Author: Steve

 

I found a free online game.  It’s called Duolingo.  It’s an easy game; not too taxing.  A series of simple language puzzles in the language of your choice.  Short challenges that only take a few seconds, grouped into short lessons, each only taking a few minutes.  There is scoring so you know how you’re doing, and recognition for continuous streaks of correct answers.  We’re separated into groups of 50 at an equal level for a week at a time, and ranking among each group is reflected in real time.  Once a week, the final ranking is reported and that group is dissolved.  A new group of 50 is formed the next time you log on.  (I was surprised at how fast a new group of 50 formed with each weekly restart so I googled how many people are using Duolingo at any one time.  The answer was an astounding 30 million!)  Success in one group advances a player to the next higher group; a powerful incentive.  Being a laggard in a group results in demotion to a lower group; a powerful incentive.  There are periodic triggers to go back and review sections you haven’t seen lately.  Set your own goals, then the number of consecutive days you achieve meeting that goal is reported.  If a person waits too long during the day before they play, they’ll get an email reminder that their streak is in jeopardy.  There are additional incentives like crowns, lingots, and other rewards that I don’t intuitively understand because I’m not otherwise a gamer.

 

A nicely designed game; an easy diversion that has just enough interest for short bursts.  (It’s not something I’d want to do for 8 hours straight, but maybe that’s just me.)  It’s a lot like sudoku; a simple way to sit down and zone out for 10 or 20 minutes.  Just like Sudoku, a light distraction, with the exception that over a period of time one might absorb a little bit of a different language as well.

 

 

 

Why did I ever want hair long enough it got in my face?  My hair was last cut to be short.  As Judy and I stay home to stay safe, my hair has grown too long for the cut.  It’s not straight hair.  It won’t go where it’s supposed to.  It goes wherever it wants.  It’s not long enough to hang with any symmetry.  Help!  We need this to be over.  I need to get out.  I need a haircut!

 

#FreeSteve.

 

 

 

From a lake.

 

 

 

To a wetlands

 

 

 

To a park again.

 

A soggy park, but a park.

 

Manning the pumps 24/7.  2-inch lines.  5 pumps.  They need to be refilled with fuel every hour.  Everybody pitches in.  Getting us down to the point where we’re only draining our 22 acre park, and not the agricultural fields around us as well, was critical.  The pace picked up once we got down to where the water was not flowing in anymore.

 

I walked the perimeter of the park today, on the road inside the park, and my feet only got wet a couple of times.  We’re almost there!  A sprinkle of rain today, but not enough to set us back.

 

 

It’s still early in hurricane season.  If/when the next hurricane comes, we may not want to ride it out.  The bus is parked in storage, put away for the summer and for who knows how long after.  There is no date established for the next bus trip.

 

But we decided maybe we should pack the bus up as a go-bag; our getaway plan.  We should put enough stuff back in it, so that if we get more than a day’s warning, we could pack up and blow town before the storm hit.  We could ride out the next hurricane off in a desert somewhere.

 

We drove over to see how the bus weathered the storm and it looks just fine.

 

It’ll be fun putting some stuff back in it.  We’ve been in one spot so long, even though we’re not going anywhere yet, we’ll enjoy perfecting our disaster plan.

 

 

Plymouth, VW, Volvo, Honda, Chrysler, Dodge, Toyota, Jeep, Mazda.  We liked the Mazda RX7 so much we had two of them.  We like the Jeep so much we’ve had three, and still have one.  There is only one other car we’ve liked so much that we had three of them; the VW Bus.

 

1966,

 

1972,

 

and 1978 versions.  The 1978 one was a pop-up camper van.

 

(None of these are my photos.  They’re just photos I grabbed from the internet, but that’s how each one looked.  Even that charming shade of green!)  None of the engines ever lasted more than 50,000 miles, and we drove that much every two years, but engines could be replaced with rebuilt ones for a few hundred dollars.

 

Now however, there is something new on the horizon.  The electric VW Bus!

 

http://newsroom.vw.com/vehicles/future-cars/official-the-vw-bus-is-back-and-its-electric/

 

Horsepower and traction to spare, and a 300-mile range.  Coming to a dealer and road near you in 2022.  Judy and I may need to get out some spray paint and flower stencils!