"Happy Decoration Day"

So, last year thehorsefarmer and his gorgeous wife, thebarngoddess, relocated to the Nation's Oldest City, this olelongrooffan thinks thehorsefarmer just wanted to be closer to the Fountain of Youth. Anyway, they have taken to the Florida lifestyle very nicely. thebarngoddess loves the beach and thehorsefarmer rides his bike all around even in the depths of winter.

We get to see each other often and they always treat me to a rare restaurant meal. thebarngoddess always tells me that I cannot order fish, "You need to eat something that will put meat on your bones." I love her for that and so much more.

Well anyway, this olelongrooffan really thought they were going to make some d*mn fine representatives of the Sunshine State until yesterday.



You see, down here in the southeast we have these little things called tropical depressions and hurricanes to deal with. It's okay though, those of us who have been here for a while know to just stock up on hurricane supplies and ride the storm out.

Well, Tropical Storm Beryl is threatening the southeast coast this weekend and what does thehorsefarmer do?



Well the scaredy cat that he is, he hooks up his big*ssed truck to his



big*ssed trailer and scoots it on out of town under the disguise of "I need to go the Ozarks to pick up thelittleprincess so she can spend a few weeks down here." Yeah, right horsefarmer. This olelongrooffan believes ya. Seriously I do.

However, I am certain those of you Counting Along With Me know that this olelongrooffan has properly



stocked up on the necessary hurricane supplies and I am ready to share aps and tales with Beryl.

And know this weekend we all will

Celebrate Life.

And remember Those Who Gave Everything for all of us.

Yeah, I've Been Busy

Well, maybe not so busy as just uninspired. Since returning from the Mile High City at the beginning of September, the highest point, and it was high, of my life was the day just last week thebeachgoddess came down and we spent it together just screwing around.  (Thanks again T & V)


Well, Counters, as the end of hurricane season is upon us, this olelongrooffan is gonna take a respite from those supplies,quit spending nearly every waking moment on these tubes and take the time to read a few old school books for a change. I have several around I have been meaning to get to and now I'm going to take that opportunity.

Plus not a whole h*lluva lot of cool stuff, at least to me, has been happening around these here parts lately. But don't worry, Biketoberfest starts in a week and a half, the Daytona Dream cruise follows two weeks later and the Turkey Run two weeks after that.

I'm still around but just will have my nose in an old school book and work on trying to find something to do employmentwise. This olelongrooffan has been searching high and low for meaningful employment, three and a half years now, and having no luck. Although thebeachbiker did send me a link to a job opportunity in Gauntanamo Bay, Cuba. God knows submitting 350+ web based applications isn't doing it for me.

To paraphrase something Einstein once said, 'Continuing to do things in the same unsuccessful manner and expecting different results is insanity.'

And as much as there are many who believe this olelongrooffan is insane, sometimes I even agree, "something'll come up, it always does."

Don't worry though, this olelongrooffan will still

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: An Unexpected Update

Dateline Denver, Colorado: August 24, 2011

So, this olelongrooffan is still in the Mile High City and things are rapidly progressing on the project which brings me here. 

Meanwhile, all four of my brothers are down in the Sunshine State dealing with yet another woman, this one in the form of Hurricane Irene. This olelongrooffan is really bummed that I am not there with them as I have Hurricane Supplies. Well, regardless of how famous and somewhat fatalistic the Bus is these days, I am sure we will all hook up once again.

Now this olelongrooffan asks for a bit of your indulgence here as I share yet another hurricane related story.

It was 1992 and the Hurricane was a dude known as Andrew, to my recollection, the last Category 4 hurricane the Sunshine State has seen. My not yet conceived daughter's Mom and this olelongrooffan were in France with some fantastic friends visiting a sister and her then husband. My Mom and several of her friends were down from the Sho-Me State enjoying our Naples home; thejeepjunkie and his family were living in the greater Fort Lauderdale area; and this olelongrooffan was in western France oblivious to the fact a Cat 4 hurricane was headed for south Florida. So Andrew decides to pay south Florida a visit and my Mom and friends head north to MickeyMouseLand to ride the storm out. thejeepjunkie and his family decided to evacuate to our home in Naples and end up partying like rock stars with my buddy Dr. Dudley and his family. I wake up that fateful day to my brother in law telling me a Cat 4 just hit South Beach and was heading towards my place in FantasyLand. Well, needless to say, this olelongrooffan was stressed more than Brad Keselowski with Carl Edwards on his tail. I mean my aged Mom and friends were in harms way, thejeepjunkie and his family were in the eye landfall area and no communications were available for me to contact them.

So what is an olelongrooffan to do? Well Counters, my doctor brother in law hooks me up with a couple little blue pills (I'm not talking Viagra here) and we four vacationers in that wonderful country caught that previously scheduled afternoon flight to Paris.

Yeah Counters that's right. I evacuated Hurricane Andrew to Paris, France. And know this olelongrooffan will forever tell the tale of how I evacuated Hurricane Irene to the Mile High City, no matter how premature that evacuation was.

Yeah, that's how I rock.

And that forbidden white masking tape was still on the windows of that home when I sold it!

Meanwhile back in Denver,



Big J spent the entire evening after his garage slab was poured spreading abundant amounts of H2O across it in an attempt to prevent the concrete from cracking.  So far success is showing its presence.



The next phase for his efforts was spraying out the interior of the Port Royal to evenly coat the fresh drywall with a base layer of paint.



Yeah, this olelongrooffan was able to capture yet another image of my feet during yet another image taking process.



During the same image taking process, I captured a shot of the window I had installed earlier.



Note the paint particulates in the air on this interior shot? Needless to say I beat it the h*ll out of there rather quickly I might add.



In the meantime, this olelongrooffan was out and about and captured these two beauties on Sheridan Street just around the corner. A '63 Ford longroof country sedan as well as a '65. The '65 is for sale for a mere twelve hundred bucks. Good thing for all of us that twelve hundred bucks is not in my possession on this road trip.



So after the fumes had cleared it is now time to for Big J to lay down his first ever floor tiles.



And, much to his, and my, pleasure that experience was an extreme success. Laundry room done, now on to the kitchen.



And that kitchen will be painted one of these colors prior to that flooring being installed.



Meanwhile out back a super huge garage is being installed and I don't believe these garage framers suspected they were going to be on a tree trimming crew before it was all over. But that worm drive circular saw works excellent as a chain saw.



Two white guys got the roof raised and the sheathing on the rafters in less than two days.



Yeah, room for Big J's BMW X5, girlie's Volvo X70 and my current Denver based Taj Mahal inside Big J's only requirement for his new Port Royal. Pics on Saturday!

Now if those of you Counting Along With Me will note, all of this construction based activity is super fantastic as it allows this olelongrooffan to return to the hurricane laden Sunshine State to resume some of my previous activities and I sure look forward to it once this project has come to fruition.

But if you have, in fact, been Counting Along With Me, you will remember the sighting of these two old cars that reminded me of my Dad, TheGentlemanFarmer, just a few short weeks ago, also here in the Mile High City.

Well, on my return from yet another visit to the big box retailer that loves the number 48 NASCAR racing team, this olelongrooffan spotted this



lovely offering at the intersection of Pecos and 38th street, just a few blocks from Port Royal.

And the fact this olelongrooffan was able to spot the very same old Mercury ragtop driven by a youngish bearded and pony tail bearing dude with his even more youngish daughter in the passenger seat really allows this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.

Well Hurricane Danielle Drifted On By.

and she was gracious to leave us some rain, wind and waves.

It's been kind of a lazy day around the Taj Mahal this Sunday.

When I woke up this morning, there was a gentle rain with the sound of the surf in the background. It was around 7:30 and this olelongrooffan determined there was absolutely nothing pressing for him to do today.

So I said a quick prayer of thanks for waking up and then this olelongrooffan rolled over and went back to sleep.

Three times.

I finally drug my sorry *ss out of that massive California King in the master suite of the Taj Mahal and fixed me up some breakfast grub.

By this time it had stopped raining but was a cool, windy 78 degrees. Not much was stirring around and the sound of the surf was pretty noticable.

So, you Counters out there know what this olelongrooffan did, don't you?

If you guessed that I headed down to check out the surf, you would be 100% correct.

However, this olelongrooffan did put on a pair of jeans for the first time since April. Yeah, it was rather chilly.

The wave were pretty big, I'd put them at about 8-10' but were not well formed enough for
the surfer dudes hanging around to get any action.
There were white caps on those distant waves as far as this olelongrooffan could see.
The palms were getting pretty beat up by that strong wind coming off the Atlantic Ocean here in the Birthplace of Speed.
The lifeguard was pretty relaxed in that mobile red chair as the only hoons in this area in the water were in water just up to their knees.
I shot a quick video, cut your volume down pretty quickly, of the scene and you can hear the wind whipping around. I had to put my ball cap on Ron Style to keep it from blowing off my head.


This olelongrooffan then returned to the Taj Mahal, surfed the net for a few hours, took a nap, did some dishes and now I'm getting ready to make a bit of dinner.

Yeah, sometimes lazy days are the way to

Celebrate Life.

YeeHa, It's Friday

Feel free to enjoy yourself and remember to

Celebrate Life.

Hurricane Supplies

So this olelongrooffan has been getting a ration of sh*t from some of you Counters out there that my choice of Hurricane Supplies is too one dimensional.

Well, earlier today I was over at my favorite purveyor's of Hurricane Supplies and picked up this survival kit should any of you need to evacuate to the Taj Mahal, just two short blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, this hurricane season.

And having this variety of supplies available for all you Counters who choose to join this olelongrooffan during one of My 2010 Hurricanes really allows me to

Celebrate Life.

Iconic Ida

Well, Counters, Tropical Storm Ida is moving on toward the Eastern Gulf Coast, expecting to landfall within the next few hours in the Mississippi/Alabama/Florida area coastline with sustained winds of 70 mph.

Oh, by the way, the way to remember how to spell Mississippi is this...

M...I...crooked leg, crooked leg...I...crooked leg crooked leg...I...humpback, humpback...I.

This oleman learned it that way about 40 years ago and it still works!!

Say it with an extreme Southern accent and it really sinks in.

And the best fish are always caught on a plate....

Now I am sure you all out there are wondering what that fact has to do with this olelongrooffan?

Well, a hurricane like event tends to draw all of the air out of a fairly large expanse of area.

Yeah, Pensacola, Florida is 442, no not that 442, but 442 miles away. And for the last several days, the East blowing wind has increased, almost exponentially.

At 7:45 this evening, there is an on shore wind of, according to the National Weather Service, gusts between 18 and 25 knots.

Yeah, it is windy as h*ll.

Well, I will say this about that.

It certainly is refreshing, even though there is a sea mist in the air that will result in a film of salt on each of my ole rides in the morning.

But at least I am not scraping ice off those windshields.

And that lets me

Celebrate Life.

Yeah, We Had A Storm Saturday

So last evening I was sitting in the massive living room of the Taj Mahal, reading this and listening to my super impressive stereo system and they interrupt my tunes with the squawk from the National Weather Service denoting a tornado warning just a few miles north of the Birthplace of Speed.

So I head out to check out the sky to the north and man was it chaos.

I got a couple images of the storm as it was moving in. Yeah, I had to include a shot of the olestationbus and the oleragtop out in front of the Taj Mahal.

I then shot a couple videos, each less than a minute long.

The above video doesn't really do the clouds justice. But, Man, it was windy. While I was shooting this, the temperature dropped 5-10 degrees. It was a bit scary.

I headed back in just barely avoiding becoming drenched. When I was shooting the second video, you can't really tell but the rain falling was nearly horizontal!! And how about that lightning and clap of thunder about 1/2 way through!!

And it is surviving a storm like this that lets me

Celebrate Life.

Ahhh, Hurricane Supplies

Saw this license plate over at the VDub show today. If I didn't already own about 40 license plates, and I had a job, this one would be on my wall right now.

For the uninitiated, ABC with their name in blocks like this, is the name of a Florida chain of liquor stores, referred to, affectionately by olelongrooffan, as a purveyor of hurricane supplies.

And I spent alot of yesterday and today thinking about the men in my family. You see, at one time or another, we have all 6 of us have owned a VW product as have a couple of my sisters, also. I still think it was started by TheGentlemanFarmer and those glasses unintentionally captured in the above image, well I think it is a sign from another world. Look at the photo in this blog and at the only pair of glasses in it. Yep, I am sticking with a sign from somewhere!!

Empathizing With thehorsefarmer and thebarngoddess

Back near the number one post on By The Numbers, I did a post about thehorsefarmer and the barngoddess and a special horse that is the headline picture on their blog. In that post, I commented on how they live up in southwest Missouri in the middle of tornado alley.

Some years ago, a tornado pretty much decimated their place and, at the time, I was talking to thehorsefarmer and commented, "I am sorry you lost your stuff." He commented back, "I didn't lose it, it is just spread out over 30 acres." Gotta love that sense of humor.

So anyway, I live down in the Birthplace of Speed in the Sunshine State and while hurricanes are something I deal with several times a year, tornadoes are a relatively rare occurence. During the many years I lived down Naples way, I would suspect I experienced a couple dozen hurricanes but not one tornado comes to mind.

Sorry, need to take a moment to digress. If you clicked on the hurricane link, you will notice it outlines Andrew's path in four distinct locations. You get the idea.

I must admit I was not in the Sunshine State during Andrew's passing. I was not even in the United States. My daughter's Mom, myself, thefoamguy and the blondebombshell were visiting my younger sister and thefrenchdoctor on the West Coast of France.

My Mom and a couple of her friends were down from the Ozarks staying at our coastal Florida home while we were overseas. We were not even going to see each other, just pass like ships in the night, with them arriving the day after we left and leaving the day before we got home.

Well, as it turns out, Andrew decided to come on through about two weeks into our European Vacation and Mom and her Lunch Bunch friends decided to evacuate to MickeyMouseLand to ride the storm out. thejeepjunkie, the 7 month pregant Sun Goddess and the Kid were living in Fort Lauderdale at the time and decided to venture over to Naples to ride the storm out, no not 'Riding the Storm Out', but ride the storm out.

Turns out thejeepjunkie, et al, hooked up with my buddy, Dr. Dudley and his 7 month pregnant wife and those boys had a helluva hurricane party.

In the meantime, I am oblivious to what is happening in South Florida, we all are enjoying the inebriations offered by thefrenchdoctor. The morning Andrew arrived, we wake up and thefrenchdoctor tells me there is a Cat 4 hurricane heading for South Florida. NeedlessToSay, I start freaking out. Luckily, there is a Doctor In The House and I get some quite adequate medicine to calm me down. We decided then to evacuate ourselves, we went to Paris. Yeah, during Hurricane Andrew, my wife and I evacuated to Paris, France.

Sooo,

Anyway

After moving to Sl-Ocala in 2003, I realized tornadoes were more frequent there, but I never really felt threatened, big house, top of a hill and a general feeling the I am in control of my destiny.

About 4:30 pm this evening, as I am checking out CareerBuilder.com, I hear on my local country music station that there is a Tornado Warning for just about everywhere within 15 miles of me. This never happens.

I gotta tell you, I was apprehensive for several long hours. You see, I live near the beach and there is not alot of shelter here. The Taj Mahal doesn't offer alot of "interior closet space" or even "interior walls" to take shelter in or near.

Well, I did everything but tether down that olestationbus. I mean got glass moved against a wall, found some plastic sheeting, should it be needed, cleared out an area around the only interior corner wall in the Taj Mahal, got out a plastic trash bag to put this old laptop in, you get the idea, I was extremely apprehensive.

Bullshit. I was scared silly. At my advanced age, the last thing I needed was an unpredicatable tornado deciding my fate. I am sufficiently capable of doing that myself, and with the help of my family and friends, the federal government be damned.

So I logged onto weather.com and got the interactive loop going and watched this color Orange storm pass on through and talked a bit with My Maker about the events going on in my life at this time and asked that Being to keep an eye on me.

And that Being did.

I survived the storm and then decided to get some images, after all, what would you all be reading, other than this excellent post by 'Life of Jason' about some loser in the Ozarks, if you didn't have an interest in this?

These next two shots were through the window of my bedroom looking toward the West.

This one is fairly tame,

But this one, shot is in quick succession, and pretty harsh. At first I thought I had moved that camera around until I checked out the roof line of my neighbor's condo and that facsia line is still straight.

Then I remembered I have video capabilities. You might want to mute this one unless you want to hear that country music station's advertisements selling a Suzuki--sorry its a Mitzubishi-- at 1/2 price. Seems to be a generic ad these days.


This one is shot out of my front door and has some pretty good graphics as well as sound. When I reviewed this I was trying to figure out why the flash kept going off on my camera. I soon realized it was the lightning from the storm.


This video is post, beachside, storm, out over the Atlantic and great sound and lighting effects. Love the color of the beige building right at the beginning of this piece, and I knew all was well when I heard the birds singing...


So, horsefarmer and barngoddess, needlesstosay, I continue to have respect, even newfoundrespect for the, seemingly, every day aspects you have in your life. Thanks for keeping me aware of them.

And above all, Peace and Celebrate Life.

Hanna Hurries By

Wanna be Hurricane Hanna hurried on by the Birthplace of Speed about 150 miles offshore. We got some pretty heavy rain showers, not thunderstorms because, usually, in tropical systems there is no lightning or thunder, not sure why, think I watched something on weather.com on it last week, but since I didn't read it, I didn't retain it. (I think that was the King of the much abhored runonsentence). But, man, did it rain.

Anyway, on the way home from my last dentist appointment for a while, I stopped off on the Cardinal Street beach access, ironically, the one which is closest to the Taj Mahal and took some images to share.

This is the sign just before you go on the the beach. Needless to say, enjoying your day at the beach today is a stretch, although Hanna is whipping that surf into a captivating frenzy. As an aside, I have yet to take the oldstationbus down on that beach, but I hope when I do, the attendent doesn't enforce that "No Buses" on the beach clause on that sign.

I am no longer a surfer but I would put those waves at 10 footers.

We lost alot of sand off this beach today. This is the pavement that heads out to the beach from the end of Cardinal Street. I have never seen the asphalt reinforcements on either side of the roadway.

These footers at the base of that sign have not seen the light of day in quite some time.

But I guess with waves like this, you're gonna have that.

Hope the folks up in the Carolinas and beyond weather Hanna okay. We are keeping our fingers crossed with Incredible Ike, though.

Just trying to stay out of harm's way.

Floundering Fay Update

It is with extreme sorrow I report what I found out about all those cops on the beach as related in my previous post.

Apparently, a 35 year old woman visiting from Brooklyn, New York drowned while playing in that rough surf. My condolences go out to her family and friends.

And, as I also mentioned in my previous post, these lingering storms affect many behaviors, including this dude, right here in the Birthplace of Speed.

Fickle Fay Update, Redeux

There is absolutely no question in my mind these, young at heart, women are having a blast negotiating their way, in that oleragtop, out of the destructive path of Our Friend Fay,


They would be having just as much fun in this or



this.



After frolicking around on the beach down near the Cape, Fickle Fay decided to continue her stroll up the beach toward the Birthplace of Speed .

She has arrived. Full of herself and strutting her stuff. A relatively minor storm, as far as hurricanes go, but yet still noteworthy. The first time I have been on the coast for a weather event in many years. Thankfully this is a minor one as I am pretty dismissive about it. But really, the everyday storms we have are just as windy, just not so longlasting.

Fickle Fay is not as noteworthy as this though. I am sure he is pissed.

the Kid and the jeep junkie passed by the Taj Mahal a bit earlier and we talked about this sweet young woman named Fay. I got a shot of them leaving, just as another bout of rain was rolling in.

As we were talking, I mentioned how much fun it was this summer up in the Ozarks and that reminded me of an image I had seen earlier, online. Oh Why, Oh Why, Kristin, did you let that dude borrow that old trike?

And if these folks are evacuating also, why are they bringing the canoe along?

All you landlubbers should know, this is just a light rain shower down our way.

Finally, since there is actually a Tropical Storm down here in these parts, I hope this Gospel Car will come around for my salvation, as the drive in is flooded out.


Seriously, oh hell, why? All is well here, just a severe thunderstorm, but without the thunder.

Fickle Fay Update

A little bit earlier, I ventured out and about, as I was running low on hurricane supplies. I thought I would cruise down and check out the surf. It is really rough out there now.

There were no surfers out there today though.

But there was a light spot in the overcast sky.

The worst flooding I saw was this, just down the street.

And this is the extent of the wind damage I saw.

As the jeep junkie says, 'We are suffering from anticipatory fatigue.' Come on Fay get on by.