Some Blog Rearranging & Thoughts

If you look closely you'll notice some slight changes to the blog. I guess it's a lot like rearranging furniture in a house, some people like to do it and some don't. I don't rearrange furniture anymore because I have downsized to just having enough. I do like to make changes to the blog though. I won't do anything drastic like change the template but I've changed the font and colors in the past.

Well yesterday during my cooling down period after mowing the yard while mumbling to myself, I decided to play around with the blog. I decided instead of decreasing the number of blogs on my sidebar like I had been doing, I would bring them all back from my Feedly account. At one time I had around 60 blogs I have collected over 2+ years to read. Some of them had disappeared from my roll without explanation ... just poof, were gone. I found those missing ones and brought them back to the list.

Since I had so many blogs I follow, I decide only they would be on the left sidebar. I moved my profile, the search box, email follow box to the right sidebar. I didn't know what to do about the favorite posts so I left them. I went back and forth trying to find the right colors for links and links that had been read. They still might be changed later, as well as the font type of my blog posts. I like the changes so far.

I then had two long side bars, each side of my section of posts. I had thought about changing to a 2 column blog, looked at it but didn't like the way it looked, so I kept it 3 columns and then increased the number of posts to show trying to match the length of each side bar. I know as long as my posts are never the same length, those sidebars will never match. That's ok. So a long list of good blogs I follow and some I found within the first week of my RVing interest in October 2011.

My major priority today well be get into the FJ and go buy some groceries. My dog's have plenty of food, with a new bag of Fromm's Golden dry food still unopened. In the past Sadie would have tore into that bag the first chance she got, to do her tasting test but not now ... maybe she is calming down as she ages. In the meantime as they eat well, I would tell you what I am down to in the kitchen but it might scare you. I have been eating out more this month though ... maybe that's the reason for my lack of grocery shopping.

I find it interesting that I am driving less and at times it's really hard just to go buy groceries? Is that weird?  I've driven 12 miles to the Super Walmart to buy groceries a couple of times this past week, they have a great produce selection, and each time I have returned home not buying a thing. I looked, but walked out. Interesting.

I find the news recently to be somewhat disturbing, things going on in the USA that you would never think would happen. I usually don't discuss news or politics here and no plans to in the future, but it's surprising what's happening in our country right now. To put the icing on the cake, a picture of a high school football team from a school to the west of Indianapolis, shows up on Facebook today that will take the internet by storm. The photograph has some of their team members in football uniforms standing on different parts of a black Hummer (extreme police vehicle) holding automatic weapons. It was a photograph the school/team was using to advertise the opening of their season. Hopefully they will use another photograph and that one will get pulled.

I think a picture like that tells a sad sad story about society today.

Off the soapbox .... looking at my list of trailers this morning. I have one that has lowered the price, it is about a 5 hour drive north of me through two major cities. It is all so tempting but the size of the tanks are a possible issue. Of course on the other end of the spectrum, those tanks are bigger than what I would have tent camping, so maybe they are workable. Some very high quality refurbished work has been done with a long of changes I like and the asking price is good. It has moved closer to the Camp Lite Livin Lite 13QBB trailer I have had my eye on.

I guess that is the enjoyable part .... the search. 

I was reading The Bayfield Bunch blog as I do every day, and saw that Al is already talking about their trip back to Congress AZ and set the departure date of September 27. I looked at that date and couldn't believe it was just a six weeks away. I'm finding out again just how much time is moving faster in retirement than when I worked all day. I haven't had one day during my four months of retirement where the day felt like time was crawling, whereas I remember quite a few days working you would have swore the clock had stopped moving.

Last week my long time friend and one of my college roommates from 1975, stopped by for a short visit. He had just returned from Colorado with a couple of weeks of hiking. He had a great 2012 Jeep Wrangler with some self-modifications to carry all of his gear. It looked to be a great vehicle for off roading and getting to campsites off the grid. He called me yesterday during my time after mowing the yard to just talk but also said the jeep was at the body shop and he may have totaled it last weekend NW of Indianapolis. I told him those jeeps are built like tanks and it would be awfully hard to total one.

After he told the story of his accident I began to wonder if he might be right. It has been great weather all summer in Indiana  but it had rain in the Indianapolis area on Friday, some heavy misting on Saturday and Sunday morning. Well what many forget and what happened to him ... with the rain and heavy mist, it could have brought a light coat of oil being to the surface of the highway. 

He was following a friend, going he thinks about 30mph, on a two lane country highway with no shoulder. As he moved through the first of two curves in the road, he thought he felt the rear of the jeep kinda slide and by the time he hit the second turn he was on a surface like ice. His jeep proceeded straight across the second turn, down an embankment about a 45° angle and hit a tree head on. That impact employed his air bag and sent his jeep hard into the tree behind them.

All in a matter of seconds, both his front and rear end of the jeep had heavy damage.

He is physically fine. His jeep is totally mangled, maybe not repairable. It just shows you how things can change in your life so quickly, in an instant, when you don't expect it. I remember when I was in a bad auto wreck in 2010 just how fast it happened, no time to react, and remembering nothing but hearing a loud explosion. I had been sitting at a 4-way stop on a US Highway, waiting to make a left turn heading home after work. A large Dodge Flatbed truck, with a modified huge steel bumper, pulling an empty horse trailer of horses but had a huge highway concrete machine inside the trailer ... hit me at 65-70 mph. (from police report) I don't remember anything. It happened so fast I didn't know what happened ... I was out consciously in less than a second ... but that is a whole different story.

What I am trying to say is, you never know when something bad can happen in your life .... so it's best to live each day the best you can. 

I am remembering that statement as I make my decision to leave with the hounds and not wait.

I Felt Good Enough To Get Outside

This is the second post of the day so I must be feeling better ... lol. Last night I heard the local weather man say "today could be labeled the best day of the summer", weather, activities etc. I was sorry I missed the great weather the past three days so I was feeling good enough today to take the hounds out for "the walk". I was wanting to get out and do something.

Of course Heidi the "queen of the couch" and a total sleep monster has to be urged over and over to come outside for the walk. Once she gets outside, she is the leader of the walk and always has to be in front, she loves 'the walk'. Sadie is reading to go outside anytime 24/7. Even when I was sick these past few days and would be up at 3am or 4am because I couldn't sleep, she would want to go outside. Out we would go. It's great outside that time of night, especially on a full moon.

Winston always wants to go, so after a few days of unexpected rest for his back, he was barking and trotting outside, if it's possible that basset hounds can trot.

It was so nice I actually checked the weather on my iPhone just to confirm what I was feeling ... 76° and 48% humidity. That is just unbelievable August weather for the 'tropics' of southern Indiana. We are usually yelling "uncle, I'll do anything you want just turn the temps down a little" this time of year.

After the dog walk I could tell the yard needed mowing, even though I did that just 4 days ago. So I did the normal routine of pulling out the stuff in the small shed just to be able to pull the mower out. Even in the great weather, after about two laps around the yard ... it hit me.

I don't want to do this. I don't want to be here. I'm tired of doing this stuff over and over. Look at that over there ... things I need to do like every week. Glancing around the house as I mowed the mental list of things to do kept growing ... like a nightmare. I'm not talking repair type stuff, just the normal stuff that comes with home ownership. A few more laps around the yard and I start thinking how long that list could be next spring after being gone for 6 months. I can feel myself turning into an unhappy mower.

I wasn't happy, mumbling to myself (comical) but still mowing. By the time I had finished the backyard I was ready to sell everything i own again and hit the road. I wanted nothing to do with owning a house. The side yard, the pace continued, thoughts are flying. By the time I hit the front yard ... I'm out of here. Mentally that is.

I'm ready to sell sell sell ... but I keep mowing. I keep thinking I'm tired of all of it and I need to get out of here otherwise it's the same routine over and over and over. So I finish the yard, turn the mower off and start to push the small 22" mower up my 100' drive. Instantly I feel how out of shape I'm in. I'm sucking air like a bike rider off the back of the pack. Sweating more than I should. While thinking, "I wonder how I'll feel doing this when I am 5-10 years older?"  I didn't like the answer to that question. Nor did I enjoy the short 50 minutes of mowing a fairly easy yard to mow.

So here I sit at 9:43pm Eastern time, I just took a couple of ibuprofen tablets to help my recovery of mowing and finishing the last of my fresh squeezed Minute Maid orange juice. I'm in the mode of getting out of here. The strangest thing of all though, is not my ranting to myself while I mow (that's hilarious) but since the sickness is over my sinuses are clear and no sign of allergy unrest. Allergies are something I have lived with daily and for some reason they have vanished. Maybe I need more treatments with that Neti Pot process to keep my sinus passages clear?

I've had a couple of trailers eyed out for the past month. Basically one of those "if I were to buy something this is what I would buy" but sliding it off to the side until departure time. Well, after my self-ranting while mowing the yard, I am going to put a little more serious effort in closing the deal on one of those trailers. I'm also going to get some things listed on Craig's List and eBay to sell. I'm going to make another large run to Goodwill. I was even thinking of a "garage sale", empty the house and leave in a westerly direction and a realtor for sale sign in my yard.

Long time readers, followers have heard all of this before. It's a part of the roller coaster ride but I have always thought it would only take one thing to shove me off the edge ... when the "fun meter" is broke, I've always made changes. That was for jobs, location changes, and my trading/selling my automobiles.

So we will see.

Yet, I am thrilled that I am feeling better and it was another beautiful day in the 'tropics' of southern Indiana.

I've Been Sicker Than a Dog

It's pretty amazing while enjoying The Best summer that I can remember here in the 'tropics' of southern Indiana, that I end up getting "sicker than a dog" from Sunday till Tuesday. I am not sure what happened, what it was or how it was fixed but by Tuesday afternoon I was feeling much better.

What started out as what I thought to be my allergies going into overdrive Sunday afternoon turned into a full blown head cold by late Sunday night, early Monday morning. I am not even sure if it was a cold because I normally get those in my eyes and in this case I didn't. All I know is by 1:30am Tuesday morning I had a forehead that was hot to touch, my sinuses were completely plugged and I was lightheaded. I had a deep respiratory cough to go along with it.

I didn't have a lot of meds on my shelf to choose from, since I rarely get sick. I robbed from Winston's buffered aspirin, my generic antihistamines, some Vic's Vapor Rub and ended up being desperate enough to use a Neti Pot. Something from that combination worked over the 36 hour period.

Somewhere after 1:30am Tuesday morning and before 7:30 that same morning, the respiratory bug had almost disappeared, leaving an occasional cough behind.

During the 36 hour period of 2 sleepless nights, weird dreams and only fresh fruits as meals I thought about a wide range of RVing. One minute I was not wanting to even try it. That may have been at the peak of my sickness when I thought that. A few times in the early dark hours that I was really sick, I was happy I was in familiar territory. I remember thinking a couple of times during that period it would have really been hard under my condition to get the dogs outside when they needed to go, all three attached to leashes and me lightheaded enough I could barely walk.

By Tuesday night I was back to looking at trailers, older motorhomes and rigs for sale. I also found a few more people that travel with large breed dogs, although not the hound breed. My list of bookmarked trailers for sale decreased by half over the weekend, where they had sold. These are trailers I find on forums that link into the seller's  craig's list ads, rvt and rv trader. I still cannot believe I have not decided on what to buy.

One thing is for sure. There always seems to be a list of rigs to buy and the prices rarely change. That got me thinking that a better option might be to buy in the SW after I arrive there this fall. A big disadvantage would be not seeing the rig first hand before making the purchase. I still kick myself for not buying Al's 2003 Damon Challenger he and Kelly had for sale a year or so ago. It was already set up for boondocking, the right length and would have been plenty of room for the 3 hounds and I. Plus it was well taken care of. I could have bought it sight unseen and knew what I was getting.

Then I think of how I want to go small and tow with my Toyota FJ.

So who knows?  I only know right now that I will be spending my winter in the SW.

All Missing Pictures Have Been Fixed

Something I wasn't expecting to do but it's complete as of now.  Last night I saw a recent post that had a big icon symbol on a white box where a picture use to be. It was missing. I instantly thought of my recent change of deleting my Google+ account, which I'm glad I did by the way.

So I assumed it would be just recent pictures due to those being posted while having my Google+ account. I spot checked a prior year before my Google+ account and there was another one. Why I don't know, until I thought back to all of my changes since this blog started.

1.  Changed from an iPhone 4 to an iPhone 5s and transferred pictures.
2.  Started a 2nd new blog with a different Google+ profile ... then deleted that blog and profile.
3.  Started a new Google+ account and then deleted that one after I found out I couldn't have 2.
4.  Merged the new blog back into the old blog ... the deleted the new blog.
5.  Made a new Google+ account recently ... then deleted it a month later because I didn't like it.

During all of those changes I was making new blogs posts, and some of those had pictures.

So once I found some older blog posts, even in 2011 missing pictures I then went back and looked at every blog post I have since this blog started. I was lucking that in the first two years of the blog I did not post a lot of pictures. Still, in 2011 and 2012 I had a few missing pictures that I have uploaded the original picture.

All pictures are fixed.