Spencer Snow - Our Billy Elliot Buddy

Every time we went to London - we used to go to see the show - Billy Elliot. One time we got to sit next to Spencer. He told us that he goes to the show once a week. He was a real fan - knew all the lines - and all the moves. Small world - one time we were in a restaurant - and Spencer was at the next table.

One time - I wrote a story about Spencer on my web page. A couple year later - we saw him at the show - he opened his bag - and had a print out of the story from my web page.

Like all men over 70 - he particularly likes Lulu. He remembers her better than me.

I saw this picture on Facebook - and just had to run the story again.

Here is the old story about Spencer -

Story of Spencer and Billy Elliot

Changes in Our Telephone - Internet - Television

This is our Comcast cable modem and
wireless router in the attic.
From the attic - it provides
 wifi over our entire lot.

One of my favorite funny movies is Planes - Trains - and Automobiles. It is about two business travelers played by John Candy and Steve Martin trying to find their way home through Thanksgiving  holiday travel troubles. Lulu and I travel a lot but we never experienced such travel tumult. I like to add Television - Telephone - Internet to the above list of travel issues. I would always tell Lulu to pick hotels that have - free parking - free internet - and free breakfast. 

We travel a lot in Europe and nothing helps better than having your cellphone working - internet for your computer - travel maps - and the ability to see television shows from back home. 

We just changed our ATT cellphone service. We used to have the ATT unlimited plan for $160 a month with tax for two phones. But we decided to try another service from ATT - one that does not require a contract - one that allows us to view our home television on our cellphone - one that turns our cellphone into a hotspot so that we could use our computers and iPads anywhere on the road. 

First off - our new service is $128 a month with tax for our two iPhone 7's. We bought the cellphones outright - no contract. That way when we travel the world - we can buy a local SIM chip - put it in our cellphone - and have local service and internet. In Germany we did that for as little as $20 a month per phone. 

Our present ATT service - is month to month - no long contract. We get 16 GB of data usage for $128 with tax. Any data not used in one month is added to the next month free. In the first 10 days of our month service - we used 1 GB between us. With that small usage we could choose another plan next month for even less money. Another bonus - since ATT and Directv are the same company now - any television usage over your cellphone is free of charge - no use of your data. In other words - on the road - like in a camper - you can hook your television to your cellphone - and have free Directv anywhere in the USA! If you had a vacation home - you could hook your cellphone to the TV by a wire or by bluetooth wirelessly - and have all the TV shows from back home. 

At home we have Comcast cable for our internet service. It is $75 a month with tax for internet and that includes basic cable TV. We do not use the basic cable TV  but have to pay for it. We do enjoy the 80 GBPS lightning fast internet. High up in our attic are our cable modem and wireless router. Having them so high up - they provide internet anywhere on our property. 

In the guest room - we have the main directv box - they call it Genie. With Genie - you can watch and record television programs on 4 different TV's in the house. Next to the Directv main box - we have an Apple express wireless router. It extends our network and also wirelessly connects to our Directv box. Directv cost $139 a month with tax. That covers 4 TV's and many sports and entertainment channels. They all can be watched at home on 4 TV's - but also can be watched on the road on our cellphones and anything connected to them. 

In our master bedroom we have another Apple wireless router. It catches the signal for the router in the attic and amplifies it for use downstairs. It is not needed - but it is nice. It also has a 500 GB hard drive in it that I have never quite mastered. I used to have it automatically back up our computer hard drives a long time ago - but I have since forgotten how to use it. 

One of the best features about our new ATT cellphone service is the hotspot. Lulu and I can be both traveling in different places - like Pennsylvania and Nevada. We can both use our cellphones as hotspots - no extra charge - and use our computers - iPads - etc. That gives you very fast internet connection in a hotel - in your car - on the beach - as long as you have cellphone service. 

All of the above is not cheap - Comcast home internet is $75 - Directv television is $139 - and ATT telephone is $128.  That is $342 a month with tax. But in Lulu's business - she must constantly be in contact with the whole world. Wherever we go - our phone service - internet service and TV service go with us. Now the only time we are off the grid is when we are in an airplane crossing the sea. 

This Directv Genie and Apple Express Router is
 in the guest room.This allows us to
watch our Directv on our cellphones.
Even in Europe - are able to connect
 the TV to receiveprograms from home. 

This is another Apple wireless router
called a Time Capsule. It extends our
 wifi network - but also
 has a hard drive to back up data. 

Our ATT services offers us 16 GB a month.
We only used 1 GB in the first 10 days.
Any unused data rolls over to the next
month.

Lionel Trains For Christmas

The Train

In the 1950s - it was a big deal on Christmas to set up a train yard. Usually it was an 8 foot by 4 foot piece of plywood propped up on saw horses. The plywood was covered with green paper that was supposed to represent grass. Next you fastened down sections of Lionel O Gauge train track - and placed a few Plasticville houses around to make a village. Finally - you drilled a few holes in the platform to put lights in the houses.  It was pretty simple - but it brought a lot of smiles to little kids faces - and to the faces of the parents and grandparents that remembered times of their youth during the holiday season. 

In the 1980s - we did it again. Not much changed - but the results were just as good. 

Now my sons have kids - and 30 years have passed - so we are going to get together to do it again. The kids and grandkids are coming to Tallahassee for Christmas. Kate - Jack - and Max are going to light up our house with joy. When I told my sons - I was going to set up a train yard - there was an air of disappointment. They said that I might want to wait until they were here to set it up. I have them hooked. 

My friends from Tamaqua - Carl - Bill - and Dick  - have been giving me pointers ever since. Jean and Marylou have been working on sources of booty. 

Not much track - 8 curve - 13 straight

The houses in boxes are from the 1980s

There houses in bags are from the 1950s.

We Almost Bought This Trailer

2012 Heartland MPG trailer

You can tell life has gotten boring when I write about things we almost did. Yesterday - we almost bought this trailer. It is a 2012 Heartland MPG. We have always loved RV's in the past and after selling that trailer we had here for a friend - I thought if I could find one to pull with our Honda - we would buy it.

This trailer in 19 feet long and weighs 2500 pounds. It sleeps 4 - and is fully equipped with AC - furnace - frig - stove - microwave - sink - and a full bathroom. It has a queen size and a full size bed. Yes - all in 19 feet - and all beds are floor level with no ladders to climb. It retailed for $18,000 new - after months of dickering we had the price down to $7000. It was kept in a pole building and hardly used.

What makes this trailer so light is that it is made with an aluminum frame - foam insulation - and fiberglass skin. The rounded top makes an aerodynamic shape and rain runs right off of it.

Our 2016 Honda Van is equipped with a hitch that can pull 3500 pounds.

Last night we went to bed with the intention of buying it this morning. But when we woke up - both of us questioned the purchase. Lulu is retiring in 3 years - but we have a lot of life between now and then.

With Internet deals - hotel prices and availability have really improved. We have enjoyed staying at first class hotels at heavily discounted rates. Also - nice hotels are available in downtown venues - close to nice parks - museums - and attractions.

In 1977 - Lulu - my Dad - Drew - and I spent 30 days circling the USA in a trailer even smaller than this. That time - we did not have a luxury Honda van to pull it - but a 1977 Chevy Chevette with no air conditioning. We are spoiled now - but it was nothing to drive 30 days in July - in the deserts and mountains out west - with no air conditioning.

On to the next adventure. The kids are all coming here for Christmas.

This Is My New MacBook - I Just Sold Old MacBook Air

Out with the old - in with the new

I just sold my old computer - Monday 9 AM - for $700.

Every two years I like to replace my Mac computer. I use my computer for many things - mostly writing email - managing my pictures - surfing the internet - reading newspapers - doing the family finances - watching television - listening to music - selling stuff on Craigslist - and having video chats with the kids and grandkids. I have done away with desktop computers a long time ago. I like to be able to take my computer to where the action is - and a good laptop is just perfect for me. 

Yesterday I bought a MacBook at Best Buy. With a coupon I paid $1249. The MacBook is smaller - lighter - faster - than my old MacBook Air. When I say old - I bought it just 2 years ago. It has served me well.

The new MacBook. This tiny laptop is just 8 inches by 11 inches. It is about ⅜ inches thick. It weighs just 2 pounds! Inside that package is 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The beautiful retina screen measures 12 inches diagonally. It has a full size keyboard and touchpad. The battery lasts about 12 hours per charge. 

MacBook

The biggest change on this new model is the number of ports - there are only 2. One for the headphones on the right - and one for the power cord on the left. The power cord port is a USB-C port. With adapters you can plug in a variety of things - scanners - flash drives - hard drives - computer chips - HDMI video out to TV. I wanted to have the latest technology - so I opted for this little 2 port wonder.

We travel a lot - and this little computer is perfect for that. It only weights 2 pounds - but mainly it is just a bit smaller and easier for packing. I may buy a neoprene sleeve to put it in my backpack for taking on the plane. It has a faster processor that makes it zing and also saves energy by not producing heat. The list price was $1299 but Best Buy is offering a student discount of $50. They accepted Lulu's FSU faculty card as proof. With flash storage of 256GB - I can store anything silently on board - no hard drive motors running.

MacBook Air

The old MacBook Air. Some people like to keep items unit they break down and then they buy a new one - and throw the old one away. At this time yesterday I was typing on my old laptop - wondering why I would ever want to replace it. It has 4GB of RAM and 128GB of flash storage. The computer has posted stories on my web page from - England - Germany - Italy - France - Spain - Netherlands - Belgium - Austria - Canada - Hawaii - California - Arizona. It has not failed me ever. 

MacBook a little smaller than
MacBook Air

MacBook Air is available to a new home for $700

Joe Maddon - Coal Cracker World Champion

Joey Maddon - the world champion coach - talks about living in Hazleton PA - coal cracker land. Tamaqua is 12 miles south of Hazleton.

FSU Womens Basketball

Our coaches seem very happy

80 Gallon - 5 Horsepower Compressor Sold for $600

80 gallon - 2 stage - 5 horsepower Compressor

My buddy Doug brought a compressor over all in pieces. It was rusty and dirty. He asked me to restore it and sell it - we would split the proceeds.

The compressor requires at 220 volt line because it draws 22 amps of power when it it running. I was able to use the 220 volt line I have to our garage for our Nissan Leaf electric car. Since the car draw 16 amps - when they would both go on - it would exceed the 30 amp circuit breaker and shut down.

The compressor worked very well. The 80 gallon tank would cycle off at 190 pounds per square inch. There were plenty of regulators and filters on it for 4 air hoses. It is cool using a compressor to sand and paint itself.

After a day of sanding - painting - and assembling - it looks pretty good. It also ran very well. I listed it on Craigslist - it took about 5 days to sell. 6 people called about it - the second person to view it bought it. It took 3 of us last night to load it on a pickup - bound for Havana FL. I had to call 2 buyers that were coming in the morning - to tell them it was sold. $600.

FSU Breaks Ground On $65 Million Earth Science Building

The FSU Board of Trustees ground breaking
for the new Earth Science Building

For 33 years I taught Earth and Space Science at Panther Valley - a public school in Lansford PA. Every day from 8 to 3 - it was my job to get the 7th graders interested in the Earth and their environment. It was a lot of fun - but 13 years have gone by since I retired from the classroom. I was lucky to be studying and teaching during the Space Race and travel to the Moon. 

Friday- Florida State broke ground to build a new $65 million Earth Science. It is about 2 miles from our home here in Tallahassee. I am looking forward to following the progress. As I watch Lulu commute to work on her scooter - I am envious and wonder what would have been like to be a college professor and teaching older kids about Astronomy - Geology - Meterology - and Oceanography. 

During the groundbreaking ceremony - President John Thrasher announced that FSU made a big move in the US News national rankings of public universities. FSU went from Number 41 to number 38. No other school jumped so many steps in one year. The Seminoles are on the move. At a party the other day - the president stated - the football team better watch out - our academic program my soon outrank them. 

The next day - the Seminole lost to Clemson football just down the street. FSU football is now ranked Number 19. 

Travel Trailer Sold Yesterday In Minutes

Travel trailer sold for $8000

Motor home sold for $46,500

Yesterday - I sold a travel trailer that had been sitting in our driveway for a few weeks. The deal went pretty fast.

But the whole series started out last June when our friend Joan asked me to sell her motor home. Her husband had died so the 2012 Coachmen with 15,000 miles on it had to go. It was a great motor home so we started out at $50,000 - it took over 3 months and finally left the yard at $46,500. It was purchased by Stuart and Sharon. The sale was held up by an upholstery job. I hired a man to completely redo the upholstery inside. Halfway through the job he became ill - and the job drug on for weeks. Eventually another shop - CoverTime -  finished the job. Our buyers loved the camper and waited patiently for the completion. I highly recommend CoverTime.

The new owners developed a trust with us - and asked me to sell their camper. This one was a 2010 Coleman travel trailer. This rig was kept under a car port and was spotless. If it didn't weigh so darn much - I would have kept it and pulled it with our Honda van. It weighs 4300 pounds and the Honda van pulls 3500 pounds. We started this sale at $10,000 and slowly moved down the line. At $9000 - a young couple put a deposit on it - but after a week of visiting banks could not come up with the rest of the money. We returned their $500 deposit - and waited for the next call. In the end - Harold came yesterday with $8000 cash in $100 bills. Money talks - the new buyer had the trailer all hooked up to his truck - even before Stuart arrived to sign the title over to him. It reminded me of the car thief movie - Gone in 60 Seconds.

The campers are gone. The driveway seems empty. Since I never owned these vehicles - they do not add to my list of 75 owned vehicles. The neighbors are taking bets on what you will see next in our driveway. I am betting a mobility scooter.

Our First New Car - The Honda 600 - A 2 Cylinder Dynamo

Honda's first car - the Honda 600. 

In the summer of 1972 - Lulu and I bought our first new car together to celebrate our first anniversary.  In those days - on the last day of school in June - one was paid a big check that was supposed to last the whole summer. I was making $7000 a year then teaching - so the summer check was a giant one. We were all dressed up and nowhere to go.

Honda just introduced their first car to America - the N600. It had many innovative features for the time. It weighed 1100 pounds - had a 2 cylinder air cooled engine - front wheel drive - 10 inch tires - front disk brakes - The gear shifter was on the dashboard. It could sit 5 people tightly. You could not get air conditioning. It had 36 horsepower. Two features that caught our eye - it got 40 miles per gallon - and it cost $1473 brand new.

The top speed was 75 miles per hour - and it could go from 0 to 60 MPH in 19 seconds.

We went to a dealer near Philadelphia - and they easily pried that summer pay check out of our hands.  As we were driving home to Tamaqua PA - we realized that we had no money left for the rest of the summer. After some quick thinking we realized we could sit around town all summer doing nothing - or we could go on an adventure.

In the summer before - we honeymooned at Miami Beach. We decided we could return there - and get summer jobs. With gasoline at 25 cents a gallon - we made the 1300 mile trip to South Beach on $8. We rented a studio in an old home in downtown Miami for $70 a month. We got to attend the Democratic and Republican conventions that year that were held back to back in Miami Beach. We got jobs immediately.

Lulu ended up working for K Mart at the service desk announcing the Blue Light Specials. I got a job at the local Honda dealership - selling Honda cars. When September came - we drove back to Pennsylvania - Lulu commuted to Kutztown State College - I continued to teach in my only real job at Panther Valley.

We had a yellow Honda 600 - It cost $1473

Jack Cox - Number 28 - Tamaqua Eagles

In 1965 - Tamaqua fielded 4 Knee-Hi Football Teams. They also had 4 cheerleading squads of similar size for the girls.

Front row - Number 28 - Jack Cox - Lulu's brother.

Picture stolen from Whitey Williams page.

Professor Lulu On Her Way To Work

Lulu travels all over the globe doing what library science professors do. In the top picture - she spent Feb - Mar - Apr in Berlin. She is taking the tram to work at Humboldt University where she had a fellowship with DAAD and the German government studying setting up school libraries in the country.

In the bottom video - she rides her scooter to work to teach a class of undergraduates this morning. We live about 2 miles from her classroom. Parking is terrible on campus - except for scooters - she can park right near her classroom door.

When we moved to Tallahassee 2004 - we bought the Vespa LX 150. Now it has 4000 miles on it.

Last night - form 8 to 10 - she taught a graduate course online with students from all over the world.

Our First Free Charge

Our Nissan Leaf plugged into the free charging station.

We bought our 2012 Nissan Leaf 2 years ago. Usually we charge the car every night in our garage. It holds 25 kilowatt hours of electricity. Since a KWH costs about 12 cents - that is a total of about $3.00 of power.

Today we went to the mall at about 11 AM for our normal 2 miles of air conditioned walk. After the walk Lulu decided we would have lunch at the Village Inn - a new restaurant near our home and also near the new Home Suites Hotel. To our surprise - there are 3 electric car charging stations there. I plugged the leaf into one - pressed the button - and it started to charge our car. I guess it was okay.

Our car can go about 75 miles on a full charge. We seldom go that far during one day. People say - why would you buy a car that can only go 75 miles. What they don't realize is that most of our trips are much less than 75 miles. In 2 years - I have never gotten closer than 10 miles to running out of power.

People that own electric cars talk about "range fatigue" which simply means you are scared of running out of power. The more you have the car - the less you worry about running out of power. It is a very dependable rig.

Let's see now - $3.00 a day times 30 days equals $90 a month :-)  It looks like we will be eating a lot at the Village Inn.

Pre-Game Party At FSU President John Thrasher's House

That white haired guy is FSU's President John Thrasher -
we just had a great party at his house before the game

Today we play Wake Forest (5-1) at 3:30. The president of FSU invited us to a tailgate party in his back yard. The band played - we ate - just had a nice time. After the party we drove home to change vehicles. Lulu and I take the scooter to the game for the free party.

We do not have tickets yet - but StubHub has tickets on the 50 yard line for $28. We hope to do better than that.

Here are a few pictures form inside the president's house

Bronze statue of a real Seminole Indian.

Dr. Susan MacManus Talked About The Election

One of the nicest things about living close to a college campus is being able to hear free speakers. Last night Dr Susan MacManus presented "2016: An Election Like No Other." She said Hillary Clinton should win according to the statistics - but this is an election like no other.

Homecoming At Florida State University

Chief Osceola on Renegade -
voted number one college mascot in the country

Grand Marshall Devoe Moore
2003 Stingray with 1953 Corvette body
50 years of Corvette history

What a beautiful day for a homecoming parade in Tallahassee. We enjoyed the parade today - volleyball and block party tonight - football game against Wake Forest on Saturday at 3:30 - and another volleyball game Sunday. 

It is hard to believe this is the 13th homecoming weekend for us - it almost feels like home. 

FSU President John Thrasher

Seminole Homecoming Princess

Seminole Homecoming Prince

Class of 1966 in a 1966 Mustang

Asian Student Club 

Chain gang cleaning up poo