Howard's Tall Farewell

The left half of our back yard had an open area in the middle that was mainly grass until this spring. This space is irregular, approximately 22’ X 25’ at the widest points. You walk through it every time you enter the gate, or exit the house, or go over to the mixed border and the vegetable garden. We cross through that area many times a day and also see it from the breakfast room, from the patio and from the shady bench under the peach tree.
Because this middle area was so sunny, the grass needed regular watering, unlike the grass in shadier areas. If I’m going to water, I want something more than grass! Last year we planted a ‘Little Gem’ Magnolia at one end of this space, adding the gloss of dark green leaves and a few fragrant white flowers, but at barely five feet, it will take a few years for this tree to make any vertical impact or cast shade. This spring, we made a new long bed that includes the magnolia, a Texas Mountain Laurel, salvias, Lemon verbena and other plants.
In April, we added instant height to the bed when Philo and I found a 7 and ½ foot-tall obelisk at Howard Nursery on Koenig Lane. Howard’s has been a great source for shrubs, flowers and fun gift items. Although the new structure is taller than anything else on that side of the yard, it was rapidly climbed and entwined by the second Snail Vine.
When we bought the obelisk in April, we passed up some tempting roses. Now I really regret that lost opportunity. Our most recent trip to Howard’s was for their closing sale, where I bought a one-gallon Weigela as a sort of souvenir. It will have to be in a container for now, but it may live and someday bloom, reminding me of a loved-and-lost Austin nursery.

12,000 Miles

July 2005 I started riding a bicycle to get exercise after a heart valve was replaced with a mechanical valve. Exit interview after cardic rehab asked what I was going to do to keep active so that I don't lose the progress I made during rehab.
I decided to check out cycling. Bill at Xtreme Wheels put me on a Trek Navigator and - as they say - the rest is history.
During my 25+ mile ride today, I broke the 12,000 mile mark. I think that's pretty good for a 63 year old. It makes many days on the bike since the longest day has been under 50 miles.
Next goal is 2000 miles for the year.

Being Creative

"Unless we are creators, we are not fully alive." Madeleine L'Engle from Walking on Water
She continues, "What do I mean by creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint or clay or words. Creativity is a way of living life, no matter what our vocation or how we earn our living. Our freedom to be creators is far less limited than some people would think."
Do something creative today, then come back here and tell me what you did. I'm going to create a birthday memory for my oldest daughter who turns 29 today.

We are going to the world cup!

It's taken 32 years, but Australia have finally qualified for the world cup. I'm also running a little short on fingernails after the tie went to penalties, despite Australia totally playing Uruguay of the park throughout the second half, but being unable to finish it off. The substitution made by Guus Hiddink in the first half, bringing on Harry Kewell after 30 minutes was pure genius, and the final save from Mark Schwarzer in the shoot-out was almost Schmeichel-like. I have to say that I can't ever recall seeing an Australian team dominate opposition of that level to such an extent before.
It's actually quite amazing considering that three or four months ago, nobody would have given that team a hope, but some changes were made at the top, and now some of the potential is being realised. I also think we might surprise a few people in Germany next year. There's been a lot of talk in the past about Australia having to deal with a supposedly "unfair" qualifying route, having to play against a South American side even after winning the Oceania qualifiers. However, it didn't seem to be an object for this particular team. That said, they need to work on that final ball into the penalty area, and their set pieces, because a lot of opportunities were squandered. On the balance of the play, we should have wrapped this one up without the need for extra-time or penalties.
Either way, the long wait (one which stretches back before I was born) is finally over! Ra!

Sweet Home Alabama - Gulf State Park

The day before we are scheduled to leave Island Retreat, we get a call from the State Park looking for volunteers. We accept and get a site in exchange for each of us working 2 days a week - plus free golf and beach access.

Gary works at the Golf Course in the Cart barn and I start out cleaning restrooms (what fun) until the Beach Pavillion Fee station opened.

Campsite at Gulf State Park

View of Beach Pavillion from Campground

My Office



Oprey Nest across the Street

Lake Shelby Picnic area





Owl Nest

Golf Course







Monkey Face Squirrel

View of Gulf Shores from Beach

Fishing Pier

Osprey Nest

Let There Be Motion-Sensored Light

A high of 61F (16C) when we left the lot where we store the Phaeton sent a twinge of guilt through us for not being out and about, exploring somewhere new to us.  In our defense, the temperature wasn’t expected to rise that high, and the clouds were supposed to move in for the afternoon.  So much for the weather forecast!  We had gorgeous blue skies with plenty of sunshine through the day — I even got a touch of sun-color on my face.

That’s not to say we didn’t have fun at the coach; we did.  And it was a productive day to boot.  We took care of a few things inside during the morning when it was slightly more chilly; then we moved outside.  I’ll focus on the latter in this post.

As you might imagine, with such a beautiful day at our disposal, we just had to have an al fresco lunch before tackling the day’s ‘sorta big’ project.  Pulling out our camp chairs, we even made ourselves comfy.

After lunch, I managed to sneak in some downtime while Mui worked!  Of course, that was in between documenting the project on which he was working.

First a bit of web browsing …

… then catching up on the news.

Every stix & brix home we’ve lived in for the past 20 years or so has had a motion-sensing security light above the front entry.  Why should our condo on wheels be any different.  That was our thought when we put replacing the exterior light above the door on our list of coach mods.

This wasn’t a project that was on the front burner — that is, until I read Mark’s post on Phaeton Place.  I sent the link to Mui.  He liked what he read on the blog and the RV Upgrades website, and placed an order for the same light — a Star Light Black Smart 1000 Porch Light.  Thanks for doing the research for us, Mark.

Although this light has a bigger footprint than the one that was originally installed, it blends in better with the body of the coach because of the transparent lens.  I also like that it is LED and more energy efficient.  As well, the light is designed to cease functioning when it senses that the house batteries have dropped below 11.5 volts.  That’s a really good thing :-)

See that little orange light above the door?  That’s the topic of today’s mod project.

In his post, Mark had noted that the installation looked easy.  Mui can confirm that it is.  It took just minutes to remove the old light and clean up the residual caulking.  Then, it was a matter of five minutes or so to connect the new light to the existing electrical wires; fill the hole with some caulking; affix the light plate to the body of the coach with a couple of self-tapping screws; run a bead of black silicone caulking around the edges; and finally, place the clear lens cover to finish up the install.

Here’s the light still in its packaging.

First things first; let’s check out the instructions … just in case!

The old light comes off …

… and the new light gets installed.

Et voilà … the finished project.

In broad daylight, the motion sensor doesn’t work.  That too is a good thing.  However, the little blue light that indicates the sensor is working did blink when we tested it, so we have no reason to think the light won’t work as expected.  Kudos on getting another project under your belt, Mui!

It's official... We Count as Virgin Islanders for the next 10 Years

Ms. Muscovy

Ms. Muscovy is the only duck here who flies much. The Indian Runners can't be bothered, Ms. Mallard prefers to waddle, and Mr. Muscovy is too heavy to get off the ground (unless Jasmine is chasing him).
Lately she has learned that on the rim of the dog pen (that serves as their nighttime predator protection), she'll be away from the drakes' loving attentions, yet remain part of the flock. Being part of the flock is pretty important to ducks.
The roof of the workshop is Ms. Muscovy's other favorite place to land.

Glossing

A thread over at bikeforums asks whether journals of bicycle tours "gloss over the bad bits", or skip the less enjoyable aspects of the trip. I have to admit that I don't generally get the time to read as many as I would like these days. I have, however, written a few of them, so I do have some input on this topic.
Personally, I filter what should or shouldn't be included on the basis of what sticks in my mind. There are so many things that go through my head on every ride that it's ridiculous. Sometimes they're thoughts that have absolutely no relevance to the ride itself at all. Often on a bike tour (particularly in the less interesting stretches), I'll be riding along thinking about how I'm going to deal with something else going on in my life at the time -- seeing that particular issue from a new perspective and coming up with ways to deal with it. The point of all this is to illustrate just how many things go through my mind during a trip.
Often some of the emotions I was feeling at a particular time of the day will have disappeared completely by the time I get around to writing about them. Sure, I can jog my memory pretty quickly by looking at the map (or simply starting the process of recording the day's events) and thinking of where I've just ridden, but that isn't going to bring back every thought from the last six hours. Consequently, I take the view that if a particular emotion doesn't come flooding back at that point, perhaps it wasn't in my head all that strongly to begin with.
I don't believe that I skip over the bad things, but then I'm also a great believer in an old business expression: "Things are never as good or as bad as they seem". Often something that I thought was the end of the world a little earlier will appear as something that wasn't so bad after all by the end of the day. A classic example was snapping my pannier rack in New Zealand last year. I actually thought for a few horrible moments that my tour was, if not over, then certainly seriously impeded. By the time I came around to publishing this in an online journal (i.e. by the time I next had Internet Access to do it), I had put together an "emergency" repair which had managed to last over 200km.
Sure I could write about the uncertainty of the repair at the time (and I did). However, at the time I was feeling those emotions, I was too busy trying to find a solution, so I'm not sure it would have come out the same. Perhaps that's what happens to other people too. It's just a change in perspective about a particular event when reviewing it at the end of the day. Perhaps the subsequent reflection on the events of the day make them seem a little different. On the other hand, I guess it doesn't really explain those who write about what a wonderful journey they had before concluding "I will never do this again", but as I said at the start, I don't get around to reading that many journals these days.
Maybe one or two of the readers here have an opinion on some of my ride reports.
Oh yeah, the picture above is from somewhere near Little Nerang Dam earlier this week.