RAMBLINGS

Another rainy and cool morning in lovely Michiana. Thought it would be a good day to sit at the keyboard and 'bang out' another of my 'highly anticipated' BLOGS. I base this comment on a statistical analysis I've done that shows 2.5% of you do 'highly anticipate' this blog. I realize 2.5% isn't statistically valid enough for me to extrapolate and use 'highly anticipated' in my advertising, but I don't advertise much, and who is going to bother turning me in? Now that I've clarified this, I'll move on.

We'll be parking the travel trailer at Spaulding Lake in Niles for a month starting June 10th. This is a "poor man's" version of having a summer home on the lake. So, from June 10th till July 10th we'll be spending some time in Niles, MI. When we leave on the 10th of July we'll head to Champaign, IL for the REUNION with our Florida gang. The ten of us are gathering for a few nights to solve many of the world's problems. That's not to say we didn't solve most of them during our winter gathering in Florida, but for some reason a few more problems have developed since then.

Government's spending of OUR money is totally out of control as most of you have probably noticed. It's incredible what the D.C. dingbats can come up with. Whose the imbecile that decided we need signs in every school zone that state, "This is a Drug Free School Zone"? Really? How nice! I've been driving around looking for a school zone that advertises drugs. Damn, they are all DRUG FREE. Wouldn't you love to know what it cost to produce and install these ridiculous signs. One small example of the people we've elected going out of their way to screw us. Don't you love it?

Speaking of spending, I bought myself a new phone. Not just any phone. I bought an iPhone!! This is the most amazing gadget I have ever encountered. I'm sure some of you also have the iPhone from Apple, so I won't detail all of the fantastic features of the iPhone 4. I love it. I hate to admit it, but it virtually eliminates the need for my MacBook and my Nook. In fact it virtually eliminates the need for anything other than Mary Ellen. Yes, I do love her more than my iPhone, but it was close!! I actually bought the book, iPhone for Dummies. This book takes an in depth look at all the features with shortcuts and tips that make navigating the many apps much easier.

We are 90% settled into our new home. It's actually looking like we've lived here forever. Of course we have numerous boxes packed onto the many shelves in the garage. Some of this stuff will eventually go to Goodwill or some other worthy cause. There is plenty of room for Mary Ellen's PT Cruiser. There are still a few things that we haven't located yet. The biggest headache is changing our address with the numerous magazines and accounts. I didn't realize we had to apply for new driver's licenses in order to give the BMV our new address. You have to bring a couple bills with our new address on them. What we didn't realize, and what makes no sense to me, is that these bills must also have Mary Ellen's name on them. We took bills from our electric company and newspaper. Both of these had my name on them with our new address. I could apply for a new drivers license, but
Mary Ellen couldn't. We failed to take anything with her name on it. Even though we are married and both living at our new address, she was unable to apply for a new license. Our State government in action. Mary Ellen will need to make another visit to the BMV when we can find something with her name and our new address on it. She's really looking forward to her return trip!

We'll be heading to Indy at the end of this month for the Indy 500 weekend. Mary Ellen and I won't be going to the race this year, but we'll spend time with sons Dan and Mark and Dan's family. Erin has a soccer game and Ally is graduating from Kindergarten. I think she had a 4.0 cumulative!! Elementary school scholarships are pouring in!

JIM