What's New

It's another blue sky day in Yuma at Country Roads. It started out at 55 and on the way to 75 degrees Fahrenheit today. We've been at our house for going on seven weeks. Time flies when one is retired. It helps that Mackie and I keep busy with volunteering, pickleball, walking, and visiting with our friends and neighbors.

I'm going to highlight a couple of items we've done this week.

Outlaw Karaoke

Karaoke is incredibly popular here. We have a few couples that have Karaoke equipment and volunteer to put on events. There's at lease one every other week! There's around 150-250 people at each event. Last Thursday was another fun event. 

The outlaw group puts clues out every other week, and then it's up to the individuals to find the event. A number of people brought propane fire pits, some adult beverages, and a great attitude for singing and dancing!

 

Saturday Morning Breakfast

The Building Fund is a community group that is open to all homeowners and residents. They sponsor a number of events and raise money that groups can apply for to support their activities. They've raised over $500,000 since 2007, and each year it goes higher. 

This year, they purchased two new table saws and a planner for the wood shop. And, a new kiln for the pottery studio.

One event put on by a different team each week is the Saturday Morning breakfast. This was Team Flap Jack's turn, Mackie and I are on this one, and we had regular and pumpkin pancakes, ham, eggs, orange juice, coffee, fresh apple butter (Mackie and Linda Hamilton made it), and fresh whip cream for those that wanted it. 

It takes a big team to serve over 150 meals in less than two hours! Great job everyone.

https://www.facebook.com/1195320317/videos/808958180340011/

A picture of Darrel and I manning the grill.

Next week

There's quite a bit on tap for next week. Mackie and I are both in a pickleball tournament, there's a community meeting or two, and Thanksgiving is coming up! How did I find time to work???

2022 1st Go

 How has it been nearly a year since I've last written anything? So much has happened in so little time.

We're finally coming out of the pandemic, and yet, there is so much in flux for so many people. One can either choose to be part of the chaos, or you can choose to live you best life. Mine has been all over the place in 62 years and while I'm critiquing my own life, I choose to let others do their own.

Last time I wrote was about upgrading a computer. I find it poetic as I tried two or three laptops and nothing seemed to work. Instead, I got a new Dell All-in-One last night at Costco. 

My old Samsung laptop has served me well for the past 10 years. Yep, 10 years! It's an Intel CoreI7, one of the earlier versions, and has done well except for the past few months. The "blue screen of death" has been my constant companion and yesterday I just had enough. Mackie suggested we head to Costco in East Lansing and pick something out. 

Round and round we go again. I'm really not seeing anything that floats my goat. It's a different time in life where I don't need to carry a laptop any longer. After an hour or so, Mackie found the all-in-ones and asked me, "what about this"? A clean Dell 11th Generation Core i7 with tons of memory, two hard drives, a 27 inch monitor, and an nVidia graphics card. The heavens opened up and it was in the cart. 1 1/2 days in, and I couldn't be happier. 

Upgrading Versus Replacing My Old Laptop

 

Upgrading and Using Your Current Laptop Versus Buying a New One

 

There are a lot of choices when it comes to computers. In all actuality, many of us use multiple computers every day. Our smart phone starts off our day waking us up replacing that old alarm clock. We read the news on our phone replacing the paperboy. Next, we heat up a packaged breakfast in the microwave. It’s time for work. We turn on our laptop and start to pound the keys. It seems slow. Now we start searching the Internet for a new one. WAIT! Do we really need a new laptop? Let us consider some options.

Laptop Options

My laptop is around 8 years old. While many think that it’s ready to go, I purchased it with a CORE I7 central processing unit (CPU). Let’s start looking at options to make it more efficient.

Antivirus Software

There’s a lot of good options, and I’ve been using the free version of AVG for years. Here’s the link - https://www.avg.com/en-us/homepage#pc . They have a paid version, but I’ve never had any issues with the free version as long as I keep it updated. Look at the free download above and follow the instructions. It works great and is easy and will do the job for most people.

Internal

Random Access Memory is one of the cheapest and first things to consider to speed up your computers. The question is what type of memory do I need. First, I need my model number. I checked the back of my computer buy no luck, and the manual was long gone. What to do?

I have Windows 10 on my computer. Here’s the steps

1.       Type “run” in the Type here to search in the lower left corner

a.       This brings up the command prompt

2.       Type “msinfo32” to bring up the system information screen.

3.       Under System Summary, look up the System Model

a.       Mine is 700A3A

4.       Under System Summary, look up the Installed Physical Memory (RAM)

a.       Mine is 4 GB

5.       Search the Internet to find the type and amount of RAM my computer will handle

In my case, I find that my laptop can take up to 8 GB of DDR3 RAM. It’s available for about $40 from a number of resources online. That seems like a good deal so I order it.

Installation is easy. Here’s the link to a three minute video that will walk you through installing the memory - https://www.memorystock.com/memory/Samsung700Z3ANotebook.html . After a few minutes I’m up and running and things are moving along a better place.

Disc Clean Up

Type Disk cleanup in the “Type here to search” box on the lower left hand side. This will run the configuration to see how much in extra files is being stored on your computer. Mine had 28.3 MB in Temporary Internet FiIes, 8 GB in Downloads, and 1.87 GB in the Recycle Bin. Select “OK” below and the system removes these unnecessary files.

Decision Time

My computer runs faster than it did. What I really notice versus the new computers I looked at during my BestBuy visit is the start up. The new ones start up quicker than mine. However, when it comes to running programs that I use every day, mine is still doing the trick. Therefore, I’ll continue with this one until I need to upgrade to Windows 11. All-in-all, not a bad upgrade for around forty bucks.

 

 

Today is our first day

We did it. We finally took the plunge and purchased a motorhome. We've been kicking this around for several years and have looked at the countless options. We talked about how we'd live over the next five to ten years after retirement, and while I'm still planning on working a few more years, we figure that we'll start practicing :). We'll still be tent camping from time-to-time, but we'll be enjoying this more often.

Mackie and I did a lot of traveling when since met almost 30 years ago. First, it was going to her art shows where she was displaying her pottery. Then we started traveling for traveling overseas. And, we've been tent camping for the past several years with family and friends. We've watched a number of Youtube videos listening to people's storys living out of the country or traveling in the country. The traveling in the country has had more appeal to us. Our love for spending time together, visiting our family, spending time outdoors, and meeting new friends.

We'll see you on the road!

Mackie and Joe

#mackiejoesgreatadventures

Laundry

I went to a laundromat today. It's been somewhere close to 50 years since I've done that. It's funny how time slips by and memories creep on me.


 
The Riverside Laundromat in Ovid, Michigan


My laundry experience began in Mr Dryer's laundromat in Richwood, West Virginia when I was in the fourth grade. I'm not sure how it got started, but my thought today is that I was the oldest of four children by at least four years. That would have made me nine years old then.

The laundromat was across the river not quite a 1/4 a mile from our house my Mother had on Boggs Avenue just south of the river and east of the Holy Family Catholic Church.

The building was next the the A&P Grocer Store. It had a glass front and about 20 feet wide by 40 feet deep. It was bright white. Washers were in a back-to-back row down the center of the building, and dryers were on the north wall. Every week I would go. I remember ladies always asking me questions about why I was doing the laundry and where was my Mother. I hated those questions. I used to make up answers in hopes I believe they would leave me alone.

Mr Dryer was always there cleaning or maintaining his machines. I remember him as a kind man with a white mustache. There was detergent, candy and cigarette vending machines in the building.It was seldom I had anything extra to get something the machine. Times were very tight in those days.

Why was I in the laundromat. Well, I'm in Michigan getting the house ready for our upcoming move, and we don't have everything from out west yet. Work on the house is going slowly as I find more opportunities of things to fix. More on that later.