Enjoying the day

Sometimes I think I rush forward to fast, planning for the future while forgetting to enjoy the day. So while I take a short break today from working, I've taken a moment to sit out on my porch and enjoy the day.

Although I live in town, I'm lucky enough to enjoy a fair amount of wildlife right in my own front yard. Wild turkeys, red & grey foxes and many song birds fill my spare moments. Yesterday a pair of Eastern Bluebirds appeared at my feeder in the early evening it's simply amazing just how blue the male bird is. I was lucky to have here for about a half hour before they flew off to other places.

Birdwatching has been a wonderful hobby of mine for the last twenty years or so. Although I don't think I'll be able to continue feeding them once I'm on the road there are many birding conventions and conservation areas that I plan to attend.

So although you may think you need to leave things behind as you take to the road, with just a little planning you will simply learn to enjoy another point of view for a much loved activity.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Portsmouth NH

Fulinn Around the Highways

It's been awhile, but I'm back with a new direction for my blog ---

This blog will be dedicated to my adventures as I take off into retirement in my RV, although it may wander into other topics now and then. Now you'll need to be patient with me cause my retirement will not occur for about another 8 years !

So you're in for a long ride with me ! I'm currently a Federal employee with the Dept. of Treasury. I've worked for them quite happily for the past 28 years ! Never thought I'd be employed by anyone for that long ... youth !!! The years flew by and I'm now close enough to retirement to start planning the next phase of my life.

I've always dreamed of owning an RV and taking off to explore the treasures of the United States. I really have no interest in traveling overseas, although if someone wants to pay my way I'd probably go! So I've spent a few afternoons over the past 20 years, wandering in and out of local RV dealerships oh'ing and ah'ing over the various units but always left empty handed.

I was raising my two young son's and there was never enough money, time or energy to think seriously about purchasing an RV. Those two young boys have now grown into wonderful teenagers ( yes, that's right I said wonderful teenagers ) while not perfect I couldn't ask for better kids ! I'm sure you'll be hearing all about them.

Time passes, and now I'm looking into my retirement years, crunching the numbers and hoping for the best. I'd love to have you join me as I get my finances in order, choose an RV and head out on the road !

Bonnie

Electronic Toys

Well everyone knows that I am a lover of gadgets ! So
I enjoy getting new toys and getting them all set up just right. A week or so ago my son decided to buy an iTouch and during his "selling job" to me to allow him to spend his savings he converted me as well.

My cell phone contract with AT & T was up so I went ahead and got an upgrade to an apple Iphone. To date I've been very pleased with it. I was worried about it playing nice with my windows pc but the installation of iTunes went smoothly.

So for the last week I've been busy finding out all the pro's and con's from my point of view. I know that a ton of blogs are out there describing the Iphone. But let's face it I'm really mostly interested in how the Iphone works for me.

The only thing that I really miss from my windows mobile phone to the apple Iphone is the loss of Hulu. I didn't realize that apple did not have a flash player available to the iPhone. It's true that a lot of video is available in iTunes so I can enjoy my Stargate and Fringe episodes but really miss my Hulu

Personally I have no problems using iTunes or the app store. All of the software that I rely on such as eWallet and iBirds was available in apple apps. My calandar and contacts smoothly transferred to my new phone via google web. It amazes me the amount of free apps that are available !

So with the success of Alex iTouch and my iPhone my older son got an iTouch for his birthday to replace his aging zine mp3 player. He had a fair number of songs that did not auto convert from mp3 to aac format but he's still pleads with his gift.

-- I'm on the run again, so posting to you via my iPhone.

Weigh behind

Well last year I was able to lose close to 30 pounds off this old body of mine. I sure feel better and it's wonderful to be two sizes smaller in clothes.

However, as often happens whenever I am able to lose some weight I get lazy and don't continue to keep my momentum going. Over the winter I was successful at maintaining my new weight and I'm grateful for that.

I'v been unhappy though that I'v made no progress in losing the next 10 pounds. I felt that 10 pounds was a reasonable goal and yet I've lost / gained nothing.

Well I'm hoping to change that ! I just love gadgets and just up graded my cell phone to an Iphone. There are a ton of fitness apps to help you reach you goals. I have two that I am using on a daily basis to help keep me on track. They are "Lose It" for tracking my food and exercise goals and "iMapMyWalk" to measure the time and distance that I walk or bike. The iMap software connects to my online account and is able to track both my walking and my bike riding.

So I'm hoping that love of gadgets will help me get a jump start on these ten pounds !

-- I'm on the run again, so posting to you via my iPhone.

Composting - first timer

Well, I've decided to try composting our yard and kitchen wastes. Did my usual research on the web and decided to try out the "tumbling" type of composter. Bought one on e-bay and set it up.

Added a bunch of leaves and grass clippings to it today. I must say it filled the 25 gallon barrel much much quicker than I was expecting. Half a bag of clippings and maybe the same in "mulched leaves" and it was half full. I'm now going to add only kitchen scraps to the composter.

Hope to have finished "dirt" in a bout 3-4 weeks if all goes well.

Hummingbirds visit

Oh, I'm sooo excited, I had my first Ruby-throated Hummingbird of the year visit my hummer feeder. Its a nice red feeder with commercial hummingbird mix in it with room for four birds at once. He stayed long enough to take drink from each of the feeder ports. I hope he goes on to tell all his friends of the free meal at my house.

I also have an Oriel feeder up. This is the first time I've offered a feeder for them, filled with raisins, grape jelly and orange slices. I've never seen an Oriel and hopefully they'll like what they see !

The Season of Mud has arrived in NH

Wow what a lovely day today has been !!! Its actually 51 degree's today, the snow is melting and the birds are crowding around my feeders.

Alex has spring fever and has gotten out everyone's bikes for the season. Of course of the three bikes two of them had flat tires, and heaven forbid he be seen on a "girls" bike. He is showing his true 12 3/4 years attitude !

Today my neighbor gave me a call "lets go for a walk", so off we went. A quick trip around the block became a mile walk around the neighborhood as it was just to nice to stop walking and chatting. We took our little mini schnauzer with us and she was so happy to go !! She love to run and she one of those long auto leashes so she can really burn off that stored up energy.

Yesterday, Sydney got loose from me and took off down the road. Alex gave chase on his bike and caught up to her half way down the block when she stopped to smell the grass ! Lucky for us we caught up to her so quick, its so easy to lose a pet and we'd be heart broken.