Keep Mouth Shut

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-18-2020

As Rick mentioned on his comment yesterday, the OFM is hitting a sparse time for blog material. We are not even contemplating stopping blogging but it is a smart blogger when the blogger realizes that sometimes he needs to just be quiet when he has nothing to say.  So don’t worry the old fool that makes a used peanut shell look smart will be back when he has something to say about trying to have tooooo much fun.

An Exciting Plan

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-17-2020

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The big news for the OFM Teams is they are due in Decatur, Alabama to begin grandpa duties for a couple of weekends on March 5, 2021. We are all excited about this plan. It will be a great start to the new year.

Other than that it was a calm pleasant day.  Over at the Memorial  Park we happened past the ball fields on a different route than usual and noticed these pieces of art work instead of the usual wooden posts. It seems rather appropriate for ball fields don’t you think.

That is about all there is for tonight.  We need to get to work at doing better at trying to have tooooo much fun.

What Are They?

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-16-2020

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Well we found the passwords list right where the OFM hid them. It was a really good hiding spot and no we are not telling where.

After the successful password find, the OFM needed a walk to ease his tension.  So we hit up the Memorial Park for a nice walk. It did not take long to turn into a cold wet wind walk even in the trees. He stuck it out for a 1.5 mile walk and then we shut it down and moved on. Sierra was saying the temperature was 52F when we left but the wind chill with the water in the air was not fun.

After some serious consideration this afternoon, the OFM decided we would extend our stay another month if there was room available. There was so we will still be in Rockport until mid January. The three weeks of winter down here are normally from about January 1 to January 20.

We found a couple of pictures of a boat we are not sure what it does for a living. The OFM guesses it is a fish catching trawler for the open Gulf of Mexico waters. Here are a couple of pictures of it. 

A visit with some friends was really nice and went a long way towards trying to have tooooo much fun.

Password Search

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-15-2020

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Well it was a productive day in the life of a computer swapping. Very little computer work got done. It seems that about eleven years ago when the current old computer was put in service, the OFM did a very good job of writing down the pile of passwords and putting them away in a very safe place. 

MORNING BEACH

The Castle is not that big of a house so we went looking for the information. It started out with great intentions but as we unpacked or is it unearthed long forgotten items a new goal seemed to take over. 

The very full laundry bag was in the way and the laundry room was empty so we started the laundry. And then went to moving things that were in that closet out so we could dig through it all.

WWHITE FLOWER

We, of course, had no idea what form the OFM had used to save the passwords.  So everything had to be opened and examined. Naturally we found things we have no use for anymore so the trash sack was started to be filled.

BOAT RAMP AREA

We had had a quick look in the file box first thing but this time EVERY folder was pulled out and gone through.  Good grief there was a lot of “why do we still have that invoice?” since we got rid of that item years ago.  Now the file box is a LOT lighter to pull out of the cabinet it is stored in.

Still no list of passwords in sight.  So the final result of today’s search was nearly filling the campground trash bin and making the Castle about 4800 pounds lighter but still no new computer in action yet. At least the Castle has less worthless weight and STUFF in the cabinets and outside storage.

BEACH CLOUDS

The pictures have nothing to do with the narrative but were taken of the winter weather we are having as we work on trying to have tooooo much fun bringing a new computer online.

Swapping Computers

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-14-2020

Swapping computers and the old one is having jealous fits.  In the meanwhile the OFM is not having tooooo much fun.

A New One Finally

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-13-2020

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Once again it was not an exciting day.  At least today was a healing day. Our first event of the day was the 12 year old computer gave notice it was about to die.  So it was off to Walmart for a new laptop computer. Our files will be moved over to it tomorrow, we hope, and a new computer era will begin.

Mostly the rest of the day until evening was one of rest, move around some and rest some more. The good news is that the OFM is doing very well tonight.

We managed to get two neat pictures late this evening. They were taken from the same spot across a field from The Maritime Museum which is the large building in the forefront of the photo. 

Here is early evening for your viewing pleasure. 

This next shot was taken at the most,about four minutes later.

Apparently the weather front for tonight was moving fairly quickly. The OFM did manage to have some gentle trying to have tooooo much fun today.

Not Exciting Day

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-12-2020

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It was not an exciting day. The OFM took a sightseeing trip up the coast a little way, and this dormant cotton field was the high spot of the meander.

Then a massively nasty migraine interrupted supper to finish the days efforts at trying to have tooooo much fun. See ya tomorrow.

A New RV Boondocker

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-11-2020

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It was not an exciting day but it was a full of events sort of day. We started out with a fishing attempt that turned into a couple of hours of helping a lady learn more about travel trailers and boondocking. Didi was a very nice lady and seemed to be the just right sort to really enjoy the RV life.

A kayaker was working his way around the open bay when the cloudy overcast let a little sun shine to the water. We were lucky enough to catch a nice photo of the event.

And that was all the pictures taken.   Even on the 1.5 mile walk at Memorial Park the OFM did not notice any more pictures needing to be taken. That is an odd happening for him in that area. But it was a shortened walk since the OFM was not feeling just wonderful.

Then we were informed that the Rockport Beach Park vehicle entry pass was going to DOUBLE for non-Rockport resident folks to $40 on January 1,  2021. We will buy the 2021 pass soon while we can buy it for the usual $20 a year.

Then in the late evening the OFM went next door to meet our neighbor and help him with some diagnostics on his trailer.  He is a very nice young man and is talking with the Air Force about a military career. We think he could be a good career person.

And that is how some days keep you busy when you are trying to have tooooo much fun.

Wild Imagination

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-10-2020

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The OFM sometimes has a very “interesting” imagination to say the least.

Over in the Beach Park is piles of oyster shells being used for fill material.  Naturally the Meanderthall had to head on over to the fresh oyster shells to check them out.  Now all our readers know by now that the OFM has to look at everything. There are thousands of shells in each pile. Here is a small area with some left over oyster shells just waiting to be examined by a vivid imagination.

Before you can say FOOL three times he had picked out several shells that his imagination was turning into all sorts of things. Maybe you have seen the painted rocks some places that have been painted by creative minds of others. Well the OFM started talking about all sorts of images he could see in the shells. Before you knew it was coming he had decided that he needs to add oyster shell painting to his art efforts.

Here are three examples of things his demented mind was able to “see” in the shells. Good Grief.

The first is a hawks head and shoulders. The curved beak is pointed left. The eye is near the top of the head. The ridge curving from upper right to lower left is the folded wing. Does anyone else see anything?

Next is a face looking at you with a squinted left eye. The right eye is open and bulging. Below the eyes is a pair of lips partly open. And below the lips is the chin blending into the neck.

The final picture shows a monster at home in its cave. The monsters face is looking at you with bold eyes and snarling teeth below the eyes. The rest of the shell is the opening of the monster’s cave home. Boy it looks mean doesn’t it.

The OFM thinks some good paint work could really enhance these shells into great art work. The rest of the Teams are not so sure about that. At least it might be a good way to occupy the OFM while he is trying to have tooooo much fun during the long winter months here in Rockport Tx.

Cool Morning

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-09-2020

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The bright sun and cool air slapped us around a bit this morning. The OFM was ready to walk early with his knee high socks to resist the chill in the wet air at the beach. The beauty of the morning was not wasted since we managed to get a nice picture. The beach was silently waiting for its first guest of the day when the OFM finally took the picture. And here it is in all its morning beauty.

As we meandered out onto the wooden pier the sun and water were coordinating lots of neat and dancing ripples in the very shallow water. We watched for a little while when the camera mentioned that maybe some other folks might like to see the light show. Good idea.

A bit farther along on the pier we spotted this set of critter trails down in the wet sand. There was not critters at the end of any of the trails so we still do not know what made the trails. This was only a small area of the trails. Lots more trails were running all over the shallow wet sand below us on the pier. It was a game of guess who did what.

Late in the morning after the nice walk around the area we saw this fellow trying to gain control of his paddle board. After watching him and the balancing act for a good while, we were happy to see him make it back to shore safely. The OFM definitely does not have the balance required to play with a toy of that sort.

However we bet it would be a great way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Low Water Day

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-08-2020

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It took three efforts to finally get in a decent milage of walking today. According to some sites on the Internet, for old folks walking exercise, it does not matter how many breaks you have to take for other things.  We are not training for a competitive event, only long term health. The walking needs to be about a 2.5 mph pace when you are walking.  That just happens to be a military marching pace that the OFM body still remembers.

So today when we were walking briskly and when a joint, knee this day, started to complain we just slowed down a lot or stopped to rest on even just went and did some fishing for a few minutes. But in the end we got in the three miles and the knee is only mildly sore tonight. Maybe we have finally  discovered something really worthwhile.

The tide was WAY out today all day. So in the later afternoon we happened to be near the Rockport Beach for another reason and the OFM caught this picture of the evening beach scene.  We thought it was kind of nice.

Earlier in the day we had walked out on the rock groin protecting the harbor. As the OFM meandered around looking at the dolphins feeding in the harbor mouth, he noticed the sunshine had the first part of the boat slips lighted nicely. Here is the really pleasant scene we caught.

It was a nice warm day for running around trying to have tooooo much fun.

Research Vessel

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-07-2020

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Texas Parks and Wildlife has a biology lab here at the Rockport Marina. They do all sorts of good work toward protecting and enhancing our outdoors natural assets. The OFM has had the pleasure of dealing with occasional folk from the lab. They are always ready to help.

They maintain a small fleet of research vessels. On this day the OFM was able to get a couple of pictures of one of the fleet. Apparently they can do netting and take bottom, air and water samples as a minimum of their efforts. We do know that it is a very busy building and port.

Here is a side view of one of the research vessels. This was taken from a favorite fishing spot on a finger dock near the laboratory. 

We were lucky enough to be able to walk around the education building and get a good picture of the same boat from the stern. 

You can see one of the nets they use hanging at the ready.  The open deck gives room for all sorts of stuff to be sorted.  Then the deck is easily washed down to keep the boat ready for another activity.

Meandering around and finding all the neat stuff in Rockport is a great way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Special Houseboat

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-06-2020

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We were meandering the marina area in the cold morning air when the OFM had a thought.  He almost did not recognize it since he has so few of them. Maybe it is time to tell the readers about friend Tim’s house boat.

It does not  look all that special. Just a nice liveaboard houseboat moored in a marina.  Basically a water based RV.  What is so special about this boat?

Well Tim tells me that this houseboat is one of very few in the country that was designed to be able to pull waterskiers behind it. It has two “Corvette” engines in it and a planing hull so it can go fast for a houseboat.

Tim has been living in it for several years now with his neat puppy Gabby. Friendly is Tim’s first name so feel free to Howdy him if he is outside.

While this boat reporting idea was fresh on the OFM’s mind he went around the marina searching for special boats and found a few that we will report on in the future. For some reason messing around a harbor and boats is a great way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Unexpected Event

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-05-2020

It was an unusual event but an important lesson was learned. The Castle is a small trailer by current standards. It is only 148 square feet of interior. The box is 20 feet inside X 7.5 feet inside roughly. We do not have slides. During the course of thirteen years of living in the Castle it has been modified in many ways.

The furnace has been removed since we use electric heat because we did not like the 20+ percent of heat (propane) waste the furnace had. The furnace outside openings have been sealed off.

The vent hood is gone since the vent was always opening and rattling in the winds. That opening is sealed off.

The only unsealed openings we know of are the very small condensation drains to the outside on three of the windows.  Those are quite small.

Since late afternoon yesterday we had been in the closed up Castle with the heat on and the windows closed. This morning the OFM had a headache and thought it was just migraine remnants. By 1100 this morning the OFM was feeling pretty bad and he could not figure out why. So he decided to take a short walk in the campground and see if that helped. 

While he was getting a warm jacket on, the Castle door swung open and let cold air in.  The OFM finished the dressing and started out the open door. Then as he started to step down onto the ground he realized his bad headache was lessening. So he stepped back inside and closed the door to the cold air.  In a couple of minutes his headache started increasing again.

OK let us reason about this. Then he had the thought that those who heat with open flame heating had to be careful about. They have to have openings to let air exchange happen to replace the burned up oxygen. So he slightly opened a window on each side of the Castle to let in fresh air. Within thirty minutes the OFM was doing fine like nothing had been wrong all morning and has been fine the rest of the day.

So it seems that in a small tightly sealed small trailer it may be possible to not naturally have enough air infiltration/ex-filtration to supply enough fresh air for comfortable normal living. We had not even used the stove top even for heating water for the hot chocolate. It seems that we will have to keep a window opened a small amount in the future just to keep breathing. Not breathing could put a serious dent in the trying to have tooooo much fun.

When Pigs Fly

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-04-2020

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It is the start of the Christmas season  when you see this in the OFM Dining Room.

Yep, pumpkin pie, hot chocolate, a Christmas candle and of course the computer where the blog happens and Christmas shopping is accomplished.

We even hit the post office this morning to get stamps for mailing OFM art modified Christmas cards to folks. That will take a bit of time to get into the mail but it will be fun. 

To keep up the pace the OFM started another page in the coloring book using oil pastels. They are proving to be a significant challenge for him. But it will happen in some fashion.  The month long winter cold wet season of Rockport Tx is approaching and we expect to spend a lot of time in the future month or so visiting with art materials and hot chocolate. That sounds like fun. One year it even went below 40F for a few hours.

Naturally we had to stop down at the marina to see what is happening. The big lighted Christmas tree and decorations event is tonight and tomorrow night.  There is lots of vehicles down there running around in circles looking at the nice event. We plan to not be there.

One boat in the marina had some bright decorations on board. Sierra got us parked safely and the OFM walked back to the boat to grab a picture or two. Here is what you see normally.

And here is what a little zoom on the camera gave us to enjoy.

There is no telling what else will be happening to the boats for decorations, but we will attempt to keep everyone updated on the festivities.  By the way, NO fish were biting.

And now we are planning on some good rest tonight for a full recovery from the migraine so we can go nuts trying to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

Bad/Good

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-03-2020

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THE BAD

The OFM had forgotten to write down a few items ($29.73 of few) on the grocery shopping list so we were on the way to the checkout again when the migraine started up with the partial blindness and headache. Checking out and getting back to the Castle went well. The standard treatments of ibuprofen and rest were doing their job well.

THE GOOD

In early afternoon the new toys (watercolor pencils) arrived and the OFM went to the mail room to retrieve them. They almost glow they are so bright.

We are really wanting to play with them but the headache still needs to be treated with more rest. We are planning on being active toward our usual goal of having tooooo much fun tomorrow. Good Night.

Sentry Gull

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-02-2020

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The incredibly beautiful day was cool during the morning walk. Then it warmed up to the high 60‘s and became a day of our dreams.  However the fish were not biting the OFM’s offers. 

Meandering was the main fun of the day and we found a few neat things and best of all got several new ideas for meanderings to accomplish and report about.

As for today the walk was only a mile and a half due to the OFM legs wobbling him a bunch. We stopped the forced marching when we looped back by Sierra.  It turned out to be a good idea to rest the OFM legs a bit more today.

Since forced marches were out of the picture now, the OFM started the serious meander. The damaged Christmas decorations we reported from the storm a couple of days ago have all been repaired and more scenes have been added.  It is looking like it might turn our pretty nice.

The beach park maintenance folks are busy doing the annual “fill the low spots” effort in the parking/vehicle access areas.

That particular tractor/truck combination had a heron supervising them moving the oyster shell around. It tended to follow the loaded truck to where it dumped the oyster shell and closely inspect the shell when the truck left. Then the heron would return to the shell piles area to check the next load going out.

Back at the large parking lot near the wooden pier is several covered picnic tables. One of the covers had this solitary seagull on it watching over the area.

The other couple of hundred gulls were wandering around on the pavement waiting for one of the usual vehicles to stop by with illicit food for the gulls. All it takes is one gull feeding trip and your vehicle become the color of gull discharges.  Car wash businesses love sea gull flocks.

It was unusual to have a solitary gull on the roofs around this area, so we watched for a bit to see what was going on. The seagull stayed there for over ten minutes watching the flocks on the pavement. 

It appears that the new watercolor pencils are actually going to be here tomorrow instead of today as predicted by Fedex.  We will be ready to enjoy them during the severe winter weather we will soon be getting. We do have a few indoor things lined up for trying to have tooooo much fun in the warm dry indoors. 

Opuntia Salmiana

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 12-01-2020

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The morning started very chilly but soon was clear bright blue skies. Then by mid afternoon it was in the high 60‘s and fishing was being done by lots of folks.

We did some food shopping included finding a large container of hot chocolate that needed to come home to the Castle to be loved to empty soon.

Nope the OFM did not catch a fish be he did unhook one for a fisherlady without the proper unhooking equipment (needle nose pliers). She had some unhooking thing ama jigs but they could not handle the job.  Anyway we got the trout un-hooked and back into the water to grow up.

We decided to call this next painting finished today. We hope you enjoy it.

Tomorrow the new watercolor pencils are due in for us to have a good try at trying to have tooooo much fun.

The Blizzard Arrived

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 11-30-2020

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The weather started it with a miserable cold blizzard that was in action when the OFM awakened at 0746. It didn’t take long for the OFM to get his new over the calf socks on his legs to help keep the miserable winter weather from freezing them. IF you get the idea, the OFM DOES NOT LIKE WINTER WEATHER, then you are right. Winter temperatures start at 55F.

The socks had been bought yesterday when the weather forecast predicted a severe winter front coming into town. Wind and temperatures way too cold for reasonable humans was predicted, thus the new socks.

While we were at Walmart the OFM had a very unusual experience. He purchased a piece of Christmas decoration to celebrate December’s arrival tomorrow. Here it is in action.

And he even has it lit tonight.  He must be getting soft at his ancient age. Or maybe he just wanted a fire for more warmth in the Castle. Who knows with that fool.

After running around and fishing in the blizzard conditions, he finally gave up losing lures to the ice floes and we went back to the Castle.

When it was supper time, he had half of a two day old sub sandwich. The good part was next. It was HOT CHOCOLATE time in the old Castle.

It was definitely a good beverage especially while it was very hot to warm the big belly in the OFM. That belly takes a lot of warming, you know. In a bit we are hoping he gets busy on the hot TEA. That is another favorite beverage for the OFM.

From all of this you can tell The OFM Teams are ready for the cooler weather and hot beverages while we are working hard at trying to have tooooo much fun

Great Supper

 Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Adventure Date: 11-29-2020

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Potato salad and poached pork chops are a wonderful supper meal we just found out tonight. That was some good eating.

It was chilly this morning but almost all of the storm residue water was gone from the area when we did a patrol of the area.  When Sierra got to the Memorial Park it was a pretty but cool start to the 3 mile walk.

The OFM got the idea from a comment on yesterday’s blog that maybe a picture now and then of a boat or two from the harbor might be of some interest to a few readers. So tonight we have a shrimping boat of the well used variety. There are several of those style of boats here since shrimp is a major area product. If there is a question about shrimping please feel free to ask since the OFM has done a good bit of it in his younger days in the Galveston Bay Texas complex.

Last night the OFM placed an order for more watercolor pencils from his favorite supplier, Dick Blick art supplies.  To our incredulous surprise when we checked our account to make certain everything was OK, we found it had been processed and shipped today. Since it was free shipping we expected a long wait to receive it. NOPE.  It is due here in Rockport next Thursday. How is that for good service!

The new header picture posted today is from the far end of the walking trail at the Memorial Park.  We think it is a nice scene. The surprise to many is the scenery is this type and is a little less than a mile inland from the salt water. 

That is one more example of why this is a pretty good place for trying to have tooooo much fun.