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.

Well, it actually started about 3 weeks ago, but it came to a proverbial "head" on Tuesday the 25th.  Both Bob and I have experienced a great deal of physical pain from walking on the concrete, and the limited number of opportunities to sit during the ten hour work day.  Bob's back, however, had been getting worse, despite his heavy use of muscle rub and icy hot and patches.  Tuesday morning he woke up not feeling too well, but we went to work anyway.  He tried to last for the entire day, but there were just too many large and heavy orders, and he shocked the heck outta me by announcing at 1:30 in the afternoon that he couldn't make it to five and that we needed to go home.  So home we went ... dosed ourselves with pain killers and muscle rubs, and hoped for the best.

Wednesday we managed to get up and go to Wal-Mart, where we got the haircuts in the salon that's in the front, but even that was too much and we ended up in the ER that night.

This is our second trip to the ER in the 7 weeks.  Bob got an ear infection early on, and we ended up in the ER for that, but didn't miss any work.  For a small town, Coffeyville's ER is amazing.  Coming from Crescent City, where an ER visit is a minimum of 6 to 12 hrs, and where we've stayed for up to 25 hours without his being admitted, to get in and out of this ER in under 5 hrs was just a blessing.  And both times the doctor administered meds there, in case we couldn't get the prescriptions until the next day.  Gotta LOVE that part.

So the Dr. thinks at first that it's a kidney stone ... blood work, urine samples, and a cat scan later, they can't find one so Dr. decides it must be a muscle spasm, and gives him a couple of shots, two prescriptions, and instructs him to followup on Friday at his office.  That's something else we liked about this hospital:  the ER is staffed by local doctors, not rent-a-medics. 

BUT ... he can't drive given these meds, and he can't be left alone, so ... we both have to miss work.  So we do the mandatory call in, and take our point-lumps.  You accumulate points for missing work, and when you reach a certain number of points, they give you the boot.

Friday he's worse, and the doctor won't release him for work (Gee, ya think?) of course, and changes his meds again and schedules a follow up for Monday.  Wal Mart pharmacy didn't carry one of the prescriptions, so we had to drive back into town to another pharmacy for one, and then back to Walmart for the other, and of course one of the meds isn't covered by his insurance so we're out of pocket $64.

Monday he saw two doctors, as the one from the ER brought in a second doctor as a consult, and they both said he should go back to TX to see his regular doctors, given his medical history.  The alternative would be for them to admit him to the hospital and start running tests.  Given that  his Scott and White insurance probably wouldn't cover that, being out of plan and all, it became a no brainer to get ourselves back to TX as quickly as we could.

That wasn't as easy as you might have expected ... more coming in the next blog post.

This is a clip that my husband took during an unrehearsed jam session in 2010.  We'd gone to an open mic night, and found that only 3 people who could play anything showed up, and one of them didn't bring his guitar. So, since the place was empty and we were among friends, we tried a lot of stuff.  This is one of the few clips that turned out half way decent and worth sharing.

That's me on the left, playing my fiddle, or at least pretending to play, since I'm self taught.

I can sure see that I've lost weight.  Wow.  I think I'm around 25 lbs lighter now.

Sorry for the rocky start ... that just happens to be where he turned the camera on.  We didn't know he was shooting video.  To be totally honest, I'm not entirely sure HE knew he was shooting video, ha-ha-ha.  As you can hear, the guitar is too close to him ... but given that it was a relatively inexpensive little Sony Cybershot, the sound quality isn't all that bad!

Anyway, I sure miss my fiddle.  I brought along my Pancordion accordion, which I've had energy to play exactly twice, and my small keyboard which is just taking up space in the bedroom.  However ... God Help Me ... I found a little Gold Excelsior Accordiana in the local pawn shop.  It's a bit over priced, but it's so much lighter than the Crucianelli, that I'm horribly tempted to go buy it.

I feel like celebrating.  We have made it a little over a quarter of the way through this adventure.

On the plus side, I've reduced my gravitational pull by a full 15 pounds, we've made some much needed repairs to the van with a few more planned, and added quite a few kitchen appliances to the trailer including a microwave and new crock-pot.  We've enjoyed meeting and visiting with some of the other campers, and we've experienced the joy of being recognized and greeted while out shopping.  The only other place that happens is Crescent City.

On the negative side of the balance sheet, though, is the physical pain from the high level of activity that we were not adequately prepared for, the expenses for work shoes, OTC pain medication, and the frustrations associated with working for people who lack skills we've come to expect from managers.  Being treated disrespectfully by young people who haven't a clue about who we are and what we know is uncomfortable, and the whole factory setting that treats employees like cattle is a royal pain in the proverbial drain.

We work what's known as the donut shift, but we don't get donuts.  It means we work two days with one management team, skip a day, then work two days with the other daytime management team.  You'd think that both teams would be operating out of the same handbook, but there are differences and remembering who wants what is frustrating at times.  Several work practices are mandatory on one of the shifts and verboten on the other.  One has a happy, helpful, "we're all on one team" approach, while the other has the most unhappy, "I gotta get MY numbers, so screw you"  attitude, it's unreal.  That's been difficult to work in for a couple of reasons.  First, the job curtails personal freedom and expression just because of what it is we are doing, and also because at this point in our lives we've become accustomed to a retirement lifestyle and having to punch a time clock and submit to security checks and having our lunch bag examined is annoying.

The biggest issue for most of us recently, however, is that the break room and bathroom closest to our work area is being remodeled and is inaccessible.  So on the 15 minute break, which you lose at least 5 minutes of walking out of your work area, you have to add a lengthy hike to get to a toilet.  No allowance has been made for people to travel this extra distance, and we are told we must stay at our stations right up until the moment the clock ticks over to the designated break time.  So if I try to use the facilities on my scheduled break, I literally only get to sit as long as it takes to urinate, and I can just barely get back to my work station before I'm deemed late. 

Lunches have been a nightmare, because it's literally a 7 or 8 minute walk from where we end our morning shift to the security checkpoint at the break room, so we lose almost half of our lunch break just getting to our lunch.  Then if we happen to trigger the alarm, which my new bra did one day, we have to empty our pockets and go be scanned with a wand ... and our names get put on a list ... and there goes another 2 to 5 minutes.  The break room is very large, but there are no entrances at the back due to security issues, so you literally have to walk the length of the room, go through security, and then walk all the way back to your lunch.  I've become the fastest eater ever in my attempts to consume enough food to sustain me for the course of my second half work day.  I'm very relieved to find that yesterday the back break room had been reopened, although it didn't yet have the ice machine or refrigerators back in place.  What I'm most anxious about, though, is the reopening of the restroom.  I hope it's operational again next week.

I've spent a great deal of time pondering this whole situation, and also working hard at adjusting my own attitude so that I can survive this without a mental break down.  This job doesn't use any of my skills other than eye hand coordination and physical strength and stamina. They don't want me to think ... just move faster.   I'm trying, but there's a limit to how fast an oldish body like this one can adapt.  I get so tired that I'm falling asleep almost as soon as we get home, sometimes I don't even want to eat.  Then when I get a day off, I end up sleeping 12 to 14 hours.  Makes the time go by faster, but sure makes it feel as though all I do is work.  I'm hoping that as I get stronger and develop some additional endurance (and reduce my mass along the way) that going faster will become easier.

I play mind games with myself to help with the stress.  I tell myself that I'm being paid to lose weight, that I'm an athlete in training, and that this stint will not only pay for my products at the Trade Show in March, but also that I will be ready to walk the aisles without collapsing.  The last Trade Show we attended, we walked so much the first day, that the next day I felt like my legs were going to pop out of my hip sockets.  It was a really strange and painful feeling, but thankfully it passed after a few days of rest and lighter activity.

So here I am at the beginning of the second two-days-off-in-a-row weekend in my big Up The River adventure, looking forward to some Facebook time, getting some cleaning and organizing of the Argosy done, and visiting with our new friends.  I know it's going to slip by quickly, so I intend to savor every moment.  I think it's Ram Dass who always says, "Be Here Now" ... and that's my  motto for this weekend.