Update from Maine

     Hello All...Well from California I headed back to Texas. I found that California and I did not mix well if I was going to survive on what little made and going to school. So was back in Texas and ended up in the hospital for a couple of days. While there I had the realization that I was out in the middle of the USA with no family or friends. So the next leg of the path or journey was to move back to the east coast.
     I stopped in CT thinking I would stay there. All it ended up being was a recursive event. I had come back to the area to settle and there was no work to be had. No family there either. My daughter had moved back to North Carolina. So I still was with no family.
     I was able to reconnect with my mother and my brother from CT. Which was nice. I later reconnected with my daughter Lindsay and my son Ben in New Hampshire. I visited up there and found an RV site for the summer. So moved up there. I figured being close to family we would be able to see each other from time to time. Which has been nice.
     Since being in ME. I was able to take part in the birth of a granddaughter from Ben and Misty. Lindsay is due in January 2008. Also, Melanie in Oklahoma is due in February 2008. It has to be something in the water. Lindsay and Melanie both are having boys. That brings the grandchildren total up to 10.
     I had been all over the USA this past year or more and had looked at land in all areas. I even bought land in Oklahoma, but never considered buying in ME in the past. So now I own 21 acres in ME. I have some good plans for the land. I am so looking forward to moving things forward with the land. As for the mean time I have moved into a year round RV site and am digging in for the winter.
     Many things needing to be done for winterizing. Skirting completely around the bottom so that no cold air blows underneath. Also, insulating all the lines. The trailer stays pretty warm and then the next little issue. Steam on the windows. So a dehumidifyer needs to be added to the list.
     It has been a while since I have updated this blog. Sorry for the gaps. I will do better in the future. I have internet access now. It's not as good as I have had in the past, but better than nothing.
     So that is all for now. Many blessings to all that read it.

California is the place for me!

     Well I moved again. I left Texas and am in California. I ended up in Coronado, Ca for a few weeks and have settled down for a while in El Cajon. I have a lot of work to do. I jumped right into the graduate program on Monday. I arrived in California on Saturday. There has been plenty of homework to do. I have ended up in the library almost every day.
     One good thing about the California libraries...they have internet access. So I can hook up the laptop and get on their network. Just have to find a quiet spot somewhere. Seem's everyone uses the libraries here. I found the best time to go is in the mornings. The kids are out of school around 2:30pm. So I can get a lot done until then. It feels good working on the masters program. The work is hard and it has been challenging. This is what I have needed. The bachelors degree was long, but not challenging...it was just a milestone. I have completed my first course and that was a milestone as well. It seems just like anything a system is all one needs. This first class I hope I worked out a lot of the kinks and now it won't be as stressfull.
     The trip out here went smoother than I thought. When I went through Tucson, AZ it was a bit rough traffic wise. They were having a huge gem show and traffic was bumper to bumper. Another problem I thought I was going to have was with snow in New Mexico. I had just gone over the border into New Mexico at night and had snow. It was cold as well. I pulled into a rest area and stayed till the next morning and it had cleared. I had visions and flashbacks of the last time I went accross New Mexico. I had three accidents then and a head on with a semi during a major snow storm that lasted a few days. I had hoped I would make it across New Mexico this time without snow. Well I did.
     The next milestone was the mountains of California. I made it, but went up the steep mountains at 20 to 25 miles an hour. I was so worried about the mountains. I was relieved when I had made it.
     California is nice and I missed it, but it has it's drawbacks. The main one is the traffic. It's terrible. There are cars zipping everywhere. Your lucky if anyone let's you switch lanes. You really have to be a defensive driver here. It also seems you can't go anywhere and find a place to be alone. Go to the park and there are plenty of people. I have not been used to this the last few years. Living in the midwest with Oklahoma and Texas has been different.
Well that's all for now.

It's been a while ... thought I would update!

        Well a lot has happened. I have been working on the paper route and things are going pretty good. You never know what your going to learn about even with a paper route. At night time it's kinda nice driving through the darkness to deliver the papers. It's been a lot colder here in West Texas. A nice change since the summers are so hot. Desert country don't you know. We did get snow for one of those cold nights. It snowed all night while I was delivering papers and then it was gone the next day.
        It's funny, but ever since I have been here in West Texas people have been saying that the weather has changed. We had a lot of rain after I got here and then it has not snowed in years. I hear this kinda stuff all the time.
        Cat's are doing great. I am off during the daytime so they like having me around. At night they are alone. It takes about 5 hours to get the 4 paper routes done that I do on a daily basis. This is a 7 day a week job. Something like the Navy... ha ha...just kidding. But a bit of truth there.
        February I will be calling it quits to Texas and the midwest for a while. I will be heading west to head back to California. I am really looking forward to the trip. I have missed the ocean and the beaches. However, I will be attending graduate school full time. I have been accepted to National Universities Graduate Program. The master of science will be in Database Administration.
        Am currently looking into Doctorate Programs and see if it's worth my time. So far the only Doctorate program I see that is worth anything is at Harvard University. Well we will see. That's an expensive school.
        Now back to the paper route...I have seen things here I have never seen before. I see birds at night time. Some sit in the road and as soon as you drive up they fly away. I have seen whole trees full of birds at night time. I would be delivering a paper and then you will hear many birds chirping or making noise in the trees. It was funny I would drive by one particular tree and I would hear these nice calls and I thought it was someone from a house and then I realized after a few day's that it was indeed birds.
        I have seen two types of owls at night time. I have seen a horned owl and then another variety. These were all seen by driving on the route.
        Now the animal I have seen the most of at night besides rabbits are foxes. I have seen so many foxes here to last a lifetime. On a few occasions I have seen two foxes together.
        Well I take that back... I have seen a lot of cats at night as well. Many, many, many cat's. I am surprised. People just let their cat's out at night here. I do not like seeing a dead one on the side of the road. I do not know what people expect if they do not take care of their animals.
        Recently Actor/Comedian Polly Shore showed up in Odessa, TX. He did the comedy club scene here. Some big Texan got up on stage with his cowboy hat on and punched Polly out. The man was escorted of stage. Polly stomped off calling everyone white trash. Later it was found out that it was all staged. It made the local papers in Odessa of course.
        Last Sunday I was doing my paper route and there was a street blocked off by the police. Lights lit the sky. It was a four alarm fire. An apartment building was burning. This put people out of their homes for Christmas. Two day's later a mobile home park burned down. More people out of their homes. The first one was arson. A 25 year old woman was arrested. She had recently broken up with her boyfriend who lived in the apartment building. I guess previously she had set fire to his car. So she was the likely candidate by local police. I am just glad no lives were lost. The fires were in Midland.
        Oh yeah! I bought a motorcycle. I ended up taking a motorcycle safety training class and found it was pretty good. You used their motorcycles for practice on different courses. I enjoyed that. So I will have this to get around on in San Diego. Especially heading to the beaches.
        Well that's the news for now.

The Paper Route

        Well I never expected to be what they call an independent contractor for a newspaper. What this means is I am doing a paper route. I have a route for the Odessa American of approximately 200 papers. It's funny, but I needed a job that would pay a few hundred extra a month and not be to time consuming. The time could be spent in more productive pursuits. Like writing or working on programs. Plus it is so hot here that if I worked I would need to keep the air-conditioning on the whole time I was gone so the cat's would be comfortable.
        So with the paper route that materialized before me it seemed to be the logical choice for work right now. This will suite it's purpose all around and I will be home before the air-conditioning needs to be on. I get up at 2:00 am and am home by 5:30 am or 6:00 am. Sometimes on Sunday's since the papers are so large it takes longer so am home just after 7:00 am. So far everything is working out.
        The plan is to look for good full-time employment. So I can do this. I have been doing it now about 3 weeks. So far so good. I did get a flat tire the other day. I changed it and took the flat in to repair. After about 5 minutes the guy fixing it calls me over and his boss was looking at the tire as well. I thought oh no it's not fixable. His boss said that I had to see this before they worked on it. They were both smirking. Well they had the tire open and you could see the inside. It seems that I ran over a fork and the whole for from the eating end was inside the tire. The handle had broken off. Now that was nuts. My tire got forked. Ha ha!.
        I went to the town of Big Springs yesterday. I had to go to the Veterans Hospital there. It was about an hour drive one way. Maybe a little longer then that. Big Springs is a lot smaller then Odessa and Midland. But it houses the VA hospital. I thought perhaps the whole town worked at the VA hospital. Their kids worked at Wendy's or McDonalds or some other fast food place. I guess they just went through a scare with the government wanting to move the VA hospital to Odessa. That would have been good for me, but horrible for the town of Big Spring. I am happy for them that they made the decision to stay there. There is a VA clinic here in Odessa. That is fine for me.
        Different animals seen here in the area. I saw a porcupine yesterday and have seen a fox while delivering papers. Kinda neat. I have seen fox's before but never a porcupine. In Florida it was Armadillos. In Oklahoma I had seen bobcats.
        I belong to the church called Eckankar. http://www.eckankar.org is their url. Well recently I finally had my path cross with another Eckist here in the area. He lives in the same town. There are only four of us. One in Big Spring, one in Ackley and two of us here in Odessa. I was pleased to hook up with another Eckist. We have talked a few times on the phone and we hope to have lunch together soon.
        Life is a journey....you never know which way it will turn! All you can do is handle it and adjust.
        

New Email Service added to blog!

        I have completed the process today to add an email service to this blog. So if you would like a daily digest of posts to this blog sent to your email address then you will be able to receive one. Just scroll down so that you see the email signup and enter your email address then click the button. It is located in the right column. You will go through a confirmation process that will send you an email for security and then you click on a link in your email that says to confirm your registration. It's that simple. Enjoy!

Butterflies

        Today I went to the main office at the RV park I am staying at. Outside they have a row of flowers that edge the front and the walkway that leads to the front door.
        I noticed a butterfly as I got out of my car. Then another one and another and another and another. I had to stop and look at these beautiful fairies flying around the flowers. They were like little pieces of paper caught in the wind. One would land and you would see it open and close it's wings and see the beautiful pattern. A kaleidoscope of colors.
        Then I noticed they were all different. Oh one or two seemed to make a pair. There were so many that my mind got caught up in seeing if I could pair any. They were big and had so many different colors. It was wonderful. Never had I seen so many different ones. Usually if you had a ca-coon open around the same time you would see the same type of butterflies.
        This experience I had never seen or experienced before. There was one that was completely black with some bluish shiny spots that made it glitter. There were different kinds of monarch type with the black edges and different colors. There were yellow ones and gold ones. White ones were there too. They all seemed to be represented. Then I noticed a few small ones about the size just shy of an inch long. There were a lot of these small ones.
        What an experience! Never had I seen such a range of butterflies in all my life. I was in the right place to see such a thing. The right place at the right time.
        I was told that the flowers that edged the RV office were called Lantana's. So I will remember that. When I have my own place I will want to see if I can experience this myself at home.
        I feel honored to have seen such a sight and all I was doing was just going to mail some letters. Wow! Now I know what it’s like for a lady to receive a beautiful bouquet of mixed flowers.

Finally Getting Organized

      It seems like things have been moving real fast the last two years. I graduated from college in Arizona, moved to Oklahoma, moved into a trailer, and moved to Texas. Many things have been worked out through this process called change. I have learned a lot. I am more flexible. Since I have been here in Texas I have been able to get rid of all my paper that I have been carrying around for years. When I lived in Arizona I had six file drawers of files for the past 30 years. I have pretty much digitized everything I needed to keep. I had to take a close look at what I did not need anymore and throw it away. I will be backing up everything to CD. But now am down to just one small file cabinet drawer worth of immediate files. Everything else is in digital format.

      Now that the paper is gone it has given me more time to work on other projects. I have many ideas that I have been working on with programming. I am getting all of this organized as well. I have had to come up with ways to save code and be able to find it when I need it. I have had to organize a library for documentation and reference. I have also had to keep a writing library and organize my writing efforts. A good programmer must be able to backup his program with documentation. So my trip to Odessa, Texas has become a place in which I can and have gotten more organized.

      So what is next on the agenda? Well am developing my own software and hopefully will do my own consulting. I want to be able to develop my own applications and work on applications that business and government will need to have developed. I have been working on developing my own website for this endeavor. But one step at a time.

      One thing I would like to do and am working towards this is working on collaborative efforts. I have all the communications I need here in the trailer. I have my laptops, two web-cams, Messenger, I am setup to do collaborative efforts right from here. I have been asked to test some software down the line and can do that right from here. I have tested software and this is right up my alley. I am looking forward to the day that I am totally busy from my trailer. Since I am mobile with the trailer then I can go anywhere if necessary.

      The best thing about doing all this work from the trailer and moving to different locations is that I still get to be outdoors. In Oklahoma I worked at the University of Central Oklahoma and lived in a state park for a bit. It was the off season, Sept. Oct, Nov. and Dec. However, there was the lake and people coming there to relax not dodge the cars or have to get somewhere. So going on location to do work for a company I just need to find a good location to park the trailer.

      There is an upside and a downside to everything. My mother was wanting me to come home to Massachusetts sometime for a visit. I looked into different RV parks in Conn. and Mass. The pricing is real high and almost not worth it. One place in Mass. was over $800.00 per month for full hookup. In Oklahoma and Texas I have been able to keep prices down to under $300.00 per month for full hookup. So depending on location the pricing can be fairly high. This will be something to keep in mind in taking a particular job on contract.

Language Translations Services

I have had visitors from 18 different countries so far since this blog has been online. I am pleased to have so many visitors. I have added a language translation service to this blog. This will make things easier for those from other countries to read the blog entries.

I am hoping to add other features to this blog and more blog entries. I have been busy lately doing programming on some of my own programs. So the time has been a bit of a problem. With better balance I hope to be able to get back to putting more into my blogs.

I hope this entry finds you all well and happy! We just celebrated our Fourth of July Independence celebration. Also, have celebrated my birthday. So am a year older.

The children in Oklahoma got me a propane grill. I am hoping to be able to use it soon. I like cooking out and will do my best to have the kids over more.

May the blessings be!

New Sea Stories Blog

Well I had written that I would have a new blog out and posted. Well it's online now. It's at the following URL:

SeaStories-SpookAW

For now if anyone wants to submit a sea story to me they can send it to the following email address:

email me

If I can figure out how to get submisions done automatically on a blog then I will add the features to this blog.

For now you can still do comments.....

Blog statistics

        I just wanted you all to know that the statistics are way off right now. I am trying to get the company that does the statistics to get me back the original statistics from the trial period. In the trial period I had about 64 visitors and they were from 14 different countries. When the trial period ended it shut the statistics off and then it was started back up and I lost the stats. I have enjoyed knowing how many visitors have come to this site. Especially all the visitors from the different countries. Some of these countries I have been to and either lived in or traveled in.
        Hopefully I will get them reinstated, but it's not looking good at this time.

Happiness is...

        Happiness is sitting in front of the computer intently typing. A full cup of coffee sitting there beside your computer and typing the morning emails. Then watching your big cat jump over your shoulder and successfully land on the small table thus clearing the full cup of coffee. Rather gracefully I might add. He then is able to watch the birds out the window and I am still sitting here in peace loving my computer, the world and my emails.
        Happiness is getting up to an uncluttered trailer in the morning. It would have been nice if I set the timer on the coffee pot, but wanted to see if I could sleep in some.
        Happiness is getting everything done outside the trailer, the store, other errands so that you don't have to go out in the heat and can relax the day away....writing or doing other things in the trailer.
        Happiness is being loved by someone even if they live in a foreign country. So very far away.
        Happiness is being happy to be alive just one more day after open heart surgery 3 years ago next month. Also, never taking for granted the beauty of this earth that we have, no matter were we are. Being ever grateful for what we have and being satisfied with what we are given in life. I hope on a daily basis to not take these for granted myself.

COMING SOON! New Blog - Military Sea Stories!

     This new blog will contain Navy Sea Stories primarily, however all the different services will be able to post their different stories on this site. There will be rules ladies and gents on your posts. Mainly remember to keep content clean (No x rated stuff will be posted) and be respectful to the readers.

     Most of the readers are from the USA, however there are many from other countries. Perhaps some of the readers are from where some of your stories come from. Again respect will be the request of the day.  Many of us have been to other countries and had many an experience that would be wonderful to pass on. What will be prefered will be stories that inspire, can be funny and positive in nature. Naturally I will lead off with a few of my own. Look for this new blog within the next few weeks.

The drawback of living in a travel trailer

    Well there are many pluses to living in a travel trailer, but here is one minus. It never fails when you buy something no matter what it is there is always something out there that is better.  There are travel trailers that are better, bigger and have more storage space or pull outs that widen it inside. But what you buy no matter what sets up the standard of learning for you to learn. So it's a good thing. It's healthy to see something else out there as you can dream about the more space or whatever.
    Well this morning I made probably the best tasting cup of coffee I have ever had. It was cool last night outside and it was cool in as I kept the windows open. So between the coolness and the good cup of coffee it was a good morning. I hooked up the laptop and sat down to check the emails. I was highly into reading and answering the emails.  Then out of the blue the two cat's decided to play hide and seek and then chase each other (a game of tag) all over the trailer. I did not think anything of it as the cat's do this all the time. They do this at least every other day. I figure it's good exercise.
    Well I am intently working on the emails and I have two cats’ jump from over my left shoulder and land on the table. Well they upset everything. These are two big adult cats.  The coffee, which was a big cup of coffee and it, was full splashed everywhere. All over everything I had laid out. The wiring, laptop, table, cushion I was sitting on, the floor and I do not think they missed one spot. Well I needed to dust anyway. The laptop is cleaner. I had to clean everything. Not much you can do with the cushion. It was soaked.
     All you can do in this living space is bite the bullet and make sure you put more things away when you’re done with them. Like the TV remotes back on the shelf. Everything had coffee on it.  Get rid of clutter it's easier to live in a trailer without it. I am still finding places where coffee is hidden. It's on the window blinds. I tried to turn up the volume on my radio and the volume button was stuck. I had to force it to turn it up. Will need to get the q tips out and clean that too! Sheesh!

He is a Successful Man...

        This poem was given to me by Cindy a very dear friend. I have not seen or heard from her for a few years and I miss her.
I do not know where she is but she made her impact on my life
and made my life a bit better. I do not know where she got this
poem, but she told me it was one of her favorites and it's one of mine.

He is a Successful Man...

Who lives well, laughs often,
        and loves much;
Who has the respect of intelligent men,
        and the love of little children;
Who fills his niche and accomplishes
        his task;
Who leaves the world better than he has
        found it, whether by an improved poppy
        a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
Who never lacks appreciation of
        earth's beauty, or fails to express it;
Who always looks for the best in
        others and gives the best he has;
Whose life is an inspiration, and whose
        memory is a blessing to those
                he leaves behind...

The Simple Things

        I am sitting here this morning and am having a good, fresh cup of coffee. It tastes so good. I am online and have checked my email. It can't get any better than this. It reminds me of a period of my life when I was in the US Navy.
        I was stationed on the USS Ranger (CV-61) an aircraft carrier. When we would deploy it would be six months gone to sea. When we were home it would be a situation of training and we would be in for some time and gone out to sea for others.
        We deployed to the Persian Gulf for the Persian Gulf War. In the mornings at 7:00 am we would take over for the night crew. The fresh pot of coffee was made always without fail. If it wasn't you had better have a good reason and you made it at least a half hour earlier before you got off the night crew so it was made and the red light was on meaning it was done perking.
        The rituals we have. Anyway, I had the best division officer. He drank tea and I drank coffee. We would go through the ritual of fixing it and when we took the first sip he would look at me and say, "It's the simple things." He was right it was. The simple things we may take for granted but none the less they are there if we look for them.
        In a time of war you look for these moments and then remember and treasure them the rest of your life. It is the simple things that mean most in life, whether we want to believe it or not.

For my friends in Education! and everyone else!

        This post film comes from Japan. I believe you may like this one. You really do not need speakers or anything to hear it. Although if you do it will enhance the experience. Enjoy this post.

Dog on the side of the road

 
Republished from the other blog.
        Well on my way to the 7 Eleven to get a newspaper(must check the Sunday job section) I noticed this small form of a dog walking along the highway. Since I have been in both Oklahoma and Texas this is not an uncommon site to see stray dogs walking along the highway. However, this was a chi wa wa. A cute little thing. I pulled off the road and noticed him crouched in the grass on the side of the road. The cars were zooming by. I had to wonder if he would run out into the street if I approached him. He was that close to the highway. Well I called him and this little guy came right over to me. I think he was glad to be found. I do not think he liked his little adventure on the highway. I put him in the seat next to me and he just huddled into the seat. He was a cute little guy. I gave him some water in a cup and he drank that. I was glad. He seemed to be rather thirsty and hot.
        Well he had a collar and a tag. The tag had a phone number. So I called it and left a message. I am hoping he is expected home and they are eager to see him. I am not sure who he belongs to. But he is a good little dog. I brought him to the trailer and will await a call from his owner. The two cats are rather amused with him. When he goes to sleep they sneak over to get a sniff of him. When he is awake the little guy sticks up for him self by growling. The name of this dog is “Grizzly” which was found on the tag.
        I thought if he is not claimed for some reason, perhaps he would like to run around 5.25 acres of land I bought last week in Oklahoma. He could keep the critters away from the back yard. I have seen bobcats in Oklahoma. I had one run in front of my car one day and also saw freshly killed one on the side of the road. I don't know when I will be back to Oklahoma but in the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzeneger...I will be back!
        I received a call from the lady that owns the dog. I dropped the dog off. In a way I am glad. It was not fair to the cats. Even though I think they would have done fine sometime later. The lady was happy to get him back. She had children and they would have missed him as well. I am glad it all worked out for the best.
        This is the end of the story. I think the cats are glad they have the little space this dog was taking up back.

I hope this was a good story for a Sunday afternoon. 

Jasper & Rikki

 

This is republished from other blog.

        What a wonderful cat Jasper is. He is beautiful and graceful for a big cat. He is a Maine Coon cat. But his markings and fur are a different color from the regular Maine Coon. He looks like a long haired black haired cat on the outside, but when you run your hand anywhere on his body you will notice he has white fur underneath. So in between his dark hair you may see shades of grey.
        Jasper came to me in Phoenix, AZ. I had lost my previous cat to coyotes and swore I would not get another one. Pierre he was called was an indoor and outdoor cat. This is something you can't do if living in Phoenix area. Animals are lost everyday to coyotes. I even got rid of all the previous cats things. I even got rid of the cat carrier.
        I was doing a job at a high school in the summer time and kept going by this pet rescue place. As I would go by it seemed like I needed to stop. I ignored it for a couple of days, but it would call to me every-time I would go by. Then one day I said okay I will stop and see. If nothing stands out when I look around then I will leave. So I looked at all the animals. I found all the cats and low and behold Jasper looked so much like the previous cat I had lost. This cat was also a Maine Coon cat and he was the only cat out of 40 or more cats that came right up to the window and acted like he needed to get out. It was like he was greeting me. All the others would just lay there or ignore you as you looked at them. I was told that Jasper was there only two weeks. So this was about the length of time that I felt called to the animal rescue.
        As soon as he was let out of the cage he seemed so happy to be held by me and loved the new freedom he had. I could not believe someone would just get rid of this seemly well kept cat. I was told that a young family had to move to another state and could not keep the cat. Also, that his name was Jasmine. I do not know why Jasmine. Did they think this cat was a female? Or did they always want a cat named Jasmine. His name evolved to Jasper.
         Jasper is somewhat considerate. He will step his way through an obstacle course of items on a table or desk and be careful. He listens pretty good. When he is with Rikki (the other cat) he likes to play and run around with him. It seems like Rikki has more energy and is more outgoing and will run around lickity split and Jasper likes chasing him. In an RV it’s kinda funny as there is not much space for doing this.
        Rikki on the other hand is a great cat as well. He is a tiger, grey tabby. He also has a few white spots around his face and under his neck. Rikki came to me free. I was working at Dollar General for a few weeks and was talking to this lady that had a litter of cats she had to find homes for. I didn’t like Jasper staying home long hours by himself so I ended up taking a look at the litter. Rikki stood out over the litter of 5. I was glad I got him.
        Only thing I worried about was how Jasper would take to a small kitten. I was surprised, but Rikki did fine. He drove Jasper crazy at times. He would not leave Jasper alone. Rikki being the young fearless kitten that he was was able to improve his stalking skills with Jasper. He found every chance he could to jump out from behind some piece of furniture when Jasper would pass. At first it was funny to watch Jasper look at this little kitten and then kinda get up and try to ignore him like get out of my way you little pipsqeek. But then when the kitten felt to ignored he realized he could get a rise out of Jasper when he realized he had claws that he could use. Jasper didn’t have front claws. That was a good thing for this kitten.
        There were times with this kitten tearing around the living room of the apartment that seemed like he was everywhere. When you sat down he would come over and jump on your sneakers and bite and claw them. I had old sneakers on so that was alright. You would kinda ignore it and just go ahead and watch tv or reading. Then you would take a break and look around and not see the kitten around. You would wonder where he was. So you would start to get up and notice that this kitten had fallen asleep where he last was...on your sneakers. It was if he tired himself out with all the running around and then would just automatically fall asleep like a wind up toy that had just run out and stopped. It was so funny.
        How did Rikki the kitten get his name. It took a while to figure out his personality. But he is named after Rikki Ticky Tavi. I can’t remember what kind of animal RTT was. But this cat will play with something and he gets in a crazy mode. He will jump and throw it and go back and forth real quickly. He makes sudden thrusting moves. It’s so funny to watch him. That is also what the character RTT did. RTT was a squirrel like character. You have seen squirrels and how they start and stop and turn around quickly. Rikki would make fast sudden movements. So hence that is how Rikki got his name.
        I looked up Rikki Ticky Tavi and this is what I found. : Kipling's story: Rikki-Tiki-Tavi is a brave mongoose who defeats the evil cobra with a single-minded devotion to duty, persistently defending the safety of his human masters at any cost.
        There are times when both cat’s get to chasing each other and they will tear through this RV backwards from the bed area to the bathroom at the other end. They have the dining area and small kitchen to run through. This is a 25 foot Coachman travel trailer remember. Not to huge in size.
        It’s funny to watch them chase each other. They even rebound off of things. Jumping from the floor and then bounce off the back of the couch. I mean the flat front side of it. Where your back rests. Not the top. They use the back as a trampoline. Then they land on the bed. Sometimes I may be sitting on the floor or on the little couch they rebound on and instead of jumping to the bed on a rebound they will use me as their next rebound contact area. Then they land on the bed. Sometimes they surprise you. You could be reading intently then when one lands on your chest and bounces off the other since he is in hot pursuit bounces off you to. So you get a double whammy. Surprise, surprise.
        Both cats do just wonderfully in the RV. I have had good company on this trip to Odessa, Texas. 

Space the Final Frontier

 
        Well that's the title only. In small spaces space is a big thing. So if clutter is left around then it makes
for this closed feeling. So Saturdays are my get rid of clutter days and cleanup the trailers. Friday's are food shopping so far so I can focus just on what needs to be done here in the trailer.
        I have had to organize every cabinet, drawer, shelf, storage space and closet. Space is a commodity. I am kinda glad there is only me and the two cat's in here. I don't know what I would do if there was someone else around.
        This reminds me of my shipboard life. I must be getting flash backs. We would have to take advantage of all the space. Everything was space. We utilized all available space we could. So I should be an expert at this.
        My geeky nerd office in the house in Avondale, AZ was the same. I took advantage of all available space possible. At one time I had 7 computers in that room. All of them were on a network. What a geek. I had shelves everywhere for computer books. I had quite a library. I always had at least 2 computer screens on that I worked on. It was nice.
        Moving into this trailer is far more different. It's kinda an exercise of learning what to do and how to do it. I have pretty much gotten rid of most of my books. I have a few keepers here in the trailer. But for the most part I gave away the books. I must have hauled at least 8 boxes of books to the thrift shop. Aren't thrift shops wonderful? You can even get a receipt from the TS to use on your taxes for getting rid of clutter.
        What do I do without my books now. Well I figured it this way. There is a service called Safari Books online. The cheapest service is 19.99 per month. So for roughly 20 dollars a month I don't have to haul technical books around with me. They have a lot of the books I used and need online. Also, they add new books to the collection online. Which means I am getting updated technical info. I had to figure out how much I spend of these books buying them. They can be 45 - 75 dollars a piece. Then I have to store them, or carry them with me. Well for 20 dollars a month I have pretty much made my books disappear. I have perhaps 20 or so keepers with me. A lot less space carrying that one instead of 20 or so boxes of books. If I find that these books I have kept are online then I can just get rid of it.
        Also, I had six file drawers full of files that I had been carrying around for three wives and many years. I never knew when I would need some of this stuff. With the divorces you always had to prove something. Prove that you paid this or that. So I had to keep it all. So now I pretty much have digitized it all with my scanner. I threw all the paper away. I am down to one box of misc stuff that I have to figure out what to do with it. So most of the six file drawers are gone for good.
        Now all I have to do is come up with a system to digitize the new stuff that comes in that I have to keep. i can then throw all of it away. Then just live month to month and digitize that monthly.
        If it's paper I can throw this stuff away. 

Why did I take the trip to Texas?

 
        Well most people can’t believe all the changes I seem to go through, as they would never do them. That seems the main reason anyway. But it seemed the timing was right. I had bought my travel trailer and lived in it for about 5 months in Oklahoma. Everything seemed like I was ready for a change.
        One of the main reasons to move to Texas was that it was a lot closer than other places to travel that I wanted to go to. I had this Jeep Liberty and wanted to see what the advantages or limitations were. I have always had it in my heart to go back east to New England or back out west to California. But what I have before I get to either coast is the dreaded, “Mountains.” The mountain chains can change your whole trip very quickly. It will not matter if you go out of your way to get beyond them some how. There is no getting around them really.
        After taking this trip to Texas, which is, pretty much flat I realize that I will need a stronger vehicle. This rig that I have will never make it over the mountains. So this whole trip was a learning experience for me.
        When I first bought the trailer I never expected to go out of state with the travel trailer. So everything has evolved through the learning experience. So if I expect to go anywhere outside of Oklahoma and Texas then I will have to save for a V8 engine with pulling power. So I am looking at an F150 or something else. What would be the dream would be a Hummer. I just stopped to look at one this past week. Oh my gosh! Incredible! We will see later. Will have to make some real money for that. We are looking at $40,000.00 for this vehicle. Gas what it is too.
        I am sure I will learn a lot here in Texas. But will ultimately move back to Oklahoma. I bought land in Oklahoma so have something to go back to as well as some family there. Just don’t know when thought. I will work here for awhile. Am not sure if it will be just for retirement or not.
        Traveling in the trailer through Texas is fairly smooth since it is fairly flat. It’s just dealing with the heat during the summer.