And More Whole Lot of ‘Nuffin Goin’ On

Yup…the title really says it all.

I’ve been watching the news the past few weeks with all of the government shutdown stuff with red line demands from both sides and I gotta tell ya we really need to throw the bunch of the bums out…it seems the art of political compromise has died and been stuffed and put up on the mantle as neither side seems to understand that if you give a little and get a little then things can actually get accomplished. Ms. Pelosi and her crowd do have a point that a wall (or fence or whatever) is a 4th century bit of technology and we can do better with 21st century technology like drones, sensors, and more Border Patrol agents. There’s something to be said for that argument…but her side refuses to concede that in some places…like say downtown San Diego where there are literally feet between US and Mexican territory…a fence is a perfectly valid way to control the border. On the other side…although it appears that the President is compromising by offering to extend DACA for up to 3 years…that’s not really much of a concession at this point in time as the courts are still battling things out over the executive order eliminating DACA…but it does appear that he’s at least trying to compromise a little but the other side is just saying no. Now we’ve got a 3 week long continuing resolution so that the parties can negotiate…but if one side says we must have a physical barrier in some places and the other side says we’re not approving any physical barrier at all…then come Feb 15 we’ll just be right back where we are now.

There was another series of articles over gun control the past week…with again progressives insisting that despite numerous Supreme Court decisions saying that the right to keep and bear arms is a guaranteed individual constitutional right that we need to have more licensing, background checks, limitations on magazines and “scary looking” guns and associated restrictions. Yet the same people continue to insist that…despite you having to present identification to buy alcohol, drive a car, get onto an airplane and the dozens of other instances where ID is required…that having to present an ID to vote…which is the primary duty of citizenship and is restricted to only those who hold citizenship…is an onerous burden and that no restrictions on the right to vote are acceptable. Seems like that on the 2nd amendment side progressives have no problem with anything that limits a constitutional right while on the 15th amendment side of things they keep insisting that even simply presenting an ID is too onerous and unacceptably restricts a constitutional right. I really wish they could get their thoughts in line on whether a constitutional right can be restricted or not…seems like they’re being a might hypocritical to me. Of course…that would require that they recognize the ability to compromise and read what the constitution says…which is probably asking too much…

Frankly…we’ve got lots of friends in our age group that are both progressive and conservative…and we continue to feel that both political parties have catered way too much to the demands of either the far left or far right…leaving the majority of the folks who inhabit the political center-left or center-right agreeing that both sides have some valid arguments no party to really vote for. The trouble is that the far left and far right can’t win a national race…but those in the middle have nobody to vote for.

This bears out what Neil has been saying ever since the first election he voted in back when he was 18…in addition to the candidates on the ballot there should be a choice for “None of the above”…and if None wins then you have to have a new election and none of the previous candidates are eligible to run. Seems like that would pretty quickly convince the parties to nominate candidates that are actually electable instead of just pleasing to their extreme wings.

I realize it’s probably heresy to say this…but progressive folks do have some ideas that center-right folks can support…DACA for instance. Those kids were brought here as infants…granted their parents did so illegally but the kids grew up in America and don’t know anything but America…deporting them just isn’t fair. However…in a compromise maybe we could actually enforce our existing immigration laws and prosecute employers who hire illegals…heck, maybe we could even give them work permits so they would be able to work legally. I’m even willing to entertain discussions about a path to citizenship for them…but remember the illegals are here illegally and why should they get a head of the line pass to citizenship over those who waited their turn for a legal immigration into the country. It’s a hard problem…and as long as both sides think that winning, demonizing the other side, and making sure the other side “loses” is more important than silly little issues like say…doing their job…and compromising…I can’t see much changing.

Ok…what else is going on…lessee…

We’re actually going to replace our awning canopy fabric along with the slide toppers we did a few weeks back…Neil noticed more seams starting to come apart and after 7 summers on the road the fabric has just been sun weakened to the point that it needs replacing…Neil let Gordon the repair guy talk him out of it before but it’s so much easier to do here rather than on the road and we don’t want to be awning-less in the travel season.

Bill and Linda were here for a week…we had some good times with them although we only cooked once each, the rest of the time we frequented assorted eateries ‘round the area instead. Bill and Neil did a few trailer projects but mostly it was just visiting with friends. They headed off after their week here to visit some more friends on the way back to NC.

Things are a-stirring down at the Elks Lodge…don’t want to say too much here but suffice it to say that we’re starting to check out the other lodges in the area to potentially visit instead of our local one. I can say that it doesn’t look like the upcoming election will be a “one slate of candidates” thing, there’s actually going to be a choice it looks like.

We’re well into our planning for the upcoming travel season. We’ll be leaving here in late April so as to arrive at our first real destination in Kerrville TX for the New Horizons rally a few days early…that will allow Bill, our friend Jim, and Neil to install hardwood flooring in our LR slide to replace the worn out carpet. New Horizons didn’t start doing hardwood there until 2 years after we bought the rig so we’ll just buy the materials ourselves and the three of them will do the install before the rally starts.

Once the rally is over we’ll head north to Kansas City and do the western half of US-50 out to the Sacramento area, head north to OR and then head eastward on US-20 until we’re in IA. At that point we’ll cut south to Jefferson City MO and then do the remaining eastern half of US-50 back to the east coast…although we will skip a short portion through the Appalachian Mountains that’s just not rig worthy…even though it’s a 2 digit numbered US highway it’s just too curvy and hilly in that portion of the country to safely get down it with a 62 foot long Big Red with the rig in tow. We’ll stop with the rig in the DC area and do the last couple hundred miles out to Ocean City MD with just Li’l Red on an overnight trip. After that we’ll stop by and see Alex, Bryan, and Jen…then probably visit Knoxville TN for the weekend to see Neil’s Baby Sis…then stop at Cedar Key at the Low Key Hideaway for the last 10 days in October before arriving back in Fort Myers Nov 1. Connie’s got most of the campgrounds figured out and he’s about 1/3 or so through making reservations…all the really hard ones like holiday weekends are finished. One thing we’re doing different this season is taking a vacation halfway through the travel season. Around Aug 1 we’ll be stopping for 11 days in Douglas WY…although we do have a few Fun Stuff© things to do there it would have been a 4 or 5 day stop for that…but we’re usually getting tired out by the end of travel season so we’re going to try just chillin’ out for an extra week there and see if that improves the fatigue factor.

It’s a rainy day here in SW FL today…highs about 60 and intermittent showers. It’s a bit unseasonal…but still way, way better than snow and 20s would be.

Oh yeah…we’re gonna be famous…er, maybe…sort of, I guess…or maybe infamous…who knows? Neil and Connie got interviewed for an upcoming article in Money Magazine about full time RVing. We chatted with the person writing it, sent in some photos of us and the rig, and signed a model release. The article is currently undergoing editing and will be published sometime…maybe…and our contribution may…or may not…make it to print. I’l letya know if anything comes of it…no money is involved for us of course. The author of the article is a freelancer and despite being hired to write an article on living in an RV…he knew amazingly little about actual RVs. He thought that only a class A (the bus type) was an RV and had no idea that class B, C, or fifth wheels existed until they edumacated him a bit. Hopefully they helped him to write a more useful and meaningful article.

Our eaglets E12 and E13 continue to grow…they’re 32 and 34 days old now and are starting to get normal feathers coming out instead of the down that they’re born with. Still another 40 days or so to fledging (first flight) though…but both appear to be growing normally. Here’s a shot of Harriet and one of the eaglets…the other must sheltering be under her left wing which is pooched out a bit.

Screen Shot 2019 01 26 at 2 20 23 PM

Ok…on to interesting things found on the net.

Did you know that “Yuor biran has teh alibtiy to mkae oderr out of caohs”? Even though the words are garbled your brain easily read that…right?

I’m not sure how this sign will help any illiterate drivers who see it.

Huhh

It’s on the Internet…it has to be correct.

LincolnAndHisPhone

I can get behind this sentiment.

FundingTheLazy

Debate settled…this is the illustration from the original patent application for toilet paper…we now know how conclusively which way it’s supposed to be rolled.

DebateSettled

Apparently there’s this bikini hiker chick in Taiwan…her name was Gigi Wu and she used to hike up the mountains in Taiwan in her bikini to the…apparently…immense delight of her Twitter and Facebook followers. Here she is on a previous summit visit.

BikiniHikerYushwanNPTaiwan

Now Taiwan runs from latitude North 21 to North 25…this is the same latitude range as central TX…and the mountains on the island range up to about 13,000 feet…and having been in the vicinity of 13,000 feet myself…I can tell ya it’s cold even in the middle of summer. So last week…well actually almost 3 weeks back, but I digress…she goes hiking…solo…in Taiwan’s Yushan National Park…in the middle of winter, falls into a ravine and freezes to death. Now it’s not clear whether she actually hiked in her bikini…or whether the hiked in normal clothes and just changed into her skimpy suit once she was at the summit…because one article I read said that she was found fully clothed. However…hiking solo…in winter…on mountain peaks…is just asking for trouble.

There’s a community center in Indian Hills CO…and apparently they keep putting puns up on their sign out front…here are a few samples.

ThatsAMoray