Merry Christmas

On the Jetties at Port Everglades, many people gather to view the cruise
ships going by.  This is the Allure of the Seas, the largest of all the ships.
It was Christmas Day, complete with Santa Claus!

We had a very odd day for Christmas, but - all in all, I'd call it quite special.  Both Jim and I had caught colds.  I was on the downhill slide, but he was still in the thick of being sick.  We were supposed to pick up my Mom and his Dad and drive up to his sister's house in West Palm.  Although we could have taken an Alka Seltzer Plus and felt ok enough to go, I didn't want our gift to everyone to be a cold! So, we called and cancelled and went back to bed.
When we did finally get up, we decided to watch a movie.  We had a Netflix DVD that had been hanging around for a couple weeks with no time to watch it.  The movie was 'The King's Speech' - wow!  it deserves all the accolades and awards it got last year, it really was a great movie.  And a 'feel-good' movie too.  I love movies.  I think it is my favorite treat to stay home and watch a good movie with my sweetie. So, even though we were sick, I was feeling pretty good.
By the time the movie was over, we were fully awake and took advantage of the time to go over some business stuff that we also haven't had any time for.  We are giving our seminars to a whole new audience next month.  We are booked for the Florida Association of Computer User Groups (FACUG) annual conference on board a cruise ship.  We will be presenting two topics: Picasa, and Smart Phones.  We've given our Picasa seminar hundreds of times but the smartphone seminar is new and I think it has potential for being very popular.  So Jim and I reviewed our materials and made a couple of important decisions on how we will present it.  Then we went thru the steps of our new 'coaching call' service for our members, decided it was in working order and sent out an email to a select test group of our members.  I'm excited about this one - we'll be making solid one-to-one connections with our members.
By then, Jim was fading, so I turned my attention to Odie.  We have been fighting fleas for several weeks (to no avail), and it was time to give Odie another flea bath.  I'm beginning to believe what I read on the Internet that the only way to get rid of fleas is by detonating a nuclear warhead! ... but we gotta keep trying.
Jim needed to go back to bed, and I decided I felt good enough to go get Mom and take her for one of her favorite things - a walk on the beach.  I decided to go to a different place than normal - down by the jetties at Port Everglades.  This was a favorite place of mine growing up here in Fort Lauderdale.  I'd walk the beach then climb out on the rocks and meditate on the meaning of life as the boats went in and out of the channel.  It's sad that Mom has no clue where she is - she should know those jetties like the back of her hand after having gone in and out of the inlet on boats all her life.  When we got there, she said "isn't it interesting how these big rocks are piled up here."  That's what alzheimers has done to her.

However - you gotta look at the bright side.  She really enjoyed herself!  Every experience is a brand new experience and she almost has that wide-eyed wonder of a child.  Luckily she is still quite physically fit, so walking on the beach or in a wooded park is no problem and she loves it.  It felt so good to share this with her.  I didn't even think about the cruise ships going by, but we happened to be there when the Allure of the Seas departed.  This is the biggest cruise ship ever constructed and it was quite a sight. On the way home we stopped at the Blue Fish bar and restaurant for a glass of wine and cup of lobster bisque - delicious.  When I dropped her off at her assisted-living home, we hugged real tight - sharing a nothing-held-back loving moment.
When I got home, Jim was up.  We decided to watch another movie - using Netflix instant streaming option this time.  Jim has one computer hooked up to display thru our big screen TV and sound thru the stereo system.  We chose 'Secretariat' - another wonderful, feel-good, inspiring movie.
Sometimes the nicest things happen when plans fall thru.

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Down the Rabbit Hole

October 5, 1839: Jasper H. Noyes was born.  His father was Bethuel Noyes, one of the pioneer settlers of Michigan.  Jasper had a son, Charles, and Charles married Mae Manning and had 3 sons Jasper M, Edward, and Francis.  Edward Noyes was my grandfather.
Zella Carter was the daughter of Jim B. Carter and Bessie Snow.  She was born October 11, 1905.  Zella is my grandmother.
Ed and Zella had a baby girl on July 7, 1931 and they named her Marilyn.  That's my Mom.

How do I know all this?  Because I'm cleaning out my Mom's house (she's living in an assisted living facility now) and going thru all sorts of old files, folders, letters, and pictures.  I have truly fallen down the rabbit hole, and I don't know when I'l be back.

I have never been interested in genealogy, and I hope I don't start now!  But, I can see that it would be easy get hooked.  My original plan was to toss everything - I surely have no *need* for my mother's wedding announcement.  When I just couldn't bring myself to do that I thought, ok, I'll box the stuff up and put it in storage.
For who?  When?

One of my finds at moms house. Her wedding announcement. This is from the Detroit yacht club magazine from march 1951

I decided that there's no time like the present so I'm staying at her old house and immersing myself.  Sometimes I'm watching her videos of travel to Antarctica or China or Indonesia or Africa.  Sometimes I'm reading thru old journals ... I found one that I thought was my Mom's writing, but it turned out to be my grandmother's and it was a 1976 trip journal from when she and my grandfather took a camper van and traveled these United States!!  Talk about RVing being 'in my blood.!'  She even writes that one of the highlights of her trip was Bellingrath Gardens in Alabama.  If you've ever attended our Google Earth seminar, you may have heard our story about using Google Earth to decide whether or not to go to Bellingrath Gardens!  As it turned out, we didn't go - now I have to go back!

I also found correspondence with my grandmother just before she died.  She apparently was trying to locate my real father (Richard Andrews of Dearborn, Michigan) who I never met since they split when I was two.  I am still determined not to play with genealogy!  I'm already down the rabbit hole - I don't want to go thru the looking glass too!

I know genealogy is a good computer topic, but I have enough on my plate right now with Facebook, and then Picasa coming out with a new version, and both Picasa and Blogger becoming part of Google Plus.  This experience has given me some fodder for more Picasa articles though ... like The Easy Way to Scan Slides

This morning Jim picked me up and then we also picked Mom up and went out to breakfast.  I so wish I could show her these things and ask her questions.  But she doesn't remember any of it ... and it would just confuse - and maybe upset - her to show her the pictures and documents.  I did enjoy giving her a nice big hug though!  I know she's had quite the amazing life and I'm enjoying learning even more.

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Lessons Learned

When you live in a house on wheels, it is good to roll occasionally.  More on that later.

Our generator stopped starting sometime late in our summer tour.  It had been working fine.  I knew that generators like to be used, so we exercised it regularly.  One day, it just wouldn't stay running.  I discussed the problem with fellow RVers and we all agreed it sounded like a fuel problem.  There are lights on the generator that indicate source of the problem, once decoded.  The lights said it was an electrical issue.  Who you gonna believe?  Knowledgeable RVers, or a stupid blinking light? 

We were on our way to the FMCA rally in Madison.  One of the great things about rallies is the opportunity to get service from the many vendors.  Onan/Cummins was there with technicians and parts and everything.  We were so busy presenting seminars, we did 11 different ones, I was too late to get any work done.  So I got some literature and we went on to the Escapade in Wyoming with the intention to have the generator looked at during that part of the trip.

Procrastination is one of my better traits, when I finally get around to procrastinating.

Well, I finally had an RV mechanic look at the generator.  He recommended I take it to Don Hillman for service, as he was reluctant to do the work himself.  He also said to be prepared to spend big bucks.

I made an appointment for service.

The day for service came and we went through the list of things to do to roll the house, which has been sitting too long in one place and had lots of things in comfortable places.  Comfortable places for things are often not good places for things when rolling down the road.

The rig wouldn't start.

I called Don Hillman and said I might be late for my service appointment.

I had apparently left something plugged in which drained the starting batteries.  The emergency battery connect to the coach battery did not help.  These big Diesels need a lot of amps to start.  I called Good Sam Emergency Service.  They sent a truck with enough juice to get me going.

I arrived at Hillman's only a half hour late.  The tech they scheduled for me had been reassigned, but they got another tech right on it.  Great.  He spent some time figuring out what the problem wasn't, then determined the solution.  Brushes.  A small module in an inconvenient location needed replacement.  Less than an hour later, we had our generator fixed!

Thank You Good Sam and Don Hillman.

Lessons learned:
Don't leave things plugged in to drain the battery.
Start your rig regularly when sitting for a while.
Have a good list for stow and go.  Another list for sitting still.
Plastic bottles break less often than glass bottles.
Contents in overhead compartments shift.  I knew that!
Pay for good Emergency Road Service.  I knew that, too.

Be safe out there!

Merry Christmas and all the rest.

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Happy Thanksgiving

We hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving.  We have so much to be thankful for I can’t even begin to list it all.

Just take a look at this beach which is only 15 minutes away.

The beach - just 15 minutes away

We had our Thanksgiving celebration at Birch State park, just across from the beach.  Lots of family and friends and good food and a stunningly beautiful day.  Thank you Jo Ellen for putting this together.

Our Thanksgiving picnic spot

Fried turkey for Thanksgiving

I gotta admit though, I find it a bit unsettling to be so settled!  Our wheels haven’t turned in 6 weeks, and we don’t have any plans to move in the foreseeable future.  I’ve been waiting for this time to get work done on our business website, and I have done a lot of good work, but it seems like every one thing that I scratch off my list produces at least 10 more to-do items on the bottom.  I think that the RV traveling lifestyle puts time into perspective.  Or maybe I just like to be on the move – period  

My 40th High School reunion took place this month.  It was great fun to see old friends.  Surprisingly, I found out that I was one of the few who have attended every reunion we’ve had!  That tells me something about myself – connections with people are very important to me.  I never pass up an opportunity to keep those connections alive.  I think that’s why I like Facebook so much.  Now I have a few more High School friends that I know I’ll stay connected with because we are Facebook friends.

The day after Thanksgiving Jim and Dee Walters pulled into the RV site right next to ours.  They are also fulltime RVers that we met a few years ago and we’ve had fun spending a little time and getting to know them better.  Dee agrees with me that an RV is meant to be moved more often than every two months!  Dee keeps a blog too – Tumbleweed-JimDee.blogspot.com but she does a much better job at writing regularly!  She posted about our evening yesterday where we actually dusted off the Wii and had some fun. 

Playing Wii bowling

Thanks Dee for motivating me!

Jim and Dee Walters - fellow fulltime RVers - tumbleweed-jimdee.blogspot.com

Exercise, Our Web Business, and Culture

It’s been a quiet week here in Fort Lauderdale, Florida – my home town.
The first part of the week we had to hunker down in the pouring rain.  Any place we had planned to go had to wait till later as many areas were flooded.  Here’s what the RV park looked like:

Excersise:  The flooding made me miss my Monday morning visit to Curves, but I’m proud to say that I successfully completed visits on Tue/Thur/Sat then instead of my planned Mon/Wed/Fri.  One thing that made me join is the fact that I’m not locked into any particular times for a class.  It’s a half-hour ‘circuit’ of workout on resistance machines and aerobic moves.  It’s SO easy and quick, there’s just no excuse!  I haven’t lost any weight yet, but I already feel stronger and I get less out of breath already.  Here’s hoping I keep it up.  There are Curves all over the country – I’ve even noticed them in those little one-gas-station-towns everywhere.  So, I should be able to work out even when we’re on the road.
Our Web Business: Sometimes it’s easy as a walk around the block, just put one word after another, and sometimes it’s like pulling teeth.  This last Geeks on Tour Newsletter was the latter!  I’m supposed to produce a main newsletter every month – but my prior one was August!  I finally got the September/October newsletter published on Tuesday, November 1.  Whew!
Membership Pricing: We announced new pricing in this newsletter.  We’ve been charging a measly $39 for one year of access to all our tutorial videos.  When we first started to charge in 2008, we probably had 70-80 videos – now it’s nearly 200 with plans for many more.  We’ve been talking about raising our rates for quite some time, but kept putting it off primarily because of the logistics of making it work.  Since we switched to using WordPress and the membership plugin Wishlist Member, those logistics have changed for the better so it’s time to Git-R-Done!  We just passed our one year anniversary with WishList Member and the renewal process for our members is *not* going smoothly.  This is one more weight in the balance for charging on an automatic renewal basis. Our new pricing will go into effect starting January 1, 2012:

• $7/monthly (auto-renewing, aka recurring)
• $58/annually (auto-renewing, aka recurring)
• $68/one year (non-renewing/recurring)

Anyone who signs up or renews between now and the end of the year can lock in that measly $39 price by using our ‘Subscribe Now’ button that starts a new auto-recurring payment.  As long as they don’t cancel it, that $39/year rate will last indefinitely. 

We now have 135 members on that recurring plan and it’s remarkable the different attitude I have toward the business.  It’s more solid, more real,  I’m more motivated to produce.  Instead of having members who are testing the waters … for $39, why not?  We have members who have committed to paying us year after year.  They’re telling us that they learn a lot from our work and they want to stick with us.  That makes me want to give them more!  One member recently wrote

Tonight I was playing with my blog, [and other software.] You already know that your 8 seminars at Perry in March have made this "computer stuff" one of my favorite pastimes. But it occurred to me tonight that you and your show-me videos have also given me confidence to navigate this maze of computerdom. Wanting to do something and finally figuring it out is just plain fun.
Thanks as always!-Bill

I wonder if Bill realizes just how good that makes us feel? 
All totaled, we’ve had 1,973 people sign up for our membership at one time or another.  If we can convert even half of those to a committed annual payment, that’s almost a real income!  I love the membership website business model – and I believe we’ve just begun!  If you hadn’t seen this before … check out the Forbes.com article, Running a Subscription Website from the Road, that was done about us and our web-business.
Culture – Miami Beach:  Last night was ‘Sleepless Night’ in Miami Beach.  We were invited to go by Chris and Richard.  Chris is my best-girlfriend from way back and Richard is her husband whose job is assistant director (I think that’s the title) at the Planning Department of Miami Beach. So, even tho no one could ever label Jim and me as night-owl, paint-the-town-red kind of people, we couldn’t pass up this opportunity to get a little culture.
We started out with a delightful dinner at the sidewalk-café part of the Five Napkin Burger.  It was a warm, beautiful, breezy night and we had a great time.

Richard had gotten tickets (all free, but you had to get them online in advance) for the New World Symphony.  We had second row seats and the Ravel selections were just beautiful.  Richard snapped this photo.

Then, we walked over toward the beach and saw this parade of giant sea creatures.  The Miami Beach version of the Macy’s parade!

Our primary goal was to see Richard play with his band ‘Cone of Silence’ – but along the way we were treated to more classical music just out on the street. (click below and you’ll go to the video – click Back to return)

From 201111

We did finally make our way to the Vinyl and Kai night club and caught Richard’s performance.  It’s so exciting to see a friend doing something that most people only dream of – way to go Richard!  And, the band is really talented too!  Good selection of Motown and Blues.  But – I had forgotten how loud and crowded late night bar scenes can be.  We had a great time, but we are not converted!
Here’s the best picture I could catch of Cone of Silence.  That’s Richard on keyboards.  Follow the link for some videos of their performances.