We got actual news to report today…so no Reality Based Blogging (RBB)© this time.

One small note on previous stupidity though…now that Mr. Smollett has been charged with filing a false police report…it’s amazing how almost all mentions of his situation have disappeared from the news media. The only article I’ve seen in the past 3 days was one that talked about he deserved compassion for his misdeeds.  Yeah…right. That’s the only way that you can convert two positives to a negative connotation.

Anyways…Connie and Neil…well, they’re famous…or maybe infamous is a better idea…or maybe even they’re having their 15 minutes of fame.

To wit…back awhile back Connie had signed up for Money Magazine’s Consumer Panel…it’s some sort of forum where they can take the pulse of their subscribers or some such nonsense…and part of that entailed a brief description of her life so she talked about living in the RV full time.

She got this email from them back in January or late December and asked if we would be willing to give them a brief interview for an upcoming article on RV life. She said sure…and a few emails back and forth between her, the Money contact, and the freelancer author we had a phone interview for about an hour with Paul the author. Once that was done…and Neil sent Paul a few photographs of the rig and places we had been…we figured we were finished.

A couple weeks later…we got an email from the Money contact asking us if we could sit for a photo session…apparently the article had been green-lit for publication, upgraded to a “feature” (whatever that means in publishing-speak), and if we would allow them to send a professional photographer to take some photos. Again…we said “sure, why not”…and the appointment was setup.

So a couple days later Mary Beth and her assistant Ray showed up with a trunk full of lights and cameras and she spent about 3 hours taking shots of us outside the rig, inside doing action shots like cooking and such, and romantically walking through the campground…well Connie walked romantically but Neil wasn’t quite sure what that meant…but both Mary Beth and Connie assured him that holding hands and looking lovingly at her was just what the doctor ordered. We had another few emails back and forth with the Money contact telling us the photos were great and once again…we figured we were done. We did have quite a number of our neighbors wander by and stare at Mary Beth, Ray, and us…they were clearly trying to figure out what was going on but nobody asked. We were hoping to attend the campfire that evening…I’m sure we would have been the talk of the campground and it woulda been nice to see what people thought…but it rained and the campfire didn’t happen…and by the next week I guess we were old news.

Earlier this week…we got an email from Money saying the article had gone live online…and will be published in the paper magazine in the April issue. You can take a gander at the online version here…We Traded Our Home for a $50,000 RV in Retirement — and We’ve Never Been Happier. Pretty spiffy eh? We’re the second of two couples in the article and although there’s only the single photo in the online article I figure the print version might have a few more…otherwise the $$$ that the photographer and her assistant got paid in time and expenses wouldn’t be worth it.

True story following up on the other couple in the article…at the end she talks about meeting a person that worked for her dad. We were in Minnesota a couple years back and in the commissary on the military base we were shopping and this fellow about our age walked up and asked Neil if he was from Alabama (he had on one of his Crimson Tide hats). He says yeah…the guy says where from…he says Mobile…the guy says where…he says Crichton area…guy says where…he says Siena Vista…guy says “the street that always decorated at Christmas and the line of cars to come in and see the lights was blocks long”…Neil says yeah…guy says where on the street…Neil says about half way down just before the downhill on the left side…guy says “the yard that the street from the black folks neighborhood dead ends up against” (back then folks generally lived in areas that were single race rather than completely mixed race like nowadays…Neil says yeah…guy says “I grew up 2 houses from the end of that street.” They grew up within probably 150 yards of each other but never met…another one of those because back in those days things. He went to the rival public high school to McGill where Neil attended.

Our local eaglets are doing well…they’re 64 and 66 days old now and normal fledging (first flight) is typically 9-10 weeks…so that should be happening pretty soon. They’re pretty much full grown at this point and have all their flight feathers…but not the white head and tail that come with sexual maturity at about age 4…and are testing their wings on the nest.

Food deliveries to the nest today consisted of 5 fish and 2 rabbits…and it’s only about 1400 as I’m writing this…Harriet and/or M15 are out hunting almost all the time in order to deliver enough food for the both of them.

We’ve been members of the North Fort Myers Elk Lodge #2742 since we transferred our membership down to this area 4 or 5 years ago…but this week we went over to Fort Myers Lodge #1288 and filled out the transfer dimit (that’s a fancy word for form…why they can’t just use the word form is beyond me…but then they got all these rituals too and most of them seem a bit over the top to me…but thems the rules) to move our membership…we should be approved next week at the 1288 monthly meeting, Neil paid our dues to the new lodge, and we’ll get new membership cards. I don’t want to go into a whole lot of detail on the reasons…let’s just say that 2742 isn’t as friendly a place to be anymore and many of our friends have also submitted transfer paperwork. The new lodge is about 10 miles away instead of 5…but from our visits over there it’s friendly people and more comfortable than we’ve felt at the old lodge the past year or so…and we will drive 5 more miles for that.

Yesterday we finished up the last remaining item from Neil and his sister MJ serving as co-executors of his mom and dad’s wills…his dad had a $20 gold piece from the 1800s that he won in a card draw with his siblings at their dad’s passing and he wanted it passed along the same way. Due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control…he and his 3 siblings have not been in the same place at the same time since his mom’s passing…and it’s just been too long. So after some discussion with MJ…we had Father Tom (the pastor at our church here in Florida) run a little lottery to select a winner. That’s been completed and Neil will be providing the coin to the duly chosen sibling in due course…but which sibling that is will be left to the unknown unless they choose to reveal themself.

Monday is the St. Therese Parish Mardi Gras dinner…it’s one of those formal cocktail/dinner/dancing things. We’ve got tickets and will be sitting at the choir table with a bunch of Connie’s friends from there. It’s a good time…he’s trying to get her to go to the dollar store and get herself a gold mask with feathers on it…but he’s not holding out much hope.

Connie’s looking forward to some Alex time in a couple of weeks…we’re heading up to see him…and the human kids as well as it’s Bryan’s 35th birthday coming up and with our trip from FL straight to TX for the NHOG rally VA just ain’t on the way.

Interesting stuff found on the net.

Ya know how they say there’s a story behind every rule and sign? I would love to know the rest of the story that resulted in this one.

I wonder how much his hospital bill was afterwards.

RV IQ towing test…but I’m afraid most non-RVers won’t get it. He’s hooked his safety chains to a quick release clip. So if the trailer jumps off the hitch…instead of the chains ensuring it mostly stays attached to the tow vehicle…it will just proceed down the highway independently.

Aussie road sign.

They ain’t wrong.

Cyas.