Polly don't need no cracker  |
These days there's so much going on
No one seems to want to know
I may be just an old soldier to some
But I know how it feels to grow old
Elton John
It has been a while since I have posted… or updated anything… or even visited my own damn site! That’s just the way I roll. Whereas some folks take on a project, complete it, and move on, I tend to have countless projects that swarm around my brain constantly, leading me to swat at them like they were gnats.
I prefer to consider it the spiral method of progression. Rather than plowing straight ahead, start to finish through every interest, I circle in an ever increasing spiral pattern, touching on everything, accomplishing what I can before my orbit passes me on to the next sideways and slightly more distant interest. I know that eventually I’ll make the circuitous route and find myself back again, a bit farther along my journey, and having probably digested in my minds inner workings the previous cycles lessons learned. It may not actually work that way, but that’s how I justify it.
Anyway, I’m sitting in the office this morning and happened to hear this old E. John tune and it got me to thinking I should probably post an update and let nobody know what’s going on, because there has been a lot that has transpired in the recent past.
In terms of the web site, I get like 500 new member sign ups daily, virtually all of them hack attempts from Yugoslavia, China, and Russia. As a result, I have shut down auto registration. I’m just too lazy to deal with deleting all that garbage. I think I finally figured out how to get my SSL security cert updated without reapplying every 3 months. I can’t be sure for another few days, when it will be eligible for renewal, but I’m hopeful. I shut down Fat Ketos, the sister site I had started building. My dietician recruit kind of bailed on me and I am using that as an excuse, at least for now. I have significantly reduced efforts on this site as well, although I have a good infrastructure and am well prepared for when my spiral orbit brings me back to an interest in the site.
There are some other headline events that need to be addressed, but they will be expanded on in other posts (or not). They include:
- Russell and his partner closed the deal to buy Sterling Appliance! That’s a BIG deal and I congratulate him and wish them the very best success!
- To dampen the mood on closing day, their dog bit a neighbor kid. Bummer, but hopefully all is well, and the kid isn’t scarred physically or emotionally.
- The Rotten Strawbs are back at the Creeks Edge winery this Saturday and I plan on being there!
- May get to visit the golf course and see family to celebrate my granddaughter, Isabelle’s, birthday.
- Also out on the course, a big bonfire is planned for Memorial day weekend. Hopefully we can attend that too.
- Lots of other stuff that I’ll eventually remember.
Much of the last month or more has been spent in planning and setting into motion a long time plan Alice and I have had to travel the country a bit. The original vision was to get a big bad ass RV and hit the road for months on end.
We both knew that was never going to happen, but by taking some funds from our (very) little retirement nest egg, we could have gotten a trailer, and pulled it with my truck. And we damn near did!
Just before writing the check on a nice little trailer camper, we both experienced an epiphany. We’re too damn old and out of shape to deal with the work of camping, even in a trailer. We’re hotel age, not camping shape.
It was time to get serious if we were really going to go anywhere and do anything, so...
We planned a trip to see our old friend George down on the Choctaw reservation in Oklahoma, attend our daughter’s ‘graduation walk’ in Alabama, and visit our son Troy in Asheville, North Carolina. Now this is indeed a far cry from a national trip taking in the Grand Canyon, and dropping by Washington state to see Alice’s sister, Carol. But it has a fantastic advantage. We can actually do it! Maybe… Kinda..
The difference between visionary plans and potential actualities can sometimes be vast.
Now, determined to do something, we made our reservations at various hotels, planned a relatively leisurely driving schedule, and determined a bunch of interesting sites along the way as potential stops.
We did still have a problem. Neither of us was keen on the idea of driving my truck, now that we didn’t need it for dragging anything. We also had some concerns about taking Alice’s little Sentra. The main issue wasn’t mechanical dependence (at least not for me), but comfort. It’s a bit small for spending so much time in.
So, still happy and excited about hitting the road and getting away, we got a brand new 21 year old Lincoln town car to make the trip in. What the heck, it’s almost as big as an RV. It was previously owned by a little old man who died, and his wife (the little ol lady) traded it in for something she could drive. It’s comfortable, has only 110K miles on it, and has been maintained very well. We are looking forward to cruising in it and we’ll be on our way come the 30th of April.
