A Full-time Life

FULL-TIME LIFE ANNIVERSARY

 

FullTime-Life is five years old this month and it is  both about  OUR WORLD and a part of it.   

We first blogged  during our  stay in  London earlier in 2007.  Our son set it up for us  (and taught us to blog by e-mail).    It was a great travel diary and a way to keep family and friends up-to-date about where we were.    After we got home, I realized we had a lot of travel pictures from trips around this country (with more to come)  ... and I missed blogging.    FullTime-Life was the result.   (Click  here to read our updated "About a FullTime-Life" page.)

  Here's a picture from that very first post here, November 9, 2007:

 

 

 

(From a 2003 trip to Vermont during the first long RV trip we took after we sold our house.. .. there were a lot of back-fill posts when the blog first started. ) 

 

At first, FullTime-Life was just for us and for family, but at some point I discovered the joy of reading other people's blogs and sharing pictures and stories through many wonderful memes.    What a great way to learn about different places all over the world -- and I love having virtual friends!

Thank you to the hosts of Our World Tuesday and to everyone who comes to visit FullTime-Life.      

AND (for all in the USA) HAPPY THANKSGIVING

 

 

POSTCARDS FROM MYSTIC

THIS POST IS LINKED TO MARY'S RUBY TUESDAY.  Sometimes we don't seem to see much red anywhere and sometimes bright spots pop up everywhere we look.  Last week was one of the latter times.  I hope it continues.

 

 Views from Mystic River Bridge, Mystic Connecticut.

 

We loved this pretty little town and took so many pictures we could post about it forever!  But there have already been many stops along the road since we stayed there -- so I'll hold it down (for now anyway) to just one more Mystic experience   -- tomorrow.    

WE'RE BAAAACK!

We had computer problems this past week  -- not exactly a crash really, just the inability to hook up to the Internet. (And without that, the computer is just nothin' but a big old electric solitaire machine!) 

But so much better than a crash because we didn't lose anything.

We were busy in our real life.  We had company, there were park activities, we are still working on "getting our house in order", we had books, I had crossword puzzles. 

We enjoyed sunshine -- and rain*.   But even with all that,  I still suffered severe Internet withdrawal symptoms.

I use the computer the way I use the car -- no idea how it works or what happens inside it -- I just drive it!  Fortunately, Bill understands the technical part of both and knows when he can fix something and when to call in help.  This time he fixed it. 

It's good to be back; I'm happy we are able to take turns "at the wheel" again.   

*(On Friday ,the day after our last post, there was eight inches (8") of rain in this part of Florida!  It was running down the streets and catch basins were all completely full.  Now, a week later, the sun is shining and there is no sign that the roads here in the RV Park looked more like rivers then.)  As former Oregonians, we are used to rain, but not that kind.  It's more a slow steady and constant thing up there  -- not that much in one 24-hour period.

This picture is from this article in the  FORT MYERS NEWS-PRESS .

WYSIWYG

   
Back in the dark ages, Bob Cratchit here and I shared an office cubicle.  Eventually, the desktop computer came along and we all had to learn a new way of doing business.  I worked in an educational office so we were "given" the opportunity to take classes to learn about all the new technology (meanwhile doing all our work the old-fashioned way). 

It was great to have the computers and the opportunity to learn something new, but some classes went into depth most of us really didn't need. 

I don't really understand how my car works (or my can opener for that matter) so why should I care about the computer hardware?  Or software really as long as it does what I want it to.  I'm just a user, that's all!

But the one acronym that stayed with me from back then is the title of this post -- because it can be applicable to so much of life in general.  Most often, what you see is what you get.

But sometimes not.  And I am thinking of this because I just realized that my blogposts look different on different computer monitors.  (I thought the recent post on canal boats was perfect until I viewed it on my laptop.  Oops)

As in life, so it is with posting -- what you see may be what you get, but sometimes you have to look at things from more than one angle to get the whole picture.

TODAY'S WEATHER!

Here's what came up on our I-Google morning weather report this morning:  

VENETA OREGON   56

LONGMONT COLORADO 40

FORT MYERS FLORIDA 50

SAN ANTONIO TEXAS 50

JUST SAYIN', that's all! 

Of course there was also this:  (in three places)
and this:  (in guess which one).

Happy Wednesday from Veneta in the wet but not so cold Willamette Valley  (where it has rained so much lately that the Lake is rising again!)

  
 * Longmont and San Antonio are where our other kids live (the ones who aren't in this area).

HOME IS WHERE WE PARK IT

 Thanks for visiting our blog!    Click on the "About" pages or any category on the right to learn more about us and our travels.  (The Category List is about halfway down the right-hand column.)  There are also a few clickable photo albums listed there.  Or just SCROLL DOWN this page to read our latest posts. 

Please visit us again.   To comment, even on an older post, just click on the post's title.  We will get an e-mail from Type-Pad telling us you've left a comment. 

  

FEATURED WEBLOG

 

Early in July, I had an e-mail message from a very nice guy at TypePad named Jonathon Swain.  He said that our blog had been selected to be featured on TypePad's home page, if we gave permission.  We were tickled to do so.  Today, our blog was listed as a Featured Weblog. 

Thank you TypePad for featuring us.  We plan to keep on traveling and blogging and hope our posts live up to this honor. 

We'd love to have suggestions for places readers think we shouldn't miss in our travels.  Let us know in the comment section or by e-mail (listed at our website:  FullTime-Life.com)

For new readers:  We usually only post once a week.  The rest of the time, we're out doing the things we blog about. 

BLOGGING ANNIVERSARY, JUNE 2008

We were pulling our house across Oregon the other day and got to reminiscing about where we were exactly a year ago.   (There's quite a long stretch of straight highway through the desert between Burns and Bend.  So boring that we were very happy to have something fun to talk about.)  

(Lonesome Highway 20)

One year ago this month, we were in the middle of our three-month stay in Sydenham, London.  And besides all the lovely memories of our time over there, I was reminded that we have now celebrated our first anniversary as bloggers.     We started while we were in London.   Our Colorado kids set it up for us, because I mentioned in an e-mail that it was hard to remember who I had told what to!  So with their help and a lot of e-mails back and forth across the pond, we became bloggers.  Most people probably would have learned how before leaving on a three-month trip to another country, but this was just one more instance of us not doing things in the normal way.

When we got back home (to the USA), Geoff convinced us that it would be fun to continue to blog so that we could share our RV travels.   He was right -- it is fun.

 I started posting to this blog "Full-Time Life" while we were staying in Eugene late last summer.   Now, we're back in the Northwest again after about eight months of exploring other places.      

On our trip from Eastern Oregon the other day, lonesome Highway 20 took us through Bend.  Our jaws just dropped because this city has grown so much.  Then we drove through the cute little town of Sisters.  We haven't been through either of these in years.  Sisters was definitely recognizable, but we could hardly believe the change in Bend. 

Pretty soon after Sisters, we were driving along the beautiful McKenzie River.  That's it in the picture below, near Sahalie Falls.  

We used to live near the lower portion of the McKenzie (when we had our stick-house in Springfield), so as soon as  we saw the River, it really felt like old times.

One thing I am looking forward to doing  while we're in the Northwest is writing some posts about this beautiful area.  We lived here for such a long time that we've tended to take it for granted.  And so we began the blog by posting about different parts of the country because we thought those pictures would be more fun for our family and friends in the Northwest. 

As we travel, we find many other places of interest around the country but we have also come to appreciate once again how beautiful and interesting the Northwest is.  We loved it when we lived here and we love visiting now.

We still have itchy feet and we still want to see what else is out there.  But for this moment of our full-time life, we are very happy to be here in beautiful Oregon and even more happy to be spending some time with family and old friends.