Memorial Day 2010

This year has been wetter than normal. Actually, we have had so many dry winters that it seems like we have had a wetter than normal year, but actually, this year we are at 98% of normal for our annual rain fall. The snow pack in the Sierra's is at about 110% of normal, so we ought to start recovering in our water reservoirs. This memorial day weekend, was indicative of our rainy season. On the Thursday before memorial day weekend, we had another drenching rain storm.

Memorial day weekend was a very busy one for us. Going into this weekend, I've been preparing for the start up of my VVIMS software that I have mentioned in the past. Infact, that is why I was off on Thursday. I was scheduled to work on Sunday to do the conversion from the old Cable management system to the one that I had written.

On Friday, the RV park started filling up in every site at the park. It's great to see the park filling up. Last year was a very slow RV'ing season, primarily because of the economy. But this year, it's been a pretty busy season at the old RV park.

Saturday, we went and hung out at Carol's brother Bill and his wife Loretta and their son Brandon's house in Pioneer. It is their weekend get-away house, as they normally hang their hat in Tracy. The gathering at their house in Pioneer turned out to be kind of a family gathering with over 23 of us there. The gathering also was an occasion to be a birthday party for Carol's great nephew Devin. It was a great day with a lunch time and dinner bar-b-que event, but of course since Carol and I are on a diet, the most we could do is spell the great smells.

Speaking of the diet, we are entering week 7 of being on the diet. As of last week, Carol has lost 23 pounds and Eric has lost 22 pounds. The program runs for a total of 80 weeks. The first 17 weeks of the program we are on meal replacement Shakes, bars and soups. After that, we will slowly work our selves back into regular food. Though this plan isn't cheap, it does come with regular blood work and meetings with the doctor on by-weekly basis. The best thing yet is that I'm off of both my blood pressure and cholesterol medications and Carol is off her blood pressure and diabetes medications.

At any rate, back to the Memorial day weekend. Carol and I went to the Memorial day event in Martell this morning. It was very well attended and the American Legion post seems to do a better event every year than the year before. They had a wonderful speaker who came all the way from San Francisco. He was a former member of the US Army Airborn who served in Afghanistan. He was a very inspirational speaker, a true pleasure to listen too. There was a number of folks their in dressed uniform including a Major who had served in World War II.

The American Legion post has been working on a new memorial wall. They have been replacing the original bricks with now granite ones. The new wall looks really great!

Well, I guess that is about all for now. Take care all, and always remember those who have served this great country of ours, especially those who have given their 'Full measure'!!!

Happy camping!!! Eric and Carol

Busy, busy, busy!!!

Hi there everyone,

Well, I've started conducting training classes for the consolidated billing project that I've been working on at Volcano. This project will allow us to provide services similar to that of the big boys (Comcast and AT&T) as far as bundled services and billing where a customer can have Cable TV, Internet, Long distance and Telephone service all on one bill. This project has involved the development of probably 30 or 40 programs and countless integration processes so that the new programs I have written will work with some software written by a vendor. I have been working on this project for the last 3 years in one way, shape or form and I will be so glad when I get it put to bed. I'm hoping to have it fully implemented by July 1st. Yipee!!! :-)

We've been staying pretty close to home over the last few weeks, for the most part because the project has kept me so busy that I can't take any extra time off from work so we can have a long get-away. None the less, we always seem to be able to keep busy on the weekends. Last weekend, we hung out at Brandee and Kevins for a good chuck of the weekend while they held a yard sale, which was fairly lucrative. The weekend before that we gave all three of the dogs a bath and shaved Roxy down for her summer cut. Of course, this year, we haven't had any high pressure systems park them selves over the region and as a result, our weather has been much cooler this year than normal. So, Roxy is looking at us as if to say "... And you trimmed me down for why???"

This weekend, I'll be working the dog adoption day at the Petco in the county and maybe go see all the RV's we can't afford at an RV show. And then of course, there is all the regular stuff that needs doing like laundry and such. Next weekend will be a busy one at the RV park because it will be memorial day weekend. I will be working on Sunday because of the pilot conversion that weekend for the project I've been working on. I'm hoping I can join the family for some of the weekend though and not be too much of a work aholic. :-)

I guess the secret is out, Carol and I have been on a 'Medically Managed' weight loss program for the last 6 weeks and it seems to be going pretty well. We've both lost almost 20 pounds and both of our vitals are looking better every week as we go in for our 'Med-checks'. We're very excited about the results we are seeing so far and we are finding it pretty easy to stay 'On Plan'.

Well, I guess that is about all for now. Take care all! Happy Camping! - Eric and Carol -

The Northern California Samboree

Hi there everyone,

I know, once again I have been derelict in my duties of keeping the family blog up to date. Well, don’t feel too bad, I haven’t spent much time lately looking at Facebook either. And though that may be all the rage with most of the population today, Facebook and Myspace has never really appealed to me. At any rate, here is an update for you. I’ve been feverishly trying to get my latest edition of my book Campin and computing put to bed. And, regardless of how hard I try, it still seems to have more content being added to it every day. I just need to cut off the changes and send it to ‘press’ as they say.

This last week, we attended the Northern California Good Sam Samboree. We’ve had a great time here this week. We’ve met so many wonderful folks here and had a chance to re-connect with some wonderful people that we met down at the Southern California Good Sam Samboree. We got to reconnect with Smitty and Louise Smith as well as Duane and Patricia who are from Auburn and many others. We haven’t seen many of these folks for a long time, but we were so glad to see them once again. We have had a wonderful time. We met Clarence Tracy from (some town that starts with a ‘C’), a wonderful gentleman who we chatted with numerous times about Computer, sound systems, RV’ing, his service in World War II numerous other topics. We we’re honored to meet Geoff and Gayle Warr who travelled here from Australia and are touring north America.

We had an extra special bonus, Karen and Mike surprised us with a visit. They made the trek down from Ashland to come hang out with us. Lily one third place in the Best Costume for the Dog show competitions. One of the funnest activities at the event was watching the Blind driving competiton. This is where the driver is blind folded and the co-pilot so to speak tells the driver how and when to turn. You have to navigate a course without hitting anything. The team who does it the fastest wins. This has been a WONDERFUL week and we had a great time. Unfortunately, Sunday means we have to head back to reality. There aren’t any Samborees now until next year for the state of California, so we have a long wait until the next one, but it is worth waiting for. We’re thinking about maybe going to the FMCA Rally in Indio of next year.

Though we are home safe and sound, we can’t wait to get out on the road again.

Happy camping!

Eric and Carol!