Nature Lover and friends keep in touch

[NctryBen]

Hope your pool game went well... haha!
Seriously though, that’s great you can get that. I’m doing one more therapy Monday (hand stretching not pool) and I’m outta here! It’s going to get cold and I’m not sticking around... might get my younger daughter to come down and camp near valley of Fire...

 

[DeeTrvl4Life]

Hi, I'm Dee. I've read all the posts in this thread in a binge read. I mostly remember Nature Lover, Maki and Ben (NctryBen). I think you're all amazing! Just incredible people to live the lifestyle you want and endure tough times with humor and still be able to honestly communicate about it.

Nature Lover: Your photos are so beautiful. I truly wish I had the means and ability to compile them all in a 'coffee table' type huge book so people could BUY the book from you. What a great exchange that would be. They are your creations basically. Your own eye sees them and your own fingers snapped the photos, so they are yours in my opinion. And your sense of humor is soooooo strong, you are so funny! I can't tell you how many times I laughed outloud at even some of your very very subtle but hilarious comments. I know most of the time no one commented at that humor, don't know if they missed it or what, but I laughed alot. You have some huge great dreams and I hope they all come true!

Maki, I wish I was in Q again now. I would look you up to get some work arranged. But I'm medically 'grounded'.

NctryBen you are an awesome supporter. The way y'all keep track and stay in touch is just ... amazing!

I wish all the best! God bless us nomads, all, as Nature Lover says!
Happy Trails!
D

 

[nature lover]

Hello Dee, Thanks for the kind words since you posted here you are now an official friend of “nature lover.” Be very careful this could ruin your reputation.

 

[user 423]

PA lottery’s motto is you gotta play to win, my motto is if you play you lose. I mean no offense to you lottery players, but I believe that the lottery is a tax on stupidity. I have paid too many taxes in my life I’m not going to volunteer For more. A proven fact that you got a better chance of being struck by lightning than winning the big lottery.

LOL.....so true but then playing the lottery takes its place with all the other taxes on stupidity out there. Booze, cigs, junk food,etc. I save lots of money by (mostly) avoiding those, so a lottery vice isn't so bad.

I never play the large jackpot games. Only the games that have better odds and smaller prizes of $50k to $1million. I'm not worried about that much ruining my life.

If I win I will be donating my van to HOWA so you might end up with it! Wish me luck...

 

[NctryBen]

Yeah Dee... we all have to weigh the idea of whether we want to be associated with Nature Lover. Haha. Never met him in person, but talk about passion for living the lifestyle, taking and posting awesome pictures of usually birds (and not the naughty middle finger one, haha). And his desire to help others in his neck of the country. Battling health issues and keeping a sense of humor about it is a strength few can muster.
One thing I really see is the number of people in this or that predicament. And it’s refreshing to see the number of people that step up to help. I hope you can overcome whatever has grounded you.
But in the meantime... read NL’s posts.
He’s probably the best case of beating all odds of escaping nursing homes and other health care facilities. Truly an inspiration to most everyone who he touches.

 

[user 423]

“Sometimes I think it’s a sin when I feel like I’m winning when I’m losing again.” Spend it quick!

It's already spent. It partially covers the cost of the metal detector I just bought. I hope to get lucky with it,too

 

[graycurlsvanning]

Hello old friends, and new ones (if you want to come aboard.) I miss one particular thread from our old forum. That was travel around‘s 24 /7 Chat. Or some type of title like that. But a bunch of us kept in touch with each other and I enjoyed that forum thread before I looked at any other. So although I’m ignorant of a lot of things at this new forum format i’m going to try here to resurrect a bit of that. So if you were on that thread before welcome back and if you were never on that thread before welcome aboard. Friendly conversations and insignificant information about who we are and where we are and what we are doing what we like and what we don’t like and all that kind of stuff. By the way my shaking from the brain tumor does not allow me to type well so I dictate this and that brings about some screwed up words and some repeating etc., so if it’s screwed up I’ll blame it on the dictation because I never make a mistake.

to start it off I’m gonna add a couple of nature pictures I’ve been taking a few again here in Florida. I’ve been in Florida now for three weeks and a half weeks. Right now in southern Florida it’s raining and the lows at night or under 40°. That bothered me until I called home to Pennsylvania and found out that their nightly lows are in the single digits. So I’m staying in Florida. When the sun is shining I’m out in nature centers and state parks in Audubon centers taking pictures mainly of birds at this time. So here are a few. The first one is a roseate spoonbill with a beautiful reflection in the water. Then there’s a butterfly never saw before called the white peacock. Florida is one of its northern ranges. And then there’s the popular sandhill crane. Down here in Florida they make a big deal out of protecting this bird they put up signs to protect it, charge people fines if they mess with it etc. yet there are 17 states in United States where it is a game bird gamebird and I understand it’s very delicious.

I live in Southern Florida too on the east coast. There are a few nature centers nearby where I live. They are nice, but I find them too crowded when I visit. I did see some amazing birds though and other amazing wildlife, like alligators and huge turtles. In my complex we have a man-made lake which attracts birds too but unfortunately due to the over population of people and introduction of plants and animals that does belong part of this habitat, the indigenous species are rapidly disappearing. Audubon is helping to protect the birds here, like everywhere, but land is limited because of people wanting it and polluting the water. It's very sad honestly. Hopefully there may be some changes with this election...

 

[nature lover]

“gone…”. The lottery is a tax because the money goes to the government. No junk food the government doesn’t doesn’t get much of that So I do often participate in that sin. I’ve been fat since the day I was born and I’m still fat I much less than I was when I started but if anybody saw me now, they say my God he’s fat. So now I’m personally insulted when you call fast food attacks on stupidity is stupidity and it is expensive, but at least the government’s not getting The most of it. I am so physically fit. I know these young men brag about having a sixpack, heck, I do better than that I’ve got a keg.

”grey…”. Is that you in that picture standing by the anhinga neat picture. I’ve never found one of those. Let me get that close. Give me some more details where you’re at all of those boardwalks look alike but maybe I’ve walked that one before. Some people shoot with a shotgun, some people shoot with a rifle. I see that you shoot with a canon. I’m a Sony guy.

 

[vanbrat]

Hubby keeps buying those little pieces of paper with all those numbers on them but .....

I have a few family members who last year began calling me a F#$' B*&^ and now I want to win just so I can say to them when they come sucking up after we win a billion dollars " To bad I'm such a F#$& B*&^ " LOL not really just being silly I would not say that or anything else to them. I have plans if ever I win that to build a trade school here and a rec center here on my little island. Mini golf, skating rink, bowling alley etc. trades would be wood working, auto working metal working, upholstering, and small business running. I would want to see plumbing cooking and maybe even animal work going too. I want to rebuild the daycare where I have spent the last 30 yrs on and off working. I also want a better van. and a condo in Maui...

 

[BelgianPup]

I believe that the lottery is a tax on stupidity.

That's sort of how I feel about it, but I do spend a few dollars on it per year. But if I did win, I would keep my mouth closed about it. News like that travels fast.

 

[Morgana]

I have plans if ever I win that to build a trade school here ... rebuild the daycare where I have spent the last 30 yrs on and off working ... a better van. and a condo in Maui...

Put a friend's very bright daughter through college full ride ... set up a training fund for the county emergency services agency I used to volunteer for (best people I ever met - and they threw the best workshops, especially search and rescue - real woodsmen that never made you feel stupid if you weren't one ... visit the Moskitia (jungly area between Honduras and Nicaragua) plus a few other places ... get my own kayak ... be fully instead of semi retired

Personally I think I'd rather win about 100 million rather than a billion, easier to manage. But if someone insisted ...

 

[nature lover]

This Group has some of the best thinkers and writers I’ve ever met. Thanks for the entertainment. To your efforts, I add this little Diddy that I might have to re-edit and tweak a bit before I publish it somewhere else.

when I was The president of the church youth group many years ago I gave a little speech, called “the seven last words of the church”. Those words were “we never did it that way before”. I was an arrogant impatient youth who thought he knew everything and couldn’t understand the mentality of the “older“ generations resisting change. / Now I fantasize about winning the lottery and spending the millions on building a time machine that doesn’t go forward or backward in time, but simply stops time. Once this machine was turned on Microsoft and Apple would stop updating my systems and making me relearn and rethink what I feel was functioning very well just the way it was. I’m too old and tired to relearn it all. A computer would be contained in a large plastic box attached to a decently sized keyboard and screen not a tiny little thing that fits in my pocket or a watch that I wear on my wrist. This time machine would also make it so that the old foods I enjoyed so much would still taste the way they did when I was a child. A red delicious apple would have the richness of taste that I. haven’t experienced for years. They call the newer ones red delicious, but that good old flavor isn’t there anymore.They’ve lost the greatness of this Apple by trying to make it last longer and look prettier in the stores. Fruits like strawberries; vegetables, like asparagus and sweet corn, and delicacies like cider would only be available during their regular Limited season thereby Keeping their flavor integrity, and allowing us to enjoy the anticipation of that coming season. I would be able to find a potato salad, that tasted like the one grandma made with a dressing cooked in a double boiler rather than that bland mix of mustard and mayonnaise you buy in the deli today children would stop maturing and return to the place where they still have some respect, love, and need for their elders. It would be somewhere between the time that they believed we knew everything and could do anything and the time when they discovered that they knew everything and we knew nothing. Gasoline would still be $.40 a gallon And my car’s power plant would be so simple that anybody could fix it with a couple of wrenches and a screwdriver. You could even see the pavement under the car when you lifted the hood, there would be room to reach in there and tweak a little. My body would stop reaching for the ground under the effects of gravity, to the point, where i’m shaped like a pair. I wouldn’t have to Rock back-and-forth three or four times to get up out of a chair. My ears would not be so full of hairs More dense than a Appalachian mountain forest I would be able to walk into the next room and go straight to the thing that I was looking for without spending minutes trying to remember why I was there. This machine would stop the clock the day before Our neighbor lady raised the price of her homemade bread (baked in her wood-fired squirreltail oven) from $.40-$.50 a loaf. The words, modesty and decency would be familiar once more. The word divorce would be so unfamiliar that it would sting when you heard it and “ Day care“ would describe something that a mother does at home with her own children. Eye contact would replace ipad and Iphone.
Most of all, my friends would still be alive, Family and class reunions would stop shrinking in numbers, my friends that are still alive would recognize me and remember what we meant to each other. My visits to funeral homes in nursing homes would not be as frequent as they are today. This machine would also make people only remember the good things. I did not all the mistakes and crap I so deeply desire for everyone to forget.

 

[Carla618]

nature lover, please break up your text into paragraphs.

 

[maki2]

I believe I can safely add making decisions about managing those very unlikely lottery funds to my ever expanding procrastination list.

 

[maki2]

Lake Havasu City, Lone Tree BLM. Moonrise in the east with the evening star among the sunset pink clouds. Very fleeting dreamlike feel. Perhaps someday I will have a much better camera than my iPhone.

 

[nature lover]

Carla, everybody’s a critic, besides “breaking up is hard to do”

 

[nature lover]

FOR SALE. Any reasonable offers will be considered?

One 1998 dodge conversion van with V-8 engine and 160,000+ miles. Spots of rust all over mostly on surface only. needs new tires And running boards before PA inspection runs out end of 2022. Comes with solar controller and two 110 amp lead acid house batteries Connected to engine for charging (Isolator switch installed.) and with two folding portable solar panels, 150 and 200 W And 30 feet of cable to attach panels through a weathertight port on the side of vehicle. ice cold, 22 quart refrigerator/freezer. Set up to run on House battery 12 V system or 110 external source. custom cabinets(Never stained properly.) insulated vinal covered floor, large windows covered with 1 inch of insulation warped with vinyl, matching the green and white exterior of the van. Passenger seat removed for storage space including locking file cabinet with 22 square inch drop leaf table attached. Comes with both protein and butane camping stoves, propane drip coffee maker, large “Little buddy, propane , Heavy duty 150 foot extension cord, small 110 electric heater, and small 110 fan. Hart 20 V battery powered fan, Reversible Max air fan ready to install. Includes a nice recliner for sleeping. also included custom-made awning with tie-downs attached to van and tent poles and cords. Includes custom-made, separating toilet/potty share. Screen “stockings“ for front doors. Two cigarette lighter plugs (Heavier wire and fuses to power sources) and 4USB outlets connected to house battery system, and the same number connected also to starter battery.

Any reasonable offer considered. willing to trade all of this for a cemetery plot and modest coffin. Symbolic wheels attached to the coffin for nomad. Funeral would be nice.

also, available, as is where is, one very overweight, abused’ nearly 70 year old body with its many patches and fixes. (Also, some parts damaged and not repaired.) Comes with only nine toes one was removed in Florida three years ago. Formerly blonde now brown head of hair, hanging just slightly below collar and a large full white beard that has not been trimed since Oct 8, 1977. Cannot verify existence of one important part as the belly is too large thereby preventing inspection of said equipment for many years. Any offer reasonable or unreasonable will be considered.

 

[maki2]

How could any sane person possibly resist such a tempting distressed property sale?

Unfortunately for the seller I have never been a sane person.

 

[nature lover]

One picture taken June 1956, the other taken October 2022. What the hell happened?

 

[maki2]

Obviously what happened is your mother made you eat your vegetables.