Wondering why I lost the internet.

I can not get on the Internet my normal way.  I am now using a Verizon Hot Spot, but it needs charged and will not last long.  Just wondering what is wrong.  It could be that the my line was cut.  A fellow staying with my son tried to drive through my front lot yesterday after it rained here for a couple of days.  Of course he got stuck and kept spinning his wheels on his 4x4 truck, trying to get out.  He sunk in very deep and I bet he broke one of my two buried phone lines that comes to my house.  It runs through where he was stuck.  My land line works but the Internet line doesn't.  I saw what was going on when I came home from having eye surgery yesterday.  I am not a happy camper.  Other people's stupidity affect a lot of people!!  Well, at least I hope you have a great day, you hear?

Wondering about the great Halloween CME.

What is a CME?  These letters stand for "Coronal Mass Ejection".  It seems that our sun is now quite active with a lot of active sunspot regions that is generating a lot of solar flares and result is  series of CMEs.  Some will sweep past the Earth and some will deliver a glancing blow.  So, if your cell phones or your satellite TVs start acting goofy, you will know what is causing it.  But today, to help celebrate Halloween, we may take a direct hit.  There was an eruption from an Earth-facing sunspot on Monday.  Here are a couple of pictures of them taken from the SOHO satellite:

 

 

OK, do you want to know more about them?  If not, stop reading and go to some other blog.  If you do, just read on. . .

CMEs are quite fast.  They travel out into space from the sun at about 2000 miles per second, that is 7.2 million miles per hour.  I bet you can't outrun them, even in a really fast car or jet or rocket.  They can also contain ten billion tons of mass.  Imaging being punched in the face with that much mass.

Of course, if we do take a direct hit, the part of the world closer to the poles will be affected the most.  Canada and northern US, England, Europe, etc will get the strongest affects.  But, even though this is Halloween, make sure you treat all those ghosts and goblins with a lots of real sweet candy and have a great day, you hear? 

Wondering about superstition.

Are you superstitious?  I am not sure if I am or not.  I always said that I wasn't but somewhere deep down inside, I am sure that there is at least a very small shred of it clinging on.  Go to this list:
http://discovermagazine.com/2013/oct/23-20-things-you-didnt-know-about-superstition#.UnEqAvmkrGU

Now, look at number 13.  What it means to me is that the more intelligent a person is the less superstitious that person is.  Of course it had to be listed as number 13 and that is very, very unlucky, right?

This picture was taken from that site and it looks like the perfect place to take a long walk at midnight on Halloween.  You all go there and I will meet you there. . .(a sly grin).

We are getting a lot of rain here.  Maybe for the first time in many years my whole swamp/pond area will get filled. . . and maybe not.  I will let you know about that, of course, after the rain stops and it dries out a little. 

Wandering out to do KP on the RV.

Yesterday was such a nice day, so I went out and did KP duty on the RV.  Actually, "KP" duty is "Kitchen Duty", but I sort of use the term loosely to mean any kind of cleaning or maintenance duty, but the main reason is it rhymed with RV.  The most important thing I wanted to do was dump the fresh water tank and refill with fresh water.  It took a long, long time for the RV to pump out the fresh water since the hundred gallon tank was almost completely full, so that gave me time to open all the compartments, check what was in everything, move some things around, and make sure everything was stored right for going on down the road.

Here are some pictures I took while I was playing working on the RV.  The first one is looking down the curb side from the rear with all six storage doors open.  The rear three open up but the rear two only open up to the horizontal position so the slides can clear.  That is the reason the front three open like doors.  The middle one is between the two curb side slides and can open the whole way.

Now this next one is looking from the rear down the driver's side.  The first compartment from the front (shown closed in this picture) is the propane tank.  The next one is for the huge rolling table that can be pulled out either side of the RV.  It is the full width of the vehicle so my fishing poles fit in it just fine.  The next one is the water system and the last one to the rear is the electric system.

 And of course you couldn't go down the road without a motor.  Hidden deep in the rear of the RV is the yellow colored Cat Engine.  Can you see it down in there?

The diesel generator is located in the front of the RV.  When it is not running while driving down the road, all you can hear is some wind noise.  Of course, in the heat of Texas it is usually running so that both roof air conditioners can run while traveling.  That way, all of the RV can be kept nice and cool.  The AC's also have heating elements, but if it gets real cold, you would want to run the furnace to keep the basement from getting to freezing temperatures.

Everything checked out, now if I can only get all my doctor appointments completed, we can hit the road, probably to a Texas State Park.  Hope you enjoyed the tour of the exterior of my RV and you all have a great day, you hear?

Wondering, "Do you want some arsenic with that?"

"Arsenic"; that word conjures up all kinds of murder mysteries.  In all the old books and movies, it seemed that arsenic was the poison of choice.  The name itself gives its nature away, it was derived from the ancient Greek "arsenikon" which meant "potent".  It was used to describe arsenic trioxide which can be lethal at 100 milligrams which is about a fifth of a teaspoon.  Since it is tasteless and odorless, it made one of the most frequently used homicidal poisons in history, and of course, in fiction.  So, do you want some arsenic with that?

Well, of course you don't but you may getting it anyway.  We get it in our food supply.  Do you eat any rice?  A lot of the U.S. rice crop is grown in fields that contain arsenic-based pesticides once used on cotton crops.  The pure element arsenic can and does mix with many compounds, some organic and some inorganic.  (Organic means containing carbon and inorganic would be everything else.)  And guess what?  It doesn't take much to start causing trouble.  And even in an amount comparable to one drop in a swimming pool over time can cause deadly affects, like cancer, etc.

It used to be that the health officials only worried about arsenic in drinking water, but now, they are finding it in a lot of our food.  The really scary part is that it is showing up in jars of baby food.  We sure have poisoned our Earth, haven't we?  I sure hope I haven't ruined your appetite.  I am getting hungry, so will have to go get my daily dosage of arsenic.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

Wondering about a header picture.

Last night I got thinking that since most all blogs have a header picture, mine should have one, too.  Now, what the heck should put up there as a header picture.  My beautiful face. .  Heck no, I don't want to scare off any more readers than my writing and spelling does.  Well, most of the spelling gets corrected by the spelling checker and my wife reads it soon after it is posted and always tells me what words I misspelled, misused, or should not be used in that particular case.

I went through all my pictures from the last couple of years and finally decided on one that I took when I visited Ink's Lake State Park back about a year ago.  So that is what I did.  I can always change it later if I want to, but for now I think it will do.

In case you haven't heard yet, the Orange Jeep Dad has kept his string of bad luck going.  The house that he and his family moved into burned down along with everything they had including their two vehicles.  You may want to go to his site and check it out: http://orangejeepdad.blogspot.com/   I guess from now on he will have to change his blogging name to "Charred Jeep Dad", but to be serious, I hope all works out for him.

Let me know if that header picture is OK or give suggestions for what you like to see as header pictures on sites.  Now you all have yourselves a great day, you hear?

Wondering about the flea market and found a friend.

Yep, the weekend is here and of course we went to the flea market.  In the second row of outside sheltered tables that we walked through, I found this friend:

Ain't she cute?  It is a puppet.  You stick you hand up her in the hole in her lower back, put your thumb in her left arm, your little finger in her right arm, and the remaining fingers in her head.  I sat her in the crook of my left arm with her feet hanging over.  As I walked through the rest of the flea market, I would animate her and wave at everyone, especially the kids.  I would also clap her hands and try to make her look very life like.  I actually did fool a few people.

It was worth the effort.  I got lots of laughs and comments.  I just love to see people smile and laugh.  I guess I missed my calling. . . should have been a comedian.  You see, at my age I don't care if some people think I am stupid or crazy.  In fact, it is way too late to change me and I don't care!!  I want to make the time I have left a happy time.  Like the guy says on "Duck Dynasty", "happy, happy, happy."  BTW, my dogs did not like the monkey.  Guess I got to get this monkey off my back and hide it from the pups or it will be a pile of fluff and bits and pieces of cloth and hair.  I wonder if they are jealous or just think it is a new toy for them?  In case you are wondering, our pups have many, many, many toys.  It is another perfectly beautiful day her in East Texas and I hope it is nice where you are, too.  So, have yourself a great Saturday, you hear?