Settling In

Saturday I went to the campground store with Betty, the owner, who talks a mile a minute and answers the phone and jumps from topic to topic. My job while here is mostly to help her get the store organized and ready for the season. I'll also be learning the reservation system on the computer. For some reason, her inventory isn't computerized so I may volunteer to set up an excel spreadsheet for her.

JR showed up today from his new year vacation. He wrenched his bad knee so he's heading off early tomorrow to see a doctor. I last saw him on 14 September when I left the Madison PA KOA campground. His dog Waco went nuts to see me (of course, he goes nuts around everybody).

We went on a golf-cart tour so JR could do some chores, shoo the pet chickens into their roost, talk to the herds of whitetail and axis deer that show up to the automatic deer corn feeders, feed the dogs at the big house, and the multitudes of cats that live out and around all over the property. One stays in the store and is very friendly. I may get a little cash taking care of the 10 indoor cats when the owners go away. Good thing I like cats, right?

Turned cold today, high of 45, but should go up about 20 deg. tomorrow. Hooray.

Double Post

Two things to take care of.

(1) Mailing address for Jan & Feb 09 is:

Seven Bluff Cabins & RV Park
4251 County Road 348
Concan TX 78838

Office phone (for emergencies): 830.232.5260

(2) RIP for personal favorites who left the earthly plane last year:

Bo Diddley
Harvey Korman
George Carlin
Cyd Charisse
Gregory McDonald
Jerry Reed
Jo Stafford
Yma Sumac

and even Gary Gygax (for my nerd friends).

Books Read Dec 2008

I've streamlined the data so you might actually look at some of these books, now.

Author (*=perm.lib.) / Title / Comments
• Armstrong, Kelley / Personal Demon / Women of the Otherworld series. Getting boring.
• Banks, L.A. / Bite the Bullet / Crimson Moon series. Just don't like her writing style. Overwrought.
• Barclay, Linwood / No Time for Goodbye / slow-paced; too much "family" story for me."
• Bentley, Jennie / Fatal Fixer-upper / yet another home repair series but not bad, reasonably interesting characters and plot.
• Brockmann, Suzanne / All Through the Night / Very romantic, few thriller-like things.
• ----- / Force of Nature / / yes, I bought it again, and reread it, too (mostly).
• ----- / Heart Throb / an early work but showing progress.
• Garwood, Julie / Murder List / so boring I have nothing to say about it either.
• Goldin* & Mason / Jade D'Arcy books 1 & 2 / perm. lib. books re-read
• Graham, Heather / Deadly Harvest / Flynn Bros. trilogy. Too much of the same old same old.
• Hart, John / Down River / won the Edgar. Set in Salisbury NC, interesting but slow, telegraphs clues and plot twists.
• Heinlein* Robert / Starship Trooper / perm. lib. book re-read
• Hendee, Barb & J.C. / Dhampir / good effort but a little overwrought, and obviously being set up to be a series.
• Hoag, Tami / Thin Dark Line / decent plot, good characters, draggy. Paper is bad quality.
• Hooper, Kay / Sense of Evil / Not bad, may look for others in this series.
• Iles, Greg / Blood Memory / his female heroine is unbelievable, as is the "repressed memory" plotline.
• -----Dead Sleep / woman protagonist; present tense; done well.
• ----- / Turning Angel / good comments on race relations in Natchez; some gaping holes in plot and killer seems like a subplot to hero's inner journey.
• Jackson, Lisa / Absolute Fear / nicely convoluted plot but heroine turns out not to be main character, at least in my opinion; disconcerting.
• Merrill, Robin / Some Like It Red Hot / Red hat women & RVs, set in Vegas. Hot sex gets in way of RV life & mystery. I mean, it's almost like two different authors were writing: one for the RV life and the murder mystery, and one for the hot sex. Makes the book whipsaw.
• Michaels, Fern / Fast Track / Sisterhood novel. Silliest thing I've ever read; shades of Charlie's Angels. How can people like this writer? So silly it's insulting.
• Neggers, Carla / Cold Pursuit / decently written even if formulaic.
• Paretsky, Sara / Bleeding Kansas / author of V.I. Warshawski mysteries; tried to read this while in Kansas but, while well-written, didn't like the people or the situation.
• Purser, Ann / Murder on Monday / British cozy; very British, full of family life; interesting concept, though.
• Rule, Ann / Mortal Danger / true crime and horrifying, as usual.
• Walker, Blair S. / Don't Believe Your Lying Eyes / black Baltimore reporter. Interesting to get a different perspective but draggy.

Rotated View

Okay, here it is. Feel free to turn yourself or your computer sideways. I don't know why it's doing this; it looks fine on the Preview. More later.

This is my campsite, with JR's 5th wheel just beyond me. He'll be back at the end of the week. I had a really nice pic of the view out my window but the uploader persists in rotating it a half turn, and I can't figure out how to make it quit doing that.

New Site

I left Port Lavaca around 10am and traveled back roads to San Antonio, where I had to get on the 410 beltway (I was heading for a Barnes & Noble). Naturally, I promptly went too far and had to circle around and come back right through downtown on the freeway. Ick. Finally found a B&N on the outer beltway. After a satisfactory splurge, got on US 90 west to Uvalde. Spent the night in the Walmart parking lot. Had treated myself to dinner at Applebee's, right across the street. Was only fair and didn't finish it.

This am went into WM and finished stocking up. Then went down the road and found a propane place to top off my tank (last got propane in July 08 and still only needed 1.4 gal.). Then north on TX 83 to Concan (not much there) and pulled into Seven Bluffs Cabins/RV Parks about 11.30.

Am now set up on my site, all connected (as you can tell by this post, I have internet service). No cellphone service if you're not AT&T. A landline will be run when JR gets back, which he and I will share. As to TV, he's got his satellite dish out but we don't know how to share it. I'm going to set up for antenna use and see what I get, if anything.

It was cool, foggy, and misty this morning, but it's burned off now (2pm) and is sunny and calm. I'll start work tomorrow (20 hrs a week). Looks like a nice place to settle for the next two months. I'll take pictures soon.

A New Year

Arbitrarily, of course; after all, it's just a label. However, I wish everybody has a great year and all their dreams and fantasies and wishes come true. Mine, too.

I don't know when I'll post again as I'm traveling today and tomorrow and don't know how well the set-up at the Seven Bluffs Campground will work.

See you soon.