TO HAT OR NOT TO HAT

MAYBE IT'S TIME TO HANG UP THE OLD HAT & JUST GET A BUZZ CUT

I have never cared much for hats over the years & remained mainly hatless up until about 3 years ago when we began spending more RV time on the road. Seemed everytime I tried wearing a hat I ended up looking like some kind of nerd pickle or something & it was rare to see me under a hat. But, RVing had a way of changing all that. There are very few RV people out there who have ever seen me without a hat. Maureen from the MnMnM's http://www.adventureswithmnm.blogspot.com/ once remarked, "if you weren't wearing your hat Al you just wouldn't look right. I didn't have the heart to tell her I'm not gonna look right with or without a hat anyway!!

So, what's the deal with wearing hats for RVing & not wearing hats while back home. Well, it's all got to do with good & bad hair days. I'm one of those people with a full head of hair that has a mind of it's own. No matter what my hair looks like when I go to bed at night it does not look the same when I wake up in the morning. I don't know what goes on in the night that wrecks my head up so bad but I'll bet if I set up a web cam it would show a speeding freight train rumbling over my skull or a tornado coming in the window & dancing on my head. My hair resembles an uncontrolled explosion every morning. I look like the proverbial kid who stuck his finger in a light socket & there is no comb, brush, or garden rake, that can do anything about it either. My hair has a natural curl to it & those errant twists & turns can be downright scary in the morning's mirror. Not nice!!

Only one solution to the problem.....water, & lots of it!! My raggle taggle moppity hair is one of the reasons for my daily hot morning shower while living here in the stick house. Water & shampoo is the only way to get my head back under control again for the start of another day. Lots of water & lots of shampoo. Now, that's all fine & good when you have lots of water to work with but when boondocking out in the desert there is no such thing as lots of water.....ever!! Showers may have to be stretched out to around the 4 day mark. If I were to stray outside in those 4 or 5 days without a hat on I would scare the barbs right off the cactus, the rattles right off the rattlesnakes, & the Gila right out of the Gila Monster. I am not a pretty sight in the morning!!

There is just enough of that old long haired hippy left in me to prevent myself from getting a buzz cut but I sure have been thinking about it lately. RVing & short hair just kind of make a lot of good darn sense when ya think about it. Might not have to wear so many hats then & I could get back to just simply looking like a nerd again instead of nerd pickle...............................................:))

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WHY ISN'T A FOOTLONG.....A FOOT LONG!!!!

I ALREADY HAD A COUPLE BITES OUT OF MY "FOOTLONG" BEFORE I THOUGHT TO TAKE A PICTURE OF IT

It's never quite spring each year until I've made my annual trip to the south end of Bayfield for my foot long hot dog with the works. The Woodland Drive-In has just opened for another season & I was there at noon. And, just as in other years, I asked myself the same question. Why isn't the footlong hot dog a foot long?? To be sure, I once again measured the dog with my trusty tape measure from the glove box & sure enough it came out to 9 inches. Why is that!!!! If your going to call it a footlong hot dog then make it a foot long!! Why can't the butcher & the baker get to-gether & agree to match their products to 12 inches. What is so hard about that. Or, maybe the Drive-In should be advertising them as, "9 inchTube Steaks" or "Mini- Footlongs" or "Stretched Dogs" or "Shortened Pig in a Blanket" or "Swine in Nine!!" Or maybe they should just knock off 10 cents an inch or something.

And why is that everytime I go to put an electrical plug into a socket it is never the right way round. The fat prong is always at the smaller hole & vice versa. And since when did extension cords have to have minds of their own. No matter how straight I lay out a long extension cord, as soon as I turn my back it puts a kink in itself & the longer I'm away the more kinkier it gets!! Tangled extension cords can reduce me to tears in seconds:(( And garden hoses.....where do they get off thinking they're so smart. Try & walk anywhere with a garden hose in your hand & it's going to snag itself on something. Even if there's nothing there to snag on, it's going to snag itself anyway just to be miserable. And to add insult to injury, it will kink itself as well. I call that double jeopardy. A kink & snag!! Kinks & snags can reduce me to tears in seconds:(( And how about whenever you bend over to pick something up you have to drop it!! I call that...... pick & drop. Happens to me almost everytime & maybe three or four times in a row on a bad day. Hate when that happens. And why does the shovel, rake, or whatever long handled device you lean against a tree or something, have to fall over as soon as you turn your back. I have leaned garden rakes against things, stood there & stared at it to make sure it wouldn't fall, turned around to walk away......."clunk!!" And how come I can't hit a nail on the head like everybody else. Last week I was nailing up some old pine fence rails with 5 inch nails. No big deal except it would take me 10 swings at that nail to hit it twice. And when I did hit it, the nail would go in crooked or go flying off over the fence somewhere!! Hammers & nails can reduce me to tears in seconds:((

I do have one good thing on my side though. A darn good handy & patient wife. I was trying to put air in one of the Santa Fe's tires yesterday morning. Getting air into a tire for me has always been a major feat. I don't know why but it just has. Had the compressor going full tilt but try as I might the air just wouldn't co-operate again. Kelly walks over, picks up the hose, puts it on the valve & whoosh, all the happy little air particles merrily rush off into the tire. Same thing happened about a month ago on the ranch in Arizona when I was trying to blow up a bicycle tire. No way Jose!! Kelly comes over & whoosh, away go the little air guys again. These kinds of happenings are almost a daily occurrence at our house but instead of looking on the negative side of things & my limited abilities, I have to look on the positive side & be thankful I have a mechanically patient, calm, cool, & collected wife who understands her husband is a bit of an impatient boob when it comes to handyman things. But hey.......I'm still pretty darned good at getting stuck on lids off jars & stuff..............:))

Sorry I didn't have any better pictures than a half eaten hot dog to-day. Maybe to-morrow I'll get some clear shots of a UFO or something. And maybe one of these days I'll get enough photos to-gether to put up another web album again:))

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

A FEW SUNRISES & SUNSETS I HAVE KNOWN

Tuesday was one of those cold, damp, gray, & windy days so it was a good one for doing inside things. Hardly set foot out the door all day. Over the past few years of traveling I have taken a few sunrise & sunset photos along the way & I figured Tuesday was a good time to gather them all to-gether & work on putting the pictures into a separate photo gallery on my Smug Mug site. I have entitled the album, "A Few Sunrises & Sunsets I Have Known." The "Slideshow" button is on the upper right & when it opens you should see a film strip across the top which will go away, but before it does, look to the far left & choose a slideshow speed. I recommend "fast" or else you could be stuck in front of your monitor for awhile:)) Click the link below....................................

http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/gallery/7913561_B426M#507728670_4AUHL


We finally had ourselves a decent weather day with actual sunshine & warmer temperatures to-day. The outside water valve below our unit finally thawed out enough to turn on for another season. We have peeper frogs in our small pond out front & they sure love to get their little peepers going at night. A true sign of spring. And Robins are building nests in our carport. Lots of crocus flowers out. Ducks & Geese on the big pond across the road & Turkey Vultures are back circling on the winds overhead above the swaying pine trees. Truly the second nicest time of the year. Autumn is my favorite:))

Had an opportunity to do a little photo work for an engineering company nearby this morning. I had stopped at the work site to take some photos of the fellows digging a large hole when a man approached me & identified himself as the head engineer on the project. They had just uncovered a pipe & the engineer had forgot to bring his camera which was a 2 hour drive back to his office. It was important for them to have photos taken of that pipe before they covered it up again. I happily obliged & did a series of photos as the engineer placed markers & an identifying clipboard near the pipe. The emailed photos are already on his desk. It's always a nice feeling to be in the right place at the right time when called upon to be of assistance. I like when that happens:))

Might even be a nice enough day to clean up the motorcycle to-morrow..........:)) OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/