We left Santee mid-morning with the temperature at 80⁰. Here’s an interesting aside: the temperature was also 80⁰ when we arrived back at the start of November. Most of the winter was much cooler and a lot of rain. As we drove North towards LA the temp started rising and capped at 93⁰. When we finally got to Acton it was at 83⁰. We hate setting up in hot temperatures; so we do the minimum and wait for the shade before completing hook-ups.
We had diesel mileage per gallon at 11.7 after 5 months of in town driving. Just towing 170 miles to Acton reduced that to 11.2. With the price at $4.399, this summer’s tour will be pricey!
Store seen along the way:
Thrift shop “One Man’s Trash”
Friday, April 1, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Book Reviews - Santee Lakes, CA
Since we have a lot of time to read – what a joy that is!!!! Quiet and no worries about work to distract focus from the plot. We scour thrift shops, used book stores and even pay full discounted price for paperbacks at CostCo. Luckily, in Santee, CA the library had a used book retail section that sold books for as low as $0.75. And, on Fridays even those were half-price. Needless to say we picked up a lot there. Occasionally, we meet like-minded readers in the RV parks and exchange our “read” for “unread” with other campers; getting introduced to “new” authors along the way.
Over the years, Boots has maintained a 4-page list of books/authors we are still looking to read – that doesn’t include any of the classics or factual books we throw into the mix on a regular basis. We store the library under our bed. As time has gone on, we are weeding out other stuff to allow for more space for our books.
So, we thought we’d include some reviews that might interest you in reading some authors you might not have tried before or like in the case of Anna Karenina some classic that you might want to skip.
Stieg Larrson’s trilogy: Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Girl Who Played With Fire, and Girl Who kicked The Hornet’s Nest.
Even though we haven’t finished the 3rd book of the series, the author had us hooked in the first few sentences. He is very good at the story telling part and the main character’s story is amazing. These are not easy books to read, in that the main character has a hard life and even harder response.
The mystery and dialogue keeps the reader wanting more. Conversations, meals, dog walks, etc. etc. etc. are ignored for the hours it takes to finish a book. Really, we craved each page and then the next book. We had mistakenly bought the Girl Who Played With Fire first. As soon as Ruthi read the first page, it was clear there was an earlier book. So, we went off to CostCo to get Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. That was how good the author was at hooking you immediately.
We have been looking for the paperback version of the 3rd book both because of price and ease of reading. Except for the outrageous price (and size, for that matter) of the paperback large print version, only hardbacks were available. In one used book store, we did find a European English version of the 2nd book in paperback. Ruthi’s sister, Betty, is sending her copy for us to read – YEA! So, now, we await Girl Who kicked The Hornet’s Nest in the mail, to finish the trilogy.
Unfortunately, the author has passed away. While there is reportedly another book by him near completion, we think this may be all there is. The 3 books have been made into Swedish movies, we think only the 1st one is an American film – none of which we have seen yet.
Why Boots didn’t like Anna Karenina: While it was interesting to read the history of Russia during that period, the character of Anna was incredible annoying. It was difficult to sympathize with her and Boots was relieved when Anna finally killed herself. Whereas; Boots found the Levin/Kitty love story to be much more appealing. She thought Levin was the most admirable character in the book. An aside, the characters addressed each other by their full names and the wives took the husband’s name and added an “a” at the end. Anna married Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin and became Anna Karenina.
Over the years, Boots has maintained a 4-page list of books/authors we are still looking to read – that doesn’t include any of the classics or factual books we throw into the mix on a regular basis. We store the library under our bed. As time has gone on, we are weeding out other stuff to allow for more space for our books.
So, we thought we’d include some reviews that might interest you in reading some authors you might not have tried before or like in the case of Anna Karenina some classic that you might want to skip.
Stieg Larrson’s trilogy: Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Girl Who Played With Fire, and Girl Who kicked The Hornet’s Nest.
Even though we haven’t finished the 3rd book of the series, the author had us hooked in the first few sentences. He is very good at the story telling part and the main character’s story is amazing. These are not easy books to read, in that the main character has a hard life and even harder response.
The mystery and dialogue keeps the reader wanting more. Conversations, meals, dog walks, etc. etc. etc. are ignored for the hours it takes to finish a book. Really, we craved each page and then the next book. We had mistakenly bought the Girl Who Played With Fire first. As soon as Ruthi read the first page, it was clear there was an earlier book. So, we went off to CostCo to get Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. That was how good the author was at hooking you immediately.
We have been looking for the paperback version of the 3rd book both because of price and ease of reading. Except for the outrageous price (and size, for that matter) of the paperback large print version, only hardbacks were available. In one used book store, we did find a European English version of the 2nd book in paperback. Ruthi’s sister, Betty, is sending her copy for us to read – YEA! So, now, we await Girl Who kicked The Hornet’s Nest in the mail, to finish the trilogy.
Unfortunately, the author has passed away. While there is reportedly another book by him near completion, we think this may be all there is. The 3 books have been made into Swedish movies, we think only the 1st one is an American film – none of which we have seen yet.
Why Boots didn’t like Anna Karenina: While it was interesting to read the history of Russia during that period, the character of Anna was incredible annoying. It was difficult to sympathize with her and Boots was relieved when Anna finally killed herself. Whereas; Boots found the Levin/Kitty love story to be much more appealing. She thought Levin was the most admirable character in the book. An aside, the characters addressed each other by their full names and the wives took the husband’s name and added an “a” at the end. Anna married Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin and became Anna Karenina.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Laundry - Santee Lakes, CA
Laundry is one of the challenges of full-time RVing. While some rigs do have their own washer/dryer combination, we opted not to do that. Sometimes the campsites do not allow that amount of water/power consumptions. The RV machines are combinations and do small loads rather inefficiently with respect to resources. The dryer part can usually take a very long time compared to regular machines. So, we have traded off that convenience for conservation.
Most campground facilities are relatively inexpensive ($1.25 wash/$1 dry) and conveniently located throughout the camp. The biggest negative is that other patrons do not always know how to wash; or dry for that matter. Too much softener in the machine carries over to the next few loads. If there isn’t a lot of usage for a particular machine the standing water (that which has not been totally drained) will be stale at best; stagnant at worse.
Ruthi will be sniffing her way from machine to machine selecting the best. Luckily, we do not have much in the way of laundry 1 load a week at most. We have separated the collection bags (hot water verses cold water) and minimized any color-running items (i.e., no more “red” sweatshirts that make all “whites” into “pinks”). Then there is the water quality. Some rustic campgrounds have their own water that is rich in hard minerals.
This wouldn’t be a problem if the campground had informed us of the situation but they didn’t (buyer beware). So, after ruining a few of Boots’ shirts (favorite, of course), we asked about the water and were informed that the iron content was pretty high. So, we were off to the town Laundromat from then on. Why couldn’t they have just mentioned it? It’s not like they are making a fortune off the 4 machines (2 washers, 2 dryers) they have in the room.
Most campground facilities are relatively inexpensive ($1.25 wash/$1 dry) and conveniently located throughout the camp. The biggest negative is that other patrons do not always know how to wash; or dry for that matter. Too much softener in the machine carries over to the next few loads. If there isn’t a lot of usage for a particular machine the standing water (that which has not been totally drained) will be stale at best; stagnant at worse.
Ruthi will be sniffing her way from machine to machine selecting the best. Luckily, we do not have much in the way of laundry 1 load a week at most. We have separated the collection bags (hot water verses cold water) and minimized any color-running items (i.e., no more “red” sweatshirts that make all “whites” into “pinks”). Then there is the water quality. Some rustic campgrounds have their own water that is rich in hard minerals.
This wouldn’t be a problem if the campground had informed us of the situation but they didn’t (buyer beware). So, after ruining a few of Boots’ shirts (favorite, of course), we asked about the water and were informed that the iron content was pretty high. So, we were off to the town Laundromat from then on. Why couldn’t they have just mentioned it? It’s not like they are making a fortune off the 4 machines (2 washers, 2 dryers) they have in the room.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Ruthi to Alaska - Santee Lakes, CA
Gaven was 3+ weeks premature. Even though he had a good weight/length he was transfered from the Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) to Providence hospitals' NICU (Natal Intensive Care Unit). No major problems just the usual for premature lungs. He, the baby, fixed it by himself with time to finish development outside the womb.
Ruthi went up (as soon as she could get flights) to support Kassie/Sonny/Gaven. She stayed until the baby was back home for a week. So, all is well and mommy can’t take her eyes off him. She’s an artist and believes this to be the best creation she’s made. Let’s see what she says when he’s a teenager.
Ruthi went up (as soon as she could get flights) to support Kassie/Sonny/Gaven. She stayed until the baby was back home for a week. So, all is well and mommy can’t take her eyes off him. She’s an artist and believes this to be the best creation she’s made. Let’s see what she says when he’s a teenager.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Gaven's Entrance - Santee Lakes, CA
Kashmere (our oldest grand-daughter) and her partner Sonny Nelson had a baby boy, Gaven David Nelson. He arrived at 5:05pm local time (AK), weighed in at 7 lbs 7.2 oz and is 20.5 inches long.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
MAI - Santee Lakes, CA
Muffler and Associates, Inc. (MAI), Ruthi’s project management consulting company is a Registered Education Provider (R.E.P. – which is a Project Management Institute designation for training project management classes). As a result, Ruthi has access to a lot of RFPs (Requests for Proposals) for trainers. With the end of her DoD contract, Ruthi has been responding to some of them (12 last Fall and 4 so far this year). Even though there aren’t any contracts yet, she has established some contacts here in the lower 48 states and is hopeful of work coming down the path.
Ruthi with the able assistance from an old Alaskan friend’s audio/video company (Perfectly Made, Inc.) is creating a web-based class to sell to individuals (or companies) from the MAI web site (MAI-PMC.COM). Just the process with the engineer helps Ruthi to better organize the delivery of the material. Once the practice runs are completed, the voice recording will be accomplished in a “real” studio to avoid the sounds associated with the RV location (Karma barking, Boots’ phone ringing, etc.). So, Ruthi is busy writing the script to minimize the “ums” and “duhs” breaks in the delivery.
Ruthi with the able assistance from an old Alaskan friend’s audio/video company (Perfectly Made, Inc.) is creating a web-based class to sell to individuals (or companies) from the MAI web site (MAI-PMC.COM). Just the process with the engineer helps Ruthi to better organize the delivery of the material. Once the practice runs are completed, the voice recording will be accomplished in a “real” studio to avoid the sounds associated with the RV location (Karma barking, Boots’ phone ringing, etc.). So, Ruthi is busy writing the script to minimize the “ums” and “duhs” breaks in the delivery.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Early Medicare - Santee Lakes, CA
Just a note for those others turning 65 in the near future - The new Health Care legislation seems to have added a benefit that Ruthi just sort of fell into – A sister-in-law of hers turned 65 last year but couldn’t get Medicare until the month of her 65th birthday; just like for Boots a couple of years ago. But when Ruthi started her Social Security application in the Fall of 2009 for a January 2011 start (her 65th birthday is this month), they told her she could sign up for Medicare up to 6 months early with no pre-conditions, etc. etc. etc. So, you might keep that in mind for all of you others reaching 65 in the near future. If you aren’t insured now you can get Medicare early. And some people want to repeal the Health Care Reform Act!
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