. This trip for them went much smoother which was great.

We continued to work on the house and today Linda got the den organized and almost totally cleaned up. I continued to work on wiring for the computers and was able to get a good rough system working. The Dish network controller and our Sony blue ray player are connected to the net now which enables us to keep our video options open. We signed up for netflix and watched a movie this evening over the internet. The wiring is kind of convoluted but works well at this point. Lots of wire splits but hay it works.

Our magic jack is working but not well as it is on a wireless computer. I hope to get it running better shortly. Just have to figure out more wiring.

Well, company is coming so back to work. Busy weekend with LouAnn Lee in town doing a concert at our church. She is recording in Nashville this week. It will be good to see her again.

Later, Mr Ed.

Truck Parade (2)

Now What?

Hi there. Once again, days go by and you hear nothing from me. I think we have established a pattern. For blogging it isn't good. Oh well maybe I will change my ways after we get settled.

Lots to talk about. Our basement is still empty. Even emptier (is this a word?) than before. I decided to epoxy the floor. Well my friend Herb pulled a Walker on me, long story I will get to some day, he told me about epoxy and the benefits of it on garage and basement floors. So I slow down a bit more with the move in plans because I am now going to do the floor and the time to do it is when there is nothing on it. So we made many trips to the local hardware stores to find all the stuff needed to allow me to make the floor nice. What a lot of effort. So far I have etched the floor to get it ready for epoxy. I had two gallons of etch which should have been enough. NOT. I had to go get anoter gallon. An all day event. Now it is drying. After I did the etching and was almost done, a thunder storm came through, then another and another. It is raining every day which is good for the locals. It has been dry. But the humidity has gretly slowed the drying floor. There are no drains in the basement so the gallons I put down had to be vacuumed up. New wet vac. Maybe today I will be able to put down the epoxy and wait for seveal more days for that to dry before I can start organizing stuff down there. I need to get it out of the garage so I can pull in the cars and we can stay dry when we get home from being out. OH wait, i am going to epoxy the garage as well. More days waiting. At least I don't have to suck it up. Just shove it out the door.
Now to continue. I have my wiring sorted out and now have no place for phones. I converted all wire runs to ethernet for computers. So what there is of it, it is working. I have a few more run's to make to get everything working. I need to run ethernet to my blue ray player so I can watch web content through the player. Wireless is working on it but wired would be better. So far my attempts to put a wire through the wall in the family room have failed. I used a 3/8's in long drill bit to drill up from the basement. First pass it went in perfect through all the layers and into a box already in the wall. I was so happy. Then I figured out that the hole was not big enough to pull a coax through so I did what any self respecting do it yourselfer does. I put the drill bit back in the hole and proceeded to try and grind out the hole so it would take a bigger wire. MISTAKE, the drill bit broke off in the wall and it is plugging the hole. Now I have another mess to figure out. Another delay getting the sat dish mounted in a more permenant location. That project is on hold for the basement floor at present. Drilling holes from the basement create mess. I need the floor clean soooooo.

While waiting for the floor to dry down below, I decided we need to pick up some of the furniture we had to part with in CA. End tables, book cases, computer desk's and the like. Well i am going simple( interpreted cheap ) and got furniture that has to be put together. So yesterday I was on a roll. I got two end tables with drawers, a book case, a pantry cabinet, a metal shelf system for a closet, and a computer desk put together. That was the easy part, now I have a garage full of trash that needs to be processed, ripped, cut, compressed and in the trash. And yes, I am going green and will put the cardboard in a recycle facility. Green, right? NOT, It just keeps me from filling up my can so I can't get real trash in it.

Now while I was getting wires to work, I was setting up stuff. Like Linda's computer on a computer stand I brought from CA. Yep one made it from the garage to here. I also setup my disk farm that has 1TB of stuff on it. It came by way of our van.. It was stored in the well under the back seats. It fired up and took some time but was running. I have been able to reference it from my notebook and all was well. WAS. I did not have it plugged into the UPS unit yet. While etching the floor and having thunder storm go through, we had a power failure and then another with in seconds and then another one a couple of minutes later. It lasted all of about 60 seconds. Before I could get upstairs to disconnect it. So it crapped out. It would not start. Yesterday I finally got to a point I was going to open it up and see if I could do anything to get it going and I pressed a switch that you are not supposed to hit. It was taped on one position. I started to press it and the box went off and then sprang t0o life. I saw it doing something, I wasn't sure what. Maybe that switch would reset the unit to factory new. I figured all would be lost. I sat down at my notebook and pinged the unit. It responded. Progress!!!! It still was not talking in a normal tone of voice. I continued building furniture and later in the day the unit was responding normally again. All my data was there! Yep, lucked out. It is now on the UPS. I hope to capture the data to some other drive before I turn it off again. I suspect the unit is almost toast and the company went bankrupt several years back. New plan needs to come together on this one but hopefully later.

Yesterday Lizzie got a new dew, her first in Bristol. The groomer is just up the street from Bristol Motor Speedway. This week is Nascar at Bristol again. So the environment is starting to change there. Lots of rv's, motorhomes, temp camp grounds, people showing up from everywhere. I got a call yesterday and my friend received two tickets to the Nationwide series race for Friday night. Guess where I am going. Friday is my first day off in some time. YeeHa.
So I better get busy and do something today. Time keeps ticking.

Time keeps on slippin into the future...

Well, we are still moving in. Still a big mess. We got rid of so much stuff. Now we find we have stuff with no where to put it. We need stuff to hold stuff. Stuff everywhere but where stuff should be. So we move forward slowly getting things done. No particular order other than to do something because it is in the way of doing something else. Moved lately? You would understand.

I find it interesting how much needs to be done to support doing nothing. Wow we are bogged down with all the things we had to have in our life. It was much simpler living in the RV. No clutter as there was no room for it.

Our day started with the painter coming to touch up some stuff that did not get completed when we moved in. He was here at 7:30 am. Do you know how long it has been since I got up by 7:30. Note I said got up not woke up. I have been up many a night earlier than that and could not sleep. Anyway we had an early day with company.

If you have followed this blog, what there is of it, you have seen all the wonderful trials that have come our way. Some day I will look back and laugh at it all, I think!
Well it is amazing how we set ourselves up for problems. The Vacuum cleaner that made it on this journey, trust me many vacuum's did not make it past Goodwill, was prepped for the journey in the pod. I decided to be smart and removed the bag. You know how the thing smells after not using it for a long time with dirt in the bag. Well this was going to be a many month journey. I removed the bag. Well, I decided to sweep the floors a few days ago. The fine dust was on the floors in the cracks etc. The sweeper did a rather good job of knocking the dust loose and picking it up. Toward the end of my sweeping, I did note that it was not being quite as effective. I put it away and continued my meandering style of moving in. You know, what ever is in your way you deal with it and move on to the next thing in your way. Well, I got to the basement and needed to clean it up a little before I consider storing stuff down there. I got out a push broom and swept the floor and picked it up. Amazing how much you can get off a bear floor. I then decided to use the sweeper to pick up the fine dust. I started sweeping and it was not doing so well. So I decided the fine dust was plugging the bag. I open the door and my SMART from CA was looking kind of STUPID in TN. No bag, just dirt, everywhere in the vacuum. All in the motor and the filters, especially the hepa filter. So the next mini desaster story was born.
I decided that I needed to replace filters that were dead and dyeing, like the refrigerator water filter and now the sweeper hepa filter. Also I needed to clean out the vacuum cleaner guts. Oh yea, the air compressor didn't make it to TN. NO Room in the pod. So off to get an air compressor. And while we are out maybe we can stop by a furniture store and see about some things like coffee tables, end tables, book cases, computer desk and chairs. You know more of the stuff that were deamed not fit for the pod and it's space limitations.
I had already spoken to some new friends about where to get my water filter so our first stop was Breakfast. It was 9:30 AM and time for breakfast anyway. It was going to be a quest day. Then off to the appliance repair depot in Bristol. First stop was successful. We found a water filter for the fridge. Unfortunately they did not carry parts for vacuum's so we were directed to a vacuum repair facility, you know the one we passed a few miles back. Next stop vacuum repair store. Success once again, we found a new hepa filter. We may be able to save the vacuum from the abuse. Now to the next town, Johnson City. Made it here once to pickup some items for setting up the house and went through there on the way to Florida. That makes me and expert on finding things in Johnson City;-).
We trek our way to Johnson City. Along the path is a furniture factory outlet. I decide I want to stop as we do need some furniture. It is visible along the highway so no problem. I pass the store and take the next right. Well that simple big store is nowhere to be found. I end up going around the block which isn't a block at all and before you know it I haven't found the store and now have lost my original bearings to my original destination which was Harbor Freight to get an air compressor and all the stuff required for me to blow dust out of the vacuum I am trying to save.
We roam for at least an hour, maybe more until I finally find the original road we were on and once again see the furniture store that derailed me. In finding my bearings, I now have a big clue on how to get to the furniture store, but first, Harbor Freight. I go there and pickup the compressor and enough stuff to use it to blow out dirt and at least put air in a tire or two. Lunch time has arrived and the old bladder ain't what she used to be, so we head back toward a familiar area so we can eat. Along the way we find a Michael's so we stop to see about maybe some material to put on the door windows to kind of cover them up from being a porn site for the neighbors. They send us up the road past McDonalds and turn right to find Hancock Fabrics for the material. So we stop and do lunch along the way and take care of pressing business as mentioned above. We head up the road and find McD's and turn right. Wa la the same place I was lost at earlier. Quest is in my head so I find the furniture store. Only a couple more wrong turns until I found it. Big old warehouse no AC. 97 degrees out and they have big fan's running to stir the heat. I check out the place and there are some potentials but prices aren't that great. On to Hancock Fabrics, so I thought. I head up my lost highway and no place do we see our goal. Back and forth around and around. Finally my iPhone starts to work a bit and it shows me that I am no more than a quarter of a mile from my destination. We twist and turn more and more and finally tucked behind a huge Target store sits this little building called Hancock Fabrics. There was a target on it and I missed it. It is 97 degrees out so I pull into the parking spot and leave the engine running so Lizzie and I won't melt. Linda goes in and we sit and watch people go in and out and in and out and........ No Linda. I catch up on emails on my iphone and catch up on facebook and play a few games of sudoku and then cards. Take a short nap and finally we are at least an hour and a half into this gas wasting stop. Finally I get out of the car and Lizzie and I head in to see if Linda had given up and ducked out the back.
It seems the lady at the cutting table decided that our order was so big that she had to cut other customers stuff while using her spare time to cut our stuff. As it turns out, she had just finished when I got in the store.
Linda is dead tired after standing all that time and rather irritated, so we get back on Lost highway and head toward home. We stop and get some late lunch since it is after 5pm.
I can report the air compressor doing it's thing and replacing the filters, saved the vacuum to sweep another day. I re-swept the hard wood floors, at least the parts I can see still. It was a sucky thing and that is good. Got a couple of other small task done so not a total wasted day.
Basement is still empty and dusty. Today we try again with a happy vaccum.

We are in the house, barely...

Well, we made the trip to Florida and the Ford made the trip without smoking a tranny. I still need to check the fluid to make sure it really did it correctly though.
We closed a week ago Friday and the pod was delivered Tuesday. I started pulling stuff off the end. Like the Bear that was strapped in the end and all the stuff that Karen, Steve and I shoved in there. It didn't have much room to shift so we did good. I started pulling off boxes and staging them in the garage. I did pretty well and by the evening I had better than half the pod unloaded. Our friend Ken came over and we were able to get the couches off the pod and one in the house and the other in the garage waiting for me to decide if it goes to Texas or stays here. We got the piano off and into a bedroom where it will spend it's time. The refridgerator just barely fit in the space provided. It fit though. I connected the water line and turned it on. Water started running and I could not figure out where. Finally it started running out from under the unit and we ended up soaking up water like mad. I figured that it was busted while moving. We left the water disconnected for the time being. The second day I continued my quest to empty the pod. When I got to the piano it was over. Since that time the pod has departed back to POD HQ and we are shifting furniture what little there is of it and empting boxes. It is hard to empty boxes when there is nothing to put them in. We are realizing just how much storage was in that CA house. The built in cabinets in the family room, and den really heald a lot. We will have to purchase some book cases and shelves and the like to store the stuff we kept. arg! I am ready to take pictures. But who has time?

Yep, it is a habit. Long time between posts

Finally got my notebook out and blew off the dust. Did a bunch of updates and now I can post. We have been busy. We took the Ford out for a long tow. After getting back the Escape we drove a tank or two of gas out of it and it was working fine. Ford Motor Company called in reguards to the note I sent them concerning the car having it's third tranny put in and it being out of service for over 3 weeks. They checked with the dealer and the transmission installed had the proper build date and it should be towable. Well we gave it a try. 1600 miles worth of try. We went to Florida. We had a good trip. For one thing at no time during our trip did you find us along side the road waiting for a tow truck. A very positive direction for us, given our history of traveling lately. We went to Jacksonville Florida and visited with Doug and Dana Cody. It was great getting to see them and their new home. The community was beautiful and the homes back up to a golf course. We spent the night with them and then in the morning a snag entered the picture. I had taken the whole drive way as we had to disconnect the Escape so the rv and Ford could park in the driveway. I backed the Escape out of the drive and parked it a couple of houses down in preparation for connecting it to the RV. I started backing out of the drive and was not watching close enough evidently. I heard a noise in my rear view camera and hit the breakes. I was moving ever so slowly and hit the breaks. Just as I did that the front tire dropped off the curb which rocked the rv. The neighbors mail box was just above the back bumper and the rocking of the rv ripped the box off the pole. As it turns out the bumper got scratched. Even though the mail box ripped off the pole, it did not even scratch it as best I could see. I think the mail box won.
We headed on south to Arcadia Florida where my mom and dad live. We got to spend 3 days with them which was great. Our trip to Florida had been so delayed they were happy to see us even if it was just a few days. Oh yea, did I mention just prior to leaving for Florida we got a call from the Real estate company and our closing was moved up a week. So the trip was a quick one. We left Arcadia on Sunday afternoon and headed to Belleview Florida to visit Linda's dad and a friend of mine I used to work with at Intel in Folsom, Mark. We stayed in a nice rv park just off Hwy 75. We had a good visit with all. We had spent our mornings trying to get things done for the closing like inspections, appraisals, insurance, electric companies, city of Bristol. Minor stuff like that and took the rv to a dealer to check out a message we were seeing on the dash.
On Wed we had breakfast with Linda's dad and step mom and then headed up the highway. We needed to be in Bristol for our closing on Friday morning. We drove with little interruption and make good time. As the day pushed on it looked to me like we could make it to North Carolina by night fall. We did make it there. I decided to pull over and spend the evening in a rest area. We pulled along side some trucks and proceeded to take a nap. I was restless and decided to see how much further we would have to go to get to Bristol. To my surprise we were 120 miles away. I could have driven on in without stopping. I didn't have any place to stay so it was just as well we stopped. We got up and headed on in to Bristol. We got to town about 6am and had some breakfast at Mickey D's and then found a Wallmart parking lot to rest in until the camp grounds opened. So we had all day Thursday to take care of any last minute details.
I decided to stop by the power company. They didn't get any of the stuff I had sent them on email. Their application and my identification forms. It cost me 6 dollars to get the stuff scanned so I could sent it. Good thing I stopped. Filled out the forms and got all that stuff setup.
City of Bristol would not let me submit an application through the mail and they wanted proof of ownership. So I had to wait for closing. Well Friday arrived and closing took place so we are the proud owners of a home in Bristol. No furniture yet but it won't be long. Time to open the pod and see what we were doing back in December. Kind of like a short time capsule. Now we will see what I saved and what didn't make it. I could be in real trouble. It was a stressful time and I am sure mistakes were made. I just hope no big ones!
We have spent two nights in the house and have a bed and table and chairs. That is about it. I evidently bumped the power button on the refrigerator in the rv and it was off so we lost our freezer stuff. We have the pod arriving tomorrow afternoon so we can start unloading. Maybe we will be in a place that looks like home soon. At least on the inside.
We have been attending church at the church where Ken and Carmine are. It is great seeing them. Linda is going to play the piano Sunday. She got a warm up in Florida as she played for my parents church. During the summer they don't have a piano player. So maybe we are starting to settle in a little.
Lizzie had a nice romp in the church's yard with Teddy, Ken and Carmine's dog. It was fun to watch. I spent the day building the table and chairs and watering the yard. It has been un-seasonably hot here and humid. It is like their August weather. Tonight after watering the yard we had a small thunder storm go through. NO I didn't watch the weather. I don't have a tv yet.
So there you have it. The Ford traveled 1600 miles and the tranny is still working. I didn't smell any burnt fluid. Something else smelled but not the tranny. I need to check the fluid to make sure it is still red and clean. It has been resting the past couple of days as we drove the van.
So that has been our days. I am ready to crash after another long day, like 8 am to 9:30 pm. Retirement?

Spoke with Ford in Detroit today

We have been driving the Ford for two days now and Ford called today. They say the transmission put in the car is the proper one for towing. They say it should tow with out any problems now. I actually have the name and number of the person who called, should I have any further problems. I was going to ask for it but he read my mind and offered. Imagine that.
So we are ready to head to Florida.
We plan on pulling out for Florida at 7am on the 14th. We will see if the Ford can get to Florida without incident. Or will it be mia by he time we get there? Any bets?
Our plan is to come back to Tennessee just in time to sign papers and take possession of our new home. We will keep you posted as we head south east. We will finally get close to the East Coast.
First stop Doug and Dana's new home in the Jacksonvile, FL area. Then on to Arcadia to visit my mom and dad. We will then head north again to Bellview, FL to visit Linda's dad and step mom. And we will visit with my friend Mark, who I worked with my last years at Intel in CA. Amazing how many people I am getting to visit that I knew for years and years in CA.

Well here we sit.

Holiday weekend is over. Our friends left for Texas, to visit their family there. My family left to go back to work. The home purchase is getting the details underway and ...... What now? Still no Ford. We are approaching 3 weeks. I have decided this is rediculus and have contacted Ford Motor company to lodge a complaint. I spoke with another rv'r who has a 2009 Ford Escape. He has towed it over 2000 miles without issue. His was a 6 cyl two wheel drive. I think the 4 cyl tranny is maybe not so good for towing. I am ready to head to Florida and my tow vehicle hasen't made it to Tennessee in a usable state yet. What is wrong with this picture?
Well, as you can see, I am sitting here with little to offer in way of blogging.
Oh, yes, on FaceBook I have made connections from our San Jose days. So we are connecting with some more people we haven't seen for years. And we lived just a couple of hours away. How bad is that?