I'm Home!

Just a quick post to let everyone know I am back home safe and sound.
It was an amazing trip and I will be posting about it.
Still trying to decide just how I want to arrange the posts. I was thinking about writing about the trip in reverse order so that when finished it would read from top to bottom, also was thinking about just starting at the first and just numbering the parts.
I am looking forward to catching up on everyones blogs.

Trip!

Sorry I haven't posted in nearly 2 weeks. I have been very busy getting ready for my trip and working on the motorhome.

The motorhome has not been moved in nearly four years. The last time I started it was over a year ago and it ruptured a water hose.

I have been busy changing out the radiator and heater hoses (no small job). Even though it is 20 years old, it has only 31,998 miles on it. All the hoses were original.

After adding fresh gas, it started and ran like an engine with 30k on it should. I needed to have it ready to move as our new TT should arrive while I am in France. I leave in the morning and will be back a week from Thursday. That will give me a long weekend to set it up before I have to go back to work. The motorhome was not traded in and I want it ready to use any time we want to.

Looks like the weather in France might be alright for my visit. Highs in the 50's to low 60's. Maybe the rain will hold off. Should be nice for all the walking we will be doing.

I am sure I will bore everyone crazy upon my return with details of my trip.

Am I the last to know?

THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOUR CELL PHONE COULD DO.

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:

FIRST Subject: Emergency The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

SECOND Subject: Have you locked your keys in the car? Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).


THIRD Subject: Hidden Battery Power Imagine your cell battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370# Your cell will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell next time.

FOURTH How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone? To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: * # 0 6 # A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

And Finally....

FIFTH Cell phone companies are charging us $1.00 to $1.75 or more for 411 information calls when they don't have to. Most of us do not carry a telephone directory in our vehicle, which makes this situation even more of a problem. When you need to use the 411 information option, simply dial:

(800) FREE 411, or (800) 373-3411

without incurring any charge at all. Program this into your cell phone now. This is the kind of information people don't mind receiving, so pass it on to your family and friends.

Thanks Hal

How many of you knew about this little trick.

Hal explained it on his blog and I am just blown away by how little I know about this new-fangled stuff.

A Fortnight

And counting.

Seat Covers

The weather is getting nicer and it makes my job more enjoyable. From my vantage point in the cab of my truck I have a nice view into passing cars. Over the years I have seen some sights. Truck drivers call it "checking out the seat covers".

Today as I was "doing my duty", I saw something I had never seen before.












A Ford pickup with Alabama tags passed and the driver was playing this . He had his left hand resting on the steering wheel and pumping the instrument with his right hand. I call it a Hand Squeezebox. It probably has a different name but Google came up with this picture.

High School

The year was 1965 and I purchased a 1956 Chevy Bel-Air 4 door in the same colors as the one pictured above.

It was a nice ( not quite as nice as the one pictured) car and I paid $300 for it. It was a 6 cylinder with a 3-on-the-tree. I paid $65 down and the payment were $27 a month. I had spent the summer in California and saved a little money from a job I had washing dishes at a cafe. As usual I hitchhiked back and saved my money. I made the down payment and used my SS check ( from my deceased dad) to make the payments.

A week after I bought the car I made my second trip to California that summer. My brother George was going back in the Army and he and I carried his wife back home to California.

This was the car I drove my senior year and boy I had a great time in it. Enough said!

Two Moons

Yesterday we had a beautiful full moon in the afternoon. Every time I see one, a big smile comes over my face. Here is the story behind that smile.

When my son was about four years old he had a little trouble pronouncing some letters. So "moon" came out "boon".

After playing in the back yard on his swing set, he came in the house for something to drink. After his mom gave him something to drink, he started to go back to the swing set and just happened to look out the front door.

He became very excited and started jumping up and down and calling for his mom. She came running and he said, "two boons, two boons".

He took his mom by the hand and led her to the front door and pointed to the moon. She could not understand his meaning of "two moons".

He then took his mom out the back door and into the back yard. He then pointed over the house to the moon and said, "see mom, two boons".

Legs ( yes, I've got purtie ones )

While in France my son and I will be doing a great deal of walking. My job requires that I use my legs as I pull several hundred cases of milk from one trailer to another.

The problem with that is I walk backward while pulling the stacks of milk (on average a stack of milk will weigh about 150 pounds). This compacts the muscles in my back and my legs. My work boots have heals on them as compared to walking shoes. I often have back problems when doing a little walking in tennis shoes after wearing boots most of the time. My legs are strong but just not used to normal walking.

For the trip I purchased a new pair of walking shoes and a day-use backpack. Walking is getting my feet and the new shoes used to each other and stretching out my calf and thigh muscles.

The backpack will be for carrying my jacket, umbrella, bottled water and any thing else that might be needed for the day. I have a case for my camera ( just in case I might want to take a picture or two) that I will wear on my belt.

I can not believe that in less than three weeks this old simple country boy will be walking around Paris, France.

March Book Review

Even though WALDEN TWO was written in 1948, it is the "bible" for many of the communes of the 60's.

Walden Two is the name given a utopian community in the delightful fiction. "Walden" after the Henry David Thoreau book ( still haven't read it. Am I going to have to get a switch?)

Several communes were started using this book as their charter. Several still remain, the most noticeable being Twin Oaks .

In the book, Rodger ("Rodge") and Steve Jamnik, two young men returning from service at the end of WWII, stop by the office of Professor Burris to ask if he knows anything about a man named Frazier, and the new society Frazier is trying to build. Burris remembers that Frazier was a classmate of his in graduate school, one with radical ideas. He sends a letter to Frazier and immediately gets a reply inviting him to visit the community. Burris agrees to take time off from his academic duties to accompany Rogers and Steve on a visit to "Walden Two," Frazier's community. Rodge's girlfriend Barbara, Steve's girlfriend Mary, and Burris' Colleague Castle, also come. The population of Walden Two is about one thousand people, all of whom seem to be healthy and happy. They live in dwellings, eat in common dining spaces, raise their children in a nursery, and grow and build much of what they need. The standard workday lasts only four hours, or less; no one is paid wages--but nothing at Walden Two costs money. Each of the visitors responds to the community differently. Castle finds it challenging he spends the duration of the visit arguing with Frazier about such a community like Walden Two. Burris, on the other hand, finds himself somewhere in the middle: he is skeptical that such a community could work, but he finds Frazier's arguments compelling and he cannot forget the evidence of success in front of him. Steve and Mary are both convinced that this is the life for them; they decide to stay at Walden Two. Rodge, too, is convinced, but Barbara is not; he leaves Walden Two with her at the end of their visit. Burris decides to return to his academic life. However, at the train station he suddenly realizes that he would rather try life at Walden Two, for whatever it's worth, than go back to the university. He walks back to Walden Two and begins his new life there along with the rest of the group.

Everyones idea of "Utopia" is a little different but this is a very thought provoking book.