Another day...lost track of which one

Thursday morning dawned bright and warm...but I saw most people wearing sweaters and such.  I thought it was plenty warm in my T shirt.  We decided that it was time to do the laundry.  We had heard that we were close to Frostproof.  Avon Park is quite citified, perhaps Frostproof would be less so?   So we turned north instead of South and eventually came to Frostproof.  Yep less citified for sure, but McDonalds has wi-fi and there was a grocery and a bank nearby, as well as the laundromat.  Lori did that while I did the shopping.  She had had enough TV by the time I got back and the clothes were nearly dry so we returned to camp. We new the rules were no one was to leave between 9-4. That also means that no one can return during those hours.  We had expected that.  We had to park in the day parking lot and walk in.  I decided to carry in the laundry to the campsite.  We caught a ride on a shuttle but it still was a long walk home!  We got a bag of ice as well.  I was about tuckered out by the time we got back, not so tired that I wanted to skip the tractor pulls though.   We walked the village again and I took photos of the Model-T reassembly for the coffee folks back home.  We discovered the Home Made Ice Cream people...butter pecan bowl shared fairly equally I would say. Last night we put on a 'concert' here at the camp for our next door neighbors.  Tonight we were invited to another neighbor's because they heard us playing.  He invited a lot more folks.  We played music for a couple of hours.  It was fun and they Loved us!   I did manage to pick up the pickup and get it home as we'll.  I am having no trouble with the humidifier on the sleep machine turned off.  Florida air is plenty humid.  The truck battery has no trouble lasting the night and then some. So far I would say we are having Fun...and I enjoy the warm weather a lot!

4, I guess

We arrived in Fort Meade Fl, around noon Tuesday .  It took an hour to get set up.  The driving was not horrible, but it was almost all City Driving.  One thing for sure about Fl... There is lots of Traffic! We camped in the first row of the 'dry camp'.  In other words, no water, no electricity.  We keep getting new neighbors, but have not met anyone so far.  I am surprised that there are a few little rigs like ours.  We smaller campers are in the minority for sure!  Lots of Big Rigs.  We probably have not spent even as much as one of their payments.  They sure look neat though, Rush Limbaugh is ranting next door, but I won't hold that against them...it turns out they are pretty good folks.  They came over and listened while we played music.  Last night there was music a couple of rows over, but we didn't get around in time to join them.  It gets real dark real early and cools down after the sun goes down. Lots of tractors parked all over, only the Fords have a particular spot, the featured tractor this year.  There were vendors set up, but no one could sell anything...no drinks no food.  We drove into Avon Park to MickeyD's (where else?) for a salad supper.  We replaced our leaky cooler with a new one at Wallyworld for way less money!  I hope this one doesn't leak!  

Part 3

We drove out of Tennessee into Alabama in near blizzard conditions.  We came South just to have the same driving conditions we left in Michigan?  It certainly seemed that way!  The driving was not really bad, for a Michigan driver...just sort of discouraging. We stopped in Montgomery to visit nephew Stephen. We spent an hour with him, catching up with what is happening in his life.  His new bride Laura was out of town, so we didn't get to meet her.  Stephen gave us directions to get to Florala AL.  Lori started driving after we left Montgomery traffic behind. Alabama is a Long State!  We were already tired by the time we left Montgomery, and driving back roads made the trip seem endless.  I was navigating, and made the wrong choice on one corner.  We went about a mile the wrong direction.  Lori was all done in from driving, and had no Essential Nap!  Possibly there were snarling sounds in our truck!  Not real likely though. We turned around.  I got on the correct road and we drove on, enjoying  scenery not seen from the freeway.  We had some concern that we would be late getting into Florala.  Indeed,it was Dark by the time we arrived. But Good Luck!  I called the Lake House Bed and Breakfast, they had a room available!  Twenty minutes later we had arrived! What a beautiful place!  I had been willing to stop at any old motel at this point, but Lori really wanted to find that B&B.  I am glad we did.  We were met by the host, even though the hostess had left for the day.  He was a real pleasant fellow.  Our room was very comfortable,  with a King size bed...decorations all over, but not cluttered.  We had supper at the Huddle House.  Breakfast actually, but at supper time. We were treated to a French Toast Breakfast by our hostess Ann.  We got acquainted with the other couple who spent the night.  Vicky and Phil.  Phil plays guitar, BTW.  We walked down to the lake and looked around...very pleasant.  We drove to the campground there and it looked nice.  There were a few hardy souls camping. The temperature was about 50, cool but doable. We had hoped to camp there last night but it was late, dark, and Cold when we arrived.  Glad we found the B&B open!  Cold is relative, it would have been Warm in MI. On the road again, Lori at the wheel. She drove all the way to Tallahasee. She did great. I took a break. I drove from there to Micanopy. Stopped at the Micanopy Inn.  I believe we give that place a miss on the way home!  Not your Home away from Home!  We left early...looking for a MickeyD's and Breakfast!  Supper was at a gas station/convenience store.  But the food was super!  We split a pork dinner and still took some home for later.  We stored it in our brand new,very leaky cooler!  We will need to replace that soon..

Florida trip part 2...I think

Well, I am way behind on my Florida Trip narrative.  To day is Thursday I believe, and my last epistle was about last Friday!  To say the least, things have happened since then! Saturday morning Lori and I were on our own, still in College Grove/Arrington TN.  Don had to work and Diane needed to pick her car up from the shop.  We had heard of a Guitar Show (4 Amigo's) in Franklin at the Old Gas Stove Factory.  I thought that might be fun, so we went. Oh my, the place was packed!  We had to park at the Farmer's Market, several blocks away.  Then, it had a $15 admission fee!  Did I think that I needed to look at guitars that much!?  We went up a flight of stairs overlooking the show.  There were several thousand guitars...yes,I guess we can stand the tariff.  We browsed the two rooms for a couple of hours.  I saw several guitars needing to go home with me! Among them a 1950something Martin 35 HD.  Lori did not see anything at all that needed a new home.  We came away with money in our  Pockets. The weather was cloudy and cool, with a misty foggy moist sky.  We decided to checkout the Farmer' Market.  It was a happening place!  All kinds of stuff for sale.  Milk was $10 Gallon, steaks were awfully high priced...coffee and a donut were $3.00!  That was all we bought...both the donut and the coffee were delicious but small. We had left our drink cooler in the back of Blue Babe...evidently people who can afford $10/gallon milk are not adverse to helping themselves to someone else's stuff.  The cooler was gone...hopefully the really needed it to keep that milk cold til they got it home! Don and Diane had heard of music happening at Leiper's Fork, about 30 miles away.  Puckett Bros Grocery was the venue.  It is indeed a grocery store!  There were two acts, the musicians in both acts seemed to be related.  The headliner was Janna Hattabaugh.  She is a pretty young thing with bushels of talent...but probably will never be Famous.  Don treated us to dinner at Jason's Deli, very good, Thank you Don!  Also at Puckett's Grocery was the Dukes of Hazzard Car and Jed Clampetts Model A.  Maybe those were actually replicas, but they were the actual models of automobiles.  We wouldw like to go back there again for Open Mike night.  We returnedto the Woerner's and visited until bedtime.

the real Trip 2012

We  began our trip with a stop at Glenn's and Mary's.  We drove just two hours today.  Glenn treated us to a 'dinner out' at a mexiczn restaurant .  Mary arrived home later.  We enjoyed the visit .

Tuesday we drove the length of IN...Lori drove over 100 miles pulling the camper.  Made a couple of detours along the way, but got to the Leavenworth Inn about when we figured we would.  The Inn is a very pleasant place...comfortable bed and very nice to look at.  It was very chilly however, perhaps they were conserving energy?  Supper was at the Stephenson's Hardware...breakfast as well. We did get coffee and cookies Wednesday morning there...  I liked Stephenson's place a lot.  I think that the Stephenson people should run the Bed and Breakfast!  I was not impressed by the way Leavenworth was run at all.  Lori was pretty well satisfied however...she gave them a 5 star rating.  I would have given them a 3 at the most.

We drove to Diane's on Wednesday.  Once again Garmin let us down.  We followed the Garmin GPS directions right through downtown Nashville TN.  What a lot of Fun that was!  Then I decided another detour would would be good after we shut Garmin off (I missed the off ramp). We arrived about the time we thought we would anyway.  It did take $50 worth of fuel to drive the distance, though.Lori opted not to drive, she had her hands full interpreting Garmin.  We shut the voice off, it was just too distracting!

Thursday we spent mostly recouping from the day before.  We visited with Don and Diane, which was great.  Lori and I were on our own for lunch. We ate at 'Las Fiestas' a Mexican restaraunt we really enjoy! Of course that followed a trip to TSC in Triune.  I needed to buy a grease gun!

Friday we helped Diane get her brakes repaired.  While waiting for time to pass until Lunch  ( at Chicago Pizza in Murfreesboro ), we toured the national park at Stones River Battleground.  The highlight for me was watching a guy brush hog around the perimeter of the battlefield!  Lori is sure that should not be the main thing to see...and the cannons were kinda neat, as long as they were just sitting there.  I was disappointed that only the Union soldiers were buried in the cemetery .  The Confederate troops were buried somewhere else.  They are/were considered not to be Americans!  Politics again rears it's ugly head!

Lunch was terrific thanks Don! Chicago Pizza! We tried to not eat too much...but it was really difficult! Lori and Diane picked some Daffodils and discovered what may be an Eagle's nest!  The proper people have been informed...I am sure that we will know for sure sometime down the line.

More later...probably.

Still Here

I will admit to being somewhat tardy in my blogs lately...Or maybe it appeared that I have left the country or at least the room.  Nope I am still here but have been being lazy.  Lazy in blogging at any rate.  Perhaps the fact that my wife has retired and is now at home with me had something to with my state of mind.  That is not to say I don't enjoy having her around during the day because I do.  But sitting at the computer and typing away at some subject that catches my fancy is not what has been happening. For some reason, my life has a different structure now.

We play music, she fiddling, me singing and playing guitar, about 5 nights (days?) a week.  Occasionally we manage to make music more often.  Surprisingly, (not) I don't spend as much time ranting.  Music and ranting are mutually exclusive I believe.  Perhaps I will need to change the title of my blog to something else?   I guess not...I might need to rant or rave about one thing or another sometime.  I would not want a title like, for example, Soothing Thoughts Set to Music  to keep me from saying what is On My Mind.  Lately though, mostly music has been on my mind.

We have been having coffee with the 'gang' at McDonald's every morning.  Because I am able to express my thoughts to the folks there, I don't have the urgency to blog I once had.  There I sometimes even get to discuss things more loudly than is necessary.  Not me being loud, I am the picture of evenness and moderation, but sometimes what I say brings forth loud comments.  That really is fun.

I am going to try to put some sort of opinions and thoughts here, perhaps once a week.  I want to keep my hand in at writing a little still.

But I am Still Here! 


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Is it Possible to Rant about Reasonableness???

I have felt that there needed to be a rant (by me, others have already), about what is going on in this country right now.  Everytime I started to write about various issues facing us all, I became discouraged.  It seemed that all that I would say had been said.  I decided that health care is what it is, and will evolve in what ever direction it is blown by political winds.  There was no sense in ranting, raving, or probably even thinking about it anymore.  (It seems to me that not much will change.  The insurance companies will still hold the health of the nation in their hands).  Health care was the big issue for months and months, but is a non starter now.

Of course, taxes are a big item.  But April 15th has come and gone, and like all Americans I am not much interested after I get my refund.  So no rant about taxes and the waste of our money by our government.  It is just too late for that.

Then I read a blog by John Phipps which can be found at http://johnwphipps.blogspot.com/ .  He was talking about Epistemic Closure,  meaning being unreceptive to facts (or opinions) that don’t fit into the pre-approved worldview. { Parentheses Mine.}

One of the more striking features of the contemporary conservative movement is the extent to which it has been moving toward epistemic closure. Reality is defined by a multimedia array of interconnected and cross promoting conservative blogs, radio programs, magazines, and of course, Fox News. Whatever conflicts with that reality can be dismissed out of hand because it comes from the liberal media, and is therefore ipso facto not to be trusted. (How do you know they’re liberal? Well, they disagree with the conservative media!)  This epistemic closure can be a source of solidarity and energy, but it also renders the conservative media ecosystem fragile.

This argument was taken up both by heterodox conservatives and by liberals, who agree with the claim that Frum and Bruce Bartlett and other conservative apostates have been making: that in the era of Fox News, conservatives have effectively created their own reality which cannot be violated by outside facts. [More]




Now this I can get some dander up about!  I can rant and rave and even think (clearly I hope) about this.  This has been a problem I have noticed and been concerned about for some time.  There is no discourse between disagreeing factions in this country today.  I don't believe that the conservatives are alone to blame for this.  Too many times discussions by people who disagree devolve into calling each other stupid...for no other reason than they disagree.  


Hurling insults and disregarding any position for no other reason than it disagrees with one's preconceived notions, does not accomplish anything at all.  It just makes for causing enmity.  We do not need any more of that!  We have quite enough thank you.  


No matter how badly the other side (of any discussion or isssue) seems ill informed.  One should listen to opposing arguments.  ("you stupid so-in so is not an argument BTW, it is an opinion, even if it is true).  On occasion you can actually change another's mind, and even if that does not happen, you can see what is important to the other person.  Even when importance of an issue is nearly the same, different perspectives weigh the parts differently.  What is important to you, may only be slightly important to the other side.


I am so tired of  people shouting down opposing views, as if that makes their position correct.  It only makes them Loud, not right...and Loud is often substituted for real thought.  It also shows disrespect.  I firmly believe that if you are shouting you probably don't have anything to say.  If you did, you would say it not shout it.  


My father once said there were two kinds of people...the profound and the profane.  I believe that being profoundly profane does not make someone sound more intelligent nor does it make their arguments more sound.  Once again all it brings is Loudness to a situation that needs to be dialed down a few notches.  In fact, you can't even hear what you are saying when you are shouting.


So, if my viewpoint does not jibe with yours, don't call me stupid.  Don't say I am lying because Fox News (for example) disagrees.  Sharpen up your arguments with facts, I mean, real facts, not regurgitated Political opinion.  If I/you have a valid point there are facts that will back it up.  Use them!  


I promise to do the same!