October 9, 2013

We have been here at Lakepoint State Park in Eufaula, AL since the 1st of October.  There is not a lot to do here unless you are interested in fishing, hiking, but primarily being on the lake.  We have had a wonderful time.  We have walked each morning for approximately 3 to 4 miles.  We have gone shopping at a grocery store, WalMart, Dollar Tree, etc.  While it may not have been exciting, we had time for Marilyn to clean and read.  I have been working on sorting pictures.  I thought that I could create picture albums for our children from the picture recognition feature of Picasa.  Unfortunately, creating a gift CD from this part of Picasa only provides head shots of individuals rather than the original picture.  I have started over creating albums for individual family members.  Hopefully I will be able to create albums for each of the kids based on their individual lives, as well as their parents, etc.

Today, we received wonderful news when I signed in to check whether Marilyn has to report for jury duty in Crestview, FL next Monday.  She does not have to report, but we still plan to go to Crestview, probably on Tuesday, to get our mail before heading towards Bushnell, FL.

Type at you later.

Ducks and Surface

I wanted to show Dennis that we have ducks too, now that we are at Lakepoint Resort State Park.

 

In addition, I wanted to comment about the Technology Reviews that are in all of the news reports in USA Today, Huffington Post, NBC News, Orlando Sentinel, and the Washington Post (I only read free newspapers on my Droid Razr HD and Kindle Fire HD.  Ninety-nine percent of the articles are about how great iPhones, Androids and iPads are, and how horrible anything Microsoft makes. 

Finally, there have been two articles about how great Microsoft’s Surface Tablets are.  The first was by the Associated Press describing the good things about a tablet that can be used for work instead of just for email and play.  The second article states that Delta Airlines has chosen the Surface 2 for its pilots (11,000 of them).  Since for my own computing I need Microsoft Office, Quicken, Picasa, Turbo Tax and other tax software, plus Family Tree Maker, I am not able to use Apple products without spending a lot of money to buy all new software.  The android tablets do not run this software, and Amazon won’t even let the Kindle run as much as the Androids because it has proprietary internet access.

That is my rant for the day.

Hugs, and Type at you later.

2013-10-01

Happy October.  After having spent 6 wonderful evenings visiting our son, Doug, we moved the house from Lake Pines Campground in Midland, GA to Lakepoint Resort State Park in Eufaula, AL.  We had planned on going back up to the West Point Lake COE park until the Escapees Georgia rally starts on the 10th, but the Republicans and Democrats decided to close the National Parks along with their government shutdown vote.  Oh well, we get full hookups here until we move back north for the Georgia rally.

Doug did some puppy sitting for his girlfriend Laila’s service dog Roman – a delightful chocolate lab.

 

On Friday, the 27th, we shopped at Sam’s and Wal-Mart, and when Doug got home from work, we went out to dinner at Fuji’s Japanese Restaurant.  Marilyn and Doug had the sushi boat for two, and I had Chicken Teriyaki from the hibachi grill.  The chicken was delicious, and Marilyn and Doug devoured their boat.

 

Saturday, from 1-5, Marilyn, our DD, Doug and I went to Downtown Columbus Beer and Wine Fest.  For $35 each, Doug and I had as many little glasses of beer and wine that we wanted.  There were national beer brands, as well as those from micro-breweries.  The three of us each had $5 Phillie-cheese steak sandwiches in hoagie rolls that were delicious.  They had lots of cheese.  We left about 4:30, and met Laila for dinner at the Cannon restaurant across the street.  All in all, a great day.

On Sunday, Doug grilled steaks for us.  Then on Monday, when he got home, we enjoyed  a new casserole recipe Marilyn found.Dorito Chicken & Cheese Casserole.  She will make it again for some potluck.

We said goodbye to Doug Monday night since we were leaving Tuesday morning.  As I noted earlier, we are in Eufaula, AL, and will be here until Thursday, the 10th when we move to Pine Mountain, GA for the Escapees Georgia Rally.  Then on 13th, we will drive to Crestview, FL so we can pick up our mail and Marilyn can report for jury duty on the 14th.

That’s all for now.

Type at you later.

2013-09-25

We left River Forks RV Park and Campground Friday morning the 20th, and drove 137 miles to R Shaefer Heard Corps of Engineers Park near West Point, Georgia.  We drove in I-985 to I-85 to I-285 around to the south, to I-85 to West Point Lake.  Marilyn rode the white knuckle route around Atlanta, but it was not that bad.  We are located on Site #2.  The first problem was no electric, but, after going back to the office, the circuit breaker was changed out.  The next problem we are living with.  Internet service is negligible – none to 1x to 3x, and back.  When we return in another week, we will take a site on the other side of the park where, after our morning walks, the internet seems to be better.

I have still had plenty to do on the computer organizing pictures, and identifying people in them   This time spent will help with my continued genealogy work.

This afternoon, I received an email from a good friend wanting help with his Excel files.  He needed to summarize the mileage and costs he was tracking.  These are a fairly easy addition problem.  If you only have a few numbers to add together, the easiest way is a formula that adds the amount in cell #1 to the amount in cell #2,, where cells are referenced by a column letter (a,b,c) and a row number (1,2,3).  Thus a formula in cell can start with an (=) sign in cell (a4) plus cell references.  (ie =a1+a2+a3) resulting in 2+2+2=6.

If the column has a long list of cells to be added, a (Sum) formula if the easiest path.  Filling in the formula is sort of like highlighting a column to copy and paste.  Begin the formula in the cell where you want the result.  The formula looks like this:  =sum(a1:a3).  This will add whatever numbers are in cells 1 through 3 of column as together.  The formula can be expanded to more cells in the range just by inserting rows between rows a1 and a2 as long as the original cell a3 remains the ending cell of the formula.

During our morning walk, on the 23rd, I spotted the svelte figure of a person that I remembered from our early day with Escapees Chapter 16.  So I walked up and asked him if he had been a member of ch 16.  He said yes and we introduced ourselves.  He is Marion Alley, so we spent the next half hour remembering several wonderful rallies that we had attended.  There was one at which he provided his grill trailer.  He gave us each a steak, and said we should take it off the grill when it was done.  At a Chinese Care Auction, they auctioned a bottle of little blue pills that we all tried to end up with.  Oh well, they were actually little blue M&M’s.  We had fun anyway.

Today, the 24th, we went to Wal-Mart and Kroger in Valley, AL, the town just across the Alabama border from West Point, GA.  Thank you, Denny Orr, for teaching us to eat cheaply at McDonald’s with McDoubles, and a senior drink.  The two of us ate for less than $5.  Of course the cheapest meal we had in the last couple of weeks was at Sam’s Club where we had Hot Dogs for less than $3.

Today, the 25th, we drove to Columbus, GA – 44 miles.  We are staying at Lake Pines Campground,  Finally, back to good internet service.  We will have diner tonight with our Son – Doug.  Have to wait until he gets home from work – can’t wait.

Type at you later.

2013-09-19

We have been walking around the campground and park here at River Forks RV Park and Campground before breakfast every morning.  We have seen a couple of deer each morning.  Yesterday there were 3 and this morning 5 walked across the road at the deer crossing sigh. 

Yesterday we had lunch with Roger and Roxanna Dubrulle at the Cracker Barrel in Braselton.   I used to work in the same office as Roger, and we have both been members of Escapees Chapter 16 for a long time.  We talked about families, the chapter, taxes, etc. and just had a great lunch talking inside Cracker Barrel, and then out on the rocking chairs.

After leaving Roger and Roxanna, we drove to Jan McCabe’s house in Snellville to have a glass of wine, chips and dip before going to dinner at Olive Garden.  We were joined for dinner by Merwin and Corliss Chambers, and Bob and Sandy Davis.  We all socialized around helping the Brookwood Band Association while our children were in the band during High School.  We spent the evening reminiscing about old times and how our children were doing today.

I was able to get pictures of Merwin, Jan and Corliss, but forgot to take pictures of Bob and Sandy.

2013-09-17

Yesterday afternoon, I received a Facebook Message from Erin Barnes, the daughter of my best friend from when we lived in Snellville, GA.  We spent our children’s high school band years working together to support the band.  Sadly, Ed passed away from brain cancer in 2006.  Erin invited us to go to lunch today with her, her husband, Jason, their son Jack, and Erin’s mother, Jan McCabe.  Since it has been at least 5 or 6 years since we had seen them, we thoroughly enjoyed catching up on everyone’s lives for a couple of hours.

We have a great site here at River Forks RV Park and Campground looking out onto Lake Lanier.

2013-09-16

We left Lyerly, GA and our good friends Bea & Bennit Mason this morning, and drove across North Georgia to Gainsville – 122 miles.  We are currently parked in a beautiful county park – River Forks RV Park and Campground.  We will be here until Friday morning.