I often spend eight hours or more a day at my desk, and when I’m on deadline, it’s not unusual for me to pull a twelve or fourteen hour day. For the last year or more, I have had a lot of pain in my tailbone and back, and especially after a working day.
My desk chair was about at least five or six years old, maybe more, and was falling apart. The hydraulic fluid had leaked out years ago, the lift and tilt mechanisms no longer worked, the seat was broken down and had almost no padding left, and occasionally a nut or two would fall off, just for the heck of it. As an alterantive to desk chairs, compare the different bench desks on offer. Miss Terry finally got tired of putting it back together, and of listening to me snivel, so yesterday she announced that it was time to get a new chair.
Now, among my many, many shortcomings, I’m a cheapskate when it comes to buying clothes or chairs for myself. I mean, I paid $150 for my last chair, and it only lasted five years? Who can afford to replace a darned chair that often, at those kind of prices? 🙂 So we went to Staples, I sat in every chair in the place, and I was all set to get another chair very similar to the one I already had, but Terry said no, it was a tool, and I needed a better quality chair, with all the hours I spend in it.
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So I bought a very nice Tempur-pedic 9000 office chair, and $300 dollars later, here it is. Ouch, that’s an awful lot of money for a place to park my portly posterior! 🙁 The chair came disassembled in a box, and once we got back to the motorhome, Terry quickly put it together, and here it is! What do you think? Anybody need a broken down, very used and abused desk chair? It will be sitting next to the dumpster here at the Orlando Thousand Trails Preserve today! Well, I guess we know what Nick’s getting for Christmas! 🙂
I got an e-mail from a new RVer who plans to spend about six months of the year on the road, asking me if I use a CB radio when we are traveling. He also wanted to know if we ever talk to other RVers on the CB. I have a Cobra CB in the motorhome, and though I don’t use it very often, it comes in handy now and then. A few times, before we had a GPS, I was able to get directions in strange towns on the CB, and several times we have used it when we saw traffic backed up on the highway, to know which lane to be in, or how to avoid an accident up ahead. Our CB also has a weather channel which has come in handy from time to time.
As for communicating with other RVers, I think once or twice in our thirteen years on the road, I have been hailed by another RVer. It just doesn’t seem to happen very often. Of course, I don’t have the radio on all of the time, because the talk from the truckers can get downright filthy. We don’t often travel in convoy with other RVs, but we have a few times with our friends Greg and Jan White. When we do that, I usually grab one of Greg’s handheld two way FRS radios, and it’s nice to be able to communicate about upcoming turns, the need for a potty or fuel stop, or traffic information. How about you? Do you use a CB when traveling in your RV?
Today will be more of the same, working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal. Gee, my tushie will feel great in my new chair! 🙂
Thought For The Day – The nicest thing about the future is that it always starts tomorrow.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
We hardly even use the radios any more, never really used the CB. We just call each other on cell phones. Don’t communicate with people we don’t know, except face to face.
Nick, I hope that’s your Out Box and not your In Box, behind and to the right of your new chair!
Our last trip we used our CB quite a bit. Mainly for traffic thru cities and traffic back ups. It was invaluable. We don’t use it for calling other RVs.
When we did travel with another RVer, which is very seldom, it is handy. Also handy when I was following in the car because we were towing something with the motorhome. (We have a hand held CB that is invaluable for backing into a site. You can yell at each other and others can not hear)
Enjoy your new chair! Wow, that picture of Terry is fantastic, she looks like a supermodel!
We gave up the CB years ago. The language on it is terrible and is worthless drivel. We use handhelds for parking purposes and have used them occasionally with our daughter when she is in one car and we are in another. Our cell phone plan has lots of minutes and free roaming so we tend to use it the most. We can even use cell phones in place of the handheld FRS radios.
Funny you bring up the C B as I was looking at our new truck yesterday. I was trying to think do I really want to put this thing in. I don’t need to hear a Truckers view on world politics or hear his jokes. I do enjoy the weather ban I guess time will tell !!
When I tow our fifth wheel Dee follows behind me in her Toyota. We’re ham radio operators, so we use our mobile 2-meter radios to communicate on the road. It’s really nice because we usually have a frequency all to ourselves. Jim
We used the CB extensively over 1800 miles while our son followed our RV in his car. Normally we use our cell phones with noise cancelling head sets to park, but we have been in locations without cell coverage. Thus, we will revert to the CB as one of our units is portable. Range is very limited with the whip antenna and the RV antennas on the roof. Both have weather radios built in. But we don’t normally use them on the highways.
Must agree re the truckers over powered clap-trap but find the cb very handy when traveling with friends or family, which we do from time-to-time. We stay away from ch. 19 except when traffic dictates. Find that the rv’r ch. 13 is good to use as it always seems to be quiet.
Many years ago, my work dictated that I have a CB radio and I used it to communicate with my boss and his associates. Haven’t had a use for it since then, although it might come in handy if a severe emergency were to arise.
I think it’s great that you got a slightly expensive chair, Nick. Good for Terry telling you that ya need a good one if ya gotta sit in it for many hours a day. I think it’ll make your life better, especially after it’s been used for those many hours a day. Happy sitting!
Hey Nick, as long as the “big nut” in the middle of the chair doesn’t fall off, things should be just fine! You should be a lot more comfortable in that new chair. I may even have to get one myself.
We used CBs while traveling with 5 other RVs in Alaska this summer. They were invaluable in some cases, especially in Canada when most of us turned off our cell phones. If you go on a commercial caravan, I think they require you to have a working CB.
Nice desk chair, Nick. Now Don wants one, too! You’re costing me $$$ again!
We, like you hardly ever use our CB, we do use our hand held radios if we are traveling separately, which is also hardly ever, but we have them both, just in case…
Very nice chair. Lucky that you have Terry to look after you and can put things together for you.We do have a CB and when traveling we have it on, we have been in traffic conditions that we were made aware of before coming upon it, I do not like to listen to the foul mouth truckers or the ones trying to pick a fight with someone.The last two caravans and trips to Mexico with Witt Tours you are required to have a CB.
We’ve had CBs for many years when we had our stix&bricks house. So we kept them when we started FTing. Since we work for Adventure Caravans, we do use them on trips. Occasionally, they come in handy when we are traveling by ourselves.
But the important thing is they are relatively cheap and easy to use without a license requirement, so why not use a CB?
We have an CB but only use it in traffic situations or if travelling with another Rv.
Jim Walter says: November 27, 2011 at 8:50 am
When I tow our fifth wheel Dee follows behind me in her Toyota. We’re ham radio operators, so we use our mobile 2-meter radios to communicate on the road. It’s really nice because we usually have a frequency all to ourselves.
Jim W., a question for you & Dee. Hubby & I are brand new Hams. Are any 2 meter &/or 70 cm frequencies set aside for on-road use or do you just find an available simplex frequency? Thanks…
As a chiropractor, I can tell you that a good quality chair is the best investment in their career and physical comfort that anybody who works at a desk all day long can make. Be sure to take frequent breaks to stand up and stretch, move around, and get the blood flowing. And every three hours hours or so, get away from your work and take a little break. Even if it is to go outside and walk around the RV, to sit on the couch or your recliner for a few minutes. It will do wonders for your comfort and your productivity.
Sandi S, Welcome to ham radio. It’s a great hobby, that I have enjoyed for many years. With your ham licenses and either mobile or handheld radios, you can use a wide range of frequencies on 2 meter (145-147 MHz) or 70 cm (450 MHz) bands. There are “band plans” for the various bands that define proper usage, and that includes plenty of simplex frequencies you can have all to yourself most of the time for short distance communications.
Another good use is local radio repeaters that are found in most communities. When you are in an unfamiliar town, you can often find local hams who can be very helpful with knowledge of nearby attractions, businesses, etc. The American Radio Relay League http://www.arrl.org is the national ham radio organization and has available many publications such as a national directory of ham repeaters.
Another thing I like about ham radio and RVing is emergency communications. There are many places RVers go where cell phones are useless. If you have a general class ham license and an HF radio with simple antenna, you can get out a call for help for pretty much anywhere.
Lots of good things for RVers in ham radio. 🙂
Rob kd5bxz
Tim Heffstetter is correct. In 1985 I spent $525 for a Laz-E-Boy upholstered Executive
desk chair. I had it reconditioned 3 or 4 years ago for maybe a couple hundred bucks. It has been a great chair and is still very comfortable. When you get to be our age, you deserve better than the cheapest thing you can buy. The word cheap is the biggest “turn off” word I know. Buy quality. It lasts longer and, in the long run, is less expensive.
JC