RM Jones’ Adventure

It’s been an active day today (April 16, 2008). Today started off as a beautiful day, but a little windy, for Geocaching. Just as I was about to suggest that we get our things together and head out my Beautiful and Usually Charming wife reminded me that the outside faucet was leaking and I had promised to fix it today. Bummer. A quick trip to town, about 25 miles one way, and I have the stuff I need and get back. Not a big deal. Then I get reminded that I had promised to fix the sprayer in the kitchen sink. I sure wish that woman didn’t have such a good memory. Well that project didn’t go very good and after another trip to town I find that the replacement just plain doesn’t work. I think I’ll just replace the whole faucet in a day or two. Then I get “reminded” that all the stuff that needs done has to be completed before mid June because our relation is coming from Germany. I think my Beautiful and Not So Charming wife (today) has my next few months planed for me.

My wife left Germany in 1961 and hasn’t been back in all this time. Since my wife came to this country some of her nephews and nieces have come for visits at various times over the last 15 years and we all enjoyed ourselves. She had 11 brothers and sisters when she left Germany but some of them have died. A few years ago one of her brothers and his wife came for a visit and we had a great time. One of their daughters, her husband and one of their son’s came along with them. That was the only one of her brothers and sisters she has seen in over 46 years. Well, that is about to change. Three sisters and one brother and two of the sister’s husbands are coming for a three week visit in late June. I’m so excited that we are going to get together at last I can hardly sit down to write this. This is going to truly be an “Adventure” to tell about when they are here. When the other family members came over we were on the road all the time and had a lot of fun. What is going to make it really interesting is the fact that I speak no German and they speak no English. My wife doesn’t speak German except when relation comes so hers is very rusty and it takes a few days to start getting comfortable with it. Then when they leave it takes about three weeks to get the German stopped and get back to all English. All in all I’m looking forward to having a lot of fun. Come on back and read all about it in late June and early July.

Bob Jones

Frankly, I don’t think there is any doubt in anyones mind that the petroleum companies are gouging us with the price of fuel. Since I’m not an expert in the field I won’t try to give you any numbers or convince you that I am correct. I just feel that the way that fuel prices fluctuate they can’t possibly be caused by price change. If the crude oil prices go up the price of gasoline and diesel fuel seem to jump the same day. The poor oil company has to pay more money for the crude oil to replace what they sell. However, it seems if the crude oil price drops, the high price linger for a while. I never could figure out the difference. I guess in their mind they had to pay the higher price to make the fuel that is still in the system. It would seem that the same rational should hold for both cases. I don’t mind paying a fair price for their product. I just wish they would come up with a standard way to compute the cost and stick with it. Either charge me for actual cost (plus profit) of the gas or diesel I am buying or the replacement cost. One or the other, not both depending on which is most profitable for them.

Diesel fuel is a whole other problem. I’m 67 years old and I remember, as many of you do, when diesel was the “cheap” fuel. In fact a number of years ago a lot of people changed to cars that burned diesel because it was so much cheaper. I didn’t because it was easier to find gasoline than it was diesel. It was even a cheaper way to heat a home and we used diesel fuel in our mobile home, or trailer as we called them in those days. I always heard (and I think that the oil companies put the information out) that the reason diesel was cheaper was the fact it cost less to produce. Whatever the reason, if diesel fuel could be produced and sold for less than gasoline thirty years ago, why can’t it be done now? I’ll tell you why. In my opinion due to the number of trucks on the road there is a larger market and they know the trucking companies have no other choice. They have to buy fuel or they can’t stay in business. Now there is a market just right for the plucking, or maybe I should say gouging. (more…)

It’s a beautiful sunny day (but pretty cold here in Iowa) and I would like to take a few minutes to introduce my crew, commonly referred to as “The Gang”. My 2nd in command is a close friend of mine as we work together daily. His name is Tiger. He is the real powerhouse in the group and is continually boasting about his Intel Core 2 Duo microprocessor and over 1,100 Gbt. of storage ability. He seems to forget that I built him so I, the Master, can take him apart and put him in the junk pile if I want. His best friend is R2-D2, who in fact has been around longer than the egoistical, self centered Tiger. R2-D2 (shhhhh, we don’t want him to know) was made by HP a couple of years ago. He doesn’t boast much but he has a very nice Pentium 4 processor and is proud of his 500+ Gbt. of memory. So far Tiger has been very nice and allowed R2-D2 to think he is my “Number One”. (more…)

Welcome, and thank you for stopping by to visit. This is the first post on my new blog. I guess the first thing I should do is let you know what my goals for this blog are. Well, there is only one goal. That goal is for us, you and I, to enjoy ourselves. I don’t have much experience with blogs but I have a lot of experience in talking. I’ve been talking for over 65 years and have been using a computer for almost half that time. I think we’ll be OK :-).In my opinion Life is an Adventure. Adventures should be fun. That’s what I’m going to try to do, have fun. (more…)