Our Wander Years

Ghosted by my printer

Posted on December 24, 2018 by Sparky

The first 4 volumes, from printi.com

I have published the first four volumes of the blog – 2011 through 2014 – and have the 2015 volume ready for print. But my chosen printer – printi.com – has disappeared. Apparently they have been gobbled up by VistaPrint. Their website now redirects me to the VistaPrint website. But I have been unable to find similar booklet publishing services available through VistaPrint. The only spiral-bound booklets they offer have plastic bindings, which I deem unacceptable. So I am looking for a new printer. Not how I wanted to spend my holiday time.

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Sunsets in Fort Myers

Posted on December 23, 2018 by Sparky

Sunset at the pool

Dusk over the pond

Translucent clouds

One of the best things about southwest Florida, right behind the (usually) great weather, is the sunset. More often than not the sun sets in a blaze of color. Enough color to make you stop what you are doing and just watch. Free theater.

Red at night, sailor’s delight

Dusk at the pond

Nearing sunset

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Rusty the goofball

Posted on December 22, 2018 by Sparky

The goofball at rest

We have been a one-dog family for nearly a year now. That means that all of our loving attention has been lavished on a single dog. It is a heavy burden for a dog to bear, but Rusty seems to be able to tolerate it. As you can see from this photo, he can thoroughly relax despite the pressure.

He is a funny dog. A goofball, for sure. He amuses himself by tossing dog toys into the air and catching them. He kicks a ball down the hallway, then chases it. While he enjoys meeting other dogs, his interest usually lasts less than 30 seconds. Maybe the best thing about him – when walking him, anyway – is that he completely ignores dogs who are being aggressive towards him.

He is a good dog. We will keep him.

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“Night School” by Lee Child

Posted on December 22, 2018 by Sparky

This is the 21st book in the Jack Reacher series. I like all of the Jack Reacher books. He is larger than life, sometimes tender, sometimes brutal, always analytical and never predictable. All of which makes for a good read.

In Night School he is in the army – which is somewhat confusing as he had mustered out in some of the earlier books. Apparently these stories are not chronological. But they almost always stand on their own, so it is not a fatal flaw. At some point maybe I will try to go back and put them in sequence. But not today.

The premise of this one is that Reacher has been ordered back to the classroom, ostensibly to learn about the latest developments in interagency cooperation. But it is a cover, of course, for a clandestine operation. A small group, consisting initially of a CIA agent, an FBI agent and an MP (Reacher) has been assembled to look into an alarming report of possible terrorist activity in Germany. It quickly develops that an AWOL soldier is selling something to a terrorist group for $100 million. The question is what. What could a lowly soldier from a mundane unit in Germany have acquired that could command that price? What could interest a terrorist group for that kind of money? It has to be small (because a single man stole it) and simple (because it can’t require a lot of training or support to be used). It also has to be something that has slipped between the cracks in the military’s inventory control because nothing of that value is missing.

It is a puzzler, all right, but Reacher loves puzzles. He also loves that the liaison with the NSC is an attractive woman who falls for Reacher’s charms and is more than willing to share his bed between forays into the field in search of clues.

Once the culprit is identified to be the AWOL grunt and it becomes obvious that his theft is the culmination of a plan that formed years earlier, before he even joined the army, the investigation tries to figure out what the plan is by interviewing people from his past. The most salient clue is a cryptic comment he made to a fellow soldier that he joined the army “because of Davy Crockett.”

Of course the team figures it all out eventually and just in the nick of time, with about 95% of the credit due to Reacher and his insights. They all get a medal.

Not the most compelling Reacher story I have ever read, but damn good still.

8 out of 10.

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Stats for Jett’s American ancestors, 2018

Posted on December 20, 2018 by Sparky

Number of American ancestors: 549

Location of graves, by state:

MA – 443
ME – 42
NH – 16
NY – 12
CT – 7
VT – 6
NJ – 2
RI – 2
VA – 2
FL – 1
SC – 1
Canada – 1
England – 1
Barbados – 1
unknown – 12

Number of immigrant ancestors: 326

Country of immigrant birth:

England – 300
Ireland – 8
Netherlands – 6
Scotland – 5
Wales – 5
unknown – 2

Categories: Genealogy | Leave a comment

Jett’s American ancestors, 2018 update

Posted on December 18, 2018 by Sparky

I have gone through Jett’s Ancestry tree, reviewing new hints, correcting some errors and adding a few newly-discovered ancestors – specifically the ancestors of Mehitable Williams (a 6th great-grandmother). In the course of reviewing these new hints i discovered some new things:

She has several new direct links to Plantagenet royalty (specifically Edward III).
She is a distant cousin to both Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher (they were siblings).
One of Abraham Lincoln’s 6th great-grandfathers is one of Jett’s 10th great-grandfathers, making her a distant cousin to Old Abe.
Another 10th great-grandfather, Thomas Macy, was one of the 10 original owners of Nantucket Island.

The total number of documented American ancestors in her family tree is now 549. Pretty deep roots.

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First footers, of a sort

Posted on December 17, 2018 by Sparky

The empty sites to the north

It is not yet The Season in southwest Florida – that starts Jan 1 – so the park is still only about one-third occupied. The 3 sites to our north are all empty and the neighbor to our south has gone away for the holidays, leaving us feeling a little lonely and isolated. So it is a good time to make an effort to meet people who are in the same situation.

To that end we invited a couple of near neighbors – the couple across the street and the couple four sites to the north – to our place for drinks and appetizers. We could have just offered appetizers because they brought their own drinks. But their presence made them “first footers” of a sort. Technically a first footer is the first visitor to enter a new dwelling. Well, they didn’t actually enter our RV and even if they had they wouldn’t have have been the first. But they were the first visitors to set foot on our site, so I think they qualify.

It was a good time. And it felt good to make some new friends. It has been a while since we have done that. We didn’t make any real friends over the summer as Lamb City was a weekend/family kind of place. But as residents who are committed to staying at least 3 years, we hppe to make some good lnng-term friends here.

First footers are a start.

Jett preparing for the guests

The sumptuous spread

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Painting the steps

Posted on December 12, 2018 by Sparky

Painted/unpainted steps

It is hard for me to believe, but our “new” RV is now nearly 4 years old. It has traveled across the country and between New England and Florida several times. It has reached the point where certain things – like the roof and the slides – need attention. The steps, too.

I noticed that the steps were looking a bit worn and were starting to show some rust. They needed a new coat of paint. Easier said than done as they are the only means of access to and egress from our living space. So the steps had to be painted in… steps. One step a day for four days. And because the paint required a minimum of 3 hours to dry, I had to plan to paint when no one – no even Rusty – needed to use them for at least 3 hours. So I painted a step after I took Rusty for his afternoon walk and it would be dry enough for him to step on it by the time his evening walk came around. I continued to step over the painted step, giving it all night to dry. The plan worked well. I now have a set of steps that look nearly new.

The photo shows two steps – the top one painted, the bottom one unpainted. Big difference.

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The Red Sox spring training ticket fiasco

Posted on December 4, 2018 by Sparky

In line at JetBlue Park

Two of my oldest and best friends are coming to Fort Myers in March, to attend, for the first time, some Red Sox spring training games. Being a resident of Fort Myers and experienced at getting spring training tickets, I volunteered to get some for all three of us. Two games at JetBlue Park – the home field for the Red Sox in Florida – and one at CenturyLink Park, the Twins home field. Easy-peasy.

So, at 9:30 am on Saturday Dec 1 I was on my laptop, logged into the mlb.com site, ready to jump the moment the tickets went on sale at 10 am. I had my tickets selected – box seats for both games, one on the first base side and one on the third base side.

When the clock struck 10 I pounced. And was immediately disappointed. No box seats were available! Where did they go? After several tries in different seating sections I opted for he “best seats available”… and was offered seats high in the grandstand. Where the heck were the good seats?

Increasingly desperate, I accepted the “best seats” and went to check out. Bad turned to worse as the website refused to accept my credit card payment. The message was “address must match credit card.” I tried two different cards and triple-checked the address each time. Rejected each time. I was cursing a blue streak.

It was now 10:30 am and I had been completely thwarted in my attempts to secure spring training tickes. I texted my buddy Mike in MA and told him I was having trouble online. I asked him to try the website while I headed over to JetBlue to stand in line.

When I got to JetBlue I was initially relieved. Only one person at each ticket window and a small group milling around a bit further away. I picked a window… and was immediately confronted by a Red Sox staffer who asked me what the heck I was doing. Dumb question. “Buying tickets.” “Well, then, get in line.” He pointed into the distance. I turned the corner and saw that the “small group milling around” was actually the head of a very long line snaking under the stadium. Probably about 300 people in line.

I waited. Not very patiently. I struck up conversations with the people near me and they, too, had stories of difficulties buying tickets online.

I got to the ticket window at 12:50 pm. Just about 2 hours in line. While waiting Mike had been able to secure tickets for the 3/19 game but had struck out on 3/16, He tried several alternate sites – e.g., StubHub – but was appalled at the prices being charged. He had a line on some $80 tickets by the time I reached the window but I told him to hold off until I saw what was available at the box office. I ended up getting some decent grandstand tickets for 3/17 for $35 each. Success.

Got the tickets, but felt like I had been run over by a steamroller. It really shouldn’t be this difficult.

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Enter the Corolla

Posted on December 3, 2018 by Sparky

Our “new” 2017 Corolla

We knew that we had to get a small car when we got to Fort Myers. Jett continues to refuse to drive the GMC dually and, truth be told, I wouldn’t be comfortable with her behind the wheel of The Beast. So our choice was to either get a “winter rat” – a cheap (under $5,000) car that we would sell at the end of the season – or a better car (under $15000) that we would keep for at least 3 years and would transport to and from New England. Actually, the transport decision is not cast in concrete as we could, conceivably, leave the car in storage in Florida and buy a “summer rat” for use in New England, as we did last year. But that would mean paying insurance on *3* cars and probably tying down the car we leave in Florida. But it would save the cost of transporting it. Another decision for another day.

I looked at some cheap cars and found some that would probably serve, but none as nice as the $4,000 Ford Focus we had this summer. And Jett was strongly in favor of getting a car with more than a 90-day warranty. So we went back to the Toyota AutoNation lot where we bought the Yaris in 2012 to see what they had to offer for under $15,000. The pickings were slim and the choice really came down to which 2017 Corolla was best. The only features that were required were cruise control and a CD player and all 3 had those. We opted for the slate gray one because of the low miles (about 41,000) and the cleanliness of the interior.

With tax, registration and an optional extended warranty, the final price was nearly $17,000. More than I was planning to spend, but acceptable. Within 2 hours we had our winter rat, which was nice enough that we can’t call it that.

We couldn’t actually take it home with us that night because it was dark by the time we finished the paperwork (Jett doesn’t drive after dark), but we got it the next day.