Swimming in Digital Scrapbooking

<- The first "digi scrap"

Some of you that know me (Consuelo) know that I have these explosions of excitement about whatever it is I'm into at the moment. So, not to disappoint, here I go again.

As you know, I've been doing different sorts of paper crafts /scrapbooking over the years. Thus, I have accumulated a lot of paper, tools, pens, ribbons, stickers etc, etc, etc. Every time I do it I make a huge mess which then, of course, has to be cleaned up.

Enter this month's Escapees magazine with a theme of reducing weight and gaining storage... There it was, in all its glory: an article on DIGITAL scrapbooking. I read with great curiosity and thought that some of my doings with Photoshop can go a step further into the world of "digi scrap" - yeap, that's the lingo - Did I die and go to heaven??!! I could feel that feeling I get when I'm about to lose it over some new thing I want to learn rising up in me It all reminds me of that old quilting joke:

A man reports with dismay the effects of his wife taking up quilting. On Monday she learned to quilt. On Tuesday she quit cleaning; on Wednesday she quit doing laundry; on Thursday she quit cooking; on Friday she hired a housekeeper. By Sunday the housekeeper was quilting!!

<- A "digi scrap" for my nephew, born this week.

So, I logged on to a recommended website, I read their tutorials, I downloaded some graphics, I ordered some software... the day went by fast, the pajamas never came off, the dog didn't get walked, the teeth didn't get brushed, the food didn't get cooked. Mahlon fed me intravenously. The cat purred, curled upon my lap. This could be good for my weight, I thought. By the end of the second day of total immersion, I had produced 4 digi scrap pages and had used graphics and tools I already had. By the end of the third day I was deep into studying Photoshop, something I had sworn off months ago. "Too techie", I had thought then.

Crazed I was. So I played and learned and played some more. Come evening of the fourth day, I'm relaxed and reclined in my favorite chair going at it with a passion. I remember thinking, there's more to learn, gotta keep going... so the hours passed in this frenzied state and it was now after midnight... I started to doze but had short bursts of energy followed by great slumps. Come morning, there I was, still reclined in my recliner, laptop still on my lap... I had slept that way for seven blissful hours and I knew I was hooked. Mahlon was grinning with amusement!.

This morning, alas, a note from our Starband satellite service warning us that we have exceeded the 1gigabytes traffic limit during the last seven days... thus the universe conspires for me to come up for air.

Hot and Cold

<- SNOW in the California Mountains

Studies have shown (http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/60/5/1542 for one) that the human body acclimates itself to cold temperatures. That is, if we are repeatedly immersed in cold, we are better able to stand the cold. Our bodies respond to cold by reducing blood flow to the skin surface, and eventually, shivering to increase core heat produced.

I have not found any studies that illustrate the corollary: If you are acclimated to the cold, you are less able to stand the heat. Conventional wisdom dictates that you leave the kitchen.

Our philosophy in traveling north in the summer and south in the winter (snowbirding) is that we would like to exist in an ideal climate throughout the year. The temperature should hover between 65 and 75 degrees wherever we are, and there would always be low humidity and gentle breezes.

Of course, our philosophy fails badly when we meet reality. Summers in Minnesota can easily reach 90 degrees, winters in Florida easily approach freezing, at least at night. Likewise, we've been in northern Minnesota on 4th of July with high temps reaching into the low 50's. We have yet to try for cold summer days in Florida. Just writing it makes it seem absurd, but I suppose it could happen.

This winter we have seen both extremes in Florida. For December, we spent time in Bushnell and Naples. My recollection of most of that time is that the daily highs were in the low 80s, which is about 10 degrees above normal. We spent part of that time with our relatives, and only had a light duty 15 amp outlet to power our RV, meaning that if we wanted AC, we needed to run our generator. We did that for several days while we were in Naples, over a period of 3 weeks. Those temps extended into January, but we moved to Collier-Seminole State Park, and had 50 amp service for the first week, meaning we were cool as cucumbers. But in that period, we acclimated to the heat.

Today, January 29th, we are in Ruskin at Simmons County Park. We have 30 amp service, but we have not needed AC in days. Today's high was 51 degrees. Tonight, a freeze is forecast. We are still acclimated for high temps, though, so my feet are freezing. Even Thumper is inside more than normal. These temps are a long ways from our philosophical ideal.

But, I'm still happy. We avoid that 4 letter word, "SNOW". So far in 2-1/2 years snow has not fallen on us, though we have seen some, in Vermont and Massachusetts, and of course in the western mountains. We're really happy with snow if it's SOMEWHERE ELSE and we can go see it if we want to. That's another important part of our philosophy.

The crime of attempted stargazing

<- Attempting to stargaze

I have a mild interest in astronomy. I once owned a 3" cheap reflector telescope, when I was in high school. I could see the moon pretty well, and got a glimpse of the rings around saturn. But the tripod was so flimsy, that just aiming the thing at any other objects was nearly impossible.

Last year in Quartzsite, we had a friend in our Life on Wheels ring that had just purchased a small Meade reflector telescope with a computer drive for $200 from Wal-mart. I had dabbled with some free software called Stellarium which provided a map of the objects in the heavens, so I still had at least a passing interest. When I saw this small scope and electronics, I dreamed of pointing it at some of the more interesting heavenly objects. After all, the idea was: Just type in the name of a heavenly body and the computer would point the scope at it. What could be easier?

Well, it turns out that setting up these telescopes is even more demanding that setting up my Starband satellite dish. Essentially, you need to to establish your position on earth with the position of objects in space. To do this, the user must locate three or more divergent readily visible bodies which are dictated byu the computer in the night sky in order to calibrate the telescope mount against the view of the sky.

This is more difficult than setting up a satellite dish because the dish only needs to be pointed at one object, the satellite. I have tools that tell me if I'm pointed at the right satellite. When setting up the telescope, the user first needs to find Polaris, the north star (if in the northern hemisphere). Now, I can easily find Polaris when I'm in Minnesota on a clear, dark night. Just follow the pointer starts from the big dipper to the star in the handle of the little dipper. I never made it to Boy Scouts, and I can do that. But if you're in Florida, or Arizona, Polaris is fairly close to the horizon. And if there's a mountain, or a tree at that point on the horizon, it may well be invisible.

But even if you find Polaris, you still need to find other reference points. And like most of the amateur stargazers I've bumped into, that's not so easy. If it's a crystal clear night with few nearby city lights (and why would you want to try this under conditions other than that?) then there are, as Carl Sagan said, "billions and billions" of stars in the sky. Trying to find one in a constellation that you are not familiar with is difficult. Verifying it, if you can find it, by pointing the telescope at it via its motor drive is even more difficult. And, you need to do this at least 3, and preferable more times, before that computer drive is of any use at all.

Now, I'm willing to admit that practice will make this process easier. Just as I can find Polaris, running through this procedure a dozen times will no doubt train the stargazer to readily locate the reference points in the constellations. Learning how to manipulate the procedure can probably empower the viewer to skip a few stars in the process, if a mountain range prevents seeing them, and still arrive at a fully calibrated instrument. So far, I haven't met the person who has achieved that level of mastery.

It may also be possible that transporting these scopes all over the country in an RV complicates the problem. Setting up and calibrating a scope in your own backyard may be quite a bit easier, as you would have some constant reference points. Just make sure your backyard is away from a city. I'm also of the opinion that you should be able to locate three known divergent objects in the sky, and then tell the computer what you are pointing at, rather than the other way around. At least you have a better chance of locating a known constellation and its reference stars high in the sky than an obscure star you never heard of. Maybe the computer can do that. Maybe I'll never know.

The two fellows in the picture were found on a street corner of the campground in Collier-Seminole S.P. when we were there in early January. I got a bit excited, at the size of the telescope they had brought, about 12 inches of Cassegrain-Schmidt reflector design from a company in Norway called Celesta. I had seen the two guys a day earlier, driving around and around in the campground. Turns out they were trying to select the best available site to set up their telescope. And, they had a reasonably good chance of making it work from the small clearing their scope was set up on.

They had not come far, they lived on nearby Marco Island. From conversation, and the instrument, I'm guessing that at least the scope owner was fairly well off. They had succeeded isn setting up the scope one time previously, and they had been excited about the shape of the rings of saturn. This attracted my interest, too.

But they had inserted limitations into the process. I suspect that they had swallowed a few beers while they waited for darkness. Their breath and their speech gave that away. When I arrived at the corner, out walking Thumper in the wonderfully cool night, they were trying to find Polaris. A second major limitation was that there were clouds in the northern sky. Trees, too. Polaris was invisible. And it did not help that they were unsure of which way was north, and had no compass. I offered to go get one, which I did, and they discovered that they were off by about 20 degrees. Not that Polaris was visible, anyway.

I also got my computer, with my copy of Stellarium running. Turned out that the scope owner also had a laptop with a copy of Stellarium installed, and he was using that to try to locate his reference points by looking at the sky, then looking at the telescope. It didn't help. I couldn't help. We might as well have been trying to find our way around New York with a road map of Italy.

After spending about an hour hoping that these guys could set up the telescope, and then we could type in "Jupiter" and go see all the moons of Jupiter, I gave up. The scope owner said he had made a mistake in the setup, and had to start all over again. It was nearly midnight. The mosquitoes had not only found us, they had posted a notice on the campground bulletin board notifying mosquitoes in three adjacent counties about our location. They were no closer to seeing stars (through the telescope) as when I walked up.

One day, someday, I might actually get to type "Neptune" into one of these Meade or Celesta computerized telescopes, and actually see it. Or something. But it hasn't happened yet. Patience, Mahlon.

A Dead Body Will Slow You Down!

<- Tampa from across the bay.

After our maintenance, we drove to the South Sarasota Elks Club for the night. They have 2 RV spaces, with water and 30 amp electric for $10.00/night. We had dinner there... the food was good but the wait staff was overwhelmed and service was poor.

On Thursday, 1/18, we drove back down to Venice to work on a computer for a friend of ours from Rochester, MN. The computer was at his parents place in Venice, and it had been subject to the service call from hell by a local repair shop. They had re-installed the OS, without having all the necessary Dell driver disks for the machine. Little was working right. I was able to download the drivers from Dell and get it up, and reconfigure their wifi and get it connected. Consuelo visited with them while we were there. They were very nice folks, and we enjoyed our time there.

We got a few groceries on the way back, then packed up and left for Ruskin, our next destination. Since we can't tow our rental car (see "Bam!"), Consuelo left first, about 5 minutes ahead of me in the motorhome, right around 3:00 PM. Just as I was about to get on I-75, she called to report that traffic was jammed up, moving at about 15 mph. We decided to stay the course, and we were both soon stuck in 15 mph traffic. As we progressed slowly along, I listened to the CB radio, and Consuelo got off at the next exit to get gas. A Sheriff's deputy was in the gas station, and he reported that a dead body had been found on I-75, and that was the reason for the backup. We've all seen CSI on TV, and we know that they can take hours examining a crime scene. Truckers on the CB were reporting a 10 mile backup, and we did not know how far ahead it reached.

I decided that it might be quicker to take the exit Consuelo was at and drive over to US41 in Sarasota, then take 41 up to Ruskin, which we did. Traffic near I-75 was thick, but we were able to do the speed limit after a couple miles, except for all the traffic lights. Even so, it was slow going on 41, as it goes through downtown everything along the western shore of Florida. We finally decided to take 301 in Palmetto back over to I-75, which was now clear. We cruised up I-75 to Ruskin, and made our way to the County Park.

<- Our campsite at Simmins, with our rental car

E. G. Simmins County Park is one of many Hillsborough County parks. It is located on Tampa Bay, and has 2 nice campgrounds in it. We had visited it 2 years earlier when we were here, one of those rare finds we made while out driving around. Other campers had told us is was nice, and a couple next to us in Collier-Seminole had just come from Simmins. It's no secret, but it's not well known, and because they don't take reservations and have a 2 week limited stay, the snow-birds don't frequent the place.

But our dead body had now held us up beyond closing time. It had taken us over 3 hours to travel 45 miles, aybe 55 with our detour. When we arrived, the gates were closed and locked. No problem, we can park outside the gate all night, but many parks like this have camp hosts who can register late arrivals and get them into sites for the night. I decided to walk into the campground and find out if there was such a person, just as a camper arrived at the gate going out. I stopped them, and asked them is they knew of a camp host. They said no.

Just then, a junior park ranger arrived on hos way into the park. So I asked him if there was a way to get in tonight. He asked a couple questions, then made me promise we would go to the desk and register first thing in the morning. Then he said we could go in and find a site, and close the gate behind us.

So we went back, got the MH and car started, and proceeded to the gate. As we're moving in that direction, another park vehicle drives up, closes and locks the gate. Huh? Well, it turns out that this is the park manager, and he thinks we're trying to sneak in. No way!

And at this point, it's a bit like playing 'post office'. I talked to the junior ranger, and the manager ends up talking with Consuelo. The manager has his hackles up, and isn't listening. Consuelo was not privy to the details of my conversation with the junior. So we end up sleeping outside the gate for the night. That would not have been so bad if the manager had not suggested that it might not be safe to sleep outside the gate. And we were still thinking of the dead body. Needless to say, we didn't get very good sleep that night, though nothing happened. The 11:00 news had reports about the dead body on I-75, and the huge traffic jam it caused. The body was found in a river, under a bridge. It was so badly decomposed, they didn't know if it was a man or a woman.

The next morning, the park opened at 6:00, but the office did not open until 8:00. At 7:15, we took the car and cruised through the park to see where we might like to camp. At the end of one of the camping areas, we were followed by a park vehicle, so I got out and talked to the ranger, who turned out to be the manager. I told him we had been given permission by one of his staff to enter. While he tried to tell me that the rules were the rules, I rebuked him for not training his staff properly to enforce them. Then I told him I accept his apology. Somehow, the chip fell of his shoulder, and we continued looking for a campsite. In a few minutes, he came up again and offered to open the office for us and register us early to try to make amends for the last night. We accepted. But he did not get away without Consuelo giving him a piece of her mind for his attitude. He finally showed his good side, offering tips on which campsites were best and advising where to get a fishing license in town.

Thumper likes this place. There are places she can swim off leash (not at the swimming beach). Her only complaint is that there are sand burrs that get caught on her toes. Here she's trying to get one out. She learned quickly, though, that I'm pretty good at finding them and removing them, so she cooperates when I lift her paw.

We might just come here again. But next time we'll skip the dead body, thank you very much.

Waiting for Maintenance

Imagine, if you can, that you have to drive your house to the house repair shop and drop it off for, say, an oil change on your furnace. That's a bit like what we were doing this week. We dropped our house off at Camping World in Fort Myers, to have the roof cleaned and resealed. And have our electric step fixed.

When we drop off the house, we leave the cat in it. The repair people are generally used to this, so it's not a problem. It has been warm here this week, though, and while Camping world was cleaning the roof, they needed to keep the windows closed, so Moonie was pretty sweaty when we got back (but she declined a good shower!).

We stayed in the back parking lot at Camping World on the night before and the night after the work there. There were lots of other RVs there, most of them empty. They have no hookups, so we were on our own. I discovered a problem with our house batteries, one that had been patched last summer, but needs real fixing now. The terminals on two of our 4 6 volt golf cart batteries had corroded, and the wire had corroded off one of them. I grabbed our jumper cables and made a temporary repair.

While they were working on our roof, we went out and enjoyed our traffic accident, as I reported in yesterday's blog. Then we went to the dog beach.

Engine Repairs

On the following day, we took the house over to to Cummins Power South for oil changes on the engine and the generator. I had said we'd be there around 7:30, but we didn't make it until 8:30 and they couldn't start on it until the second round of repairs that day. Our hoped for departure of noon ended up being pushed back to 5:00, but we bad.

We decided to look around Fort Myers. I had heard that there was a museum that encompassed the winter homes and lab of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, good friends and camping buddies. We found the place, but didn't want to drop $40 to see them. We did see some of the grounds and Edison's massive 100 year old Banyan tree.

We then left to see what else was around, and embarrassed ourselves by arriving at the toll booth for the bridge from Fort Myers to Cape Coral without even the $1.00 needed to cross the bridge. The toll taker, whose name was Debbie, paid our toll for us, and we found an ATM and returned her cash on the way back.

We drove around Cape Coral for a while, looking to see what was there. Cape Coral is an interesting city, in that they seem to have tried to get every house on a canal with access to the gulf. In the middle of the city, you'll see 40' sailboat masts in people's back yards. But you can't easily get around town by car, as the canals cause many, many dead end streets.

We stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for coffee and bagels. We stopped at a fan store and bought a couple of plastic 110 volt fans to put over our windshield, partly as defroster, partly to cool us as we drive. We drove out to Rotary Park, and looked at the tall condos. We then looked for a place to have lunch, and found a wonderful Cuban restaurant called Mambos.

We then landed at Four Freedoms Park, a city park which was at the end of what you might call a canal cul de sac. The picture at the top of this blog chapter is from the park, and the one at the left is a panorama of the view. It was a wonderfully pleasant day, and we spent about two hours there.

On the way back, we stopped at Target and a cooking shop to get a few essentials. We finally got back to our house at the repair shop around 3:30, waited until 5:00 to get on the road. We spent some of that time on the phone with the insurance company, going over the details of the accident again. We answered questions on our repairs, like: Do you want to install new $200 air cleaner? (Yes).

Bam!

Yes, that's our little Beetle toad on the back of a tow truck. It's now sitting in the back lot of Fort Myers Collision. It may be hard to see, but the left front wheel is at a rather odd angle. There is some paint scraped off behind the tire. There is a ding in the door.

All this because we missed our turn to the beach, tried to get from the right lane at an intersection into the left turn lane. A woman coming up the highway, at a speed too fast, IMHO, failed to stop in time to miss us. Banged up our transaxle a bit, enough that we needed to be towed.

Fast thinking is needed in an accident situation. The first thing that concerned us was getting the cars out of traffic before some other person failed to stop. We limped through the intersection at 5 mph, even so, smoke started coming from our wheel. We turned into a parking lot, ironically between an insurance agency and a claims office. Next door was a golf shop, where I would have rather been. I was actually in there quite a few times, looking at phone books and borrowing a pen and paper. Since we had the bug detailed over Christmas, there was nothing left in it to write with or on.

After we got to the parking lot, I called 911 to get an officer on the scene. The driver of the other car, who was visibly upset, and we exchanged proofs of insurance and called our respective companies. A very nice, and efficient lady officer arrived and moved the paperwork along, called a tow for us. The other car was not damaged too seriously. Nobody was hurt.

Further irony, the other driver was going to the post office on her first day on the job at a personal injury law firm. Hopefully, that coincidence will not come back to bite us. She had an associate with her who was holding a box of mail.

A bit more fast thinking would have me taking pictures at the scene. After all, we were on our way to the dog beach to enjoy the sun and sand, and I did have my camera with me. I wasn't thinking that fast, though. I didn't think to take any pictures until we got our car to the body shop, the picture above.

A fortunate coincidence, I called Enterprise ("We'll come get you") to rent a car. It turned out that the rental agency was but two blocks away, so I walked over and rented a car, a shiny white Ford Taurus with 3000 miles on it. Not thinking, I took my cash with me, which Consuelo needed to pay the tow truck driver on the spot. But the rental was done, and I went back before they had the details worked out. The tow was $110.00. We had a grand total of $110.64 in our possession. Another irony.

Now, four days later, the insurance company has called to say they have approved the estimate by the repair shop, and the shop is proceeding with the repairs. Our car should be ready to travel again on February 2nd, or thereabouts.

Since we had no way to carry them, our bikes had to stay at the repair shop, too. We missed them today, as we're parked in Ruskin where ther beach is a nice bike ride away.

Neither of us was too busted up by this incident, though we did notice that we were distracted. We continued on to the dog beach after we spent 3 hours with the police, the tow truck, and the repair shop. Thumper had a great time. We did too.


A skilled navigator would have avoided this situation all together. We have had no accidents on the road because most of the time, I have a skilled navigator. On this day I was navigating, and was doing it way too slow. If I had been on the job, we would have arrived at the intersection in the left lane. I think I'd rather leave the navigating to Consuelo.

Camping Studio Photography

Photography is my hobby. I'm currently re-reading the Time-Life series from 1980 on photography. I carry a bunch of (mostly) old cameras in the motorhome for sentimental purposes. I not only have a 35mm film camera, I am carrying an old Polaroid camera, too. I have 3 digital cameras, and I use them all at least occasionally.

So, I guess it's not too surprising that when I bumped into a couple out here in RV land that was trying to create a business opportunity for themselves on the road, and needed some pictures taken, that I might take a shot at it. The results are on the left.

I would not recommend that professional photographers try to make a living doing studio type shots on the road. Lighting is the key to getting good product pics, I think, and I was definitely shooting from the hip with the lighting on this one. All in all, though, I thought I was pretty creative.

I set up a table outside in the sun. The sun was too bright, so I took a piece of plastic screening, the type that folks use for windshield covers, and clamped it onto the awning arm between the sun and the table.

For a highlight, I added a high intensity reading lamp. It show up in the photo as the second yellowish light on the left. And to soften the shadows (which were still strong in the shot at left) I added Consuelo's Ott light on the right.

Clearly, this was ad hoc, but the folks were quite happy with the shots, and will put them on their web site.

And I got my first "commercial" photo shoot. What fun!

And the product? Well, the one pictured is a spray on for pain relief. Consuelo tried some of it on the evening before the shoot, on a knee that was troubling her, and she said it worked pretty well. When I have a need, I'll try it, too.

Elephant for dinner

For Christmas, I bought a reclining folding camping chair for Consuelo. She's wanted one for a long time, and this looked like the right time. We had to remove two regular folding chairs to make space for it, so we can only accept one visitor at a time unless they bring their own chair, or stand up.


This is Aunt Flo, taken at Pier 41 in Naples on New Year's eve. Aunt Flo is famous for pies, among other things, back in Massachusetts. She won the Crisco bake-off one year, and I use her recipe when I bake pies.

Flo is 89 this year, and has a double-wide mobile home here in Naples. She's here from November until May. Our travels are such that we saw her in Massachusetts, then parked in here driveway down here for a week.

This is Deedee Keyes. Deedee and Flo are friends from way back in the last century, back in Wilbraham, MA, where I grew up. Deedee inspired Flo to buy her place here, since Deedee had one before Flo did. Deedee is a lot younger, only 85. Consuelo and I have trouble keeping up with them when we visit. Their schedule is packed... Thursday nights at Pippins, Saturday breakfasts, bingo on Tuesday. In between they play cards, a game called Aggravation, and we play it with them when we're around.

That's me on New Year's eve. We went to dinner with Flo, Deedee, and Ron and Carol Hable, friends of theirs from Wilbraham, also owning a double wide in the same park as Flo and Deedee.

Pier 41 is a nice restaurant in a great spot on the waterfront in Naples, in an enclave called "Tin City". The food was excellent. I had yellow fin, but Flo, with her twin hearing aids, thought I said elephant.

On January 1st, we moved to Collier -Seminole State Park, about 15 miles southeast of Naples. We re-discovered on our arrival that I had miscalculated the reservation for this park. Since I couldn't reserve 2 solid weeks, I had reserved 2 segments, one for the 1st to the 5th, and on for the 6th to the 14th. That meant I had no reservation for the 5th. With much ado, I managed to book a site over the phone (they don't do reservations within the park) for the 5th. Unfortunately the 3 reservations were in 3 different sites, so we moved on Friday and Saturday.

The Flood

Just to make things interesting, when I dumped our tanks on Friday, I spilled a few gallons of very dirty water into one of our bays down below. This occurred because I had failed to reconnect the outlet hose after I took apart 1/2 of the dump piping to remove a clog a couple days before. I quicjly closed the valve, and flushed the bay to get out all the dirty water. But in flushing, some of the clear water rolled into 4 of the other bays, thoroughly wetting the carpet. So after I connected the hose and dumped and moved to our site, I took everything out of storage and let it dry. Of course, this was on Friday, so on Saturday I packed everything back in, moved to our new site, and took it all out gain so the carpet could finish drying. Most fortunately, some folks we met here had a couple of fans designed for drying caroetm and were kind enough to loan them to us. After 3 days, it was dry and I reloaded.

We'll be here until January 14th, then move up toward Tampa.