Date:                           November 3, 2009

Location:                    Daytona Beach, FL

0800

            It is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November and I am sure we all know that means it is Election Day as directed by our constitution.  If I were a little less apathetic I would care that I don’t care.  I am what I am and I could care less about a governor in Virginia or New Jersey.  Nor could I care a wit about the 23^rd congressional district in upstate New York.  And, yet the “news media” seems to think these far off lands of postulating prophets should be of some interest to me.  In this statement are two very wrong assumptions.  The first is that the clowns that masquerade as  news reporters on TV are really interested in the news and the second is that they think I care about anything on a cloudy, grey, miserable day in Florida.

            The travel agent said it was “The Sunshine State.”  They lied.  The sun must be on vacation, because it has not been visible for at least a week.  Well, maybe a couple of days.  We are in Florida and it is supposed to be sunny every waking hour of every day.  At least that is what the brochure said.  I would like to tell you what we did yesterday, but it all seems like a grey fog to me now.  Or was that the weather?

             I Know that I am probably not eliciting much sympathy from anyone crazy enough to read my blog, but I had to cry somewhere and my laptop is very accommodating.  I pout, it whirs the sound of a small fan and neither of us are too much the worse for the ware.  In a few years I will revisit my blog remember the passionate self pity I was feeling on this day and, either, commiserate or laugh.  In either case I hope the sun will be shinning.

            It is time for me to rejoin my world of excitement.   I will forgo the travels through news boredom as the wonks attempt to tell me what to think about a farmers vote in upstate New York where the size of this year’s apple is more important than the legacy of a nation political party.  I may dive deeper into the book I am now reading, the biography of Albert Einstein.  It is a book that causes my brain to feel exhausted more often that not.  The author speaks of the theory of relativity as if he thinks I understand it.  Grasping the concept of hitching a ride on a light beam may be exhilarating, but it also causes me to say “HUH” a lot.  The book is interesting in the way it attempts to explore how the revolutionary theories were conceived in the mind of a person who always was just a step out of “the box.”  Einstein fought against the normal practice of nearly every aspect of life, including how he problem solved physics laws and accepted rule of science.  He thought in pictures instead of words or facts, not ever allowing a rule or law to deter him from perusing an avenue of thought.  If you do not box yourself in by accepted rules you may not be erroneously directed to a fore gone conclusion.

            The sun is still hiding, my book is still waiting and I have now bored you enough.  If you wish, please go vote.  If you don’t wish to trudge off to the polling place stay home. It really will make little difference anyway. As a wise sage answered when questioned about his party affiliation:  “Are you a Republican or a Democrat?”  He answered: “Today, what difference does it make?”

PS The wise sage was Ty in the movie Maid in Manhattan

27 DAYS to EMBARKATION

Wfdo2@wfdo2.com

Date:                           November 2, 2009

Location:                    Daytona Beach, FL

0800

            I hate it when DST leaves us and we have to set our clocks back an hour.  I would gladly give up that silly hour of supposed sleep for an extra hour of light in the evening.  Watching the sun set at 5:30 is wrong and it is only going to get worse.  I miss day light savings time already.

            Connie and I got up early to start or sojourn through the ether of philosophical science and religion as we headed off to church and a NOETIC Science lecture.  It was to me a mind trip that some might find a bit extreme in its diversity, yet I found profoundly similar in actuality.

            The church service was in Deland, FL and was a celebration of All Saints Day at the First Presbyterian Church.  A simple church located in a university town with a wonderful minister of music.  The service was a requiem mass by Rutter including the monthly celebration of communion.  I could not begin to describe the beauty and depth of passion produced by this 40 plus voice choir and 8 piece orchestral group under the direction of a master of Christian music.

            Intertwined in the choral presentation were most of the trappings of a normal Presbyterian service without the presence of a sermon.  Yet as we prepared to leave the over 90 minute religious experience I feel we had had a more meaningful message delivered to our hearts than normal.  The inclusion of the celebration of communion while experiencing a requiem mass orchestral arrangement seem to enforce the dream of resurrection and rebirth felt by all Christians at some philosophical level.  Our hearts and souls had been reached by word in the choral experience, by sound in the orchestral enjoyment and experience in the communion celebration.  It was a very meaningful Sunday Service and one that will remain on our heart’s and soul’s memory for a long time.

            We left this service with a resounding “WOW” in our hearts and headed to the Deland library for a lecture on NOETIC science and the frequency keys of the Rosslyn Chapel.  It was a presentation by the local chapter of the IONS in Deland.  If you are unaware of the meaning of NOETIC science you should read Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and let your fingers do dome walking through the fields of Google.  That is how Connie and I found ourselves parked in a library parking lot, rather full I might add.

            I will not attempt to recap the lecture.  It dealt with the Templer Knights, the Rosslyn Chapel and access to alternative dimension and worlds through portals or gateways that might be unlocked by certain frequencies at certain geological sites on or earth.  One of which might be the Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland.  I will not begin to argue in favor or against this point of view, nor would I be so presumptuous as to evaluate its validity.  My wife and I attempted to approach the lecture and discussion with an open mind and desire to learn.  This seemed chore enough at times.

            The resounding feeling of enlightenment that I felt was the total similarity of these two so very dissimilar messages.  It was a message of a new and better dimension available to us as we are delivered on the waves of musical frequency.  It was the fact that in order for us to have the power and strength to obtain this level of transportation we would need to cultivate positive energy and deflect negative energy.  Or as our NOETICS lecturer told us “We should treat others as we wish to be treated.” 

            Our day of diverse theological and philosophical investigation was not nearly as broad as we might have imagined.  If we were to change a noun here or there, add or extract an adjective or adverb now or again, or modify the tense of a verb we could have carried on the same conversation in either group.  And yet one group would, I am sure, not ever be invited to the other to a meeting as a guest lecturer.  It is in this statement that I feel exist a myriad of troubles and problems.  How will either group meet at the portal or gateway with the proper energies or love in their hearts if they can not treat each other as they would each like to be treated.

            It was good Sunday, maybe not a great Sunday.  We enlightened our minds, fed our souls and ate Chinese. That is not a bad day.  Sadly, all of our football teams did loose, so it was not a perfect Sunday.

28 DAYS to EMBARKATION

Wfdo2@wfdo2.com

Date:                           November 1, 2009                

Location:                    Daytona Beach, FL

0745

            It is another day in the sunshine state and another day at rekindling by efforts at keeping a daily blog.  To those of you that have joined me in my thought wandering I must verify some information.  It is, indeed, 7:45 in the morning and I am actually up and kind of motivating.  All though that may seem to be against my nature, it is a reality. It is Sunday and I have a sermon and a lecture to attend. Today I will be investigating a spectrum of thought that will spread from Christian theology to Noetic Science.  It should be a fun day.

            Yesterday, Connie and I ventured to one of the main drawing points of Daytona Beach.  It was a very large flea market.  I hope the fleas found something to buy, because we found nothing.  I am seldom in the market for fleas nor do I value over priced garbage being presented by people trying to rip off an unaware, under educated public.   Can you tell I don’t like flea markets?

            We did walk up and down far too many aisles, view far too much junk, and get run into to by far too many geriatric, impolite, Neanderthals.  How can you be in a hurry to view junk?  And it was, sometimes, smelly junk at that.  It was a good simple source of exercise.  We must have walked over 2 miles, at least. I told you it was a large flea market.

            To off set the lack of enjoyment found at the over priced selling of mildewed junk we drove to the local Friendly’s for lunch.  The day was beginning to improve almost immediately.  It was, however, the day of Halloween eve and, as such, most of the parents in Daytona Beach had decided to take their little goblins for a lunch and an ice cream at Friendly’s.  To our chagrin, they had decided on doing this just 7 minutes before we decided we needed some spoiling after our trudge through flea market hell.  This meant that our waitress was very busy, our food was a little slow and the room was filled with “Do I have to eat that?” and “You are not going to get your ice cream if you slap your sister again.” sounds.  It was an enjoyable diversion from our morning excursion.

            It was after our slightly late lunch that I stumbled onto one of life’s little known but highly understood axioms.  “Life looks better through an empty sundae glass.”  A fact and truth that will, I am sure, ring honest for most people.  As I sat there I did realize that this truth of life does work more effectively if it is your own sundae glass.

            With spoon in hand as I dug for the last drip of fudge covered strawberry ice cream, life did seem a bit better.  My tummy was not barking demands for sustenance,  my taste buds were enjoying the slay ride of cool flavors as I ingested each strawberry covered, fudge mixed teaspoon filled excursion into ecstasy. Life did seem a bit better.

            I did realize that no mater how delicious the sides of the sundae glass seemed, striped with brown fudge and clouded by melted ice cream, that there was always just a little more enjoyment just a bit out of reach at the bottom of the glass.  There would always be little more pleasure that might always be just out of reach but always in my mind awaiting the next sundae glass delivery of hot fudge heaven filled with new pleasures of ice cream and sauce. 

            I was also aware that my pleasure might, soberly, appear to be nothing but a dirty dish to someone not observant and empathetic of my perspective.  It would not be until they had received their own “Happy Ending” delight that they could attempt to understand my new life truth.  It was my job to attempt to understand the tenant that my pleasure was, indeed, an element of someone else’s pain or work.  It was to this end that I tried to lick the sides of my glass clean, realizing that I could never fully understand another’s position of turmoil.  And getting a cramp in my tongue attempting to reach the very bottom of the glass would not really erase the feeling of angst they might experience. 

            It was, I decided, my view of my life that seemed a little bit better when viewed through the bottom of my sundae glass.  Pain can not be shared because we can never fully understand another’s perspective and personal weight to the feeling fueling their hurt.  An ice cream sundae, on the other hand, is nearly universally a pleasure.  As I licked my spoon and slid my glass away, I felt I had learnt quite a bit this afternoon.  But I did realize that someone would have to wash my glass, and to them I send my sympathies and a wish that they too will soon enjoy a Happy Ending Sundae.

29 DAYS to EMBARKATION

Wfdo2@wfdo2.com

Date:                           October 31, 2009

Location:                    Daytona Beach, FL

1000

            Time flies when you are having fun.  It tends to flee away even when you are not having a great deal of fun, also.  For those of you that have stumbled on to this meandering of words and thoughts and have had the pain of visiting previously, you should realize that it has been over a year since my last posting. I have no good reason for that fact, either good or bad, so I will not postulate any lame excuses.  Let it be entered into the record that my aged mind and body has for what ever reason and fact not  posted a blog entry for over a year.  Be it good, bad, or of no interest to anyone other than me it is still a fact.

            The last year has been has been a Dickens’s type of year for us as I am sure it has been for everyone.  We have had good times and we have had times that are not the best of experiences.  My wife and I are healthy and safe, and as such, feel our lives are quite normal and on the plus side of the scale of being.  We can not, however, say that for all of our family and friends. Those of you that need our prayers, I hope know, are in our prayers and will forever remain there. Those of you that feel you do not need our prayers are also in our thoughts just because we love you.

            The last year has taken Connie and me from Mississippi to South Carolina to Florida by motor home. It has taken us to Buffalo and Boston by plane.  We have seen family, friends and business acquaintances.  We have laughed, cried, been angry, disappointed and lived a normal life.  Like the weather we have clear days, cloudy days, days of rain and some days we just hid in seclusion.  It has been quite a normal year.

            We are not workamping, a very long and boring story.  We are not doing NOMADS projects, another boring story.  And we are planning a 10 day cruise for our 25^th anniversary, a much more enjoyable tale and the reason I have opened my blogging file one more time.  As the sailing date nears, the 1^st of December, I thought a running blog on our adventure might be fun and enlightening for our own enjoyment.  If you wish to vicariously enjoy our coming adventure, please feel free to join my large fan club of blurry eyed blog readers.  If this bore the ever lasting out of you, why have you read this far?

            The drama of the year gone by will remain in the past as we prepare for an eastern and southern Caribbean cruise on the SS Noordam from Holland American out of Ft Lauderdale.  There will, I am afraid, be sad days and happy days as we progress toward our day of embarkation.  The sad days I will try to report and the happy days I will try to share.  I hope that our happiness will in no way cause you to think we do not share in your sadness and pain.  But, if in an instant we can help you share a second of our joy maybe just a tiny bit of your pain will be lightened.  We do not presume to be able to remove your hurt, only to remind you that you too will enjoy the pleasure of life’s good side when fortune again blesses you.

            Having brought you all up to date and given you absolutely no information I am ready to progress to our forth coming hedonistic romp in paradise aboard the SS Noordam.  The day in Daytona Beach FL is, right now, bright, sunny and portending 80 plus degrees of warmth.  We are getting ready to get ready to start readying ourselves for our cruise, but first we have an ocean to tend and a flee market to explore.  We will be in St. Thomas for our anniversary.  I will be enjoying a very special dinner in a very special dinning room aboard a very big ship with a very special person in a very special dress.

I am counting the days until we sail and for your edification it is:

30 DAYS to EMBARKAION

Date:                           October 11, 2008

Location:                    Horn Lake, MS

1000

Oct 11, 2008

As the day illuminates Connie and I are about to embark on a new adventure at the Audubon Point RV Park in Horn Lake, MS.  This is not our first time as new workampers, but we “Yankees” are in a new environment in the Deep South.  We have been further south, geographically, but I feel we are to enjoy a new realm of southern philosophy and living as we venture forth.

We are, already, enjoying the warmth and acceptance that has been afforded us as we step into the life of a southern charm.  Many questions will be asked and answered as we investigate the pleasures and adventures of working in Mississippi for the winter.

I am sure it will be, at least, interesting.

            And so begins my new BLOG as posted on the Workamping Web Site.  It is a lot smaller and much truncated, but I am sure that my loyal reader, or readers would expect that this cerebral meandering would still fill a page or two of typing frivolity and not be limited to just a few short sentences of BS.  I will attempt to not disappoint you.

            Connie and I have, indeed, arrived in Mississippi and are about to begin our winter’s adventure as workampers at this RV Park.  We have left New York to allow it to enter into the doldrums of winter and ventured to the edges of the Deep South to find new adventure.  The finding, I am sure, will be easy.  The enjoying may need some encouraging.  As I stated in my opening WK BLOG, “Many questions will be asked and answered as we investigate the pleasures and adventures of working in Mississippi for the winter.”  Come along with me for the ride and the adventure.

            Our summer was, as most of you are well aware, spent at The Grand Island KOA.  It was a Tale of Two Cities many times. It was “The best of Time . . . . .  “  It was, most meaningfully, near our family and that managed to balance any other emotions, or frustrations, that we ventured through.  As time marches on we will, hopefully, accentuate the remembrances of the good things that spending the summer on Grand Island allowed us to enjoy.  One of which was having a pop-up camper parked behind us for the summer.  That was a very well appreciated gift from our campground manager.

            Many of the frustrations we dealt with this summer were economy induced, and as you read or listen to the morning news I am sure you do not need me to “rehash the hash” as my wife says.  The economic stress felt by all families was well evident at our campground.  There were some busy days, but over the season the campground business was down over 50%.  Remember that Election Day is  a scant 3 weeks away and changes do need to be made.

            Many of our frustrations were centered around this home we call Aurora.  To quickly summarize:  We had a bad fuel pump, turbo thruster valve, and we had to have her towed off our lot at the KOA, where they broke our entrance steps.  We had a new alternator installed in Nashville, and we are now licking our wounds, both emotionally and financially.  Living in an RV is not cheap, especially when she has a penchant for the repair shop. 

            Aurora is now located in a very new and spacious campground just outside of Memphis, TN.  Yes, our address is Mississippi, but we are less than 5 miles form the border of Tennessee and less than 10 miles from downtown Memphis.  The area that we are in is very new and upscale.  It is a prime example of the growth and expansion of the past few years as the Yuppies of center city have moved to the suburbs along with their chain restaurants, boutique shops and large malls. We are just on the outer edge of the Memphis expansion south.  The campground is very new and little expense was spared in the initial development.  It will be interesting to watch as the slumping economy and financial stress of 8 years of Bush’s economy are played out on the retirement investments of the owners of this park.

            For now the sun is shinning, the temperature is warm and new adventures begin tomorrow as we actually start our work assignments.  Connie is going to be working in registration and I am going to be involved in outside maintenance.  It will be a very interesting challenge to see if our “Yankee” personalities can fit into the southern mold of a workampers.  I am sure this story is nowhere near over and that many new chapters are just over the horizon.  Wish us well and, maybe even say a little prayer.

Have a nice day, Y’all.

Date:                           August 18, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

1000

            Another week of our tenure at the KOA has receded into history and we are still trying to make plans for the winter.  Being a free life styled full timer can be very taxing on someone that is not the world’s greatest at making plans.  I do know that we are going to be on the east coast or maybe the west coast.  Of course there is always the chance that we might be in the desert in Arizona or mid Texas someplace.  Having so many options can be a challenge.

            Yesterday we received a call from a past NOMAD team mate and he implored that we think seriously about coming to Phoenix and work at the UMOM facility there.  It is under going some major changes and he thought that we might love being in on the growth process.  We have also received a note form another team member that wants us to come to Florida and join a team that will be working on building new church in Umatilla.  All of these plans sound great on some level and yet we have not the slightest idea which way to head this beast when we do decide to leave New York.  Life is an adventure and it is great to have choices.  It may be confusing, but it is great.

            We also have a phone meeting scheduled with Sally Phillips on Wednesday.  Sally was our campground manager in Santa Cruz at the Monterey KOA.  Keep your hats on; you never know what we are going to do.  By the way, we are also expected to be in Stone Mountain, Georgia for the fall and maybe winter of this coming year.  That is if they ever get their collective heads together and decide what and where they might need us.  Boredom is not an option.

            This week end we had a Family Olympics competition at our KOA. It was in honor of the profession competition masquerading as an amateur gathering in China.  Ours was much lower key and I hope more meaningful.  Each family received a score card with a list of events to be completed and scored on the team’s own honor.  They had to do things like walk or run, bike, visit Fantasy Island and jump on our jumping pillow.  The secret was for families to play together and enjoy each other.  The plan worked extremely well and many of the families took it upon themselves to personally thank us for our efforts.  It was cool to see families enjoying each other’s company.

            At our awards ceremony, which was not really an awards ceremony, we gave out prizes for participation.  It was kind of mystical how every team seemed to win something and it was never relevant to the score that they tallied on their submitted score cards.  We still had many smiles and happy athletes and that is really what we were attempting to achieve.

            As one family was leaving the hall with their bundle of prizes I told one of he little competitors that there was a secret connected with the whole Family Olympic weekend.  I explained to him that it did not matter what the final score was on the score sheet.  It was more important that he had had fun and that he had spent the weekend playing with his whole family in some new games and athletic endeavors.  He kind of looked at me like I was from the planet GAGA.  His father smiled and thanked me full heartedly for the effort we had placed in making this a wonderful weekend for him and his family.

            There were families with smiles, families laden with prizes and a recreation team very satisfied; it was a good weekend.  It was a busy weekend at times but it was a good weekend.

Wfdo2@msn.com

Date:                           August 11, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

1000

The rain of a wet New York summer is pelting our home as I gaze out my window into the grey funk of a depressing day.  It is a mystery how Mother Nature can mimic your inner attitude by her manifestations of weather.  Yes, I must admit that there is a bit of rainy funk clouding my perceptions of life at this very moment.  I am not sure if the weather is placing me in the doldrums of a self imposed depression, or if life has presented that to me on her silver platter.  No mater what or why, life seems to be full of clouds this morning.  I can only hope that the weather is better in your world.

            Our summer is coming to a slow but eventual end at the Grand Island KOA.  I would be less than honest if I tried to tell you that everything went just as well as we had planned and hoped it would.  It has not been a bad summer, but it has been less than it could have been.  The economy has been against us as we attempt to serve within the travel and summer enjoyment industry.  Families have been hard pressed to find enough money to pay for camping, food, entertainment and gas for their vehicles.  This fact of economics 101 has been very evident in the business at our summer home.  Budgetary restraints and reality has caused the KOA Corporation to cut back on expenses and the first area of sacrifice seems to be customer services.  At least as we see it from our narrow minded perspective.  It is difficult to justify spending money on a customer experience whose returned value is not shown on a business ledger somewhere.  Accountants can sum up camper nights, income per camper night and expenses related to such, but they do not see, nor can they evaluate the smiles on a child’s face as they hand mom or dad a new memo pad that they just made themselves in Arts & Crafts.  Nor can a corporation evaluate the value of the returned smile of happy parent as they receive the treasured gift.  Smiles and hugs do not appear on the balance sheet.  It is a sad but true reality.

            As Connie and I sit in our self imposed funk of grey depression we are attempting to make plans for our winter and the portending summer that lurks on the horizon.  Where that will take us is still to be determined.   One can only hope that it will be into fair weather and brighter days.  We are fair-weather people and at this geriatric age I refuse to apologize for that attitude.  It is not that we demand fair weather for ourselves, all though we do enjoy it.  We would rather find a manner in which we can help direct other people to a few moments of bright sun and warmth in their lives.  It may be a craft made that can be shared or a newly repaired door on their home.  In either case we, truly, just want to make their lives a little bit better for the honor of allowing us to share a few moment of their life with them.  We are not interested in finding that that value did not tally on a ledger someplace, nor are we waiting for a superfluous amount of pats on the back.  We simply desire to be of use to someone and to be appreciated by them for the effort that we graciously offer.  It is a simple wish, but one that is increasing difficult to achieve.

            The clouds have gotten even thicker, the sun has retreated even further into a sequestered hiding place and my mode is all the greyer as I finish my daily blog.  We have made no permanent decision on our future plans, but I have updated my blog, such as it is.

            If life, or the weather, has you in a grey funk or if you are wrapped in the warmth of a beautiful day, either internally or externally let us know.  Maybe we can share a new cure for “Grey Funk.”  Often a single ray of blue sky and warm sunlight can illuminate a new perspective.  Any new perspective, right now, might be a good thing on a rainy day, on a clay rock in the m idle of a river, which is really a straight, between to great lakes.

Wfdo2@msn.com 

Date:                           July 26, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

1400

            It is a cloudy Saturday afternoon at the Grand Island KOA and Connie and I have just finished our morning chores which consisted of providing our campground with a pancake breakfast.  It is a time to meet and greet all of the adventurous people that brave the morning air and threat of rain to enjoy our offering.  Until we arrived here I did not know that I could cook pancakes on any type of a regular schedule.  I have learned that I can flip a fry cake about as well as anyone.  The customers have been very kind and pretend to enjoy the breakfast.  They even stop to thank me on their way back to their site, sometimes, complimenting me on the tasty breakfast.  Actually, Connie does all the work in mixing the batter and all I have to do is pour it out on to the griddle and flip the cake halfway through the cooking.  I gratefully take their compliments anyways.

            This morning I had an experience that I must pontificate on just a bit.  I know you were expecting no less.  If you have spent much time reading my prior blogs you are quite aware that I often do just that.

            There are many cabins that surround the pool area where we have our breakfast.  It is in these wooden denizens that we often have families set up house and enjoy the experience “camping” at our KOA.  The cabins are little more than a wooden tent, but seem to be very popular with many people.  They are not cheap, but they are popular.  In two of these log houses we have family gathering this weekend of some 12 or so people.  These huts have beds for 4 people each so it must be interesting sleeping arrangements.  Most of the occupants are young and I am sure quite able to sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag or such.  It is the interaction with some of the young boys that inspires my blog today.

            After breakfast my wife let me know that there was a lot of noise coming from the men’s room and requested that I investigate.  The boys from the afore mentioned cabins had already made their presence know to all staff members at the campground by racing their skateboards up and down the sidewalk in front of our Rec Hall and by being less than pleasant in the swimming pool.  It was now to be my opportunity to interact with the group of young dark skinned full blooded boys.

            As I entered the shower room there was a lot of noise and inappropriate behavior being exhibited by this group of very over energetic young fellows.  I had previously had a few talks with them about using proper behavior and safe actions around public areas and was, by this time, not full of patience and calm understanding.  In a rather gruff and very adult voice I kicked the lot of them out of the restroom.  One poor young fellow asked, with a slightly fearful look his face, if he was going to be allowed to finish getting dressed.  I told him that if his behavior did not immediately improve I did not care if he went running naked into the parking lot.  He decided to quickly regain his proper composure and soon exit the restroom fully clothed.  His other companions had already gathered all of their belongings scattered to the four winds looking for safety.

            This is not an odd situation, nor an unexpected event in a campground.  Kids will be brats at times and often those times are at a campground.  It was in reflection that I feared that these kids might cry foul.  I was an old white man yelling at a group of black kids.  In so many times in our society a clamor of racism might swell up from this situation.  It did not this time, but the fear that it might did cloud my mind for a moment.  I was not acting in a racist manner, but that may not be the deciding factor many times.

            It was at this time that I realized that it was not the thought of racism that entered into this situation until my fertile imagination entered a reflective state.  It was not a racist urge that prompted me to act.  It was the simple act of inappropriate behavior that spurred me.  Mischievous boys are not bound or fueled by color.  They are fueled by unbridled energy and the need to test boundaries.  These young gentlemen had learned my boundaries this morning and if they viewed them through color sensitive lenses that was their choice. Both the boys and I know that by the way they quickly obeyed me that they had been caught on the other side of a fence of proper behavior that we both understood.  Proper behavior and actions are not color relevant nor should the enforcement of those rules be color selective.

            I do not know if the world changed this morning.  Race relations have not been improved nor damaged by my morning experiences.  I did notice that, in my behavior, my actions are most often directed by deep rooted feelings of fairness and expected proper behavior, not color tainted bigotry.  I also realized that deep within my unbiased soul society has placed a fear that I might be governed by inappropriate racist behavior and that I must be aware of that ill.  It is sensitivity that an age of inequality dictates.  We have made strides, but the dream is not yet a full reality.  I also learned that honest enforcement of rules is seldom a problem and is accepted by both the enforcer and the violator.

            It may not have been an epiphany of knowledge that I experienced this morning, but it was something to think about as I cleaned the dishes and wiped off the griddles.  And now, you too have walked through the cobwebs of my mind.

Wfdo2@msn.com

Date:                           July 23, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

0900

            Another busy weekend and another series of longs days at the Grand Island KOA are behind Connie and me and it is on to the living the life of a retired full timer.  When we are enjoying the “activity team” assignment it is difficult to call this work, but at the end of a busy weekend we do feel a bit exhausted.  This weekend was no exception and it has taken us a couple of days to return to whatever normal might be considered.  After our short work day Monday we spent most of the rest of the day trying to find our tails.  They were dragging somewhere behind us and we needed a bit of down time to see if we could elevate them to a regular buoyant position.  It was a chore that we did finally accomplish.

            On Tuesday we are supposed to be in the beginning of our “weekend” except that my lovely wife has a penchant for helping out and volunteered to cover for our park manager at the days “Color Time” activity.  What a nice lady.  I got to stay home and catch up on house chores.  Yes, I do help out around the house on occasion.  I may not be a great help, but I do my miniscule bit and it allowed us to go and play the afternoon away.  Even old geriatric retirees need a day or two of play on periodic occasions.  It is from this sojourn that my morning diatribe will emanate.

            Even on our time off we were doing “work” as we ventured out to accomplish some of shopping needed to replenish he supplies we used over the last weekend at the campground.  This is not a major burden to us and we needed some personal replenishing of our larder so it was not a big sacrifice to us.  We headed out on our shopping rounds and planned a visit to an Old Country Buffet as a treat to us for all the hard work we had accomplished over the weekend.  We were very successful on many levels.  We found most of the supplies we needed and we found an Old Country Buffet, all though it was not the one we had originally planned on attending.  It seems that the sign was still on the building, but all of the insides were someplace else.  Bless Sackie, she found an other place for us to fill out tummies and we arrived just minutes after most of Buffalo arrived to enjoy the over abundance of food.

            It is a shocking revelation to watch the amount of food that is consumed at a buffet by we Americans.  This Old Country Buffet was located in a shopping plaza that is not at its top in performance.  There are some stores located I in the plaza but it is not, obviously, one of the most popular shopping destinations in Buffalo.  This restaurant was, however, a very popular food destination and we actually had a slight problem finding a table at which we could eat.  The tables remained full and occupied all the time we were there and we did not notice sign of declining patrons as we left.  Plates were traveling up and down the aisles from table to buffet counter in a constant parade of over weight and under exercised food revelres.  I must admit that I also, probably, fit in that category.  At least, the eager food revelers did get some exercise as they trudged from their tables to the troth.

            After our foray into over eating, at least on my part, Connie and I decided it would be a nice thing to walk off some of our calories at the nearest mall.  We were in the market for an apron to use at the arts and crafts activity at the campground and we felt we might find something at a mall.  We were kind of wrong, but not totally.  The point at which I am headed is that we found one apron in the mall and it was a rather large mall.  There is just not the demand for aprons in today’s world.

            What does this have to do with the way the world turns, you ask?  It seems that we do not have the “at home” cook mentality in today’s busy world.  Why would you need an apron if you are not going to cook?  I sadly remember the picturesque scene with a mom standing in the kitchen, apron draped around her with steam and the aromas of a fresh meal filling the house making it a true “HOME.”  Today we do not see that scene and anecdotally we do not seem to need stores to carry aprons to sell to those picturesque statues of virtue and Americana.  We have become a country of fast food, buffet stuffing over weight Americans.  I have to believe that somewhere there is a connection between the lack of tables at a buffet and the lack of aprons at the mall.

            As Connie and I strolled off our evening meal at the under shopped mall I could not help but pontificate to my wife the failings of America as I saw them.  Somehow, in my simple mind, I was making a connection between over weight and under exercised buffet attendees and the lack of aprons in American malls.  I think that if you take a moment to reflect you will, at least, understand my weird foray into tangled logic. You might even find, deep in your logical mind, a stronger reason to support my postulations.

            Connie and I did have a good meal while eating with a few hundred of our closest friends from Buffalo.  We did, wisely, decide to walk off a few of the calories we consumed at the buffet troth.  And, I did get a subject on which I could fill a page or two on my blog.  It was a pretty good day in reflection.

Wfdo2@msn.com

Date:                           July 15, 2008 

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

0900

            It is not raining in my life this morning. If that statement is as non informational as it seems, you may need to read one of my previous post.  Having given you that information, it is truly a beautiful day on Grand Island.  At least meteorologically it is a bright blue morning with the hint of a cool breeze bathing me in comfort as I sit before my PC this morning.  Metaphorically things are also calm and clear, but maybe not as pristine as Mother Nature has provided on this day.

            Our weekend was much slower than we might have desired.  It was still a bit busy at times and fun to interact with the families that did brave the high cost of fuel and camping to enjoy the pleasure of fellowship of each other on a somewhat pleasant weekend.  We did have a storm come through the campground that blew an awning off a class A motorhome just across the street form our Fun Center and at one time I did see my wife chasing a rather large umbrella down the street in a driving rain storm, but it was mostly a pleasant weekend.  It can be exciting to see how wet a person can get in a very short amount of time when the heavens open up and dump buckets of rain water on everything.  I was wisely inside and under cover as all of this excitement unfolded and managed to remain much dryer.

            It was interesting how everyone that did brave the short torrential downpour managed to quickly get back into the spirit of having fun and enjoying the most available entertainment once the excitement of flying umbrellas and awnings was over.  They were involved in making tie dye t-shirts, and around here that is important.  As long as I could stay ahead of the pools of leaking rainwater on the floor of our Fun Center, and the campers could find a cover under which they could dip their twisted and knotted white t-shirt to make colorful twisted designs of art, life was good.  Life may have been a bit damp, but life was good.

            On Sunday we had our weekending pancake breakfast which can be a bit hectic.  This weekend we had a campground manager trainee as our able bodied assistant and things seemed to be progressing quite well.  On Saturday he had also been our server and odd job assistant and Connie and I had both enjoyed meting and getting to know him.  He has much experience in running and owning campgrounds previous to his entrance into the world of KOA and it was, at least, interesting getting to see his vigor and energy as he enters a new career at the borderline age of early retirement.  On this morning our pancake breakfast was not being too stressed and he was just filling in until he had other duties to perform.  Actually as the early morning unfolded we had our supplies prepared for a busy morning and by the near end of the first hour we had but one customer.  We were not overly stressed.  As such, Pat decided that he could be of much more value reporting to his next assignment a bit early and not just conversing with us.  We could not help but agree and wish him well as he headed to the reservation desk to spend the day.

            Guess what happened the moment he disappeared from sight.  Of course, everyone in the campground decided to show up for breakfast prior to leaving and making the drive home.  So, Connie was running everything else as I flipped pancakes as fast as was humanly possible.  The rush of customers did not last a long time, for the campground was not all that busy.  But for a moment or two we were not really sure which way was up or down.  The customers were very patient and tolerant; they all did get their plate of pancakes, eventually.  And, we managed to stay almost even with the demand.  We managed to keep some of our sanity and by days end we felt like it had been a pretty good day.

            As I started this entry, it is a nice day on Grand Island and we are still staying ahead of the demand.  Connie is sequestered in the laundry room, I have had a long chat with one of our neighbors about nothing and everything, and I have just finished my blog for the day.  I hope that your day will be or has been as successful and productive.

Wfdo2@msn.com

Date:                           July 12, 2008 

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

0600

            Yes the time is right and this just a test.

It is your turn to tell me how the weather is in your life.  Please drop us  note at the e-mail address listed below.

            Have a great day.

Wfdo2@msn.com

Date:                           July 11, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

0830

            I awoke this morning to the sounds of pitter patter on our home.  Yes, it was raining in my world and sadly in my life.  Metaphorically, it is not a tumultuous storm in either my life our in my world.  But, it is still a drizzly day.

            Do not fear.  I will not bore you with a stroll down self pity lane.  Nor will I spend a lot of my valuable leisure time regaling my misfortunes of life.  In reality, nothing is as bad from someone else’s perspective as it may seem from yours.  And, if we are honest, most people really don’t give a damn about your stubbed toe when they are lingering over a broken heart, or what ever.  Have I lost you yet?

            As I said, I awoke to a bit of rain in my world this morning.  That may be a good thing.  Connie and I took a much needed escape drive along the Niagara River, which is really not a river, and could not help but be alarmed by the seemingly over dry lawns in dire need of water.  This morning that cry for moisture is being addressed, I hope.

            A slight aside, if I may.  The Niagara River is not a real river because it is a connection between two large lakes:  Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.  As such this stretch of fast running and bountiful supply of water is truly a straight.  So in actuality, the Niagara River is really the Niagara straight between the two Great Lakes of Erie and Ontario.  Are you not a bit smarter now?  You’re glad you read this.

            On our slow path of escape yesterday, Connie and I stopped at the Silo for lunch.  It is a real silo located along the above mentioned straight and serves an adequate lunch.  The prices are a bit high, but we arrived just after every other tourist in the state and had to wait in a long line to order our haystack and hamburger.  When we left, the line seemed just as long as when we arrived and people were still waiting to reach into their pockets and pay 5 dollars for a mediocre hamburger.  I guess they can charge anything they want.

            The best reason to stop here is the offering of lunch beverage.  They make a $2.99 milkshake.  So what you ask.  It is a real milkshake, made with milk and ice cream, real ice cream.  They add a little syrup for flavor and many scoops of real ice cream.  Needless to say, I always have a strawberry shake.  Connie was even tempted today and finished a 16 ounce chocolate shake.  I promised to help her finish it if she could not handle the full cup of rich dessert beverage, but I noticed that as she deposited her cup in the proper receptacle it was very empty.  They are very good and, almost, erase the shock of paying too much for too little food.

            After lunch we decided that home was not the direction we needed to pursue at this time so we headed up along the shore of Lake Ontario.  Not a big adventure, but a beautiful reprieve form yellow and frustration.  The day was sunny, the lake was glistening and it was nice to enjoy the beauty of rural New York.  It is a beauty that we may take for granted at times and today was not to be one of those times.  It is not the dramatic beauty of the stark desert surrounded by towering crags of the Rockies, but there is a subtle beauty of rolling lush green filled with tress of every type.  Oaks, maple, and other deciduous giants are mingled in with the pine evergreens that will for ever hold there shade.  It is a relaxing beauty and a beauty that can be missed even if you are enjoying the exotic charm and majesty of other areas of our country.  It was a good drive.

            As we were slowly enjoying the charm of upstate New York we passed a small hidden campground located along the lake shore.  As we passed my lovely wife said that friends of ours stayed at that camp ground and, maybe we should go look just for fun.  A quick U-turn on an isolated road and slow entrance into the park found us sneaking up on grandma and her grandsons playing at a swing set.  Yes, our friends do live here and the grandparents we babysitting. 

            Sometime it is great to take a little detour in life and see what may be down the road not normally traveled.  We had a great afternoon catching up on old news, new news and plain old gossip news.  When we left we may have felt a little less sorry for our selves and we had a smile in our hearts to break the clouds of rain that had been forecast for the day.  Friends can heal more wounds by being friends and not doing anything than all the self pity in world can accomplish in an eon.

            It is still drizzling both metaphorically and in reality, but Connie and I are now very aware that if we should ever be driving along route 18 on the shore of Lake Ontario there is a welcome mat waiting our presence and that is a warm comforting fact.  So if you are driving down a sullen lane in your life and you see a side road that leads to a friend’s door, slow down, make the turn and someone’s life will be brightened.  Out of almost everything a little good can be found.

Date:                           July 8, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

1000

            It is a few days after our Nation’s birthday and Connie and I are just now beginning to catch our breath.  It is a lot of work to be the activity team at a very busy campground on that campgrounds busiest day of the year.  It is a lot of work, but at most times it is also a lot of fun.  Yes, working 14 hour days, dealing with some customers that are less than happy, and almost ignoring your visiting family can be fun; sort of.

            Our family came to visit us for the national celebration and the thank-you that they received is that w put them to work.  There were times, this weekend, that they were our saviors.  The extra pair of hands, extra smile and even the extra pair of legs which might be assisted by crutches came in very handy.  During our 2 very popular morning pancake breakfasts they were invaluable.  As is the way with “decent people” everyone pitched in and success was but a foregone conclusion.

            A slight aside, as you might have expected if you are a regular reader of my intellectual forays into blogging, I must tell you a simple story about part of our weekend.

            It was Saturday morning and I had been flipping pancakes as if they were actually good to eat and the word had gotten out.  We were to do more business this morning than we normally would do on a full weekend, or two mornings.  The people were very patient and we were serving them as fast as I could pour a, sometimes, very strange shape of batter on the grill and let it “bake” for a moment and flip it once to toast on the reverse.  I would then place it on a plate and Beth would run it to a table of hungry campers who would devour it.  The system worked quite fine.  Our family was helping out, for free, and Connie and I were almost keeping up with the demand.  It was frantic, fast and demanding, but the customers were pleasant, the weather was fantastic and the time was on a rocket sled streaking around the clock.

            During this constant onslaught of hungry campers our housekeeping team came in for their breakfast.  Normally they arrive during a very slow period in our morning and receive their free breakfast before they trudge on to make our restroom facilities as clean as is humanly possibly.  This morning was not to be the normal.  When they arrived it was very evident that it was not only not slow but it was bordering on disorganized ciaos.  I was running around like a chef with is head cut off and so was every other member of my family, even some on crutches.  I apologized for my inability to serve them, but promised that just as soon as I could their breakfast would be coming up.

            Now at this point they could have done one of many things.  They could have had a seat and taken a very well deserved rest. I realized that if I was this busy one can only imagine the amount of cleaning they had already done to serve this overflow crowd.  If they had chosen they could have stood over me causing me some stress and frustration waiting for their morning breakfast as soon as I could flip a cake their way.  They could have walked around the group campsites and look for lost change as some other work kampers had done previously.  Instead they decided to pitch in and help me catch up with this maddening crowd and help alleviate the stress under which we all were now trying to perform.  They just pitched in and worked at making our job easier.  The whole activity team was the better for their efforts, both the paid members of our team and the drafted unpaid members.

            Are these not the wonderful souls we all wish to meet as we travel through life?  They were willing to shoulder a little more burden to help lift the weight off of fellow team members backs.  They are an example, of the true worthy souls we meet as we travel around this country.  They are willing to be an additive contributor to the aid and benefit of their fellow man.

            Is this the end of the story? Of course not, why else would I have spent so much time getting to this point?  It seems that after they had help to remove some of our stress and provided a glimpse into the value of their individual souls a fellow housekeeping team member yelled at them.  They were chastised for helping someone else.  It was, according to this Neanderthal, not their job to help us.  The fact that, at that moment they had nothing they could do was not relevant.  They could just walk around the group campsites and look for dimes or something.  That would really impress this crowd of over charged campers to see a bunch of yellow shirts walking around like a pack of vultures accomplishing nothing except lining their own pockets with the pennies that accidently fell from someone else’s.

            Our morning went on and was very successful.  I still need to get to our visiting guardian angels and again thank them for their assistance.  I am sure I will try to apologize for the stupidity and unthinking of the slugs that inappropriately accosted them.  I am also sure that you might guess which of these team members I would choose to make an attempt to assist in any future moment.  I do know which of these team members have a soul and heart of which I can find reason to compliment.

            Offering assistance should never be wrong not should it be a source of rebuke.  But when it is I can only hope that you heart is warmed by the appreciation of the people you aided and that the sounds of the unearned chastisement fall on deaf ears, or you can at least consider the source.  Your soul has been enriched and your character has been duly recognized by the person that you assisted or at least by the God that you worship.

Date:                           July 4, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

0815

            Happy Birthday America.  I will not spoil this festive day with by ever so valuable opinion of where or how our country is doing.  I wasted enough time on that the other day.  I will not even expound on the fact that the real birthday of our country has already past and very few people even cared to celebrate it.  Look it up, we are celebrating the announcement of the birthday today and not the real event.  What I would like to rail about this morning is the inability of me especially to predict or plan anything that is affected by the weather.

            Yesterday was the beginning of our campground’s celebration of the 4^th of July.  It is also the, hopefully, beginning of a bit more activity around this place.  To get the long weekend off to a celebratory start Connie and I decided it might be fun to offer our campers a make shift snack shop upon their arrival. We had practiced this on a previous weekend and were planning on having “Grand Island Steamers”, Connie’s new name for steamed hotdogs, and assorted other snacks available on the porch as the weekend revelers arrived.  We planned on having music blaring and an ambience of festivity surrounding the registration area as our weekend visitors arrived.  It sounded like a great plan.

            When I woke up, yesterday, the weather did not seem to want to assists us.  The sky was bleak and foreboding and the sound of constant pitter patter was splashing off our motorhome.  I figured that standing in the rain to sell a hotdog was not going to be much fun and I figures that few people would really want to eat a hot dog from a soggy rain soaked bun.  After consulting my fabulous PC and broadband card I decided that a large line of nasty weather was coming from Michigan and the experts were predicting a steady onslaught of rain and nasty weather all day long.  It was supposed to last at least until early evening.  Bummer, this is not a good thing.

            Being the management mentality I am I asked my wife if we could change the plans just a bit.  Instead of being outside in the rain in front of the store, we could set up in the Fun Center and offer our fun to the campers in the confines of a dry recreation hall.  After she looked at the weather forecast and the radar images she agreed.  It was now our work to place new posters around the campground and set up our new make shift snack bar in the protective covering of our recreation hall.  This sounds like a pretty good idea and very intelligent on our part.

            As we were preparing the area for our hotdog steamer, cheese warmer, we also were offering nachos, and placing our sodas and candy bars on the counter the skies opened up.  It not only rained it became a torrential down pour.  Boy, did we feel smart.  What a great idea!  We were protected, the campers could find some dry solace to their weekend and we could sell them a hotdog.  What a smart idea we had had.

No sooner had we made our final electrical connection, placed our package of hotdogs in the steamer and placed our concessions on the counter, then the rain stopped.  It just turned off as quickly and abruptly as it had started.  Well this was not a bad thing.  It had been predicted that is was going to go through these horrendous storms all day and we were prepared.

Well, it did not rain all day long.  It did not rain half the day. It did not rain again.  Our well conceived plan had just been laughed at by Mother Nature.  There is one thing in life that you can plan on and that is that you can not plan on the weather doing anything it is supposed to do.  We still ran our snack bar.  It was far from a rousing success.  We did not get terribly wet, but than nether did anyone else in the campground who found much better things to do than come and visit our little respite form the torrential downpour that never arrived at the Grand Island KOA.

I am not looking for sympathy.  I am sure that you are not offering any.  I just wanted you to live vicariously in my life for just a few moments.  And, maybe feel the frustration of attempting to plan anything that can be dependant on Mother Nature doing what she has been predicted to do.

Have a great 4^th of July.  Don’t look at the weather channel before you make your plans.  They have no idea what is going to happen and will lie about it just to keep your attention.

Date:                           July 2, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

1000

            Sipping my morning coffee and preparing for another day at the Grand Island KOA I can not help but think about the winds of change and how they are so often ignored.  We each awake every morning to a new world and yet we think that we are just continuing in the same rut in which we fell asleep the previous night.  On a simple scale this may be true.  We are still living the life we were yesterday, we are still, hopefully, with our partner with whom we spent the previous day, and we are still the same person.

Yet, everything has changed.

            One morning we wake up and we are no longer in a stick home in Bath, we are on an Island in the middle of a straight of water that connects to of the world’s Great Lakes.  And, we are living in a bus.  When did it all change?  We awake on a morning and turn on the news and a black man is running for president, gallon of gas is nearly $5.00, and we are mired in two wars in a land that most ff us can’t find on a map.  And, oh yes, our president and country’s leadership lied about the reasons we went to war and now most of the world looks down their collectives noses at us for the hypocrite we a have become as a country.  When did everything change?

            The winds of change are tumultuously blowing every second of every day, yet we seem to ignore the shifting sands of reality as we plod along in our simple little lives.  Then we awake one day and everything has turned to ka ka and we wonder how it happened.  When did everything change so drastically and why did not someone try to prevent it from getting this messed up?

            I do not have answers to these questions.  I do not know if anyone does.  I do think it is an area of thought we all should visit and contemplate on the real ramifications.  Political maneuvering and posturing does affect you and every person on this earth.  A failure form Texas did wonder into the White House and now we are watching the world, along with this country, pay the price for failure of our electorate.  It maters not if he was elected or illegally appoint to office the failures of the Bush administration is, and will for the duration of our lives cause pain and trauma to us as a country and as individuals.  Yet there are still 1 in 5 or more people that still support this idiot.  A trashed constitution will survive over time it is the people that are ruled under it that I fear are going to suffer.  Now is when everything is changing.

            The winds of change are rustling through our lives as we sip our morning coffee and watch our “reality” TV show.  I know not how to redirect the blowing chaos to a more proper direction.  I know not even which proposed leader would best lead us in that effort.  I do know that if we set idly by the continued tempest of changing winds will lead to a very different world and I am not sure it is a better world.  I wish I could advise you on how to attempt a mid course correction.  Maybe if I can just get you to notice that we are, indeed, in the midst if a tornado of destructive changes I will have accomplished a small bit of my effort at corrective direction changes.  If I fail, you can continue sipping your coffee, watching your soap operas, and complaining about the price of eggs.  But, I will fear for the world that we are leaving for your children, and grandchildren will show the dastardly effects of the winds of change that blew through our lives.  The next door family of Stella and Mary will be much less traumatic than inability of our children to buy a loaf of $10.00 bread or purchase enough of the $20.00 a gallon gas to get to work so they can make the balloon payment on their mortgage.

            I know not where I planned on going with this diatribe.  I know not, even, if this is a worth while expression of my time.  I do hope that I have caused someone to think and maybe they will cause someone to think and maybe they will find a way to redirect some of the winds of change that are blowing through our lives right now.  If something does not change than nothing will change, and I am not sure I like where we are and where we are headed right now.  We need a changing wind, I am not sure we need the winds of change that are storming through our lives right at this moment.

            I have vented. I feel now better. And, now I must go live my life after I finish sipping my morning coffee.  Have a nice day! ?

Date:                           June 26, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

0800

            This is the best of times, and this is the worst of times, and this is the time for me to explore my simple tale of 2 cities.  One “city” is a visit to my granddaughter’s rite of passage known as her 6^th grade graduation and the other city is a simple fish and chips dinner.

            Being at the Grand Island KOA has, at its best offering, allowed Connie and me to become a more consistent participant in our grandchildren’s, and their parents, life this summer.  For grandma and grandpa that has been a blessing.  We can only hope that it is not too much of a burden on our family.  Part of the proximity pleasure of our summer location is that we could easily attend Beth’s 6^th grade graduation.  Grandma even had the pleasure of making her dress for the occasion.  It was a bit of a chore, but still a pleasure for the seamstress and a perceived honor from the recipient.  Beth was adamant that “Gram-cracker” make her dress, once she knew the possibility existed.  It seemed to be a meaningful gift and moment that both grandma and granddaughter could share.  From a slightly biased position, I think grandma did a great job and granddaughter looked fantastic.  Beth looked very appropriate and stylish as she walked across the stage to receive her 6^th grade diploma and a very impressive collection of awards for academic prowess and educational deportment.

            It was as Beth sat on stage with her North Collins school mates that I was to visit the first of my 2 cities.  Beth was, due to grandma’s creation and design, very properly attired in a simple yet eloquent dress that neither hid her beauty nor seem to place it on a street corned for sale.  Many of the almost teenagers that strolled across the stage on this evening were in costumes that were inappropriate and unbefitting their age.  Slinky crepe fabric draped across a burgeoning body is not, in my humble opinion, proper attire for a girl still awaiting the arrival of all of her body parts.  Some of the girls seemed almost too comfortable in the Jezebel attire that adorned their forming bodies.  Other poor children were noticeably very uncomfortable in the revealing and provocative costumes that some pimp had dressed them.  I was not sure if I should feel sorry for the little children or angry at the despicable parent that was trying to steal the last moments of innocents and youth from their children.

            I had entered, sadly again, the city of over sexed under appreciated youth we call our early teens years now days.  Yes, I sound old and stuffy.  But I truly do fear that we will pay for the theft of the youth of our children.  Anyone that is beyond the age of consent knows that youth is all too fleeting and adult responsibility must be learned, and should be taught from proper guidance and example.  Slinky, revealing dresses that belong on bodies in the windows on the streets of Holland do not have a place on our children at their 6^th grade graduation.  Parents, get your heads out of your rectums these are your children.  They are not your property for sale on a street corner.  Let them live their childhood.  Adult responsibility and sexual forays into society will come soon enough, but please not at the end of elementary school.  Please don’t thrust these munchkins into stress of the worst of times before their’re due.

            The other city of my diatribe is, as it is the classic novel, somewhat the antithesis of the former.  Connie and I drove along the Niagara River, which is not really a river, to a small eatery for a simple dinner.  This is not note worthy nor is it monumental.  But it is a chance for 2 older geriatric to relive a moment of a long gone youth.  Our evening meal was made and served at a silo located along the Niagara River.  Yes, it was that kind of silo.  The top of the silo was ringed with a patio supplied with picnic tables and we ordered our meal in the center, or the actual enclosed part of the silo.  Again, I reiterate that this is not overly eventful.  But, it was a youthful excursion to a time when you might take your best date to a drive-in and have a soda or a hamburger and not be in a world of gilts and plastic.  We did drive up to the silo and we did have a soda, I even had a real milkshake made with milk and ice cream.  It was a date with by best girl and for a moment as we sat on the swing in the near by park and watched the water from Lake Erie flow into the Lake Ontario maybe we did revisit our youth.  As the sun sat over the Canadian side of the flowing straight it was a very pleasant reprieve form adulthood as our troubles seem to flow away with the water as it made its long progression form the Great Lakes on the west to the Atlantic Ocean on the east.  This was a visit to the best of times.

            It is a far far better thing to live your youth as long as you can and not hurry to the demands of adulthood any early than is demanded of you.  And as you age it is a far far better place to go as you revisit the simplicity of your youth at each and every occasion that may present itself to you.  You have a choice of 2 cities in which you can live;  one of over stressful pressure to grow up and become something that you may not be prepared to be yet;  or, slow down a bit and live your youth experiences so that you will, as you reach a senior status, wish to revisit as often as the opportunity arises. 

Date:                           June 24, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

0900

            Yesterday Connie and I had an exciting day of doing almost nothing.  This is not a bad note of depression, just a fact.  After the very busy weekend, it was a pleasant reprieve to enjoy the life of a “normal” retiree.  Connie got to read a book and I got to play on the computer making a spreadsheet in Excel that I will, probably, never use.  But, it was fun making and I can now track all of our activity weekends at the KOA and magically rate each event in the amount of money taken in or the amount of participation we were able to get form the campers.  It is a bit awesome what a formula and a bit of planning can do in an Excel spreadsheet.  By simply inputting our weekend numbers I can tally the year to date progress, the weekend progress and find the most successful offerings, all in the flash of hitting an “enter” button on my PC.  You have to love Microsoft Office.

            As a side note of tantamount interest to everyone, Connie and I managed to get new glasses this summer.  This is not overly interesting, but a fact.  After a month or so of wearing our new spectacles, Connie noticed that hers were not fitting as snuggly as she might like so we traveled to our local Empire Vision store for a little adjustment.  After the enormous amount we paid for these pieces of glass I figured they should make the minor tightening adjustments.  As we were walking in to the store I noticed that my new glasses seem to be a bit foggy and after a closer glance it seemed that the lenses were beginning to show small scratches.  I mentioned this to the technician/eye professional as he was adjusting Connie’s glasses.  To jump to the story conclusion, we went over to the store yesterday and picked up my new new glasses.  It seems that there has been a problem with the application of the coating on the glasses and mine were a fine example of what can go wrong.

            You ask, why do I care about any of this, and why is he babbling on about a few small scratches on his new bifocals.  There are two reasons: First, if your wife needs her glasses adjusted it is always best to take them to the experts and do it as soon as it is conveniently possible.  Second, it never hurts to mention a problem to someone that can fix it.  You might get a new pair of glasses.  Empire Vision was very accommodating and eager to see that I was satisfied with my purchase.  There was never a moment when they tried to blame me or my careless handling of my glasses for the problem.  Honesty and customer care does still exist in some business and it is refreshing to be on the receiving end of its example.

            I was going to spout off about politics this morning, but you can thank your lucky stars that I changed my mind.  Let me just say that my candidate as raised over a quarter of a billion dollars (yes that is with a B) to run a campaign of change and new direction.  He now finds it politically expedient to compromise his “stated “ principles, acquiesce to violate our civil and constitutional rights as citizens of a “democratic” government for political posturing and is showing his prowess as a powerful and extremely competent politician.  All of this is the name of change, what a crock.  I think I will vote for Ann Shirley Sullivan Bear.  She is the bear that sit on our bed each day and holds court with the other stuffed animals that rule our motorhome.  There is not a one of them that, I believe, couldn’t do a better job at running this country than any of the bozos now in Washington.

            Whoops, I slipped, and I promised not to talk politics. If a poor black kid form Chicago and manipulative women form the Whitehouse can run for president, why can’t I vote for Ann Shirley Sullivan Bear?

Date:                           June 23, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

0800

            Another week end is in the history books at the Grand Island KOA in western New York.  That is not a monumental piece of news but it is what is happening in my life and that is what this blog is all about.  It is also what just happens be on my mind this morning.

            Dealing with the public is an excursion into a land of never ending surprise.  There are so many levels of confusion filtering my opinion of the people that frequent our park that I feel like I have just gotten off the boat most of the time.  We try our best to appeal to the temperament of the people that come here for a rather expensive weekend of camping and some times we succeed and sometimes we fall flat on our faces.  This weekend seemed to have both reactions.  This weekend was our Mexican Fiesta. This may not have been the smartest idea in the blue collar shadow of upstate New York’s biggest city, Buffalo.  But, we thought it might provide some fun and it is our responsibility to offer new and fun stuff to our campers

            On Friday night we played it safe and offered a Nacho Party with chips, hot cheese sauce and sodas, all to be followed by a rousing game of bingo.  This seemed like a good way to touch the new with a Mexican snack and keeping the old with the geriatric game of bingo.  We had one person for nachos and 2 people for bingo.  I guess you could say that was a pretty large failure.  The grandmother and her granddaughter seem to have fun at bingo. They won every game.  I think Connie and I ate as many chips as we sold.

            On Saturday morning we offered a change to our regular pancake breakfast.  We made breakfast burritos.  This was a very new experiment for Connie and me.  We had never tried this before and had very little idea just what we were doing.  Our lack of knowledge seemed to  matter very little.  We had very few customers and ranked this experiment among our other failures. The burrito were actually quite good and every one of the very few customers complimented the chef on their out.  It was a good idea only maybe not in the right place.  It was too bad for the many that let fear and ignorance keep them away form our rather great tasting breakfast.

            By now, Connie and I had decided that this crowd was a lack luster bunch of non doers and our weekend was to be a colossal failure.  This is not a major depressing event, just a bit of information that must be stored for future thought.  We still have a full day of planned activities and events, and if we offer it we must provide it; even if only 1 or 2 people show up for the event.  Our morning Arts and Craft class was as well attended as normal.  But, I guess if it is arts and crafts it does not matter that the project is Mexican as long as the little munchkins get to play at making something.  I made a new friend.  He was about 3 or 4 and he like to talk.  I can become a good listener and he became a great shadow.

            Our afternoon planned Piñata Party was expected to be a colossal flop.  The weather was portending rain and thunderstorms and this crowd is not the adventurous type.  But, we had it on the schedule and if it appears it must happen.  From somewhere in the back woods of the Netherlands a crowd of people appeared and we had a ball swinging a “special” stick at a suspended, brightly colored bull.  He was suspended from a make shift pole constructed of a drain pipe, some very brightly colored rope used to tie down our movie screen and a long piece of twine.  All of this was constructed and precariously positioned in our recreation hall and safe from the threatening explosion of Mother Nature.  Moms, dads and a passel of kids yelled, laughed and finally scrambled for free candy as the bull finally succumbed to the stressful beating he was talking and showered the rather large group with his bounty.  This laughter and candy gathering was followed by an ice cream social where I could hardly dip fast enough to keep up with the orders  Where had all of these people come from and where had they been up until now.

            Our day was completed with our normal excursion into the land of tie dye.  This has been a very popular event at this KOA and this weekend was no exception.  We had better than 20 people opt to make shirts of varying colors and swirls.  This was about normal, but quite unexpected on this weekend.  As Connie and I dragged our tired bodies home after a very long and full day we were feeling a little bit better about our weekend.  Somehow the sluggish crowd had come to life and we all seemed to be having fun.  We had made some weekend friends and they had some new experiences to take home.  That sounds like a successful weekend to me.

            Our final hurrah was to be a return to our normal pancake breakfast on Sunday.  After our fiasco with the breakfast burrito I was not too optimistic.  Maybe the people were a bit “spent out”.  Camping here is not cheap and it cost entirely too much to buy fuel to get here.  But again, if it is on the schedule we must provide it.  As the morning started I expected to shut down our breakfast early and be home in time for lunch.  For the first half hour and nearly the fist hour we had not had enough people to justify firing up the grill.  I kept telling Connie to not make any more batter or sausage because we would just have to throw it all away.  Then something happened.  I am not at all sure what it was or how it happen, but soon it was nearly an hour and a half later and we had made nearly $250 on breakfast.  It is all kind of a blur.  I was flipping pancakes like it was raining saucers form heaven and poor Connie was doing everything else; making the batter, frying the sausage, filling the juice glasses and taking the money, and also serving the customers.  It was kind of fun in a labor intensive, dead run kind of way.  Families were coming in groups of 6 to 10 or bigger and we were almost keeping up with the demand.  At about 10:30 when we served our last customer, we normally close at 10:00, Connie and I were just a bit exhausted.

            Our failure of a week end had been quite a success.  The new was not as well received as we might have wished, but those that did partake seemed very happy and enjoyed the fun.  The normal was very popular and profitable for KOA.  That is a good thing in this economic time we are now mired in.  A lot of people left with smiles on their faces and fun stories to tell their friends.  Hopefully making the expense of the weekend a but more justifiable.  I am still profoundly confused in any attempt to predict how a given crowd of people will ever react to any given situation.  I guess we offer and try to expand the envelope as best we can and let the customer decide if it is worth their effort to enjoy the activity.  I will never fully understand or try to predict the attitude of a group of campers.  I will admit that, on most occasions, a group of family campers are fun to be around.  I guess that is why we are doing what we are doing.  Some of the campers looked a bit mystified at us as we tried to explain some of our life style and adventures.  It all seems normal to both Connie and me, but it sounds almost other worldly to others as we attempt to describe our travels and full timer attitude.  But, I guess that is why we are here and they are not.

Date:                           June 21, 2008            

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

0615

            Yes, the time is right, for you that know my love for sleeping late, but that is the reality of being an activity worker at the KOA.  This morning Connie and I are heading out to prepare a burrito breakfast for our campers.  This is going to be quite an experience on many levels.  First we are in Buffalo where beer and hotdogs are considered a gourmet meal; secondly neither Connie nor I have any idea how to cook burritos.  Life can be fun if you just let it happen.

            Last evening we were assigned to entertaining our campers with a nacho party and rousing game of bingo.  One might have thought that should be a fun evening.  I must say that the evening was fun, on some level, but not too exciting.  We did get to use some new equipment such as a warmer and a sauce pump.  We did eat a lot of good nacho chips.  But, we did not have a very good turn out.  We sold 1 serving of nachos to a fellow workampers and we had 2 people show up for bingo.  How could a rousing game of bingo go so unattended in the suburbs of Buffalo?  The last time we had a bingo game at the campground we had so many people attend that we has to turn some away.  It may have been the excitement of a competitive game of bingo that called the throng or it might have been my entertaining way of not taking the game too seriously that filled all of our chairs and used all of our game cards.  Last night we were prepared.  We had extra bingo cards, extra bingo chips and extra chairs and tables for the crowd.  At 7:30 we had a long line of 2 people ready to play; A grandmother and her young tween.  We played the game and, at least, 2 people seem to have fun.  The competition was not too stressful and the young teen, or so, went home with an arm load of prizes.

            We are finding that reading the attitudes of the people that camp here is nearly impossible.  Sometimes the people seem to come out of the walls to partake in the provided entertainment and then sometimes the walls seem to eat the people.  We will see how our morning adventure turns out.  I am guessing that we will have a few leftover burritos.  So, if you are hungry and want to sample a very un-Mexican breakfast, we will save you a burrito.  By the way, this afternoon we are having a piñata party.  I am guessing that we will have room for a couple of new attendees, if you have nothing better to do this afternoon.  Work here is not stressful, it is just more fun sometimes than others.

Date:                           June 20, 2008

Location:                    Grand Island, NY

1000

            I woke this morning to a grey and rain portending morning and I realized that I was no longer parked along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in Carrabelle, FL.  It is not March anymore and I have been quite delinquent in my duties as a Blog contributor.  There are many reasons for this subtle, but dramatic turn in my life.  I am sure that none of this is really worth my time whining about or your time in reading about.  Suffice it to say that I got lazy and tired of waiting to hear from anyone that might be reading my efforts.  As terrible as I am at contributing to this media, you readers are monstrously worse at offering any sort of simple feed back.

            That was until I got a note from my sister.  Why is it always your sister/ brother that extracts your buried head and directs you in the proper direction?  My lovely sister let me know that I had become quite delinquent in my blog efforts and she was wondering just where in the heck I was and how I was doing.  Well, Caroline, I am in Grand Island, New York working as part of the activity team at the Grand Island KOA and I am doing just fine.  Maybe a bit lazy and feeling sorry fro myself, but that is just about normal.  I have noticed, over the last few days, that someone is going to my blog home page and it might even be someone that I know.  It might also be an oriental person that seems to have taken some kind of interest in my meanderings.  Who ever it might be, after you read this it is your responsibility to send me a note and tell me what you think of my thoughts, efforts and expressions.  If this dictate applies to you also you can reach me at: wfdo2@msn.com , that is my blog e-mail.

            What have I been doing over the last few weeks leading to months?  Mainly I have been being me and enjoying the life I live with my best friend.  We have moved from the shore of the Gulf of Mexico to a large island located in the middle of the Niagara River.  The sun has spent most of the time being a typical New York sun.  That means it keeps hidden behind the clouds and colors the days with a wide grey funk paint brush.  The temperature on this island retreat has allowed us to test and use our heat pumps, air conditioner and heat pumps again; sometime all in the same 24 hour period.  Connie and I are “working” as activity coordinators at the Grand Island KOA.  I know, I thought I would never work for this conglomerate example of an over priced campground again either.  It is, however, very close to the kids in North Collins and they have their camper parked right behind us for free.  The work is quite easy, most of the time, we are not caught up in the politics of disgruntled workampers due to the dynamics of our assignments.  And, did I mention that it is close to our kids?

            Connie and I have spent too much time following the historical political campaign that is unfolding before our eyes on TV and in the news.  So far, our candidate is on the winning side of the news and is poised to write new chapters in American history.  I am not sure it is a perfect chapter, but it is a long over due chapter and I am sure as the season progresses I will find time to regale you with my treasured opinions.  I have, at this moment, a note awaiting his response in his e-mail.  It seems that to this moment I have received only the automated response allowed by today’s electronic technology.  So much for the concept of change and respect for the common man’s opinion.  The automated response alludes to the busy stress of winning in Iowa.  At least the computer wonks could update their not so polite dis-ing of the American electorate.  Hillary, at least, answered my pointed and opinionated diatribes.  I may not have liked the answers, but they were a personal response, or at least a response form a person. Oh well, maybe Barack’s opinion of change and mine differ in definition.

            So world, I am here, still in good opinionated form and living in the grey funk of New York.  I will endeavor to keep my blog a bit more current (Caroline) and maybe I will instill some of you readers to drop me a line to encourage me to continue.  Connie just told me, “It is not a nice day.” But then it is a day and this is the latest offering of my addled mind for your enjoyment.