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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.

Table of Contents

Issue 2006.06 Jun 2006

Issue 2006.05 May 2006

Issue 2006.04 Apr 2006

Issue 2006.03 Mar 2006

Issue 2005.10-2006.01 Oct 05-Jan 06

Issue 2005.05-2005.08 May-Aug 2005

Issue 2005.01-2005.04 Jan-Apr 2005

Issue 2004.09-2004.12 Sep-Dec 2004

Issue 2004.05-2004.08 May-Aug 2004

Issue 2004.01-2004.04 Jan-Apr 2004

Issue 2003.09-2003.12 Sep-Dec 2003

Issue 2003.05-2003.08 May-Aug 2003

Issue 2003.01-2003.04 Jan-Apr 2003

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.

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Retirement Tips and RV Stuff Newsletter

Issue 2006.03 Mar 2006

Publisher, Bob Hoffman - rjhoffman@yahoo.com

Back Issues at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html

PRIVACY STATEMENT: This newsletter's email addresses are never sold or otherwise made public.

If this is too long to read in the email, go read it at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html.

If you're receiving this by email and don't want it, just email me and I'll take you off my distribution list.

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RE-EVALUATING MY LIFE

Did you notice? I skipped February's newsletter! Why? hmmm ... well, too busy, too lazy, had other higher priority activities, or just decided to! I've been kind of re-evaluating my life, my activities, my priorities. I started out thinking this was a topic on retirement, but realized that my choices are the same as for those who aren't "retired" - us retirees just have a little more flexibility in our ability to make choices and changes.

I got to thinking about what I do - I have:

a) activities I really enjoy,

b) activities I get satisfaction from but that are somewhat tedious,

c) activities that I try to avoid as much as possible but that must be done sooner or later, and

d) activities that I don't enjoy hardly at all.

In most people's cases, the 'd' activities are the ones they get paid for and are therefore where they spend most of their time. Likewise, the 'a' activities are the ones that probably cost money and that are forced to a lower priority because the others are needed for survival.

Ideally, one would like to get to a point in life where they spend most of their time in the 'a' activities, a little in 'b' and 'c', and almost no time at all in 'd'. I guess this happy group would include those who have a real talent, like singers, actors, and professional poker players. Also would include the TRUE retirees, who have enough money that they don't have to work at anything that they don't want to and can afford to pay others to do their 'c' and 'd' activities (e.g., paying taxes, cleaning the house, washing the RV).

In my case, I think I spend most of my time in 'a' and 'b' activities. About the only 'c' activity that comes to mind is paying taxes. I've got an accountant for the corporate taxes, my personal taxes have gotten very simple the last few years, and I've reached that life-long goal of zero income taxes for 3 straight years, so I've done about the best I can in the 'c' area. The majority of the "work for pay" that I do falls into the 'b' category, with a rare jaunt into the 'd' area when the price is right. All in all, I'm in good shape, but there's always room for improvement.

So, where improvement? Obviously, if I can reduce some of my time in 'b' areas in favor of more time in 'a' areas, that would be an improvement. One of those 'b' areas is this newsletter. I get satisfaction from it, I like passing information along to others, I enjoy writing, and I need to produce a newsletter periodically to promote a few things and maybe increase the probability of making a few bucks from those a-type things I do (like writing books, etc.). What I don't need to do is be so religious about it .. like, nobody probably cares if I do a newsletter every month or just when I've got something worthwhile (IMHO) to say. Putting a new 'Life Tip' on the main page of retirementtips.com and leon1959.com each month is cutesy and I'm assuming there are those that watch for it and expect it, but maybe not! Maybe I'm the only one who knows that it changes every month. That monthly "Countdown to the 50th" that I've been doing for my graduating class on leon1959.com was a neat idea (I think), but I've not gotten any assistance from any of my 200+ classmates, and that's starting to move from 'a' down to 'b-c', so maybe I'll drop that or make it slightly less regular.

What if you could spend all your time in 'a' activities? What would that include? For many, it would be playing Golf all day, every day. I've got some retired friends who do exactly that. Doing 36-72 holes a day is standard operating procedure and they're as happy as larks. In my case, it would be ... hmmm ... Poker, travelling and seeing great scenery, watching TV, going to bed and getting up when I please, eating without gaining weight, travelling the world in my private jet .... ok, those last two are getting outside the realm of probability, so let's consider the first few. I guess if I could make income off the first three, or if I had enough money to do them without getting paid for it, that would be the ideal. I thought for a time that I could make money with RV travel and writing books about it, but it seems that writers are a dime-a-dozen and that's a very hard field to make a living in. Poker, likewise, is proving to be an uncertain way to make a living. Guess I just have to give it more thought ...

Read on for some surprises! Now giving away free my poker book that was formerly $15, big news in the 'Internet on the Road' area (formerly WiFi News), finally got Joyce's watercolors online, etc., etc.

March Travel: Got some things brewing in Southern Mississippi. Might find myself RVing down that way soon. Stay tuned!

Read on for notes on my latest site updates, some words about how I'd make some money if you guys would buy something off the website, IOTR News, Faux News, Poker Adventures, and wrapping up with my Ramblings on whatever occurs to me between now and then.

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LATEST SITE UPDATES

- Major changes to RetirementTips.com, most of which won't be obvious to the casual viewer. I've moved my entire Travel Log to a new server to make more space for other things. You can still access it as you always have through RetirementTips.com, or you can go to www.HoffmanTravels.com and arrive there more directly. CAUTION: Due to some unavoidable "features" of this change, you may get to a travel log page and not see the photos. If that happens, look for the link at the top of the page that says "Can't see Photos? Click here!"

- Added Joyce's latest watercolors to FauxByJoyce.com, as noted below in Faux News.

- Several new websites! I've now got 30 domain names registered! Friend of mine told me I was a "domain junkie" - another addiction to worry about?

- AllBrevardStorage.com - Same as the earlier All-Brevard-Storage.com, but we were able to get hold of the name without the dashes! Exciting to us .. maybe not so for you.

- Zolf.info - Want to read some of my wierdest ramblings yet? Check it out!

- A2V.info - Publicizing that book I've co-authored with a published friend. Site can also be accessed with Aliens2Vegas.com or AliensToVegas.com - hmmm ... maybe I am a domain junkie.

- Hot-Tile.com - Some neat and unique glass-blowing products that you may never have seen before!

- LittleFalls1965.com - A grad class site I'm doing for my cousin. Introduces the concept of charging $10 for life for access - tiny fee, but enough to defray the cost of creating and maintaining the site (if enough classmates can squeeze out that $10). Good idea? Maybe something others should consider, like me who's doing the Leon1959.com site totally free (one of my 'b' activities).

- NSBcottage.com - Advertising a fantastic beach cottage (once they finish the hurricane repairs) on New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Click the walking feet and you'll get a surprise!

- RoamingHotSpots.com - An innovation dreamed up by some of us at WiFiRV!

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FEATURED WEBSITE

- Of all those new sites listed above, I think my Zolf.info is the most unique. Took me a bunch of hours to produce, probably of little interest to anyone except me and Virgil Wulff, but really fun to do and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. And ... maybe it will help sell our new book!

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TRYING TO MAKE A FEW BUCKS

Here's a list of some interesting products, some of which will make me a few bucks if you need them and buy them 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.

- 50+ ways to get to the internet when you're on the road! Read'm at Internet On The Road.

- Amazon Books : Buy from Amazon through this link and I get a couple of bucks -- Click here to check them out.

- 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.

- 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.

- Earn Money While You Camp! Join WiFiRV as an affiliate, either a lead generator (tell us about campgrounds that need WiFi) or a sales representative (assist in the selling of WiFi systems). Go to my Internet On The Road (IOTR) / WiFiRV page http://www.wifirv.com/assoc/iotr/ to learn how you can earn hundreds for a few hours work.

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FAUX NEWS

Go to http://www.fauxbyjoyce.com/ and click on either (or both) of the flashing NEW signs! One is Joyce's latest watercolor paintings (which are for sale at bargain basement prices) and the other is her foray into a new area of "PetPortraits".

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IOTR NEWS

IOTR means Internet On The Road. This section, formerly titled WiFi News, will provide updates on what I learn about the multitudinous ways to access the internet while RVing around the USA. Since WiFi is pretty much the best thing going right now, I had concentrated on it up until now. I've decided to widen the scope a little for a couple of reasons - one being that it fits with my IOTR website, the other that it fits with a project I'm working on to start producing a periodic IOTR column in a national magazine - more on that later.

Big news this month (IMHO) is an article I read on Chuck Woodbury's RVtravel.com website, entitled "KVH and Microsoft to Bring Broadband Connectivity to RVers, others". Seems that Microsoft, KVH, and a bunch of other biggies are planning to put together a mobile TV and internet service employing broadband EVDO cellular services. If/when implemented, it will allow us to watch TV and surf the internet almost anywhere and anytime. The key word in the above is planning. It's been pointed out to me that Microsoft is fairly well-known for making big plans that never quite come to fruition, but I think something like this is certainly a high probability in the not-too-distant future. Sounds like a great idea! And .. they plan to build it such that you'll be generating a WiFi HotSpot for your neighbors while you're using the service. Now, if they'll just include an option to be able to charge your neighbors a nominal fee, that would be even better. Sort of like that RoamingHotSpots.com idea that I mentioned above.

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POKER ADVENTURES

The big news this month is that I've decided to start giving away my Secrets for Winning Online Hold'Em Poker book, formerly sold for $15, for FREE! Just go to my Poker page for details. Am I still winning? .... LOL ... off and on, now and then. Overall, I've put just under $10,000 into Poker in the last 2 years and I've made deposits in my bank account from the Poker sites in the amount of just under $10,000. If you include what I've made off my book, after playing over 250,000 games of online Poker, I'm just about even! Wild? I thought so! When I sat down and calculated everything since Valentine's Day 2004 (when I started), I was amazed at how close I am to even. I've been up a couple thousand during that time and down probably a maximum of about $400, but, as of now, EVEN! Now that's wierd! At any rate, I've decided that I don't have any real answers for consistent winning, so have decided to quit charging for the book. Do I still think the book has some great ideas? Of course! Which do I recommend the most? I dunno!

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RAMBLINGS

I ate lunch on our patio today, because our great Florida weather is back and the temperature is around 80 again. I was sitting there eating, enjoying the chimes, the breeze, the bubbling of the pool, and I thought "Hey! I've got wireless! I don't have to tie myself to my desk. I could bring my laptop out here and do the newsletter in the comfort of the great outdoors." Since I'm often told that I spend too much time at the desk and should get out in the fresh air more, I thought this was a great idea! NOT! .. I kept falling asleep! All that chiming and bubbling and breezing was just a little too relaxing. After falling asleep 3 or 4 times, I moved back inside. Oh well ... an effort was made. I'll get outdoors again when the next fishing trip or RV trip comes up.

Well, I rambled enough above, so will cut this short.

Hey! Do you like fast cars, loud engine noises, speeding around corners and passing people? Well, I do. And I really enjoyed this website http://www.bmwtransact.com/microsite/Nurburgring/ Check it out! A large download, but worth the wait (IMHO). Let it start the download, hit the Pause button, then come back in about 15 minutes and restart it.

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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, 1033 Jacaranda Circle, Rockledge, Florida 32955.

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Retirement Tips and RV Stuff Newsletter

Issue 2006.04 Apr 2006

Publisher, Bob Hoffman - rjhoffman@yahoo.com

Back Issues at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html

PRIVACY STATEMENT: This newsletter's email addresses are never sold or otherwise made public.

If this is too long to read in the email, go read it at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html.

If you're receiving this by email and don't want it, just email me and I'll take you off my distribution list.

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JUST BLOGGIN' ALONG ...

I recently read (or heard) an article about Blogs (i.e., web logs). Seems like there are millions of people around the world doing Blogs. Some are daily, some weekly, and as in my case, mostly monthly. No matter what topic you're interested in, I'm sure you can find hundreds of people rambling on about it, maybe even saying something of interest now and then. They even have websites now that help you sort through the Blogs, find the best ones, find the ones on specific topics, find celebrity Blogs, and on and on ...

Now, I didn't really set out to be a Blogger. In fact, when I started building websites, I don't think the term Blog had been invented yet. As it turns out, though, I'm doing somewhere around four Blogs - hopefully, no more will emerge anytime soon. The really strange thing is that none of them have really turned out as I originally planned.

First, there was My Travel Log. I started that back in August 1999, when I had that great adventure in Quartzsite, Arizona. Since then, I've added 70 chapters (in 67 months), so that's roughly one per month average. It's pretty much about my travels, but I wander astray every now and then, with chapters like "Cool and Unusual RVs and Stuff", "USA Sunsets", and "All About Slideouts" - chapters that have little to do with travel, per se, but which related to RVs or just stuff that I find interesting ... sounds like a Blog to me. This month, I've put a FIRST in the Travel Log - a chapter written by someone else! Look in LATEST SITE UPDATES for details!

After Blogging along in My Travel Log for a couple years, along came my first Newsletter in January 2003. When I started it, I proclaimed that it would come out whenever the mood struck me, but, over most of that time, it's come out monthly. My primary intent with it was originally to highlight updates in my websites and those that I maintained for friends and family, while hopefully presenting topics of interest to those who visited all those sites. A secondary intent was to try to make a few bucks, but that hasn't really happened much. If I made a dime for each click-through in my TRYING TO MAKE A FEW BUCKS section below, I'd probably have almost a dollar now! I guess mostly, this Newsletter has turned out to be more of a Blog, with me rambling along about things that interest me and may or may not interest you.

In June 2005, I had yet another idea ... another prime Blogging opportunity! I realized that exactly 50 years earlier, my high school graduating class had just "graduated" from Junior High School. I decided to start doing a monthly page of reminscing about what happened to me and my Class of 1959 classmates "50 Years Ago this Month." My intent there was that I'd start it, then others would get excited about it and start flooding me with inputs on their memories of the period. Not so, o Blogger! Out of 200+ classmates, I've gotten 3 or 4 lines from 3 or 4 people in the 10 months that I've been doing it. Once again, it's turned out to be a Blog of sorts, although there I'm Blogging along about events in 1955 and 1956, which is probably unheard-of in the Blogging Community (if there is such a thing). If you like looking at classic cars, movies, comic books, motor scooters, TV programs, etc., check out my Countdown To The 50th, which is right now 3 years and 62 days away!

In November 2005, I started my first real, planned Blog at RV-Blog.RV6.org. When I started it, I really, really intended to try to limit myself to talking about RV stuff - the entire RV6.org website is intended to be about RVing. But, as always seems to happen, I diverged again. I keep coming up with topics that I feel like talking about and that don't seem to fit in the Travel Log or the Newsletter, and certainly not in the Countdown Blog. My first two entries were very RV-oriented - "When Are You Too Old to Drive an RV?" and "Different Strokes - To Full-Time or Not To Full-Time". Then, I started diverging with "Old Guys Doing Stuff" - to be followed soon after by "Turning 65" and "TV Land". All of them are a bunch of philosophizing on topics that may be of interest to you website visitors - older visitors will probably relate to much of what I write and younger visitors might be interested in what's in store for them. ... or not ... who knows? And, interestingly enough, my RV-Blog articles appear to be happening about once a month, just like my other 3 "Blogs" - maybe I only think once a month ...

Something else that Blogging article said was that most Blogs are written for the enjoyment of the author and a few friends ... and that sometimes the friends are very few or none. In many cases, the only one who reads the Blog is the Blogger him (or her) self. Hopefully, such is not the case with my many Blogs, but do I care? Probably not ... I always enjoy going back and reading them. I often wander around My Travel Log, re-enjoying the travels included there. Recently, I've found myself re-reading the RV-Blog entries to see if I still agree with myself. I guess it'll become a problem if I start emailing myself to take issue with a point.

Speaking of Blogs, how would you like a free book (my longest, published Blog)? As I mentioned last month, my Poker book is now free for the asking - go to the Poker Page to find out how to get a copy. AND NOW, YOU CAN ALSO GET A FREE COPY OF MY "RETIRE AND TRAVEL - 20 YEARS LATER"! Read below under LATEST SITE UPDATES for details.

March Travel: Didn't get to Mississippi, but got in a 3-day fishing trip to Jonathan Dickinson State Park. Read about it in My Travel Log, Chapter 70.

April Travel: Still got some things brewing in Southern Mississippi. Might find myself RVing out that way soon. Stay tuned!

Let me close this section with a thought for you - stop what you're doing tomorrow at 2 minutes and 3 seconds after 1 PM and contemplate the time - 01:02:03 on 04/05/06. Or, you can do it tomorrow morning at 1:02:03 in the AM, if that's more to your liking.

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LATEST SITE UPDATES

- My Travel Log, Chapter 69 : This is the MUST-READ chapter that I mentioned about, written by Paul Alton about a trip that he and his wife, Juanita, took from Canada to Mexico and back.

- My Travel Log, Chapter 70 : Another great RV/fishing trip, with photos of the largest Dolphin we've ever caught!

- RV-Blog.RV6.org : As noted above, two new "monologues" out there, "Turning 65" is just some observations on what turning 65 used to mean and what it means in the 21st century, plus "TV Land" about a great William Shatner show that I saw recently - sort of a continuation of "Old Guys Doing Stuff".

- All-Brevard-Storage.com : If you live near Brevard County and are looking for storage space, check out my Webmaster's Special at All Brevard Storage on Barnes in Rockledge.

- FREE BOOK CONTEST : I FINALLY finished a final compilation of the inputs from all of you on my Retirement Survey. I shut down the survey and put together a page of new results, which I passed along to all who have purchased my book "Retire and Travel - 20 Years Later." Now, you can receive a FREE copy of the book. All you have to do is find the page on my website where these final results are included, then tell me how many months I say that I've been "data-gathering" for the survey. It's a page just like any other page, but there's no link to it anywhere. It'll be up to you to guess the URL to get to it. If you do, email rjhoffman@yahoo.com and ask for your free book! Be sure and include the # of months in your email to prove that you've actually found the page!

- SabalGrove.com : Several changes, including announcement of our huge garage sale this Saturday throughout all of our Sabal Grove subdivision and our neighboring Pelican Harbour, plus the Sunday Easter Egg Hunt. Probably not of much interest, unless you're going to be in the neighborhood. If so, come on by!

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FEATURED WEBSITE

- NSBcottage.com : A great rental cottage on the beach at New Smyrna Beach (NSB), just South of Daytona. It's been recently renovated and modernized, and we've include bunches of indoor/outdoor photos on the website, including some of Max, the resident Gopher Tortoise. If you're looking for a nice beach rental at a great price, look no further!

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TRYING TO MAKE A FEW BUCKS

Here's a list of some interesting products, some of which will make me a few bucks if you need them and buy them 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.

- 50+ ways to get to the internet when you're on the road! Read'm at Internet On The Road.

- Amazon Books : Buy from Amazon through this link and I get a couple of bucks -- Click here to check them out.

- 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.

- 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.

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FAUX NEWS

As I mentioned last month, go to http://www.fauxbyjoyce.com/ and click on either (or both) of the flashing NEW signs! One is Joyce's latest watercolor paintings (which are for sale) and the other is her foray into a new area of "PetPortraits". This weekend, during the Sabal Grove/Pelican Place garage sale, we're going to open our doors for our 1st Annual Art Open House. Joyce has learned how to frame and make mats, so now has all of her work matted, framed, and hanging in our house for viewing. Drop by Saturday, April 8th, between 10 and 4, and you'll see all of those on the website, plus many more!

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IOTR NEWS

No real news this month, just more of my Blogging. If you're an RVer and you're reading this, you undoubtedly must try to stay in touch via the internet while you're RVing. What's the best way to accomplish that? How much do you need to spend for equipment? Well, it depends upon how much time you want to spend on the internet, what all you want to do, and how continuous your connection must be. On the IOTR website, you can answer a few questions in these areas and I'll give you advice on what you I think you need. Although the site originated when dial-up was the main mode of access, it's being updated continuously, so is about as current as can be expected, considering the rapid rate of change in mobile internet access technology. In fact, one of the items on my to-do list is to "modernize IOTR", so expect to see some major changes there in the coming months. I'll announce here when I get time to do that "modernizing."

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POKER ADVENTURES

The big news last month was that I've decided to start giving away my Secrets for Winning Online Hold'Em Poker book, formerly sold for $15, for FREE! Just go to my Poker page for details.

Last month, I also mentioned that I was about even on my two years of almost daily online playing. After considering that, plus the fact that I'd had about 3 months of mostly losing on my favorite site, FullTiltPoker.com, I decided to quit! How about that!

Then, to my great surprise, I got an email from PartyPoker.com, where I hadn't played for several months. Seems that they were missing me and had put $50 into my account. All I had to do to keep the $50 was to go over there and play 500 hands. For those who haven't read my book and don't play, you can play about 100 hands per hour if you play 3 tables simultaneously, so 500 hands represents about 5 hours of play. Well, I couldn't leave the 50 just sitting there, so off I went to Party Poker! To make a long story short, I was quite happy at how it turned out. They've made some improvements over there in their Last Hand options and in their displays, so playing there is more comfortable than previously. PLUS, after playing for about a week of evenings, I had over $500 in the account! This, at a site where I seldom, if ever, won! Wierd? Yes! I guess it comes down to one of my late observations in my poker book, that often the best "trick" to winning is to simply change now and then - change games, change level, change websites, whatever ... I'm not sure why, but often simply making a change will significantly change your luck.

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RAMBLINGS

My to-do list. That's to-do, like things to do. When I was a young computer programmer at TRW in 1968, one of my managers introduced me to the concept of a to-do list. Since then, I've almost always had one (or more) around. I often have an item on one list to remind me to check the other list. In the olden days, a to-do list projected way off into the future, like don't forget to do so-and-so a month from now, a year from now, or whatever. That function has been taken over (for me, anyway) by automated calendar functions, such as the one in Yahoo email. If there's something more than a day or two away that needs to be done at a specific time, I simply put it on the calendar and receive email(s) when it's due. So, things like that aren't on my to-do list.

What is on my to-do list are actions that need to be done asap (like today or tomorrow) and those that need to be done .. whenever. The whenever items often get pushed down and pushed down and never done, but I keep them on pretty much forever, just in case their priority rises for one reason or another.

I currently have 47 items on my to-do list. Some of them pertain to my monthly Blogs, which are a large part of my website activities each month, but most are just things that I don't want to forget about. The bottom item is "Helicopter paint" and it's been there for at least 4 years. One of these days, I'll decide that the time for Helicopter Paint is now and I'll finally get to it. Top item on the list is "SEND TAXES (after 4/10)" - I've done my taxes, but have this theory that those who send in early are more apt to get audited. Dumb? Who knows? I heard that one time and figure there's no hurry, as long as I make the 4/15 deadline.

What's my point? hmmm .... well, I'm not sure. When I was writing the above about Bloggin' Along, it occurred to me that about half my life is spent doing Blogs and trying to knock items off my to-do list. Maybe not that much, but a significant part. I guess my point here is to suggest that if you don't have a to-do list, you might think about starting one. At any point in your life, even after retirement, especially after retirement when your memory starts to go, you should keep a list. If you don't, I'd like to hear about your life. My (retired) fishing friend in South Carolina tells me he hasn't worn a watch since he "retired" - I'll bet he doesn't keep a to-do list either. Must keep it all in his head -- I wouldn't trust that. I can barely hold the prescribed 6 items in my head, much less anywhere near the 47 that are on my list. Or, maybe I could delete 41 of them and be no worse off. I guess the world wouldn't come to an end if I never got around to Helicopter Paint -- but they'll be better off, if I can get to it.

Let me close this month with another neat website, not of my creation. I'm sure you've probably all seen this numbers game, but maybe never this ingenious presentation. Check out the Mind-Reader.

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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, 1033 Jacaranda Circle, Rockledge, Florida 32955.

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Retirement Tips and RV Stuff Newsletter

Issue 2006.05 May 2006

Publisher, Bob Hoffman - rjhoffman@yahoo.com

Back Issues at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html

PRIVACY STATEMENT: This newsletter's email addresses are never sold or otherwise made public.

If this is too long to read in the email, go read it at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html.

If you're receiving this by email and don't want it, just email me and I'll take you off my distribution list.

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IF THERE'S ONE LESS IDOL, IT MUST BE THURSDAY

Anybody remember that 1969 movie If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium ? Well, that's what I was thinking of with my title above. That movie, although I don't think I actually saw it, related to a whirlwind trip across Europe, and the only way to tell where you were was to know what day it was. Likewise, when you're on vacation, you often forget what day it is, other than knowing how many more days until you have to return home. Well, retirement is much like a long vacation in many ways -- you don't have many meetings or appointments or deadlines or even calendars, so it's easy to get confused about what day it is.

I awoke this morning thinking about that ... I knew it was Thursday because Eliot caught booted from American Idol last night. It's like if I'm still getting over the excitement of 24, I know it's Tuesday. If I'm wondering who's going to get booted from Idol, it's Wednesday. The whole week goes sort of like that, waking up knowing what day it is based upon what TV show was on last night. However, all these shows are going into Season or Series Finales this week and next, so soon those events won't be around anymore. How will we know what day it is? Do we care? It really only matters if we've got a doctor appointment coming up or a fishing trip or whatever. I'm sure something will come up to tell me the day -- it always does.

Actually, I've got a calendar on my desk and the date on my watch, so I can always figure out the day fairly easily. It's only when I first wake up that I'm a little vague on it. I almost always know whether it's a weekday (so Price Is Right is on at 11) or Sunday (so CBS Sunday Morning is on from 9:00-10:30). There's that TV again ... LOL. I generally watch Price Is Right while reading email, etc. and I like to at least catch the last 5 minutes of CBS Sunday Morning, when they have the 1-minute "quiet time" - if you've seen it, you know what I mean. So, what's my point? Point is that retirement is really different from "working life" in many small ways ... like not knowing (or caring) what day it is.

I don't know if philosophizing is part of retirement or part of getting older, but I sure seem to be ready to do a lot of it. Like the other day, sitting on the patio, I was commenting to Joyce about how retirement is so much different from what I'd thought it would be. When I was in my 40's and started thinking about retirement, I guess I envisioned days of sort of sitting around, casually thinking about what I'd like to do next. I was even worried about being bored, because I didn't have a hobby to occupy my time. As I said in Chapter 5 of my first book Retire and Travel for $1000 a Month "If you're planning to retire, you'd better have some kind of hobby" -- I was 43 at the time and trying to get a handle on when and how to retire. As it turns out, much of what I wrote in that chapter was exactly right! My description of what a suitable retirement hobby would be for me is pretty much how it turned out - I just haven't been viewing my activities as a hobby. I view myself as being in semi-retirement. Some would actually call it not retired - still working. I have 3 or 4 past-times, each of which requires a significant amount of my time and has the potential for generating income - although they don't always.

What's really different is the number of new, enjoyable, interesting things that Joyce and I are both getting into. Did I ever think I'd actually get books published? Well, I'd hoped so, but had my doubts. Now, along comes my first hard-copy published novel, Aliens To Vegas, a dream-driven, apocalyptical, science fiction, RVing adventure! And next month, Joyce will have several of her water-colors on display at the Sunflower House in Merritt Square Mall on Merritt Island. Of all the different arts and crafts that she's been involved in over the years, who'd have thought that water colors would turn out to be the most enjoyable (and one of those potentially profitable endeavors). So here we are, me just turned 65 and Joyce not far behind, writing books and painting beautiful creations and building websites and traveling in the RV and living in fantastic Central Florida and probably making nearly as much income as when we worked all day, every day. Who'd have thunk it?

April Travel: Another fishing trip to Jonathan Dickinson State Park and then to Sebastian Inlet. Read about it in My Travel Log, Chapter 72.

May Travel: Yet another fishing trip, this time staying at a fantastic county park at Sebastian Inlet. It's also described in Chapter 72. Also a couple of trips to Tampa for tests and surgery.

Want to read another RVing Blog? Check out Julianne Crane's Wheel Life Blog, where she talks about an interesting guy, RV historian David Woodworth, who's traveling around in his RV towing a 1931 Mae West HouseCar. If you're interested in old vehicles, you might also check David's Drive a Model T website.

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LATEST SITE UPDATES

- My Travel Log, Chapter 71 : This is another of those MUST-READ chapters, written by Paul Alton about a trip that he and his wife, Juanita, took from Canada to Mexico and back. It's a sequel to Chapter 69.

- My Travel Log, Chapter 72 : Another great RV/fishing trip, with fish and camping photos.

- InternetOnTheRoad : As promised in my IOTR News last month, I've "modernized" the site, including gobs of new information on the latest ways to access the internet while RVing.

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FEATURED WEBSITE

- A2V.info : I know I'm probably overdoing this, but it is my first real pocketbook! Check this site for info on the new Aliens To Vegas book, plus links to several related websites.

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TRYING TO MAKE A FEW BUCKS

Here's a list of some interesting products, some of which will make me a few bucks if you need them and buy them 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.

- 50+ ways to get to the internet when you're on the road! Read'm at Internet On The Road.

- Amazon Books : Buy from Amazon through this link and I get a couple of bucks -- Click here to check them out.

- 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.

- 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.

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FAUX NEWS

As mentioned previously, go to http://www.fauxbyjoyce.com/ and click on the flashing NEW signs to check out Joyce's latest, greatest paintings. We had our Art Open House last month as planned and learned how fun it was to sit around all day and watch potential shoppers browsing. Sold very few, but I think it was good experience and very exciting. And, anytime between May 27th and June 26th, you can view her paintings live at the Sunflower House on Merritt Island.

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INTERNET ON THE ROAD (IOTR) NEWS

As mentioned above in LATEST SITE UPDATES, I've "modernized" the site, including gobs of new information on the latest ways to access the internet while RVing. I've also decided to collect all the monthly IOTR NEWS pieces from here and put them together on the IOTR site to simplify access.

Most significant WiFi thing I've heard this month is that Rhode Island is planning to WiFi their entire state by 2007 at the cost of $20 million! There's speculation that this is just another way for Brown University to pick up some grant money and that it won't ever really happen, but I guess time will tell. Seems like I keep hearing about large WiFi projects planned (like MicroSoft doing San Francisco), but little about any actually being accomplished. Maybe I'll try to do some research on existing monster HotSpots this month.

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POKER ADVENTURES

I'm still giving away my Secrets for Winning Online Hold'Em Poker book, formerly sold for $15, for FREE! Just go to my Poker page for details.

Nothing much new to report - I got another free $50 from Party Poker when I ignored them for a month or so. Lost it before I was able to do the 500 hands required to actually own the $50, but had a good time doing it. Other than that, I continue to play a little each night -- win some, lose some.

Almost forgot, I played in a live game at Coconut Creek Indian Casino while in Ft. Lauderdale last month. It was a little more enjoyable than online because of the chit-chat at the table during the game and others being able to view your bad beats and good wins, etc. It was less enjoyable though, due to the fact that I couldn't come and go whenever I pleased, I had to put up with a little smoke the entire night (not too bad, but I had a sore throat for a couple of days), and I wasn't able to record notes on the habits of the players. All in all, I still prefer online. Oh .. yeah .. in that live game, I played about 9 hours and finally lost my $100. Never really got very far ahead at all.

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RAMBLINGS

This month, I'm going to do something I've not done before - reprint an earlier RAMBLINGS - from June 2003. I'm doing this because I've got something to add - read to the end and you'll see what I mean. So here's June 2003 RAMBLINGS:

This month, I'm going to ramble a little about aging, a topic dear to the heart of retirees. If you're younger than me, you might find this informative. If you're older, you may be able to add some to it. Hopefully, you'll at least get a laugh out of it.

At one time, I was going to add a webpage named "Things Your Mother Never Told You" or something equally as comical. On it, I was going to relate things I've learned about aging as I've aged. I decided I didn't know enough to merit a page, but I think there might be enough for this newsletter. Here goes ...

In my 30's, I learned that you can't eat all the junk food you want and expect to never gain weight -- did I think I could? ... yeah ...

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! ...

In my 50's, my doctor told me there are two kinds of men at my age -- those with prostate problems and those about to have prostate problems ... that was a bit of a surprise ...

In my 60's, I'm now finding out that when you get older, the bottoms of your feet wear out! Jeez! Going bare-footed was something I enjoyed when I was young and hoped to again enjoy in my retirement. Now I have to put on shoes now and then just to keep my feet from hurting.

hmmm .. what's next?

Just this month, I learned what might be next. I've got a friend in his 70's and he tells me he's been having backaches for a while. He went to a doctor and was told that his "spine was dirty" and needed "cleaning." How about that! I've never heard that before. So, in our 70's, we can expect to need to get our spines "cleaned." His doctor said it's a fairly common malady in old age and that some people try to get by with pain shots, but that they only last a few months and need to be done forever. Certainly worth adding to my list of things my mother never told me ... nor did anyone else. Just one of those things you find out about when you get there.

Finally, I guess I can't close without offering my review of the new movie RV. I noticed that Chuck Woodbury did a survey in his weekly newsletter last month and found that about 80% of the 800 or so RVers that responded LIKED the movie. What a surprise to me! I naturally wanted to see it and Joyce even agreed (reluctantly) to go along. She says she almost left about 10 minutes into it. I like Robin Williams, can usually handle slap-stick comedy up to a point, and am obviously an avid RV fan, but I thought it was way too silly, didn't represent many realistic situations that RVers find themselves in, and would probably rate it at about a 3 on a scale of 1-10. Many of Chuck's RVers said that the situations reminded them of things they'd gone through, but I'll have to confess that I've never driven my RV into a lake, had the dump tank explode, or been dumb enough to stay very long on a 4-wheel-drive-only road. About the closest I've come to any of those was when I pulled into a 4-wheel-drive-only rest area in the mountains in Wyoming and knocked the dump valve off, while on our first RV trip in 1984. HOWEVER, if you're a genuine RVer, you shouldn't miss it - you might be one of those many who enjoy it!

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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, 1033 Jacaranda Circle, Rockledge, Florida 32955.

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Retirement Tips and RV Stuff Newsletter

Issue 2006.06 Jun 2006

Publisher, Bob Hoffman - rjhoffman@yahoo.com

Back Issues at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html

PRIVACY STATEMENT: This newsletter's email addresses are never sold or otherwise made public.

If this is too long to read in the email, go read it at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html.

If you're receiving this by email and don't want it, just email me and I'll take you off my distribution list.

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CULTURE AND LAKE WOBEGON

Today is Sunday and I'm in a quandary as to how to spend the afternoon. Here are my choices: 1) I've got a surgery coming up Tuesday that will probably keep me offline for a week or so (unless the hospital has wifi and I'm in the mood to laptop along while in bed), so I'm thinking there must be something else I need to do to get ready. 2) I've just gotten back from another fishing trip and plan to write a Travel Log chapter on "The Fishing Trip of 06/06/06". 3) I played in three sit-n-go Poker tournaments last night and won all three, so am anxious to try my luck again today. 4) Since I'll be "out of touch" for a week or two, I'm thinking I'd like to get some of my "monthly duties", like this newsletter, my 1950's rememberings on Leon1959.com, checking to see who hasn't paid their website charges recently, etc. 5) I've been moving my Travel Log over to some new server space that I've managed to obtain, but it's a long tedious process, with 59 chapters moved and 13 to go. I really need to get that done one of these days, before my Homestead space gets over-run.

So ... do I do something I'm supposed to do, something I want to do, something I'll really enjoy doing ... ? It's more of that abcd activity selection I mentioned in the March newsletter above, I guess. So, I've decided to do a little bit of 'b' (this newsletter) first, then a bunch of 'a' (online Poker) later.

I'll get to the Culture and Lake Wobegon in a minute, but how about some RV stuff first ... I found some neat RV videos (thanks to Chuck Woodbury's newsletter again) about tire care and handling blow-outs. They're on the Michelon Tire website and have some great advice and information. I'm not sure I agree totally with them (like the stepping on the gas when you get a blow-out), but they're the experts so maybe they're right. Check them out and make your own decision.

Other RV news - as I said above, we took another fishing trip last week. I'll talk about the fish in the Travel Log later, but here's the RV-related part. I still really like my Damon Challenger, despite the fact that I developed a water leak and the right-side mirror almost fell off, but I've had a recurring problem with the gas stove. I'm wondering if others have had the problem and found a solution. The control knobs on the front of the stove have to be pushed in to be turned, yet they somehow occasionally get turned on accidentally. Twice while camping during the last year, we've returned to the RV, only to be greeted by the screaming Propane Alarm and, of course, four panicky barking dogs who are really hearing the alarm. Each time, we check and find that one of the knobs has been accidentally turned on, the coach is full of smelly propane, and so we turn the knob off, take the dogs out, open the windows, and stay out until the smell subsides. Really scarey! Joyce has gotten into the habit of trying to remember to check the knobs every time we go out.

We came back from fishing one afternoon and were met by a really smelly coach. Thought at first the black water tank vent had stopped up or something, but then recognized it as propane and checked the stove knobs. Sure enough! One was slightly on. Did the air-out thing and had it cleaned out in about 10 minutes or so.

Has anybody got any ideas? I've been thinking about trying to build some sort of brace across the knobs that has to be removed before the stove can be turned on. Who knows when I'll get to it, though. Hopefully, before I blow myself up.

Now, on to the "title topic"! I'm sure you're dying of curiousity. I was thinking this would be a short, quick newsletter, but it sure isn't turning out that way.

Every now and then, I wonder if I should be getting more "culture". Well, I feel like I got some today. I actually turned on National Public Radio! My first time! For the last 50 years, my radio (when it's on) has always been tuned to the local Rock station. I seldom, if ever, hear anything other than rock music on the radio. Recently, someone mentioned Garrison Keillor - I forget what the context was or who it was. A few days later, there's a full-page article in the newpaper, on the front of the comics section (which is all I usually read), telling all about Garrison and his Prairie Home Companion radio show. It piqued my interest, so I looked it up on the internet and found the Official Website. I wandered around and learned that it's on Orlando station 90.7 on Saturday from 6-8 PM and Sunday from 10-12 in the morning. I got into a Poker game last night and missed it, but managed to rise at 9:30 this morning, so listened to it while watching my CBS Sunday Morning TV show.

If you enjoy down-home comedy, country, cowboys, Minnesota, and can tolerate some of the less entertaining parts to be there for the more entertaining parts, this might be the show for you. I've heard about Lake Wobegon from various friends over the years, but have never taken the time to listen. People have told me that my Minnesota Lutheran background make me a prime target from much of Garrison's humor and they were right! I especially enjoyed the part today about the old Lutheran ladies playing music (almost) on their bells, since my sister plays the bells at Christmas at her Lutheran church. If you can't laugh at yourself, however, maybe this isn't the show for you. The only radio I could get the station on was our home's intercom system, so Joyce got to "enjoy" it with me. She got a little aggravated by some of the really countryfied music, didn't think the humor was that humorous, but actually listened to parts of it. I think it's something that has to grow on some people -- or maybe I need to find myself a small radio with earphones.

At any rate, I now feel a little less culturally-challenged, having spent time listening to NPR. AND, we even went to a live play a few weeks ago! My, my ... guess I have to be careful to not lose my casual charm amidst all of this culture.

June Travel: Same as May - yet another fishing trip, staying at a Long Point Park at Sebastian Inlet, and a couple of trips to Tampa for tests and surgery. Not much, but keeping the RV exercised. Thanks much to Ocean View RV Park for letting me store the RV there during the summer in return for website services. If not for that, I'd be paying for a lot of storage time that I wasn't using, what with all the one week in - one week out that I've been doing recently.

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LATEST SITE UPDATES

- Nothing worth mentioning this month. I've been spending my time moving the Travel Log to the new server, so have fallen down on some of my website duties (e.g., Joyce has several new pictures that should already be on her website).

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FEATURED WEBSITE

- ZOLF.info - EY2006, Light Probe #005526 : The link on the left will take you directly to the last entry in the Chronicles of Zolf, which describes the NASA Pluto Probe, scheduled to reach Pluto July 2015, which coincidentally is 6 months before the non-planet is scheduled for destruction by the Astrians.

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TRYING TO MAKE A FEW BUCKS

Here's a list of some interesting products, some of which will make me a few bucks if you need them and buy them 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.

- 50+ ways to get to the internet when you're on the road! Read'm at Internet On The Road.

- Amazon Books : Buy from Amazon through this link and I get a couple of bucks -- Click here to check them out.

- 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.

- 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.

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FAUX NEWS

As mentioned previously, go to http://www.fauxbyjoyce.com/ and click on the flashing NEW signs to check out Joyce's water color painting. Not the latest, greatest, due to laxity on the part of the webmaster, but enough to give the viewer a taste of her work. Between May 27th and June 26th, you can view her paintings live at the Sunflower House on Merritt Island. During July, some will also be on display in the Cocoa Public Library.

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INTERNET ON THE ROAD (IOTR) NEWS

Nothing significant, other than some observations by a WiFi user (me). This month, I got a new laptop from one of my very supportive employers, and have been learning about the wireless features included with the newer laptops. The internal wireless "card" and antenna appear to work as well as the plug-in cards that I've been using. I was at the campground in Tampa earlier this week, where we'll be during/after my surgery at the VA Hospital there, and their WiFi worked fine for me. I haven't yet learned how to set it up to optionally use an external card, in case I have a weak signal and want to use my card-with-external-20ft-antenna, but I guess I'll figure that out when I need it.

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POKER ADVENTURES

I'm still giving away my Secrets for Winning Online Hold'Em Poker book, formerly sold for $15, for FREE! Just go to my Poker page for details.

Going along, playing most nights, win some, lose some, have yet to win one of those multi-hundred dollar tournament prizes. Doing well in cash games and sit-n-goes, but still can't make headway in my tournament play. Have been looking for a decent book on tournament play, but haven't found one yet.

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RAMBLINGS

This month, I'm not going to ramble much, largely due to the fact that my opening involved a significant amount of rambling. Let me just point you to a really neat website with an illusion that you won't believe!

In fact, I've decided I don't have anything else worth rambling about! Guess it's off to the Poker tables!

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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, 1033 Jacaranda Circle, Rockledge, Florida 32955.