Funny Halloween

Back in the early 80's when we owned our first Salon, we used to get all dressed up for Halloween. So, for this edition of ff, I'm posting a few Halloween pics of us from the early 80's. Enjoy!

Have a great Halloween!

Storing the mo-ho

Yesterday, Craig and I winterized the motor home. (Good thing we did! It's currently 26 out this morning). That involves draining the water out of the fresh water tank, and the water lines, and pumping RV antifreeze through out the water system.
I also took out any liquids from inside the mo-ho, emptied the pantry and medicine cabinet, and all the towels and bedding. Took out DVDs and games. Also removed all the batteries, from the TV remotes, the smoke detector, the carbon monoxide detector, the clock, flashlights, and safe. Will use them in the house, and put back fresh ones in the spring. Then I took out the portable gas grill and cleaned it all up and stored it in the garage. We don't want anything in the mo-ho that might attract critters. We do use sonic pest repellers. Have them in about 6 outlets. We leave the mo-ho plugged in all winter to keep them working. We also use mouse bait and mothballs. That all seemed to work last winter, as we saw no evidence of anything. So we'll try that again.
Craig picked up his new glasses yesterday also. They look real nice. I'll try to sneak a pic of him when I get a chance.
This morning, I have a dental appt. Just my routine 6 month cleaning. That's at 8am. And I start work at 9am and will be there till about 8pm. Why did I make an appt. on such a long work day?
Oh well, I've got to go...........

Ludington State Park

Good morning!
We've returned from our 14th and
final weekend trip of the season.
Our last trip took us to Ludington State Park.
Just over 3 hours from Lansing.
This park is the State's busiest.
And the hardest to get a reservation for.
We got in because it was so late
in the season.
The first pic is our car entering the Park.
You can see some of the sand dunes behind.
And here I am at our campsite.
The park was about half full.
Busier than we expected, considering
the weather forecast, which was calling
for a rain/snow mix. But most of
the campers were in rv's.
We saw only a couple of tents.
But the snow never came. We did have a lot
of wind, so kept the awning in.
But it didn't rain all weekend. It actually
wasn't bad at all. Our campground was
inside the dunes, so we were protected
from most of the wind.
Here's a pic of lake Michigan
across the dune from our campground.
We saw why this is a popular park.
It is very wooded, has 3 separate campgrounds,
and many trails through the woods and dunes.
The campgrounds sit between lake Michigan
and Hamlin Lake. So if Lake Michigan
is a little to rough, the beach at
Hamlin Lake is perfect for the kids.
Here I am at the beach house.
Craig managed not to get in any of the pics.
He can be sneaky that way.
Doesn't like his pic taken.
By Monday, the campgrounds were
virtually empty. So Monday night,
we had the entire place to ourselves.
And that's when the wildlife came out.
We saw several herds of Deer.
Most were too far for my camera.
I need a better camera!
And the last pic shows us all alone
on Monday. We had a good weekend,
and now it's time to winterize,
and store it for the long Michigan winter.
But we made 14 long weekends without
any incidents. We went to some favorite spots,
and threw in some new ones.
It was a great season! But went by
way to fast!
We even filled up on our way home for
less than last year! So we stayed within
our gas budget!
And we can spend the winter planning next year's trips.
And for those interested, your can see the rest of the pics from this trip here.

It ain't lookin pretty!

Doesn't this place look so nice?

Here we are on trip #14. Our last trip for the season. The map below was taken on Friday. We don't have wi-fi here, so this post was written before we left. But this was what we were to be expecting. And it wasn't looking good.

The white arrow is our destination. Ludington State Park. That's the top pic. And since this was our last chance to use our mo-ho this year, we said screw the weather and let's go! After all, we're not 'tent' camping. We have a house on wheels! So we can either stay in our grounded home in crappy weather, or we can stay in our mobile home in a different place. Besides there's got to be indoor places we can go. There must be bars in Ludington. And isn't there a Casino nearby? hmmmm...........

See you when we return!

funny friday

Cleaning Poem....

I asked the Lord to tell me
Why my house is such a mess.
He asked if I'd been 'computering',
And I had to answer 'yes.'

He told me to get off my fanny
And tidy up the house.
And so I started cleaning up...
The smudges off my mouse.

I wiped and shined the topside.
That really did the trick...
I was just admiring my work..
I didn't mean to 'click.'

But click, I did, and oops I found
A real absorbing site.
That I got SO way into.
I was into it all night.<<Sigh>>

Nothing's changed except my mouse
It's very, very shiny.
I guess my house will stay a mess
While I sit here on my hiney.

Have a great weekend!

Just another day

Yesterday was a long one at work, and today looks to be the same. I came home in the dark yesterday. Yuck! Soon I'll be going to and from work in the dark. I think that's what I dislike most about winter.
In other news....
Last Friday when I got to work, The thermostat was set at 68, but it was reading 64. We had no heat. Well, after making sure it wasn't the thermostat, and we hadn't blown a fuse I called the repair man. He came and found some part not working, had to go get a replacement. Then found another bad part, (it's a really old rooftop unit) and got it running again. He said they'd send an invoice in the mail. I knew right then it was going to cost us if he didn't want to give us a bill. Well, yesterday it came.......$860.00! How do they justify that kind of price? And when you run a business, you don't have time to shop around for estimates, you gotta keep the business running!
And in other news....
Craig ordered his new glasses to a tune of $440.00.
And still more news.....
Last Saturday when I went to work, It was about 7:15 in the morning, my first appt. was 7:30. I'm driving down this 4 lane road with no streetlights. So I drive in the inside lane so as not to possibly hit anyone walking on the side of the road because it's so dark and the headlights don't shine that far. Anyway I'm going along, and all of a sudden, there's this dead dear, all mangled up laying right in the road in front of me. I slam on the brakes, but too late. I go right over the top of him. I hear this scrapping sound, and hope it didn't do any damage. I get to work and wait for daylight so I can see if there's any. As I look, there's this horrid smell, and bit's of stuff hanging underneath. But it appears no damage. So when Craig gets to work later, (he always comes in a little early for his coffee) I hand him the keys and ask him to take it to the car wash, and get the under body flush. He gives me this weird look, so I tell him the whole story. Good thing it wasn't a buck! But then, by the time I hit it, it had been run over a lot!
Well, that's enough rambling on for now.

Tuesday post

Good morning everyone!
Sunday was a perfect fall day! Craig and I spent the better part cutting down more perennials, (I'm about 3/4th's done!) and burning up a large pile of branches that have accumulated during the summer. The leaves are changing fast here, and starting to fall. We got the furnace on in the mo-ho to keep the pipes from freezing. It has gotten close to freezing a couple of nights. We still want to take one more weekend trip before we winterize and store it.
Monday I restocked the mo-ho for our next trip, then rained moved in so I played on the puter, while Craig did laundry and bookwork. Today, Craig has a regular doctor's appt, followed by an eye doctor appt. He broke his frames last week. We taped them up, but you know, that doesn't work well. And since it's been over a year, they won't give him new glasses with out a new exam.
Well that's all I got right now.
Later!

Legs Inn

Continuing our trip #13,
we arrived at Legs Inn a little after 11am.
Found out it didn't open till 11:30.
So we walked around and took
some pics.
Legs Inn has a very unique history.
And supposedly some very good
Polish Food! And it was closing for the season
in a couple of weeks.
It must have good food because
there was quite a line of people
showing up! And there is virtually nothing
around here. I mean there were 2 other
buildings and a church. And some
scattered houses, so these were people like us
coming from elsewhere to eat here.
Click on the link to read about this interesting place!
It was started in the 1920's, and is build completely of
material found in the area.
Inside there are all kinds of carving in the walls,
ceiling, and support columns.
I tried to get some pics of the inside, but it was fairly
dark, and I didn't want to disturb everyone with my flash.
They opened promptly on time, and we
were soon seated out in the garden for lunch,
with an expansive view of the lake.
We both ordered a combo sampler.
It came with Hunter's Stew, 3 Pierogi,
and Polish Sausage. It was very tasty!
We both especially liked the Hunters Stew!
It's always fun to try new food!

After lunch, we drove on up to Wilderness State Park.

Up on the western tip of Lake Michigan.

Just to check it out for a possible future trip.

Then it was back to the campground, a nice fire,

and Chicken on the grill with a homemade pasta salad.

And the following morning, pack up, and back to Lansing.

funny friday

A C-130 was lumbering along when a cocky F-16 flashed by.The jet jockey decided to show off.





The fighter jock told the C-130 pilot, 'watch this!' and promptly went into a barrel roll followed by a steep climb. He then finished with a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier. The F-16 pilot asked the C-130 pilot what he thought of that?
The C-130 pilot said, 'That was impressive, but watch this!'

The C-130 droned along for about 5 minutes and then the C-130 pilot came back on and said: 'What did you think of that?'

Puzzled, the F-16 pilot asked, 'What the heck did you do?'

The C-130 pilot chuckled. 'I stood up, stretched my legs, walked to the back, went to the bathroom, then got a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun.'


When you are young & foolish - speed & flash may seem a good thing !!!
When you get older & smarter - comfort & dull is not such a bad thing !!!
Us old folks understand!



And the rest of our trip I'll post tomorrow!

Have a great weekend!

tunnel of trees

Our first day took us on a drive around the bay,
past Harbor Springs, up the coast through the
Tunnel Of Trees . I've posted a few pics here.
It's a narrow winding road along the coastline.
It would be difficult to drive our motor home
on this road. It was barely wide enough for
2 cars to past each other.
But it was a beautiful day,
and a very nice drive.

The other reason for the drive
was to visit Wilderness State Park.
Up on the western tip of the Lower Peninsula. Always looking for
our next possible camping site!

And on the way there, we wanted to stop for lunch in a town called Cross Village. And have lunch at a place
called Legs Inn.

And more about that in my next post.
Now, it's off to work!

Trip # 13. Petoskey State Park

Good morning everyone!

Just finished our 13th trip!
Made it there and back safely.
This trip took us on a color tour
to Petoskey State Park.
And for those of you unfamiliar
with Michigan, here's a little map.






Lansing is where the green arrow is,

and Petoskey is the orange one.

And why blogger does this to my posts,

(puts sentences in weird arrangements)

I don't know. Anyway, Petoskey State

Park is just north of the city on Little Traverse Bay.
A very wooded campground. And not very big rig friendly.
But we finally found a site. and with a little maneuvering,
fit in just fine.

And as you see in the clickable pics,

we had hit the peak color just perfect! And the weather was perfect also! Low 70's. About 10 degrees warmer than usual.

More about our trip in my next post when I have more time.

Trip # 13

Okay, here we are on trip # 13! And again I'm giving a real easy clue to where we are. At least a real good clue for anyone from Michigan, and any consistent readers of this blog. And this time, I've changed the image name to keep you from cheating. hee hee.

This is an interesting stone found only in Michigan, and we'll be looking for them on this trip. Well now I've just made this way to easy, but that's okay. I don't want to strain anyone's brain on their weekend!
Pics and more when we return!

Ouch!!! and our funny friday

Well, the electrician fixed our sign at work. And he had to get new bulbs for it. For some stupid reason, the sign company put in very special fixtures, that holds two 5 ft bulbs, and two 6 ft bulbs. Some sort of high output for brighter lighting. So now, sit down and hear the price for 4, that's right, just 4 bulbs.............$122.00!!!!
I said are you sh*#in me?
He showed me the purchase receipt. He only charged us what he paid for them. They are unusual bulbs that last for years. He asked when we last replaced them and I said this was the first time. The sign went up 11 years ago. He said that's why they're expensive. You get over 10 years of use. Oh well, what are you gonna do.
So now, on with our ff.........


The importance of exercising........


I have to walk early in the morning,
before my brain figures out what I'm doing..

I joined a health club last year,
spent about 400 bucks.
Haven't lost a pound.
Apparently you have to go there.

I like long walks,
especially when they are taken
by people who annoy me.

The only reason I would take up walking
is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.

Walking can add minutes to your life.
This enables you at 85 years old
to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing
home at $7000 per month.

The advantage of exercising every day
is so when you die, they'll say,
'Well, he looks good doesn't he?'

Every time I start thinking too much
about how I look,
I just find a Happy Hour
and by the time I leave,
I look just fine!

Have a great weekend!

Oh, I almost forgot!
Today's my birthday!
Send lot's of presents!

Fridge repair 101

As if I didn't work a long enough day yesterday,

I came home and decided to tackle
a little problem we had.
Our ice maker on our GE side by side
refrigerator, was not working right.
The little door that opens to dispense
the ice would stay open and you'd have to
push it close. well, this went on for awhile,
and eventually would not close at all.
This happened a couple of days ago.


So we stuffed a towel in the chute
to prevent warm air form getting
in the freezer.
Well, things like this tend to bug me,
and I figured, I'd either fix it or make it worse,
so I take the front panel off and
see all these little wires.
Then there's 4 screws to take out the next section,

So I think I should unplug the fridge.

And after I get that out,

that's were I discover the problem.
Up in the right corner, where the white arrow is,
is this funny cylinder, and a metal weight that
attaches to the arm of the door flap.
The little weight is suppose to slide in and out
of the cylinder.
Unlike this pic, ( I got these off the web.
Apparently this is a common problem with this model!)
mine was all rusty brown looking.
Cold air leaking from around the flap
caused condensation to form
and rusted the parts.
As you see in the last pic,
The weight slides in and out of the cylinder,.
and mine was sticking, because of all the
corrosion. So I took some steel wool and

reamed the cylinder out, sprayed wd-40 in

it and wiped it out with paper towels, and took
emery cloth and cleaned up the weight.
And then it would slide in and out very easily.


Put everything back to gether again,
and plugged it in, and bygolly, it works just fine now!
Doesn't it make you feel good when you figure things out?
Of course, one job leads to another. When taking the screws out, one fell on the floor and disappeared under the fridge, so I pulled the fridge out to retrieve it and YUK! I guess I hadn't cleaned under there in a l-o-n-g time! I'm certainly not putting a pic of that here! So anyway, now that's done too, and I've got to get to work!

a grass post

Well, it's Wednesday, so it's back to work. After a very productive Monday, Tuesday was rainy and cold, so it was a shopping day, (groceries) a play day, (more Spore), and more web searching for things to do on our next trip.(Petoskey State Park) It was sunny and mild yesterday so I cut down more perennials. I now have almost 1/4 of the yard done.
And here's some ornamental grasses that have started to 'flower'.

Above, Fountain grass around our big old Elm tree. The variegated grass below is at both ends of the driveway.

2 more grasses I don't remember the name of. The top one has very fine 'leaves'. Looks very airy. The bottom is a giant grass over 10 ft tall!
And a favorite of mine, Japanese Blood grass. Isn't it cool how it goes from a green bottom to a red top?
And now I'm off to work! It's looking like another long day today, 8 am - 7:30 pm.

Monday Post

Had a very busy day yesterday. Cleaned the Salon as usual, and changed the oil in the riding lawnmower and the snow blower. I usually change the oil every fall, but last year it got cold and snowy too early. I had planned on changing it this past spring, but you know how things go. It's soooo easy to put things off, so I finally got to it. I also got some new sealant for the mo-ho window. Yes, I'm still getting water leaking in on the dash somehow. But with everything on the roof resealed, it must be the windshield. So I'll let you know. We had some light rain all day today, and so far no leaks.
I also did more deadheading in the yard. Cleaned the portable grill we have in the mo-ho, and washed the inside and outside windshield on the mo-ho. That big window sure gets the bugs!
And back to the Salon. The lights in our outdoor sign burned out earlier this year, and with the days getting shorter, I figured we better get them changed. Got out the latter, and when I reached up to take out the bulbs, I leaned against the metal frame and got a low grade shock! There must be a loose wire in the fixture. So now I get to pay an electrician to fix it. I'm not so good when it comes to electrical stuff.
And with colder wetter weather, I've gotten back to computer games.
My newest one is called Spore.
A very addictive game. Check out their website
for more on this fun crazy game.
And of course, while I was doing all this,
Craig did his usual bookkeeping and laundry,
and fixing delicious meals.
Yesterday, Swiss Steak, Mashed Potatoes,
and Stuffed Peppers. Today, Pork
and Sauerkraut with Carrots and Potatoes.
Yummy!

Trip # 12 the end

And a few more pics of our trip.
This is a snake crossing sign.
I've never seen one before.
Their brochures call it an
Eastern Fox Snake. Fortunately,
we didn't see any.

You'll notice you don't see any
campsites. This sign was between two

sections. A very spacious campground!
We did see a great number of birds.
The park has a lot of marsh areas,
and that supports a wide variety of birds.
On the way back from the Zoo, we stopped
back downtown, or should I say across
the river from downtown, where they've
built an entertainment complex.
Had a nice lunch with a great view!
There are numerous restaurants and bars

along a pedestrian walkway next to the river.

I don't know what was here before,

but all of this was quite new,

and gave you a beautiful view of the

downtown. I love to see cities reclaim the riverfronts.

Well, that raps up our latest trip.
12 down and hopefully 2 more to go.

trip # 12, the Zoo

On our stay near Toledo,
we took in the Toledo Zoo.
Said to be one of the top 10 in the country.
Well, like I said before,
I've been to some of the best, so I was anxious
to check this one out.
They've recently expanded the zoo across the highway,
where they've added a new entrance and parking,
and some new displays. Very impressive.
Then you walk across the highway
on this large pedestrian overpass,
to reach the original zoo. The Toledo Zoo
is fairly large, and laid our very well
with lots of landscaping, making it look
very park like. But a lot of the old Zoo has the typical
cages for the animals.
It appears that with the new section open,
they are starting to rehab the older section.
So a lot of displays were closed.
I'm thinking this will be a very fine Zoo
once they finish with that.
But it was still a very enjoyable trip.
They still had a very nice selection of animals.
Craig accused me of taking this
picture for comparison reasons
tee hee. I told him people want to see
us too! He really doesn't like me taking
his picture. Too bad. tee hee.

Didn't get a lot of animal pics.
All the cat's were taking siestas in shaded areas.
That's the only problem with giving
animals spacious areas, they're not always
where you can easily see them.

But enjoy what I have.

So all in all, the Toledo Zoo is a very fine Zoo,
definitely worth a visit,

but I don't think it compares with the biggies.