The novelty is wearing off

Where I once set the alarm to get up and outside to see when we pulled in to a new port. I now roll over and think, I wish those engines were not so noisy while docking, I still want to sleep.

Where I once thrilled at the thought that I had a stretch class to go to at 8 every morning, it's been more than a week since I've attended.

Where I once thought it was so cool that we have this whole beautiful ship as our home, I am now spending more and more time in our room, sitting at my computer and, maybe I'm even missing our couch a little. I used to love movies - multiple times each week I would watch a movie to relax. Since we've been on board (over 2 months,) I've only watched one movie (Amelia Earhardt - it was good) and I wonder how Jeopardy is going these days. That was our norm back home, to watch Jeopardy every night.

Where I once reveled in the buffet full of fruits and veggies, I've recently taken to special-ordering from the pasta bar, and I've also succumbed to the always-available ice cream. 

In my defense - we have been busy in port after port lately: San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria, Vancouver. The travel is fantastic! And, I guess that's the main reason we're doing this right? 

Some people develop routines and then stick to those routines, making sure they get the exercise class in and eat the same breakfast, for example. I've always been anti-routine, but maybe it's time. 

This certainly is a completely new life style - I'm still learning how to adjust. 

I love the challenge! Taking it one day at a time.

So much to be Thankful For

 Today is Thanksgiving Day, 2024 and life is so good. 

Most importantly, 

I'm thankful to have Jim, and we both have our health. We've been together for 31 years now and, for all but the first few, we've worked together as well. That's a LOT of togetherness! Sure, every once in a while we get on each other's nerves, but it's surprisingly rare. He keeps me grounded, I keep him looking to the future. We laugh a lot and we both make each other's dreams come true. I couldn't do the RVing, diving, travel without him and he couldn't do our business without me.

Speaking of our Business

I am so thankful to have something I love to do that other people appreciate. Teaching and technology is my passion and there is no end to the learning/teaching that can be done. Using technology for producing videos and live streaming shows is Jim's passion. Truly a match made in heaven! To love what you do and feel that it matters how could anything be more fun?Our business, Geeks on Tour, is what keeps us on our toes. We're always thinking about what to teach, how to teach it, and how to reach those who could benefit from it. It exercises our creative juices, keeps our brains active, and makes us a little bit of money too. Our business is also a community. We've become friends with many of our Geeks on Tour members. Several of them joined us on our Hawaii cruise for Jim's 70th birthday in January, and we see many of them on group, and private, zoom calls often. 

Oh yeah - Zoom is also something I am SOO thankful for. We had been using Zoom meetings for Online Presenters Toastmasters meetings since about 2016. This meant that we were quite familiar with it by the time everyone needed it in 2020. When the pandemic shut down our Toastmasters meeting-place at Denny's, we told everyone to go home and get on their computers and we guided them thru using Zoom. It was so good that we have not gone back. Now our meetings have people from all over, not just those close enough to go to Denny's. 

Speaking of Toastmasters

Many people join Toastmasters to gain skills and advance in their careers. Jim and I just like to have an outlet to tell our stories, and we love hearing other people's stories. Our Earlybird Toastmasters club is our weekly connection to a diverse group of people who we get to know quite intimately through the medium of speaking and storytelling. I am very thankful to have this group in my life. It keeps me challenged with putting together speeches and delivering them.

Living in this house in S Florida

When the pandemic shut everything down, we were so lucky to have a wonderful house - THANKS MOM! - We stopped fulltime RVing in 2017 and made this house our home. It is a townhouse in a gated community so we can travel whenever we want, just lock the door and go. I have an office upstairs, Jim has an office (and YouTube studio) downstairs. We have large glass sliding doors from the living room to a small backyard with a hot tub. It is SO delightful. We love the weather. Yes, it can get hot, but air conditioning works well. Hurricanes have spared us for several years now. We are spoiled. 

Our backyard

I'm equally happy in my office in my other home

Financial Freedom

Both Jim and I have worked hard all our adult lives, but that's never made us much money. What we have made, we've invested well. Other than travel, we don't spend much. With the booming stock market, inheritances, this house, and now social security, we haven't had to worry about money for several years. The only fear I've ever experienced is the fear of not having any money. I am so thankful for having the freedom from that fear.

Sense of Adventure

When Jim and I first started dating, there were 3 things that got us together: 1-technology, 2-scuba diving and 3-travel. We both were passionate about all three ... and still are!! One of us suggested, in 2003, that we sell our house and live fulltime in an RV. The other said, Yes! Let's do that! And we did. When we settled down into this house and friends said, let's take a scuba diving trip to Indonesia and Bali, we said, "Let's go!" We've taken several such trips every year.

I am so glad for our sense of adventure, especially Jim's because he's the one that actually makes things happen. When I get cold feet, he forges ahead. (back to #1 thankful for Jim!) Although we actually enjoyed being home-bodies during the pandemic year of 2020, we had to have adventure in 2021. We packed the camper van and took off for nearly 3 months. 

When you're so comfortable at home there's a force field that keeps you there. It's hard to break out of the force field, but once I do it's a euphoric feeling. Freedom from daily responsibilities, excitement over what you'll see around the next bend, love for the people you meet up with along the way.  

Our Next Chapter: as we get older that force field keeping us home gets stronger, but our will to break free is also strong. We've traveled a lot these last few years, but it doesn't qualify as "The Next Chapter." I've been looking for the next chapter ever since we stopped fulltime RVing. Do you believe that life happens in 7-year segments? Well, it's been 7 years since we stopped fulltime RVing. Jim has been following Randy Cassingham's Residential Cruising blog and dreaming. He showed it to me and I immediately said, YES! that could be our next chapter. Living on a cruise ship and traveling the world! That's kind of like fulltime RVing except you don't have to drive. You also don't have to cook or clean! They have good Starlink Internet, so we could continue our work. In fact, we'd truly be Geeks on Tour again!  Here is a map of the 3 year itinerary:

BUT, it's expensive. Very expensive. We'd have to sell the house in order to buy the cruise ship cabin. Then it's still $8,000/month for all living expenses. When you consider that it covers travel - that's similar to our current living expenses. 

Do I have cold feet? Yes. See 'financial freedom!' But my sense of adventure is also strong and Jim's is stronger yet. As we get older, you gotta do things now! We have booked a one-week "try before you buy" cruise for next month. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, the thought of selling the house has us looking around and starting to get rid of clutter. That's a good thing!

12/7/24 Note: We booked a 1 week 'try-before-you-buy' cruise and we leave in 3 days. We'll pick up the ship in Jamaica, travel thru the Panama canal (again!) and leave in Panama city. Every day the pendulum swings as to whether we think buying a cabin on the Odyssey is a good idea or a bad idea. Every day Jim and I look at each other and give a 👍or a👎. It usually depends on how good we slept. 

• Slept good, feeling positive: yes, we want to travel the world and the cruise ship is by far the easiest way. $$ be damned, we can do anything as long as we're together. Our business will thrive when we are fulltime travelers again.
• Slept poorly, feeling negative: no, are we crazy? We have this beautiful home, free and clear. We can travel anywhere now, it just takes work to plan, book, and pack. What if we sell the house, move aboard, and the ship goes bankrupt and we lose everything? We'll regret it then! 

The only real problem is the money, it's clear that both Jim and I want to do it. I have said that I won't go on a cruise ship again unless I have a balcony. The balcony cabins are a LOT more expensive than the non-balcony cabins. BUT, it occurred to me (just yesterday) that if we want that lifestyle so bad, we could make do without a balcony if it meant being able to afford it. If all goes well, we could upgrade later. The screenshots below are from the Villa Vie website. The balcony cabin has a purchase price of $340K and a monthly expenses of $4k/month each. A smaller room, without a balcony, has purchase price of $169K and expenses of $2500 each. 

At $169K we could afford that without selling the house. We could have 2 homes for, say, 1 year while we learn for sure whether we like living on the Odyssey. And, a big cost factor is the monthly fee. I don't understand why, but the monthly fee for the Balcony room is a lot higher than non-balcony. $8,000/mo for the 2 of us instead of $5,000. At that rate, we could move tomorrow and sleep easy at night.

This has me excited all over again. To have this exciting new chapter AND still have financial security. YES! (I slept good last night.)

Our cabin for the 1 week is #4036, just like the "Outside Window" shown above. So, we'll be able to experience the smaller, non-balcony room and see if we can live in it. One more factor that I haven't mentioned - you can also rent an office space on deck 5. I think that costs $500/mo. How cool is that to have an office with a view on a cruise ship? 

Magic Health Elixir

Water! 

What a difference drinking makes. 

Ever since I got my apple watch, and Jim got his oura ring, we've been tracking our sleep stats. I especially look at the stats called Sleep Fuel and Readiness. When those are high I know I'm going to have a good day. We've been learning the things to do in order to get a good night's sleep. 

Stop eating, drinking at least 2 hours before bed

Get some exercise during the day, preferably later

Wind down time-do nothing for an hour before bed -meditation. TV works for me. 

So, we've been home, with nothing but a few zoom or YouTube appointments. I've been following those 3 rules above and most of my sleep stats have been good. Heart rate 68, SPO2 95-100, overall sleep rating 90-96. But my Readiness and fuel are in the caution zone. And, I'm feeling extra stiff. That first trek down the stairs is painful. (think of the cockroach man in men in black)

What am I missing?

Oh yes ... Water. So yesterday I made sure to drink plenty of water. I still had my wine, just had water as well. My stats are better this morning - 98 overall. Sleep fuel is in the green, heart rate dip is 17% (20 is really good). And I'm not as stiff/sore. 

My Readiness is still in the yellow/caution zone but it's almost to the green. I attribute that to no exercise yesterday. Readiness had something to to with recovery rate and you need to have something to recover from! 

Water is the Elixir of life!

Decisions, decisions

When the Escapade was over we found ourselves in a situation we haven't seen since our very first year of living in the road. There is nothing on our calendar until October in Florida. We could go in any direction our hearts desired, and take as long as we want.
After meeting up with Kim and Don, we were in Utah and just too close not to visit our friends in Park City.

Driveway camping at Tom and Margo's

What a view from their deck!

Lots of fires further west makes the sky so smoky

After we left Tom and Margo's we had some research to do. Were we going to go south? Monument valley is still on our list. Or do we go straight east and go across rocky mountain national park? Or can we go a little bit south and visit the brand new RV Park owned by Heath and Alyssa, then turn northeast? Once we're headed east, are we going to go all the way to the jersey shore before heading south, or turn at Missouri or Kentucky? We wanted to visit a friend in Minnesota, but that's awfully far north. We came up, roughly with 3 different routes to get from Utah to Fort Lauderdale, FL.

We needed to decide which of these 3 routes to take before we passed the blue star

The first decision point was in a little town called Duchesne, Utah (the blue star above). Going straight thru on highway 40 would lead to Rocky Mountain National park. Taking a right on highway 191 would take us to Heath and Alyssa. I decided to stop for the night in Duchesne! 

We stopped for the night in Duchesne (the blue star) to think about which direction to go

Yes, I was driving myself crazy, but I was also having fun. I love using Roadtrippers.com to play with different routes and see what's out there. It makes it oh so easy to "play what if." What if we go to monument valley, then east to Florida? What's the difference in miles if we go to rocky mountain national park, then east to new Jersey, then south to Florida?

Roadtrippers allowed me to plot each possibility, then turn them off or on to answer my what if questions. It makes it so easy. And it shows me cool things along reach route that I wouldn't know about otherwise. Like a hot springs on the west side of rocky mountain national park. We love hot springs! 

Armed with all the answers to the multitude of what if questions, Jim and I poured ourselves a glass of wine (or 2) and talked it over.

I said, it appears to boil down to seeing people, or seeing places. Jim said, unless there are other factors involved, I choose people! Ha! Decision made, we turned south-east at Duchesne in order to stay at Heath and Alyssa's property.

Bonus! 

Along the way was a national park that Don and Kim highly recommended we visit: Colorado National Monument. Wow.

And, we found a crazy place to stay the night - a Harvest Host location called Buzzard's Belly. It's located in an old ghost town called Cisco. One of Cisco's claims to fame is that the movie "Thelma and Louise" filmed some scenes there. So, we found Thelma and Louise on Amazon Prime Video and watched it. Yep, we recognized a few shots. This is one of our favorite things to do as we travel - watch movies filmed in the location.

You've heard about the middle of nowhere? We found it.

   

Packing

 When we were newly-minted full time RVers - back in 2004 - I remember having to unlearn the need to pack for travel. We would be living in our RV in a park for a few weeks, or even a month, then it would be time to move on. My brain would get busy thinking of what I needed to pack for the trip, then I'd shake my head and realize that wasn't necessary! I was taking everything, including the kitchen sink, with me. We were driving our house! 

It didn't take long to get used to that. I LOVED traveling in my house. Wherever we were was home. When we're ready to go, we just stow everything in place, turn the key and head on down the road.

Now I find myself in the opposite situation. It's time to get on the road - we are booked to give seminars at two RV rallies in Wyoming in July - and I want to just turn the key and go. 

Not so fast. 

The kitchen stays fully equipped

We keep our little camper van fully stocked with everything needed in the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. We have a full set of silverware, plates, coffee cups, wine glasses, coffee pot, and cookware that stays put in the cupboards and drawers of our Roadtrek. Toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, etc. stays put in the tiny bathroom, and a full set of bedding also stays in place. We even leave a few clothes in the closet so we can be ready to leave on a moment's notice in a hurricane evacuation or other emergency.

But, we're going to be gone for 2 months. We need more clothes. We need our computers and various technology. We need food. 

The final thing we need to consider is tasks to perform around the house to leave it ready to withstand a hurricane while we're gone. Bring items in from the backyard that could fly away. Close the shutters, make sure a neighbor has a key bring in our mail, and to keep an eye on the place. etc. etc.

We start a week or so in advance, both Jim and I set up a "staging" area where we put things as we think of them, like the couple of Baby Yoda figurines that Jim 3D printed for our friend's kids that we'll be visiting, and my coffee table Blog book that I like to use as show and tell during our seminar. Things that aren't necessary, but they're important. 

Then I start to stress out.

After this past year of covid confinement, travel has gone from being commonplace to unthinkable. What are we doing? Why are we leaving our comfortable home? What am I forgetting? Why did we say yes to Wyoming? 

I decide that we should stay the first night at a local campground, so we could go back home if we discover we forgot something. Good idea right? But, I think it just prolonged the stress. We drove the couple of miles to Easterlin Park - one of our favorites anywhere - and had a delightful night. Ahhh, our comfy, cozy camper van with all the necessities of life. We only forgot one thing - the Berkey water filter - a necessary item. Since we use it in the house as well, it's something we need to remember to take back and forth. Maybe we should just get another?

We had planned to go back to the house once before actually leaving. We left a few tasks, like closing shutters and running the dishwasher, for the morning. Now I am worrying all over again, what are we missing? Will everything be ok while we're gone? Oops, I need to run the dishwasher, but Jim wants to shut off the water - so we have to hang around for a while. More time for me to worry! We look at the weather and see a tropical storm headed for the gulf coast - just where we're heading. Should we wait a couple of days for it to pass? But, we're all ready to go. How about this - we could leave now but visit friends in N Florida for a couple of nights. But, what if the storm comes to N Florida? Decisions, decisions.

"I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure." 

Well, we got everything taken care of (I think) and we got on the road. The sound of the tires on the highway is like a lullaby - erasing all my cares. If we forgot anything now, we'll just have to do without, or find a way to buy it. All is well. We're RVing.

We ended up visiting with 2 different friends in N Florida - Nick and Terry in Edgewater, and Alex in Melrose. I'll write another post on that. Suffice it to say, we like friends with driveways!

A different kind of post - Universal Basic Income

What do you do with a travel-log blog when you're not traveling? I got tired of a daily/weekly journal of pandemic living. During this time of staying home and watching politics in an election year, I've been doing a lot of thinking and reading, so I decided to write about that.

I've been reading a lot lately about Universal Basic Income - UBI. The first I heard of it was from presidential candidate Andrew Yang. On the debate stage, he said he was going to give everyone $1,000/mo. I didn't know what he was talking about - I thought he was really rich and this was basically a bribe he was giving to get people to vote for him. Turns out that it is a simple plan for the future to eliminate extreme poverty and promote the general welfare within a capitalist/democratic system. Link to Yang proposal.  

I kept listening, and reading. What I concluded is that UBI fits well in my world view:

Freedom within structure - Capitalism with a floor and a ceiling

What is UBI?

The idea is that the government gives everyone a direct payment of money with no strings attached. Not enough money to live comfortably but enough to keep everyone out of extreme poverty. That's the "Basic" part. The "Universal" part is that everyone gets it, regardless of their current income. Rich people would get the same $1,000/mo (for example) as the poor and homeless people. The "no strings attached" means that there is no bureaucracy involved, no paperwork. No need to prove your income, no need to prove that you have children, no need to prove how you would spend it. Are you a US citizen? Are you over 18 years old? If so, $1,000 would just show up in your bank account once a month. Link to explainer video on UBI

Is UBI Socialism?

No. As Andrew Yang says, UBI is capitalism where income does not start at $0. Think about it, even a monopoly game gives all players some starting $. Capitalism is driven by people buying things. They can't buy things if they don't have any money. A universal basic income supports capitalism thriving. Link to article Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

Why do we need a UBI?

Think of a single mother in the US who needs to stay home to take care of children and maybe ailing parents, what is she supposed to do to pay rent and buy food? She will beg, borrow or steal to keep her family alive, but how healthy will they be? How distressed will she be? People who are secure in knowing they can afford basic housing, food, and clothing are healthier and more productive. A UBI would define a floor, a basic level of income that no citizen should be able to go below.

Automation is taking over more and more jobs every year. Truck drivers will be replaced with autonomous vehicles, factory workers are replaced with robots, artificial intelligence is changing the medical and legal fields. The future is leaving a lot of people behind. Other jobs will be created, but that takes retraining. How do you retrain when you need to find a job that puts food on the table?

Side note: one of my heroes is Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the geodesic dome. He was a futurist and he declared that he would never work in exchange for money. He believed that it was nonsense to expect every person to work a job, even if it was meaningless and degrading, just to make money. Link to article about Buckminster Fuller's views on work.

Will UBI take away incentive to work?

Remember, the B in UBI means basic, people still need to work for a comfortable lifestyle. In any place where UBI has been tried, hours worked went down only slightly. The cases where people didn't work were when they stayed home to take care of other family members, or they went to school to improve themselves. A UBI is Basic, people are still motivated to improve their lot, they just aren't in fear of losing the ability to eat and sleep. Experiments around the world have found that UBI did not affect employment, but did increase mental and physical well-being, reduce poverty related crime,  increase school attendance. Link to list of all UBI experiments

How much would UBI cost?

Obviously, paying every person hundreds or thousands of dollars a month will cost a LOT of money - trillions. But, maybe not as much as you think. First of all, a UBI would replace much of the current welfare programs. Also, even though rich people will get the payments, they will repay it in their taxes. And, when you consider the economic returns of giving everyone a basic income, you see that it probably more than pays for itself in the long run. People who aren't worried about food and shelter are free to be creative - they start small businesses and create jobs, they can care for themselves and stay healthy rather than get sick and need expensive healthcare. Link to cost discussion

A path to the future

I'm a Star Trek fan and I've noticed that they simply don't have money in the future. People's basic needs are met because the future is "post-scarcity." Replicators simply create food whenever you want. People work because they seek fulfillment. I read a book called Trekonomics that goes into great detail. The missing link was any explanation of how society made the transition to eliminating money. By the end of the book, I decided that money would still be important as a means of exchange, but we need some means to stop the free-fall of poverty. So, I then read the book Give People Money, which is all about Universal Basic Income. In the conclusion of the book, the author writes:

What would happen if a $1,000 check showed up in each and every American’s bank account each and every month for the rest of their lives? For the rich, not much would change. But for the poor, it would be transformative, with America’s impoverished families starting to look far more middle class. Bills would get paid, houses would get fixed up, more and better food would get eaten. Those families in deep poverty, without any cash income, would disappear.

We have a sense from studies of programs like the EITC and food stamps how the more wide-ranging effects would play out. Infants and toddlers in low-income families would be less likely to be hospitalized. They would eat more. They would literally grow more. As they got older, they would enjoy better health and better grades in reading and math. That would translate into higher earnings and better educational attainment years and decades out. As adults, they might have a lower incidence of metabolic disease. They would likely live longer.

... 

The basic income would help the chronically poor, but it would also help the tens of millions of people who find themselves intermittently in need of support. In any given year, one in three workers leave a job. Millions of others experience a family illness, an eviction, a car breaking down. Self-employment and contract work, falling benefits and rising costs—driven by worker disempowerment, wage stagnation, and high inequality—have together created a kind of precariat that overlaps and exists just below the middle class, itself shrinking. One in three families has no savings, and half would have to borrow or sell something to come up with $400 in an emergency. A safety net is a tool to prevent deprivation among some. Universal cash benefits are a tool of insurance and self-determination for all.  (from the book Give People Money) 

Is Universal Basic Income politically feasible?

Probably not. The American work ethos is deeply ingrained. When hearing about UBI for the first time, most Americans think it means paying people to be lazy. They immediately discount any politician who proposes such an idea as a socialist or communist. However, with the current Pandemic, congress has already made universal payments and are debating about more. The door has opened. 

The best chance for political viability is if it is framed as a dividend. The United States is a very rich country, everyone in the country should share in that wealth. 

Take Alaska for example, the revenue received from its oil riches go to fund the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD). The state constitution established the right of every Alaska resident to receive a dividend. Since 1982, every person has received from $400 - $2000 once each year depending on the revenues received. As you can imagine, this is a very popular program. Alaskans now consider it a right. Why shouldn't it be a right of every American to share in the profits of our corporations? Why should Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg get it all? Didn't the taxpayers who fund our highway systems, the workers who harvest our food, the truck drivers who deliver supplies, and the health workers who keep employees on the job get some credit for creating the environment for those companies to thrive? 

If it means that Bezos and Zuckerberg, Exxon and Walmart, have to pay more in taxes, I for one am fine with that. Capitalism and Democracy are the best systems ever devised for operating a country and a society except when they are left to run amok. No person should be left to free fall to homelessness, hunger and despair. There needs to be a floor. And, no person should be allowed to profit in the multiple billions of dollars without being required to contribute substantially to the rest of the people. There needs to be a ceiling. 

notes:

Nixon proposed a Basic Income Bill!

Day 24 #StayHome Our Sunday YouTube show

Sunday is a workday for us. When we do a live YouTube show, it's on Sunday at 2pm. We've been doing this for over 6 years and it's become quite a routine. It has become a blueprint my creative process.  

• I think about the lesson plan throughout the week, usually I have an idea of what topic I want to teach by Wednesday. 
• On Friday or Saturday Jim creates the YouTube show and I get serious about it. 
• I start creating the slides, I learn the details about the topic and start playing with it, coming up with demonstrations. 
• Often I write the review questions first. I think of the specific people who are learning from us and I think, "what do I want them to learn this week?" I write the questions that I want them to answer then I back up and create the lessons and the demonstrations that will help them answer those questions. "Begin with the end in mind" is my methodology. 
• Learn more about the topic myself - watching lots of YouTube, and reading help articles
• Have an outline by Saturday night
• Use Sunday morning to put finishing touches on.
• HandWrite my "script" with timing notes as 2pm is coming close and piling on the pressure
• Ready at 2

In the process I learn so much, which is really the main goal. I love to teach, but the underlying passion is learning. The best and most thorough way to learn is to teach someone else.

This week's topic had been decided at our last show - Episode 188: 3/29/20. In that episode we taught about how to get old 35mm slides into Google Photos and at the end of the show I promised that our next episode would be how to get pictures from old family photo albums into Google Photos. In the time in between, during this #StayHome time, I was noticing how much I enjoyed having our pictures showing on the big screen TV. We have it set up like a screen saver. So the TV is never off. When we're not watching some show on TV, it is playing our photos. It brings us so much joy. In addition to the living room TV, photos are displayed on the kitchen TV and several smart screens throughout the house as well.

 Memories of our travels permeate the house. 

That's what I want people to know about! So, I decided on teaching a double topic this week. Getting old family photo albums into Google Photos, AND displaying them on big screen TV with Chromecast. Yes! 

Our living room TV is always playing our photos. A picture from 3 years ago when our RV broke down - not all memories are good.

This picture of the Grand Canyon was taken just 2 days after the breakdown. One of our favorite memories!

So, I started getting out my own old albums and going thru the process. I rewatched episode 134 of our show where we taught Google PhotoScan for the first time, so I could remember the finer points. I also rewatched episode 108 where we taught Chromecast a couple years ago. I had to reacquaint myself with how that is set up, because you only do that once, and Jim set it up several years ago. But, really, what I wanted people to know is just that - you only set it up once. From then on all you do is turn the TV on, leave it on the HDMI port and there are your pictures, playing all day long. 

By Saturday night I try to have the outline and the review questions done. Then, it's in my brain and I "finish" the plan in my sleep. Honest, I do. It's so important to have the pressure of that LIVE show on Sunday at 2, for me to get it done. This Saturday night, I didn't have the questions done - but I woke up in the middle of the night with the questions in my head and wrote them down using my phone and Google Keep note-taker. Then, if I get up about 8, I still have about 5 hours to put the lesson plan together. The combination of the pressure, and the timing works so well. We may not do a show every week now, but when we do, it's on Sunday at 2. I'm wired for it!

Episode 189 - Review Questions

1. T/F To take pictures of pictures in albums, you need expensive lights. 

2. The PhotoScan app improves upon a snapshot of an old photo how?
   A. Eliminating Glare B. Straightening tilt C. Cropping to the edge of photo D. All of the above

3. With PhotoScan, eliminating glare requires extra steps, you can turn off anti-glare feature by tapping the _________ icon.

4. When your TV or smart screen is displaying random photos from selected Google Photos albums, that’s called:
   ⬜ Photo Frames ⬜Screensavers ⬜Ambient mode ⬜Slideshow

5. When your TV or smart screen is displaying random photos you control which albums show by using what app?
   ⬜Chromecast ⬜Google Home ⬜ Google Photos Android app

6. Your smart TV may already have Chromecast built in. If not, you can buy a $35 Chromecast device and plug it in to an _________ port.

Same thing for Jim. He plays with the technology all week - the sound mixing and the different video streams. This week, I wanted a camera focused on the TV in the living room and to bring that into the show, so that, after I show which buttons to press on your phone, our audience can see the effect on the TV. It's Jim's job to make that happen. So, he practices on Friday and Saturday, then freaks out on Sunday. (Sunday morning is not a good time to visit us - we're both in freak-out mode) He's added another tool to his toolbox, called Voicemeter for mixing sound. It's getting really complicated, like he's a juggler with 6 or 7 balls in the air. 

I think the show came out pretty good, except for one spot where Jim dropped a ball on sound for a minute, but at least it was at a point where we were just chatting, nothing important. He was able to edit it out after the fact without losing any content.

Bad news

Covid-19 cases in the US: 560,402  Deaths: 22,105

Good news

The emergency of this pandemic is obliterating the competitive barriers that normally exist in the scientific and technology worlds. Scientists don't care who gets the credit, as long as they find a vaccine/cure, and Apple and Google are working together!?!?!? 

Science collaboration: Scientists around the world are pooling their knowledge and resources to determine whether gene variations make people more susceptible to serious Covid-19 infection, hoping to learn why some patients’ coronavirus symptoms are quite mild while others’ are severe.

Apple and Google collaboration: Apple and Google partner on COVID-19 contact tracing technology.

An April Fool's joke?

Today is day 13 of our home isolation. It was March 19 that we had a Toastmasters club meeting that we still hoped to be at Denny's. We got to Denny's and met with Kip and Tom but Denny's would not let us stay so we brought Kip and Tom back to our house and held the meeting remotely with Zoom. 

Since then, no one other than Jim and me, has been through our door. We do go out for walks around the neighborhood and, of course, to soak in the hot tub in the back yard. And Jim went to the grocery store on March 23. Here he is getting ready to go with plastic gloves (from the sewer dumping kit in the RV) and a face mask - actually a dive hood?

We've been rearranging things in the house. I cleaned out some file drawers in my office, and Jim completely rearranged his office - getting rid of lots of stuff and turning his desk around against a different wall. He really likes the new arrangement, but now it means we need to paint another green wall.

Chris' office with a stand-up desk and a file cabinet that can actually hold new files now.

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Jim's newly rearranged office - the computer pit /video studio

My office even has enough room now that we could set up our slide projector and screen to get out all those old slides and look at them one last time. When we see a good one, I take its picture with my phone and, voila! it's in Google Photos. We think this is such a cool way to digitize photos, and a cool think to do with this isolation time, that we used it for the topic of our YouTube show, Episode 188: how to get your old slides into Google Photos.

Between walks around our beautiful neighborhood, time to rearrange and use our wonderful home, we're enjoying this #stayhome time. Jim decided he didn't even have to go to the grocery store anymore since Publix home delivery is working so well. Thank you Winston for your delivery service. Winston is the name of the young man who took on the gig of shopping for whatever you put on your online Publix shopping list, and driving it over to our house and dropping it off.  I even have my own private chef. Jim is such a good cook, and he actually enjoys it. So, all I have to do is sit back and tell him when I'm hungry - within the hour I have a delicious, healthy meal in front of me. I throw together an occasional salad, or cut up butternut squash to put in the air fryer.

Can life get any better?

Well, except for the people dying that is.

We watch the news and see field hospitals set up in New York's central park. I hear from my Italian friend, Paolo, that the local paper's obituaries take up over a dozen pages when the norm was less than one page. An assisted living facility just down the street has reported 4 deaths. This is the facility where Mom spent her first 5 years in an ALF. She's in another one now, and they are in lock-down mode. We hear from RVTravel.com that a friend, a fellow seminar presenter, Gary Bunzer, is in critical condition with Covid-19 and is in a Seattle area ICU. Gary is a bit younger than us (I think) and has always look quite fit.

According to the CDC, COVID-19 cases in the USA on March 19 (when we started our lockdown) numbered 15,291. As of March 30, that number is 165,539. On March 19, the death toll was 150, today it is 4,079 according to Our World in Data.
This is catastrophe. The zombie apocalypse come to life. The world is experiencing the medical disaster envisioned in the movie "Outbreak." It is an unthinkable horror, the end of the world as we know it.

So, how is it possible that life can be so good for us? We are lucky indeed, but it feels like more than that. It is surreal. It's an episode of the Twilight Zone. How can the world be in such danger when the flowers are blooming and the sun is shining? Don't they know it's the end of the world? (thank-you BeckyJo for this reference)
Maybe it's the 2020 version of War of the Worlds? Maybe when we wake up tomorrow, April 2, we will discover that it's all been some cruel April Fool's joke? One can only hope.

Meanwhile we can't panic. The most important thing we can do is to follow the guidelines for "social distancing" so we don't get infected, and don't infect others. If possible, enjoy yourself, spread loving thoughts. My favorite meme from this has been:

Our parents were asked to go to war. We're being asked to stay home on the couch.

We got this. 

Thinking about our Business

People love the logo on our t-shirts: Geeks on Tour. It's a rare waitress/waiter that doesn't ask us about it. "What is Geeks on Tour?"
Well, it's our business. We're Geeks, and we tour the country teaching technology to other travelers. "Cool," they say. "What exactly do you teach?" Well, we started traveling in a motorhome in 2003 and saw the need for fellow travelers to understand technology. We've both been computer professionals since 1983, teaching people how to use their computers, but now it's almost all about smartphones and tablets. Google Photos is our real specialty, it's the best way to manage all those thousands of photos we take these days.
By this point one of two things is happening:

1. Their eyes are starting to glaze over and they just want to know if we're going to be ordering dessert.
   or
2. They're getting out their phone and want to ask us some questions about a problem they're having, and they're full of questions about our lifestyle

Our business is hard to describe because it is uniquely ours. We never designed exactly what the business was, we just kept evolving.
People who do know our business often don't get us. Some think we only teach newbies how to turn it on, what is a text message, how to send an email - real beginner stuff. Others assume we are experts and can troubleshoot any problem they're having with their device. Neither is correct. We get quite a bit more advanced than for beginners, and, although we're pretty good at troubleshooting problems, that's not our focus.

We are Geeks Who Teach. We don't wait for people to ask us questions, we come up with lessons meant to teach concepts about these devices and help people continually get better at using their phones and tablets. We have a specialty in Google Photos and teaching people about taking great photos with their phones and then what to do with them. We teach on our website. Our travels around the country are more for promoting our website. We make our living from people subscribing to the website.

• We are not for everyone. We don't teach business applications, just the fun stuff like pictures and maps. We used to say we teach how to Plan, Preserve, and Share your travels. But, you don't have to be a traveler to want to learn this stuff. 
• We are for people who really like to learn. They think these devices are fascinating and they want to know all they can. Not just how to do the basics, and not just how to fix specific problems. We find our biggest fans are other teachers. They understand. Teachers like learning! That's why we do it - our passion is learning. The best way to learn is to teach.
• We are not for young folks, they don't think smartphones are fascinating - they just are! They are digital natives who don't question what to do with them, they just dive in.

Anyway, we've been thinking about how to impart all of that in some simple card. Here's what we've come up with, let us know what you think. This is two sides of a "Rack Card" (what I'm holding in the photo above) designed using Canva.com.

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We're Downsizing

From this 37 foot, diesel,Gulfstream Endura 2007  Super-C motorhome with 2 large slides. To this 21 foot, Roadtrek 210 Popular 2011 gas camper van with no slides

We did it!

And Sunshine State RVs in Gainesville, Florida made it so easy. What we expected to be a 2 month process took 2 days! It helped that we had seen the recommendation by  Mike Wendland of Roadtreking.com. He did a Facebook Live report from Sunshine State RVs a few months back. At the time, we put that on our list as the first choice for buying a Roadtrek. We also heard glowing reviews from people we know in the Florida chapter of Roadtrek International. So, when they had the model we were looking for, and they would take our old motorhome in trade, all we had to do was write a check and clean out the old rig. It also helped that they treated us like royalty. They didn’t know we were coming, we’d never spoken to them before, but when we walked in the door and Sheila greeted us, she noticed the Geeks on Tour cap and asked, “Are you THE Geeks on Tour?!” Then Nick chimed in, telling us that Sheila is their resident geek, and she talks about us all the time. They had us at Hello! We were hooked on Sunshine State RVs! Flattery will get you everywhere!

The cleaning out is what took up the 2 days! That was work. But, it’s all done now and we have our new (to us) Roadtrek parked in our spot at our townhouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. That was the number 1 reason for the move. We want to spend part of the year living in that townhouse, and there is no place to park a big rig. Once we found a storage lot for $200/month. Next time we needed it, even that wasn’t available. With the Roadtrek parked right outside our door, we’ll be able to take off on a moment’s notice.

How can you fit all your stuff in that tiny RV?

First of all, we won’t. That’s what the townhouse is for. Now that we are not fulltime RVers, we don’t need to carry everything we own with us. We will still be spending 1, 2, or even 3 months in the camper at a stretch – but that’s still a much different thing than fulltime. We are entering a new chapter. We aren’t living on the road. We are adopting a new attitude … we’re camping. We will be going to work at the various rallies around the country. We will be able to get there faster in the Roadtrek. Instead of our normal 200 miles/day, we should be comfortable with 400. Both of us will be able to drive. Only Jim drove the big rig.
Second of all, you’d be amazed at how well designed the Roadtreks are. There is a place for everything you need. If you’re familiar with the Harry Potter stories, it’s like Hermione’s endless purse. When you open the door and go inside, you feel the magic of entering another world. We don’t feel claustrophobic, we feel cozy. There is a pull out counter/desk that can be used with the driver’s seat turned around – Jim’s office.


And, in the back, there is a table that can be put up in front of the couch; Chris’ office. At night, the table becomes the base for making the couch into a queen size bed. It’s just a push button to put the couch down. Or, if we want to leave it as a bed, Chris just uses a lapdesk.


And, yes, it has a bathroom. It’s behind that mirrored door on the left in the photo above. It’s tiny but functional.
       

Oh the Places You’ll Go!

We are so thoroughly jazzed by all the possibilities that are opening up to us by traveling in this small rig.

• We can go to National Forests, and county parks that don’t have big sites.
• We can explore a possible campsite without knowing what’s there. Realize that, in a big rig, you need to know how to get out of a place before you can venture in!
• We can look at each other on a Friday afternoon and say, let’s go to a Florida State park this weekend, grab the keys and go.
• We can even say, “Let’s take the Roadtrek down to the beach and cook dinner there tonight.”
• We can explore that dirt road on public property and just pull off for the night.
• We can camp at friends’ with smaller driveways!

So much less stress in a small rig. It will be our second car when we’re home.
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What Does This Button Do?

What is wrong with this seminar?

This week we were invited to be the featured speaker at a Roadtrek rally. Roadtrek are the top of the line camper vans. People who travel in them like to get together. That's a Roadtrek rally.

Our big rig looks like a mama duck and her flock of little Roadtreks!

We've presented seminars at these Roadtrek rallies many times and this time they gave us a whole day of their schedule. That's a first! You look at the schedule of rally events and, on Tuesday it just said 9-4: Geeks on Tour.  We used the morning to present our seminar called Technology for Travelers, and Google Photos. Then we took all afternoon to teach What Does This Button Do, a Primer on Using Smartphones and Tablets.

With all afternoon to  present a seminar we often have to squeeze into an hour, you'd think I'd feel like we really covered the waterfront, but it was the opposite. At the end of the day as I'm reviewing in my mind, all I could think of was all the stuff we didn't teach. "Oh, darn! I didn't show them xx. Or yy, Or zz. They spent all day with us, and they didn't learn about __________"

You see, we teach a weekly class via YouTube called What Does This Button Do and we're on episode 106. I think I want to cram all 100 hours of that show into our seminar. Obviously that's not possible, so maybe the focus of our seminar should be showing people how to find topics in our archives of online shows?  I was especially distressed on Tuesday night that we didn't show examples of that show. There were many people in the audience who had never seen us before and after spending all day with us, they still didn't know about our weekly show? 

Ok, so I should redesign the seminar to focus on excerpts from the show and teach them how to find their desired topic in the archives, right? 

No, people come to a live presentation to see, you know, a live presentation? Not a bunch of recorded clips. We need both.

1. Acquaint the audience with our show,
2. teach them some good stuff in the live presentation. 
3. this needs to fit in a one hour time slot because, sometime, that's all we get. 

And, our audience is of various levels. I don't want to talk over the heads of the rank beginners. I also don't want the more advanced folks to be bored.

Back to the drawing board. I change the class nearly every time we teach. 

p.s. I spent nearly 3 days re-writing the seminar handout. Take a look here: goo.gl/LAri0L

Lifestyle Confusion

In 2003 we sold our house in Fort Lauderdale and took to the road. We lived in a 30 ft, no slides, class C motorhome for 8 years solid and fully embraced the lifestyle of a Fulltime RVer.

I remember the ecstasy of having no ties .... We met up with my Dad and his girlfriend at a campground in Arkansas - see blog post here. He has always been a camper - probably most of where I get it from - and it was fun to meet up on the road. They had to go back home after our camping visit. We got to Keep On Going!  Here's what I wrote:

That's what I so love about full-time RVing. You get to keep on goin'. I've had lots of wonderful vacations in my life. But, they always ended. You always had to go back. Like having an invisible leash that would let you go far, but always reels you back in the end. I have this urge to keep on goin'. The total freedom is what appeals to me. Back on the road ...

This was back in 2006 - about 3 years into our Fulltime RVing lifestyle and I was still reveling in the experience of total freedom. Little by little, we accumulated obligations here and there. It was good, it was how we made our living - going to RV rallies at different places around the country.

In 2011, we upgraded to a larger RV. Added some custom furniture, and started working harder at presenting seminars at RV Rallies. We were still Fulltime RVers, but it was much more of a working lifestyle than travel/vacation, the rallies dictated our itinerary. My mom, in Fort Lauderdale, also needed me more - so we always had to come "home" to Fort Lauderdale when we weren't otherwise scheduled.

Luckily, we LOVE Fort Lauderdale. The old adage, "Travel the World, Find Happiness in your own Backyard" fit my sentiments just fine. Life changes. Both Jim and I are good at going with the flow. Since Mom is in assisted living now, we are staying in her townhouse when we're in town, and putting the motorhome in storage.

We've been doing that for the last year - a few days here, a week or two there. This time we've been here for just over two months, and we've settled in. We have a master bedroom and bath and a Walk In Closet!! We've gotten spoiled. We even bought a hot tub and put it in the backyard.

There is a second bedroom where Jim has set up all our studio lights, backdrops, computers and sound equipment for delivering our weekly online teaching. What a treat not to have to take it down every time like we do when we're in the RV.

We've also been settled in enough to take care of ourselves. Jim has been doing all the cooking, forcing us to eat right - and losing weight. I've pushed for walking and we have a beautiful circle tour path in this neighborhood.

Now we're getting ready to hit the road again in order to get to the Escapade in Vermont at the end of July. We're excited. We spent this morning at the RV cleaning up a bit and thinking about what we need to bring over. When I walked in the door of the motorhome, I felt so at home. But, when we finished and came back to the townhouse, I feel at home there too!

What a concept. Two homes! My identity has been so wrapped up in being a "Fulltime RVer" that I'm not sure what to do with this new status.

But I like it!

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