SABBATICAL

Well Friends and Family I have run out of words to write about nothing.  So I am placing the blog on Sabbatical.

Well thats a wrap for a while.

Thanks For Checking In!

"Some people try to turn back their odometers, not me, I want people 
to know why I look this way, and some of the roads weren't paved"

And now some rain

Monday

Well at least it's not snow.  We had a little rain today but tonight and tomorrow we are to get some heavy rain and wind.  We are both feeling good so far this week.  Bonnie was able to finish my birthday present that she started last week and had to quit when she was sick.  I just love it!  A nice soft comforter.

Plus she made meatloaf, potatoes and green beans for supper.

I have been researching VPNs and signed up for one yesterday.  So with the VPN active I can connect to a server in another state or county.  It allows more security for me and allows me to use restricted sites.  Today I watched some Canadian TV and was able to catch up on Heartland.

That was about it for today.

Tuesday

Much cooler and we had a good amount of rain today.  Been using my VPN to drop out in Canada and catch up on Heartland.

Bonnie was out to lunch today with her group and then they distributed the Valentine cards that they had made at a local nursing home.

Then our family all came over for supper and a nice visit for a couple hours.

Wednesday

No rain today we had a nice sunny day.  So what did I do, I spent the day in the den doing my taxes.  I worked hard to collect all my deductions and receipts.  With the changes to the tax laws we are taking the standard deduction for the first time in many many years.  The news has shown stories of people telling how much smaller their refund checks are.  Well mine is less also, but the rest of the story is that my income is up and the total of the taxes that I paid is less.  Bottom line more money in our pockets.

Thats all for today.

Thursday

One last look at the tax returns this morning and then I e-filed them.  Then a few more episodes of Heartland.  Next was catching up on a couple BBQ youtube channels.  Ended that with a nap.  I had a late lunch so no supper needed tonight.

Then we watched the Dual races from Daytona and facetimed with family.  A nice day indeed.

Friday

No rain this morning.  We got up and soon headed out with a realtor to look at a house for some friends.  We spent a couple hours doing that and pretty much liked what we saw.  Then it was back to the house.

About 12:30 we headed out for lunch.  I wanted to try the Cuban Cafe.  Years ago while on a work trip to San Juan I had a Cuban sandwich and liked it.  Ever now and then I get hungry for one.  Today was one of those days.  The sandwich was good and the fried ripe sweet plantains were good also.  The rain started while we were eating and its been raining off and on since then.  Back home we put up a couple hooks on the back of doors in the bathroom and guest room.  Then caught up on the programs recorded last night.

Saturday

It rained some overnight but was dry this morning when we got up.

Since it was dry out I asked Bonnie if she was up to cutting my hair.  She said sure so we set up shop out on the back deck.  It was in the 40s so I was a bit chilled by the time she finished.

With no rain in the forecast until tonight I fired up the grill.  We had a small whole chicken that Bonnie wanted done on the grill.  I smoked it for a little over an hour.  Then turned up the heat to around 350º.  Another hour and 15 minutes and it was done.  Bonnie had made potatoes and corn to go along with it.  It all turned out really good and we enjoyed a nice quite supper.

We are expecting more rain starting early in the morning.  They say we could get 10 inches over the next week, hopefully it is really spread out.

Well thats a wrap for this week.

Thanks For Checking In!

"Some people try to turn back their odometers, not me, I want people 
to know why I look this way, and some of the roads weren't paved"

Warmer?

Monday

Hopefully the coldest days of Winter are behind us.  Even though it was rainy and overcast today it hit 70º this afternoon.  I am feeling much better and my neck is only a little sore.  Our family back in NY seems to be in there sick cycle now.  Dana is down for the count and Elizabeth is back to work but is still not well and should probably stayed home a day or two more.  The kids seem to be fine so far.
We have not eaten out in forever so maybe tonight even though most of the restaurants here are closed on Mondays.  So we did go out to Mia's.  Its a local cafe is good food but not great, and not fancy.  I had the catfish special, greens, Mac and cheese, and mashed potatoes.  It was pretty good and I enjoyed it.  Bonnie had a chicken sandwich and fries.  She said it was ok.

Back home we took it easy and relaxed for the evening.  We hit 70 today

Tuesday

I woke up to sad news today as I checked the blogs that I regularly read.  I had not seen one from Tioga George lately, and sadly his family posted that he had passed away a few days ago.  His was one of the very first blogs on full timing that I started reading.  I believe he started it in 2009, and I have read it for most of those years and did go back and read it from the start.  He had many an adventure and used to spend winters down in Mexico until the last few years.  He has had several health challenges the past couple of years but he did not let that stop him.  His current project was that of converting a box van into a full time home for himself.  While its sad to lose him its an inspiration to see the way he lived his life.

Nothing much for me today, I am feeling much better.  Bonnie went to here scrapbooking/card making group but her Spanish class was canceled for tonight.

Now we are about to watch the President deliver the State of the Union address to congress.

Wednesday

Today I start my 7th decade here on earth.  I must say the time has passed quickly.  The day started with a phone call from my Favorite Sister.  When I looked at the phone and saw it was her I wondered what was the matter, she usually does not call first thing in the morning.  But it was my first Birthday wishes of the day.  It was a great way to wake up.  Shortly after that I got a SnapChat from a granddaughter.

And waiting for me in the living room a hand made card from Bonnie.

Most of the day was spent quietly.  I received lots of birthday wishes on FB and email, nice to know people are thinking of you.   Bonnie was not feeling well but she insisted on make me a raisin cake from my Mother's recipe, one of my favorites.  Plus she was at the sewing machine working on a surprise for me.  She finally had to give up as she was feeling worse and worse.

I headed to church for our group meeting with the cake and she stayed home and went to bed.  Our group only had 4 in it about 1/3 of what we should have had, seems a lot of people are under the weather.  Anyway we had a good class and we all enjoyed a piece of cake.

I came home and watched Alabama win over Georgia and then read a little and called it a day.  Off to a good start for my seventies.

Thursday

Looks like another overcast but warm day is in store for us.  I am pretty much back to normal and I think so far today Bonnie is feeling a bit better.  She debated it but decided she felt good enough to keep her haircut appointment.  Its a bit different and I like it.  It was very windy all day but the rain did not come until 7:00pm.  We are to get more overnight and it is to cool off by morning but now its 75 here in the house and the humidity id 83%.  Yep we turned on the air conditioning to dehumidify and cool off the house so we can sleep.  The family in NY has some on the mend and some just now getting sick.  Down here our granddaughters are sick also, lots of that going around.  We are both on the mend.

Friday

Well it was cold this morning so they got that one right.  Bonnie went grocery shopping today and that's about it.  She is still not feeling very good.

I head West to Clements just after 4 today.  I was headed to Clements Baptist Church to attend the Men's Conference.  We started with a box lunch meal and then I headed to the sanctuary to wait for the conference to start.

Looks a little empty now but it was eventually almost full.  We had some worship music and then a speaker, then some give aways and a break.  We had three speakers in all and I was inspired by all of them and enjoyed their talks.  Actually they left me wanting to hear more from them.  I headed home and pulled into the garage just after 11, the latest I have been out on my own in a long long time.

Saturday

Another cold night but it was sunny today and warmed up into the 50s.  I got out the step ladder and changed one of the batteries in the back camera on the house.  Then I adjusted another one and that was about it for the day.  I did catch up on the recordings I had.  Checked in on NASCAR as next weekend is the Daytona 500.  I fired up the grill to fix some salmon for supper.  Now for a relaxing evening.

Well thats a wrap for this week.

Thanks For Checking In!

"Some people try to turn back their odometers, not me, I want people 
to know why I look this way, and some of the roads weren't paved"

Snow

Monday

Today started at 7:30 AM when the alarm went off on Alexa in the kitchen.  Not sure how it got set but it did.  I laid in bed for a while but it was bright and sunny so I went ahead and got up.

Bonnie got up later and while she was doing her Spanish lesson I went in the den to do my group study and watch some TV.  I could see the cloud bank coming and soon the sun was gone and it was windy out.  Our forecast is for snow and several days of very cold weather here.  The 1-3 inches of snow will be like several feet up north.  We have no equipment to handle it so we will stay home until it melts.

The governor has now declared a state of emergency for tomorrow and the schools and a lot of businesses have already announced closing for tomorrow.  Right now it is 58 degrees.  So we will see what tomorrow brings.  Bonnie is cooking up a big pot of split pea soup so I am looking forward to that.

Well the split pea soup was great and now for a quiet evening.

Tuesday

Well thankfully the big snow never developed and neither did the ice.  So the kids and lots of workers got the day off, better safe than sorry.

Bonnie went out to her ladies group, they were making cards for a nursing home today.  Then after supper she went up to church for her Spanish Class but no one was there so she came back home.

So a nice quiet evening at home.

Wednesday

The sun sure is powerful.  It was 22 this morning but the sun was out bright and soon with the help of the heat pump and the gas logs the house was nice and comfortable.  We didn't have anything on the agenda for today so we just concentrated on staying warm and awake.

I did get a new camera from Ubiquiti and set that up.  It was quick and easy.  Hopefully I can get my cables run and set up the outside ones this coming year.  Bonnie is making spaghetti for supper and then we will head to church for our group meetings.  Meanwhile our family and friends back in WNY  are dealing with either cold and sunshine or cold and blizzard like conditions, thanks to the lake effect snow machine.

After supper we headed up to our group studies, we had a good turn out and a good study.

Back home we relaxed a while, turned on the gas logs and enjoyed the evening.

Thursday

Another cold night but then the sun and clear skies and warmer air moved in.  The temperature got up to 54 today much nicer than the past few days.  Bonnie did a little cleaning today.  I worked on my study and did some planning for the taxes.  Pretty lazy day all in all.

Friday

Got up this morning, did not feel good, threw up, slept a lot.  Thats it.

Saturday

Still not feeling well, just took it easy again today.  But it was 68º so that is helping.

Well thats a wrap for this week.

Thanks For Checking In!

"Some people try to turn back their odometers, not me, I want people 
to know why I look this way, and some of the roads weren't paved"

Still Cold

Monday

The cold weather continued.  It was clear last night for the eclipse and blood moon, that helped it to get down to 20 degrees last night.  Hopefully that's the coldest it will be this season.

Nice sunny day today which helps with heating the house, otherwise the heat pump runs a lot.  I had the gas logs on for a while this morning also.  Did not do much today hard to believe it was a holiday, they kind of sneak up on us.  So I made a new cable for the network and installed that.

Did a little reading and watched some instructional YouTube on networking again.  Bonnie wanted some things ordered on Amazon so I did that.  Then into the evening switched to the networks for some TV.  They say warmer weather for tomorrow so I am looking forward to that.

Tuesday

Nice sunny day today, it even warmed up to the low 50s.  Bonnie was busy.  She had her scrapbooking and card making class.  Then she was home for a couple hours and went to her Missions Spanish Class up at church.  Me I pretty much watched TV and did my lesson for my group study.  Thats it for today.

Wednesday

Warmed up into the 50s today even though it rained all day well over an inch of rain.  Bonnie had bought a whole ham for $.99.  It was a 13 lb ham.  Today was the day to cut it up so we could get a few meals out of it.  We did two roasts, a big bone for beans and ground the rest for ham salad.  We froze some made some fresh and gave a roast and some ground for Robby and family.

I cut up the ham into the bigger pieces and then Bonnie trimmed it.

Then I used the kitchen aid grinder to grind it up

Finished grind

Then into the Vaccum sealer

So we have enough ham for quite a few meals

Then we were off to church for our group studies.  Boy it started to cool off again.

Thursday

It was in the 20s this morning thankfully the sun was out.  Shortly after I had finished my breakfast Zach from Wayne's showed up and did our annual Termite inspection.  It only took about a half hour and we got the all-clear for another year.  Then the trash had come so I went out and brought the trash tote in.

We were expecting a special visitor today so while we waited Bonnie had me help her hang a few things on the wall.  Shortly after we finished that our visitor showed up.  Dan Driver is a friend our ours Bonnie grew up with him and I met him in college.  He is actually who introduced us to each other, Thank You Dan.

Robby and his family all were over and met him and said hello.  We spent the evening visiting and catching up.

Friday

Still cold today.  Dan and I did intense visiting today catching up on the last couple of years.  Bonnie went grocery shopping and Dan and I for a drive.  We drove by the Space and Rocket Museum.

Then we drove around downtown Huntsville and went by the rehab hospital I had been in.  Then when we got home Bonnie had me smoke and grill some steaks on the grill.  After supper we got back to visiting.

Saturday

Up bright and early this morning at 7:30 to say goodby to our good friend Dan.  We had coffee and breakfast while we got in the last of our visiting.  Then it was time to load up his car and say our goodbyes.

It was great to have him him and our together went way to fast.  So he is headed back to Maryland.  Hopefully the next visit will be soon.

I caught up on some paperwork and scanning.  Then worked on my group study lesson.  Then watched Alabama lose to Baylor on the basketball court.  Then relaxed, napped and watch some recorded programs.  Its been cold but its been a good week.

Well thats a wrap for this week.

Thanks For Checking In!

"Some people try to turn back their odometers, not me, I want people 
to know why I look this way, and some of the roads weren't paved"

Cold Spell

Monday

In the 40s today.  Not much to report.  I untangled the power cords in my network shelve and tried to make it look neat.  Then watched a movie.  Robby came over with the control board out of his dryer that had stopped working.  He had done the research on line and we needed to solder a wire on a relay.  We got that done and put a new end on a cable for the camera I have hooked up, it kept disconnecting.  That was about it for the day.

Tuesday

Another cold morning with the promise of sun this afternoon.  Bonnie decided to make the rounds of the thrift stores and do a little shopping.  Looks like we have a new love seat for up stairs and an ottoman.  I washed dishes while she was gone and watched a movie.

My new network has been working great.  The TV in the living room is much more responsive and is much more enjoyable to use and watch.  We collected the trash and took it out to the curb, boy does it feel cold and damp.  We had a simple supper of fruit and chicken, an interesting combo but it was good.  Then a quiet evening with the news and some shows, and a quick nap.

Wednesday

Finally a nice sunny day and the temperature warmed up nicely.  I worked a little on the network but other than that it was another lazy day.  I did change a battery on one of the Arlo cameras but that only takes a couple minutes.

We headed to church for the first night of our new groups.  I am in a class on Prayer and Bonnie is in a woman's class on Defiant Joy.  We both enjoyed the first seasons and look forward to the rest of the sessions.

We both are over what ever we had on the weekend and my foot is feeling much better

Thursday

Back to rain and overcast again today.  I did some studying for my class and then worked on my network again.  I am just documenting stuff and naming the ports on my switches.  Bonnie made a roast for supper in the instant pot and also a butternut squash both were very good.  Now a relaxing evening with a little TV.

Friday

Alexa woke me at 7am this morning,  I made some oatmeal and coffee and headed for the Dermatologist for a 9am appointment.  When we lived in NY I went every year and now that we are settled in I am trying to get in the routine again.  It took months to get the appointment here.  I am seeing the PA-C, I guess you only see the Dr for active cancer issues.  My chair for the exam.

Waiting on the PA

The can of nitrogen.

Thought Rachel was very though and Morgan her assistant documented everything on her iPad.  In fact everyone carries an iPad.  Anyway she froze a bunch of spots almost all of them on my face and head.  I also have some yeast based thing causing very dry skin on my face.  And the dry skin on the top of my head had some fancy name also.  So I have a couple RXs to clear that up.  So the top of my head is a bit sore and I have to pick up the RXs tomorrow.  Of course we are to get a lot of rain and wind tomorrow.

The rest of the day I just took it easy and watched some instructional youtube videos on networking.  It was overcast here today but still in the 50s.

Saturday

It has rained all day here with about 10 minutes of sunshine late this afternoon.  I have been doctoring my foot and ankle.  Heat had been helping but not so much today so I tried ice and that seemed to help some also.  I miss those days when I was over a sprained ankle in a couple days.

I did venture out early this afternoon to go to CVS.  I picked up my two skin cream RXs and headed home in the rain.  I did some reading today and watched a couple basketball games.  Back East our family and friends are dealing with a major snow storm.

Bonnie made beef stew for supper so I am going to enjoy it.

Well thats a wrap for this week.

Thanks For Checking In!

"Some people try to turn back their odometers, not me, I want people 
to know why I look this way, and some of the roads weren't paved"

College National Championship

Monday

I had a good time at the Men's Fellowship last night at church.  We had homemade hamburgers and then split up into teams and played Sports Trivia.  We came in third after losing a good sized lead that we had at the halfway point.  The best part was my Son and Grandson came and were part of my team.

Today is the day I have been waiting for, this evening Alabama and Clemson meet for the College Football National Championship.  Two undefeated teams that match up pretty equally.  It should be a great game.

I spent the day on the phone and on the computer.  We have been procrastinating on finding a new dentist and today was the day.  I had narrowed the choice down to 2 dentists.  One a single dentist and one with two dentists.  The online reviews for the two female dentists were very good, over 1200 five star reviews I only saw one four star review.  So I gave them a call and left a message.  They called back a short time later and I was a bit surprised that we could not get an appointment until July.  But we are signed up.  They took quite a bit of information.  Then emailed me the information to set up our online accounts.  Then I downloaded forms to request the release of our records from our NY dentist.  We filled those out, signed them, scanned them and emailed them.  Then I had to contact my surgeon to get an RX for antibiotics to take just before my appointment.

I also ordered our RX refills online and this evening received info that all the RXs were filled and ready to pickup, so we will do that tomorrow.

Late this afternoon I got a text from our friends who bought our NY house 3 years ago.  A letter had shown up again.  I asked Darren to open it and it was from a program Bonnie had joined years ago to save money for the kids college.  They have been unable to contact us and were notifying us that the money would be turned over to the state in February.  Darren scanned the letter, we filled it out, signed it, scanned it and then emailed it.  Hopefully the $16 will be sent soon.  Yep lots of work for $16.

Time for the big game.  Not looking so good at half-time.  Well Clemson came to play tonight and Alabama never hit their stride.  Clemson lived up to their reputation and we did not.  Good game Clemson.  Congratulations on your National Championship.  44-16

Tuesday

So this week I made a short list of things that I needed to do.  Yesterday was the dentist-check.  Today was I needed to deal with a coming of age issue.  Seems that when you turn 70 1/2 the IRS requires you to start taking Minimum Required Distributions from your IRA accounts.  I guess they do not want to wait until you die to get their hands on the taxes they will charge on the money you have in your IRA.  So they even tell you how much.  By the end of this year I have to take the amount that was in my account at the end of 2018, divide it by 27.4 and thats the amount I have to withdraw.  The one good thing is that it can go directly to a charity and then no taxes are due.  So I spent a while on the phone setting all that up.  Now I am waiting on the paper work to sign and set it all in motion.

Then Bonnie and I made a trip to CVS to pick up RXs and a few supplies.  Then on to a nursing home to pick up an application for our GD.

While we were out UPS delivered the Ubiquiti network equipment I had ordered.  I have always been interested in networking, so I am setting up a small home network.  The first step was the access point  I set up a few weeks ago.  Now I am adding a couple managed switches, a security gateway, and what is called a cloud key that serves as a controller and video recorder or DVR, also one camera to start with.  So I unpacked all of that and then late in the evening I decided to plug in some of the equipment, that led to hooking some of it up, everything was working.  So one more step, change some network settings.  That crashed the connection to the internet.  The lights turned off like they were supposed to but Alexa could not connect and turn them back on since we were still up.  So another hour and I got that fixed.  Leaving well enough alone I quit for the night.

But I had to relax a little before I could sleep to that was about 2:00am.

Wednesday

My task today was to call and schedule our semi annual heating and air conditioning check up.  But before I got around to calling Conditioned Air Solutions, they called me and scheduled me for tomorrow.

So today I waited until the afternoon to hook up the rest of the equipment.  That went well.  Then I changed the setting to switch over to using the new network.  A few bumps but the network pretty much worked just not like I wanted it.  Plus the TVs quit working.  My son came over and in an hour or so we had everything but the TVs working properly.  Then we called it a night.  I did some research on the internet and was pretty sure that I had some sort of ip problem.  Enough for today.

Thursday

I tried a few things to get the TVs working in the morning but so far no luck, still think its ip related.  The Wireless Access Points seem to be connecting but I can't get the uVerse services to start.
Robby came over after work while the girls were at their horseback lessons.  Turns out we had created the problem ourselves.  I had read where we need to reduce the range of ip addresses that the DHCP server could assign.  Turns out we reduced it too much.  So we increased that pool and the uVerse services started up and we have TV and the DVR all working nicely.  About a 30 minute fix, and it was an ip issue like I thought.  So I have learned a lot but still have a lot to learn.

Also Conditioned Air Solutions was here.  The tech was Adam and he was here about 3.5 hours.  He checked the systems over and found a few things that he changed.  He also pointed out two things that probably needed replaced.  One was a capacitor and one was a contractor.  One on each of our units.  He had the parts onboard his truck so I had him change them.  More expensive than if I did it but its done now and it was easier than doing it in the extreme cold or heat.  He also found the circuit breaker for the emergency heat strips tripped.  Looks like the breaker was marginal.  We have 3 5KW heat strips which draw about 61 amps.  We have a 60 amp breaker.  So he removed one 5KW strip from the circuit so we are down to 40 amps.  Hopefully no more tripped breakers.

Its cold tonight already down to 30 so time will tell.  Tomorrow I should be able to start straightening up the wiring mess in the den,

I ordered a shelve and it should come tomorrow.  The new camera I set up is also interesting.  It catches all the traffic on the street, I am surprised how many cars come down the street turn around and leave.  Thats it for tonight.

Friday

Down in the low 20s overnight but the house was nice and comfortable this morning, I guess the cleaning and tune up are doing a good job.

Bonnie started to take down all the decorations today and finished all but the tree I think.

Once UPS came I was able to start on my project for today.  First task was to put the $22 shelve together.

Now to get all the network equipment and the hubs for the Smart home systems moved on to them,

A work in progress and the network still works.

Still a lot to move.  This was at the end of the day.  Its kind of sorted out but all the wiring for the power supplies is still a big mess.  But its come a long way.

Once it's done it will slide back into the corner.

Both of us have not been feeling 100% since yesterday.  Bonnie called it a day and went to bed with a stomach ache early, I am feeling a little bit better.

Saturday

Still not feeling great today so this will be short.  We did have deer in the front yard last night.  I counted at least 9.  Here is a short clip.

Today we had rain almost all day and it was steady but not too hard.  I continued to work on the network but did not make much progress.  I ended up watching a couple basketball games.  Duke won and Alabama lost, both at the buzzer.  My son and Grand Dog Millie were over for a while and we had a nice visit.  Then I pretty much took it easy the rest of the day.  We did mange to take down the Christmas Tree and Bonnie made Potato soup for supper.

Well thats a wrap for this week.

Thanks For Checking In!

"Some people try to turn back their odometers, not me, I want people 
to know why I look this way, and some of the roads weren't paved"