Great Weekend

What a great weekend, it got a bit hot out Saturday but the USA is doing good in the Olympics so we stayed inside for part of the day cheering them on. When we went outside we had a visit from Bruce and Val who read my blog! They were there for an FMCA trip. You couldn’t meet nicer people if you tried. I didn’t have my camera or phone with me when they stopped by so here is a picture I took of them when I saw them last year.

Saturday night we had a nice fire until about midnight. The stars were out and we sat there trying to see if we could find any satellites, Ronda saw one but I didn’t. This is how you know you’re really relaxing.

Today we celebrated our nephew Nick’s 15 birthday at the in-laws house and watched some more Olympics. Over all, a great weekend.

Have a great week everybody! 

Windows 8……………… Why Microsoft Why????

I work on networks and computers for a living, which is why I don’t blog about it much.   I am testing Windows 8 Build 8400 on a laptop (I’ve beta tested MS OS’s since Windows 95) and on our domain my initial impressions are why Microsoft? Why? Why on Earth would you force the Metro interface on a non-touch PC enabled public? To make it worse, they force this interface on Windows Server as well. I would like Microsoft to explain why Metro is needed when 99.9999999% of the PC’s and laptops out there lack touch screens. Makes no sense to me, I understand the need to change but give customers an option to use the familiar UI. Windows has given the capability to use an older start menu and look since Windows XP. The vast majority have been very outspoken about how bad an idea it is to force Metro like they’re doing.

You can use the desktop screen which is just like Windows 7 minus the Start menu and hopefully there will be better ways to force Metro to be off. If they ever expect server adoption they better! Anyway, on to some of the good. Networking has finally been modernized and when you’re copying/moving a file to an external drive or network share you get better information plus you can actually pause it!

Windows 8 also provides better multi-processor support than previous versions including Windows 7. The new task manager is better, heck over all the performance of Windows 8 looks to be stellar! If only that Metro UI wasn’t forced down our throats. I know there will be hacks and companies like Star Dock will sell add-ons for the basic desktop but for Joe Average, the out of box experience is going to be a shocker and Metro is not what’s needed on Desktop computers.

Tablets? Sure, touch enabled laptops, why not, phones? Of course! Microsoft needs to re-think this or Windows 8 could go down in history with Vista, we’ll see. Since I have to manage servers I know for a fact I’ll be finding a way to get around Metro, as for my desktop I just create shortcuts on my task bar to everything I use and avoid Metro, so far so good but that’s not how it should be. I use Metro some so I can help users but I’m hoping Microsoft listens to the vast majority who are screaming for them to give us options, my guess is they won’t do it.

Time will tell if I’m right, I think October 26th of this year when the consumer gets it, we’ll find out real quick!

Million Dollar Row

That’s what I called the row of Prevost’s that showed up this weekend, the lowest cost rig was a Holiday Rambler Navigator probably worth half as much but traveling with the Prevost’s. They were all towing pickups with big motorcycles in the bed. One of the Prevost’s, a Millennium version costing a site more than a million had a matching trailer for their motorcycle. We walked by them, they looked at us, we said hello and waved and they all turned their heads back to continue watching the 55” HD TV that extended out of a basement compartment.

I didn’t take a picture since I didn’t have a camera or my phone with me. The Prevost’s were obviously impressive but the rig I liked the most was the HR Navigator. I was hoping to take some pictures this morning but they all took off early this morning. I can’t imagine driving a mansion with all the bling that goes with the opulence provided in the Prevost rigs. I have yet to see one that I would want to own, clearly they are built great but the insides are all polished everywhere to the point of being blinding and over the top. The rigs like the Navigator have interiors more down to earth and not “blingy”.

It was revealing to see how the wealthy camp, I would hope their lack of waving or saying hello was just a fluke, not sure how 12 people could all not wav or say hello so I naturally assumed they were snobs but I could be and I hope I’m wrong.

I’m not entirely sure why I posted about this…   have a great week everybody!

Colorado Tragedy

Events like this make you reflect and try to enjoy life a little bit more. Last night Ronda and I went for a short hike and sat outside the rig, had a fire pit and a cloudless sky and talked...

As I sit here in the rig this morning watching the news, I watched some interviews of people who survived because somebody else sheltered them from the bullets. A teenage girl who’s boyfriend, a military vet, pushed her to the ground because unlike others in the theater he knew what was happening so he pushed her down and then covered her with his body as bullets flew by and he died saving her life. Watching that interview brought me to tears and I’m not ashamed to say I cried for awhile. Imagine how she feels now, the joy to be alive, the guilt that her boyfriend isn’t, her life and the life many more than were in that theater are changed forever.

A young lady just missed getting shot in another tragedy but died in this one and it makes you wonder why?? Pondering that will yield nothing but you learn of the people who became victims that night and you see the sheer loss that one person can cause. You wonder what can go so wrong in a persons mind that he would plan and execute with utter calm the destruction of so many lives.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the families, I’m reaching out to colleagues I do business with in Aurora to make sure they’re ok and praying none of them were in that theater.

We have family coming over today and tomorrow, I’m going to hug them a little bit longer than usual…

What Was That?? Costovertebral What??

The doctor told me something about the ribs connecting to my back and the facet joints and gave me a fancy name for my problem. Now what that name was is costovertebral sprain, say that in your Sherriff Andy voice with a wink and you’ll get a good laugh. I’m still laughing! Not out loud however, no sir, that causes pain, which ain’t good, nooo sir.

All the things I’m supposed to get done, are on hold, not sure how good I’ll be at that part… I’m heading to Blackhawk tomorrow after work but Ronda will be there tomorrow morning and I have a floor to put down… what are the odds Ronda will let me do it, slim and none, no sir, relax the entire weekend is all, I ain’t gonna do it, nooo sir!

Pert sure I’m gonna go for a hike, yess-sir that’ll show ‘er!

Have a great weekend everybody, I’m going to do as I’m told and just go for walks and enjoy time with the family when they come over Saturday and Sunday. Fire pit time! Ooo-dogggy!

Speaking of Andy Griffith, who didn’t love this show? TV today has nuthin on the good ‘ol days.

The “Alfa”

Just for you Merikay! This is an Alfa “Gold” model, had to be 45ft. I saw one with a double bedroom slide where a little slide would come out of the bigger slide. I wish I had taken a picture!

Not Much Going On….

No camping this weekend, was going to stay home and work around the house but my back started acting up last weekend and this weekend it’s useless. I have spinal arthritis that my doctor wasn’t able to help me with so I’m seeing the same guy that helped me a few years ago this Thursday.

Hopefully he can help me out, I have a yard that looks awful right now, a house that needs cleaning and a garage to straighten out. Plus a wood floor to put down in the rig, none of which I can do right now…

End of pity party, need to finish the DVD I made of the slideshow we did for Ronda’s parents so I can give it to them tomorrow.

Have a great Sunday everybody.

End Of The Vacation,

I planned on taking this vacation off a while ago, so as it came closer seeing the temperature estimates almost had me change my mind but we decided to go ahead with it. Last weekend the wife and I enjoyed her stay and Sunday evening she left because she had to work on Monday. I stayed and planned on doing a few things and relaxed, wife's orders, relax…

Regarding the rig itself, it was perfect, everything worked as it should, we found the limits of the AC however but so did everybody. A monster rig Monaco Knight 2 sites down had to run his genny so all 3 of his AC units could run, even then, they left and didn’t come back for 2 days. I used blankets on all main cabin windows and we were able to stay cool for the 4 days in a row that were over 100f with 110f index. We were worried about black tank issues because of past experience but it worked out great even with an utter lack of wind.

Getting back to the vacation, when Ronda showed up Tuesday night we had a great dinner and went for a walk. For 4 days straight we hunkered down inside the rig and watched TV, tried to use the Internet when it worked, which wasn’t enough to post another blog post. It felt like a pure waste of vacation time, something I don’t use as I should but who would have known we would have a heat wave of such proportions??

When you’re stuck inside for more than a few days you better like who you’re with, Ronda and I get along better than most I think so we handled it fine. We discussed going home but decided we are here so why not make the best out of it? So I did some reading and so did Ronda and we did a whole lot of movie watching.  I gained 5lbs…   we solved world issues, discussed a bunch of others and had some healthy debates, I lost all of them, a default in all marriage contracts for men, even when you win, you lose.

We had a good time despite the unreal heat and plan on heading back this weekend so we can have a good fire and to go for a nice long walk. I hope everybody has a great week!

Vacation Day 3 – Mice In The Roof?!?!?!? Happy July 4th!!!

What a strange morning, woke up to little feet on the roof, after an hour of listening to this I put on shoes and checked the roof out. Nothing up there, I go back inside and hear it again, sure enough they are in the roof, my guess is the AC ducts but they don’t sound like they are in the ducts, they sound like they are running free on the roof itself because they/it are hauling butt when they move. I have to figure out how to get this little mouse, or mice out of there!

Happy 4th of July everybody!!!!

 

Vacation Day 2 – Powerwalk & Exploring…

I went for a good hearty walk this morning to get some exercise and to explore the area a bit. I was going to walk along the river bank to see this bridge but it abruptly ended so I snapped off a picture, I was about 1/4 of a mile away.

Now this, this is a fire ring!! There wasn’t anything to compare to, it has to be about 28 inches around. I’m going to be looking for something like this and we’ll use brick to surround it. You know there can be some serious bon fires in something like this!

Bears fans! Gotta love them!! 

The family that owns this rig haven’t been there in a long time so I reported to the office they have a few busted roof vents and the refrigerator vent cover is shattered. Hopefully this hasn’t been that way for too long, the owners are going to let the rig owners know.

I decided to walk the valley road which is steep!

Here is the entrance to the park at the top of the hill, my knees hurt at this point so I took a rest.

The storage area has some interesting rigs, some of which haven’t been used in a long time.

Time to walk back down the road. The walk back down wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, my knees were still hurting from the walk up so on the way down they decided to remind me….. all….. the …… way…… down……

I got back to camp and it’s over 100 with the heat index tossed in so the AC was so very nice to walk into.

Tomorrow is the 4th so be safe everybody and have fun! There is a fire ban in most areas out here and they have predicted tomorrow will be 102f with a 112f heat index so where ever we do go if we decide to go out in the afternoon at all will likely be in the car so we can stay cool.

Vacation Day 1

………… no power… while working on issues at work I realize the TV and AC are off and I was so into it I don’t know how long it was out before I realized it.   I check the power panel and everything looks fine. Now I’m worried something has broken between the panel and the front of the rig. I see nobody outside checking for power loss so I keep looking inside, breakers and fuses look fine.

Finally I go outside and find the park owner working on a site in the same row with me. He tells me he didn’t think I was here so it was safe to shut off the power… so thankfully nothing was wrong with the rig! It turns out the original site 83 we were on was experiencing power issues, so they had to shut it down for everybody while they figured it out.

I decided today would be a great time to install the HDMI cable from the cabinet up top to the HD TV below. Problem was, how to route it? I took the trim pieces off and what did I find, poop, mouse poop.. ick… most if it fell into the opening in the dash, more ick… I vacuumed as much as I could find, a lot fell onto the carpet under the dash.

The screws holding the trim aren’t holding it anymore so I need to find some washers to hold them in place. HR wanted several hundred dollars for the trim pieces, it’s amazing how they want to profit from such cheap parts. I’ll figure out something, washers will look ugly but may be the only option. This was the most expensive gas model Holiday Rambler built in 1999, yet the trim is so disgustingly cheap and poorly matched up it makes me want to puke. What were the lower models like I wonder.

I forgot to take after pictures but it would just show the trim back in place. So now I no longer have to hook up the Blu-Ray player manually and have a cord hanging down. Now I need to get a 4 inch hole saw and cut a hole into the oak mounting board for the cables to come out of the console for the TV.

One job down!

Hot Hot Hot… Staying Cool Inside

I put my Cubs hat on Loki and she sat still long enough for me to take a picture.

The heat was hitting the front of the rig so hard there was a 20f difference in the very front of the rig. I took a comforter and the temperature cooled off inside instantly. 

We went for a walk this morning, here are a few sites that the people have gone to great lengths to spruce up. A lot of work considering they are leasing their lots.

The Frog pond, down over 2 feet! We need rain soon or it’s going to dry up.

The tent camping area, not a soul here, this place is generally pretty full up on weekends. I spoke to the people in the office, there should be a lot of people here on the 4th but probably not full because of the 100f days we’re supposed to get straight through next weekend.

Some very brave people! This row was full of tent campers and all but one group has pulled up stakes. I used to do a lot of tent camping, I’m glad I now have AC! Not real camping anymore but for us that’s a good thing, my back would never handle it.

That’s it for now, stay cool!

In-Laws 50th Anniversary

Yesterday we went to Ronda’s parents 50th Anniversary party at her brothers house. We spent the past few weeks preparing a slideshow covering their 50 years of marriage and had a blast doing it. Ronda had to secretly abscond with a very large storage bin filled with pictures and every picture album she could get her hands on.

When we started the project I was using my Dell 1600n multi-function printer to scan the pictures to my network. It died on the first picture, so after 7 years of faithful service I gave it a funeral and purchased the new HP Officejet Pro 8600 Premium which worked out great because it’s easily 500% faster at scanning pictures! Fate I guess.

We showed the slideshow to everybody and they loved it. Seeing 50 years worth of pictures from their prom to having kids and grandkids was very special. They asked me to upload it so the entire family can see it. So, here it is…   It’s a 27 minute video, it’s available at 720p resolution by clicking the little gear and selecting 720p, once you do that you can go full screen and it will look very good. This requires a fast internet connection!

Roger & Marilyn’s 50th Anniversary video slideshow.