New Head Tonight

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 30, 2023

Another good morning start to the day. There was a heavy dew on everything this morning. Here is part of the soccer field with dew not frost.

The morning was not as cool as the last couple of them and the walking was brisker. We made good time and had one rest break of about five minutes a bit past half way. A tree that had blocked the path a couple of days ago has been cleared already.

Cleared tree pic goes here
We got a nice picture of an egret and its reflection, but it was a very long shot with the telephoto near max with an OFM breathing a little bit heavy so it is a bit blurry.

Since the OFM is wanting to start a new phase of his art education, he chose today for the first part of it. This is an effort at free hand art. It is colored pencil on cold press water color paper which is pretty rough for pencil work. That was what is at hand so it had to be used. Anyway here is an egret head for your laughter.

We hit up Walmart to shop for a more capable vacuum cleaner than the small hand held one we have now. We have to fit the new one in the Castle comfortably or it cannot be brought home. After a couple of hours of checking different vacuums and not finding anything we liked for our situation we headed over to automotive to check out shop vacs similar to the one we had for about twenty years and carried in the Castle until last year.

Lo and behold they had a one gallon shop vac that looks like it was made to fit in the Castle. So we came home to get space dimensions and go back tomorrow to see if it fits in the available storage area. If it does, one of them will come home and become a new OFM Team member.

The OFM flu injection site from yesterday did not have any inflammation from the injection this time. So we consider that history now. Next week will be the Covid injection and that is all for this year so far.

Tonight is planned to have a restful night to be ready for all sorts of exciting entertainment tomorrow as we work hard at trying to have tooooooo much fun.

Knucklehead Camera Operator

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 29, 2023

There goes the OFM briskly along the path this morning. Yep a nice cool day, feeling good and look over there we need a picture of that. UP comes the camera and the on button is actuated and the camera says “NO MEMORY CARD”. Dad gum it. It is still in the computer. So now we know not to bother grabbing the camera on this walk. But that first chance was one of only two opportunities for something new to photograph today. However we need to get better at making sure we have ammo in the camera so we can shot nice pictures. The walk went so well it was almost three miles.

Later we were in little walmart near the campground and remembered that it was flu shot time again. So we moseyed over to the pharmacy to get a flu shot and a Covid shot. We did get the flu shot but they ran out of Covid shots this morning and will have more late next week. That will be fine for us.

A nice amount of time was spent playing with alcohol and OMS as colored pencil solvents and how to use them. They take a bit of practice we found out and they also have a few limitations the artist has to learn to handle. But is was fun.

The last thing tonight is a new coloring named Flower Basket 2. It took a long time to do for some reason. However we feel it came out fairly nice. We think it was three new techniques we learned during the coloring of this work that caused the extra coloring time.

A little visiting here and there finished out the day for us. Tonight we are looking forward to an earlier than normal bedtime for the OFM Teams. Who knows what is coming this weekend other than good rest we hope.

Almost Cold Morning

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 28, 2023

This morning was about one degree from being cold out on the trail and with the significant easterly breeze. So the OFM chose parts of several trails that let us stay in the trees and brush to dodge the breeze and stay just right for warm. Lots of nice pics were available with the bright sun filtering down through the trees but we left them in the woods since we have dozens already in our files. What we did not have in the files was a certain type of pic of an egret or heron. When that appeared up in front of us we got that picture. There are three paintings we are hoping to do from scratch that will involve this poor innocent bird.

We got in 2.4 miles at a decent pace and made it back to the Castle in spite of missing a turn or three on the multiple trails we were on. At least the walk was not boring for us.

Back at the Castle we did some coloring and some planning on the painting we are going to try to do from scratch. It will be very interesting we think, at least for us.

After lunch we tackled the leaky water pump under the kitchen cabinet. Two drawers were pulled out and put on the bed. Then the right hand door to the underside of the sink was removed and put on the bed. My ancient drop light that uses incandescent bulbs was put to work.

After doing a diagram of the way the tubing/piping was routed so we can put things back the way they belong, we started the checking things out. When we got things right we were able to see that it was the pump that is leaking. Here is a closer picture of the rats nest under the counter.

What we really found out was the OFM does not have long enough arms or strong enough fingers to do the work needed. So this project will have to wait till we find a repair person who can get down and into the cabinet and do the replacement. Well at least that is settled and everything is back together now.

Tomorrow night we think another coloring will be ready to display. Also we hope tomorrow to start the sketching required for the from scratch painting we want to attempt. For certain getting bored from nothing to do is not happening around this place.

So every one relax and enjoy the evening in anticipation of working really hard at trying to have toooooooooooooooo much fun tomorrow. We are. 

Painting or Coloring

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 27, 2023

As usual nothing went as planned today but things happened and we had some fun and some work. Overall a great day weather wise again.

Last is first tonight. The OFM just returned from a nice Mexican type of supper at Mi Hacienda restaurant near the campground. Once again we had basically a stir fry with a Mexican name. It was several vegetables like onion and bell pepper and others with strips of beef, chicken and several nice size shrimp and was cooked just about perfect for the OFM preferences. A hint of spicy but not strong as requested. They can be a bit to spicy for the OFM at this place. The OFM hogged out and nothing came back with us in a take home box.

The walk this morning was started with the OFM not feeling just right and a few hundred feet down the trail we took a shorter route around the old ice skating rink etc. and looped back to the Caste after only about a mile and a half. Back inside the OFM rested a bit and decided he needed more horizontal time to recuperate some more. So a timer was set for an hour and the OFM assumed the horizontal on the bed. He never came close to hearing the timer bell and stayed totally passed out for a bit over an hour and a half. The good news is that the rest of the day he has felt fine and has actually been productive in several ways.

One productive way was hitting up two Walmart stores and doing a food resupply for the Castle and crew. Now we have food for a few days at the tip of our fix it fingers.

No new pictures were found today but we do have a nice painting to show tonight. But to mention some confusion on what our adult coloring book work is called. Since we do not generate most of the image we color but do modify the original in the book to suit our ideas, we at one time called them paintings. Then we thought the effort should actually be called a coloring and started using that term for what the OFM Team does. Now we have read where some of the art contests and displays in the country has started labeling what we do as paintings the same as if the colorist had generated the outlines we fill in and/or modify. We have chosen to continue to refer to our art effort as colorings. We feel this shows proper respect for the effort the image artist's efforts but at the same time respects the colorists contribution to the total effort. We hope this gives acceptable respect to each part of the art effort. Please feel free to politely comment on your feelings on this subject. We would like to hear what others think.

And speaking of colorings, here is a new one for your pleasure, whether it is hysterical laughter or hey this is a neat coloring or ??????

Please enjoy Big Yellow Flower.

With this big full tummy we have helping us, we plan on soon starting a very nice nights sleep to attempt to be ready for a full day of trying to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

OFM Takes Things Into His Hands

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 26, 2023

We got out for a walk today before we made up our minds as to what we will do about the Castle situation for maintenance.

The walk was really nice but no pictures were taken since we could not keep the OFM mind on the scenery or other walk oriented items. His mind was locked on figuring out our possibilities with this situation.

After we got back to the Castle we remembered the picture we shot of the huge moon last night late. The moon was forcing its way through all the tree limbs just for us ordinary folks to enjoy its show.

That is a hand held shot with the little Canon camera we have. Pretty nice we think.

Back to the Castle situation. The OFM took things into his hands and grabbed the needed tools and some patience and went to work safely on checking the brakes and bearings needs.

After jacking up each wheel with the hydraulic jack we gave the wheel assembly a thorough going over and got a big surprise. We could not find anything requiring maintenance at this time. So assembly back to normal was done and it was time for the OFM to rest as in take a shower and nap. It was nice for sure.

Now tomorrow we plan to tackle the brake wiring to make sure it is all working well.

During this work today we found out that our tool box with the screwdrivers in it was missing from the rig. Now we wonder where we left that too box since the last time we used it and what else is missing.

We were well pleased with our old 2 ton hydraulic jack lifting the Castle easily again. That jack has been with us since back over 26 years ago.

Tomorrow we start on the water pump trouble and see what we can do about that. Our rent runs out October 14 and we need to figure whether to stay for more here or run for somewhere west of here. We have no plans at this time.

What we do have plans for is to relax some tonight and try to get rested for fighting with the pump and water lines in a highly restricted environment. We are pretty sure the pump system was mounted to the floor before the kitchen cabinets were installed around it with no thought to maintenance. One friend has suggested we take the kitchen from its spot so there is more area to work. So far that is not the best looking way to go but we will know more tomorrow.

In the meantime everyone get lots of rest so you will be in great shape for trying to have way tooooo much fun tomorrow.

Wrong Answer

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 25, 2023

We got out for a walk today even though the OFM was not feeling good in his knees. So we took it a bit slower and more gently to make about two miles of gentle exercise and photo taking. As of tonight we have three files of about 25 pics each waiting for the OFM to get busy editing or discarding them and stored in the right files for future use. But we did have a HAPPY GREETER at the start and end of the walk. Say HI to smiley who greets each person entering or leaving the back route from the campground.

That gave the morning a good start. The day was very pretty and nice for a slower walk for a change.

For some reason the surface tension of the water in the creeks was a lot higher today. OFM how could you tell that? Well it was obvious when lots of leaves as in hundreds were floating on the surface of the sloughs and fingers from Flint Creek. That got us several neat pictures like this one.

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It is doubtful the OFM can artistically create the shine on the water like that but it certainly is a pretty pic in our opinion.

In the afternoon we went over to Andys RV Repair to get the latest date we need to bring the Castle to them for the maintenance. After a bunch of hee hawing around, it turns out that they have lost most of their employees to much better paying jobs recently.

So what it means to the OFM is that he would have to wait until at least Christmas for the work to be done. NOPE not a good answer.

So we moseyed on home and did a lot of thinking. The OFM knows how to do the work needed and has experience doing the work that is needed so he will take his time and do the work like he has in all the past times on all his travel trailers, boat trailers etc. The OFM trouble is all the getting up from the ground and back down without causing too much joint pains. So we will be slow. Tomorrow we will be ordering the new water pump to replace the onboard pump. And then start on the brakes and bearings work. That should keep him busy for a few minutes at least.

It appears that we will soon be having some interesting events happening at this campsite as the OFM flops around on the ground getting us in rolling condition. We do not know how long this will take but it should be a lot less than until Christmas time. And NO this is not a good way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

But this is a nice area for walking and taking pictures of beautiful natural items.

Remembering Granny J

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 24, 2023

The morning walk went very well with only one small hot spot to correct. We meandered all over an area near the water taking pictures of anything and everything.

Which brings the OFM to a special memory we have of the lady who took him under her training early in his blog writing in November 2007. She was an older lady in Arizona that could not get out and about for long distances and big adventures, BUT she managed to publish an interesting blog nearly every day for years. She went by Granny J from Arizona and her blog was Walking Prescott at http://walkingprescott.blogspot.com/

She tutored the OFM on many issues of blogging way back then. She passed on several years ago but her blog still exists if you would like to read one of the old ones of blogging. She will not be forgotten by this OFM.

It was Burger King for lunch and local friend Jerry for visiting. We spent nearly three hours talking of many things. Sometimes it is good to sit and discuss life in general and what plans are developing. He is a nice fellow that is very local for his whole life.

And last but not least is a new coloring named Moon Light Valley. A small section 4”x6” was cut from an adult coloring book and modified slightly to produce this painting. The the OFM went to work on it and this was his result.

We hope everyone enjoys the coloring because we have lots more of them coming. And we are starting a new phase of art work so it might get more exciting or strange. We are going to get rested for a long day of trying to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

Feet Hurt

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 23, 2023

The plans for today had nothing to do with what really went on for the whole day. The first thing after breakfast the OFM went to put on his walking shoes and got reminded how miserable the new insoles were feeling. Yet we needed to change that before any walking. Before the new inserts the OFM could feel the thin spots in the insoles as we walked. So we bought new thick soles like we had that lasted about a year and a half and cut them on the size marks and installed them.

Two days later they still hurt his feet. So this morning became fix the new insoles morning. We walked a little bit in the campground to spot the hot spots in the OFM feet.

Then we sat down and checked each spot for WHYS. Sure enough on the first spot we checked the liner and he had cut the liner on the line for one size larger foot than he has. So we changed that and tried it. Instant relief for that sore spot.

For the the next hour we went over and over on the shoes making certain the shoes would not hurt us anymore.

To be certain we wore them all day and went to Walmart shopping, walked short laps here in the campground and just ran around all day to be safe about no pain. Sure enough tonight we had been doing chores all day and no more pains had shown up. So tomorrow it is back to walking in the normal manner.

During rest breaks and lazy guy breaks the OFM colored and made good progress on two colorings. They should be ready for viewing this week.

One thing about colored pencil coloring is the need for a lot thicker coat of pencil lead than we had thought needed. But it is needed to keep the paper from showing pinholes through the color. Then the colorist will wash the painting with a brush or other device with a solvent to make the coloring be nice and smooth. We normally used 91% isopropyl alcohol from Walmart . However an Internet site recommended OMS ( odorless mineral spirits) as a preferred solvent to use, so we went to Walmart to get a small bottle to try. It was also a chance to try out the fix on the shoes some more. The shoe fix was good but the OMS proved to be not our choice. It was way too much trouble we feel. We will keep on doing it the old fashioned way with the alcohol. Now we will soon have two pictures to show our readers and a small bottle of OMS to dispose of safely. So with a little luck tomorrow we will be back up and walking well and trying to have way tooooo much fun again.

Tree Rat Breakfast Spot

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 22, 2023

Another very beautiful day in this area. We put together another new route among all the trails and it was a fun event. The special part was that the fall changes have started and the OFM took several nice fall pictures for future blog postings. Another odd event was the beautiful cool morning did not have many folks out on the trail. Here is a picture of how pretty the morning trails were today.

It seemed like everywhere we looked was a picture hollering to be taken of the start of the fall foliage display of colors.

Our meandering among the trails sections caused the OFM to miss his normal resting bench. So we just kept on going and we found a rest spot in a picnic area near the main Point Mallard Park area. The bench had recently been used for a tree rat to have breakfast from the looks of it.

It worked out well as the view was very nice and a bit of a cooling breeze kept us really comfortable. As we got moving again we realized that we were approaching a hill of infamy for the OFM.

When we first started coming to this campground we discovered the trails and the OFM walked a lot more briskly 12 years ago. This hill is just past the start of the official hike and bike gravel trail. Well the OFM had a good head of steam going down the curved hill on the loose gravel. So he decided to put on a show for any watchers as he went down the loose gravel to make the curve. Sure enough about half way down it his feet took an unplanned detour out to the grass and the rest of his body tried to keep going around the curve. SPLAT AND ROLL time was here. Ego was damaged but not the body since he could still do the airborne roll he laerned in the army.

!2 years later as in now, the OFM goes slowly up or down this hill very carefully. Slipping and falling is no longer in his itinerary of OK to do acrobatic efforts. So we slowed to a slow speed and carefully stepped on the packed dirt parts of the trail. Falling at 77 years old is not a preferred fun activity.

Any way we had a great walk and saw lots of upcoming fall scenery developing. Back at the Castle we tackled the latest coloring effort with a vengeance and made very good progress.

All in all it was a nice day in North Alabama trying to have tooooo much fun.

Dead Calm Morning

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 21, 2023

Another very beautiful day in this area. And we put together a new route from several pieces of other paths and had a good time. The weather was dead calm and cool. Check out this pic of Flint Creek.

We walked steadily and covered over two miles and got to see some scenery from a different angle for a change.

And that was the big event for the day.

A blog reader has asked to see the “ART STUDIO” inside the Castle. Well the art studio is the do everything table in the kitchen, dining room, and living room of the Castle. Here is a picture of the do everything table taken from the living room couch about six feet from the table. As you can see it is a great set up with everything within close reach. Yep the Castle is too little for anything to be far away.

Now we get to see a messed up painting that was done in the above art studio. This is Deer Feeding and what messed this up was the coloring book claiming to have paper pages that handle water colors. So we tried some watercolor pencils and the paper failed miserably. The wrinkles are huge and ugly. Any way this is what lies about the paper can do to a painting with all the wrinkling we tried to iron out of the mess.

Ok that is out of the way. Everyone relax and try to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

Gentle Day

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 20, 2023

Another very beautiful day in this area. But not much happened so it was a bit of a lazy but productive day.

We took the walk on the path next to the golf course and around to the other end of the gravel hike and bike trail we usually walk in the morning. To our surprise the number of folks on the trail this morning was less than ten for sure. Below is the normal view for nearly all of the 2.2 miles. The golf course to the right of the pic below had very few folks on it either.

It was a nice cool walk all the way. Back home we did a bit of straightening up and started on coloring using new techniques we have learned about and need to practice. It went ok but definitely needs more careful practice.

We think this was about the total excitement for the day but the restfulness was welcome. So we are well rested if we get a chance at having tooooo much fun.

Cool Morning

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 19, 2023

An incredibly beautiful day kept us entertained today. When we got outside the bright blue skies and pure white clouds were wonderful to experience for a change. When the cool air hit us as we exited the Castle a quick look at a thermometer let us know it was 56F and our shorts and T-shirt might not be enough clothes. But we headed out anyway and as we warmed up from the exercise and bright sunlight it proved that we were dressed correctly.

So off to our daily adventure we went. When we got to the shore line we were greeted with another wonderful picture.

And that is how the day has been. The OFM shot lots of pictures but apparently he had the shakes this morning and a lot of the pictures were fuzzy like he was wobbling but we still remember how pretty things were in our mind.

Since we were about an hour earlier than usual we caught several egrets hunting for their breakfast successfully. We only got two decent shots since the OFM was wobbly and the shots were long distance telephoto attempts. This one is a good example of the other shots we tried to get.

The foliage along the river/creek was in good form this morning also. Even the weeds made a nice picture along the trail.

There were about a dozen of those types of picture the OFM tried but his wobble was just too much. Later in the day he steadied up a lot but morning was when the light was so good.

And once again on the walk taking a few minutes rest about mid way of the 2.5 miles is making a huge difference in the OFM and how quickly he is ready to run and play after we get back to the Castle. Here is a nice picture of the wonderful Bench we generally use. The bench is facing Flint Creek

It was also a bit of a shopping by computer, mainly Amazon, for items we are considering if we get to go rolling soon. Then of course there is the items that catch our attention while scrolling through all the pictures and temptations. But surprise we spent about $25 is all in spite of the temptations that slammed us in the head during the shopping. The OFM is pretty good at remembering we only have 147 SF of space in the Castle.

We plan on being well rested in the morning to be able to enjoy another wonderful day of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Good Walk Again

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 18, 2023

The morning walk went very well. Out the door on time and the feeling was good as we briskly marched down the road. It turned out to be a 2.5 miles day with one rest at roughly the middle point of the loop. The OFM was almost frisky when we got back to the Castle. In other words a major change from yesterday. Along the way we go this neat picture of a “long hired” toad stool growing from the hollow core of a downed tree.

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At one point we stopped at a multi trail junction to get a pic of the trail signs. This is one of two major junctions of the many trails in the park.

From this point you can spend several more hours walking without retracing many of your steps. That is one good reason the OFM likes the walks in this area. It seldom gets boring.

The new magnifying head piece was good help this morning and proved to be very valuable in deciding none of the three colorings we thought were ready for showing are actually ready for showing. We were able to see so many numerous bad line connections and missed spots that we are giving each painting more time to get done properly now that the OFM can see the failures and fix them.

Lawlers Salad with shredded pork was supper with one serving left for later some day soon. The OFM has quit loosing weight so he needs to cut back some more on the food consumption. It will be a not easy task. With a little luck we will be back on track quickly and doing a better job of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Wise Decision For A Change

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 17, 2023

Let us just follow the OFM for a few minutes this evening. He got out of bed doing OK and went about his breakfast and getting ready for the morning walk. Proper clothes were put on and every thing seemed ready for a nice walk. Out the door into nice cool weather with no chance of rain. Down the campground road we went and then out onto the trails area. A left turn to go alongside the soccer field for the 100000th time and away we went. Then as we joined the gravel trail he stopped suddenly and stood there for a minute. Then he made one of the wisest decision he has ever made in his life. I just do not feel right but I cannot put a finger on what or why but I an not going to push it today. And we turned around and headed the half mile back to the Castle. We never did figure out what was wrong but things did not feel right until after lunch.

Just as suddenly around 1300 the OFM suddenly was feeling just right again and the rest of the day went very well. Who Knows, not us. The rest of the day has been very nice.

This morning the replacement art supplies arrived to replace a lot of worn down colored pencils including a new pencil sharpener that captures the shavings from the pencils. It will make things easier for coloring on site in the future. We think that may be in our near adventures. It used to be fun several years ago and we will be trying it out again.

At lunch my friend Jerry brought the OFM something he picked up in his yard sale adventures. We told he needs to write a blog about all his yard sale adventures. Any way it is a head band device that has magnifying lenses built in like the old time jewelry and watch maintenance folks used to wear to see the little details of stuff.

We are trying it out for coloring and so far it really helps. 

While trying out the new eyes we managed to nearly finish three colorings we had been working on. It is not for sure a good answer to the OFM's trouble seeing up close but it seems close to doing the job. It sure was nice of him to think of us while he was out shopping.

Hopefully the OFM will get the three colorings finished out tomorrow so we can start showing them. I like them but not everyone likes mountain scenes.

We are looking forward to tomorrow being a better day so we can get in some decent exercise in the morning. Then we will be ready for trying to have tooooo much fun.

Second Hand Gymnastics Report

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 16, 2023

We had nasty rain this morning as the OFM Teams made their way to the gymnastics competition over in Huntsville. The traffic was very heavy. When we got to the competition location and tried to park there was no parking places available. It had already filled the gym lots and the overflow lot next door at the tractor dealer. And the OFM was at least a half hour early. As it turns out two sets of folks we know had beat us there by about fifteen minutes and they got parking but very nearly the last couple of spots.

With the help of several nice folks guiding us carefully, we got turned around and went out the driveway to the frontage road, we looked left and got a rough count of thirty vehicles lining the frontage road waiting for an open spot to park in the overfull lot.

So we did all we could think of and went back to the Castle 30 miles away. Now we know that these events will be crowded and we will be better prepared for the next one.

The rest of the day was spent coloring, talking to friends, looking at future travel options and later in the day looking at pictures of the competition that Piper's dad had taken and sent to us. She did well but found out what she really needs to work on also. The next competition is a couple of road hours away and may conflict with the repairs on the Castle but we hope not. We want to attend one of the competitions in person to FEEL the competition.

Tonight is a good night to practice getting rid of frustrations and prep for a great day of trying to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

Dangerous Plans For On The Road Tomorrow

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 15, 2023

A slower paced day today but tomorrow is a gymnastics meet for Piper and we plan to be there to see her perform. We know she is very excited to be in the competition.

The walk was about 2.2 miles with the recommended halfway point five minute rest. Once again we finished earlier than we had been finishing and was not as beat. Thus we plan on the rest break from now on. Now to experiment on longer walks but including the rest break and see what happens then. Maybe we will figure out this walking soon.

Tonight we have the finished coloring named RESTING TIME.

It required some skills we had never done before and need more practice at doing them. We have three more colorings planned in this particular series.

Nothing especially good or bad went on this afternoon as we were shopping for a few items at the neighborhood Walmart but it seemed to take forever to find the hard to find items like aa batteries and a couple of other things. When we asked an employee where they were he turned around and led the OFM about twenty feet to an end cap full of batteries in plain sight. It was a bit embarrassing we did not see them ourselves.

We hope to get ourselves in good shape for driving in the traffic of central Huntsville tomorrow to the gymnastics competition. Tomorrow should be a great time of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Grand Parents Lunch Day

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 14, 2023

A very busy day today due to lunch at my grand daughter's school. Grand parents were invited to have lunch with the grand kid and the turn out was a mob of about 6 year old kids being loud and fun. It was wonderful but LOUD.

Any way we had a good time and a picture was received that has grandpa the OFM on the left, then grand daughter Piper in the center, then Grandma Mary on the right. It was a great fun time for us all and will be remembered.

The OFM ended up visiting folks here and there for most of the day and then grabbed a pork salad from Lawlers for supper. Now we have salad for tomorrow supper also. The OFM is worn and will be kicking back and resting as soon as this is published. He has to get ready for a big day of trying to have too much fun.

Dangerous Cliff

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 13, 2023

As usual we went for a walk and it was a nice walk in cool air with a bit of a breeze. A slightly different route just for the heck of it and it turned out to be 2.3 miles. The first part of the walk was at a very brisk pace. Then shortly after the turn back point we found a nice bench and relaxed for about five minutes. Then the rest of the walk was a speedy but not quite as fast as the first part. When we finished at the Castle the Teams were not near as pooped as normal and we were only five minutes longer in the time required. We feel we are onto something very good. The heart rate was slightly elevated and the respiration rate settled back down in about five minutes. Best of all none of the OFM joints gave any trouble today.

We did see a cute event on the trail this morning. There is a lady that walks a large tan water dog of some sort and a small malamute colored dog of about 14 pounds is all. They run off lease and ignore all people on the trail even if they are requested to visit for a head scratching. Nice lady and pups they are.

Today they were at a trail junction with three ways to continue onward. The small dog was busy dogging around in the low cut brush as its owner headed on down the trail section A.

About two minutes the pup came out of the brush to no owner or other dog around. It looked at the three different trail, stopped and thought a minute then headed licky split down trail C. ZOOM and it was gone. The OFM stuck around for a minute and decided to try to catch the owner on down the trail and tell her about the lost dog.

Just as the OFM started to head on out, here comes old lickity split back from the wrong trail and stopped to sniff for a for a few seconds and ZOOM it was gone on the correct trail. A few minutes late we saw the whole group together about a quarter mile down the correct trail. That was fun to see happen since it came out just fine.

Today was a bit of shopping for nothing in particular and a long lunch with my lunch friend at Burger King. He is a yard sale fan and brings things he buys in for the OFM to see and discuss with him. After a two hour lunch with him we split up and the OFM went home and labored heavily on his latest coloring effort and finished it.

So here for your giggles and enjoyment is DANGEROUS CLIFF.

Tomorrow is lunch with Granddaughter Piper and then who knows what.

We wish we had more accurate time on the Castle's upcoming repair/maintenance work so we could start planning some new adventures for our future. Lately the OFM has been itching for some of the desert fun available in the Elephant Butte area of New Mexico again. It has been several years since we messed around in that area. But we guess we will find out about all this soon enough. Then we will get busy working hard at trying to have tooooo much fun.

 

Old Folks System Worked

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 12, 2023

We put that old folks system to test today and it seems to be a much better style. We ended up with 2.5 miles total exercise walking. From the Castle it was a nice vigorous walk to the turn around point at a large pond near the trail. We made the turnaround with no trouble and headed back on the same trail to a nice bench area about fifteen minutes back. There we sat and goofed off about five minutes and seemed ready to get going so off we went. Sure enough it was enough for this cool morning. Hot weather would have needed more time for sure. The biggest surprise was at the normal slow down location due to getting pooped out went flashing by and we kept on moving to the Castle. Then inside the Castle the cool down period was so quick that it made the OFM think the clock was broke, but it wasn't. So now we will see how this new style works out for the long term. We have three of these length/style paths mapped out for our use.

We have a new coloring for you tonight. It is titled Flowers On Parade. This is a 4x6 small picture but was fun to color. We hope you enjoy it.

We stopped at Hobby Lobby to check out their adult coloring books but all their offerings had a scene laid out on each page front and backside. That wastes a picture you paid for since one side is all that can be painted for our use. It was a waste of time but we now know what is not available there.

In the meantime we have a stack of pictures taken over the last few days we have not handled yet and tomorrow is nominated as CLEAN THAT MESS UP day. Grand daughter Piper has events we plan to attend on Thursday and Saturday so we will be busy being grandpa for those days.

After half of the pulled pork stuffed baked potato tonight we are ready to get in laid back mode and rest up for some trying to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

New Ideas On Exercise For Old Folks

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 11, 2023

Another busy day that was productive for a change. This morning the OFM was reading about older folks and exercise. They were referring to folks from 55 to 75. Well that lets the OFM out.

Then a few paragraphs later they swapped to age 76 to about 82 with some nice recommendations. Lots of explanations but here is the basics of it. Split tiresome exercise like fast walking into 2 or 3 sessions during the day. Research has shown that old folks like the OFM can get better results on 2-3 shorter sessions of exercise to arrive at a full days worth of exercise a day. Get the same exercise but split it into sessions so your slower recuperating body has a better chance to keep up with the exercising. That seems to agree with what the OFM saw during his year 76 but did not catch on at the time. Today we hit the trail with plans for starting to try that plan. So today the OFM started with a mile and a quarter and with a nice bench rest of about fifteen minutes and then headed back. That rest made a huge difference in the way the second half of that 2.5 mile walk wore on him. So now with that info it is time to go back to the information source and learn some more.

We stopped over at the RV repair place to see how we were doing on the waiting list. They lost a week a couple of weeks ago when the whole place came down sick. So now the schedule is for the Castle to get in for service in about four weeks. So it looks like it will be early October before the Castle will be up to perfect for rolling. At least we have a target month for the OFM to think about.

We have a picture we finished coloring of some sort of flower sort of like a Bird of Paradise flower. It took FOREVER to get the coloring done on it. The coloring is totally water color pencil which basically makes it a water color paint effort at coloring. We would like for our readers to give their opinions on this coloring be they bad or good and what they like or dislike. The OFM is not sure what he thinks about it.

Here is Mystery Flower for your enjoyment.

We do not put our art on display in the Castle in a permanent fashion. The Castle is way to small for all that paperwork. What we do is put them in a frame, sit it on the back of the dining bench and lean them against the wall. This way the three latest colorings are displayed. When a new one comes in the oldest one is unframed and put in a file box in a cabinet. This way all the colorings get displayed for a while and then stored out of harms way.

Here is what that looks like in real life.

And that is it for tonight. May everyone have a great day tomorrow of trying to have tooooo much fun.