Nothing in this site is copyrighted -- I'd be honored if you'd reuse anything you find here for your website
In January 2003, I decided to start producing a periodic newsletter Retirement Tips and RV Stuff. Below, you'll find a copy of the newsletters to date. If you'd like to get on the distribution for the next newsletter, send me email at rjhoffman@yahoo.com.
If you're looking for a specific topic in one of the old newsletters, the Search box on the right will find it for you. It will also point you to other references to the topic throughout the website.
I don't mean the Iraqi War, I mean the 2004 Gas War!
I've talked about it in past newsletters, but keep hearing/seeing more about it. I'm sure you've received one or more of the many emails going around, suggesting various ploys to try to encourage gas prices to come down. One of the more popular seems to be the one that says we should quit buying Mobil/Exxon until the prices come down. I've got a copy of it on my website. I've been buying my gas only at Walmart/Murphy since early this year, but wasn't sure if it was having any effect or not. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I caught the tail-end of an interview on CNBC. It was an officer of Exxon/Mobil saying how we shouldn't blame them for the gas prices -- that they only make 5 cents on a gallon. Awww ... that's not what I heard! I heard their profits are higher than ever -- somewhere around the 30% range. But, seeing him there, I got the impression that not buying their gas might actually be having an effect. If you're doing it, keep it up! If not, why not? I'm going to stay with Walmart and my 3-cent discount card until I see prices back in the $1.30 range -- if that ever happens.
More on that topic -- I heard that a Saudi prince had promised Bush that OPEC would increase production a couple of months before our election to help Bush get re-elected. Have you heard that? Sounds really under-handed to me! If true, one wonders why Bush didn't suggest they do it immediately, instead of trying to control our elections. I'll be looking for that decrease around Labor Day, then looking to see who takes credit for it.
Investments: I put some more info on Indexed Annuities on my Investment page. Here's an investment that generates decent returns, but you can't lose your principal!
May Travel: I took another fishing trip in May, but didn't take any significant photos and nothing unusual happened, so I didn't write a Travel Log chapter on it. Had a great time, caught some great fish, gained a few more pounds -- just the usual fishing trip.
June Travel: Going to my 45th High School Reunion! Plan to have a bunch of photos of old people to put on the new website noted below as Featured Website.
Read on for calendar quotes, notes on my latest site updates, the usual words about how I'd make some money if you guys would buy something off the website, and wrapping up with my Ramblings on whatever occurs to me between now and then.
May 2004 quote from my Happy Traveling RV Calendar: "The impulse to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life." - Agnes Repplier. The Trivia Challenge : What roadway is known as the "Loneliest Highway in America?" -- answer in Ramblings below.
- I just put up a starter page for Leon1959.com, the website for my High School graduating class. I hope to get some photos at the upcoming reunion to put there, plus whatever else my classmates might come up with. Wait a couple of weeks, then go check it out!
Here's a list of some interesting things, some of which will make me a few bucks if you need them and buy them here:
- Dream Lifestyles to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All about How to Get a Life By .... whatever .. you fill in the blank. Check them out here.
- Camp at Half of What Everyone Else is Paying! No home park, no monthly maintenance fees, no long-term obligation, just pay the small annual fee and camp for half-price. Check it out here.
- Dream Jobs to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All you need to know about How To Break Into ... whatever is your dream job. Check them out here.
- $50 Websites! Instead of the hundreds or even thousands charged by most, I've decided to build websites for $50. Why so cheap? -- I enjoy building them and I'm trying to build a business. If you or any acquaintances would like to have a presence on the world-wide internet, either for personal or business, check out my websites listed on my business website at http://www.robert-hoffman-consulting.com/
Hey, I got through almost an entire newsletter and haven't mentioned Poker yet! hahaha .. here it comes. I'm still playing, still winning, have placed in the money in four tournaments, and am still having a ball. No big money wins yet -- tops thus far has been to win $14 in a $10 tournament. Not a big deal, but a start. Yesterday, I finished 31st (getting $13) in a tournament that paid over $900 for number 1! Getting closer all the time .. who knows ...
I imagine that nobody except me notices that my May newsletter is being published in June. Seems like once you get late, you stay late. I'm going to stay with the once-a-month plan until it becomes clear that I'll never get caught up. And nobody really cares except me, anyway, right?
Hope you're all doing what you want to do, living where you want to live, and enjoying good health!
TRIVIA ANSWER: Loneliest Highway is Nevada's Highway 50, which received its name from Life Magazine in 1986. There are only a few road stops in the 287-mile stretch between Ely and Fernley. Ever been there?
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Email rjhoffman@yahoo.com to sign up for the next newsletter, coming whenever I'm in the mood again.
Permanent Mailing Address: R. Hoffman, 2805 Oak Trail Court, #3437, Arlington, Texas 76016.
I've been noticing recently that my view of our RV is changing. Years ago, I recall looking at the RV as a luxury, an extra vehicle that we were very fortunate to own, that would carry us off to new adventures, camping, recreation, and scenic places around the USA. Recently, I've realized that the RV has become almost a necessity, viewed more as a practical tool than an exciting extra. Since we've adopted 4 little dogs, we don't travel anywhere by any other means than the RV. Now we didn't buy the RV for the pets ... I don't think ... but we wouldn't think of putting them into a vet. The little Yorkies get totally traumatized when we have unfamiliar houseguests or when they have to sit in a cage for 30 minutes at the groomers. I can't imagine what a mess they'd be if we left them with strangers for an extended period. And Mogi (the Shih-Tsu) thinks he's a person, so he'd probably need psychiatric care if we caged him for more than a day. Tobi (the freeway find) would think he'd been abandoned all over again. But I digress ...
Back to the RV as a practical tool -- years back, we'd start a trip with excitement, sometimes singing "On the Road Again" or "Islands in the Stream", looking forward to yet another adventure. Now it's just another vehicle that happens to have it's own bathroom and kitchen. When we pack for a trip, I've found myself less concerned with camping chairs and outdoor cooking equipment and more with whether we have some good CDs stacked in the CD-player. It's been several years since we've used a public bathroom on the road, since we've stayed in a hotel and slept in a bed that had been used by others, since we've had to try to cram two weeks worth of clothes into a couple of suitcases, and since we've got to our destination and didn't have a closet full of our own clothes and most of our personal belongings at our fingertips. Joyce still claims she'd rather fly and stay in a hotel, but I think that's really just residual anti-RV sentiment -- I don't see us actually doing that again anytime soon. Now, we do talk about me and the dogs driving somewhere, then her flying there to meet us, but haven't done that yet. If you've read my latest book, you know that she really isn't a good traveller for more than a few hours a day, so I really think that drive/fly idea is a good one ... we'll try it one of these days.
So, here I am rambling along ... I guess I'm just wondering if it's just me feeling this way, if it's a common characteristic in those who have RV'd for many years, if I'm just old and "stuck in my ways", or if it's my recent surgery just making me wax philosophical. I could put another survey on the website to see how others feel about this topic, or I could just stick the thought out there and let you think about it ... or not. Think I'll do the latter ...
June Travel: Travelled up to Alabama to work (in a real office) for a couple of weeks. Stopped in Tallahassee on the way up to attend my 45th High School Reunion. Stopped in Tampa on the way back to have surgery at the VA hospital there. Other than photos of old people at the reunion, we only took about 3 travel-type pictures. Not even enough to make a travel log chapter.
Exciting RV News: Texas is putting WIFI Hot Spots in their rest areas! See http://www.rvtravel.com/news46.html. Now that's great news! I'm hoping that within a few years, internet-on-the-road won't even be a challenge anymore. We'll have WIFI in convenient spots throughout the country and might not even need ISPs anymore. Now would that be fantastic?!!
The Great Book Give-Away: Fizzle ... nobody came forward claiming to be visitor number 20,000, so no book giveaway. My sister was watching the counter and clocked in as #20,121. Since she mentioned it to me, I gave her the free book. Haven't heard back yet on whether she liked it or not.
Read on for calendar quotes, notes on my latest site updates, the usual words about how I'd make some money if you guys would buy something off the website, and wrapping up with my Ramblings on whatever occurs to me between now and then.
June 2004 quote from my Happy Traveling RV Calendar: "Not all who wander are lost." - J. R. R. Tolkien. The Trivia Challenge : What author wrote the novel On The Road in less than three weeks on a continuous roll of paper?" -- answer in Ramblings below.
- Joyce added some more neat murals this month to the recent Melbourne Clinic Project -- see them at FauxByJoyce.com under Melbourne Clinic Project.
- Amazing -- a month with no updates on Retirement-Tips.com or InternetOnTheRoad.com. Several updates to clients' websites, but none to my own. A fair amount of work on the Featured Website below.
- Been doing work on Leon1959.com, the website for my High School graduating class. It was featured last month, but I'm repeating it this month anyway. To see a picture of me at graduation, check it out! If you'd like me to do a website for your graduating class, email me -- I'm cheap!
Here's a list of some interesting things, some of which will make me a few bucks if you need them and buy them here:
- Dream Lifestyles to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All about How to Get a Life By .... whatever .. you fill in the blank. Check them out here.
- Camp at Half of What Everyone Else is Paying! No home park, no monthly maintenance fees, no long-term obligation, just pay the small annual fee and camp for half-price. Check it out here.
- Dream Jobs to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All you need to know about How To Break Into ... whatever is your dream job. Check them out here.
- $50 Websites! Instead of the hundreds or even thousands charged by most, I've decided to build websites for $50. Why so cheap? -- I enjoy building them and I'm trying to build a business. If you or any acquaintances would like to have a presence on the world-wide internet, either for personal or business, check out my websites listed on my business website at http://www.robert-hoffman-consulting.com/
I rambled so much in the intro, I don't have much left for here. I have a couple of notes about companies, so I'll stick them here. Recall I've been suggesting that we all buy our gas from Murphy's (at Walmart) and use our 3-cent discount Shopping Cards? Well, I learned on the June trip that you don't get that discount everywhere. It's good at all Murphy's in Florida (I think), but none in Alabama. I'm trying to find out how to determine which have the discount, but have had no success yet. I have learned that Sam's Club and Costco have similar discounts in some areas (like Alabama), so there's an alternative for you.
Speaking of Murphy's Oil, I decided that if all of us were going to use them, then their stock might go up. So I bought 100 shares of MUR in mid-June at $68.58. It closed Friday at $75.77! How about that! That's better than a Shopping Card!
Sears: Joyce got upset with Sears about 10 years ago, when she was buying a vacuum cleaner. All during the sale, the salesperson bugged her about buying the maintenance agreement. She got so disgusted, we haven't been back to Sears since! However, it looks like Sears is trying to improve their image. Have you noticed the Home Makeover shows on TV? Sears provides all the appliances, furniture, etc. to allow the "makeover crew" to make major improvements to some deserving family's home -- really heart-warming! (excuse that expression, but I can't think of a better one) Now, I've also heard that Sears is really helping out their employees who are being called up in the military reserves -- Sears is paying them the difference between their military salary and their former Sears salary all the while that they're serving Uncle Sam! Now that's really great! And, they're of course holding their jobs for them when they return. If they keep up this good-guy stuff, we may shop there again someday.
Want to visit an interesting website with a idea for the replacement of Income Tax? http://www.fairtax.org/
TRIVIA ANSWER: Jack Kerouac.
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Email rjhoffman@yahoo.com to sign up for the next newsletter, coming whenever I'm in the mood again.
Permanent Mailing Address: R. Hoffman, 2805 Oak Trail Court, #3437, Arlington, Texas 76016.
I've got several "good news's" and a few not so good. Let me start with the fact that I've found a bunch of people exactly the same age as I am, who grew up in the same place that I did. In recent years, I've been getting a little down because I realized that my sister, Marylin, was the last person left who knew me in my teens and could talk about old familiar stuff, like the Dixieland Drive-In, young Elvis, my Studebaker .... and she's 6 years younger than me, so there's even some things she doesn't really remember. Wow! Was I wrong! Read my Ramblings at the bottom of this newsletter.
Other good news: I made $334 yesterday using that neato Hold'Em poker secret of mine. PLUS, I (and 199 other guys) won a spot in the WPT Final -- winner of the Final receives a $7,000 prize package to WPT Legends tourney in California, Aug 28-31. No, I don't really expect to win .. but who knows? If you like poker and money and can spend a few hours a day on your computer, you really need to check it out. Just go to Retirement-Tips.com and click the Poker button at the top.
Now, let's get down to the RV stuff. I realized this past week that taking a 3-month (or more) trip anytime soon is just not possible. Joyce and I don't seem to have any 3-month period where we don't have some kind of medical obligation. In Newsletter 2003.06 last June, I included a list of Things Your Mother Never Told You -- things you learn in your 20s, 30s, etc. that nobody mentions until you get there (e.g, In my 40's, I learned that even though I'd always had 20/20 vision, I should expect to start wearing glasses. Phooey! I'd seen older people squinting to read small print, but had no idea it happened to everybody!). Well, here's another one for the 60s -- it's hard to plan a trip around your doctor appointments, tests, treatments, etc. What's the answer? Retire young and travel -- read my free book Retire and Travel for $1000 a Month. It'll tell you how. I guess that's some of my not-so-good news.
But, hey! There's even good news related to that! When we went to the VA Hospital in Tampa last month, we stayed at one of the Passport RV parks for $9.75 -- the Happy Traveler RV Park. Really a great park and it's only about a mile from the hospital. PLUS, it's only about a mile from Busch Gardens! We didn't get to go down there, but I'm sure we'll get to that on one of our future trips. The BIG NEWS, though, is that it's only about 10 minutes away from the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, a "Seminole Indian Cultural Center." They have $1-$2 Hold'Em Poker! First casino I've ever seen with limits that low. At some point, I'm hoping to pile Joyce and the four dogs in the RV and go get some Seminole culture. I'm really curious on how I'll do in live poker, now that I've got over 300 hours of online poker under my belt. And they have a zillion slot machines for Joyce to enjoy herself. Then, we can take our poker and slot winnings and go enjoy Busch Gardens! More on that later ...
The really bad news this month is that I lost a close high school friend. Hadn't seen him since high school, was about to get back in touch with him, but not. It turns out that he was a Naval Academy graduate, Naval then commercial pilot, and a huge success in the business world. Will really miss him.
Speaking of depressing .. just a little aside ... have you yet seen Passion of the Christ and/or Fahrenheit 9/11? Whatever your religious affiliation or non-affiliation and your political leanings, these movies are guaranteed to leave you in a real downer mood. After seeing 9/11, we decided to sneak into Spiderman II to cheer ourselves up a little. Not bad special effects, but I'm glad we didn't pay to see it -- did leave us in a somewhat better mood, however.
July Travel: None yet. Went down to the storage site and turned on the generator for an hour or so (read somewhere that I should do that once a month or so) and did a few things around the RV. But! The month ain't over yet!
The Great Book Give-Away: Well, the book giveaway when my Retirement-Tips.com hit counter hit 20,000 went so "well" that I've decided to continue it. The page is getting roughly 1000 hits a month, so I've decided to give away a copy of my latest book to anyone who is the x,000th visitor. Go to the home page to read all about it!
Read on for calendar quotes, notes on my latest site updates, the usual words about how I'd make some money if you guys would buy something off the website, and wrapping up with my Ramblings on whatever occurs to me between now and then.
July 2004 quote from my Happy Traveling RV Calendar: "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." - Robert Louis Stevenson. Now ain't that a great quote! The Trivia Challenge : What southern U.S. Highway began as a Native American trail more than 8,000 years ago?" -- answer in Ramblings below.
- Another month went by and seems like I've spent all my website time on the sites of others -- which is fine, that's what they're paying me for. I renovated falconslea.com with new menus and new photos -- check it out! If you have a homeowners' association that needs a website, call me and I'll do one just like it for you for $50!
- I've featured just about every one of the 15 websites that I maintain, so how about my own business site -- Robert Hoffman Consulting, Inc. If you'll wander over there and look at the list, you'll see that I've built sites for a variety of businesses, a Girl Scout troop, photo display sites, an online store, a campground, a high school reunion, and a soon-to-be-famous author. If you have anything you want to say or show, there's no better way than with your own website. I'd enjoy doing one for you -- email me!
Here's a list of some interesting things, some of which will make me a few bucks if you need them and buy them here:
- Dream Lifestyles to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All about How to Get a Life By .... whatever .. you fill in the blank. Check them out here.
- Camp at Half of What Everyone Else is Paying! No home park, no monthly maintenance fees, no long-term obligation, just pay the small annual fee and camp for half-price. Check it out here.
- Dream Jobs to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All you need to know about How To Break Into ... whatever is your dream job. Check them out here.
- $50 Websites! Instead of the hundreds or even thousands charged by most, I've decided to build websites for $50. Why so cheap? -- I enjoy building them and I'm trying to build a business. If you or any acquaintances would like to have a presence on the world-wide internet, either for personal or business, check out my websites listed on my business website at http://www.robert-hoffman-consulting.com/
As I mentioned above, I've discovered a resource that I had forgotten existed. I don't know about everyone else, but as I've grown older, I've noticed there are fewer and fewer people around who can relive "old times" with me. Now, I realize this isn't the most critical thing to worry about, but it has struck me a couple of times. Like, I'm thinking "what was the name of that guy that did so-and-so?" or "what was the name of that place we used to go for whatever?" and there's just about nobody around who was there. Since my brother, mother, and father are all deceased, my sister Marylin is about the only family around who was there in my younger years. I've got two other sisters, Belinda and Lori, but they're much younger and can't converse much about the 1950s. Marylin's 6 years younger than me, so there are many things that she can't talk about much either. Well, guess what! I went to my 45th class reunion in June and, since then, am realizing that I've got a few hundred people who grew up doing the same things in the same places that I did! How about that! Am I dumb or what? I really hadn't even thought about them until the recent reunion. Now, we're bouncing emails back and forth and becoming re-acquainted, finding out what everybody's been doing for the last 45 years. If you get a chance to attend one of your reunions, I recommend it highly! You'll be surprised at what the results might be!
TRIVIA ANSWER: The Natchez Trace Parkway, named the All American Road by the federal government, which extends from Natchez, Mississippi to just south of Nashville, Tennessee. (Hey! I knew this one!)
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Email rjhoffman@yahoo.com to sign up for the next newsletter, coming whenever I'm in the mood again.
Permanent Mailing Address: R. Hoffman, 2805 Oak Trail Court, #3437, Arlington, Texas 76016.
Well, we don't! Isn't it funny how things always break late Friday? Friday afternoon we noticed the temperature in the house was at 80. Turned the air off for awhile, thinking maybe something froze. Finally, Saturday morning, we called the A/C guy. He pointed out that the fan on the outside unit wasn't turning -- doh! Got to get a new motor and can't order it until Monday. Wow! What a hot weekend we had! Over 90 all the time .. down in the 80s at night. We turned on all the ceiling fans, but it still stayed around 90 in the house all weekend. Nothing much to do but sit around in our undies and hope the motor arrives Monday. Monday: Just phoned -- motor comes in Tuesday noon. Wow! Another hot day/night to go! Decided it's time to bring the RV over to the house and spend the night there. Enough is enough! Should've done it Saturday, but didn't realize what softies we all were (for the younger generation, that's old-timey talk for wimpy). One more time, the RV saves the day! Finally got a good night's sleep on Tuesday night in the RV.
This hot weekend got me to thinking about how we take luxuries like A/C for granted. I tried to think back to the 50s, growing up in Tallahassee, Florida, without any A/C. None in the house, the car, or the high school, where we spent many hours. And we lived through it! In fact, we didn't know we were suffering -- just a fact of life. I recall riding around with our car windows up, pretending we had A/C -- hahaha. Sometime around 1957, we got a window A/C in the house, but it really was only enough for the family room -- not much central air back then as I recall.
Here we are in the 2000's -- two days without air conditioning and we think we're dying. Even when we camp, we always have A/C. On our first trip, back in 1984, we had an Allegro Class A with ceiling air but no dash air. As I recall, we didn't turn the A/C on for our month in the Keys, a month across Texas in May, and a month through New Mexico in June. In fact, I make a big point in Chapter 3 of my free online book that we "had to run our air conditioner 24 hours a day" while we were in Las Vegas! That was about the only time we really used it. Nowadays, we run the A/C every day, every night, all the time. Has it gotten hotter? Is it Global Warming? I don't think so .. I think we're just so climatized that we don't even consider spending time without it. Even our pets are climatized -- our little dogs spent the weekend laying around with their tongues hanging out.
Now I've been in campgrounds where there are tent-campers, obviously without A/C. They're generally younger, much more out-doorsey-looking, and usually have children. I wonder if they'll be like us in the air conditioning in about 20 years? Hey! Surveys are easy! Maybe I'll put one on the retirement-tips.com home page to see how many RVers out there are like us and how many like the young tenters. I'm always curious about how typical or atypical I am. Aren't you? Since I know that the demographics for my website are largely in the 50+ age group, I'd anticipate that I'm the norm rather than the unusual -- we'll see.
Other bad news -- not winning as consistently at Poker, DOW is under 10,000 and NASDAQ under 2,000. Am I depressed? No! Looking forward to a trip to North Carolina!
August Travel: As we speak, we're about to pack it up for a couple of weeks up through Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Joyce has seen several TV spots about neat things to do in NC, so off we go! Looking forward to it, as it's our first substantial trip for quite some time. Plan to do a Travel Log chapter on the trip.
The Great Book Give-Away: As I said last month, I've decided to give away a copy of my latest book to anyone who is the x,000th visitor. Go to the home page to read all about it! Just checked and counter is at 20894, so watch it -- you may be number 21,000! Unless Tony Whalen or Bassman go over there and hit their refresh button 106 times ... hahaha.
Read on for calendar quotes, notes on my latest site updates, the usual words about how I'd make some money if you guys would buy something off the website, and wrapping up with my Ramblings on whatever occurs to me between now and then.
August 2004 quote from my Happy Traveling RV Calendar: "The freedom of travel opens the mind to unlimited possibilities." - Unknown. The Trivia Challenge : "What is the most conspicuous landmark in northeastern Wyoming?" Hey! I know this one! -- answer in Ramblings below.
- I spent some time this month adding to my Dear Oldguy page. Never been there? Check it out -- it's like Dear Heloise for old guys (that's the generic "guys"). I also spent more time on leon1959.com with new menus and new photos -- check it out! If you have a graduating class that needs a website, call me and I'll do one just like it for you for $50!
- I was just looking over the old newsletters to see if I forgot any of "my" websites and I did! I've never highlighted the one online store site that I've built NostalgiaGifts-Online.com. I built it in October 2003, added numerous items to it during November and December, then the owner decided to "let it sit" after January (that means I quit spending time updating it each month). It's had over 800 hits, yet very few sales. I think it was because the owner insisted on only including larger, higher-priced items, while it's my theory that smaller, easily-shipped, lower-priced items sell better online. Who knows? But, I think it's a good example of an online store and if you'd like one like it, just email me. If you've got an item that'll sell, I can build the website to sell it!
Here's a list of some interesting things, some of which will make me a few bucks if you need them and buy them here:
- If you're one of the 7000+ people who have enjoyed my free online book Retire and Travel for $1000 a Month, you should consider buying the $10 sequel Retire and Travel - 20 Years Later. The new book is packed with new information gleaned from 20 years of RVing, plus more anecdotes and adventures not previously published.
- Dream Lifestyles to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All about How to Get a Life By .... whatever .. you fill in the blank. Check them out here.
- Camp at Half of What Everyone Else is Paying! No home park, no monthly maintenance fees, no long-term obligation, just pay the small annual fee and camp for half-price. Check it out here.
- Dream Jobs to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All you need to know about How To Break Into ... whatever is your dream job. Check them out here.
- $50 Websites! Instead of the hundreds or even thousands charged by most, I've decided to build websites for $50. Why so cheap? -- I enjoy building them and I'm trying to build a business. If you or any acquaintances would like to have a presence on the world-wide internet, either for personal or business, check out my websites listed on my business website at http://www.robert-hoffman-consulting.com/
Am I a Blogger? Is this a Blog? I'm not sure. I looked it up in my trusty Merriam-Webster online and they don't have it included. From what I understand, Blogging is the practice of putting your "diary" online for others to read. And those who have a website where they just ramble on about whatever interests them is a Blogger. Is that right? If so, I guess that's me.
It's kind of like the old joke, last month I couldn't even spell mathematician and now I are one. I remember back in the 60s and 70s, I referred to myself as a hacker -- back then a hacker was what we now call a nerd -- anybody who spends mucho time on the computer and likes to mess around in the innards of a computer. As late as the 90s, I referred to myself as "the world's oldest hacker", but later realized that hacker had developed a negative connotation as one who produces viruses and spam and other unsavory products, so I guess I ain't one anymore.
My point here -- if there is one -- is how new words develop and old ones change meaning. Like the singer who was "country before country was cool." I think I was a Blogger before they had a word for it and a hacker before it became a bad thing. I wonder if anyone has ever done a comparison of an old dictionary to a new one -- like one from 1980 to the current one ... I imagine someone has. Guess I'll go searching ...
TRIVIA ANSWER: Devil's Tower, which was used as a location in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Was also the location of the loss of our transmission on our 1984 trip and the prelude to a wild week in Buffalo, Wyoming ... hahaha. (Hey! I knew this one!)
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Email rjhoffman@yahoo.com to sign up for the next newsletter, coming whenever I'm in the mood again.
Permanent Mailing Address: R. Hoffman, 2805 Oak Trail Court, #3437, Arlington, Texas 76016.
