Sorry I missed the post last week but here we go for a long ride……………………………..

As usual, first the chronology:

7/30/17 – Sunday – Up and out to pick up Gary for church. Home and did blog and computer updates. Then lunch and out on the motorcycle. Stopped at Gary’s around 3PM for the Sunday afternoon get together. Then home the long way. Had dinner and down to my room for some radio play. To bed, some Big Bang and sleep.

7/31/17 – Monday – Up early and out for a doctor’s appointment. Time for the annual Wellness checkup. Over to Shelbyville for money at the bank then filled the truck with gas. Home and started getting things together for our travels. Lunch and to my room to fix the blog server. Got it back for now. Continued getting things ready for the trip. Dinner and to bed.

8/1/17 – Tuesday – Worked around the house in the morning. Kathy brought the Grandchildren over a little after lunch. I took them swimming while Kathy took the dog to the kennel. Kathy came back and we finished up packing the car. Julie came and got the grand kids and we headed out around 6PM. Drove to Beckly, WV and stayed overnight.

8/2/17 – Wednesday – Finished the drive to Lorton, VA. Met Jim. Put up our tent and got things arranged. Jim went after his wife and her three sisters. Then we all went out to eat at an Italian place.

8/3/17 – Thursday – Up and had breakfast and got cleaned up. Jim took his wife and her sisters for their day of site seeing. I took Kathy into Washington, DC and we checked out all the monuments and memorials. Left the city around 3PM and got back to camp before the other ladies. Got things ready for dinner. Ate and went to bed.

8/4/17 – Friday – Up and had breakfast and got cleaned up. Kathy and I went to the US Marine Museum. Spent the day there. Had lunch in one of their two restaurants. Back to the camp site and prepared for dinner. Ladies got there and we had a good time relaxing around the camp fire.

8/5/17 – Saturday – Up for breakfast and cleaned up. Packed up and said our goodbyes. Then on the road home. Was home about 9PM. Unloaded and to bed.

8/6/17 – Sunday – Up early and over to pickup Gary for church. Home and back to bed. Spent most of the day catching up on sleep. Did manage to put a few things away. Otherwise not a very productive day.

8/7/17 – Monday – Up late and started cleaning up camping supplies. Also did some trouble shooting on the blog server. Haven’t nailed anything down as yet. Kathy was busy all day watching the grand children. She brought them over this afternoon so I let them make candles to keep them busy. Out for Mexican for dinner.

8/8/17 – Tuesday – Up and got cleaned up. Out to run errands. Found out last night that my friend Gary was in the hospital, so I started calling about that after 9AM this morning. Found out he was out of the hospital and home. Called and left messages. Then out to hit up my buddy in the computer business for a new power supply for the blog server. He didn’t have one. Up to the drug store to pick up prescriptions. Stopped at the bank then headed over to a new place to eat. Was called Brickhouse bar and grill. Nothing exciting. Got a call from Gary and he was back home. Told him I’d stop over this afternoon. Kathy was watching the kids again today. Went over to Gary’s after lunch. Bottom line they checked him out in the ER and didn’t find anything so they released him.

8/9/17 – Wednesday – Up and out for my hair cut. Kathy went off with Julie for something. I did some chores around the house and she brought me a sandwich a little after 1PM.
Ordered a replacement power supply for my server online.

8/10/17 – Thursday – Up and out to mow lawn. Kathy wanted to run the tractor but kept stalling it. I gave her hell and told her how to keep from stalling it. She got pissy and wouldn’t get back on. So I continued with the mowing. She stopped me about 2PM and we came inside for a bite to eat. Then back out and she finished with the tractor and I did the cleanup with the hand mower and the trimmer. Came in and got cleaned up. She made meat loaf for dinner and scalloped potatoes. Very good. Then to my room for computer work and some radio play.

8/11/17 – Friday – Kathy was up and out for shopping. I stayed home and looked at the Chrysler to see if anything obvious was bringing the check engine light. Nothing found so I made arrangements to take it down to the garage next week. Finished putting away some of the camping things. Did some other chores around the house. Made myself lunch. Got the replacement power supply for the old server. It fixed the hardware problem but the disk was corrupted. Spent a few hours trying to recover the data but it was damaged too badly. Probably as result of the power supply slowly going bad. Kathy came home and we had dinner. To bed, some computer work, some Big Bang and to sleep.

8/12/17 – Saturday – Got a call late last night asking if I would be available to go over to the house in Shepardsville and help Mike go through the stuff in the garage. Got a text around 9AM that they were leaving to go down in 1/2 an hour. Asked Kathy if she wanted to go and she agreed. So, we went down and helped them clean out the garage. Had lunch with them then loaded up some stuff we acquired. Got home and unloaded the truck and put it away. Took a nap. Up and had dinner. Then some computer work and to bed.

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Now the particulars:

Let’s start with the blog server.  It is dead.  Well, here is what happened.  Before we left for our trip to DC/VA, I was getting error messages that was stopping the server.  In retrospect it was telling me the power supply was going bad.  However, being hyped about our trip I didn’t pay attention.  So, long story short, the fact the power supply went slowly meant that I was corrupting data on the hard drive.  I was able to order a replacement power supply which got the machine back running, but was unable to recover the data from the hard drive.  So, I’m getting too old to fuss with these things anymore so I took out a subscription with WordPress and will be doing my blog there.  They will do the automatic backups and all the necessary updates and maintenance.  The subscription fee is a cheap price to pay for letting them do that.

If you are reading this you apparently got the new URL for my blog.  I will be tweaking the settings for awhile so check back often.

Before our trip (two weeks ago) I had my annual wellness check.  Well, almost.  It seems they put out this automated phone call many weeks in advance that I’m due so I called right away so I wouldn’t forget.  Whoever I talked to on the phone made my appointment without checking when I had my wellness check last year.  And Medicate will not pay unless it’s been a full year.  Well, it wasn’t.  So, we did all the stuff and had my blood drawn but I’ll have to go back after the 16th of the month to do the real wellness visit.

Here’s a picture of our campsite in Lorton, VA.  We traveled down on Tuesday and Wednesday last week (8/1 and 8/2).  We got there a little after lunch on Wednesday.  My friend Jim from PA that coordinated out trip to Rolling Thunder was already setting up his camper.  So Kathy and I got out tent put up and got things organized.  Went out to dinner with  Jim, is wife Joyce and Joyce’s three sisters.  It was fantastic seeing Jim and Joyce again.  And we got along great with Joyce’s sisters.  Just hope we didn’t embarrass Jim and Joyce in front of the sisters.  Also got to meet some friends from the VA area.  One that was with us for Rolling Thunder and her mate and another young lady that plans to ride with us next year.  Joyce and her sisters had their time planned so Kathy and I went about our own travels.  Thursday we went into DC and saw all the memorials and monuments Kathy wanted to see.  Friday we went down to the US Marine Corp Museum and spend several hours.  Then we packed up and came home Saturday.  All in all a fantastic trip.  Managed to only piss Kathy off once or twice.

Just a few small things then I close this for this week.

We were running out of things for the grand kids to do when we kept them so I offered to make candles with them.  That was a mistake.  I guess they are more than ready to get back to school.  Note to self, don’t do anything stupid like that again.

My friend Gary spent a few hours in the ER this past week.  He wasn’t able to get out of bed so they called EMS and about 4 hours after they got him to the hospital he was OK.  Ran a bunch of tests and everything came up good.  No idea what caused the problem.

Kathy was going to help me mow this last week.  If she stalled the tractor once she stalled it 5 or 6 times.  I tried to explain what was happening but she blamed one spot for causing the tractor to stall.  I finally pissed her off so bad that she jumped off the tractor and wouldn’t get back on.  So, I finished.

I finished my clock project.  I got a switching power supply in it and it works great.  Looks good too if I must say so myself.  But I will put the particulars for that in another blog entry so as not to bore you.

OK, that’s it for this go around.  More than enough.  Stay tuned for changes and updates.  They will happen frequently till I get this fine tuned.  Bye for now.