September 03 2011

            I woke and looked at the time when it was 4:44.  Ella was due to wake at 6:30 so she could be at work at 7:00.  I didn’t want to wake her so I lie in bed and read my RV Travel newsletter on the Droid X.  I followed a lot of the links from the newsletter to other websites and then checked on what was happening on Facebook.  Not much actually.  I checked the time and found it to be only 5:45.  Still not time to get up.

            Yesterday, I had made a recording of the sermon for Sunday.  This is another nice app for the Droid.  I often record like this to check how the message flows when I say it out loud, the length of time it takes and so that I can listen to the playback and mark any changes on the written copy.  Since it was only 5:45, I put the recording on ‘loop’ and the earbuds in my ears and listened to the playback.  Ella woke me a few minutes to 7 to say she was going to work.  (I hope it doesn’t have the same effect on Sunday’s listeners)

            Since I now had the bed to myself, I saw no reason to get up.  Our communal breakfast would not be ready until 8:30 so I lie abed and watch “Burn Notice” on Droid TV.

            The point of this is to say that from 4:44 to 8:15 was spent staring at the screen of my Droid X.  I used to ‘look down upon’ video gamers who would spend hour upon hour in front of their game units.  Opps!  I guess I can’t cast THOSE stones anymore!

            Breakfast today was eggs-to-order, toast, hash browns, sausage, coffee and juice.  That is a great breakfast for $3.00.  Tomorrow will be the last communal breakfast for the season and consist of pancakes, blueberry pancakes, and or French toast for $3 + $1 for a sausage patty.  The sausage patty’s come from some food service company and must be about a third of a pound each, which makes them well worth the extra dollar.

            Breakfast is also a time to sit and visit with friends, some of which will soon be following the warm weather south or moving back to their ‘sticks and bricks’ homes.       The end of the camping season is always a sweet/sad time of year for us.  It is sad because so many of our friends are gone for the next 4 to 6 months.  But it is also sweet because the pace of the resort slows down and space opens up as trailers and motor-homes go south, go home, or go into storage. 

            Soon the lake will fill with thousands of geese and ducks as they also migrate to warmer climes.  Rabbits, raccoons, deer, foxes, hawks and owls will soon be more evident in the park also.  Trees will begin to change into their fall ‘party clothes’ and it will be time to begin getting our home ready for the winter. 

            If all goes according to plan, this will be last winter that we will need to add insulation around the base of the trailer and heat-shrink plastic to the windows.  Next year we intend to join the migration.  The details are yet to be worked out.  We will either pack up our fifth-wheel trailer and tow it to Texas or we will leave it on a site here at Cutty’s and purchase an additional travel trailer or fifth-wheel trailer.  Whether we purchase one in Iowa and tow it south or we load up the truck with a winter’s worth of supplies and go to Texas to buy a trailer, we haven’t decided.  From searches on Craig’s List, it appears there are much better bargains in Texas than Iowa for RVs.

            Change of subject here.

            Being Saturday, and with me preaching at Cutty’s tomorrow, we took the opportunity to go in to our home church at attending the Saturday night praise service.  Pastor Webb’s service was based on the same text I’ll be using tomorrow.  However it was a different part of the scripture that ‘spoke to him’ and the message went down a different path than what I will be preaching.  If you are curious, you can follow my sermons on www.thomasewilliams.blogspot.com   Tomorrow’s sermon will be “Sin Happens … So Does Forgiveness”

            This is Saturday of Labor Day Weekend which means a lot of activity at the resort today.  Most of the things that happen this weekend will happen without my involvement.  The one thing that was on my “to do list” for today was the concert this evening.  Michael Miller, who has been a professional singer, invites his many friends who are professional or semi-professional entertainers to come and spend Labor Day at Cutty’s.  They are not paid for their performances here (other than possible camping for free for the weekend).  It has always been amazing in the past and so was something I was looking forward to seeing and hearing.

            In the past a stage has been set up outside at the end of ‘Main Street’.  This year it has rain off and on all day.  Because of the weather, everything was moved under the huge shelter at the other end of ‘Main Street’.  This changed the acoustics dramatically.  The crowd was having a wonderful time and doing a lot of talking.  There was so much talking that the entertainers’ microphones kept getting louder, unfortunately so did all the background chatter.  Perhaps it is a function of my hearing aid, but I was not able to enjoy the concert at all and finally gave up. 

            I went to the Adult Center (for you who don’t understand what the Adult Center is; you have to be 18 or over to go in the building.  It is Adult in the old sense not the x-rated sense) and read a couple chapters of “Beyond Good and Evil” by Friedrich Nietzsche.  That alone should give you and idea of how much I was NOT enjoying the concert.

            Really the highlight of my day was singing along with the Praise Band at church.  And all in all, that’s not a bad thing.

            I’m about ready to call it a day.  I may stay up to watch “Dr. Who” at 11:00 – or not.

September 02 2011

            I awoke this morning around 6:30, fixed and ate an fried egg sandwich, drank a cup of coffee and then took my pickup truck to the mechanic’s shop.  A couple days ago I noticed an oil spot where the truck had been parked. 

            About a month ago I spent nearly $700 to have a couple of high-pressure hydraulic hoses replaced.  I was concerned that the mechanics might not have gotten the hoses properly attached.  Since these hoses control both my steering and my brakes, I REALLY did not want them to fail while I was driving.  Therefore, I had made an appointment to take them back to the same mechanics this morning.

            The good news is: it was NOT the hydraulic lines.  The BAD news is: it is an oil line.  Estimated repair cost is around $450.  It is an extremely slow leak and I’m going to have to live with it for a while, that is until my bank account ‘refreshes’ itself with the deposit of my next SS check.

            Because the trip to mechanic was both early and quick, Ella and I were able to go to breakfast with friends as usual for a Friday.  I’m not sure how long we have been going to breakfast together – four years or so, I think – however, part of the group had been getting together for longer than that.  It consists of mostly people from our church, although others sometime come also.  This summer, since we have not been attending Sunday services at our home church, we use this time to get caught up on ‘church news’.  I am told that it is ‘news’ and not gossip.  I guess it is the intent and not the content that makes it news rather than gossip. (smile)

            Upon leaving the breakfast clutch, we went to Sam’s Club to do some price checking.  I used to have a Business Membership with Sam’s.  Buying in bulk was very useful when we had seven to nine people living at home.  Once we sold the house and moved fulltime into our RV, buying in bulk was no longer as attractive because space is precious and weight is a concern when towing.

            Several weeks ago, I needed to buy 120 corn dogs for an event at church, so I purchased an Advantage Plus Membership at Sam’s Club.  Now that I have it, we decided to see where it might be an advantage to purchase there.  It may have been unwise to tempt ourselves as we spent $115 before we got out the door.

            I did make a list of several other items that it does make sense to purchase in larger quantities, and their prices.  I’ll do some comparison shopping and see if we can save enough to venture back into the clutches of Sam’s Club.  Perhaps if I leave Ella at home, I could: go, buy only the items on the list and get away without extra purchases.  I know that is unfair because I can not be trusted anymore than she can to pass up “a good deal”!

August 31, 2011

            I have nothing to say.  Therefore you may ask, “Why are you typing this stuff?”

I’m glad that you ask.  Mostly, I just hate to see a blank sheet of paper (or it’s digital equivalent).  It’s true!  Ask anyone who knows me.  They will tell you that if you place a blank sheet of paper, a sheet of printed material with wide enough margins or even a clean white Styrofoam cup; I WILL doodle on it!  Nature abhors a vacuum and I abhor a blank space.

            Until someone designs hardware and software that lets me doodle directly on the blog, I’ll just have to keep typing these random useless thoughts!  I mean, look at how much I’ve typed after admitting that I had nothing to say!  Stream-of-conciseness don’t fail me now!

     I was up at five-thirty this morning.  Had to be at grandson N's home by six-thirty to watch the girls.  I dropped Ella off and then went on into Des Moines for Bible study. 

     Our men's Bible study this morning was interesting. We watched a little of the movie "Hook". Then we discussed how people prioritize their schedules. 
     After Bible study, I returned to N's to help watch L who always makes me smile.  I know that you may think I'm prejudiced just because she's my great-granddaughter, but you'd be wrong.  She is one extremely bright three year old who has the vocabulary and voice inflections of an adult.  I raise four genius level kids of my own, so I DO know what I'm talking about here.  Her older sister is no slough either. (Okay, so I may be a LITTLE prejudiced)