Campfire

[MandysMom]

Well 16 done and 26 to go. I really want to change to a mid size (34-36 ft) class A so I have a better kitchen and bigger fridge for hubby's mostly puréed diet so we can travel and keep him comfortable. Might or might not make It to the rv show as I can't seem to find out who will be there, rv dealer wise. I called la Mesa and they won't be there. And they have the widest variety in the area.
Still waiting for the start of rain, around 4 they say.
Glad all in cold country are staying mostly in and warm.
Barbara, my MN son has told me how stupid guys are with trucks there. Said they sometimes have to pay for environmental cleanup too if truck leaks oil. My son ice fishes but he's smarter I hope having his father in law as his mentor.
Gotta get a snack and take son to PT.
Have a good evening.
Velda

[snowball]

Ah yes Karen I do remember taking ACLS years ago. Well have a safe trip and maybe there will be something new.
Scare lights are a new term to me. Are they special spotlights or? Our van just has a small porch light as does our bus.
Beth, so glad he is maybe "seeing the light" and hope he behaves from now on.
Its after midnight west coast time so I can say, have a great day all. Thursday is another drive to UCD for treatment 16 of 42 and the son to PT for his knees. No rest for the wicked or the weary around here. Did get a tid bit of good news I think from his radiation Oncologist wednesday who said yes after this is done he is pretty sure the cancer will be gone completely. Waaaaaa I wanna go camping! Heard there is a small indoor rv show at nearby McClellen Air Park this weekend. If Mel's not too tired we may go for a while.
Velda

Velda
that is pretty much what they are...special spot lights that you can flip on if you are uneasy about a noise ect
there is on ours one on each side and they come on at the same time fairly bright lights
sheila

[BarbaraRose]

Barbara, my MN son has told me how stupid guys are with trucks there. Said they sometimes have to pay for environmental cleanup too if truck leaks oil

They do get fined for polluting the lake from the oil, etc. in the vehicles. Both those trucks tried to drive thru the same two channels that two vehicles went thru the ice two years ago and 3 people died in those cases, including a baby that was strapped into a car seat. I wish they would put fences across the channels instead of the tiny signs they put up. Snowmobilers skip across open water in the channels all the time. Most make it across, some do not. Cars and trucks never make it thru.

[avalen]

looking forward to a stress free evening, and weekend too.
Stopped at the store on the way home, got a bottle of wine and a movie then....
meeting up with Carolb in the morning for breakfast and Sunday I'm visiting a friend in AJ before she heads back to Colorado.
My foot is feeling better, at least I'm not afraid its broken anymore but my eye icky thing is still there, was hoping it would
pop but not yet. If this continues guess I'll have to go see the dermatologist and ask them to lance it. I actually feel like I'm on
a little bit of home vacation with my neighbor out of town.... no worries.

[BarbaraRose]

Ava, glad your foot is feeling better. I'd have taken care of the eye thing right away. That would really bug me!

A snowmobile went thru the ice last night, driving thru the block-long channel into the bay my dad lives on. Because it is such a long, narrow channel, there is a very strong current that flows thru there and keeps the ice very thin. Several years ago, two teenagers actually tried to drive a car thru there and, of course, didn't make it, but they did get out OK. I can't believe how many people out here think they can do that. There are several channels that don't even have any ice on them right now.

Also just read a story about a family who had their 6 year old boy "kidnapped" to teach him a lesson on not trusting strangers because he was too nice! Well, he was terrorized and traumatized by the whole thing. The family members were arrested, but this poor little boy is probably damaged for life now, emotionally. What is wrong with people??

OK, I need to take a break from reading the news...time to watch Two and a Half Men and Hot In Cleveland (reruns) and have some good laughs before going to bed!

[JudyJB]

Michigan has always had problems with idiot ice fishermen who walk out on the ice or drive trucks, sometimes as far as a mile. Then the ice breaks away from the shore and they have to call out helicopters to rescue them. This usually happens in nice weather in March or April when they should know better.

So the state started charging them something like $5,000 per rescue, but the idiots still go out on unsafe ice and need to be rescued!! They Lise their vehicles usually because the coast guard or helicopters deal only with human beings.

[dayspring39]

Oh my Barbie the snowmobile going through the ice bought back horrid memories of when I was in high school... during winter break we called it Christmas break back then... my mind is a bit fuzzy but 3 or 4 believe it was 4 of my classmates went walking across Wolf Lake... it had been rather mild so the ice was not deep... they were having such a great time when the ice broke... one of the fellas got to shore and went up an embankment to a house but sadly the others drown... the one never came back to high school he joined the service... our mind does not remember all of these things at once it would be so over whelming... sorry for the downer...

[BarbaraRose]

It is so tragic when those things happen, especially since they are avoidable. Just a little common sense and some precautions can prevent these kinds of things from happening. Two years ago a family drove thru a channel (to avoid the cops because the parents had been drinking) and the car went thru the ice. Both parents and a young girl survived, but the baby was strapped in a car seat in back and did not. By the time divers got to her, she had drowned. The father went to jail, his wife divorced him and he has to live with killing his baby daughter, for the rest of his life.

Just some common sense...seems like that is not so common anymore.

[gingerK]

Barbie that is so sad to think about the little one. Yes, common sense is all but dead in this country unfortunately. Do you think it's in part due to our younger generation growing up playing video games in which they can just reset and do over? As if there are no consequences to their actions. I sometimes wonder about that. Also might be because they have grown up with Mom and Dad giving them everything under the sun so they don't value things when they have them and don't take care of them? I just don't know.

On a totally different topic, I have a (very!) young new camping friend I met through another FB page and we get together for lunch and thrift store shopping every once in a while. She bought a neat item I thought the others on our page would really enjoy seeing so I told her to post it. She said that would require her to take a picture with her camera and then post to the page as she doesn't have a smart phone! I was nearly floored by this as she's twenty-something and here I am staring down the barrell of 60 and even I have a smart phone! It just struck my funny bone!

[bluepinecones]

My cell phone is still the plain and simple type.

[JudyJB]

I don’t think you can blame video games. Let me tell you a story about my dad when he was young, late 20s or early 30s.

My mother had a lot of brothers, most of whom worked for my dad as carpenters. There was a lake nearby where you could put out an ice fishing shanty for the season. Now most ice shanties were small and roughly built with just enough structure to keep the wind off fishermen.

So, one day, my dad and my uncles decided to build an ice shanty and put it on the lake. They each contributed extra building materials they had laying around—sheets of plywood, etc. Except they had LOTS of materials lying around and they liked their comfort, so they put on a real roof with shingles, put in a partially carpeted plywood floor with a couple of fishing holes in it, added a double-hung window, and installed a real wood front door with an attached screen door. From what I was told, it looked really professional!

Only problem was that it was at least 4 times heavier than the usual ice shanty, so when they came back the next weekend, there was nothing showing but the peak of the roof! Luckily no one was inside when it sank.

When they all got older, they got a lot more sensible, but it is fun to hear the old stories.

[Acadianmom]

My brothers and friends and even my boys did things in high school that would get them arrested today. Thank goodness we never lived where there was much ice and snow.

Martha

[Bethers]

Judy, I love that story.

When I had the motel on the Mississippi, we got lots of ice fisherman during the winter. One group that came every year built an entire, gigantic "ice shanty". They took all the food, built a fire to cook, and had a great time every year spending sometimes up to 12 hours a day out there. My best story is the year one of them sheepishly came in the office and asked if we could loan them an ice auger - none had brought one.

[avalen]

chilling out and relaxing, it would be easy to say I've been so busy lately but that's just not the truth
I've done nothing, except visit and gab and gab and visit. It was a great gabfest weekend with Carolb.
My friend Jon went to California on Thursday to visit with his dad before he got too weak, and....
he's not coming back. I wasn't shocked, I actually kind of thought that would happen.
I was sad for just a few short minutes, but he has to do whats good for him and I'm tired
of babysitting. Good news is, I have a great place to go whenever I want, and its not the end of a friendship.
So, he'll come sometime after the 21st to get his camper and then on the 7th of March I'll drive out there with
the jeep and trailer. So....guess that means I have a road trip planned for spring break. Probably do the fastest
interstate way cause its a two day drive and I certainly don't want to do a trip that's just a turn around. I want
to spend a couple days before I come back and still have time to relax before going back to work.
He thinks his dad still has some good time coming before he gets too weak. Doctor said the tumors will actually
just keep growing bigger and bigger where there just won't be any oxygen. They have not put him on oxygen yet.
On a good note, I'm looking forward to my procedure tomorrow on my shoulder.

[Bethers]

And you've been a great friend, Ava ... and are continuing to be so with driving his things out there. Hope he appreciates it (and maybe pays the guess there AND back?) BTW, if you take the jeep and trailer, how are you getting back?