Definition of potpourri – 1: a mixture of flowers, herbs, and spices that is usually kept in a jar and used for scent. 2: a miscellaneous collection. The second definition above pretty much describes today’s blog, a collection of miscellaneous thoughts and info that I’m sharing because I don’t have anything else to talk about today.
***
You always have to keep your eye out for the scammers of the world because they are everywhere in this day and age. A friend of a friend is looking for a small travel trailer, and she has asked me about a couple of different ones he found online. Yesterday she sent me a link to an online ad for a 2008 Airstream Bambi, priced at $1,800 and for sale in Minneapolis, Minnesota, not far from her home. I knew immediately that it had to be some kind of scam because low Blue Book on a 2008 Airstream Bambi is $18,500. Then there was the fact that the RV is supposed to be in Minnesota, but the picture of the trailer was obviously taken in Arizona, with saguaro cacti in the background. And then the name of the seller, imythical, made it obvious that only a fool would waste time with this clown. People like this are like cockroaches. They come out of the woodwork in droves, and if you smash one, a hundred more show up for the funeral.
***
I get a lot of questions about where to buy RV insurance, who sells the best RV satellite systems, leveling jacks, awnings, etc., about the pros and cons of different models of RVs, campground recommendations, and such. Unfortunately, we have been out of the RV lifestyle four years now and a lot has changed in that time. Most of the vendors we knew have retired and hung up the keys themselves, and I have not looked at any of the newer crop of RVs in a long time. So I’m afraid I am of little help with things like that.
***
This brings to mind a question I have for you blog readers. Since we are not traveling anymore, not even making short trips in the van due to COVID, I occasionally run stories about places we have visited in the past. The response seems to be lukewarm to these types of posts. Do you enjoy them? Should I continue posting them? What say ye?
***
A few days ago somebody sent me a message asking how I liked the gaming chair I bought last year and if it was helping my back. Somehow I deleted the message before I could reply, so I hope they see this. Actually, it’s not a gaming chair, it’s a Lifeform office chair that I ordered from Relax the Back in Orlando. At first, I balked at the price because it was incredibly expensive, but it has been one of the best investments I ever made and has really helped relieve my back pain.
With every other office chair I have ever used, after a couple of hours my back would start to hurt, and when I stood up, I would feel sharp jabs of pain in my lower back. With the new chair, the discomfort from sitting is gone, and when I stand up after three hours or so of steady writing, there is no pain at all. When I am working on a book (and it seems I am always working on a book), it’s quite common for me to be at my desk ten or more hours a day, seven days a week, and this chair makes it possible to do so.
***
Along the same lines, people have asked how my RF nerve ablations have been doing and if they helped. Yes, no question about that. While I still have considerable lower back pain and always will because there’s so much damage back there, it is not the excruciating pain that incapacitated me and was getting to the point where I really didn’t want to face another day of it. They tell me that the effects of RF can last anywhere from a few months to a few years. It’s been about four months now, and if and when I have to repeat the procedure, I will happily do so.
***
A young lady who considers herself an author contacted me the other day, asking if I would read her book before she publishes it. I told her that I get so many requests that I have no time to review books, but if she had any specific questions to get back to me. She wanted me to clarify some things in the opening scene that friends who had read the manuscript had called her attention to. In the scene, the main character pulls a 19 shot semi-automatic 12 gauge handgun from her shoulder holster and is firing at the bad guys with her right hand as she rides her 750 horsepower Yamaha motorcycle through a crowd of them who are blocking the road.
When I told her that A: The throttle on a motorcycle is in the right handgrip, so she could not drive the bike anywhere if that hand was busy firing a gun, and B: there are no 19 shot semi-automatic 12 gauge handguns, and if there were a person, would probably break their wrist trying to shoot it, and C: I’ve never heard of a 750 horsepower motorcycle of any kind, but if there was and it had wings, it would fly. Her response was to say that it was her book, and she would write it any damn way she wanted. Well, okay then. I wish you luck and success!
***
Congratulations Arley C. Running, winner of our drawing for an autographed copy of Big Lake Lynching, the second book in my Big Lake mystery series. This is the last copy of this book that I have with the original cover. We had 73 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon.
Thought For The Day – Being old sucks, but getting old was fun.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Answer to question about running stories in the blog about places you have been. OK by me. I understand some days you may not have any news about your stay at home lives. But I do enjoy keeping up with what is going on in your life. So an OCCASSIONAL travel stop blog is OK.
Remark about the lady who wrote the book about motorcycle and gun. Why ask you for advice if she didn’t want answers? And if you don’t do research and make the book believable then the book probably WILL NOT SELL. These kinds of people keep reminding me that probably 90% of the people are clueless and 10% of the people run/control/out think the other 90%.
Keep the travel post coming. Always enjoy reading about new places.
I enjoy reading about your travels very much. I hope to visit them when this coronovirus is gone!
Like you, we have quit traveling. 15 years on the road. Now live at an SKP co-op in Texas. Do not need to see travel stories.
Jim Mossman
I enjoy your stories of places you’ve visited in the past. Please keep doing them.
I also like when you are out and about and mention a restaurant you eat at. Your comments on good or not so good the food, atmosphere and service was has been helpful. This has been most useful when we travel in your area or other places you have been.
Love your blog just the way it is.
My husband and I are full-timers and I love reading your posts about places you’ve visited (actually I love reading ALL your posts). They give me ideas of where to go and what to do so thank you!
I prefer you telling us some of your life experience stories of your publishing or Army days, than rereading stories of your RV days. I’ve been reading your blog a long time and read the originals back then.
I enjoy the travel posts and often save them to my spreadsheet of places to visit. Thanks for sharing them.
I enjoy your old travel blogs, I see places I did not know about and a few of them have ended up on my “don’t miss this if I go by” map.
We don’t really have the same interests, so all the visits at the cemeteries, police badge hunts and weapons museums, I totally skip. Also a lot of the stories about little known people or places are best left little known. But the personal stories about the pranks at the newspaper office are entertaining and worth the read.
Sure, keep the interesting places coming. I rarely see a repeat.
David Bushouse
Hey Nick, personally I enjoy reading the old posts. Even though I sometimes search your blog for sightseeing type ideas – when an interesting “old” post shows itself on my screen I will often try to re-plan my itinerary around that blog.
Must say, that we are not on the road any longer, so we really do not fully read your travel log blogs.
We do love your editor stories and any other general stories you post.
I was trying to look up your Lifeform office chair, but there are many models, any idea what yours is?
A 19 shot, 12 gauge handgun??? OMG imagine the size!!!!
I like you stories and look forward to reading every one … have. Suited some of yours and dream of many others that you suggest … Thanks for what you do … and what ever you choose to do in the future, if it makes ya happy do it …
Wayne Shunamon
Hello Nick, we have read many of your travel posts in the Gypsy Journal but after 12 years full timing have settled down like you and Terry. I vote to enjoy more of your day to day activities and experiences as a full time Floridians. Greg
Nick,
Yes sir, please continue sharing stories and updated commentary on you and Ms.Terry’s travels & adventures as you see fit. Despite the lack of prompt feedback, I suggest most of your readers enjoy them.
Great story regarding your online encounter with the neophyte author – file in fantasy science fiction – during my service I occasionally yarded a 18″ Remington 12 ga – shell capacity if I recall correctly was seven or eight and no freaking way would I attempt to shoot that beast one handed for the very reason you mentioned Lol.
My vote: don’t change a thing (unless YOU want to, since it is YOUR blog).
Since some health issues are forcing us to give up our dream to return the RV lifestyle, I enjoy being able to experience vicariously some of the places you have traveled. As a longtime reader of the blog, I remember some of the places, but still enjoy reading about them and am occasionally inspired to forward the information to friends and family for which it is relative. Maybe I am just nosy (I prefer to think I am just interested in history and historical characters), but I really like the stories about, as someone else called them, “little known” people and places. I do echo the folks who mentioned your stories from your newspaper days. You can’t get better than the “truth is stranger than fiction” people with which you interacted during that time.
As for the woman who asked for your advice about her writing (or any of the people who have asked for your advice, then did their own thing), I just don’t understand why seek knowledge from someone (who they presumably believe is wiser/more experienced in the subject), then just dismiss the advice?! SMH
Nick, I do enjoy your old travel blogs, many are places we have not yet been to and even if we have it is fun to reread about them. Keep up the great work and also I love all your books. Patty
Much to the chagrin of some of our loved ones, we are still full-time and plan on 30-40 stops from September to may. I don’t write books, I read many of them and my
Wife crochets and knits. We do everything except eat inside restaurants, and go to movie theaters. Those are the only real changes we have made. We spend about 4 months at a campground in Ohio visiting loved ones. Otherwise we are still traveling.
Love your blog!
Jim, here is the link to the one I have https://www.lifeformchairs.com/ultimate-executive-high-back-2390/