Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! 

   Best wishes for a wonderful new 2013! 

                        Safe wishes, wonderful travels! 
 
                                         My best to you & yours!

!!!!WARNING!!!!

Don't let this be you tomorrow morning!

I never use this phrase, but it applies  -- LOL! 

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Nice relaxing ....day?

Welcome Janet! Janet's blog is Van Tripping in the USA. It's inspiring. She travels in a 2010 Dodge Caravan & shares her travels in her blog. Awesome Janet! 

*******

Soooo, I decided to take the day off.

To relax. 

To watch the last two remaining movies of the stack of movies I brought home from the library. 

They are due back by Monday. 

Soooo, I got the dogs done. Then came back out to the RV. 

Oh what the heck, I should fill that flat tire (again) so the RV isn't sitting on one dually on the drivers side. 

There's a problem with the tire, but I'm now thinking that the extension wasn't put on properly or that the tire stem may even be bad. I'll have to get that taken care of soon. But I was REALLY hoping that I could just save some money & buy two new tires instead & go back to a level of tire comfort. 

Soooo, I think, oh what the heck, it won't take long to air it back up.

So I do. 

Then I leave the motorhome running for awhile afterwards to be sure that the battery is ok. I leave it running while airing tires too of course. I do a couple of errands, then come back & shut the engine off. 

Then I turn it back on. ARGH! Battery is dead! So now it's on a trickle charge. I'm not sure what's going on there as I've aired tires up a million times. Now if I had only paid myself a dollar for each air up, then I'd be able to afford the two new tires now huh? But nope, it doesn't work that way. 

My friends have one of those professional type of battery chargers, so I went to the storage building & got it out. Now the battery is on a trickle charge. Did this last week too. So again, not sure if it's the battery or what is going on, but after last weeks trickle charge, the battery was fine again. It is however dated for 2005, so it might be on it's way out.  Any ideas would be welcomed on the battery thing just to be sure. But I'm probably heading down a path towards a new battery. 

OK, so since the battery is charging, I came back inside of the RV. 

OH, haven't made my bed up yet & my ladder is still down. OK, made the bed & put the ladder back in it's day place. 

Oh look, I have coke cans littering my kitchen. Lets do something about that. So I pull the tabs off the cans - those I save for organizations that take them for kids in need of operations. It's a great thing to do. 

Then I put the cans in a bag for recycling & put them outside in the can pile. 

Yes, I'm a coke-a-holic. It's my one naughty in life.

Then I think, Oh I should check all my batteries, including the coach battery. 

Soooo, I pop the tops off, top off what's necessary with distilled water. Coach battery, van battery, already did the RV battery before I started charging it. Good thing I decided to do this because the last time I had the RV worked on, they did NOT totally pop the water cover back on my coach battery!! So it was loose & I would have been mad had it fallen off & I would have had to buy a new battery! Geez, it sucks to have to go back & check things after they've been worked on. And I didn't even know this guy had looked at my battery. But now that I think of it, I do remember him trying to put the cables back on it...um, he didn't hit the kill switch. And he did it twice before I mentioned maybe he should hit the cut off switch first?? Hmmm, sure makes one wonder...

OK, now I'll fix my entry step because same guy didn't bolt it back down properly. So I do that deed, which also involved jacking the step back up because it's been rebuilt TWICE & still wasn't fixed right. :-/  Always something. So one day, I'll find someone that knows how to do it right. I hope. I still like the idea of an RV fix-it camp! Kind of like homes for humanity. Maybe RV's for humanity....or better yet, RV fix'it for sanity. Yes, I like that! 

OK, so got that done. 

It's now 2pm & I've not really sat down for very long. 

Maybe I'll put that movie in...but first, I have to go clean litter boxes & play with kitties for a little while.

Then maybe I'll put that movie in...but wait, I have to go to youtube to find out how this FM transmitter thing works that I bought yesterday. 

Then maybe I'll put that movie in...but then, it might be time to start fixing dinner. 

Oh heck, anyone want to borrow a movie??

geez. 

Y'know...I could also reseal down my coach lights...and...and...and....

My foot hurts. It would kick my butt if it could.  

 

Please, will someone put that movie in for me then? 

Did I mention that the FedEx guy came?

That required a trip to his truck. 

Did I mention that the UPS guy came?

That required a trip to his truck. 

Did I mention that I finally sat down & the mailman came?? 

Geez, that required a trip out to his car!

Then I had to walk to the mailbox to get the rest of my mail. 

Now I really can't walk for awhile.

:-( 

Ouch.

And none of the packages were for me...I guess Christmas is over...

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Warm Fuzzies

Here is a nice fire for ya'll on a cold winters night.

I Have been in charge of keeping the fire going all day. Not a bad job :-)

Now, I'll attempt a video, via cell phone:

Wwweeeeee, it loaded!
So, pull up your favorite lazy boy and get loaded too  
;-)

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

It's beginning to look a lot like.....Christmas?

Merry Christmas Everyone! 

Happy Holidays Everyone! 

I hope ya'll have a wonderful day!

*********

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas???

**********

What I've been doing lately, hence, my absense. 

These take awhile, but these are my first scarves!

They are my Christmas gifts this year. I enjoyed making them & will enjoy passing them along.

These are rope scarves. They hang loosely around your neck. Actually, I think they are pretty cool.

Speaking of cool....well, it's coming! 

Supposed to be around 31 in the morning. 

Have a great holiday everyone!!

10--21-12

Well, we still have about a half hour to find if the world is coming to an end...that is, by east coast standards. Then me next, then the west coast! You on the west coast get to live longer due to the time zones....

Now 17 mins because it took a little while for blogger to load..

Start  the countdown...

Go to the light...Gooooo to the light...

Did you see lights?

Did you see stars?

Why yes. 

I have. 

The tree I helped assemble & decorate at the clinic. 

Pretty isn't it?

And one of the two large picture frames that we put lights around. 

I gotta say, that room is quite cozy with just the c'mas lights lit up!

And my RV lights:

 The lights over my sofa.

 My kitchen pepper lights. Those actually stay up year round, but I get to plug them in at C'mas time!

I wanted to buy a small tree for the RV, but decided not to. One year, a friend gave me a nice smelling little cypress table top pine for the RV. But it didn't live long. 

I thought about getting just a tiny table top tree, but to store it just didn't make sense to me, so I didn't get one. 

I still could cave in though!

OK, I gotta go work on my Christmas pressies. 

Later.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Flaky, flaky, flaky

Yep, I've been flaky lately. 

It's kinda crazy. 

But who knows what the elves are going to do to us this time of year? 

This is what they did to me. 

They MADE me do it! 

And these things are easy to get obsessed with...

 

My picture window by the sofa...can only do the corner because in Texas, I'll probably have that window partially open on Christmas day! 

      

My rear window - let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

Here is a tutorial on how to make them if you are interested & have forgotten how: ( I did not iron mine, I mean, really??)




Hmmm, interesting. Firefox would not let me put anything below the video, so I moved over to Opera to finish this post. 

I'm gonna get dizzy or confused or...well..not that anyone would notice...

So because I googled at the clinic on how to make snowflakes as they were decorating the room, I ended up making most of them there. Then when I got home, I had to make more for my RV. So these are the ones at the clinic:

The Grinch also seems appropriate for this photo too huh?

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Test Post - testing Opera

IE has become so unstable that it's no longer usable. After spending days & days trying to figure it out, I'm coming up with nothing. 


I've reset it. 

I've uninstalled it. 

I've ran their trouble shooting programs on it.

I've ran my antivirus for a deep scan. 

I've ran two different malware programs. 

Everything comes up clean. 

But something is creating the problem, I just can't pinpoint it!

Firefox won't open Blogger. 

I've used Chrome twice on this computer, it doesn't work on this computer. 

So out of frustration, I've downloaded & am now using Opera in the meantime. 
Although Blogger says it's unsupported, at least it's working. 
Although it reminds me a little of safe mode when starting your computer up in that. 

But again, for now, I at least can use Opera to view blogger on & to upload & use blogger on. 

Life is too short for this crappage. 

Done venting now. 

Have a good day everyone. 

Hmmm, actually, this is a lot faster than IE is! So that's a good thing! 

Well, wouldn't you know it. I had firefox open too, so I tried to open blogger again & this time it worked! Jealously??? Probably more because of all the things I tried to get IE to work applied itself to Firefox too? 
Who knows. But now at least I can use Opera or FF. 

Boooo IE, Boooo!!!! 

Opera is FAST too! Yay!

If interested, go to www.opera.com & do a download if you too are having issues. 

Or if you want a faster browser experience! Although I've only used it for blogger so far...

Bike finished!

I got the bike done!

Actually, I got it done last weekend, but haven't been able to ride it till today.

Due to weather & other responsibilites.

But it looks great & rides well again!

Too bad I can't just freashen up my foot like that huh?

 It hurt my foot to ride.
I rode the bike around the block, which is 2 miles. I didn't think that would be a big deal since I have to do 2 miles on an exercise bike in therapy, but it did hurt.

I'll get better.

Bike all taped up with painters tape, ready to spray paint! I spray painted the rusted chrome parts & other parts that needed to be finished after I treated them.

I used this silver metallic paint. First I used rust remover, that was covered in another post.

Before

After

Chain Feed before

Chain feed after

After

Brake Controls before - they weren't too bad, but I treated them & painted them before they had a chance to get worse.

Brake controls after.

All dressed up & somewhere to go!

Even if it is just around the block. ;-)

I also changed out a brake pad, no easy feat. I had to break out both of my tool kits to get the right tools! And I changed out the back tire tube as well. Lets hope this tube doesn't go flat! I had previously changed out two other tubes, which both went flat. Inspected the tire, nothing in it to cause the tubes to go flat? So I suspect somehow the tubes got crimped & died.

I also oiled the necessary parts & put vaseline on the chain in hopes of preventing further rust.

Unfortunately, the only way to store my bike is to keep it in the driveway beside the motorhome, with a tarp over it. If this had to be done again, it'll just be time for a new bike then. Guess this is how it is with the life of a fulltime RVer huh?

Maybe I'll do a future post on all those tools I keep around. Not on each individual one though...

I keep both kits in the RV as you never know what you might need!

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

New Welcomes and browser woes

Welcome to Tina! I don't show a blog for Tina, but she's a follower of many RV blogs. Welcome & I hope you have a good time here.

Welcome to Cj Cozygirl! Her blog is It's a Cozy Life - love the name! Her & her mate like to travel in a Casita. She's into designing are creations & cooking. Glad to have you along, maybe I'll run into ya'll out there someday.

Welcome to Box Canyon Blogger! I don't see a blog for you? I'm thinking I've seen something of a blog for ya'll somewhere? If so, please share the url & I'll be happy to post it!

And lastly, welcome to Randy and Pam Warner! Of The Roadrunner Chronicles. They fulltime in a 2007 Tiffin Allegro Bus. Go read about them. I love reading how folks start out in our RV lifestyle!

***

I am having major problems with my computer & blogger.

I use Internet Explorer 9 

And I use Mozilla Firefox.

Mozilla can't open blogger. I get this with Mozilla:

*The page isn't redirecting properly    
      
      
          Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete *


Internet Explorer can open blogger, but it's painfully slow. Kind of like back in the old days of dial up with aol!
I don't know what's going on. It just gets worse & worse with IE. I went in & hit reset, but that did not change a thing. They had an update on 12/11 - it's gotten worse.
I keep the computer in good shape. I use two different malware programs & of course, my antivirus program. I clean the cache often, run the Disk Cleanup & defrag often.
I thought about uninstalling IE & reinstalling it. Don't know if that will help or not.

Chrome does not work on this computer well at all. I've tried twice. This computer isn't compatable with Chrome.

This computer is about 5 years old. It's a Compaq (HP based)Presario CQ60 laptop. Vista Operating System. It is NOT compatable for any other OS, so I have to stay with Vista. And I'm not in the position to buy another computer just because IE is giving me grief. So please, no grief over my having to use Vista would be appreciated. Windows 7 was not out yet when I bought this computer.

Any suggestions from the tecchie crew out there?

Thanks in advance.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Too much sadness - Sandy Hook

 

 

I had a blog planned for today, but my heart isn't into it.

 

As many of us, I'm heart broken & very sad for the children of Newtown, CT. As well as for the adults that died a senseless death at the hands of a madman.

 

Bless their souls & families.

 

Hold those dear to you close to your heart.

 

Life is special.

 

Warm dreams

Sending a bit of warmth on a cold night....

.......sleep well my friends

The perfect nightcap

Tis the reason for the season 

And to all, a good night  :-)

Restoring My Bike

What does everyone that has a bike & fulltimes do with their bikes?

Do you cover them? That's what I do.

Do you have a place to store it? I wish I did.

Do you have a real bike cover?  I use a tarp.

But when I travel, I have a bike carrier that hangs off my ladder. It can be a challenge to use as I have to lift the bike & carefully place it over the carrier. That requires upper body strength. I can still do it, but it becomes more difficult each time.

I use a cargo carrier, but it has other items on it, so placing the bike on it isn't really possible. I could take the risk of looking like the Beverly Hillbillies truck/car thing. Jalopy. Yes, jalopy fits.  I'm sure most people would really want to be away from traveling behind me then! They already don't want my big box blocking their views at it is....but then, it would give them something to look at, no?

Sooo because I live in a humid climate, my poor bike suffers the wrath of the rusties!

Bad rusties - BAD!

I'm one to restore things if possible. Plus a new bike isn't in the budget right now. What is a budget? Isn't that some small bird one keeps in a cage? I dunno, I don't have either right now ;-)

So I got this stuff to remove the rust-o-la-la-la-la

Click on images for larger images - I've made the label big enough to read if you care to click on it.

This is part of the rust. I don't know most bike parts, so bear with me. No, don't be a bear about it, just bare with me. Bear/bare? Oh have a beer, then it won't matter.

 This part, I treated twice, but this was with the first application & I shot it before I let it set. It is not cleaning up the chrome part well though. But I will also sand that down & repaint. I bought some silver spray paint for this job.

 This is some kind of chain guard thing. It was really rusted. The stuff helped & I will also spray paint it as well.

It did a great job on this metal bolt! I applied the stuff to all the screws & bolts. Most of them were rusting. They all look good now.

My bike chain & gears were covered in rust. I didn't think to take a before pic, but it really cleaned them up well too!

My poor weathered bike. I've put many, many miles on this bike. Before my injury, I used to ride it around 13-16 miles a day! I'd love to be able to do that again. I also bought new brake pads & a new tube. Because I changed out the old tube, but uh...should I be admitting this? Oh well, yes, I might as well. I forgot to inspect the tire for anything that would pierce the tube. So yep, the new tube deflated too! And it was one of those slime tubes that don't go flat! Ha! Don't believe them. It's as flat as an old vinyl record. Pancakes are not as flat...

I have therapy today, so won't be able to finish up on the bike. I'll take shots at it ...or um...of it once done. Wish me luck!

Then I might use this stuff on the RV too! I think maybe some of the lug nuts could use a little dose of this stuff.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Take care of your health

Life has tossed more challenges again.

This time, upon my husband. Although we are separated, we still keep in touch.

He is in Corpus Christi & has been tending to his Alzheimer's parents.
His father passed away, which I previously mentioned.

His mother is home right now, so he's been taking care of her. However, he's had his own health issues. He went to the hospital on Tuesday, Nov 27 for a surgery. They were to put stints in his neck arteries. But after testing, they discovered that he actually needed heart surgery. So they kept him there, the surgery happened Friday evening. He had quadruple bypass surgery & his carotid artery cleared. He's one sick puppy right now. Unfortunately, he's been a smoker for many, many years, so it has all caught up with him. They have him in ICU now & hope to move him to a room in the morning. He's hooked up on a breathing machine right now because he can't breathe properly. Any deep breathing hurts him. So if they can get him breathing correctly, they will move him into a room for a week. He still needs a lot of care. Fortunately, I've been able to call the hospital to get updates on him. He can't talk on a phone yet. But his nurse has been good at updating me when I call.

Friends have been sending their well wishes & prayers his way.

When I get to talk to him, I will remind him that he got an early Christmas Present as life is the biggest gift of all!

Please take care of yourselves so you can still enjoy life itself!

Relish life.

Live life.

Love life.
~TexCyn