12-26-08 Friday (Santa's Dungeon)

We woke up to ABOVE freezing temperatures. Living in Florida for so long, 40 degrees seemed like freezing. Seeing tourists in short sleeves and shorts always humored me. I've almost become one of those people who could tolerate those cold temps. With the outside temp at 41, I felt warm wearing just a sweat shirt over a t-shirt. Amazing how my body has adjusted already. Yes, 41 seems warm now. I never thought I'd see that day.



The state of Oregon does that whole .05 bottle deposit so we're saving Jim's Diet Coke bottles. With as much as he drinks, I still don't think it will be worth the space to store them. In my under 18 years in NY, I worked the service desk and had to put gloves on and handle refunds for the bums that walked around and gathered them up for cash. It was gross at times. Eventually machines came that would scan them, crush them, and give the money without human interaction until it needed emptied. At that point only the damaged or unreadable bottles had to be handled. I guess it helped to keep streets clean since people were always picking them up, but sometimes picking them out of the trash as well. Ewwwww.



I hadn't realized until my friend Dave had pointed out, that I haven't posted anymore of the montage videos to TIVO. If you have a TIVO connected to the internet you can view the montages from the blog, on your TIVO. The channel code for it is 4594-6817-0205-0211. When I post them to TIVO, they stay on there for 90 days. I just posted as many as I could. Onetruemedia.com gives me a limited amount without paying $9.95 for another 10. I posted what I could for free. TIVO users, click here if you need instructions on how to get them on your TIVO. Dave says the videos play very clear and look a lot better than within the blog. Even though I have a TIVO, I haven't tried it myself.



Jim took a nap but was back up shortly after. He said he couldn't sleep with the airplane and roadside vehicle noises. The snow crunching and sloshing in spots makes for noise, I guess. I haven't really noticed the airplanes much; I probably will now. Thanks Jim. We haven't needed to run the central heat much lately (just a portable electric heater) so it has been quieter in here. In the warmer climates with A/C white noise a constant, it becomes the norm. I think we sleep better with the A/C noise. If we had the constant traffic noise as we've had in other parks, that would be OK, but apparently the intermittent car noise is annoying.




Funny, when we talked to family and friends, they asked how we stay warm. For those of you not very familiar with RV living, you know by now that I have a washer/dryer combo on board. We have EVERY comfort/convenience in an RV that most everyone has. We even have some that we never had in our house, like a skylight and carbon monoxide detector. We have a huge propane tank in the basement for the gas stove/oven, water heater, central (ducted) heat, fridge (if in LP mode), and even an exterior connection for our BBQ grill. What luxuries! Missing items are few. We don't have a sink garbage disposal (1 could be added), or a dishwasher (1 could be added ) Yes, we do have 2 roof top ducted A/C units, a fridge/freezer with built in icemaker, and a microwave. We have a fresh water tank, black water and gray water tanks for waste for use when we're not connected to an RV park. We have 12V lighting that runs off of several "house" batteries when we're not using the generator or hooked up to a park (aka shore power). Shore power on our RV is 30amp, newer RVs typically have 50amp service. We have hydraulic leveling jacks that with a push of a button, extends landing gear our from under the RV in 4 corners to provide stability and a level interior. While you read the blog, if you're curious about something, leave a comment or just email. I'm always happy to appear intelligent.



We took a drive (across the street) to the mall here. It's not the one we went to for Christmas Eve but rather the one with the 2 story Target attached. I was looking for new hiking boots. I didn't find any at a price I want to pay. Anyway, people are still getting stuck on the roads. It's partly slush and ice. All in all, just crazy. This mall has Target, Burlington, and Ross but many empty small stores. The funniest thing was what looked like a Halloween haunted castle was transformed into Santa's Christmas castle. It just looked creepy.


"Time with Santa". It looks like Santa is doing time. Is that barb wire atop the wall? Perhaps Santa molested a reindeer and has been locked up? And what's with the palm trees on the door? That doesn't appear to be Christmas nor Halloween. Perhaps prior to Christmas, prior to Halloween, it was the entrance to the "Luau Palace" where you can have some Hawaiian chick serve you a drink in a coconut whilst you watch a fat guy walk on fire. As the seasons changed the fat guy became Santa and the fire made an awesome Halloween effect. For Halloween the sign above the door was "Time with Satan". I could go on and on, really.

There's something about a Christmas store front window using the castle-look behind it. Very cold, uninviting. A Dollar Store explosion in the front window doesn't constitute decorating. Yep, this is all part of the Santa display. Pitiful.