Sunday, February 9, 2025

Mansplaining

Mansplaining. It is a necessary means of communication when explaining something to women. I don't think I do it. Barb thinks I do. I call it detailed information. She calls it me thinking she is stupid. For example. We needed some nuts and bolts for a part that broke off medicine cabinet in the rig the other day. She was going to the store to get some food, and I asked her if she could pick up some two small nuts and bolts while she was there. I explained to her in a loving way, that the bolts had to be long enough to reach through the items we were bolting together, yet not so long that it protruded above too far and the diameter wide enough to fit through the hole but not too wide. She was intently listening with adoring eyes. Well, that is what I thought anyways. When I was done explaining all this to her, her response was, "Do you think I am Fxxxxing stupid?" 

I was slightly confused by her response, and I did not know if I should be taking her question figurately or literally.  Thinking she was maybe having a mini bout of terrets, I decided to ignore her outburst and continued, and told her that I needed some Loctite as well since the camper rattles so much, the nut would eventually loosen and come apart from the bolt. I told her it could not just be any Loctite though, it had to be the blue, not the red. 

She grabbed the parts out of my hand, shoved them in her purse and muttered something about mansplaining was necessary because men were to stupid and walked out the door. She returned an hour or so later with nuts, bolts and the locktite exactly as I described. I went and fixed the cabinet thinking what I good job I did explaining things to her so she could get the right parts. What a good husband I am!

In fact, I am such a good husband, she has kept me around for 39 years as of last Friday. 39 years ago on that day, we snuck away from work at lunch (we worked at the same place), went to the courthouse and got married by a local judge. We went back to work the following Monday and shocked our boss who did not even know we were seeing each other by telling him we were married. He was so pleased that for a wedding present he said that we could decide which one of us was going to quit as the company had an anti-nepotism policy. 

What did we do on our special day this year? We went to The World Equestrian Center to watch some horse jumping. What an incredible venue! The grounds were immaculate, definitely a must see if you are in the area. 





After that we had lunch and I made the mistake of asking Barb what she wanted to do next. Her response almost my heart stop, "I want to go to an RV dealer and look at Class C's!".  Oh, dear Lord, I thought, but off we went to look at Class C's. I hate, hate, hate going to dealers and looking at vehicles and told Barb I am going to just stand in the background as she talks to the salesperson. It was as dreadful as you can imagine. We sat down with the salesperson at his desk while he took down all of Barb's information and they talked about what she was looking for. Then we jumped into a golf cart driving around looking at several models. They did not have the model she was looking for, nor did they have the one she was interested in on their website. Call me skeptical, but sometimes I think they put items on their website just to get you in the door, only to tell you that that unit is no longer available. When we were done, he said, "Let me grab my manager, he wants to say hi before you leave". Ugh. I get the guy has a job to do and it just trying to make a living, but I find this entire process sooooo painful! 
The remainder of the week was filled with fun activities as well. We got together with our friends Dan and Jeannie a couple of times. Dan and I got out fishing twice. Once on Noonan Lake up near Gainsville and then out on Panasoffkee Lake. 

Both were great days on the water even though the fishing was a little slow. I think between the two outings we caught 7 fish between us. I did, however, get some great photos of the local wildlife! I don't know what a lot of these birds are except the Great Blue Heron, and I think the one below is an Ibis?








While Dan and I were doing that, Barb and Jeannie were out enjoying the water as well with a 2-mile(ish) swim one day and then kayaking with the manatees the other time they went out. Barb did not have a waterproof camera with her so there are no pictures to share. I do have this picture to share though. Barb bought some new goggles and was trying them out one day outside our trailer. As she was doing it, our neighbor decided to come over and introduce herself at that very moment. Do you think Barb took off the googles? Nope, Barb proceeded to sit there and have a conversation with her with the goggles on, stickers and all. I am sure she walked away thinking she was parked next to a couple of whack-a-dos!
We got out to eat at several area restaurants. Our favorite so far is The Freezer in Homosassa, we have been there several times over the years, we always get the steamed shrimp, delicious!
Next up is Cracker's in Crystal River, we went there with Dan and Jeannie. The food was decent and the atmosphere is pretty good. On Wednesday, it was off to Crump's Landing again in Homosasa with our friends Jim and Diana who were passing through on their way to Melborne Beach. We met via our blogs several years ago and have gotten together several times in South Dakota, Michigan and Florida over the years. The food at Crumps was very good food, we would go back there again! 
Our last dining out experience was at China Lee's buffet in Ocala. Talk about a cattle trough, all you can eat for $11.99 (weekday lunch). Again, it was very good. I did not take any pictures while there except these chopsticks. It says "kids", but I think even Dino would be able to use these!
What a difference a week can make. To think just a few days ago, we were in snowy, cold and frigid temperatures. Now, we are sunburned and bug bitten and bloated with all this delicious cuisine!

Saturday was a day of more food and drinks as we got together with our friends Mike and Liz. First we were off to The Biscuit Barn for breakfast. We spent the afternoon visiting a couple of local distilleries. Mike has 4 of them he wants to take us to while we are here. That day we checked off two; The Homosassa Distillery is a modern facility with some great tasting spirits. The owner was there and kept giving Barb a hard time as she was wearing a competitors shirt. Very nice place. 

Then it was off the Fish Hawk Distillery. This place was the total opposite of Homosassa. Where Homosassa was in town and convenient to get to, Fish Hawk was out in the sticks and hard to get to. Where Homosassa was model and clean, Fish Hawk was about as rustic as you could get. It is literally out of some guys shed and only has a covered lean to for seating. 

Regardless of their size and location, they do a good business, putting out over 32,000 bottles a year. It was a great day with Mike and Liz, one of these days we will remember to take a picture of all of us!

I also had to call Farmer Bob on Saturday as it was the last day he was going to be in the U.S. for the next 11 weeks. He is on his way to Africa for a mission trip. He does not know exactly what his role will be yet, but he will be in Kisii, Kenya helping out a church. This will be an experience of a lifetime for him, and I will try to keep up and write about his activities in the next few weeks as I am sure many of you will find it as fascinating as I do. He has been preparing for this for several months now, getting everything ready at home for his absence as well as a vaccine regiment that made him into a human voodoo doll!

I better wrap this up, I see Barb is about to see if she can find a blown fuse, I am sure she needs a man to explain to her what to do and look for! 

I will leave you with this picture of Zoey. She has been complaining that she was not in the blog the last few weeks. Here she is with her "Can I have a piece of that bacon" look. Something I see quite often!

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Florida!

It was overwhelming. Almost everyone's first memory who commented last week was either a traumatic experience or a baby or pet coming home. Pretty interesting. The other interesting thing that I discovered was that I am not alone in my lack of memories. Many of us are afflicted. 

The other thing I realized is that they are in there. Bouncing around that empty space that I call my brain. I said I had no memories of Jr. High. Then all of a sudden, brief glimpses started to appear. No specifics, just walking through the halls. But it is a memory!

We left Jessica's early Monday morning on the 27th just after the kids got on the bus. By the end of the day, we were in our 4th state of the day having left Pennsylvania, traveling south on I81 through Maryland and West Virginia before landing for the night in Arrington, Virginia. 

We had several adventures  throughout the day. Our first was driving Skyline Trail through the Shenandoah National Park. If our count is correct, this is the17th National Park we have visited. The first 31 miles of the trail was closed due to ice so we jumped on at the Thornton Gap entrance and headed south from there. 

The roads were mostly clear, and we practically had the place to ourselves. We saw deer, owls, one lone bobcat that crossed the road in front of us and lots of beautiful scenery.

Exiting the trail at Waynesboro, we stopped at Silverback Distillery outside of Waynesboro. This has been on our list for a while. An all women run distillery; they have won many awards. We chatted with the server for about an hour and tasted several of their offerings before moving on.

Preparing a Smoked Old Fashion 

Our Harvest Host for the evening was Blue Mountain Barrel House where Barb got a flight and we each got a burger before calling it a night. 

As we continued south we had  to stop at The Blind Pelican in Holly Springs, NC. If you recall from last year, this is where Barb got the Bloody Mary of all Bloody Mary's. This year, we just opted for food. Delicious!

We also stopped at an RV dealer to look at a new pickup truck camper. Barb has it in her head that she wants something newer and has been looking at Host campers on line. In the past 18 months we have not been near a dealer that has one, but now we were and we stopped and looked at it. The good news is that we got in and out of there without a salesperson seeing us. The bad news is that this layout will not work with us and the dogs. We need something you can access without having to open any slides. Plus, this one was on sale for..... wait for it. $93,000! For a pickup camper! Nope, we are continuing to look. It was pretty though.

Our Harvest Host for that night was Dirt Bag Ale House, a veteran owned brewery in Hope Mills, NC. If you are ever traveling through this area, they have some very good beers, a great atmosphere and nice accommodations for overnighters. 

It feels really good to be back on the road. We continued south with the promise of warmer weather. Our camper was still winterized, meaning no running water for us, but it looks like we will not be seeing any more freezing temperatures. We just need to find a fresh water source to fill our tanks and flush the antifreeze. 

Our next overnight was supposed to be Congaree National Park in Georgia. Another first for us. But when we got there, we discovered that we you can only tent camp there. So instead, we walked the boardwalk and carried on. 

Instead we landed in Orangeburg at a Cracker Barrel. A decision that almost ruined our entire trip. Whenever we stay in a parking lot at night, we try to situate ourselves near the edge where we are protected from others driving in the lot. And we did at Cracker Barrel as well, we had a fence on one side and the an open space on the other. Other rigs were pulling in for the night and setting up around us when this truck and a travel trailer pulls in. We watched him out the back window as he tried to pull into the spot next to us. It was obvious when he turned to pull in next to us that he did not take it nearly wide enough and that his trailer would not clear our rig. We watched in horror as he continued to go forward and there was nothing we could do about it. He was pulling in on the side that our door was on and he was so close, we could not open our door. He finally stopped and I hear him yell, "Holy Shit!". He was literally within an inch of hitting us. Then he started to back up. But now he had the back of his truck pointed at our camper as he backed up! He finally reached the point where our door was between his truck and his camper giving me enough room to open the door and jump out, luckily he saw me otherwise he would have run me over. It was obvious he had not idea what to do so I said, "I'll just move my truck". He insisted that he "Had it", but I insisted in moving our truck getting totally out of his way. He finally got parked and I slide back into our spot. Whew!

You know what he did then? He pulls out a yellow generator (yes, the dreaded loud yellow one), hooks it up and turns it on. Right there in the Cracker Barrel parking lot! After a restless night, we got up and got out of there before he moved his rig. 

That was the extent of our excitement on our travels south. We landed at the Quail Roost RV Park in Crystal River on February 1st and are all set up here for a month. 

Sunday, January 26, 2025

What Are Your First Memories?

 I read a blog post the other day about the writers first memories.  The writer said her first memory was from when she was 2 years old. I was blown away. I have written before about my poor memory, but it got me to thinking what my first memory was. I have virtually no memories of my childhood. Brief glimpses now and then, but only brief. I have almost no memories of junior or senior high school. I do have memories of things outside of school; my first deer, ducks, pheasants, but I really had to think about what my first memory was. Thinking back, I came up with 7 or 8 years old. 

Barb often teases me about my memory, I can watch a movie 4 times a year like it is my first time, I remember bits and pieces, somehow, she remembers every aspect of each and every moment of our life (mostly about things I screw up). It also made me wonder if life was like the movies I've watched multiple times and I was able to replay those lost years, would I remember any parts? Would something happen where I would say to myself, I know what happens next or would every moment be a surprise? The brain is a bizarre thing. 

So, what is my first memory? I don't not remember my age specifically, but I am able to deduce it base on the other participants. We were driving from Spooner to Shell Lake Wisconsin in our Rambler convertible. If my sister Becky is reading this right now, I know her heart just skipped a beat as she knows what is next. She was in the vehicle too. I think all told it was her, my dad and my brother Bob. A car crossed over the centerline causing us to hit the ditch to avoid a head on collision. The only problem was, that there was no ditch, just an embankment, a very steep embankment going down and go down we did. We never rolled, but I distinctly remember that rough ride down, hitting the bottom and us coming to a stop. I was trying to jump from the vehicle and my brother Bob pulled me back in. If Becky was in the vehicle, she had to be 16 or 17 meaning a I was 7 or 8. I have other memories that may be earlier, but I have no way to validate exactly how old I was so those remain a mystery to me. 

But on to things I do remember, like what we did this past week. It was a rough week. It started out with Shane and Jess having to have their well looked at. It had been losing pressure over the past few months so Shane dug up the well head and called a guy to come look at it. Bad news, they need a new well. The well guy showed Shane (and the rest of us) that they have a terracotta well casing. He had heard of them, but never seen one himself. Now he has. 

The good news is the well is still operational. Next up was the fireplace in the living room. It was abandoned years ago, in fact in the '70's when their furnace was installed, they used the chimney to vent the furnace. Since we were working in that area anyway, we decided to build a false wall and center the mantle with the room. As you can see from the picture below the mantle was no longer centered after the previous owner added the 1/2 bath downstairs. 

So, we went into demolition mode. That decision ended up being a blessing and a curse. Here is something interesting I ran into during demolition mode while taking the trim off the wall. Look at these nails. I know many of you seen them in your lifetime, but these types of nails were not made after 1915. Crazy!

After opening it up we discovered that the exhaust vent did not go all the way to the roof, but just a foot into the chimney, plus, decades of condensation has caused the vent to deteriorate the vent to the point that it needs to be replaced. 
They looked into two options, replacing the pipe but running all the way up the chimney or installing a chimney liner. No worries, we can carry on with everything while we get that figured out. Until the third thing happened. The worst thing of all. A thing that has stopped productive economies in their tracks. The dreaded Man Cold!!!!!! Nothing can bring progress to a halt like a Man Cold, in fact, it is rumored that was the ancient Anasazi civilization that was thriving in the 12th and 13th centuries was wiped out by..... yep, you guess it, the Man Cold. 

Coughing, headaches, fever, chills. I was inflicted for several days. 6 of them all told. 6 long miserable days.  I did not even leave the camper most days, I could not lay flat, so I made up the dinette bed and just up trying to sleep it off only catching brief naps here and there, day and night. Poor Barb, she had to endure one of the most pathetic things known to man. I don't think she has gotten a good night sleep either. Dakota, on the other hand was elated. With the dinette turned into a bed, Dakota could not fit under it, so she got to sleep on my side of the bed. 

On day 2 of my 6-day stint, Shane got it too and was out for 6 days as well.

Keep in mind, we have everything ripped apart and no running furnace and you recall how cold it was last week right? They could not even get any repair places to return their calls. They have electric heaters in each room, but it was still freezing in their house. Thankfully Jessica and Barb were able to carry on with painting the bath and pantry.

Of course, this had to happen on the coldest and snowiest week of the year. With both Shane and I out of commission, that left Barb and Jess to do the shoveling and other chores. 

Friday, the girls made sushi for supper. Kendall has been begging for it for almost a week. Look at these three generations, triplets, born 20 something years apart. At least there is no mystery of what they will look like as they get older!

Saturday we were able to get out to Kendall's basketball game. Pretty dang entertaining. Here is Kendall attempting a free-throw. 

So, what all did we accomplish? Not as much as we wanted, but everything we could given the circumstances. In the bathroom we ripped out the old linoleum getting down to the original wood floors, gave it a new paint job and replaced the toilet. Still needs a new vanity, light and mirror which they have yet to pick out.  


The pantry has a new paint job, shelf configurations and a new spice rack on the door.

We could not enclose the old fireplace area until the venting gets fixed for the furnace. Besides that, they no longer want to stick with their original plan and are now thinking about installing a pellet stove in that room. 

Our time here is done, almost three weeks. Now it is time to hit the road and hopefully find some warmer weather! But before we do that, I told Barb that there is a new movie that just came out that I want to watch. When I told her the name of it, she just shook her head, mumbled "Lord help me" and walked away. I don't know what that was all about. The movie, maybe you have heard of it, is called, The Notebook.