I have often heard the phrase, "Time Flies When You're Having Fun" but as I realize today I have not posted here in over a YEAR, most of which has NOT been fun, I have to assume that time is going to fly no matter what you do.  It just goes and you get old and wonder what you did for the past 50 years.

No, I'm not a grump this morning, but I have some things weighing heavy on my heart, and of course that means my head is getting involved.

What happened is that a scraper picked up a blog that I deleted a year or so ago, and my husband still had a feedburner subscription to it so when he got a foreign language spam "new post" alert, he thought I'd been hacked in a big, bad way.  To be honest, I couldn't remember if I'd deleted all the blogger blogs or if I had just wanted to, so I had to spend some time digging around in my notes to find my correct log in and password so I could check.  That's what started me down this rabbit hole this morning, and in process I realized I have a lot of things here that need fixing.  So ... that's what's spurring this update post this morning.  

A lot has happened in the past year, but I guess the biggest "news" is that we opted to work in "Santa's Sweatshop" again this year.  The images are mine, top one is a view of the campers line up before everybody arrived, and the second image is the old view from our front steps before the view blocking trailer moved in, and also before the owner tore down those two houses.  I'm glad to tell you he left that gorgeous magnificent tree in place.  I just love looking at that tree.

We started early this year, in August, so we have completed 13 weeks in the sweat shop.  Just five and a half more weeks and we will earn that twice missed bonus on our third attempt.  

I spent a lot of time this past year deleting projects and trying to eliminate many of the shiny objects that have distracted me.  That's why I no longer have any blogs up on blogger, and I am down to 4 urls that I own now.  I also cut way back on affiliate marketing, and while we spent some time "feeding the River Beast" and opening a store on "the Big Bay", the internet sales tax issue looms large and is disconcerting.

So I closed the store on the 'Bay and stopped feeding the River Beast when the opportunity arose to go work in the Sweat Shop.  The fact that we can both work and get a paycheck with overtime most weeks, plus my online job that I have managed to hang on to, means we have a chance to fix more things on the Argosy and perhaps get out on the road again in 2015.  God I hope so!

That online job is with LeapForce - if you are looking for a legitimate online job and have a lot of attention to detail and the ability to do really boring, tedious work, here's a link to their current openings:  LeapForce Jobs

It's really old news now, but it's part of what brings me to this neglected website this morning:  Squidoo sold content and writers to HubPages.  I had eliminated all but 3 of my lenses, and they got transferred, only I have not yet had time to go claim the account and/or delete it.  That's on my ever lengthening "to do" list.  I noticed I have a lot of bad links here that I need to delete and replace with better ones.  That's how I wound up on this blog today.

As Squidoo was going belly up, I found another site called bubblews that was paying writers for social commentary, similar to FaceBook's social commentary without the slick interface.  That platform has undergone tremendous changes, and now the pay has dropped dramatically.  Still ... I only need about 2000 more likes, views, and comments to collect my last $50 and then I think I'll just let it slip away quietly. If you want to see what I've done there, here's the link: My Bubblews Profile.

Today is my day off, and it's supposed to snow today.  If it does, I guess I'll be writing another post to show y'all my snowman.  We get Saturdays and Wednesdays off, Sunday is our overtime day, and it looks like we'll be working every Sunday until December 23 rolls around.  That's our scheduled layoff date, but that could change given as how they are closing this facility forever, and might keep some campers on for a little longer to help them turn out the lights.  If they want to keep us longer, we'll stay.  Opportunities for folks over 70 to earn money and get overtime are few and far between, and hubby is very pleased that we are still here after 13 weeks of mostly 50 hr workweeks.  Got some bills paid off, got some things fixed, and now we are poised to save up some money for next year's needs.  We got a bad case of "work sux, but we need those bux".  I'm sure you can relate.  

By the way ... that photo at the top is of a necklace that's available on Amazon.  It's linked with my amazon affiliate link so if you were to click on it and then buy something on Amazon, I'd probably get a little commission from Amazon.  I"m not asking you to click, I hasten to say, just letting you know where I got the photo and disclosing my affiliate relationship with Amazon so as to meet the FTC requirements.  

That, my friend, is the chore hanging over my head.  There are about 80 Hawaiian shirts hanging there that are waiting for me to photograph and list on eBay.  

See, we got a little crazy while Thrifting for Profit last year, and before we realized it, we'd acquired a huge inventory for eBay along with the stuff we wanted to ship to Amazon.  This is the result.

But I digress, because there's a little more to this story.

When last I blogged, we were hunkered down in the Argosy in the Lucky Too RV Park out by Elgin.  You may recall that last year, about this time as a matter of fact, we had to abandon our plans in order to care for my adult disabled son, who was at risk due to a change in the roomies living at his brother's house.  So for almost a full year, he resided with us in a space that was totally inadequate for his physical size.  It took a toll on everyone, and along the way we had some damages to the Argosy that really needed to be addressed that were impossible to repair with all 3 of us living in it.

That's how we came to rent an apartment in north Austin in February.  So now the yellow wagon sits in one storage yard, while the Argosy sits in another, and we are sort of "camping" in a 2 bedroom 2.5 bath townhouse apartment that's only 2 miles from our daughter.

So far, so good, except ...

• Moving in wiped out every shred of savings we had managed to accumulate
• We'd only been here a few days when Bob fell down the stairs and had to be transported to the ER by ambulance
• We discovered that rats have demolished most of the stuff in storage, so we have a huge chore ahead of us to divest ourselves of the damaged goods
• Daughter's alcoholic room mate has had multiple drunk in public episodes, and we've been involved with some of that drama
• Discovered Son had run out of meds and had to make an ER trip for an emergency refill, of course we discovered this after he flipped out as a result of not taking his meds ...
• And, last but not least, the Cold From Hell that has kicked our proverbial butts bigtime for nearly the entire month and still won't let go some 4 weeks later.

Oh, I'm sure there's more, but ... you get the idea.  Excrement Occurs and Shift Happens and no matter how bad it gets, it's still good to be alive and that which does not kill us makes us stronger... or so "they" say, whoever the heck THEY are.

So here it is March 1 and time to pay the rent again and we have only managed to empty the Argosy and make ONE lousy load from storage, most of which is still piled up in the living room because I've been too sick to work on it much.

So ... this morning I broke down and applied for another visit to the sliding fee scale clinic, hoping this time somebody there will listen to what's going on with this god-awful gut pain and muscle spasms in my back, and help me figure out what's causing it so we can maybe make it go away.  Got my fingers crossed anyway.

Been thinking a lot about dying and what's going to happen to me when hubby expires, since I have only his income at the moment, and also what's to become of my son when I expire.  Not pretty, these thoughts.  But ... on the bright side, I've been recording videos of my music so my kids will have them to remember me by. 

I've stopped worrying about what I look like or how I sound, I just want to leave some memories of the music.  Here's what that looks like. 

I love snapping photos of our cats when they are in bed with my husband.  :)  This one is of our older male cat ... he wasn't really amused that I tiptoed in and made the camera go clickety-click-click. 

Well, here we are in 2013 and I haven't written much for awhile.  Guess this morning is as good as any to add a few words to the saga that is my life.  **smile**

We are still hunkered down at the Lucky Too RV Park just outside of Elgin in Texas.  The managers here are nice, but honestly, this isn't an RV Park as much as it is a low rent trailer park ... with almost no amenities.  Now even the free WiFi has gone belly up, so I've been working with my new smart phone for something like 3 weeks now.  Consequently, I haven't done much online that's useful, although I did manage to build a new Squidoo Lens yesterday for Valentine's Day. I was playing with the templates in a program I purchased, and used the red one to put the products on this page I titled "Chocolates For Your Valentine: Best Gift Ever!"   That's the first new lens I've made in a LONG time.  I did, however, delete another hundred or so lenses that weren't performing well.  I kept the requisite 100, but only about 40 of those earn any money, so I think from here on out I'll delete a bad one for every new one I build.  I know people go nutso when I delete squidoo lenses, but really ... I think culling the herd is important.  

Princess Pounce-A-Lot, she of many names, has entered her first heat cycle this past week.  I had so hoped to get her spayed before this happened, but you know how the best laid plans can often go awry, and this was no exception.  Hopefully it won't last too many more days.  

One new activity Bob and I have begun is buying at thrift shops with the intent of reselling on eBay and/or Amazon.  We haven't broken even yet, but we've sure learned a lot.  Anyway, I snapped this photo back in December when we were out looking for treasures.  I think somebody at Goodwill needs their head examined.

Well - not much else to tell today.  Here's hoping that 2013 turns out to be a lot better for all of us than 2010, 2011, and 2012 were.  Ciao for now!

The cool weather has finally arrived, so our older cat has taken to getting under the covers at night.  This is what I saw when I woke up this morning.

It's coming up on another new year, and I am experiencing some angst over how poorly our plans for 2012 turned out.  Circumstances beyond our control just beat us down time and again.  That's 3 years in a row now, and I am just worn out from the whole enchilada.

I didn't realize how far down into the abyss my brain was until I had to put myself on Facebook Time Out today for over sharing and, God Forbid, being a Negative Nellie.  For shame, for shame.

The thing is, other than the people at the medical facilities, the coworkers at Amazon,  and the occasional short conversation with the manager at the RV Park, I have not had face to face contact with anyone who isn't an immediate family member in over 2 years.  I cannot remember the last time I went anywhere by myself except to the bathroom.  My son is difficult to live with under the best of circumstances, and being cooped up in the middle of nowhere in a tiny travel trailer with nobody but me to talk to has us both pretty much at wits end.  This has been going on for nine months now, and I don't see it getting any better in the future.

It feels like a Catch-22 most of the time.  Damned if I do, Damned if I don't and no solutions that allow me time, money, or energy to take care of myself. 

It's my own fault, I know.  I've made decisions based on the knowledge and information I've had, and things have happened that nobody could have foreseen and it's been brutal to keep trying to overcome obstacles.  I'm not blaming anyone for where I am, just saying that my head isn't in a good place and I know it.

Anyway, said all that to say this ... I probably won't be blogging here much next year.  What energy I have is going to have to be channeled into activities that bring a better return on my investment of time, and blogging here just to let off steam isn't good for anybody, including me. 

Hope 2013 surprises me with something better, but I am not ho

Pulled out of Coffeyville on Tuesday, October 2.  Made a wrong turn at a weird circle thing, and boy was that a lucky mistake.  About 3 miles down the road into Oklahoma, we saw a service station by a couple of casinos, and found we'd lost a tire somewhere.  At least this time we didn't lose the entire wheel like we did on the way up to Coffeyville.  No, only the tire had blown and was so shredded at so be nearly unrecognizable. 

I really should have taken a photo, but I was so tired and so on-edge from the knowing we were lost, that I took a $20 and while we waited for the tire guy to come and replace the tire, I played the slots in the little casino behind the convenience store.  It was called Lil’ Bit of Paradise Casino – Chilocco, and appears to be not connected to the large casino, First Council Casino, next door. 

By the time the tire was fixed, it was too late to get back on the road, so we opted for dinner in the large casino and enjoyed the best calzones we've had in ages at the FlatWater Sports Bar & Grill.  Really, really good food.  We dry camped there in the huge empty parking lot, and hit the road early on Wednesday morning. Bob opted to drive as far as the Winstar RV Park in Thackerville, Oklahoma, and we pulled in there fairly early in the afternoon. 

What a GREAT place to stay!  The spaces are all concrete, and since they aren't full up right now, they put us onto a 2 unit spot to use like a pull through.  Space rent for one overnight was only $20, and that included use of the hot tub and swimming pool, free coffee and hot chocolate in the office, all utilities and a decent wifi connection, as well.  Plus there's a shuttle bus that goes to and from the casino, too.

We rested, then went for a nice soak in the hot tub.  Wow, did that ever feel nice on our sore bodies!  I should have gone into the pool before I dipped in the hot tub, though, because I just couldn't tolerate the coolness of the water.  My son enjoyed it, though.

After that, we changed and got the shuttle over to the casino, intending to eat at the buffet.  The prices were just too high, though, so we opted for burgers and fries at the burger joint ... NYC Burgers & Dogs located right next door to the over priced buffet.  The burgers were awesomely delicious, and amazingly enough, not overpriced for what you got.  We'd eat there again in a heartbeat!

The Winstar has billboards saying that it is the second largest casino in the world, and it's probably true since they just keep building and building and building.  It's a very, very long walk from one end to the other ... so long, in fact, that people will actually go outside and wait for one of the shuttles to get to another section rather than walk that far.

Surprisingly enough, at least to me, was that there are quite a few folks living in the RV park on a month to month basis.  For what you get, it's really a deal ~ $420 a month and all the amenities, plus laundry that's only $1 to wash and $1 to dry.  Everything is new and clean and just a delight.  Thackerville is quite small, but it seems that the RV park is close enough to other things besides the Casino to make it attractive as a month or more stay.  I know I'd love to go back and see more of the area.  I'd have to stay out of the casino, though, unless I won enough to keep playing, 'cause I'm pretty sure I could go broke really fast playing some of my favorite games there. 

All good things must end, and we got back on the road to TX fairly early on Thursday, driving down IH35.  Bob opted to miss a lot of the traffic by taking the Toll Road 130, which would have been great except for one thing:  another tire blew almost as soon as we were on the road.  I'd just rolled down my window, as a matter of fact, which is the ONLY reason we knew we had a flat tire.

The Argosy pulls so well, that both times we lost a tire (once the entire wheel, including rim, and the second the blowout on Tuesday) we were no aware that anything had happened.  No change in how it felt driving either time.  So to hear the tire go was a very fortuitous event.  We pulled off at the first exit, onto a farm road, and we essentially crawled slowly in a left then right zig zag inching our way towards Round Rock. 

We finally found University Avenue, and went to the first gas station we came to, so we could get some cold water and use a phone book.  That's the gas station we pulled in to below. (google maps are awesome!)

Ended up calling our daughter, who used Google to find out that we were only 2 blocks from a Lamb's Tire center.  Talk about happy campers!  We were quite relieved to know how close we were, and given that this was tire #3 to go, we opted to replace both tires on that side rather than take any chances that the last of the 4 would blow.

Travel from there to the Lucky Too was a short journey, and upon arrival we found that the spot we'd vacated in August had come available just that morning, so we pulled right back in where we'd been before.

Now it's just a matter of getting Bob to his medical appointments here in TX, and finding out when our next big adventure can begin.

Looking back, I'm not sorry we went to Amazon again, but I'm also not really too sorry that the adventure ended abruptly.  Today marks the end of the second week since I last packed a box there, and I'm still taking pain pills for sore muscles.  The excessive arm movement and lifting of cases seems to have really messed up the muscles in my chest wall and across my back.  I noticed yesterday while doing laundry how holding anything at arm's length still is quite painful.

I wish I could say that we ended up money ahead this time, but we spent it as fast as we earned it fixing up the van with a new front end and two new tires, and then the trip home and 3 new tires rather exhausted what was left.  But we've got new clothes, shoes, and stuff for the trailer, so we can be happy about that.  There's always something to be grateful for and happy about.