Good morning readers. Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.
When I brought up the screen to post I noticed it’s November 18. Old Sol’s muttering to me that he’s becoming bored with all my scurryings and goings on every time I go around him again without becoming a bit wiser in any way discernable by alert human beings.
But tomorrow I’ll have gotten by with it 70 times despite a persistent, continuing foolishness and determination to smack head-on into heavy, solid objects. One such object I’ll be telling you about here, but that’s later on in the post. But first, a few other matters.
My friend Rich and his wife Lisa came to visit a few days recently. We spent a lot of time just savoring the company, hours and days flashing by in such rapid sequence I’m reminded of those strobes a person used to have a to deal with on dance floors during the 1980s when I try to remember the details.
All I can say for certain is the time passed more as a pleasant dream than some feet-on-the-ground experience anchored in reality.
But somewhere during all that Rich fixed my computer so’s it connected online through WIFI. When I left one evening he was downloading several years of updates to Windows Vista and AVG, which turned out to be a considerable task.
Rich has an amazing music collection and he brought along an 8gb flash drive loaded with some I didn’t have. Took a T-drive back with him I’d freed up 600 gb from and he’ll be sending me the rest of what he has.
Amazing times we live in, where a thing such as that can happen.
Reality did rear up and whinny, however.
The second night I was driving home, moderate speed, and saw a dim shape in the oncoming lane ahead. Thought it might be a deer and moved my foot to the brake, but before I could press the pedal it became a frightened, full grown buck.
I stood the RV on its nose while the deer ran in front, reversed himself, ran back, then back again before the WHACK. A catastrophy for the deer, but a wild stroke of luck for me.
The incident revealed all the cabinet doors in the RV suffered from metal fatigue. Every item I’d carefully arranged in those cabinets, securely stored, came down, forward, cans of cat food hitting the back of my head, all manner of articles filling the floorboard underfoot. A crucial piece of knowledge I’d hate to have learned under different circumstances.
So the past few days have been spent scratching my head about the best ways for securing belongings in a vehicle destined to travel at highway speeds with the potential for sudden stops. Studying those cabinet doors for ways to lock them shut.
Trying out cargo nets as an option.
Installing recycled refrigerator shelves and ways to secure what’s on them, along with a platform from a grader-ditch cooler-top for the comp to sit on when I need it as a GPS, a place for incidentals the rest of the time.
Which is all to say, these are things I needed to know, bought at the price of minimal damage to the RV, the life of a buck deer, and enough expense making repairs to cut into the gas money I’d been hoarding.
Well worth the cost of setting back departure clock enough to accomodate it.
I’ve been waiting almost 70 years for this trip and the cats assure me a few more days won’t matter.
Old Jules
So Far From Heaven 
Happy Birthday, Jules! And many happy returns of the day! Best wishes for safe journeying.
lesleehare: Gracias. At my age it’s all safe, the safety just manifesting itself in its own peculiar ways. J
Happy Birthday, Jules, let the celebration start right away. Sorry about the buck but I’m glad you’re safe and back to the fray. Hopefully there won’t be any other such incident in the next 70 ahead. Secure those cat food cans and keep on truckin’ if anything, then for the sake of those who’re no longer waving hi from the side of the road. Wesley
Thanks Wesley. If the Universe decides to offer up anymore deer as growth experiences I’m figuring on giving it an argument. Glad to see you again. Gracias, J
Hi Jules,
Good to hear/read from you again. I’m happy that you “survived” the incident without (major) harm.
Take care, and have a great Thanksgiving,
Pit
Hi Jules,
Good to hear/read from you again. And first of all: happy birthday to you! I’m happy that you “survived” the incident without (major) harm.
Take care, and have a great Thanksgiving,
Pit
Thanks Pit. If you and I visited out in the real world you’d be one of the things I’d miss about Texas. Glad you came by for a read. Gracias, J
Hi Jules,
Thank you ever so much for that wonderful compliment you pay me here. 🙂 Which I can only return! And who knows if our paths may at some time in the future actually cross.
Take best of care, my friend,
Pit
Congrats on another orbit Jules, hope there are many more to follow!
I trust the cats, if they were aboard for this demonstration of the conservation of momentum, were confined to areas safe for them…and you. Many years ago I demonstrated this law of physics to a canine companion while driving a VW van and ended up temporarily wearing him as a scarf! The resulting neck injury bothers me to this day. Waldo, the dog, survived unscathed. I would imagine that one or more cats wrapped around one’s neck in a similar situation would likely be an experience best avoided.
Jack
Hi Jack. The cats weren’t aboard for this one, for which I’m grateful. Might have raised their anxiety levels when the wheels begin rolling with them somewhere atop. Interesting anecdote about Waldo. Got me wondering whether he was skittish getting in the vehicle afterward. Thanks for the visit, J
No Jules, not a bit. Waldo’s life long anxieties were mostly about bees, wasps, hornets and cats though if dogs have some kind of afterlife he may have become fairly anxious regarding motor vehicles after the ex backed over him one night. He and his cat, Scrat, were arguing over something under the family car. Waldo was 14 at the time and had slowed down quite a bit, Scrat being a youngster was quick enough to avoid Waldo’s fate. Sure am looking forward to tales of your journeys with the cats.
Jack
Jack: Poor old Waldo might be out there being a cat this lifetime, now. Sheeze. Gracias, J
Glad to see you blogging again. Where was your cat when you had to make that quick stop? They have claws, so they can hold on.
Hi Dizzydick. All three were back at the cabin. I’d as soon if some such thing happens again they’ll be holding on tight in the overhead. Gracias, J
Good read Jules, I certainly hope your venture takes a better turn. but, as things usually happen for the best, one way of another, take care and so glad you are writing again.
Good morning and thanks, Ray’s Mom. My thought is that everything’s going to work out one way or the other, which will be a relief. Gracias, J
A very amusing tale of last minute preparations before the great adventure… Wishing you good luck in every aspect of it, and good company from the cats. A birthday is best celebrated by beginning a new voyage, a new chapter… sometimes, a new bottle…
Thank you SimonZ: Got a smile from me… so good morning back at you. The only bottle I’m interested in at the moment is horse linament, though one with a genie inside might get a bid from me. Gracias, J
A lesson learned the hard way. Nice to see you back with new material.
Good morning swabby429. Thanks. I have a knack for learning things the hard way, then forgetting them so’s I get to enjoy them again. Gracias, J
Happy Birthday Jules… glad you’re OK… Que tu camino sea su propio
(hope that came out right – I don’t speak spanish)
M
Good morning Matt. and thanks. J
Hope the 70th anniversary of your first Sol rotation goes well! I use cheap baby-proof-thingies on certain cabinets to keep the cats and dog away from things they would eat too much of, otherwise. Mine required screws, but maybe there’s a double-back tape and magnet variety?
Hi and good seeing you heretherebespiders: Thank you. I’ll have a look for something of that nature Gracias, J
Actually… If the cabinets are metal, maybe just some really good magnets would do the job? Old dead hard drives have a strong, but really ugly awkwardly shaped magnet inside, maybe you could find a passel of those to use?
heretherebespiders: Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve got some of those, too. Might be moved to use them. At the moment my fingers are covered with wrinkled super glue from putting several of the rare earth magnets into duty. They seem to work well, but I have a lot of cabinet doors. Might be at this a while before I get it all done. Gracias, J
Happy Birthday Jules. Good to hear that the cats were not with you and that you are ok.
Glad to see you blogging again.
Hi Belinda. Yeah, the cats were pleased about it, too. Incidently, I might be swinging through Terlingua on the way out. Might drop by the American Legion for a burger and beer or something, see if anyone I recognize from their blogs are hanging around. I’ll tip my hat if I spot you. Gracias, J
You listen to those cats. They’re not very sociable, but they seem to have their head straight concerning priorities.
Good morning TW Ditmer. I agree and defer to their judgement. Thanks for coming by. Gracias, J
Rare earth button magnets, Jules…but you have to drill countersinks for all…available at woodworking shops. Glad for the good brakes…I just had a $900 dollar brake job on my old motor home. We’ll be heading west also during the first week of December. Good luck!
Good morning the wanderer. Great suggestion. Great one has me wondering where my rare earth button magnets are. I think that’s one I’ll give a try today if I can find a few. Gracias, J
Happy Birthday! I was delighted to find this post in my reader. Visiting with old friends is such a joy; “savored company” says it all.
Will stay tuned for the next installment.
Hi elroyjones, and thanks. Yeah, those sorts of visits don’t happen often enough in life to grow stale. Glad for your visit, also. Gracias, J
Hey Old Jules. My morning visit to the blogosphere is so much more mundane when you’re not part of it! Good to hear from you. Happy Birthday and keep on trucking!
Thanks Jane. Glad you dropped in. The birthday’s not eventful, thus far, but the cats have explained a few things to me they’d been holding back until I turned 70. Bummer.
Hey, your luck is better than mine. The last time I met a deer on the road it basically destroyed my little Isuzu pickup. On the other hand, I can’t forget the sight of a deer trying to stand up while sliding in front of me some 60 MPH down the road.
Hi Ed. Good seeing you. Poor old Isuzu’s oughtn’t have to put up with such things, but there’s no justice. Gracias, J