Author: Peg

Made it back to the Asylum at about 2PM this afternoon. Just in time for the monthly “Town Hall” meeting. I didn’t attend. Decided that doing laundry would be much more productive. Apparently, our leader, The Lady Linda said that the wifi improvement program was “a mess”. 

I must say, I was rather spoiled by good wifi service on the road – it was fine even after running it through a VPN.

And, while I was gone the in-house TV service has been upgraded. People are coming into our apartments to “fix” our TV’s to use the new service. Wonder what they will do when they can not find my TV! I get along just fine without a TV. Maybe I should empty out a space on my bookcase, run a cable from the cable box to the empty spot and report my TV “missing”.

Don’t you just love those dead mice  with dead butterflies attached. That was “art”. At the Wilson TN County Fair. We have a mouse problem here at the Asylum.  Wonder how this would go over at our next Inmate Art Show? I have considered putting origami butterflies in a Riker box and calling it art – but dead mice would be way more fun. 

I am just full of smart-ass ideas today. Better make some camomile tea and call it a night.

No photos tonight for the lamest reason. Shamu is recharging on the other side of the home and the photos are in shamu.

We were really tired when we stopped for the night. Had grilled cheese sandwiches and beer (me) and Manhatten (Trude). Then we crashed.

Back at the Asylum tomorrow.

It is all good

Spent the day bumming around. And getting mentally ready to start back to the Asylum tomorrow.

I did look at yesterday’s pictures. No winners. But the day was a winner.

It was absolutely perfect. Could not have been better. It was just like all the pictures that I have seen since smallkidtime when I wanted to be an astronomer. 

We found a very civilized location for viewing and did not run into any traffic or other problems. 

And yes, we could see stars. 

Worth the entire trip. Check “total eclipse” off the bucket list. 

Went to the fair today. It was way too hot for a couple of old ladies. That nixed the plan to watch the eclipse from the fair tomorrow. 

Death by funnel cake…

After the fair, we decided on a golf course as our 1st choice for viewing the eclipse. Local news predicts dang near perfect viewing conditions. 

We were not 100 percent ready to leave our luxury digs this morning. So we took a last look-see..
Saturday morning is croquet time at the Asylum, apparently it is at Graylyn as well, at least for the geese. 

I love the koi. 

But , we eventually left and made our way to cookeville. There was lots of traffic and many highway signs warning of massive traffic problems on Monday. And some saying “no parking during eclipse”. We figured these were the best viewing locations.

We will make a plan tomorrow.

We got into Winston Salem late afternoon and wandered around the Graylyn manor house. 

We had an early dinner and retired to our room in the old mews. 

We are staying at a conference center that belongs to wake forest University. They were having new professor orientation. They looked like kids who should have been starting college not teaching college. 

Today we went to the Reynolds Estate. They had a fine Georgia O’KEEFE exhibit. But we decided the we like “our” tobacco czar estate better. 

Tomorrow we are on our way to Tennessee. Hope to beat the crowds. 

I am alive and well and in Winston Salem. But the word press app and I have issues.

Well, I got the app to work on Shamu the Phone. So, maybe this will work ok.

Spent entirely too much time getting myself ready to go. I think it was to hide my uneasiness about heading out with a travel companion that I am not – shall we say – involved with.  And, as one of the Asylum Sisters so helpfully points out – 8 days is a long time. It will be fine. Outside my comfort zone. But fine.

And, this is the first time my travel companion has done this. So, it is outside her comfort zone too.

And there is this whole business of “going south”. We are old women and hence invisible – at least if we keep out mouths shut. That may be a problem.

We are going here – to Cookeville, TN. 

The viewing should be fine. Weather permitting.

Partly cloudy could be problematic.

Not taking Forbin the computer – but I’ll try to get something posted on the blog using Shamu the phone. It was either take my favorite – heaviest lens or my computer. This time the lens won. Not sure how secure our stuff will be in the car – so – I don’t want to leave any thing that I would really hate losing. Cash, Credit cards, ID, electronics, camera. I’ll lose clothes, my kindle, and even the chargers to the electronics. But not the electronics that really let someone into my finances and life. So, 5 pounds of camera, gets stuffed into my purse. Along with the cash, credit cards, phone, sun hat, coffee transport mug, orange, granola bar, aux power for Shamu, etc and so forth. One big purse! Oh and the old iPad Mini.

Time to wrap this up and check the trip 2do list one last time. Next post from WInston Salem.

No sun shot, because no sun. Which would be the pits on Monday. 

Really tired tonight. Walk, work, yoga, cardiac stress test. echo cardiogram, walk. Home – after nap time. 

I decided to bail out of Quicken. Fired up my old stuff today. When I am in Hawaii and have HEAPS of time – that will be soon enough to try again. Aiming for a January 1 switch out. I am invoking the “If at first you don’t succeed, try try and try again. Then quit before you make an ass of yourself.

 

No UFOs this morning. I guess that is good. Boring, but good. Because any civilization who could get here – wouldn’t be happy with what they find here. 

Still distressed about our regression to 1857/1937/ 1957. I am really too old to take to the streets – well – except in Kona. And, I am pretty sure that Facebook/Twitter outrage is a waste of time. I might be wrong. 

But, the pen is mightier than the sword – especially when applied to my checkbook. For now the Southern Poverty Law Center gets my $$$. I am in a little snit with the ACLU – I understand their position – but – defending the free speech rights of the neo-nazis in Charlottesville is a little hard to take today.

PS – I am seriously pissed when an asshole waving a Confederate Battle flag says that my side lost the election and we should “get over it already”. 

 

Upon closer inspection this afternoon, I noticed:

If that isn’t lens flare – the Intergalactic Council is pissed and they are coming for the orange lord. The saucers are on a direct course for the White House. The Intergalactic Council must not have heard about New Jersey. Or maybe they just refuse to go to Jersey!  

(Click on the first picture – you can see the saucers /lens flare)

Mostly today I got mentally ready for the Little Old Lady Eclipse Road Trip. No matter what happens, it will be OK. We will try to avoid arrest. We are old white women, which is to say we are invisible. 

Checked the weather forecast for Cookesville, TN. 

So far so good. But a lot can go wrong in 8 days.