Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Wichita

Well its been two weeks since I put fingers to keyboard for blogging purposes. I'm now really in the mood since I no longer have the Wichita speech/workshop occupying my brain space (of which there is less & less each day)! Actually, come to think of it, it's not there is less space, the problem is the space is empty!

I've discovered that my blogging is less about being informative and more about being good therapy for the brain. It's my way of delaying dementia. Having said that, there are a few items I wish to record for historical purposes. My sister-in-law Carol arrived at the Pensacola Airport last night. She will be spending a couple weeks with us. This is the fourth year that Carol has joined us in Florida. We really enjoy having her visit. She and Mary Ellen will be busy with the Casino and Wine routine. They have two bus trips to Biloxi on the agenda. The first one will be this Friday. These always give me some new material to Blog about (if you know what I mean)!

Our good friend Jeanne will be here for three nights starting on the 28th. Jeanne and her daughter, Sara, have been traveling throughout the U.S. since September. Jeanne and Sara have been blogging as they travel about in their RV. We first met Jeanne in 2005 at the KOA in South Bend. Jeanne was a campworker and friend from the start. After the 2006 season she left South Bend for a KOA in Hagerstown, MD. She will work there this coming year as well. I believe she needs to be back in Hagerstown in mid-March. Jeanne is one very talented and fun lady. She recently published her first book which is about living your life to the fullest. She has inspired me to begin organizing my thoughts with the hopes of publishing my own book soon. We've never met Sara, but I have this feeling she will soon be a valued friend as well.

On March 1st, our good friends from last year, Diane & Jeff will arrive. They will be here for the month of March. I know Diane will love meeting Jeanne and Sara. When I think about the potential chemistry among Jeanne, Sara, Diane, Carol and Mary Ellen, it is one scary scenario. Should be fun with perhaps a bottle or two of "cheap wine" being consumed. Wal-Mart has the cheapest wine with a cork on the planet. Anything cheaper would have a 'screw cap'. They tell me it's very good however. After a glass or two it probably tastes like it cost $100 a bottle! Let the games begin.

My Wichita speech went extremely well. There were 350 in attendance in one of the nicest auditoriums I've ever worked. The Mary Jane Teal theater at the Wichita Convention Center was excellent. I gave them two quick breaks during my two hours and thirty minutes up front. They all returned after each break which is always a good sign. I spoke on 'Developing Your Future Leadership'. Several people stopped afterwards to tell me how much they liked my remarks. I finished with only two hours to get to the airport for my flight back to Pensacola, so I didn't have much time to spend with my audience. Other than going thru Atlanta, the trip was seamless with no delays or other problems. Atlanta is worse than O'Hare. If you have connecting flights as I did, they are never on the same concourse. You take the train from one concourse to the other. Once there my gate was always a two mile walk. As all of you who take air travel know, security is a real pain. Shoes off, belt off, hands swabbed, computer out and on, e book reader out and on etc. etc. It's a shame all this is necessary.

My next project is a workshop in Iowa this spring and of course working on my book. I'm shooting for publishing the spring of 2011.

Well it's Wednesday, and that means donuts and coffee in the pavilion. This could well be the highlight of the day. With temps near 70 the last few days, a cold front has moved in with lows in the high thirties in the morning and only 50 for highs during the day. Things are supposed to improve again next week.

In parting let me share this, "the best thing about egotists is they don't talk about others". Talk to you soon.

jim

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Back to the Blogosphere

Wow, its been nine days since I last took fingers to keyboard. There hasn't been a great deal to write about unless you consider winter storm warnings in Florida to be worthy of literary effort. Did you notice I just credited myself as being a literary genius? Well I didn't actually say genius until the last sentence. Anyway, the local weather people haven't been this excited since "Ivan". Our weather radio went off at three a.m. this morning warning us of a winter storm scheduled for TONITE at midnite! I can hardly wait to hear when it will go off when it actually gets here. Would you believe all Navarre schools are closed tomorrow? We may not even get any snow near the Gulf. Most, if not all is predicted for north of us.

We've had temps below freezing seven mornings since we've been here. As I told my son, Jim, Florida Sucks! This lousy weather will be with us for at least another week. I know it's much worse at home and especially on the east coast, but this is FLORIDA.

I feel bad for the cities like Mobile, Milton, Fort Walton and Navarre where Mardi Gras parades are scheduled over the next few days. The one in Navarre is on Saturday. A few weeks ago we were planning to go. I just don't want to stand on a parade route while freezing.

Yesterday Mary Ellen and I drove to Atmore, AL to the Wind Creek Casino. We were only there for four hours, but that was long enough for us to lose a few bucks. We had fun & lucked out at the Buffet. They were running a "buy one, get one". To top that the price for 'seniors' was only $10! Not bad for a full buffet for two.

The lousy weather is probably the best thing for my 'Wichita' speech a week from tomorrow. I certainly haven't been tempted to hang out at the beach. I think I'm probably over-prepared for this, but one can't really be too well prepared. I'm looking forward to it on the 21st. Two and a half hours in front of 500 attendees requires a little more prep time than normal. Fun, fun, fun!

When it rained a couple days ago, Mary Ellen and I went to a movie. We saw "It's Complicated". It was ok. Nothing special. I'd give it a 3 out of 5 Stars. It dragged at times and wasn't as funny as it could have been. The writers attempted a few 'lame situations' which allowed me to think I could have written some good lines for them. We only paid $6 for the matinee (that's for both of us). If you have to pay more than $3 each I wouldn't waste my money. If you do want to see it, it should be out on DVD very shortly. Rent it. Golly, I just realized I've slipped into my Siskel and Ebert role. I'm sorry, Siskel is dead. They were so much better when the two of them worked together.

We had dinner at Logan's Roadhouse a few nites ago. We had never been there before. We've been to Texas Roadhouse and of course Outback. Logan's was excellent and less expensive. We'll go back.

Well, back to Cabin Fever and of course the 'storm of the century'! Till next time, "if I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself".

jim

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

THE DAY AFTER THE DAY FROM HELL!

Well it's Tuesday evening. The day after we moved from site 16 to site 11. Simple enough, right. Not really. Not the way I did it.

It all started at 10 a.m. The RV that had been on site 11 had left, so it was time for us to move. We did all the usual prep things. Removed the sewer hose, turned off the water, unhooked the cable, brought in the slideout, stowed the stuff inside for the short trip to #11.

The next step was to hook up the trailer and the truck. Normally this is something I can do with Mary Ellen's guidance in maybe two tries. I knew it wasn't going to be a good day when it took me maybe ten! Finally we were hooked up and ready to pull out of 16 and head for 11. This required a tour around the campground in order to get to our new home. As I was driving down one of the roads I heard someone yelling at us. I stopped and rolled down the window. The guy told us we had a flat tire (almost). He said you better hurry up before it goes completely flat.

We managed to finally arrive and began the process of backing into our new site. We had been in a pull thru and I hadn't backed the trailer for 3 years. This became quite evident after my first 3 attempts. Finally a kindly old gentlemen (must have been 85) said, "you might want to start out on the same side of the road as your site is. Otherwise you're going to wipe out 3 or 4 RV's on the other side of the road." Turned out to be good advice. I got in on two maneuvers. Looking good.

So we began all the usual stuff required to set up including detaching the trailer from the truck. Of course I still had the issue of a flat tire on the truck. I'd deal with that later. Mary Ellen hooked up the water and the cable. I took care of the sewer hose and plugged in our electric. We were about ready to open our slideout. OOPs. After all this and a flat tire to boot, I hadn't left enough room between the slideout and our
electrical box. We were about six inches too close.

I decided to cool down and take the truck to a nearby Goodyear Store and have the tire repaired. Of course the tire was now almost completely flat. I got out my silly little cheap compressor. The one that plugs into the cigarette lighter. With my compressor it would take about 30 minutes to get enough air into it to drive. Our new neighbor apparently saw what I was attempting to do (everyone watches new arrivals), and asked me if I'd like to use a REAL compressor. He didn't actually say that, but I knew what he was thinking. In 30 seconds the tire was inflated. I hurried to the Goodyear store and answered about 25 questions before he asked me what I wanted. He said it would be about 30 minutes. I called Mary Ellen and told her. After a half hour they still weren't done. They said they were having trouble finding the cause of the flat. I called Mary Ellen again. After an hour they told me they couldn't find anything in the tire, and had no idea why it went flat. They did replace the valve stem, just in case.
After all that the guy said, "keep an eye on it". It's not easy when you're driving!

Back at the ranch, the trailer movement awaited me. Mary Ellen had everything ready. She had unhooked the water, sewer, cable and electric. That left hooking up the trailer, and of course 'keeping an eye on the tire'! After 4 up and backs, I had moved the trailer over the 6 inches needed for the slideout. Now all that remained was reconnecting all the stuff and rearranging the stuff on the inside.

What should have taken till noon wasn't completed until 5 p.m. A very long day, and I only swore twice, maybe three times. Today we finished settling in. Today was beautiful. Sun all day and the temp got up to 62.

We Skyped with Mark today, and showed him the campground. Skype is quite cool. If you haven't looked into it, check it out.

I've failed to mention the bombing each night continues this year. As I write this the Air Force has us under attack. They seem to get closer every night. "THE SOUND OF FREEDOM".

Till next time, "the town was so dull that when the tide went out it refused to come back".

jim