Month: March 2016

Just hanging with the dogs

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, navi, petsLeave a comment

Playing stickball a couple days ago. There was a standoff, Navi had the ball, Barclay just calmly hung onto the rope until she gave up and dropped it – just as I snapped the pic, of course.

Anyone for some stickball?

Today I gave the dogs chewies, and they both took them outside and sat in the grass to eat them, in a drenching downpour! They did not care a bit about the rain! They could have chewed them inside, or at least under the patio cover, but they both sat out in the grass and got soaked!

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GTAV Update

On By stefrobrtsIn xboxLeave a comment

So, here it is about 2 1/2 years after release, and I am still playing Grand Theft Auto 5 as my primary game of choice when I have a few minutes to sit down and play. And we still play together, Dave and I, on our two xboxes, one in the living room and one in the bedroom. It’s pretty fun. It is a wide open world, and you can do anything – though sometimes it seems like what I primarily do is crash planes.

These are all taken with the in-game camera…

 
And they frequently end up on fire…

Good thing the game sends firefighters to clean up my mess!
Thanks guys! Sorry about that…
Sometimes the game acts glitchy.

Whoa! That ain’t right!
UFOs!
Dave and I get up to some shenanigans together online. Here is his character posing next to a chopper he just wrecked.
 

And here he is in a chopper hovering outside my apartment window. That blows my mind that they have built that into the game. I can see what’s happening outside my apartment through the windows!

Some of my favorite toys. Nice that I can have a candy red 68 vette in the game, since I no longer have one in real life. The one in the game requires a LOT less maintenance!

This game is fun, beautiful, surprising, and exhilarating – even a couple years after release. I still keep finding new things to do. The other night I spent an hour trying to parachute and land in a church belltower. Such fun! And sometimes I’ll just park my bike and enjoy a virtual sunset over the ocean, and that’s ok too.

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Airstream Spring Cleaning

On By stefrobrtsIn airstream1 Comment

I spent this morning down on my hands and knees, cleaning up all the dust and dirt that accumulated in the Airstream last year. When I got done I decided to use my new wide angle lens to take some pictures, because the wide angle makes it easier to take pictures of such a small space. So here’s a little tour:

Some people seem to think we are ‘roughing it’ when we go camping in our tiny camper. It may only be 17ft, but it is anything but ‘rough’.

A couch, and a dinette, both of which can fold down into perfectly comfortable beds. And your eyes are not playing tricks on you, the table is angled – that way it is as long as possible, while still leaving plenty of room to get in and out the door. On one rainy day while camping with our friends we had ten people hanging out in here!

Also – last year I converted it to LED lighting, and several years ago I put in a propane furnace just like the new Airstreams have (after the original furnace had a minor explosion while lighting it on a trip, and I decided it was time to upgrade to something with modern safety features)

It has a full kitchen – sink with hot & cold running water, 3 burner stove, oven, and refrigerator which runs on propane or electric if we are at a spot where we are plugged in. We often camp at places where we are not plugged in, because we have enough battery power to enjoy all the amenities for a long weekend.

One day when we had a friend over, and the power went out in the house, we moved the party out to the Airstream, because it was all charged up and ready to go.

It also has a full bathroom – sink, toilet, and a shower in the middle. We don’t use the shower, there is usually a good camp shower available when camping at state parks, and the trailer is so tiny it will get pretty fogged up inside, but it’s there in a pinch. It also usually has the best view out the back window, because for some reason campsites often back up to beautiful views and rippling streams. This is why new Airstreams have switched it up and put the bedroom in the front, and the table with wrap around windows in the back, so they can enjoy the best view from the lounge instead of the toilet!

That’s the whole tour of our adorable 1968 Airstream Caravel. Forty-eight years old (thirteen of those years spent with us) and still making ‘happy campers’ every time it rolls out on the road.

CO Springs, 2004

Oh, and my favorite thing I ever bought for it: The switchplate for the waterpump.

Classy! Gets a laugh every time!

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Barclay & Navi

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, navi, petsLeave a comment

Mr B gave me a terrible scare a few weeks ago when he had a seizure or something. It was pretty terrifying. I called Barclay in after dinner and he was walking weird, then he started staggering and taking big exaggerated steps, and then laid down and flopped over and looked really out of it. So I called Dave (who was on his way to the theater) and bundled B into the car and drove straight to the emergency vet. He was feeling better by the time we got there, and was pretty much his normal self by the time we left. Vet couldn’t find anything abnormal. She said it could have been a seizure or a heart arrhythmia. She said to watch him closely the next 48 hours. Nothing happened, so I guess it’s all good.

Navi is doing well. Nothing going on with her lately, which is good. She’s just such a sweetie.

She contorts into the funniest positions while sleeping.

The other night Barclay had the nylabone, and Navi wanted it, so he set it in the middle of the living room and waited for her to try and take it. But she knew it was a trap, so she just sat back and waited. And he waited. And eventually they both fell asleep.

These dogs are nuts, but I sure do love them.

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