Category Archives: Digital Image Processesing

20240719-21_3-days_lots-of-stuff

NOTE: This is a longer post that contains one (1) photo with caption, taken by me (Bruce) with a Google Pixel 6 Pro.

FRIDAY 19 thru SUNDAY 21 July 2024 — Vision, cruises, SW licenses, yard work, Boondockers, and a Buck Moon

Friday 19 … More vision, a cruise dream, and a software license

Yesterday was a hard day so today was an easier day, by comparison. Linda had a 1 PM follow-up visit with Dr. V, her ophthalmologist at the KEC-BCSC. She got an excellent report; both of her eyes are healing well. Dr. V tested her vision and gave her a prescription for bi-focal glass lenses. Linda can actually see fairly well now without glasses, both for reading and distance. She is far-sighted in one eye and near-sighted in the other, and Dr. V inserted lenses that work with that difference. But she still does not see quite well enough for extended work at her desk, staring at her laptop computer and working with our personal financial and travel records, or reams of accounting printouts from the bakery. And while her distance vision is okay, the glasses will make it better, especially in her near-sighted eye. This will allow here to see better while in a vehicle, whether driving or as a passenger helping to read road signs.

We got a brochure in the mail today from Oceania Cruise Line (OCL). Oceania is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCL-H). Having sailed twice on NCL, they know who we are and they know where we live. OCL is a luxury cruise line featuring smaller ships than the ones we have been on (so far). Their cruises are commensurately pricey, so not something we have seriously considered. But just like the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs at Christmas (when we were kids), we went through the brochure to see what was on offer. They offer a lot of cruises in the Far East, including Australia and New Zealand, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean. But the one that caught our eye departed from Buenos Aires (Argentina) and ended in Santiago de Chile (Chile) with a 2-day stop in Antarctica and a trip around Cape Horn through the Drake Passage. The sailing dates were northern hemisphere winter, so southern hemisphere summer, when the Southern Ocean is not quite as fierce as it is in the southern winter. And it was on sale for what seemed to be a relatively good price. Setting foot on Antarctic continent is a true bucket list item for me, but it won’t happen in 2025 (we already have two big trips planned) and probably not in 2026 (when we plan to RV to Alaska). The 2025 trips are set in stone (as much as any trip can be) but 2026 is still just an unplanned intent.

I have been using the QCAD software package for a few years now. I made extensive use of it to design the barn, but I use it for other things as well. The basic version is open source and free to download and use, but the professional version unlocks some important features and provides access to updated versions as they become available. For $39 a year, having the professional version is a no-brainer for me. My current license expires this coming Sunday, so I went ahead and renewed it tonight. I always use PayPal for things like this, and it will be interesting to see how this hits my credit card. I selected $USD on the website/store but the invoice came up in $EUR. I don’t know if this was related to the worldwide CloudStrike/Windows outage, but the transaction completed successfully using PayPal. While processing this transaction, I discovered that my password app on my phone would not allow me to log in with my fingerprint. Humm; that was strange and annoying as this is how I usually open the app. I got the password from one of our other devices and logged in that way. In the app settings on my phone, the ability to biometrically authenticate (face scan or fingerprint) was turned OFF. I did not turn it off, so it probably got reset as part of an update. I really hate it when that happens.

Last, but not least, UPS delivered most of the Rockler Rock-Steady work stand components and kits. I knew these weighed quit a bit as all the pieces are steel and the driver confirmed this immediately upon arrival. I asked if would deliver them to the barn, and he was more than willing to do so. I helped him unload everything and get it into the barn. The delivery included two (2) Corner Stand kits (complete), and the following components for the five (5) 56” x 20” x32” Work Stands: 5 x 4-packs of 56” Stretchers, 5 x 4-packs of 20” Stretchers, 5 x 2-packs of 32” Center Supports, 5 x 4-packs of Stand Connectors, 10 x 2-packs of Drawer/Shelf Brackets, and 1 x 4-packs of 32” legs. Missing from the delivery were 4 x 4-packs of 32” leg sets for the five (5) 56” x 20” x 32” Work Stands. We checked the order on Rockler’s website and verified that they were still on backorder. Also, that we had only been charged for the pieces that actually shipped.

Saturday 20 … More yard work

I knew the refill date on my blood pressure medication was coming up soon, so I logged into my online pharmacy to check. I quickly discovered that they were going to automatically refill it, so nothing for me to do except wait for it to show up.

After coffee and breakfast, we got dressed to work in the yard. I had previously added enough material to our firepit to justify lighting a fire, and we knew there were enough tree limbs on the ground in the west yard to keep us busy for a few hours. Linda eventually turned her attention to weeding under the large stand of pine, and fir trees just NW of the house, which included cutting out saplings. We worked from 10:00 to 13:00 and put our tools away.

A shower and some lunch and we were good as new. I then settled in to work on blog posts and launder the bed linens while Linda made a new batch of her amazing granola. Our middle grand-daughter was due back today from a two-week stint at the YMCA camp, but we did not get a chance to Facetime with her. Dinner was the second go-around of the Mexican corn salad, and it was just as good as the first time. After dinner we settled in to watch our usual Saturday evening TV programs on our local PBS station.

The “Buck Moon” about 8 hours before it’s precise occurrence. This photo was taken a 10:20 PM, about 20 minutes after moonrise. The view is southeast from the end of our first driveway, the only place on our property that afforded an unobstructed view of the orb, and I had to wait for the disk to be above the tree line of the properties southeast of us. This is a long/night-mode handheld exposure that received more than my usual post-processing. In particular, I tried to make the details on the surface of the moon at least a little bit visible, while also bringing out some details in the surrounding clouds and the trees along the bottom of the image.

I had noticed for the past week that the moon was near full. A news headline popped up this morning about tonight being the “BUCK MOON,” the name given to the full moon in July. Online research indicated that in North America the name is ancient and spiritual, and refers to the time of year that male deer start to grow their antlers. The actual time of the Buck Moon was tomorrow morning, but we had an excellent view of the moon this evening, low in the southeast sky but above the trees. The weather was clear and the moon appeared very large and very bright.

Sunday 21 … Another BdW guest arrives

The exact time for the “Buck Moon” was 6:17 AM EDT, but we did not see it this morning; I was up, but the weather was cloudy. We also have trees in our yard, as do adjacent properties to the east and southeast, that obscure the eastern horizon, so we often cannot see a moonrise.

We continued our work on the property again today. Linda pulled weeds while I cut down one of the four (4) “bushes” that grow in the northeast portion of our yard. They are not attractive, consisting of a tangled mix of samplings, vines, and wild raspberries with plenty of thorns. Even mowing the grass near them requires some care.

When we had a sufficient pile of material in the burn bit I started the fire. I then switched my attention to the stand of large pine trees in the northeast corner of the property. I removed limbs and branches that were already on the ground, and then cleared a path around the east side of the stand. I then pruned a few of the lower/dead branches from the trunk of one of the trees. I hadn’t planned on pruning today, but we needed more/larger wood for the fire, and these were easy to get to and relatively close to the fire pit (compared to material from the western portion of the property.) We worked for about 3 hours and then called it quits.

BdW members Patrick & Ruth W. notified me around 17:30 that they would arrive at 20:30. Our preferred arrival window is between 13:00 and 17:00, but later times are okay as long as we know. Knowing they would not arrive for a while, we opened our BdW Hosting Profile in the HH-BW app and reviewed our information. We confirmed that our profile does state a preferred arrival window of 1 – 5 PM. As long as we were logged in, we made some minor edits to our information. I tend to error on the side of TMI, the error being that the more words you use the less likely most people are to actually read and retain all of them. Still, there are things guests need to know about our site and expectations. Linda then prepared a dinner meal of mushroom root steak, corn, baked sweet potato, and a small green salad with plant-based “blue cheese” dressing. Yum.

After dinner, we watched an episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot on PBS at 19:00 and then the latest episode of Martijn Doolard on Youtube at 19:50, which filled the time until 20:30 rather nicely. That meant we missed this week’s episode of Professor T (PBS) but we can stream that sometime this coming week. Our guests arrived on our street right at their ETA and phoned me. Linda came out with me and after I got them parked we had a brief welcoming chat before leaving them to make camp. We returned to our Sunday evening PBS TV programs and watched Grantchester at 21:00 and DI Ray at 22:00, both of which appeared to be the concluding episodes for this season. That might also be true of Professor T, but we won’t know until we watch it.

…

2016/03/04-06 (F–N) BTCRVR Conclusion

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2016/03/04 (F) Pre-departure Prep

I was up much later than normal last night trying to write my blog post for yesterday, get our network back online, and get my computer usable again. I managed to do all of that, and was finally able to check my e-mail and off-load the photos I took earlier in the day to my computer and back them up to our NAS. I saw some late night TV programs along the way and it was 2 AM when I finally got to bed. On the plus side, I was tired, fell asleep right away, and slept well until 6 AM when the rain and the cats woke me up. I got up, closed the roof vents, put a scoop of food in their bowls, and went back to bed.

Linda walks a lot but finds it difficult to just stand, and we did a lot of standing yesterday, both at the Edison Ford Estates and on the drive through the Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, so she was a bit sore and tired from yesterday’s outing. She got up around 7 AM this morning and I got up to stay an hour later. I made coffee and she toasted bagels, which we enjoyed with some of the vegan cream cheese she picked up the other day at Publix.

We only have three nights left for this winter season at Big Tree Carefree RV Resort (BTCRVR) and we have been trying to prepare for our departure on Monday in small increments. Chores that we accomplished before lunch included:

(B) Checking the bus tire pressures. I had to add 2.5 PSI to the passenger side steer tire. That required me to get the air compressor out, along with the hose and air-chuck, and then put it all away; a lot of work for 2.5 PSI, but it had to be done. It reminded me, however, of how much I would like to have a built-in high pressure air-compressor and tank with distribution lines running to the four corners of the bus and terminating in air hose fittings. That would allow me to just use a short (curly) air-hose that is easily moved to each position and takes very little space to store.
(B) Checking the windshield caulk. It was a mess and had water behind it that apparently kept it from setting up (curing) correctly. I tried to fix it by pressing the water out but that just made a bigger mess. I was going to test it for leaks with a hose but changed my mind after seeing the mess that was already there.
(B) E-mailing Pat and Vickie about the March 11 rocket launch at Cape Canaveral.
(L) Vacuuming the interior of the bus and mopping the floor.
(L) Cutting my hair.
(B) Calling Butch. He and Fonda were still in Quartzsite but planned to leave tomorrow or Sunday and take 3 to 4 weeks to get home. Butch was actually in Phoenix with a ham radio buddy on their way to the Ham Radio Outlet (HRO) store when I called but was able to chat for a while.

Lunch was vegan hot dogs and sliced apples. After lunch Linda got a text from her sister, Sr. Marilyn, informing us that her 50th Jubilee is scheduled for August 6 (this year). That immediately changed our plans for the second half of this coming summer and the first half of the fall. Our plan was to attend two RV rallies in the northeast U.S. and then visit the Prevost Car Inc. factory in Quebec enroute to the Canadian Maritimes, from which we would work our way back through New England in the early fall, arriving home by mid-October in time for Nickolas Guy-Erickson’s wedding on the 21st. I was going to call FMCA today and register for the national rally in Springfield, Massachusetts, but the dates are August 3 – 6, so that clearly was not going to work.

We are committed to attending the Escapees RV Club 56th Escapade in Essex Junction, Vermont, which starts Sunday, July 24th, as we are both working the event as staff. We will have to be there sooner, but do not know the exact date yet. Departure will be on Friday the 29th, which gives us plenty of time to make it to St. Louis, Missouri before the Jubilee. Still, the news suddenly left us with a whole lot of new decisions to make. It will also allow us to attend the August CCO/GLCC Back-to-the-Bricks Rally in Clio, Michigan, and the September GLCC Surplus & Salvage Rally in Elkhart, Indiana. Indeed, it opens up the possibility of building the barn this summer and/or having Daryl Mech, from DCM Heating and Cooling, install a new air-conditioning system for the house. The one thing we knew for sure was that we were not going to travel from Vermont all the way to Missouri and then turn around and head to Quebec or the Maritimes. That will have to wait for some other year.

Our afternoon chores included doing the laundry and updating my iPad, which I did while waiting for the laundry. But first I loaded up a few additional recyclables and drove over to the Turner Center to drop them off. There was some sort of problem at the NW corner of FL-70 and Turner Avenue that involved police, fire, and EMS vehicles and personnel, and had traffic tied up in every direction. I managed to make the turn from westbound FL-70 onto Turner (which only goes north from there) but decided not to return by that route. I headed east from the Turner Center but was not able to cut through Arcadia Village as the north (rear) entrance is gated. The first available north-south road that went through to FL-70 was many miles farther east, but it made for a nice drive in the country. I stopped at Walmart for grapes and bananas before returning to our RV resort.

We had planned to go swimming in the late afternoon and then take showers but it did not work out that way. I would normally dump the two holding tanks before we travel, but I did not want to this time as I want to slosh the ingredients around on the drive from Arcadia to Webster. As such, I am trying to get them reasonably full, but not so full that I have to dump them.

For dinner Linda made nice, large salads. After dinner Linda went down to Mara’s motorhome to take care of her cats. I called Chuck but he did not pick up so I left him a message. Friday night TV is a bit of a wasteland so I edited the last few blog posts for November 2015. I then selected a photo that Linda took of me standing in front of a Mysore Fig tree at the Edison Ford Estates to use in her next PhotoPostCard for Madeline. She also made a post card for our grandniece, Lilly, using the photo of the baby alligators from Everglades National Park. I found a photo of Lilly that her mom, my niece Amanda, had taken and set that to Linda to use to make a “sticker” to put on the photo post card. I decided to purchase a license (lifetime) for the Faststone Image Viewer software and took care of that.

When Linda returned from her cat sitting duties we made the bed, had a few grapes and a small glass of wine (Barefoot Riesling), and turned in for the night.

2016/03/05 (S) Mara & Michael Return

It was pleasantly cool last night, with temperatures in the 60’s at bedtime and headed towards an overnight low in the upper 50’s; in other words, perfect sleeping weather. And sleep we did. Linda got a text message from Mara letting us know that she and Michael were waiting to disembark from the cruise ship and indicating that they had a wonderful time. They were planning on stopping at a Whole Foods Market and wanted to know if Linda needed anything. Linda requested plum vinegar, seitan, and vegan ricotta cheese, items we cannot find in Arcadia.

Linda got up around 8:15 AM and showered. I got up at 8:30 AM, made our coffee, and then took my shower. As a result of these showers, which we were going to take at the shower house, I am going to have to make some decisions today or tomorrow relative to dumping our holding tanks and adding fresh water. We don’t need very much fresh water in the on-board tank for the trip to Florida Grande Motor Coach Resort in Webster on Monday and I would like to dispense with that weight in favor of keeping the black- and gray-water tanks mostly full. The idea is that the motion of the coach will create an agitation effect which will help clean the tanks. (I don’t really expect that it to happen, but it’s worth a shot.)

We had a slow leisurely morning as we lingered over our coffee and had granola with blueberries and bananas for breakfast. Linda and Mara arranged for the four of us to have dinner together this evening so she made a grocery list. I downloaded a new game named Wood Puzzle and tried it. It’s a little bit like Tetris, but without constantly moving pieces, so it was somewhat fun. I was never a big fan of Tetris.

Linda left at 10:30 AM to tend to Mara’s cats and then walk to the Winn-Dixie supermarket. I got dressed, checked my e-mail, got the registration code for Faststone Image Viewer, and entered it into the software. I checked the notifications in RVillage and visited the RVillage Stakeholders Group. Curtis had posted a link to an “explainer video” so I e-mailed the link to our iPads. I then gathered up the bedspread and large bath towels and headed to the laundry room.

While I was waiting for the laundry I finished yesterday’s blog post, uploaded it to our Dropbox, started today’s post, and played a few games. The laundry was finally dry at 1:30 PM and I returned to our coach. Linda had already returned, done some prep work for dinner, and was out walking around the resort when I returned. She wanted to shop at Joshua Citrus one more time before we left so she drove there while I settled in to work on uploading blog posts! My goal was to upload the remaining posts for October 2015, starting with the one for the 21st. I accomplished that goal just before 6 PM.

Mara and Michael got back to Big Tree Carefree RV Resort mid-late afternoon and arrived at our coach for dinner at 6:30 PM. Linda found a recipe for vegan Parmesan cheese and made some earlier in the day. She used it to make a kale salad with almonds and a lemon dressing. It was outstanding. The main course was a quinoa and black beans dish that she has made before. It was served hot and was a good choice for a cool evening. She bought an Alamos Malbec wine (Argentina) and a bottle of Barefoot Moscato, but I was the only one drinking white wine so I finished the Barefoot Riesling we opened earlier this week. Dessert was non-dairy chocolate ice cream with fresh sliced strawberries.

We had a good chat about Mara and Michael’s experience on the Holistic Holiday at Sea cruise. There were a few speakers that we heard on the two cruises we went on, but an equal number of new speakers that we have not had the opportunity to hear in person. Mara bought four cookbooks and left them for Linda to peruse. It was very satisfying for us that that they had such a good experience since we were the ones that got Mara interested in the cruise and she got Michael to come along.

They left a little before 9 PM and walked back to Mara’s rig. We watched an episode of Lucifer and then parts of two different fundraiser concerts on PBS; Brit Floyd and The BeeGees One Night Only.

2016/03/06 (N) Last Day Here

The cats were prowling by 6 AM so I got up, added food to their bowls, plugged in the charging cable for our Verizon Mi-Fi, and went back to bed. It was already getting light and the birds were starting to chirp as if their calls were somehow responsible for the rising of the sun. Squirrels and rabbits were, no doubt, scurrying about on the ground around our rig, as Juniper was taking it all in with her usual morning intensity. Juniper got under the covers between us for a while and we drifted in and out of sleep in rhythm with the cats activities until 7:30 AM when we finally got out of bed to stay.

It was a bit chilly in our motorcoach, so I put on my sweats and slippers. I made our morning coffee and then settled in on the sofa with my iPad and monogrammed throw. I was joined by Jasper and later by Juniper as we listened to the Mockingbirds and Crows and watched the Vultures soar just above the trees as they headed out on their daily search for food. Linda perused the cookbooks that Mara left, looking for recipes, while I put the finishing touches on yesterday’s blog post and started on today’s.

Today was our last full day at Big Tree Carefree RV Resort (BTCRVR) in Arcadia, Florida and we did not have any big plans other than a trip to one of the local supermarkets and dinner with our friends, Mara and Michael. Mara and Linda definitely wanted to use the swimming pool one last time. We leave tomorrow morning and Mara and Michael are pulling out on Tuesday. We are headed north about 100 miles to Florida Grande Motor Coach Resort near Webster, Florida. Mara and Michael are headed north a much shorter distance to the Thousand Trails Preserve in Wauchula on the Peace River. We plan to meet up with them again in Winter Haven for a quintessentially “old Florida” water skiing show. They might also drive over to Jetty Park while we are there to see a rocket launch, assuming it actually lifts off as scheduled on the 22nd. It is an Atlas 5 resupply mission for the International Space Station, so it would be quite an experience.

BTCRVR has been a nice, comfortable place to spend a couple of months this winter and has provided the base of operations we hoped it would for exploring south and southwest Florida. The resort is a bit older with approximately 80% park model trailers, and I estimate that more than 90% of the units here never move. It is a 55+ community, but most of the residents are quite a bit older than that. It is a clean, well-kept, and attractive park, however, with nice facilities and very friendly people.

Big Tree is also an active park, with regularly scheduled events every day (morning, afternoon, and evening) as well as special events like concerts, dinners, and dances. These activities are well attended from what we saw, and lots of folks walk, ride their bicycles (and tricycles) every day, and use the swimming pool. Many permanent residents have their own washer and dryer so I never had a problem getting our laundry done in the laundry room. Although the park did not have a distributed Wi-Fi system, it did have free Wi-Fi available at the office/activity building and we made use of it for downloading updates for our smartphones, iPads, and notebook computers. Given that we updated both of our computers from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 while we were here, the Wi-Fi was very much appreciated, allowing us to use our 12 GB Verizon data plan for routine tasks such as e-mail, banking, visiting websites, browsing for information, and transferring files, all of which we prefer to do in the comfort of our coach.

I took care of sending an e-mail to a dozen friends and family members and then settled in to upload blog posts starting with November 1, 2015. Linda went to the swimming pool at 12:30 PM and I joined her there at 3 PM. Mara and Linda were sun bathing when I arrived but joined me in the shallow end of the pool where we sloshed around and chatted about the whole-food plant-based approach to human nutrition and our travel plans for the next year or so. We were soaking in the hot tub / whirlpool when Michael arrived and pulled up a chair. We all chatted briefly and then Linda and I took showers and returned to our coach. We called our son-in-law, Chris, to wish him a happy birthday. I then resumed uploading blog posts. By 5:30 PM I had uploaded the posts through November 12, 2105 and stopped. We were due at Mara’s rig at 6:30 PM for dinner so I took a short nap.

Linda gathered up Mara’s WFPB cookbooks and we walked over to her rig at 6:25 PM. Michael served the wine and we chatted for an hour while Mara pulled dinner together. She made a salad of julienned vegetables with a sesame seed dressing. The main dish was quinoa, lentils, sweet potatoes, and broccoli. Dessert was a chocolate mousse made with avocado, banana, and cocoa and served with fresh raspberries and a piece of dark chocolate. Seriously, with food like that why wouldn’t you be a vegan?

It was going on 9 PM by the time we finished dinner so we stayed and watched the final episode of Downton Abbey. All’s well that ends well, I suppose, and the final two hours of the series did, indeed, end well. It was one of the most popular (most viewed?) programs ever to air on PBS, and deservedly so. Fortunately there is a lot of quality programming available on the PBS channels and Masterpiece Theatre, along with Masterpiece Mysteries, will no doubt continue to draw large numbers of viewers in the years to come.

When we walked back to our motorcoach at 10:50 PM the night air was very crisp, the sky dark and clear, and the stars very bright. Orion hung high in the southwest sky and the Big Dipper claimed the northeast quadrant. If not for the light pollution of the RV resort it was the kind of night where we might have seen the Milky Way. Back at the coach we put on a PBS program about the WW II WASPs (Women’s Airforce Service Pilots) and one women in particular who went on to continue flying into her late 80’s and logged over 40,000 hours of flight time before she stopped recording it. We are moving to a new RV resort tomorrow so I had the lights out before midnight and quickly drifted off to sleep.

2016/01/01 (F) – 2016/01/05 (T)

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2016/01/01 (F) A Short Move

We got to back to our coach around 1 AM last night but I did not go to sleep until almost 2 AM so we slept in a bit longer than usual this morning. The rally ended at midnight so there was no breakfast or organized activities this morning. I wandered around the rally venue taking pictures of buses as they pulled out or were now easier to photograph because adjacent buses had moved out of the way. The departure of rigs from a rally is always interesting. It is an asynchronous, unmanaged event that is none-the-less generally very orderly. There is never a rush for the exit as RVs leave one-by-one except for occasional groups that are traveling together.

Linda strolls along one of the rows of converted buses at the Arcadia Rally 2016.

My wandering eventually took me to the north end of the venue where Dave Aungier’s 1977 MCI MC-5C bus conversion was parked. As I had expected the local NAPA store was not open today so David was unable to get the new oil pressure gauge he needed. He did not plan on sticking around until tomorrow to get the part and was basically ready to leave as soon as I photographed his coach. After a brief discussion we agreed that he would pull it out onto the main exit road facing south so I could photograph it in good light and without a lot of clutter around it. I went back to my coach to get my wide angle lens and additional batteries while he moved the bus. After shooting the exterior, bays, and interior we exchanged contact information and Dave was on his way back to his home RV park in Zephyrhills, Florida.

Departure day at the Arcadia Rally 2016.

After I was done with Dave’s bus I captured a few exterior images of Ronnie and Diann Mewbourn’s 1969 Model 07 Eagle that I was not able to get yesterday. I sat and chatted with them for a bit and gave them my contact information. Although they were not leaving until tomorrow they were getting ready to go explore the area and check out several options for where to camp next. At this point I had taken all of the rally photos I was going to take and went back to our coach to help Linda prepare it for our departure.

A late 1940’s GMC bus, with some of its original Greyhound markings, preparing to leave the Arcadia Rally 2016.

After having a light lunch we finished prepping our coach to travel and pulled out at 1 PM for the short trip to Big Tree Carefree RV Resort (BTCRVR) in Arcadia. Linda drove the car and followed me over. Once we were in the resort she went ahead of me to find the office and get us registered. While she was doing that two guys showed up in a golf cart. They made a phone call and then had me follow them to the office. From there they escorted me to site #K-2 and got me parked. It was a somewhat narrow back-in site but they got me positioned just right.

Linda went back to the office to finish our registration and extended our stay until March 7th. The Holistic Holiday at Sea cruise returns to the Port of Miami on March 5th and we have to pick up Michael and Mara and then get him back to the Tampa airport and get her back to the resort. We will have the 6th to visit with Mara and then be on the move.

While Linda was taking care of our registration I leveled the bus and shut it down. I got the shorepower connected but was surprised that the no load voltage on L1 was only 115 VAC and that L2 was even lower at 111 VAC. It was warm and humid but running our air-conditioners with those voltages might be a problem as our Progressive Industries EMS might cut off the shorepower if it dropped any lower.

When Linda got back we deployed all of the awnings. A frog dropped from the driver side forward awning onto the grass when we opened it. It was unharmed and hopped off somewhere. While we were setting up we met Ron and Vera, who have the site just south of ours, as they were out washing their trailer.

With the voltage at our site lower than I liked I decided not to run the air conditioners. We opened all the windows and roof vents and turned on all three exhaust fans plus an inside fan. We endured a rather warm/humid afternoon with just the natural ventilation, helped a little by a southwesterly breeze coming in the driver side windows. Our coach is parked facing southwest, so we are getting the afternoon sun.

Lots of residents walked or rode their bikes past our site. Most waved and/or said “hello” and a few stopped to chat. Conrad and Bonnie visited for quite a while and shared a lot of information with us about the resort and especially its activities, which are apparently numerous. Big Tree RV Resort is a Carefree Resorts property and promotes itself as an active adult community. Early evidence suggested that this might, indeed, be the case.

By late afternoon I was tired and uncomfortable so I took a nap. Once the sun dropped below the trees it cooled off enough that we took a leisurely stroll around the resort to get a sense of the layout and the people. We almost always do this when we arrive at any new campground, even if we are only going to be there for one night. Lots of folks were out walking or riding their bicycles. More than a few had strong French accents and we noticed quite a few license plates from Quebec Province in Canada.

Back at our rig Linda made vegan pancakes for dinner and served them with fresh blueberries and real maple syrup. We had pineapple later for dessert and a small glass of wine while we watched the first episode of the new season of Sherlock on PBS. Linda went to bed as soon as the program was over. Since I took a nap earlier I stayed up for a while, checked us into the resort on RVillage, and tried to fill in missing information for my blog posts from December 30th and 31st. Eventually I was unable to keep my eyes open and went to sleep.

2016/02/02 (S) Big Tree Carefree RV Resort

It was very foggy last night by the time I went to bed but had dissipated somewhat by dawn. We slept in and got up at 8:30 AM. Linda got a shower while I made coffee and then I got my shower and trimmed my beard shorter than usual. We had coffee, juice, and granola with blueberries for breakfast and split a banana.

After breakfast we drove to downtown Arcadia to visit the farmers market. Although rain was not forecast for today it was misting when we left so we took our rain coats. It was a good thing that we did as the mist got heavier as we got to downtown. There were only a few vendors in the square and none of them were selling fresh produce so we did not buy anything. There was a vendor with lots of pickled products that looked interesting so we may buy something from him at the next farmers market in two weeks. We walked around the block and back to our car and then drove back to the resort on the east edge of town about two miles from downtown.

We lost a decorative lug nut cover off of the passenger side of the coach yesterday just after I turned onto eastbound FL-70. Linda looked for it as we drove by but did not spot it.

Back at the coach Linda vacuumed the interior, wet mopped the floor, and then went for a walk. I decided to get a short article written about the Arcadia Rally 2016 for Bus Conversion Magazine while it was still fresh in my mind and before we got busy exploring this part of Florida. First, I transferred my photos from the last few days to my computer and organized them. Next, I set up the folder and sub-folders for the article, opened my article template (Word), and wrote a page of text. I then started selecting and processing photographs and, except for a few breaks, that is what I did for most of the day.

When Linda returned from her walk she made a grocery list and then took the car to Walmart. The Walmart is directly opposite the entrance to the resort on the south side of FL-70, which is the main east-west highway through Arcadia. FL-70 is a divided road at this point so to get to the Walmart we have turn right and go west on FL-70 and then make a U-turn, which is legal here, or make a left onto southbound US-31 and then go in the west entrance. To get back to the resort we can exit the Walmart at a traffic light and turn left onto westbound FL-70 and then immediately turn right into the resort entrance. If we are coming east from west of the resort entrance we must make a U-turn at the traffic light in front of the Walmart of a little farther to the east. The traffic signal also serves a much larger residential development just east of the resort and there is a crosswalk, so we can walk to Walmart if we do not expect to have a lot to carry back.

When Linda got back and had the groceries put away we had chickpea salad on greens for lunch. During the afternoon I took a break from working on my article to hook up the water softener. Back inside I wanted to back up my most recent photos but my computer could not “see” the NAS. I ended up shutting down everything and restarting it a particular order: WFR, A|W router, NAS, and lastly computer. That reset the connections (IP addresses) and I was able to get back to work.

I had been sitting most of the day so we went for an evening stroll before dinner. Back at the coach Linda made a zoodles “pasta” with mushrooms, onions, garlic, broccoli, turmeric, and flax seed. After dinner we decided to do our laundry so we gathered up clothes and bedding, loaded the laundry into the car, and drove it to the resort laundromat, which is located in the same building as the office, library, and activities/meeting room. We loaded four washers and then four dryers. We took our iPads with us and doodled while we waited. There was a good, free Wi-Fi signal at the building so we may take advantage of that while we are here.

After the laundry was done, folded, and hung up we watched America Reframed: A Will To The Woods on PBS/2. It was a program about the “green burial” movement and one man’s determination to have a green burial if/when he succumbed to non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He did and got his wish. It was a well done documentary.

2016/01/03 (N) Another Article

A cold front drifted southeast through our location yesterday afternoon bringing with it cooler temperatures and an increased probability of rain. We left the windows open just an inch but I closed all three roof vents before we went to bed. We slept in this morning because we did not have any pressing reason to get up. When we did arise I made coffee and Linda eventually fixed toast and grapefruit for our breakfast.

Linda needed something that she forgot to buy at Walmart yesterday so she walked there to get it. When she got back she headed out to continue her walk in the resort but the rain finally came and she quickly returned to our coach. Once it started it was persistent and heavy at times. We eventually discovered that the skylight in the hallway was leaking which did not make either of us very happy.

I settled in early and spent the whole day working on projects related to the Arcadia Rally. I processed all of the photos of Dave Aungier’s 1977 MCI MC-5C bus conversion and inserted a few of them into a Word doc to serve as an example. I uploaded the photos and the Word document to a folder in my Dropbox and e-mailed Dave the read-only link. I selected and processed a few photos for rally organizers Bill and Brenda Phelan, uploaded those to another Dropbox folder, and e-mailed them the read-only link. I then focused on my article about the rally for Bus Conversion Magazine (BCM), finishing the draft of the print version around 9 PM. I uploaded it to the BCM folder in my Dropbox and e-mailed the publisher, editor, and layout technician. I still need to upload cover and centerfold photos and then select, process, and upload photos for the bonus content section of the digital edition.

During the course of the day I took breaks for lunch and dinner. Lunch was a really tasty cannelloni bean salad with capers, olives, lemon zest, raw garlic, and other tasty ingredients. Dinner was a salad of power greens with couscous, cooked beets, blueberries, and orange segments.

I also e-mailed Pat Lintner and texted Chuck Spera to see if they had arrived at the Florida destinations. Linda was playing online word games with her sister (Sr. Marilyn) and with Karen Limkemann, and thereby learned that Karen and Steve had arrived at their new place near Venice, Florida where they were busy assembling furniture they just purchased at IKEA. She also exchanged text messages with both of our children regarding our mailing address while we are at Big Tree Carefree RV Resort (BTCRVR) and a few items we needed them to forward on to us. When we checked out the mail room yesterday we discovered that every site at the resort has a cubby and management had already placed a tag on ours with our last name on it. That was a nice touch and made us feel just that much more welcome even though we will only be here for a little over two months.

After dinner we turned on the TV and tuned in Part 1 of Ken Burns’ film on Prohibition on PBS/World. We switched to PBS/main and watched the first episode of the sixth and final season of Downton Abby. At the conclusion of the episode we switched back to Prohibition. There was still a chance for rain through tonight, and overnight low temperatures were forecast to drop to around 50 degrees F for the next few nights, so we left the roof vents closed and the windows barely open and went to bed.

2016/01/04 (M) Unblocked

The overnight low dropped into the upper 40’s last night and made for nice sleeping conditions. As sometimes happens with me when I do not have a clock-regulated schedule to keep, my awake/sleep cycle slowly shifts as I stay up a little later each night and get up a little later each morning. I did not go to sleep last night until after 1 AM and we both got up this morning between 8:30 and 9 to pleasantly cool temperatures in the coach and bright, sunny skies outside.

As we were getting dressed we discovered that an old leak in the bedroom was still leaking. The wall just below the front corner of the passenger side window was wet. Linda’s house slippers were stored on top of the OTR HVAC duct cover and also got wet. That’s how we discovered that we still have a problem. Like the other leaks around windows I am convinced that the problem is the way the awnings were originally installed by Royale Coach. They were mounted to the hinged body panels that hold the windows and I think the gaskets for these panels were damaged in the process. Whatever the reason it is very discouraging that we still have leaks in the coach. The other possibility was that the water was getting in around the Fan-Tastic roof vent/fan and then running through the ceiling to the side wall and down.

I got our Verizon Mi-Fi/WiFi-Ranger combo online and then made coffee while Linda cooked oatmeal for our breakfast. We doodled on our iPads for a while and I renewed my subscription to the RFinder World Wide Repeater Directory. It was only $9.99/year and they had a holiday renewal special extending it to 18 months. I have this app on my Android-based Samsung Galaxy III Smartphone.

My focus for today was to work on the FMCA Freethinkers Chapter website and then unlock the public pages. I received an e-mail from chapter president Bob Pelc recently that prompted me to take care of this and it took most of the day except for beaks to eat and go for a couple of walks, one after lunch and one after dinner.

It was a beautiful, sunny day with lower humidity, a light breeze, and a high of 69 degrees F. While walking, we met Gary and Pat a few sites down from us. They came in yesterday and have a house back in Michigan about three miles from ours. It’s a small world.

We stopped in the office so I could see it and Pat greeted me by name. Since we had never met that caught me by surprise. She recognized/remembered Linda from when she registered us and made the assumption about who I was. She and her husband, Jim, manage the park. Jim was one of the two guys who led me to the site and got us parked. Pat said she wanted to see our bus and we invited her to stop by anytime. We have overheard a couple of comments and had a few conversations that suggest folks are curious about our bus and word of its presence has spread through the resort.

Lunch was hummus and dark leafy greens sandwiches with oranges and grapes. Dinner was pan-seared tofu slices on a bed of dark leafy greens with Asian peanut sauce and apple slices. Both meals were very tasty.

I got an unexpected call from Kathy Dewsbury-White, executive director of the Michigan Assessment Consortium. We had not spoken it quite some time so it was a pleasant surprise. After our evening walk we settled in to watch our usual Monday evening TV programs. Having worked all day at my computer I was not in the humor to even doodle on my iPad. We watched the 11 PM news long enough to known the world is falling apart, and switched to the local weather channel (same station) which forecast sunny days ahead. There wasn’t anything on any of the PBS channels we wanted to see so we were in bed and asleep by 11:30 PM.

2016/01/05 (T) 1969 Model 07 Eagle

We were up at 7:30 AM this morning. The temperature overnight fell into the upper 40’s and it was 64 degrees F in the coach so we put on our sweats. I made coffee and turned on the Aqua-Hot long enough to raise the temperature to 69 degrees and take the chill off of the interior. We had granola, blueberries, and a banana for breakfast, along with juice, and then doodled on our iPads while we finished our coffee. I renewed my subscription the RFinder World Wide Repeater Directory yesterday and reset my password this morning so I could use the website and Android app on my phone. I searched for repeaters within 20 miles of our location. There appeared to be two in Arcadia but many more west and south of us in Punta Gorda, Murdock, Venice, and Port Charlotte. At 10 AM we took showers, got dressed, and then got to work.

Our bus in its winter 2016 home on site K2 at Big Tree Carefree RV Resort in Arcadia, FL.

Linda was checking e-mail and noticed that the PayPal receipt for the RFinder annual subscription had been processed as a monthly payment. It’s only $9.99, but yikes! just the same. I e-mailed the folks at RFinder (Suffolk Systems) and also filed a complaint with PayPal. I knew the folks at RFinder would straighten it out but my complaint was really with PayPal. Their e-mail had instructions for dealing with this that did not correspond to their website. Not helpful.

The first order of business for me was dumping the holding tanks and filling the fresh water tank. Once that was done my main focus today was roughing out a featured bus article for Bus Conversions Magazine on Ronnie and Diann Mewbourn’s 1969 Model 07 Eagle bus conversion. They had their bus at the Arcadia Rally last week and I was able to interview them and photograph it. They were there two years ago but I was not able to do an article on their bus at that time.

“K” row at Big Tree Carefree RV Resort, Arcadia, FL.

Linda took her exercise walk in the morning. When she got back we had mock deli sandwiches for lunch and then went for a stroll around the resort. After our stroll we drove to the Joshua Citrus Company location a couple of miles south of the RV resort. We bought a few things for ourselves and picked up a brochure describing the assortments of fruit they package and ship. We want to ship some fresh citrus fruit to our family members back in Michigan while we are here.

While we were at Joshua Citrus I got a call from Bob Greenberg, W2CYK, at RFinder regarding my e-mail and PayPal complaint. He explained what I needed to do to correct the error. When we got back to our rig I canceled the PayPal complaint and then cancelled the subscription (recurring payment). RFinder will e-mail me in June 2017 to remind me that I need to renew. I can set up an annual subscription at that time if I want to.

Self-portrait in a wide angle traffic mirror. (Big Tree RV Resort, Arcadia, FL)

For dinner Linda made black-eyed peas with celery, bell pepper, onion, garlic, and hot pepper flakes. She served it with open-faced Boca “burgers” (vegan) and corn. We went for another stroll after dinner. The high temperature today only reached the lower 70’s, and cooled off quickly after the sun set, so we each bundled up a bit (me more than her) to avoid getting chilled. When we got back to our rig I was done with computer-based work for the day and settled in to watch our Tuesday evening TV programs. After catching a little bit of the local news and weather we both went to sleep.

2015/12/18 (F) MEF3 @ 3

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It rained off and on all night with a heavy downpour around 5:30 AM. Once again we did not close up the coach and run the air-conditioners so the bedding was a bit damp, but we slept through the night and did not get up until after 8 AM.

I took care of the cat chores and then made a full pot of coffee. We used our iPads, as we do almost every morning, while we enjoyed our morning brew and finally had half of a grapefruit (each) for breakfast around 9:30. It was in the upper 60’s when I got up but was forecast to drop to 55 degrees F by dinner time and into the upper 30’s overnight. Burrr.

I took a few pictures yesterday at the Breezy Oaks Music Jam so my first task today was to copy those to my computer and back them up to the NAS. I then continued working on selecting and processing photos for blog posts and spent most of the rest of the day doing just that except for some time out for lunch, a mid-afternoon stroll, and dinner.

Today was our younger grand-daughter’s third birthday. Our daughter and son-in-law went to our son and daughter-in-law’s house this evening for Madeline’s birthday and Linda arranged for us to Facetime while they were all there. We initiated the call at 6:35 PM and Facetimed for almost 30 minutes. We got to see Madeline open the gifts we bought for her and interact with her and everyone else.

We had closed up the windows and changed into warmer clothes for the fire circle before we made the Facetime call so as soon as we were done with “happy birthday” we got our sweatshirts and wine supplies and headed for the firepit. There were already folks there but there were also empty seats, the cooler weather keeping some folks away (which made no sense to us; it’s a FIREpit after all). John was tending the fire but Ali was not there yet. Tom and Cindy were there and I took the open chair next to Tom.

We were at the campfire until 10 PM when John had to go lock up and Ali was ready to go in for the night. I spread out the remaining fire logs and then we walked back to our bus in the cool night air. The temperature in the coach was 74 when we left and had dropped to 70 by the time we returned. We both changed into our warmer lounging clothes (sweats), turned on the TV, and nibbled on pretzels and hummus. Linda trundled off to bed around 11:30 PM but I stayed up a bit longer.

I checked e-mail and had one from Technomadia about their latest Mobile Internet Aficionados report on mobile cellular boosters. I logged in to read it and discovered that our MIA membership had expired in August so I renewed it online. I read the report and then went to bed where I wrote briefly on my iPad.

The outside temperature had already dropped to 45 degrees F but Linda had turned on the electric heater pad on my side of the bed before going to sleep so it was nice and toasty. The overnight low was forecast to drop to 36 degrees which meant the inside temperature would drop to around 60; not freezing cold, but chilly enough that we would need the furnace for a while in the morning. I went to sleep around 12:30 AM.

2015/12/07 (M) Not on Vacation

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I set my iPad alarm clock last night for 5:30 AM. As soon as the alarm went off Jasper got up next to me on the outside edge of my side of the bed, snuggled in by chest, and wanted to be petted at great length. I obliged him for as long as I could and was rewarded with his loud, resonant purring, which I could feel as much as hear. I still managed to get out of bed by 5:45, feed the cats, get dressed, and be on my way by 6:08.

It’s only 75 miles from Williston to Suncoast Designers in Hudson, but the first few miles were a slow roll through the RV resort to the front gate followed by the short trip through downtown with a 35 MPH speed limit and several stop lights. After a short distance on US-41 south I picked up FL-115 heading west. A few miles past the airport it made a large sweeping turn to the south and continued on that heading for about 17 miles at 60 MPH until it joined up with to US-19. I continued south on US-19 at 65 MPH for another 20 miles. At that point it felt like I was making good time but I knew what was ahead as I had driven this route several times when we were here in 2014.

US-19 gets closer to the Gulf of Mexico the farther south you go, and with that closeness comes an increasing presence of people. The first population center I came to was the charming little “Suncoast” town of Crystal River, followed by Ingless, Homosassa Springs, Weeki Wachi, and then finally Hudson. These towns all have much lower speed limits and stop lights, and they get larger and closer together the farther south you go. The side of the road changes from forest and farm to intermittent small businesses, then continuous shall businesses, and then suburban commerce that extends back from the main road until you reach Hudson which is a far northern suburb in the greater Tampa / St. Petersburg metropolitan area. From Weeki Wachi on south US-19 is six lanes with a median, is lined with commercial properties, and has lots of traffic.

I arrived at Suncoast Designers a little before 8 AM so the trip took about an hour and 45 minutes. I checked in at the office and they had someone meet me at the factory door to take the window and label it with my name. We had this thermopane window repaired in April 2014 but the new seal did not hold. Getting it repaired was one of our reasons for returning to Florida this winter. Not the main reason, of course, but a factor in our decision. I was back in my car and on the way home by 8:20 AM. I will have to come back tomorrow to pick it up.

On the drive down I spotted a Dunkin Donuts about 10 miles north of Hudson on the west side of US-19 so I stopped there on the way back for a large coffee. I had also seen quite a few filling stations between Crystal River and Hudson, many of them Shell stations, so I picked one that had easy access and regular gasoline (10% Ethanol) for $2.03 per gallon, cash or credit.

I remembered seeing an Office Max and pulled in when I spotted it. By now it was well after 9 AM and businesses were open. They had several different weights of expensive color laser photo paper but nothing like that in 8.5×14 (legal) size. I did not need to have the paper today so I did not buy any. I really do not want to redo our Holiday Letter for 8.5×11 paper so I will check online and see what I can get. There was a Rural King at the same mall complex as the Office Max so I bought two bags of Spectracide Fire Ant Killer. I also got a bag of free popcorn, which is available at all Rural King stores. More places should do that, I think.

It was going on 11 AM by the time I got back to the coach. Linda had been up since 7 AM and was ready to set her cross-stitch project aside and go for a walk. I had been sitting for the better part of five hours so that sounded good to me. We went for a vigorous stroll through the resort and arrived back at our coach ready for lunch. Linda heated up a couple of vegan hot dogs and served them on the large whole wheat buns with mustard and relish.

After lunch I installed updates on the FMCA Freethinkers chapter website, the FMCA GLCC chapter website, and our personal website. I then took snapshots in Adobe Reader CC of the covers of the BCM issues for July through December 2015, post-processed the covers, and uploaded them to the BCM page on our website along with brief descriptions of my articles that appeared in each issue. I finished inserting photos into the OASIS Combi article I’ve been working on for BCM and will upload it to our Dropbox and e-mail Butch this evening.

It was a gorgeous day so we sat outside for a while and I worked on this post. That is one of the things I really like about my iPad. An earlier e-mail from Gary indicated that my package was out for delivery today. I was about to get in my car and drive to the office when Joe and Teresa from Brighton, Michigan stopped in their golf cart to chat. When they went on their way I dropped off the recyclables on my way to the office, picked up the box of magazines (which was heavy), and returned to the coach.

I worked some more on this post on my iPad but by 5:30 PM I had been up for 12 hours on too little sleep so I took a nap until 6:15 PM when Linda woke me up to have dinner. For dinner Linda made a green salad with fresh blueberries and strawberries and made black bean smothered sweet potatoes. Besides the black beans, the topping had tomatoes, scallions, cumin, and coriander and was finished off with a dollop of vegan sour cream. Yum, yum, yum.

We watched the PBS NewsHour, another thing we typically never do, but then we do a lot of things differently when we are away from home. We then watched our usual Monday night TV programs on CBS. Even when we are away some things don’t change. We are not “on vacation” after all. We don’t go on vacation to get bus windows repaired. In fact, we no longer go on vacation, we simply blend new experiences into our everyday lives. Such is the nature of retirement as extended-time RVers in a converted bus.

2015/12/05 (S) Saturday Night Fire Circle

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I was awake at 6:30 AM and finally got up at 7:15. I fed the cats and cleaned their litter tray, both of which are chores but I don’t mind doing them. I sat on the sofa with the heater pad on my lower right back and finished yesterday’s blog post draft. Linda got up at 8 AM having been awake since I got up. At 8:20 I was going to make coffee but Juniper climbed in my lap so Linda took care of that chore, which is certainly one of our more pleasurable.

Linda worked on her counted cross-stitch project and I worked on our Holiday Letter all morning. I had a finished draft by lunch time and Linda read through it. I have it set up for 8.5×14 inch legal size paper, but printing it that way will depend on whether we can get high quality glossy color laser paper in that size.

Linda reheated the last of the red beans and rice for lunch after which I washed some grapes. After lunch Linda continued to work on her project and I turned my attention to another article for Bus Conversion Magazine.

I had some correspondence with the publisher, Gary, yesterday regarding my article on servicing the Webasto burner bearings and decided to finish my article on Butch Williams’ installation of an International Thermal Research OASIS Combi in their MCI MC-9 NJT bus conversion. The work was done in October and November 2014 and the article was basically written in January 2015 but I had not selected or processed any of the photos.

I read through the article, highlighted several places with missing information, and rewrote some things. I then selected 36 photos and started processing them. The processing involved various adjustments such as alignment, lighting, and color followed by resizing and sharpening in two different sizes. The larger size is typically 1900 x 1272 pixels as that will fill the screen of a 17 inch monitor and I don’t feel a larger size is needed or supported by the level of detail in the images. The smaller size is typically 300×200 pixels. I embed the smaller images at the end of the Word document with the image number and a caption. I used to embed them into the article but the editor and layout person need the ability to fit them into the layout and I ultimately developed enough confidence in them to do that. This is always subject to change, however, as is everything connected with this magazine.

We had dinner at 5 PM, earlier than usual. Linda made a nice green salad, sautéed and lightly glazed some baby carrots, and heated some Amy’s vegan macaroni and cheese. The reason for the early dinner was the holiday parade down Main Street in Williston at 6 PM. We left at 5:30 and walked to the corner of NE 5th Street and Main Street. NE 5^th Street is the street that leads back to the front entrance of the resort and is towards the end of the parade route, which comes down Main Street from west to east. There were already people there, all from the RV Resort as near as we could tell, but we were early enough to get seats on the low brick wall that borders the parking lot for the funeral home.

Main Street is also US-27 but the police closed it down at 5:45 PM. The parade started at the west end of Main Street by the high school so the lead police motorcycles did not reach us until 6:20 and the front of the main parade did not get to us until 6:30. There were cars with beauty queens, simple floats with seasonal themes, Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops, politicians, fire trucks, horses, and an elephant with Santa Claus riding on top. It was a classic small town holiday parade. It was all over by 7 PM and we walked briskly back to the firepit.

The firepit at WCRVR is about eight feet in diameter, surrounded by a concrete floor ring about six feet wide and covered by an inverted conical roof about 24 feet wide at the lower eaves. A massive 8 foot diameter inverted conical hood is suspended over the firepit and the 12″ diameter flue pipe runs out the center top of the roof. The outside perimeter of the floor has large wooden rocking chairs (think Cracker Barrel restaurant), a bench, and a few other chairs and there is a little bit of lighting up in the ceiling. It’s a wonderful place to sit and enjoy the fire, visit, and listen to people play their guitars and sing. The flue does not draft correctly so it tends to be smokey, but that is the only downside. If not for that it would be perfect.

John was there with a couple of other people and had a nice fire going. Even though it was in the mid-to-upper 60s there was a strong north breeze and the fire felt good. Lots of other people eventually showed up and filled almost all of the seats so John got his guitar and started playing and singing. Linda walked back to our rig to fetch our plastic wine glasses and opened a bottle of Egri Merlot. It’s a good life.

I got a call from my sister and stepped away from the firepit. She called to let me know that our dad was back in the hospital. When I returned to the fire circle John was busy playing and singing and some folks had left so I tended the fire. By 9 PM everyone had left except for John, Ali, and us. I continued to tend the fire while the four of us talked. Just before 10 PM I spread out the last embers of the fire and we all returned to our rigs for the night except John, who does the closing rounds on weekends.

Back at our motorcoach Linda put on the Michigan State vs Iowa Big 10 Championship football game. Though not particularly interested in football I was too tired to work so after sending an e-mail to our son I laid down on the sofa; the first time I have done that since we built it into the coach. By the time the game was over it was 11:45 PM. We watched a few minutes of Cook’s Country on Create and went to bed. I turned the TV on in the bedroom then turned it off. I turned down the brightness of my iPad display and with only the dim light of the ceiling vista, and whatever light could get in around the window shades, worked on my blog post until 1 AM.

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Category Archives: Digital Image Processesing

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2016/03/04-06 (F–N) BTCRVR Conclusion

2016/01/01 (F) – 2016/01/05 (T)

2015/12/18 (F) MEF3 @ 3

2015/12/07 (M) Not on Vacation

2015/12/05 (S) Saturday Night Fire Circle