Hear The Roar Of Laughter

This is the ending act that really makes people roar. This BIG hat she has goes over her upper torso. She has a plastic saxophone duct taped into her bellybutton. The song is Yakety Sax by Boots Randolph. After the act is over, she tells about how the 1st time, she super glued the saxophone in & thought she was gonna have to go to the emergency room to have it removed, which brings more laughter. If you ever get a chance to see her show, it is a MUST SEE!!! She has played all over Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, & wherever else, I don't know. This quality of video doesn't do her justice, but gives you an idea of how funny it is.You will need to click or double click on PLAY & let it buffer to play well. You might want to watch it several times. Ron

Beautiful Sunset & Crazy Carol

I didn't take this picture. Debbie, the manager here at the Thousand Trails campground did over from a fishing pier by the Sky Way bridge. Richard & her went fishing there. Dolphins were even taking their bait. Debbie didn't know what to do when she had one hooked, but it just took out a lot of her line & then let go. Richard wasn't so lucky. It snapped a pole of his into. Debbie also caught a small shark.
Last night I went to Karaoke at Sarasota, Fl. where my friend of 50 years was the KJ, (Karaoke Jockey). She had invited me earlier in the week, but what with having a cold, I didn't pursue it. So around 6 PM last night I decided I wanted to go, but I wasn't sure where she was playing, but my 1st call located her, except when I asked if Carol Nelson was doing Karaoke there last night, the bartender said, "No, Crazy Carol was." So I had to persuade her that both were the same person. 1st picture is of last night. We become family friends from around age 13 when her dad had a band & played at the Eagle's Lodge. Carol played guitar & saxophone. Once when the band was on break, she danced with me while playing her guitar up over my head & behind my back. Guess I should have known then she would be going on to become a professional entertainer, much more that her dad's success.

You can see she only has 1 drink per night, but as you can see, IT IS A BIG ONE. A BIG TOAST. Then it has a multiple use also. To get her reed wet on her saxophone. She has many acts. The one with her dipping her reed is the Richard Simmons act.

This act she plays a nun, but her habit is actually her dance skirt from when she was 4 years old. She has so many acts & all are funny. They are belly busters for the audience. I helped Carol for a few weeks about 5 years ago & found out that some people have been to her show a dozen times or more. I am gonna try to send a video in the next blog. Unfortunate, I was enjoying it so much, I wasn't thinking & I turned the camera up vertical, so you'll have to turn your head sideways to see it.

Well, today is moving day. Got to go to the salvage yard for a week. Weather is beautiful here. Hope you are enjoying your weekend. I called northern Indiana & it got down to 44 there this morning, a little too cold for my blood. Ron

September Full Moon

Not much going on. Still on bus, but riding more to learn routes than driving. Looking at this picture, I need to learn how to manually focus the camera. Car is running good. Temperature is coming down into the upper 80's in the daytime, rather than those upper 90's. I'll be going to the salvage yard for a week on Saturday, so you might not hear from me for a week. Have a good weekend...................Ron

There's a hole in the sky..................

Friday evening I saw this sunset & immediately had the title for it. Earlier this last week I saw 2 beautiful sunrises, but didn't have the camera with me when I was on the school bus.

Yesterday I didn't take the camera with me either & missed 2 photo oops also. One I can go back & take another time. The other was a helicopter taking off.

The weather is nicer, cooler now, not into the 90's. Hope you had a nice weekend. Good to not have to get up at 4:30 AM. Back to work tomorrow. Ron

VW Bug

Well, it is a battery powered VW bug. These 2 little girls rode it around in the campground this last weekend. The driver is Breana & the passenger is Natassja. They spent a lot of time in the swimming pool & was where they had just come from when I took their picture.
This is Babbette & Clarence. Babbette is the new "BA" & that is not "BAD ASS", LOL. She is the "Business Associate", 2nd in charge to Debbie, the Mgr. Just out of fun, I was taking their picture when she spoke up & said they needed a picture to send back home to their church to show why they couldn't make it to church back home, LOL. Babbette & Clarence is a real nice couple, a lot of fun, & good Christians.
This is a gift I received this last Saturday morning. I did open the box today & saw it is a ring cake, but I haven't broken the seal yet. I might save it for a special event. Or maybe since they are having a pot luck supper Wednesday, just take it. There was an entry that came with it to win a free trip to the Cayman Islands.

Temperature tomorrow is only to hit about 85. Wow, much better than the 90's, but back to the 90's by the weekend. Have a good week......................Ron

Surprise Surprise

Yesterday I checked back into the campground & in the afternoon I was in the lounge doing e-mail when all of a sudden a gal called me by name. I looked at her, but didn't instantaneously recognize her, but then I saw her husband behind her, so I knew it was Carl & Renee from Indiana. They had flown down to Florida from Indiana & then driven down to see me with Carl's folk's car. WHAT A SURPRISE!!! They would have called me, but they didn't have my phone # in their cell phone.
So after some time chatting I gave them the tour of the campground & my favorite area down by the river. Their daughters are all grown & flown the nest, so now they plan to sell their house & become full-time RV's. Gosh, they look too young to do that. Still look like 25-30. Carl is a big cut up & a lot of fun. Renee keeps him in line, LOL. Both of them are hard workers, so they'll probably never fully retire. Carl & Renee make commercial signs. They both remodeled the house they are living in themselves to make it more valuable on the market. They did have a school bus that they made signs out of it, painted John Deere Green, but now it is sold, & they'll get another bus to camp in.
One day this week, after my shower, I went to put this sock on after my shower, but it had a hole in it. I didn't realize it was the sock that had a hole in it UNTIL I had it on my RIGHT FOOT & the hole was at my BIG TOE!!!. So rather than to get another pair of socks out of the drawer, I thought I'd just put the holy sock on my left foot so the hole would be at my little toe. TO MY SURPRISE, when I went to take my socks off that night, THAT HOLE HAD SOMEHOW MOVED UP TO THE BIG TOE, LOL. So I threw away that sock!!!
At Karaoke I saw a couple of T-shirts I liked so I took pictures of them. This reminds me of the commercial I saw yesterday on the Purdue football game, I think. GO PURDUE!!! Anyway, they had cows parachuting into the football stadium. One landed on a vendor I think, but the message was EAT MORE CHICKEN from Chick-Fil-A. I have a friend who drives to a lot of their grand openings. The 1st 100 people in line gets a coupon for a free meal a week for a year. John must had 25 or more, so he can eat free there all the time.
This was another T-shirt I saw last night. Reminds me of when I was camping back in the 1970's & saw bumper stickers, "If the trailer is rocking, Don't come knocking"

Weather is beautiful with it cooling off some here & supposed to get even nicer this next week. They can CAN the 90+ degree weather. Hope you had a nice weekend. Ron

I moved a mountain

This intersection I used frequently, but it is an endangerment to traffic as the hedge was too tall to be able to see the 1 way traffic, so you had to get out into the intersection to see oncoming traffic. So when I went into the bank, of which I just recently opened an account, I told the receptionist I was gonna take a picture of the intersection & put it in the paper if they didn't cut it down to make it more visible. She took me right to the PRESIDENT'S office, but he was out, so I explained to the secretary & she, "NO, DON'T DO THAT, she'd tell him what I said". Well, 2 days later I took this 1st picture figuring I didn't get the message across.
But today as I crossed the same intersection, they were chopping the hedge down to make it much more visible. I called the bank & told them who I was & thanked them. I talked to the secretary again, & she let on like they just didn't realize what a problem it was & then blamed it on their landscaping contractor, but at least the hedge got cut down. See the red pickup coming down the street? Maybe I should be nice to the bank now & take a picture of the mural that is painted on the outside of their building.
Another spider. Don't think this one is poisonous, but there were about 5 of them in a 20' span area. About 2 or maybe 3" long. They sew a strange web. One guy called it a banana spider & another called it a sewing spider, but neither knew it's proper name. I got several letters from mostly women about concern for me on the poisonous spider I did recently, & 1 gal didn't like the spider picture at all! So hope she lives through this one.
Then this morning I had this big grasshopper on the bus. I had to open the door to get the camera & then went back outside & closed the door to take the picture. Happy he didn't jump off before I got the picture. I can remember when I was growing up on the farm what a nuisance they were. Sometimes they'd get inside your shirt or pants leg or shoes. But sometimes we'd catch them to use for fishing bait also. Seems like to me they were green in the summer & turn more brown in the fall. They could sure damage crop leaves!!!
I saw this on the front of a pickup today. One of my friends, Lynn Heath, whom I went to school with, rode the same school bus part of the time, & had Minneapolis tractors, married a petite gal & her CB name was "HALF PINT". She had cancer, but got treatment & it is now in remission. So here is this picture for you Connie.

This evening we got heavy rain. Maybe an inch fell in an hour. Sure did cool it off outside. I sat on the porch & watched the traffic go by when it was coming down the hardest. Nice smell to it also. On the weather they said next week we should be in the upper 80's for highs all week. Sure better than upper 90's. But heard they got snow out west already. NO THANKS, THAT IS WHY I'M HERE!!!

All for now. I'll be coming back into the campground this weekend from the salvage yard. Have a nice weekend. Ron

Labor of Love

It might also be a love seat, but it is definitely a LABOR OF LOVE. I looked very closely at it & they used dowel rods & rectangular pegs to hold it together. I found this at City Hall, which is also Chamber of Commerce. They also have an old auditorium that they have plays at.

There is a mailbox out in the county I want to put here on the blog, (IF I CAN FIND IT!!!). I've been past it several time on bus routes.

Weather has cooled down to around 90 in the daytime, which makes it feel much better than the 95+ days. Hopefully it will be back to lower 80's one of these days, LOL. Ron

Orange?

I've been noticing the green oranges for some time, but decided to let them grow some before I took a picture of them. Guess I never really thought about an orange starting out green. But a true story I heard Monday. A woman's son missed his school bus, so he started walking home & he got thirsty, so he picked an orange off of a tree. She said he had it all peeled & partially ate when she found him. CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW BITTER THAT ORANGE WAS???

This morning when I got to the bus garage, there was a yellow sticky note in my mailbox. It told me I needed to drive route 197 Thursday afternoon, WHICH WILL BE BY MYSELF!!! SO IT IS OUT OF THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE!!! I had been handed enough practice sheets to ride in the morning & drive in the afternoon for 2 weeks before I was turned loose to run by myself, but they said I did fine driving that route on Tuesday, so they are confident I can do it by myself. I'll get a nice kid who knows the route to help me. All the buses I have driven so far on the routes are stub nose & have lots more power than my bus has. Step on the throttle & YOU GO!!! Step on the AIR BRAKES & YOU STOP!!! Haven't thrown anybody through the windshield yet, LOL. On this route 197, there is a road that starts out dirt & then turns into a COW PATH, basically. Just 2 trails of dirt with a grassy middle. I asked Jimmy, the driver if he ever met anybody on this path, LOL

Weather is nice here this evening. I'd love for it to just stay this way. Hump Day is over. Weekend will be here soon...............................................Ron

Bus I drove today

This is the 2ND day I've driven a bus in the afternoon. I ride as an observer in the morning & then I'm the driver in the afternoon. This transit bus is 40' long, same as the one I drove on Friday, but not as new today nor did it have air conditioning.

I also got to drive my new car today. Got insurance & plates this morning. Filled up with gas & that hurt, LOL. But I've been told it gets great gas mileage, about 30mpg with overdrive. WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT!!! It has a 3.8L v-6 engine with front wheel drive. Lots of power, which reminds me, the bus has lots of power also compared to what I own. Then they stop faster also with air brakes of which I have hydraulic brakes.

Well, you can see the beautiful sky we had today. Supposed to be the same all week. Have a good week. Ron

I Graduated

All through August, I have been keeping a secret from MOST OF YOU. I went back to school to become a school bus driver. I had to study hard to pass 4 tests to get a CDL learners permit to go to school. Then there was 1st Aid & CPR before classroom with tests almost everyday for 2 weeks before even getting inside the bus. Then had to learn to do CDL inspection & pass that test. Then I got in the bus & spent 2 weeks almost driving around the lot, practicing student pick-ups & railroad crossings. I had a few problems getting in the habit of putting the bus in neutral & setting the parking brake. These buses have air brakes which are real good. So now that I have graduated & have a job, I got a car to drive to work. It is a 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass, which is in great shape. Only 2 owners. The 1st kept it garaged & the 2ND has only had it 2 years. Was running rough, but a new set of spark plugs fixed the problem.
Also I have joined the Elks. I was invited last May & was just installed about 2 weeks ago. They have great charities including a camp for children here in Florida.
This has been Labor Day Weekend. We had several activities here at the campground of which I'll make a separate blog entry. I won the pool tournament, (BY DEFAULT!!!). No one else showed up, but I did get to shoot 2 games with the manager, Debbie. I won the 1st game & she won the 2ND game. She told me there was a trophy for winning. I put it in the windshield of my bus, even though it is only a 25 cent piece of plastic.

The weather has seemed to have been a little cooler here as we have been getting either afternoon showers or cloudiness to cool it off early each day. No air conditioner last night & won't need one tonight either. I think it is Thursday the high is supposed to only be up to 88. I'll be happy to see days that only get to a high of 80.

Well, got to get to bed early so I can get up to go to work in the morning. Ron