SATURDAY CARTOONS

It is another Saturday morning and I love my Saturday mornings. I mean what is there not to love? I get to sleep late, if i can sleep :) .... then I get to sit in the recliner, drink coffee and read RV blogs! :).... This morning I also get to watch cartoons, the grandboys are with us for the weekend, so it is cartoon Saturday. Now I normally don't watch cartoons, but when the grands are around and they are on the tube, I realize they are fun to watch :) A little levity and nonsense can be rejuvenating........

Other than my watching cartoons this morning there is not much else to report, except we are both still working hard. We were off yesterday though, Cheryl had an endoscopy procedure. She got sedated with Demarol and had a pretty restful day after the whole "camera down the throat" thing! :) .... Anyway since I was her escort, I had a restful day too, after the "sit in the waiting room" thing...

Well I have goofed off long enough, time to get up and start some yard work... Till next time, GBY .............

TORNADOS AND TOMATOES

Wheeew, I know this post is long overdue, but man have I ever been busy. . A little violin music please and maybe some cheese with this wine! :) .... I was busy enough as it is, but on April 9th tornados came to Shreveport/Bossier and made my life a good bit more hectic... I knew from watching the weather that morning that we had a possibility of some severe thunderstorms, but in the evening it didn’t look that bad outside, so I dismissed it from my mind... Cheryl and I sat down to watch a movie we had on DVD and know the title wasn’t “Gone With The Wind”! ... Well the movie ended and I switched back to regular local tv and lo and behold the weatherman was on and showing a tornado warning for our area. .. The warning cone looked as if it were in familiar territory and after looking at it more closely, I realized our house was right in the center of the warning cone path!! :( ... We started to head to a bathroom in the center of our house, but I cannot stand the thought of being shutup in the bathroom and not knowing what is going on outside and around me.... I headed for the back door and looked out to see a lot of wind, and nickel sized hail (some nickels and some dimes), but no tornado... After a little while it calmed a bit and there was nothing but hard rain and plenty of it! ..
Thank you father for watching over us and keeping us safe.

After continuing to watch the weather we were warned twice more of tornados and one of those decided to visit Barksdale AFB... It seems the one in our area kind of skipped right over us and touched down again a little further down the road, but the one at Barksdale touched down in a couple of places on the base. ... Although the tornado downed a lot of trees, especially on the golf course, there was not a whole lot of major damage to facilities. ... Unfortunately it was our service contractors that have to take care of the tree removal and debris cleanup, so I have been real busy lately.

I did not have my camera with me when I was out and about, but I did get a couple of pictures taken by a friend three days after the tornado hit the base and cleanup was in progress:

From Tornado Damage

From Tornado Damage

Our house did not sustain any damage, other that a few limbs down in the yard. At least I will have a good supply of camp firewood for a while. :) .. ..

I was able to take time out from tornado recovery to visit with the grand kids and kids for Easter. I needed the break and the kids were great, Thank God for my family.

From 2009-04-11-1826-42

From 2009-04-11-1826-42

The littlest one hunted those eggs real hard and soon after he was out for the count!

From Drop Box

I have also been able to plant a few tomatoes after the Easter break. I planted some in five gallon buckets, along with some peppers. I also planted three plants in “Topsy Turvey “ planters. I don’t know if you have ever seen them on TV or not, but the plant grows out of the bottom of the container. I will let you know how that turns out. ;) ..

From 2009-04-11-1826-42

On top of all that I continued to get the house ready to sell. I painted one of our bedrooms, changed the light switches and receptacles to bright white ones. I still need to replace the out-dated light fixture and hang new closet doors (we removed them long ago). As slow as I am working it will take another year to have the house ready! At least I am working toward my dream :)

Well I need to get busy….. till next time……. God Bless us all.

ANOTHER SATURDAY AND CHORES

Well it is Saturday and once more the weekend is upon us. I have a lot of chores to get done today, but so far I am sitting here reading blogs, drinking coffee and daydreaming! This week was not so tough at work as I am waiting on some of the contracts that I have written to be reviewed before I can continue the process. It has been a long week of things going wrong at the ole sticks and bricks though. One day Cheryl returned home and tried to open the garage door, when it failed to open she tried the button on the opener another couple of times. I pulled in behind her and tried my opener a couple of times also. We both assumed the power was out and I proceeded to search for the hardly ever used front door key. I found the key, unlocked the door, but it would not open. The treshold seal on the bottom of the door was bind the door. Between twisting the door knob and "shouldering" the door to get it open, I broke the throw bolt on the door :( .. I finally got in the blooming house though! It turns out the power was not off, the spring on the garage door had broken! Not only that but all the trying to open the door without the support of the spring had pulled the motor loose from the brackets and tore the arm loose! :( .. Now I know how to install a spring, but between finding the spring, buying it, then installing it (especially the tensioning part) and trying not to fall off another ladder, I decided to call Overhead Door to repair it. A few hours and $145.00 later, my garage door is now working. :) I got the front door closed and deadbolted, I have to replace the lockset on it today.

The morning after those mis-adventures, I went to fill the coffee pot and behold no water! I thought it was a water outage (notice a trend of blaming public utilities?) but soon found the water to be working in the rest of the house. It is something stopping the flow on the kitchen faucet. I will find out here in a few minutes as I go down my chore list! :0

Now I would rather spend my day getting things ready for us to go fulltime. I guess in a way (or at least I feel better thinking so) we are still getting the house ready, we can't sell a house with a broken faucet or front door lock now can we?
GBY

WHENEVER FRIDAY COMES..........

Woohoo……. I made it to Friday again :) ….. I feel exhausted today, mostly because I was up at 0430 this morning with problems (I won't offer too much information again). I am feeling better though and although they tell me we are in for a "severe weather night " tonight and rain again tomorrow, I am looking forward to this weekend. :) …..

I will probably spend a good part of this weekend getting my tax information together. Yes it is true, I have procrastinated in filing our taxes. I will probably have to pay some more, so I was not in a big hurry. Maybe our president will give me a tax break as part of the stimulus package, I will not hold my breath waiting on the government to rescue me!! I do anticipate them telling me when I can have my lights on and what color vehicle I am allowed to drive though! Well enough of that, just thinking about it gets my blood pressure going up. I better hurry and buy my fulltime RV before they regulate us so much we will not be able to buy one.

On a more cheerful note, I learned (in the chatroom) that the dreamers are planning another gathering in a few months in Rockport. When I told Cheryl, her response was, "don't care what it takes, get me there!". Well I guess I have my marching orders now don't I? :)

I am still at work and the clock says it is time to pack up and go……. See you later, maybe tonight in the chat…… who knows…. GBY

ALMOST FRIDAY

What more can I say? It is almost Friday and after a boring week of work, I am looking forward to a weekend of relaxation and unwinding! Unfortunately, the weatherman is telling me we will probably have severe weather (in Louisiana that means tornados) tomorrow night and rain on Saturday :( Oh well, I will still get in the relaxation. :) ...

Cheryl had to go to an annual meeting for the credit union where she works. I am supposed to go also since I am a member, but I had something for lunch that didn't agree with me and I am home trying to get it out of my system. Ok, maybe that was too much information....... It is too bad I am missing the meeting, they have free dinner and door prizes :) of course I don't feel like I could eat anything and I never win door prizes... or contests ..... or million dollar lotteries.

If it sounds like I am whining, well I may have been, but I realize how much God has blessed me. Sometimes I have to vent, then I am reminded of how blessed I am. Anyway, thanks for reading my friends and I am cutting this short for now ( I will not give too much information this time)..... Please check back soon. GBY

MONDAY, MONDAY…JUST LIKE ANY OTHER DAY

Well after a productive weekend of cleaning out the backyard, cutting limbs and cutting grass I am not so “blue” at coming back to work! It felt good to get those chores done though, because I know it is all in preparation for getting the house on the market and retiring :) …

My day started at 0530 hours (did I mention I work for the military?) and first order of business was coffee of course. I have a couple of cups of starter fluid as I prepare for the day. I also have a healthy regimen of Insulin, blood pressure meds , glucophage and of course some vitamins for dessert. I normally wait one hour after the diabetes meds before having some instant oatmeal (usually at my desk) for breakfast. Hey, if I could figure out how to get a boiling pot of water at my desk, I could have the omelet in a freezer bag for breakfast :) …

Once I have taken care of the important stuff, I turn to the computer, open AutoCad on one screen and Excel on the other screen, Outlook in the background and then the race is on! I review a facility drawing, breakdown the service task called for in the contract, then place the square footage in the proper column of the spreadsheet and my estimate has begun. About 30 minutes later, someone will usually pass by my desk and wake me up :) ….. zzzzzzzzzz.

Why do I work so hard?:

Work

Can anyone tell me?:

From Work

One of my favorite times of the day is lunch time. I sometimes will take a walk around the base, sometimes go to the fitness center, and a lot of times I’ll go downtown to have lunch with my sweetie :) … bottom line is I get the heck out of the office!

Finally, sometimes it comes painfully slow, but my most favorite time of the day will roll around, quitting time :) ……. Woohooo… It takes me about 25-30 minutes to drive home. Once home I am usually so exhausted I don’t do much, but find that recliner and turn on the laptop to read the blogs. I have so many to read that usually I don’t have time to post to my this blog, I usually don’t have that much exciting to write about and now that you know a little more about my typical day, you can see what I mean :) … But hey, hang in there, don’t quit reading my blog yet, maybe tomorrow I will try to write about Cheryl’s typical day!! Til then……………….. GBY

MEMORIES

Hey all, I decided to post twice this week, wonders never cease! Actually I was browsing through some of the photos I had taken on our trip to Kerrville and I realized I had not posted them. I don't know if anyone is interested in seeing them, but here are some great memories for Cheryl and I :) ..




Hey Speedy, if you are out there, you look like you were mad in the one picture. Were you losing or what :) .. anyway my focus was supposed to be on the beauty behind you :) ...

Anyway, it is Saturday and I have a whole list of chores to get done. I so them happily because they are all in preparation to get the house ready for the market!! I may not be as close to getting on the road as a lot of my friends out there, but I keep chugging along like the little engine that could :) .... until next time GBY

JUST DAYDREAMING

Well here I am back to work it is all I can do to stop daydreaming! Since the great time I had in Kerrville, all I am thinking about is how to finish this work stuff early and hit the road in an RV :) .. Every once in a while someone will stroll past my work station and glance at the spreadsheet on my screen and they probably think I am working hard! The reality is I have probably been on that same sheet for an hour because I am just staring at it while I daydream :)

Cheryl and I talk a lot about the wonderful time we had with friends at “the gathering”. We aren’t exactly social superstars, but somehow we manage to socialize well with fellow RV Dreamers. We were married as youngsters and immediately started having children right out of high school (we had two before we found out what was causing it) :) .. Anyway we have been “family types” all our lives, until the last one left home about a year and a half ago. Since the military kept us moving a lot, we didn’t really make a lot of close friends, we just became a tight knit family. Now that we are an empty nest, we are enjoying going out and meeting new folks and making new friends. I just know we will make a lot of friends once we are fulltiming :)

Well enough raving for one day, I have to get some work done GBY all …………….

THE GATHERING

I think it is time for me to catch up on my posting. We arrived at Buckhorn Lake Resort late Sunday afternoon after a beautiful drive through the heart of Texas. It was a great drive, but long and tedious. After we set up the camper we joined a group of "Dreamers" on the club house patio and were properly greeted. Kathy was making some delicious looking real strawberry drinks and I was thoroughly tempted to endulge in one, however the Rum involved was enough to deter me from drinking one. We all know how I get when I get a little rum in me.... :) just kidding, I cannot drink a lot of alcohol for health reasons, I may have a small glass of wine once in a while, but that is it. So Kathy if you are reading this, thanks for the offer and please don't be offended because I declined. If I hadn't thought it to be rude on my part I would have asked for a virgin drink, those strawberries looked good. :)

Anyway, we had to do the Walmart run for some groceries and things, then get gas in Big Red, and explored the area a little. Well I explored the area a little too thoroughly and started ignoring "Lola" (our gps) and the next thing I know we were lost in America!! :) Lola got tired of me ignoring her recalculations and locked up on me and by the time I got her reset, we were deep in the hill country and in the dark!! :) She finally got us home after I started listening to her again. Cheryl says that is just like me to not listen to a female trying to tell me which way to go :)

As a result of our late escapades, we missed the smores by campfire get together on Sunday evening. We were fortunate enough to make the "heavy hors devoures" on Monday evening however :) Now it was supposedly heavy snacks, but man that was quite a spread. I probably gained a pound or two that night!!

Tuesday Cheryl and I struck out for New Braunfels and then San Antonio. We visited New Braunfels to go to Camping World and revisit Oma's Haus, a great German restuarant we found a few years ago. Thefood was as good as we remembered it to be! :) We also visited Landa Park on the river.

We took off for San Antonio after that and walked the river walk. Soon I was tried of walking so we took the boat tour. It was a good tour with some informative narration. The only thing that would have been better would have been if they could have dropped me off at the truck instead of taking me right back where we started!





Well we got back into the campground to find out we had missed a birthday party held for Brenda, our Canadian dreamer. We were sorry we missed it, they look like they had a blast! Happy Birthday Brenda......

Wednesday morning it was about 36 degrees and raining like crazy! :( We stayed home all day and the resort looked deserted. I did have to make a propane run, we are going through it quickly trying to heat our little camper!

This morning we slept in until 8:30, had breakfast and finally saw some fellow dreamers outside (the rain has subsided). Leno visited with us for a few minutes as well as Rollie. Cheryl and I decided to visit Fredericksburg, so off we went. I will post about that visit later, now I have to get ready for an outing with fellow dreamers.

Until next time....GBY...

NO, I HAVE NOT DISAPPEARED

Contrary to what most of you may be thinking, I have not disappeared from the face of the earth. :) I will use the same excuse as always for not posting, " nothing happening but a whole lot of work"!! Cheryl and I have both been leaving at daybreak and getting back home after dark. Once we are home, we cook some dinner, catch up on email, maybe watch a tv program (we love the show "24") then off to bed.

Tomorrow is Friday again, woohoooo.... and to top it off we are getting the rv ready to leave Saturday morning for Kerrville for the "Gathering of Dreamers". This is a group of really nice folks that have become acquainted on the RV Dreams website and cannot wait until the next rally to get together again! We can hardly wait to get on the road!

Well Cheryl just walked in and I need to get up and help her get dinner started. I hope to post more while on vacation, or at least take some pictures to post :). I will post again once we are on the road, maybe Saturday evening. God Bless you all.....