Passover Week
Hi Folks,
Last week, we were in Florida for Passover.
We got into Ft. Lauderdale Airport on Friday night about 10 PM. Flights were uneventful (thank G-d) and my folks picked us up. Delray Beack is about 45 miles north of FLL airport, so we drove back, hit the IHOP for some late night food, and then went to my folks newly purchased winter-condo.
My folks bought a two bedroom, two bath unit in something called Kings Point, which should have been called Fort Dix. It looks like an array of army barracks. Here’s a photo Read the rest of this entry »
It’s been a while…
… and some decisions have been made. Read the rest of this entry »
Where we’ve been so far
Here is a map of our travels so far. We had been on road for three nights at this point.
On Pins and Needles
After I returned from Shul, we cleaned up, packed up, hooked up the trailer, and got on the road. We were headed to Camping World in Henderson, then intended to head for Pahrump. When I called the SKP park in Pahrump, I was told that they were full-up. Since it was a lark to go there in the first place, we decided to save it for another visit and just go on with our trip. After Googling and calling around a bit, we realized that we didn’t want to risk a long backup to go over Hoover Dam, so we went down US 95 to Needles, where we now repose.
US-95 here is the typical road through the desert. It offers the usual road-goes-on-forever-through-nothing trip that makes one glad for XM Radio. WIth a total trip of 101 miles, it wasn’t too bad. We enjoyed the trip, driving straight through from Henderson to the Needles Elks Lodge without a stop.
Needles is a Route-66 town, and there are lots of indications of such. I took the obligatory photo of an old Rt-66 era motel.
We’ll be here till Sunday morning, then, we think, will head over US-93 to Phoenix.
Purim in Las Vegas
On Thursday night, we went to Chabad of Southern Nevada for Purim. The Megilla (Scroll of Esther) was read quite well, and there was much noise made at the mention of the name of the hated Haman.
On Friday I went back for the morning davening (prayer) and second reading. At this point, I expected a bunch of adult men who would perform the service with the usual weekday efficiency, but what I found was very different. There were adults in costume, children in costume, great joy, and a very friendly bunch of folks. A few photos are below.
The second day of the rest of our lives
Today we started out from Wasco, CA Elks, headed for Las Vegas, by way of Barstow. We had called ahead to Barstow to reserve a site, but we got there at 1:00 PM, so we decided to continue on our way. We arrived at Las Vegas Thousand Trails at about 5 PM.
Tomorrow (Thursday) is Purim, and we’ll go to hear the Megilla read at Chabad here in Las Vegas. It’s time to make dinner.
Today the truck turned over 200,000 miles.
The first day of the rest of our lives
We did it. We got all the chores and staging done, and on Tuesday morning, drove south out of San Jose. Domicile is defined as “the place where, when away, you intend to return,” so that is where we will intend to return. We have our mailbox, our storage, and we’ll be back when we are through traveling. At least, that is the plan.
Usually, on the first day of a trip, I’m thinking about how far from home I am, how long it will take to return, and whether anything isn’t quite right, before we get too far away. This time, I realized that, although we are getting closer to various destinations, we’re not really getting any farther away from anything. If a problem occurs, it will be resolved on the road, where we choose.
As the day wore on, this feeling of disconnectedness got stronger and stronger, until by end of day, it was replaced by a bit of homesickness.
When we got to our overnight stop, the Elks Lodge in Wasco, CA, we were greeted in the Lodge with such friendliness and welcome, that all my doubts and troubled feelings were banished. I went to bed happy.
We moved, today
We moved, today, from Morgan Hill up to San Jose, Elks. We’re still in our backyard, but we’re working on our escape. Tomorrow, I have some medical and business appointments, then, on Tuesday, we’re on the road.
Ed Joins the 21st Century
About 10 years after they hit the market, I got my first CD player, and this week, I came home with my first MP3 player. My MP3 CDs are getting a bit worn out, and rather than re-burn them, I thought that an MP3 device would be a good choice. I can use this in the truck, in the trailer, or in my pocket, though I’ve never been the earphones type.
Since I run Linux, I have somewhat special requirements. I didn’t want something that would be bound to iTunes or Windows Media Player. After careful Googling, I got a Sandisk, Sansa View. It holds 8 GB (and there is a 16GB version out as well.) It’s possible to mount the device as a USB drive, and to drag and drop files, so no special software is needed. A nice device, well designed, well built, easy to use.
What I learned. Media players communicate in several ways. There is a protocol or mode called Media Transfer Protocol and another called, I believe, MSC, where the device appears as a drive. Windows Media Player uses MTP to communicate. This allows transfer of playlists and other data besides simple song files. I was interested in standards based stuff, so I wanted to put the device into MSC mode and mount it as a drive.
The undocumented feature on the Sansa View is accessed as follows:
- Turn on the Sansa View by pressing the slide switch UP.
- Now put the player in Hold mode by moving slide switch DOWN.
- When the Lock icon appears, hold the left button (left part of the thunbwheel) down until the padlock blinks off then on again.
- Now plug in the USB cord to the player.
If you are running Gnome, or KDE, you should automount the player on /media/Sansa Disk. If not, you’ll have to locate it’s /dev/sdX device node and mount it somewhere. Note that this will also work on a Macintosh, since it’s really a Unix box underneath. Shhhh. Don’t tell!
Once I had the player mounted, I just used rsync to syncronize my music directory with the player:
$ rsync -rvp /path/to/music/* /media/Sansa Disk/MUSIC
This assumes that under /path/to/music, you have a directory structure full of MP3s.
When the rsync or other copy is complete, UNMOUNT the player (right click on the player icon, or use the umount command at the command line) Then unplug the player. A window will open on the player that says “Refresh Database.” There may be a long pause where you think that the player is crashed, but stay with it. You’ll be listening to music soon enough.
Remember to unlock the Hold switch, or you won’t be able to do anything with the beast.
Enjoy.
Some of you may know that I like to Cross-Stitch. In fact, I just finished Shabbos-Lady, and I’m including a photo of it, before blocking and mounting, here.
I went into the needlework store, and the lady showed me some needlepoint stitches, and I decided to give it a try. Since I wanted to learn the “basketweave” pattern, I decided to stitch larger blocks of color, and started stitching an American flag.
I realized that on 13 count canvas, it’s going to be hard to do the stars. I could embroider them, and I might, but then I got the idea of using start shaped buttons.
I found a product called a Q241 1/2 inch white star, but they come only on retail packaged cards, and they are $.90 per card.That’s going to be about twenty-five dollars worth of buttons. I think I pass.
Suggestions are welcome. The start-field must be 42 stitches high, but can be as man 50 or even 55 stitches wide.
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