John’s Gotta_Go Blog

The Pacific Northwest DOES have pluses

Mon, 9 Feb 2009 18:17:07 -0800

This morning I received the following e-mail from my good friend Dave who now lives permanently in what us RV’ers call a “Stick House” in The Villages in Florida. I think the primary reason that I heard from him on a weekday morning is that the nighttime temperatures in Florida have finally gotten above freezing. I hope you don’t mind Dave, that I’m posting your e-mail, but it managed to spur me on to do this posting. This message arrived at 3:02 am.
Well John, you're lucky to still be sleeping (I hope) because once again you're getting snowed on, according to my weather thingy "wunderground". Just wanted to tell you I'm sorry you've had such a rough winter, and also express sympathy for your knee trouble. So sorry.....
The photos (all three of them) that I included in the photo gallery this time shows just how much White Stuff came down or at least was on the ground. Lately, I have been keeping some really strange hours (more on that in a moment), and interestingly, I had just gone to bed about 15 minutes before Dave’s message arrived. Actually Dave, after the big bad event the last half of December, the Winter has been quite mild. I’ve pretty much decided to stick it out here in the PNW for several more Winters. Too many people have been telling me that my ole snowbird stomping grounds really aren’t much different than here. They have the extreme cold just like here. Just no white stuff to go along with it, and I’m actually beginning to enjoy it. As long as my heating system (AquaHot) keeps working, I do!
Now I mentioned that I’ve been keeping some strange hours--this is because I’ve been spending a lot of time on the computer--I mean a LOT. It’s the one thing that is PAIN FREE for my knee. I’ve also gotten in the habit in the later evening to watching at least one movie (from Netflix) a service that I really have come to enjoy. In fact, in another week I will be turning off my DirecTV subscription altogether. I’ve found I can read or watch all the news I want on-line for FREE. And I chose the movies I want to watch--even able to watch them on-line on my 24 inch Apple computer.
I’ve also found several very inexpensive supplemental programs for the Apple to help make my life easier and more efficient. Almost zero learning curve--so life is GOOD in that department as well. I have a few major projects coming up that involve the computer, so at least I’m staying out of mischief even as I’m writing this--we’ve got a mix of snow, sleet, & rain mixed in with thunder and lightning to boot.
While many of the photos (in the gallery) are self explanatory--in addition to my computer projects which include this blog, the monthly park’s newsletter, special articles that will be going into same, and developing a website for the park, I also am trying to unload some of the “stuff” I have taking up space in my storage shed. And hopefully this gives me some extra spending money for things like computer software and dinner out once in a while. I was successful in selling a set of “spare” external mirrors for the motorhome and a few other nick-nacks. The bicycle is next on the agenda and while it is virtually new and possibly something that I should keep for my own use--my knee just can’t manage it. My doctor agrees. And while knee surgery has become a NON-option, I’ve also decided to postpone my train trip till perhaps next year. This is due primarily because when a person purchases a First Class ticket on the train, it is fully refundable with no penalty. Most of the travel times that I’m interested in are already booked. I will not travel via Coach as that negates the entire decision to travel by train in the first place.
One evening while I was driving around the northern half of the lake, I spotted a fellow that looked like he was fishing, but turned out that he was operating a radio controlled boat. Every year here at Lake Pleasant they have “boat races” with these radio controlled boats and I’ve missed the event every year. So I was real happy to have the opportunity to get some photos, in case we want to “advertise” this event this year. The lake still had a lot of ice on the surface and so this fellow was really working hard to make his little speedboat become an ice breaker. We were out there for about an hour and while he never did any noticeable damage, it was fun to watch the boat going about 30 MPH in the water, jump up on the frozen section and go skidding across “out of control” of course. There was one duck who didn’t know what to make of it and tried on a couple occasions to mate with it. And luck would have it, those photos were among several that didn’t come out. (And no I’m not making this up!!)
For my birthday this year, my former gave me an Electronic Picture Frame (which I never used), but I found a great use for in the Park Office. So I load up about 70 photos and every month or so change them out. It has a feature that I never knew existed that really works slick sitting in the office. I programmed it to turn itself on when the office opens at 8:00am and then shuts itself off when the office closes at 4:30pm. These are the office hours in the Winter and they will be extended when the summer hours go into effect. So at least some folks are getting some good use from this and it just sits on a shelf that everyone sees as they enter the office. It has become quite a conversation piece too.
Mistakenly, I picked Sunday February 1st to do my grocery shopping and it wasn’t until I got to the checkout counter that I was able to figure out why the entire city of Seattle (or so it seemed) had decided that was the day to do their shopping too. Super Bowl Sunday and they all had to get their snack food. I should have waited till 4pm. The parking lot was a ZOO. And so was the inside of the store. I would have just come back the next day, except that I was already a week behind in everything.
In case you can’t figure out what that little speckled white thing sitting atop a yellow peg is--it’s a Golf Ball and since there are a lot of Seasonal and Year Round residents here that like to play Golf, I decided to do a feature article and perhaps create a brochure for them. I was amazed that there are 22 Public Golf Courses within a 10 mile radius of Lake Pleasant. There’s about the same number of Private ones too, but I’m not even going there.
Lastly, are the pictures that directly reference the title of this post. While we have some long dreary cloudy days, every now and then the magnificent beauty of the PNW comes shining thru with a Sunset that only lasts for a few moments, but if you find the right vantage point and are willing to wait it out, can give some special coloring effects as seen in the Photo Gallery here at the end.

Silent Rain has again hit the PNW

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 13:22:25 -0800

Since not many people have been posting comments to this blog and because I’ve gotten a couple really nasty comments left by one or more “people” that I don’t think any of my friends need to be reading, I’ve made the decision to remove that feature. It just takes one moron to ruin it for everyone else, so now they will have to identify themselves and send me a private message. I also have been wondering how to make this site a little more “colorful” so let me experiment with some features I found and maybe I’ll find the right combination so everything isn’t just BLACK & WHITE

I know it has been awhile since I last posted anything here, so I figured today was a good day to do it. It’s one of those days that I really don’t want to do much outside--Snow flurries have returned to the greater Seattle once again. In this case I actually call it SILENT RAIN. The problem today is while the flurries are rather heavy, it’s not cold enough on the ground for them to stick. What’s scary is that we are supposed to have a HARD freeze tonight (down into the low 20’s) and that could make the roads a bit dicey tomorrow morning.

Okay, so what have I been up to the last few weeks? Mainly just STUFF--things like continuing to get my life better organized (I found a great software program that has helped me a lot), getting various doctor visits taken care of, normal household chores, and what seems to be taking much of my time is--CREATING articles for the Park Newsletter that I started back in October/November as well as a new website that I’m creating for Lake Pleasant. I am really enjoying this creation stuff (more than I ever did before) because it is giving me an opportunity to visit and interact with several of the residents “staying” here at Lake Pleasant RV Park. The really great software program I found is called OMNI-FOCUS (from a local software development company here in Seattle called the omnigroup.com and with the iPhone version costs $100, it is helping me to get my life better organized. Prioritizing every little detail I have found really saves a lot of driving--if I have to go shopping. Knowing what I have to do the day before and how to best get it done, has become tantamount and this program really helps me to stay FOCUSED. I just keep completing tasks and projects on a daily basis. It’s been a godsend to be able to get even the littlest task FINISHED. A person who doesn’t have this problem will never understand--but the effort to complete even a simple is positively overwhelming. My medications have helped tremendously, but knowledge and tools like Omni-Focus are making life much more bearable.

The photos I have in my gallery cover TWO different days. YESTERDAY and TODAY. The first three were taken yesterday morning (blue sky and sunshine). Today--Snow (not much), but things are turning white again. One thing that both days and actually the last several weeks all have in common is that it has been bone chilling C-O-L-D! Even when the outside temperature said it was in the mid-50’s which I saw twice for a couple hours is all, the wind chill factor brought it down into the 30’s and of course No Wind and the temps were in the 30’s. Head’s I win, Tails YOU lose! But I know how to wear layers and since my primary heating system uses about three and a half gallons of diesel fuel in a 24 hour period (at $2.15/gallon) it’s more economical than using electricity.

It has been just too much work to have to keep messing with my photos in the “digital darkroom” and besides I wanted more clarity and boldness in my photos. It’s been a long time since working in the “manual” mode of an automatic camera. I remember (oddly enough) back in my junior and senior high school days that there was no such thing as an “automatic camera”, unless of course you counted a Brownie Box camera as an automatic. You had to know your light settings (ISO), F-stop, speed/exposure setting, and a bunch of other stuff (which I had almost forgotten)--and probably would have had it not been for taking & teaching “photography classes” for several years. So with my little pocket-sized Canon Powershot SD800 IS camera, I took all the photos in this photo gallery. You’ll see a difference between my old “normal” in auto setting and photos taken in Wide-angle mode that are all done without any “enhancing”. The trick I remembered to get the sky so blue was to keep the speed the same, reduce the ISO down to 80. Set the White Balance manually, and most important reduce the F-stop 1-2/3 to 2.0 stops.

Because our economy has had an effect on me as well as just about everyone else I know, and I have a couple huge bills that come due in another couple months--I decided that this was as good a time as any to really scale back on a few things. One of the first things to go was driving. I used to go someplace (shopping, doctors, visiting friends, who knows what) five times a week or more. Now I’m down to one or two days a week. Another large expense called for cutting back on my therapy visits to one day a week. Of course Ken is gone one or two weeks every month so that cuts things down even further. And even though a lot of my food is delivered to me every two weeks (Schwan’s) and costs a bit more than most stores--the reduction in driving easily offsets the higher food costs. I have actually saved money doing things this way.

I guess I saved the best for last, and one reason that I haven’t posted anything for awhile. As I posted a few months ago, that I was planning a big train trip for later this year, that managed to get smaller. Well, for the moment at least that trip has been put on HOLD. It’s likely to not happen till 2010 as getting things booked even now in January for travel in August is just about impossible. However, the reason for putting the trip on hold was because I realized with my knee problem that I have, I could be out in the wilds of Newfoundland, far from any medical facility and all I have to do is turn my foot or leg the wrong way and down I go in killing pain. Traveling alone adds considerably to the concerns. So I decided that if surgery was the last option left, that is what I had to pursue. I also felt that because the Orthopedic Surgeon that I’ve been seeing for the last several months only worked out of hospital that I had a very bad experience with several years ago--that I would go to that has very high ratings and is closer to my home and regular doctor. That required me to get a different Ortho Surgeon. So under the recommendation of my new current doctor--made an appointment with this other doctor. Now understand, I was prepared (and even at peace) about getting a knee replacement (major surgery--hospital stay of at least 3-5 days) and the whole nine yards. This other doctor told me things I didn’t count on and basically told me that surgery WAS NOT an option for me--giving me the reasons why. My weight, diabetes and a few other things I can’t do much about -- at least in the next year or two or maybe ever. I still do have an appointment with my original Ortho-surgeon for the middle of this week. At which time I will pose the concerns of this other surgeon and see what happens. I haven’t given up on the train trip for this year, but since I don’t know what is going to happen till mid-week--I just have to sit tight. I have a double-edged sword here. There’s only two things that will work to lose weight (I’ve been here before). Diet and Exercise. The knee can be very troubling at times and the pain medication is almost useless. The knee prevents me from doing much of anything at the gym and I’m down to two meals a day (and not high calorie). Sitting gives the MOST relief, but that doesn’t do a lot for weight loss. I can on most days walk from the motorhome to the Park office and return--that’s .3 of a mile round trip. Next to nothing, but I’m in a lot (I mean LOT) of physical pain when I return home.

Well, time will tell what is in store for me. At least I’m open for whatever and have come to accept whatever consequences there are in store for me. I certainly plan to take a few trips in the motorhome this summer--but they probably won’t be much farther than within the State of Washington and Oregon. Maybe Idaho, maybe British Columbia. So till next time~~~and oh yeah--here’s the link to the

My new Kitty -- Mitten (aka Burney)

Thu, 8 Jan 2009 19:46:31 -0800

Meet my new kitty, Mitten (aka Burney in the photo gallery). He came all the way from Georgia and I have my friend Gary B. to thank for putting me in touch with his breeder. Mitten is a very special kitty, unlike any kitty I’ve ever taken care of before. He is extremely low maintenance in that I don’t think he will ever have any vet bills. No hunting around for the RIGHT food and no litter pan to clean everyday. His fur is so soft and he loves to be held, sometimes even squeezed. Cuddling is one of his favorite pastimes. He won’t bite and his claws are almost non-existent. The tag that you can see just barely reads “Catnap Kitties”. What is unique about Mitten (the name I gave her) is that whenever you pick her up--she immediately begins to PURR. She will do that for at least five minutes and it is a very realistic purr. No motor inside her. Currently her breeder has all white and black with white mittens. I have a couple more photos of her where she likes to be most of the time -- on the bed, but really likes to snuggle up against my head when I am asleep.

My Sister Laura sent me a beautiful scarf made out of Rayon and Nylon and since I promised her that I would send her a photo of it on me, they will also be in the photo gallery. I had wanted to have it on the front of this page, but because of the configuration of that photo it ended up chopping off the top of my head. Not that that wouldn’t be so bad--I just didn’t think it appropriate at the time. Laura makes all sorts of beautiful garments and so if you are so interested, I strongly recommend that you go to her website and see what she has and maybe you’d like to order something for that special someone in your life:

Yesterday, in honor of winning a couple battles I had with vendors of products/services, I decided to take my friends Richard & Marie to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants--Ivar’s Seafood in Mukilteo WA, located right next to the Mukilteo/Clinton ferry dock. I included three photos in the gallery and as many times as I’ve been inside this restaurant had never seen a painting of a major storm that hit the area on October 30, 2003. So I took a photo of that painting and included it in my gallery. There are all sorts of newspaper articles hanging on the wall, talking about the event (and well they should).

While we haven’t had snow for the last few days, it sure has been cold here in the PNW just the same. Someone looking at the temperatures from afar may think we are undergoing some kind of heat wave. And that would be true with daytime temperatures in the mid-50’s. However, with anything from 25-50MPH winds that changes things rather dramatically. I’m not an authority on Wind chill factors, but I can assure you I’m not alone when I say it is blistery C-O-L-D when you have that kind of wind. According to my calculator even with a temperature of 50 degrees and wind speed of 30 MPH that translates to just a fraction over 28 degrees. That’s according to this site, provided this link works:

I also included a a couple photos of a couple of the ladies who hang around behind the counter in the Park office. But getting a photo of them helping a resident in the park has been one of my most difficult tasks before me. Today, I was finally successful and while I don’t know the name of the resident they were assisting, I thought just for the fun of it I would include the photo of all three of them. The one on the left is Sandy (married to the Park Manager) and you’ve seen lots of photos of her before. The one on the right is Bonita (Assistant Manager during the off season at least). And I also have a photo of a half frozen lake with some feathered friends that I’ve never seen before. They appear to be all white except for a gray band around their neck. Since I’m definitely not a “birder” I have no idea what they are. So if anyone knows--will you please let me know. I don’t ever remember seeing them before.

Snow for Two Weeks Now

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

I know a few days ago I was saying that I was getting used to this snow, but I think TWO WEEKS is enough. Especially since it just keeps coming every day or two. The weather-man on all the news stations including NOAA themselves were saying that by early this afternoon we were to have RAIN and for at least the next FIVE days. The photo above was actually taken the afternoon of Tuesday December 16th. I had to include it today, cause that was the last time I saw asphalt. I know that this photo gallery is the largest one yet and sorry for all the snow. Well not really sorry--heck I’m the one having to live with it. Since the weather service today was saying that this is the longest, whitest, coldest spell since the 1996 storm that came blazing thru here--I might just as well get as many photos as I could. After all, next year might be the beginning of the next ICE AGE because of all this Global Warming.

I did get a kick out of the ducks though. The photos that you see in this Photo Gallery represents about 25% of the total of all the photos I’ve taken. The two photos I have of the ducks turned out to be the best of all the duck photos. The one that shows two ducks “walking on (frozen) water is a favorite of mine. The next photo was taken from alongside my back yard and other than the spot around the fountain in the previous photo--were the only two places that didn’t have a frozen layer of ice on the surface. We generally have about 200 ducks hanging around at this time of year, so I don’t know where the rest of them went, but hope they will return after everything gets thawed out.

For my friend Bill, who is currently down in Southern California right now, I included a few photos of icycles. Of course nothing like the ones he sent me the other day from someplace in Europe. I may post one or two of them in a future posting. But I’ll have to do it when it is a lot warmer here, cause I think when I was viewing them the temperature inside my coach dropped a good 10 degrees.

Just for the heck of it I also included a black & white photo of what things looked like around here in the 1996 storm that left a reported 38 inches of the white stuff. Reportedly, that was the heaviest snowfall on record for the Seattle area--at least since they started keeping records in 1940. So you see, this snowfall that I’ve been experiencing is a rarity in the Greater Seattle area. For those of you that live in Michigan or Illinois--sorry I’m such a “wimp” about this stuff, but if I really wanted snow--I’d have gone to the mountains--not expected at Sea Level.

I was able to salvage a little color when I happened to be in the right place at the right time and got a really nice sunset in the process. The sun poked itself thru the very dense cloud cover that we had had for about four days straight. I showed what the scene looked like just before I saw the sun come out and then the next two photos show the golden glistening for just a few moments. Eventually I hope to have a movie put together which will show the colors a bit more vivid. And of course I did get a sunset in there as well. Again the movie when completed will be more spectacular.

Some more icycles for you Bill. But these almost looked like a xylophone and I really wanted to find something to see if they sounded like notes. Just too afraid I would break one--so didn’t try that stunt.

I have a photo with a tape measure that shows the depth of the snow at 14 inches. However, that is the second layer. The first layer of 8 or so inches was removed earlier, when I used the table to set my diesel fuel containers on so I could top off the fuel tank in the motorhome. The rest of the snow photos were all taken today December 26th showing that the snow coming down and the tool that I used to clear pathways from my coach out to and around my Jeep--then a path over to next door neighbor’s space and then on over to Mac & Amy’s place. Of course I didn’t do this just once--I did this just about every day and while the tool I used may not be the most practical or even thought of for removing snow--it WORKED and pretty darn well too. Certainly if I lived here permanently and had a bit more room, and it snowed more, I might be inclined to go get one of those little machines like what is shown in my gallery just before the Christmas stuff. I mean that little machine can turn on a dime and just looks like it would be FUN to operate.

My last photos were taken over at my friends Richard & Marie’s as I was able to escape late in the afternoon yesterday and visit with them for a bit. Had the perfect meal too--nice big bowl of homemade chili made with lentils rather than beans. Mmmmm---Good. Trip home from their place made me ever so thankful that I first had a true 4-wheel drive Jeep and that I had some experience driving it in MUD--something that 4-wheelers love to do just for fun! The roads were really icy as the temperatures had fallen to the high 20’s again and all the slush had frozen. In just two miles, I passed about 50 cars that were off the side of the road in ditches. There was a lot of slipping and sliding going on--including myself. But I know to turn into the slide and let off of the brake. Don’t gun it when stopped and a few other tricks. And yes twice I was in Low 4-wheel drive. No chains--just Mud & Snow tires and good sense! The last 3 miles of my trip home on the freeway, was extremely foggy and everyone was doing about 10-15MPH and other than one other incident that caused me to slide about 200 feet, I made it home safe and sound taking about 10 minutes longer than normal.

This may be the last post for awhile unless something happens that I’m not aware of. I have a couple other projects that I’m working on that needs my attention, but I’m sure I will have something other than SNOW to report next time. See you in a week or so.

PHOTO GALLERY

My Wish To All--Happy & Safe Holidays!!!

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

While I didn’t take this photo, if anyone reading this wanted a WHITE Christmas--I’d invite you to Bothell, Washington. Last night we got another 4 inches of powder on top of the already 18 inches that has fallen since December 12th, and it’s STILL snowing after 10AM. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not really complaining. Had I been able to take the photo above, I probably would be the happiest person on the planet. I have no idea where it was taken, but my guess would be someplace in Europe. My good friend Linda (who lives in Virginia) sent it to me as she knows my love for Steam Trains. Linda and her other half John are fellow Foretravel motorcoach owners and have three of the cutest Cocker Spaniels I’ve ever seen. Thank you for sending me this photo Linda. May everyone that reads my blog postings have a Safe and Wonderful Holiday Season and hopefully a very prosperous New Year.

For those friends who might want to have your own copy of this photo I will give you a link to the one and only photo in my gallery so you can click on it and enlarge it and download it. There are more updates coming and if I don’t go and visit with friends later today (Christmas Day) as planned, I should have two more updates tonight or tomorrow.

CHRISTMAS PHOTO

Some of My Neighbors--Sharing & Helping

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

I’ve really got some good neighbors. I think this weather has really brought out the good in a lot of people (at least the ones I’ve encountered. We’ve helped each other and I’ve gotten to know my neighbors a bit better in the process. I’ll tell you about the photos in this gallery and add some other comments as I go along.

The photo above is a neighbor two doors down and closest to the park entrance. She has lived here since 1999 and is ex-military. She talks the talk and walks the walk, but has a heart of gold. She’s the un-official ambassador to the park and keeps four of us folks “in-line” with her generosity keeping all our yards looking spiffy. She mows each of our lawns in the Spring, Summer and Fall. She has exclusive permission to “commercially” wash any vehicles in the park. Of course anyone can wash their own vehicles themselves as often as they like, but no outside service is welcome in the park. Mac washed my coach just before Winter hit and I’ll probably have her do it again in the Spring. She even did the roof, which not many commercial places will do. She has this dog Sydney (not sure if that’s the correct spelling) that I’ve nicknamed “Plow-dog” because in the snow that’s just exactly what she does. I’m working on a “movie” that will eventually get put into the special section of my website/blog that requires a password that I told you about earlier this week. Anyone interested may certainly have access. All I need is a request and I’ll send you the information needed. To watch Sydney in action is a real ball. Hey maybe I should submit the movie to You Tube.

My next door neighbor, Donna just got herself a puppy (special breed--but can’t ever remember how it is spelled) that is about the cutest little guy I’ve ever seen. Loves people! Loves the snow too. Biggest problem with snow 14-18 inches deep is Mikiya (pronounced Mik-i-yah) legs are maybe two inches long, body is another two inches high and to watch her going thru soft powder is like watching a caterpillar or centipede crawl. And it doesn’t take long for the little snowballs to stick to his fur and then Mom has a fit.

While my neighbors helped each other, I wasn’t just taking photos, I was also helping where I could. Back on Tuesday December 16th, I stepped up and volunteered to help one of the residents about 10 spaces down from me with a frozen water hose. She had not let the faucet drip during the night when the temps dropped well below freezing. The hose insulation that she had purchased was also not installed correctly--just using Electrical tape to hold it together. So I decided to remove the insulation and re-wrap her hose correctly and seal with duct-tape instead. Before that was done, Jeff (manager) suggested that I remove the outside hose that was caked with ice inside and stick it in one of the community showers and run hot water to thaw it out. After getting myself just about as wet as the hose and 20 minutes later not much had been accomplished--I decided to do my little trick and pour about 4 ounces of distilled vinegar down and the hose and in about 30 seconds all the ice was GONE. Flushed the hose for a few minutes to get rid of the vinegar taste and re-did the insulation and hooked it all back up. Haven’t gotten any reports, but then I haven’t seen anybody home since the 16th neither.

I included a couple other photos that should be self explanatory and one that gave me a bit of a tickle. Have BBQ-Will Travel, but I think it may have been a bit pre-mature--like Spring/Summer is still several months away. But then my neighbor Mac and her roommate Amy were planning to have a BBQ this Friday (26th). I doubt that happened!

Some of our residents are very talented and they even make things to sell to the rest of us. Those knit caps and scarfs were a steal and of course I bought one of each. They really helped me to stay warm when I was outside working as you will see in my posting entitled “Snow for Two Weeks Now”.

A few of the RV’s here in the park had some Christmas decorations and I liked the one that I have a photo of in the gallery. Unfortunately, with a park the size of Lake Pleasant there are occurrences that take place that require visitors that most of us would just as soon never see. It always causes alarm and concern when that red wagon comes in with the red & blue lights flashing. I don’t know where it went, but I do know that the person it was coming to aid, was taken to the hospital--what a nasty Christmas present! It didn’t dampen the spirits in the Park office though. The staff got a nice tree all decorated for Christmas.

PHOTO GALLERY

C-O-L-D, Here in the PNW?

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

This morning I woke up to this nasty white stuff. Not a lot, but definitely more than I wanted. As I’ve said before (all of last year), if I wanted snow--I’d go to the mountains. After all I’m just 130 feet above Sea Level and hope this is all I see this year. (However as you will see in the Photo Gallery, this was only the beginning). As things progressed, the temperatures plummeted and I figure once the temperatures fall below 32 degrees (freezing), then anything below that doesn’t make much difference. And it really doesn’t unless the humidity goes up too. Believe me 16 degrees with 49% humidity is a lot colder than 9 degrees with 31% humidity. YES, I said 9 degrees. And I have a photo to prove it. That was the lowest temperature that we experienced and this cold spell has been on from the night of December 12th thru and including today (December 23rd). However, it looks like we may very well have a WHITE CHRISTMAS this year, the forecast (if one can believe the weatherman here) says it is supposed to rain all this weekend (12-27/28) and temps will be above freezing--so the white grass will once again become GREEN. Well I’m getting ahead of myself, so---

The photo gallery this time is loaded with lots of variety, but I first have to say that with all the inconvenience that snow causes and as much as I thought I hated the stuff before, this year I’ve really come to like it. I’ve slipped and fallen twice--not fun, but I survived! The medication that I’m taking for my ADD has a lot to do with my attitude about this snow and has helped tremendously in order for me to overcome a lot of fears that I’ve had. Like my neighbor Donna (she’s a bit older than me) had this need to go do her civic duty as every week she volunteers at the Senior Center packing meals for “Meals On Wheels” and was fearful about driving herself there. So because I’ve had a fair amount of experience driving my Jeep in MUD (4 wheel LOW drive necessary), I figured I had a better chance than she did in her front wheel drive vehicle. Lots of people (including me--before I got my Jeep) think that they are better off in a front wheel drive vehicle than either an All Wheel drive or full 4 wheel drive vehicle. It ain’t so, but I’m not going to deliberate that now. So Thursday the 18th, I played chauffeur for my neighbor and she also had to go see her Chiropractor and Vet. So we made a day of it. This really gave me the confidence I needed and everything that learned about driving in mud in compound low 4 wheel drive paid off. I managed to find myself needing to shift into Low 4 at one point as I was buried in about 12 inches of fresh powder on a hill. OOPS--not a good thing, but it built my confidence just that much further as I got out without even spinning the wheels or sliding. (Thanks Dave and Ray--your training paid off big time)!! I’ve been watching people sliding all over the place and the single biggest cause--people not knowing how to drive on slippery roads! Actually I have more fear of the other guy than I do my own driving skills.

During the first few days of this adverse weather, I got the chance to help a few people with things like frozen water hose lines and heaters not working properly. Good thing I wasn’t being paid by the hour--but then my hands got really cold a couple times and the thawing period took a bit of time. I kept thinking to myself, that I would never do this sort of thing for myself in this weather--why am I doing it for someone I don’t even know. Simple--I love to help people. I always have and probably always will. Besides I got a lot of satisfaction from doing these things and it helped take the load off the Park Managers who were buried with filling propane tanks. One day--the Assistant Manager pumped over 300 gallons of Propane (in 5-8 gallon tanks at a time). The tanks are freezing cold, so is the nozzle and the tanks are heavy too). Glad I wasn’t doing that task!

While the first photo you will see in the Photo Gallery shows high temps at 34 degrees--those were only WISHFUL thinking. Since the night of the 12th we have seen 33 and above just once and that was yesterday (Dec 22nd when it got up to 35 degrees). Today the 23rd got up to 32 degrees, so it ain’t over and besides it’s supposed to snow again tonight. The problem here in the Greater Seattle area is that there are probably 200 or more micro-climates. Those temperatures that you see in that first photo are for Bothell. Lake Pleasant is 1.5 miles north of downtown Bothell and a completely different climate zone. Generally in the wintertime if Bothell gets to 30 degrees, here at Lake Pleasant will be 4-5 degrees colder. The same holds true in the summer--Bothell is 70 degrees--the Park is instead 4-5 degrees warmer.

In the fourth photo you see an odd shaped Ice-cycle that is actually touching the ground. I guess the tailpipe from the generator (which had not been run for over 24 hours) had something to do with it changing direction--Odd indeed!

The first 14 photos were taken the morning of December 13th -- the first snowfall. The temperature that night and early morning (when I took those photos) was down between 20 and 26 degrees. The snow turned to rock solid ice and the really bad part is BLACK ICE on the roadways.

The photo showing 16 degrees/49% humidity was taken on the morning of Tuesday December 16th and with my new Canon PowerShot SX 10 IS camera, I was out taking a couple different perspectives of the same photo. One is a scenery shot and the other is a nearby tree. I have since shot over 200 photos and several movies with this camera and all I can say is that Canon has really outdone themselves this time. What a camera!!! Not only is it incredible what it can do--the camera itself (I was able to use the special grip AND my external 550EX speedlite Flash unit) weighs just 4 ounces more than my little Canon pocket camera and costs only $100 more than my little pocket camera. I could easily carry this new camera all day long without it feeling HEAVY. Probably feel the same way if all I had was a neck strap. This camera came with an 8GB card which would give me almost 2 hours of movie making and camera is capable of 60 minutes of continuous movie making at a time. Way more than I ever plan to do. But then so is the 2,700 photos at maximum quality. Incredible what technology has done in the last decade. This camera doesn’t have interchangeable lenses but with a single lens it gives me 28mm up to 530mm which is way more than my previous Canon EOS D60 ever had. Anyone interested in buying that old camera--please let me know. I’ll be putting it up on e-bay this Spring, but I have two lenses the camera body, the double battery charger (110v), the double battery add-on supply for the camera itself, a 12v single battery charger and three batteries (condition unknown). I also have skylight and polarizing filters for both lenses and currently asking $400 plus shipping for the lot. I originally paid close to $5,000 for this unit and there isn’t a scratch on it. Looks new, but it isn’t! When it goes on e-bay it will probably sell for $600 plus shipping.

The next three photos after the electric meter are a hodge-podge of wires, cables & hoses. While things don’t look neat, the two PVC stands I made were designed to keep everything off the ground which supposedly reduces the chance of freezing. Well I really wouldn’t know right now--cause all those wires, cables and hoses are buried under about a foot of snow and ice today. However the water has been dripping in the bathroom sink 24/7 since December 12th and will continue to do so till things warm up a bit.

The next two photos show my innovative design for transferring diesel fuel from 5 gallon fuel containers to the fuel tank on the motorhome. That whole process was explained in the previous post. And just for the fun of it, my next photo is that of a full size Bath Towel (five feet long) STANDING UP. Bet you can’t do that where you live, unless it’s well below freezing for a couple days. Then the next three photos are one of my favorite cartoons -- Maxine. I just love her and she always has some poignant thing to share with her readers--so I couldn’t resist sharing her.

The next photo doesn’t show much, but it was my futile attempt at showing the white stuff falling just before it finds its’ permanent place to stay. Then a “sunset” behind the tree, but had I stepped around that tree to get a full view, I would have found myself slipping and sliding into the lake and considering that the surface is becoming frozen (at the time photo was taken), I settled for what I got. In my next posting (in a few days), I will have some really spectacular sunset photos to share with you--so stay tuned. I told you that the temperature here dipped to single digits and this last photo proves it. I actually think the temp fell below this since my batteries were in need of replacement. But this was cold enough all the same.

Please don’t forget to send me an e-mail if you would like to have access to some of my extra-curricular activities. It currently has PDF files of the Park newsletters that I created and do for Lake Pleasant residents and will soon have the edited movies that I do and who knows what else.

PHOTO GALLERY

Our Park Managers with Different Faces

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Someone here at Lake Pleasant RV Park did the unthinkable and mentioned an ugly word. Then these two (above) showed up. Now you might think this is a gag, but I think after you look at the photos in the Photo Gallery, you may think otherwise. Be sure you pay close attention to any similarity you might see in any/all the photos.

Since my next posting will be rather long--I feel this is the best place to bring everyone up to speed and why it has been so long since I did any postings.

After returning home from visiting with my Sister in Southern California, it took me about 10 days to recover from the trip and get to feeling like I used to, except for one thing. The meds I was on for my ADD treatment just didn’t feel right. I seemed to struggle just to get up in the morning and then all day long too. This is not your typical sluggishness, this has to do with not being able to FOCUS on things. On more than one occasion, the “Old John” was resurfacing. I won’t go into detail about this--those that know me well, know what I’m talking about and those that don’t --well-- enough said! Even though my doctor increased the dosage of my primary medication to treat my ADD, things still continued to not be quite right. I just kept struggling along the best I could. Fast forward for just a moment: On December 12th everything changed. Upped the dose once again and WAH-LAH, things seem to be working in a really fantastic way now. I’ll have more next time. But at least there is a substantial reason why things have been a bit behind and of course another reason or two will be explained next.

You might remember my entry on October 19th about doing a newsletter for the Park called Pleasant Times? I found out that the Park Owner, seemingly doesn’t have the funds to pay for it, so I decided that I would absorb the costs for at least the next year or until (if) he saw the value it has. For me it has done wonders and besides I enjoy doing it. One attribute that I have is that I’m a creative person (one of the pluses about being ADD), so since I haven’t been doing much in that department for over a year--I also decided that if I’m the reporter, editor, publisher and funder of this publication, I also have the say as to how often it comes out. Owner wanted it limited to once every two months. I’m doing it monthly! I’ve heard lots of positive comments from the staff and residents--so I must be doing something right. I’ve also decided to include copies of each newsletter for you, my readers to peruse. I do have to warn you--they may be slow loading if you don’t have high speed internet. For that reason I’m putting them in their own separate folder. They are in PDF format and hopefully everyone has the FREE copy of Adobe Reader. One issue (December) is 19.4MB and the other two (November & Special Edition) are 4.8MB and 7.4MB respectively). If you have a slow connection speed such as an AirCard or Satellite, I will leave it up to you to decide if you want to go out to dinner while the file(s) are downloading! The only way I was able to make this work was to put them in a special folder that is Password protected. Everyone that reads this blog is more than welcome to view these special pages that will be added to each month around the 1st of each month. However, I would like to know who you are so I’m asking that you send me an e-mail asking for the password and all I ask is that you identify yourself if I have never communicated with you before. I will then promptly send you the password. Your e-mail address is strictly for my records and it is possible that the password may change at some future date, so I need to know who you are.

So please send me an e-mail requesting access to the special files and I will be happy to send you the necessary information to access them. To give you an example of how long it will take to download these files, the largest PDF I currently have is just over 19MB and with 2700K download speed it took just over 4 minutes to download it. There are smaller files as well.

Something that I really struggled with, being parked here in one spot all winter long, was how I was going to keep my diesel fuel tank full. Last year, I tore everything down, packed the motorhome like I was going to go down the road several hundred miles--only to drive 4 miles to the fuel cardlock system I use and fill up. Then return and set everything back up again--taking about 2-3 hours. Did that twice last winter and I surely wasn’t looking forward to that again this year, especially since so far this season has been a lot colder. You see my primary source for heat (and only source for hot water) is with a system called an Aqua-Hot. It is very efficient, but uses a very small amount of electricity (primarily in the summer months) and diesel to fire a 50,000 btu burner. While my fuel tank is 175 gallons, it won’t go below 50 gallons or so and the Aqua-Hot and generator won’t run. I try not to let it get below 140 gallons as another big problem in the winter time is condensation. Water and diesel don’t work together. So after much thought, and a few accidental spills, I decided the best way to attack this problem was to get two 5 gallon containers (may expand that to 4 containers), and get an electric fuel pump with a couple hoses attached. The plan works flawlessly and the time it takes has now been reduced to less than an hour. While maybe the motorhome should be moved--I really like the way this has worked out MUCH better. The cost of the pump and fuel cans came to about $90--the pump being the most costly part in the process, and it takes about 9 minutes to transfer 5 gallons, but no lifting and trying to balance a 40 pound weight five feet above ground level.

HERE’S A TIP:
If when you are looking at any of the photo galleries and you have clicked on a photo to enlarge it, bring your mouse down to the bottom of that page and a little graphical menu should appear with a left and right arrow and to the right of the arrows is an “i” in a circle (without the quotes of course). If you click on that “i” you can then read the entire “caption” if it appears to have run off the page.

PHOTO GALLERY