A long April 2013

 

This has been a long month for us, cabin fever has set in big time.  My back surgery and a mysterious flu-like sickness that slammed us for about 10 days (each) have reduced us to living but not thriving.  I have one visit to my back surgeon, we are hoping that we are released to the road at that time.

I’m not having too much luck picking up chicks, guess I‘ll keep the one I have!

Anne-Marie has a new Nokia Windows 8 based phone.  It is simple and does everything she needs {phone & Mail mostly}.  Some would say it’s a step down from her Droid.  he likes it which is which matters.  It was also very cost effective. 

 

We made a road trip to Waco and the neighboring town of West, TX.  We never got to West as the area is still closed off due to the fertilizer explosion.  My desire in getting to West was to review the damage to their Masonic Lodge.  Sad to say I was in contact with a Brother who told me that the small building was badly damaged and several Brothers were amongst the 1st responders. 

Waco is the home to the Texas ranger’s Museum.  It was a good 2 hour walk thru which gave insight to the activities of the Texas rangers for about 200 years.

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I’m not a gun fellow, although one of my 1st jobs out of High school was assembling single action Colt 45’s in Hartford.  They display hundreds of them here.  Most are commemorative editions which have engraving the is very impressive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waco is also the location of the Grand Lodge of Texas.  We were warmly welcomed there and given a personalized tour by a knowledgeable Brother who was a librarian.  The building is about 80 years old and contains a Lodge Room that seats 5,000, all with unobstructed views!  Brothers from Connecticut may see a few differences here.  BTW, Our guide showed interest in my ring and told me that I would not find a Texas mason wear such a sign!

 

This Apron is to commemorate Buzz Aldren’s claim in establishing Tranquility Lodge on the moon for the Grand Lodge of Texas.

 

 

 

 

My Dad always referred to a Bar as ‘A Gin Mill’.  Seeing this one at 5:00 pm on our way home, I choose it for dinner.  It was a rehabilitated actual Gin Mill and was predictably wonderful. Thanks Dad!

We hope to be on the road next week traveling to more misadventures, join us please and feel free to leave comments or email me at pmarno@gmail.com

 

 

  

 

Working after retirement 2013

My friend Bob Marvin sent this along to me this morning.  Bob lives in New Hampshire, selling any type of engineered material he can make an obscene profit on {that would be about 6% in today’s market}.   He was a sales rep for the small foundry that I worked at for several years and was a wonderful source of New Hampshire deep discount ‘Maker’s Mark’ which I needed to fuel me in that job.

The Importance of Having an Occupation After retirement

As we get older, we sometimes begin to doubt our ability to "make a difference" in the world. It is at these times that our hopes are boosted by the remarkable achievements of other "seniors" who have found the courage to take on challenges that would make many of us wither.
Harold Schlumberg is such a person:

THIS IS QUOTED FROM HAROLD:
"I've often been asked, 'What do you do now that you're retired?'
Well...I'm fortunate to have a chemical engineering background and one of the things I enjoy most is converting beer, wine and whisky into urine. It's rewarding, uplifting, satisfying and fulfilling. I do it every day and I really enjoy it."

Harold is an inspiration to us all.

RETIRED HEALTH MESSAGE

As I was lying in bed pondering the problems of the world,I rapidly realized that I don't really give a rat's hiney. It's the tortoise life for me!

1. If walking is good for your health, the postman would be immortal.

2. A whale swims all day, only eats fish, drinks water, and is fat.

3. A rabbit runs and hops and only lives 15 years.

4. A tortoise doesn't run and does nothing, yet it lives for 450 years.

And you tell me to exercise?? I don't think so.

I'm retired. Go around me.

God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.

Thanks for the chuckle Bob!  As long as good folks like you keep working, I can continue to collect my meager retirement. We do enjoy hearing from Blog subscriber's, the feedback encourages us to keep going.

Let me tell you about our crazy weather:  It was low 80’s the last few afternoons.  Weather front coming thru as I write this, T-Storms woke us up at 6:00 and now it’s just pouring.  High today will be 62°.  Next Monday we should see 90°!

I have managed to get all 4 tires replaced thanks to a young fellow in the campground that we hired.  We are ready for Alaska, having made the last payment on that expense too.

Last Sunday after church, we took a 200 mile round trip to Johnson City and had lunch at one of our favorite stops, Hill Country Cupboard.  We discovered this stop a few years ago while visiting the nearby President Johnson’s birthplace, a very small town.  30 miles down the road is The Johnson Texas Whitehouse, this is a wonderful working ranch with a 4 hour tour. 

On reflection, My generation is too quick to remember President Johnson for the war he inherited rather that the phenomenal political risks he took as a southern democrat pushing thru significant civil rights legislation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recovering in Austin 2013

Traveling in the southlands, we often come upon crematories that have huge acreage covers with plastic floral tributes. My family was brought up to respect our loved ones in thought and prayer, we did not present floral tributes. YMMV and that’s ok.

The monkey wrench gets tossed into the works last Sunday {Easter} when the youth group in the Church we attend in Georgetown decorated the alter with this beautiful tribute they make every year out of plastic flowers that had been discarded.

What a great morning, we had a 50 member adult choir and about 15 youngsters in a bell choir. Throw in the 3rd Baptism in so many weeks and you can see this is a very active church. Special for me as they also collect Tabs for Tots for our Shrine charities.

My recovery from the back surgery is now progressing with baby steps. I go to PT several times a week where they work on keeping me limber with various low impact stretching exercises. My trip to the doctor last week gave me the mixed message that I was doing very well but had to return in 30 days. Damn, I wanted to be on the road then, it appears that I am not this fellow!

 

My major task this month is to retire the 5th wheel. While the tire look great, they are 6 years old and it’s time for them to be replaced. RV manufacturers us ‘SC’ rated tires which are cost effective but have very little reserve capacity. The small print also limits them to 65mph. This is not prudent as almost all RV’s are going down the road at their max weight and follow the traffic flow.

The previous owner of our rig found this out the hard way when he had a blow-out which also caused bodywork damage which is often the case with the fragile plastic bodywork. At that time he had 5 Firestone Transforce ‘LT’ tires fitted. These are 10 ply commercial tires that have a 90mph speed rating and about 25% capacity increase at 100% load. The bad news is they have a 50% cost disadvantage and seem to never go on sale at Firestone dealers.

We bought 4 tires at a local dealer, I hired a young fellow at the campground to take off one tire per evening. I than cleaned and painted the rim and brought the tire to the dealer who mounted he new tire. I’m pretty happy with the results and feel better about the upcoming Alaska adventure. At no time did I lift more that 10 pounds, SWMBO policed me relentlessly.

 

Giggles for the week!

Pete & Anne-Marie