I feel like Jack Benny. Life is a dialogue with Rochester.
Things are progressing to a March 7th departure. The Fifth Wheel has new tires and the truck got a thorough check up at the local diesel shop. I wish I could find a shop like this in every town. These guys can “use the force” when they are under the hood. If we are back here next year with the same rig, I might give it to them for the complete makeover. They remove a bunch of hardware and boost the milage considerably. Dodge would not be thrilled, something about voiding the warranty, but with $5 diesel around the corner..........
We’re having Molly and Spencer overnight tomorrow. That should be fun, hopefully for all. We have been slowly assembling a giant playhouse/swing set at the Soden’s. It has finally grown enough in the carport that we will have to move it to it’s final resting place in the back yard to progress much further. I’ll see about some pics soon.
Getting warmer, time to move on. We’ll be moving west along I 10, then up to Death Valley by March 20th. Should be plenty warm there. I’ll feel better when we get back into Oregon in April.
Stay well.
About Me
- Troy
- 1964: after high school life begins. Asked to consider not returning to OSU after the first year. 1966 drafted; grunt, door gunner, HU1 pilot. Out in Dec '70. 1972 married, joined fire dept and bought first house over a 6 month span. 1980 moved family (which now consisted of wife Teri, daughter Amy and son Ryan) to CO. 1990 moved all to bush Alaska to work for the dark side (the FAA). Started Blog to keep family and friends up on our whereabouts. Retired in March 2010. In Feb 2012 sold house in Alaska. By May had bought in Redmond and completed the move. Still nesting in Redmond and loving it!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
I could get used to this
2/20
Laying back on Lake Tuscaloosa. Drove up from Tallahassee Friday and got to go to the Alabama/Kentucky women's gymnastics meet (Woofus and Sue have season tickets). Quite the production. It was a “pink meet” to raise money for breast cancer research and prevention. Tuscaloosa is the home of Susan Koeman, a breast cancer victim whose sister wrote the book “Promise Me”, which started the breast cancer awareness movement. The local area has currently raised over $1,000,000.
Each Alabama gymnast was introduced with an accompanying breast cancer survivor and about 40 alumni survivors were honored before the meet. I was surprised by the professional almost Vegas like presentation of the whole event. Door prizes included a 55’ TV, 2 IPads, several ITouches and $50 gift certificates. It was my first gymnastics meet at this level and I was surprised at how much else went on besides some pretty impressive athletic performances. The stadium was pretty packed, the stadium holds over 15,000. Bama won the competition, by the way.
Yesterday we worked at cleaning up their boat after spending the winter in the boat house. It was quite messy but cleaned up real nice. We played with dock lines, fenders and took the canopy off for a scrub down on the driveway. I always enjoy playing with rope, just ask my kids. The motor needs some cosmetic work, which we hope to start after a cruise around the lake this afternoon.
Weather has been perfect, 75 with low humidity, in February. I could get used to living on a lake.
Lay back, enjoy, we are.
Laying back on Lake Tuscaloosa. Drove up from Tallahassee Friday and got to go to the Alabama/Kentucky women's gymnastics meet (Woofus and Sue have season tickets). Quite the production. It was a “pink meet” to raise money for breast cancer research and prevention. Tuscaloosa is the home of Susan Koeman, a breast cancer victim whose sister wrote the book “Promise Me”, which started the breast cancer awareness movement. The local area has currently raised over $1,000,000.
Each Alabama gymnast was introduced with an accompanying breast cancer survivor and about 40 alumni survivors were honored before the meet. I was surprised by the professional almost Vegas like presentation of the whole event. Door prizes included a 55’ TV, 2 IPads, several ITouches and $50 gift certificates. It was my first gymnastics meet at this level and I was surprised at how much else went on besides some pretty impressive athletic performances. The stadium was pretty packed, the stadium holds over 15,000. Bama won the competition, by the way.
Yesterday we worked at cleaning up their boat after spending the winter in the boat house. It was quite messy but cleaned up real nice. We played with dock lines, fenders and took the canopy off for a scrub down on the driveway. I always enjoy playing with rope, just ask my kids. The motor needs some cosmetic work, which we hope to start after a cruise around the lake this afternoon.
Weather has been perfect, 75 with low humidity, in February. I could get used to living on a lake.
Lay back, enjoy, we are.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Journals
Must write daily! Something, anything. I’ve looked back on so many stages of my life that I wish I’d recorded, if only just for me. Vietnam, four plus years with two and a half in country. There were many letters; a lot to my folks and more to Teri. I’ll have to go over those to jog my memory as I’d like to construct a journal of those times. It will be interesting filtering through the bullshit as I tried to keep Teri interested and not scare the crap out of my folks. I may find that there is nothing there, but I’d like to try.
Then there was the next twenty years. Joined up with Teri, built a family and dragged them to Colorado to make our fortune in the Rockies. Got my ass handed to me making that fortune and wound up dragging family to Alaska for the next twenty years. And that is another twenty year story story.
Don’t know how much of it will end up here; some, no doubt. As usual, I make no promises other than to chronicle our travels as a basic theme. Count down to next phase is about 16 days or so, still working out basic plan.
Look ahead, if you never look back at the traffic jam behind you, the road ahead looks mighty peaceful and serene. It helps if you turn down your hearing aid and miss all that annoying honking. Whatever you do.
Stay ahead of them!
Then there was the next twenty years. Joined up with Teri, built a family and dragged them to Colorado to make our fortune in the Rockies. Got my ass handed to me making that fortune and wound up dragging family to Alaska for the next twenty years. And that is another twenty year story story.
Don’t know how much of it will end up here; some, no doubt. As usual, I make no promises other than to chronicle our travels as a basic theme. Count down to next phase is about 16 days or so, still working out basic plan.
Look ahead, if you never look back at the traffic jam behind you, the road ahead looks mighty peaceful and serene. It helps if you turn down your hearing aid and miss all that annoying honking. Whatever you do.
Stay ahead of them!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
WWWD
I turned 64 yesterday. Remembering the Beatles song and apparently not much else. Years ago I decided to prioritize all the information that my job would throw at us and just ignore the stuff you knew was unlikely to be needed or sure to be changed again in the near future.
Even though I don’t keep up with my favorite comic strips, I had followed Dilbert and Wally enough to develop the WWWD system for prioritizing data. Just imagine, What Would Wally Do? We developed a flow chart. Beginning with some one giving you a task and running through several choices of possible actions. For example:
Test one.
If you ignore the task, will it ever get traced back to you.
If yes, move on to other possible actions; if no, trash it now.
There were many yes/no tests and if you were still stuck with the task at the end of the chart, the last resort was “get Tracy to do it”. She was the one that took the job a little too seriously and could be counted on to care enough to do it herself when no one else would.
I am certain that adopting WWWD for the last few years of my illustrious career kept my blood pressure within limits long enough to retire. The drugs provided by the VA probably didn’t hurt.
Things have been moving a little fast since retirement. I have yet to develop the instincts I need to apply WWWD to this situation. Luckily, forgetting most everything seems to be working. Teri tells me when I should have remembered the things that count so I can adjust the system.
Right now we are working on a schedule for the trip from here to Portland that will get us there on the 13th of April. Looks like we will follow the coast to Houston then meet up with the Hatches in Carlsbad for a few days. Then it is off to LA LA land via Death Valley. Then up to Bend, OR for a few days with Emil and Sara. Finally, back to Portland for the Timbers home opener.
Ryan and Judy have been here for the last few days and it has been quite the circus with the three littlest grand children. Teri got all together for a family photo with self timer and tripod. I’d like to say that it gets a little easier each time as the kids get older. Maybe next time I’ll be able to say that.
Truck is getting the once over, then the fifth wheel gets new tires and we are ready to move again. Tentative launch is March 7th.
Stay safe.
Even though I don’t keep up with my favorite comic strips, I had followed Dilbert and Wally enough to develop the WWWD system for prioritizing data. Just imagine, What Would Wally Do? We developed a flow chart. Beginning with some one giving you a task and running through several choices of possible actions. For example:
Test one.
If you ignore the task, will it ever get traced back to you.
If yes, move on to other possible actions; if no, trash it now.
There were many yes/no tests and if you were still stuck with the task at the end of the chart, the last resort was “get Tracy to do it”. She was the one that took the job a little too seriously and could be counted on to care enough to do it herself when no one else would.
I am certain that adopting WWWD for the last few years of my illustrious career kept my blood pressure within limits long enough to retire. The drugs provided by the VA probably didn’t hurt.
Things have been moving a little fast since retirement. I have yet to develop the instincts I need to apply WWWD to this situation. Luckily, forgetting most everything seems to be working. Teri tells me when I should have remembered the things that count so I can adjust the system.
Right now we are working on a schedule for the trip from here to Portland that will get us there on the 13th of April. Looks like we will follow the coast to Houston then meet up with the Hatches in Carlsbad for a few days. Then it is off to LA LA land via Death Valley. Then up to Bend, OR for a few days with Emil and Sara. Finally, back to Portland for the Timbers home opener.
Ryan and Judy have been here for the last few days and it has been quite the circus with the three littlest grand children. Teri got all together for a family photo with self timer and tripod. I’d like to say that it gets a little easier each time as the kids get older. Maybe next time I’ll be able to say that.
Truck is getting the once over, then the fifth wheel gets new tires and we are ready to move again. Tentative launch is March 7th.
Stay safe.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
MEETING PEOPLE
Been doing a lot of that over the last two weeks here at Camp Venice Retreat. Sounds like summer camp. We’ve met lots of folks like us here and the time flies by. They have bike rides and canoe trips going out every week, as well as other get togethers. Every afternoon someone blows the Conch shell at 4 PM to call all to the camp fire. You bring your own chair and drinks and the socializing begins around the fire pit. Finally took a picture today and they decided to forego the fire as it was too warm and there was no wind to dissipate the smoke. This while Denver is hoping it will get above zero soon.
The folks here are super friendly, seems like a trend we’ve found at most camp grounds. The Alaska plates on our rig and truck is a good conversation starter. We’ve found a lot of them have made the trip and the rest are planning to. We’ve found that sitting in our recliners over looking the canal is a great place for our morning coffee. Some people are paying a fortune for the same experience elsewhere. We’ve found almost everyone here says the same thing. “You can look all over Florida and you won’t find a better campground”. Many of them are here 4-6 months. We plan to spend next January here. Beyond that, don’t know yet.
Seems like the DeJeans always find a project for me. This time Rog’s boat needed a little leak abatement. We propped up the bow and lowered the trailer and did a little patch work on the keel. Brought back memories of making and fixing surf boards in a high school friend’s garage. Nothing like the sickly sweet smell of polyester resin, the biting bitter smell of MEK peroxide catalyst and the itch of glass fibers all over your body and in your lungs to bring back the good old days. After a few days of scratching and coughing we were as good as.....well whatever. Teri made me promise to use the appropriate safety gear next time. I made me promise to not have a next time.
As you can see, the boat made it back into service and we resumed harassing the fish. This time with help from Rog’s son Troy. While we fished, Teri and Claire put the top down on claire's car and spent the day exploring a local island.
Last night we gave Snook Haven one more chance. Much better. We stayed with sandwiches and chips and tea. This time we sat outside along the Myakka River, rather than inside with the over 60 Dixieland band. Much better.
Starting to pack up today, leaving Friday for Tallahassee. The migration will begin the reversal stage in March. Much to do and spend before then. Hope you are all surviving the winter up there. I’ll admit that I’ve had bouts of guilt about dodging my first Alaska winter in the last 20, but these feelings usually go away after a few drinks with umbrellas in them.
Stay Warm
The folks here are super friendly, seems like a trend we’ve found at most camp grounds. The Alaska plates on our rig and truck is a good conversation starter. We’ve found a lot of them have made the trip and the rest are planning to. We’ve found that sitting in our recliners over looking the canal is a great place for our morning coffee. Some people are paying a fortune for the same experience elsewhere. We’ve found almost everyone here says the same thing. “You can look all over Florida and you won’t find a better campground”. Many of them are here 4-6 months. We plan to spend next January here. Beyond that, don’t know yet.
Seems like the DeJeans always find a project for me. This time Rog’s boat needed a little leak abatement. We propped up the bow and lowered the trailer and did a little patch work on the keel. Brought back memories of making and fixing surf boards in a high school friend’s garage. Nothing like the sickly sweet smell of polyester resin, the biting bitter smell of MEK peroxide catalyst and the itch of glass fibers all over your body and in your lungs to bring back the good old days. After a few days of scratching and coughing we were as good as.....well whatever. Teri made me promise to use the appropriate safety gear next time. I made me promise to not have a next time.
 | ||
| Looks like a good beginning to another classic submission to thereifixedit.com check it out here |
 |
| Troy taking Troy |
 |
| Nice 19" sea trout, click on photo and note the front tooth. |
 |
| Yep, Troy taking Troy |
 |
| Troy learning to feed himself forever. |
Last night we gave Snook Haven one more chance. Much better. We stayed with sandwiches and chips and tea. This time we sat outside along the Myakka River, rather than inside with the over 60 Dixieland band. Much better.
Starting to pack up today, leaving Friday for Tallahassee. The migration will begin the reversal stage in March. Much to do and spend before then. Hope you are all surviving the winter up there. I’ll admit that I’ve had bouts of guilt about dodging my first Alaska winter in the last 20, but these feelings usually go away after a few drinks with umbrellas in them.
Stay Warm
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)