Flamingo on a Stick

I t has been raining in Iowa for over two weeks. It is not just little rain showers either,its one severe thunderstorm after another. The last two weeks a front has been sitting over our state with what the weather people here call training thunderstorms. I’m not sure what the science of it is but I can tell you it means it is raining cats and dogs as the old saying goes. Yesterday again we awoke to storms and it was getting a little old. I had to work all day in Iowa City and drove in good rainstorm to get there. When I came out from work the southern sky was black and you could see the clouds rolling in.  I was thinking it was going to be another interesting drive but as I headed north to Cedar Rapids there was sun shine ahead. :) I could see the dark sky behind me but it never made it’s way to CR, by early evening the wind came up a little and blew the clouds out, the humidity went down and it was an absolutely evening. I woke up this morning to blue skies and it made my day. I...

The DW said I was slack’n, and of course she’s right. So I’m back on topic. Sort of. Lots of stuff to tell you, some of which might even be interesting. Or not. First cool thing is: we have a new Mac, as in an Apple MacBook Pro laptop, that I get to type this on. I’m a long time Windows user, so a Mac is new to me but it wasn’t really a hard decision. My last computer purchase came with Windows Vista installed on it. A year later, Windows 7 was introduced as the next new thing, but by then I knew I would never own another Microsoft product. Even if they offered me a free upgrade. Which, of course, they didn’t because Microsoft has no conscience. Or they never would have released Vista. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then you’re probably already a Mac user, so good for you. Anyway, I love this thing. I wasn’t even tempted to get an IPad. I wanted a real keyboard to type on, and this was a great looking package. It has the cutest power connector with a magnet on the end that...

I t has been just over a year since we sold our home and set ourselves solidly on the course to full time RVing. I was reflecting on what we have learned in that year so I thought I’d share a few of these things. First we learned that our lives were really full of stuff that we really didn’t need. When we moved out of the house, a 2400sq. ft home and 3 stall garage, we purged, sold, donated and gave our kids an incredible amount of “stuff” and were able to fit into a 900 square ft. apartment with a one stall garage. Then the spring came and the reality of now downsizing enough to fit into 300 square ft (or less) and no garage. The last of the furniture went, we digitized all our photos and movies of the kids, gave away and donated more stuff. We started moving things to the RV in April and finished the whole move in May. Man did we have a lot of stuff. Now everything we own is either in the trailer or the truck. Whew!!! It was an amazing amount of work and at times it was hard to sa...