Well, had some pea sized hail today here at the lake. It sprinkled for a few seconds, then began to pour and then I noticed it wasn't all rain. Lots of little chunks of ice. And tonight it's down in the 30s (that's Fahrenheit). Of course, all my winter clothes are in my cedar chest in my storage unit. And of course, my china cabinet is on top of my cedar chest. The guys who helped me fill the storage unit had to do that to make everything fit, but I can't quite get to it by myself. I've gotta find help to more the cabinet. The cat and dog help keep me warm, and I do have a space heater and a down comforter but I'd really like to have some of my warmer clothes.

Rain. Again. I like rain but living in a popup camper it makes everything damp all the time. My rheumatism doesn't like it. :P

I got a call from the school today. My 12 yr old daughter Nina hasn't been doing her homework on time. We got to have a nice little talk about it. Or rather I talked and she listened. I don't know if anything I said sunk in, but she's way too intelligent to let this happen. I tried to explain to her how she is messing up, but she got that really pissed off look and it's hard to say if she even heard what I said at all.

I use a place on the web called Freecycle. Basically, people post stuff they don't want anymore and other people say they want it and go pick it up. You get rid of stuff you no longer want/need and you don't have to deal with the guilt of simply throwing it out. There are people out there who want it. I posted on our local freecycle board that I was looking for old dead hard drives to harvest the magnets. I'm working on building a generator based n the wood 103 on www.otherpower.com (I think I already mentioned this once...). Unfortunately I ended up with one dead hard drive. That means I'll have to wait to work on the genrator.

It's odd. This blog is the closest thing I've kept to a journal since I was a kid and kept a diary. I decided to write this now to save insights and thoughts I have about life so that I could look back in a year and see if things had changed.

My camper was safe and sound when I got back out to the lake. The only things I really missed from staying at mom's is the dsl and the bathroom. I really miss having a bathroom. I would like to be able to afford a camper with a bathroom.

I am working right now on a generator. I am basing it loosely on the Wood 103 on the otherpower.com pages. I am going to hook it up to a bicycle so I can peddle up some charge to my battery bank. I figure I can use the exercise and the electricity. I have to get things ready to leave the area by November 5th at the latest. The campground I am at now closes October 15th and I don't know of another one in the area that has electric and is reasonable and open all year. I did get a Golden Access Passport so I can stay at federal campgrounds for half price, but there's none near here open year round with electricity. But I do need a cheap place to camp till I take off. I'll figure it out I guess

I have been working on planning a trip to Chicago. Me, Nina and my other daughter Blair are wanting to go to the Field Museum to see the King Tut exhibit. It's the biggest exhibit of Tut's things ever to be outside of Egypt. I have always been nuts about Egyptian stuff and my daughters love it too. My dad is going to help fund our trip. I'll try to get some spiffy pics to post.

I just watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Again. For the umpteenth time. And I cried at the end. Again. For the umpteenth time. Why? Well, there's a couple of reasons. 1st is that at this point I've totally given up hope of our species being contacted by an alien species in my lifetime. Why? Because as a species human beings are too immature. Any race looking at us from a rational point of view would decide we are inherently homicidal and bloodthirsty beings. 2nd reason is that I've given up hope of them ever coming to get me. :P