Well Crap…

Posted on August 27, 2020 by Just Chuck
Winnebago Micro Minnie

Remember how I said it had been difficult to find and purchase a bike and also a camping tent. Well the same is true for RV travel trailers. I’ve been looking at videos and checking out dealerships and I finally found a model we liked. Actually two models – the Winnebago Micro Minnie 2108TB and the Rockwood Geo Pro 19FBS.

So for the past week I’ve been emailing back and forth with the dealership (its like buying an effin car, these guys). I have one dealership about 5 hours away that is getting the Winnebago in two weeks and I had another dealership about 50 minutes away that actually has in inventory the Geo Pro 19FBS.

So I went with the Geo Pro model. I got all the specs, got pre-approved loan from my bank and also approved financing from the dealership just in case they have better interest rates. And I had planned to drive down this Saturday (today is Thursday) and close the deal.

Well this evening after work I get an email from the salesperson –

Please disregard my previous emails. We had two units in stock. One of them sold yesterday at 6pm and the other sold today. My system just updated our records.

Well Crap…

So that guy gets a big NO I don’t want you to find me something else. Piss off. So I’ve contacted the dealer with the Winnebago. Waiting to hear back. Meantime we got our nice big new tent and canopy and ready to camp labor day weekend.

Posted in Life in General | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

PawPaw’s Vinyl of the Week – Captain Fantastic by Elton John

Posted on August 23, 2020 by Just Chuck

Growing up I was exposed to music very early in my life as my mom and most of her sisters and brothers played an instrument. My Mom and Aunts played piano, my Uncles played guitar. So when we visited my Grandmother in Louisiana it was a hootenanny. And my love of music was encouraged by my parents.

So as a pre-teen my music taste gravitated to what was on the radio in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Songs like American Pie by Don McClean, I Think I Love You by the Partridge Family (still in my top 5 faves) and Knock Three Times by Tony Orlando and Dawn, to name a few. I STILL have the 45 rpm for these songs and many others.

So what’s with the history lesson? Well, once I found hard rock I shunned anything pop oriented and anything that really had a piano or keyboard dominating the sound. So I loved (and still do) Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and KISS (my favorite). That is until I heard Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. I was taken aback. I’d heard of Elton John but dismissed him as a piano player with piano music. But this album was good and is still a favorite. I then looked into other bands with keyboards in them. Bands like Yes and Uriah Heep were added to my listening pleasure. Going even further there was Genesis (my second favorite band) and Pink Floyd.

So thank you Elton John and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. You were a gateway drug that expanded my mind and my ears.

So Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, you are this weeks Vinyl of the Week.

Posted in Album of the month | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Adventures with Music

Posted on August 22, 2020 by Just Chuck

I’ve gotten back into buying vinyl. A bit more expensive these days than when i was a teen. Unfortunately I made the mistake of selling and/or giving away a lot of my albums. ALL my Led Zeppelin (crying emoji) were giving to my brothers and have somehow disappeared (another crying emoji). I figured I got the CD, why do I need the vinyl? My record player was no longer working, I kept quite a number of albums that I did not get the CD version, thank goodness.

So what do I do? I start buying them all again. Yep, I’ve been buying all the albums I gave away. Sometimes I buy used but most of the time I’ve been buying reissues. Albums from Grand Funk, Led Zeppelin, The Tubes and the list goes on.

I’ve spent time at Half Price Books, Best Buy, Target and I use Amazon and Universal Music Group (Sound of Vinyl/Udiscover Music) exclusively to find what I’m looking for online. So each week I’m going to feature a favorite vinyl album on the right sidebar. Click it, get to Amazon Vinyl and buy it. Or you can click and head over to Udiscover Music.

I’ll be posting a new post when I get the two albums I ordered from UDiscover. Expecting them today.

Posted in Music | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Ok I’ve neglected this

Posted on August 18, 2020 by Just Chuck

Blog post ideas are few and far between. I guess I could discuss politics, or perhaps comic books. I love comic books. My life is pretty boring so its tough coming up with things to say. I plan on continuing to use this as a journal and document the highlights of things going on in my life.

So lets see, my grandson turned six. We had a birthday pool party for him at the house. It was a Pokémon party. Everything is Pokémon and fortnight with him now.

I had a wedding anniversary, number 35. 35 years of marriage plus another 5 of dating and living together. Due to the virus we didn’t do anything – Olive Garden takeout.

I’ve been buying camping gear with the plan to go camping in the fall. Got a big tent, some cots, pop up canopy tents, etc. Except now we are thinking of getting a Winnebago Micro Minnie travel trailer. We watch a lot of camping and RV shows on YouTube. However it has been extremely difficult to not only purchase the tent I wanted but now to find the RV I want. It seems the virus has turned everyone into a camper. Stuff is sold out all over with waiting list.

In addition to the camping gear, I bought a bike. Again, I had to look high and low to find a bike at a reasonable price. I didn’t want to pay more than $200 but I had to break that rule and spend $240 because there just isn’t any bicycles out there to buy that are inexpensive. They’ve been bought probably by the same folks who hoarded toilet paper.

I rode the bike for the first time tonight. Have not rode a bike in 20+ years so I took it easy and did a short 5 minute ride to get the feel for it. I need a new seat. I hope to take the bike on camping trips and ride trails.

So except for continue to work, that’s abut wraps up what’s been going on. This week will determine whether we get a travel trailer or stick with tents for the time being. I’m in discussions with an RV dealership in Ohio but of course the one I want is not in stock. *sigh*

Posted in camping, family, Life in General | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Holy Cow it’s August

Posted on August 1, 2020 by Just Chuck

And this damn pandemic shit is still going on. And getting worse it seems in those states that are pretty much ignoring any kind of rules. Florida, smh.

August 1 brought a mild day for us here in Dallas, by mild I mean low 90’s. By this point we’d be neck deep in 100 degree days and be on water rationing. Yet it rained two nights ago really really hard. It’s been a strange summer thus far and that’s not counting the virus thing.

Still warm enough for the swimming pool. And we hit it when we can. Been discussing going camping. Looked at trailers, both mid-size and small sleeper trailers. Then we looked at popup camper tents. And was prepared to buy one if we could find it in stock. Alas, it’s been impossible to find anything we want locally, so we’re looking at tents. I bought a couple of Queen size Coleman cots, they’ll be here tomorrow. Pulled our old tent from the attic, going to set it up and make sure all the pieces are there and its not rotten. Hasn’t been used in a number of years.

Accomplishments for today –

  • Walked .42 miles, I know no even a half mile but I’ve got to build back up. I used to do 2.5 miles in 30 minutes. I plan on doing this every day now and hopefully build back up to at least a mile. by end of the month
  • Installed my truck bed cover, a Bakflip. It’s sweet and with locking tailgate fairly secure. It will help when we go camping

Tomorrows accomplishment will be to install weed block on a patio we are redoing and maybe get sand poured and leveled and then put on paverbase and throw on a few pavers. This has been a never ending project due to lack of decision and then it rained for a number of days, in July no less. Who could predict that. I’m going to take pictures at each step and post here.

Damn, should’ve taken pics of the Bakflip install. Oh well.

Posted in Life in General | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Working my way back

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Just Chuck

I’ve been working on putting together a set of acoustic songs. After Dennis’ passing, that whole idea of playing acoustic music out at local coffee houses and bars died with him.

But I’ve started putting together about an hours worth of stuff with the plan to get really good at that hour, complete with using my vocal pedal that allows for harmonies and such, and see where I can play. I know of one place, a pizza/bar that my buddy owns. He’d give me some time on his stage.

So that’s my current plan and what I’ve been doing the past few nights. Learning some easy bar-type sing-along songs that would work around a campfire or in a bar. Songs like Louie, Louie, Red Solo Cup and Brown Eyed Girl. Simple to play, fun to sing in a group. Even funner to sing as a drunk group.

But my fingers are hurting. I’ve not played this much guitar in quite a while and I’ve lost my callouses. So every night my fingers hurt as I slowly build the callouses back up. They’re sore right now as I type.

Whenver I get this thing kicked off I’ll have to get some video put up on my YouTube channel, assuming the copyright police don’t give me shit.

On a more depressing note, this past week we would’ve been on vacation in Destin FL if not for the Virus and my son getting sick. No beach this year. Perhaps a camping trip to Arkansas sometime soon.

Posted in Music | Leave a comment

Something in the meal

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Just Chuck
Sausage and Peppers

There is something in a couple of these Freshly meals that is really upsetting my stomach. Not all of them, seems to be a couple. I need to go look at the packaging and compare ingredients.

Tonight I had the Sausage and peppers meal, and taste-wise it was pretty good. But two hours later… beeline to the bathroom. Multiple times. For lunch I had the Chicken and Mac meal and there was no affect. So something is not agreeing with my stomach with some of these meals.

I’ll try another different meal for lunch tomorrow and see how it goes. If this continues, I may have to cancel the whole Freshly thing and go back to eating fast food junk.

Except for this evenings stomach issues, I felt pretty good today. I hadn’t been feeling all that hot since Sunday (stomach issues that night too), waking up with body and head aches and pains, major back pain. But this morning I woke feeling good, very little pain in the back. No head ache, chest soreness from lifting some heavy sand bags on Saturday gone.

This whole week was meant to be spent on the beach in Destin, FL. But with the virus causing havoc there and the status of my son, we cancelled the trip in time to get all our money back. Would’ve been nice to get away. Instead I’m working. *sigh*

Posted in Life in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Let’s Catch Up

Posted on July 19, 2020 by Just Chuck
Homestyle Chicken

So Freshly has not disappointed. Turns out the meals are pretty good and are perfectly portioned. I’ve enjoyed three different meals with the Homestyle Chicken being my favorite. Steak Peppercorn was also good and the Chicken Parm was adequate. I judged the Chicken Parm against an Olive Garden version and it was a little short. the mozzarella cheese did not sit on top of the chicken, it melted into the sauce and was a gooey, cheesy marinara sauce. Still good taste-wise, just not aesthetically appealing.

So what else has been going on. Its been four days since the last posting and its just been work. Some house cleaning. Some reading. Some You-Tube watching. The normal stuff. Oh and some mixing of some practice songs. My latest using Mixbus. I post all my stuff on Soundcloud so here is that song.

The Catalyst by The Gallery

There is some other stuff on there as well. Other mixes, and some of my own songs.

This past Friday was the anniversary of the death my best bud Dennis. I’d known Dennis since the 10th grade. That’s like 42 years. I can’t believe its been a year since his passing. I miss texting jokes and memes with him.

I learned how to pay the guitar in 6th grade and then put it aside until I met Dennis in the back of a high school Geometry class. It was Dennis who rekindled my guitar love and taught me so much. He taught me barre chords. We formed a band and jammed constantly. We had the same music taste – Kiss, Ted Nugent, Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Rush. And we learned songs from those bands and played them if front of friends and bars. We were Leaf, Second Chance and recently Rockenstein.

Dennis in the back

Recently we had plans to put together an acoustic duo but his health went south. He was in constant pain the last 6 months of his life. You see, two years earlier he lost his left leg. The year before that he had a tripe by-pass. Smoking had closed his arteries up to the point of no circulation. After surgeries and a prosthetic it still wasn’t enough. Infections and continued circulation issues did him in. He was found by his brother on his couch in his home, alone. I miss him and his wit.

With that somber note, I’ll close this post.

Posted in Life in General, Music | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Freshly

Posted on July 15, 2020 by Just Chuck

Started trying out a new meal service – Freshly – today. Been getting emails constantly from the company and finally checked it out and decided to give it a try.

Started with the 6 meals per week plan which came with a discount the first two weeks. So this first week is only $40. We received our first shipment yesterday and I took one of the dinners to work for lunch today.

I had the Steak Peppercorn with mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots for lunch. Quite a step up from my normal lunch fair. My opinion – it was good, not like restaurant good but really good for being cooked in a microwave. I was impressed. I kept thinking to myself – this is a lot of food and it was only 490 calories. So my first meal get a thumbs up.

The service is very convenient. There is an app on my phone or you can login to your account online. You set your menu every week or you can let it ride and get the same thing. These are dinner meals or in my case I used one for lunch since I already had dinner planned for tonight. It’s not a weight loss plan, its just good dinners that you heat up in microwave or stove and eat. There are quite a number of meal choices and I’ve got about 13 of them I’m interested in trying.

You only get charged by the week. Shipments come in a box packed in ice so they arrive cold and you keep refrigerated until ready to eat. You can cancel anytime or you can pause your shipments. So my next shipment is next Tuesday and I’ve already changed up my choices for next week. Trying out a number of other meals.

Tomorrow I’ll be trying the Homestyle Chicken, 590 calories.

Posted in Life in General | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Quarantine Completed!

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Just Chuck

It’s been 14 days since I could have potentially been exposed to Covid-19 by my middle son via my wife.  I guess I gotta drive into work now.  The grandson is also released to resume is week on week off with us and his mother.  So that’s good.  It’s been 3 weeks and although I love him to death, 3 weeks straight has been a challenge with a 5 year old.

I mean, before his parents (my oldest son) separated, we got to see him only on the weekend and then  he would spend one day and night with us.  We packed in a lot of activity that one day and night.  Trying to entertain a five year old for 3 straight weeks is… an achievement.  But we did it.  And me having to work from home 90% of the day.  The other 10% would involve swimming in the pool or wrestling with the grandson.

What now?  Well the world is still in that proverbial hand basket searching for a way into hell.  Wearing a mask is now the norm (or should be).  Venturing out is now even more dangerous with the virus mutated into an even more contagious strain.  Damn Chinese.

When this first started my initial comment on Facebook was that the Chinese were testing bio-weapons in their lab and one got away from them.  They do this a lot.  Seems every new virus comes from China.  WTF?  Could be they didn’t like the direction things were headed with Trump.  The economy was kicking ass, things were on the up, despite what your politics may be you gotta admit jobs were looking good and retirement accounts were plumping up nicely.  I think they did this on purpose and there will be hell to pay if that ever comes out.

Anyway, look at me blogging fairly regularly.

Posted in family | Tagged , , | Leave a comment