Attitude Is Everything
Toys, Toothache, and Travels
Never get overly excited about good news or fortunes. On the contrary, never get depressed when faced with the inverse. Take this week for example. On Monday, I received a call from Dale at Segway of Central Florida located in Mt. Dora, stating that he sold my Segway. 
The good news was that it sold for more than I originally paid for it. Turn to page two. I had been vacillating with the fact of trailering the pontoon boat north for the summer and then back during the winter season. I could store it here inexpensively, save on fuel, but would not have it’s use during the summer, and see it only as a winter month toy. On Wednesday, we made a trip to Gulf to Lake Marine in Lecanto. Our boat was sold back to the dealer from whom I had originally purchased it. And I got the selling price so essentially we used the boat for two winters free. I’m a happy guy. On Thursday I was notified by my retirement board that due to miscalculations, I have been overpaid for four years. Not only would my monthly income be drastically reduced but all that back-money would have to be repaid. Bring on the depression and a few sleepless nights. It was then I began to realize how fortunate I am to have good health once again, the ability to work, and started to conjure up mental images of how to offset a major financial blow. This will not beat me as with the cancer, it is only a blip on my radar of life.
Robin also realized some discomfort of her own as a previous root canal had become infected. By Friday evening her pain was at 8 on a scale of 10. In vain, I searched for an emergency dental care office but being that it was after 5 p.m, I ceased without success. Arising very early 
today, I searched the net and found a number in Gainesville for emergencies and called, receiving but an answering service. After dozens of tries at various venues, I came up empty. While on my morning saunter, the cell phone rang and it was a dentist responding to the message I had left on the answering service. By 1 p.m , a young Austin Webb DDS. of Gentle Dental Care met us and relieved her misery for the time being. He scheduled an appointment with a specialist for Monday morning, provided a script for antibiotics and pain-killers and by 3 we were on our way back to the campground. She was elated with the results but forewarned the medication would wear off in 3 hours. And it did. So back to the medicine and await oral surgery on Monday. I’ve been warned by elders through five decades; “neither get too high at good news, nor too low with the bad.” Balance, as the Zen masters state, is truly the key to a contented life.
Bottled Water Woes
We encounter new RVers almost on a daily basis. Invariably, the conversation turns to “how we do it”. We share our living idiosyncracies with others and they, in turn share theirs with us. This is a great way to learn new tactics, short-cuts, how to cut living expenses, how to save time and money, and mostly how to do things much easier than we have before. One common thread that I seem to be finding is that most long term RVers purchase bottled water. This is done both for drinking and cooking.
Initially when we started out on our adventurous road, we felt our in-line water filter was doing a fine job. Over the years, we’ve come to find the quality of water is sub-standard for our needs. Most of the water we encounter at RV parks and campgrounds is hard, contains not much chorine and no trace of flouride. The majority of the water is drawn from wells. Living on a farm for most of our married lives, well water is no stranger to us, however, we always softened our water via a Culligan system for those many years. Despite the amenities and our affinity for Yellow Jacket RV park, the water here leaves much to be desired and we’ve acclimated ourselves to purchasing water for the last several months. This is a first for us and something we’ve not had to do in the past. It is no big deal, until yesterday at Walmart.
I was studying the various brands Mr. Walton offered, trying to figure out the best deal. Did I want the 24 pak, or was the 32 pak a better buy? Should I get the 12 oz. size as the refrigerator isn’t household size, or get the 10 ouncers and just stack less in the drawers? Since the bottles were a bit different in net weight I had to do some quick math. And then it hit me. I couldn’t. The bottle language was all in Spanish. I’ve not seen this before. Please don’t read me as a racist, or a xenophobe. Afterall, my grandparents all emigrated here, were part of the huddled masses, sailing from some area of Europe and not being able to speak English themselves. I understand this country moving to a bilingual setting. Statistics claim that by 2017, English speaking caucasians will be a minority here. OK, so give us the option that most places, telemarketers, and automated phone services do. But here in Walmart, I can’t read the bottled water because I took French in high school And this is north central Florida, not Miami. I see so many changes that I’m unsettled with taking place in the country. I yearn for the “good old days”, sometimes. Oh, my god. I’m becoming my grandfather.
Categories: Campgrounds, Full Time RVing, Photography, RV
Tags: bilingual, Bottled water, Culligan, fulltiming, RVing, Walmsrt, water softening
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GypsyLarry
