Florida Trip 2010-Day 2

We are settled in at Van Hoy Family Campground in NC. We got here about 5:15 and did a self check-in. There were plenty of good sites available, but I think that they have more RVs here than when we stopped last year.

It was cold all day today, especially in the WV mountains. We are not doing either water or sewer hook-ups yet because of the low temps overnight. Maybe we can use full hook-ups in Georgia tomorrow night. The furnace and our ceramic heaters are keeping us warm in the motorhome. Our only snag today was a small one. When we were ready to leave the Marietta Super WalMart, I tried to lower the TV antenna. It wouldn't rotate so that I could crank it down into the traveling position. I guess the rain that we got last night froze in the base of the antenna. We tried to thaw it from the inside using Sue's hair dryer. No luck, so I got out the ladder and used the hair dryer on it from the outside. It only took about 30 seconds to free it up and we were on our way. It just proves that old traveler's proverb, "Never go camping without a hair dryer."

We had quesadillas for dinner tonight. It was the first time we used the quesadilla maker that we got at the charity auction earlier this month. They turned out very well, especially for our first attempt. We should have fun this winter experimenting with different ingredients.

On to Rincon, Georgia tomorrow.

Florida Trip 2010-Day 1

Well, it's only about 150 miles, but we are closer to Bonita Springs than we were this morning. We chose the same starting plan as last year. We had the car packed and all the main items in the motorhome by Saturday. Then today, we loaded the refrigerator items and the guitars with related cold sensitive stuff.

Next we attached the tow dolly and drove over to the old Gold Circle plaza to get the car on the dolly and strapped down. We then walked across the street to Burger King and had lunch. After that it was a pleasant trip to Marietta, listening to the Browns win another game.

We are spending the night in a Super WalMart parking lot, watching TV, reading, writing blogs, visiting FarmVille, etc.

Just recently we also watched a light rainfall turn into a heavier snowfall. There is a prediction of 1-3 inches by sometime tomorrow. We hope that we stay on the low side of that range.

The target location for tomorrow night is the Van Hoy Family Campground, near Harmony, NC.

KSU Time Capsule

I just read a story in today's paper that described plans to bury a time capsule on the KSU campus in 2010, the 100th anniversary of the college. There is some evidence, according to this same article, that a capsule was planned back in 1960 also, when the school was only 50 years old. But no one has found evidence of the actual burial. I wonder what may have happened? Hmmm..

(Sometime in 1969, the KSU time capsule committee (2 faculty members, 10 students) holds its annual meeting at The Loft)

"Dudes, what happenin'?" (Call meeting to order) "It's been a whole year, so has anyone remembered what we did with that backpack with all the historical s--t in it?"

"Man, how can we remember back to 1960." "That was 9 years ago." "We were only freshmen then."

"Wasn't that backpack ripped up by that drug-sniffing dog?"

"No, that was the fringe vest that the band from JB's left behind when they skipped town."

"I thought that we gave the thing to that girl, Moonflower, so she could embroider flowers on it." "Then she flunked out and joined the Peace Corps or something."

"Well, we don't seem to have made much progress in locating the capsule since last year's meeting." "Let's give it another year." "Nobody on campus really seems to care anyway." "How much difference can one year make?" "So we'll meet here again in 1970."

"Peace, dudes." (meeting adjourned) "Pass the Twinkies."

Santa found in Akron says NPR

I thought that I would share this Santa story with you. Everytime I listen to it, I see that SNL Christmas public radio sketch with Alec Baldwin.

Death By Chewing Gum

From the title of this post, you might think that choking was the explanation. Not so. According to Fox News, a chemistry student in the Ukraine died when the gum he was chewing exploded and blew off his jaw. Friends said that the young man often dipped his gum in citric acid to add flavor. This time he apparently mistook an explosive for his usual flavor enhancer.

The article did not identify the compound, but ,as a former chem teacher, my first guess would be picric acid. That stuff becomes very unstable when it has been on the shelf and dried out. I actually found a jar of it that had been around for who knows how long when we were moving our lab supplies into a new building. We had it removed and destroyed by the HAZMAT squad. As luck would have it, a Cleveland TV crew was there that day filming a story about our football team and their playoff run. They saw the HAZMAT truck and that story ended up on the evening news also. My claim to fame was being identified as "an alert science teacher".

If this student was studying chemistry, he should not have made such a deadly mistake.

The picture below shows the results of a picric acid explosion in England in 1887. This substance was used in the manufacture of dyes.


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Puppy Love

I don't know what kind of dog this is, but the pictures were so cute that I had to share them. Click on them to make them larger.

More Derbytown Chorus

Here is a video of the two songs that we performed in October for the District Contest in Lima, OH.

Derbytown Chorus on Fox 8

The Akron Derbytown Chorus appeared on the Morning Show on Fox 8 today and sang five songs during the 7:30-9:00 show. Here is one small clip that they have posted on their website. There may be more video of our performance later.

My "Rudolph" nose is actually blinking, but it's hard to see with all the studio lighting.

Charity Auction

Last night, Sue and I attended the annual Charity Auction and Dinner for Pregnancy Care of Summit County. This organization provides counseling and support for pregnant women and their families. Ray Stone, who sings lead in my barbershop quartet, has been on the Board of this group for several years. Most of the bidding is a "silent" auction but there were about a dozen live auction items also. One of those live auction items was for a performance by our quartet, sometime in the next year. As in the past, we also strolled and sang some Christmas songs while people were looking at the items for auction and placing their bids. Ah, Show Biz!!

Sue made some bids and got the two items shown below. A nice Christmas cactus that will make the trip to Florida with us and a quesadilla maker with recipe books, salsa, chips and accessories.

Pre-New Year's Resolution

Why wait until January 1? I have started a plan to simplify my life. This is what has been accomplished so far. Breathe-Right strips, which I have been wearing for years to prevent snoring, come in a box containing paper sheets that have two strips separated by a perforation. I have always taken out one at a time, leaving the odd one in the box. As of a few weeks ago, I have begun taking the whole two-strip sheet out and leaving the odd one on the shelf in the medicine cabinet. Now I only have to open the box every other day instead of daily. I can't believe how much more free time I have. I think I'll write a novel.