A New iPhone

Today's Photo - Rustic Falls, Moran State Park, Orcas Island, Washington













Well, I made the big mistake of going to the Apple Store.  I had a good reason - My 2 generation old iPhone was giving me problems.  Actually, the problem was of my own making, although I feel Apple is really at fault due their use of the english language.  I wanted to turn on the restriction for in-app purchases.  My problem is the meaning of "on".  To me, when a restriction is on, the term should be restricted.  Apple wants you to set a restriction to "off" for it to be restricted.  So, to make a long story short, I managed to turn off just about everything except on-line app purchases!  Since I updated a bunch of apps at the same time as well as changed a bunch of other things, I didn't realize what the problem was.

It only took the iPhone "Genius" a couple of seconds to fix it.  As long as I was there, I looked at the iPhone 4.  Big Mistake! More memory - they start at 16Gb (I have to remove music or apps to add any new ones since I've maxed out the 8Gb of my 3G phone) and the iPhone 4 is so much faster.  It didn't take too much to talk me into a replacement.  Good thing the iPad2 tablets aren't here yet!

The new phone was great until I got it home, and even worked fine with my Sony dock. That evening it crashed while running Pandora in the dock, and started rebooting every time I quit an app.  Back to the Genius Bar - this is the first of many apple products (been purchasing them since an Apple II) that was DOA.  No problem - they exchanged it for a new one & since I took my laptop with me, I was able to registered it & reload my apps while there just to be sure the original phone was the problem.

So, although the original plan was to wait to upgrade until the iPhone 5 came out, things changed.  Now I have to stay away from the store after March 11th (the day the iPad2 becomes available!)

Till next time.

Spring?

Today's Photos - A Little Flooding on Lakeshore Road.

As far as I'm concerned, the official first day of spring in Oswego is opening day at Rudy's, a lakeside fish stand. Unfortunately, that is still a few weeks off. Still, there is another that has been making its mark, at least in our neighborhood, the flooding of Lakeshore Road.

Lakeshore Road was originally called Snake Swamp Road (a much more interesting name to my mind and one I fought to keep) but  was changed to Lakeshore Road as expensive houses were built on the lake side of the road & the owners just couldn't live with the name.  In any case, there is still a swamp about 1/4 mile from my house.

Although it rarely flooded in the past, the town raised the height of the road over a foot, and also added additional 3' diameter drains under the road as new construction upstream increased the flow of water through the swamp.  Flooding has become at least an annual problem ever since a family of beavers moved in.

Like all beavers, they all hate the sound or running water, at least downstream of their lodge, and each night they cut down branches, trees & block the drains.  The next morning the town crew comes out with a truck & hauls away the branches & logs blocking the drain.  Each "crew" repeats their "job" every day! During the winter they both call a truce since neither likes working in the cold. With the combination of spring snow melt & the awakening of the beavers, the whole process starts again. A few years ago a shotgun would solve the problem, however that is frowned upon these days.

In any case, our spring snow melt was short lived - we are now at 192" of snow for the season, and 6" - 12" is predicted today & tonight.

Till next time...

Special Edition - The Egg is Hatching!

This Photo - My 17B has been born!























Had to add a couple of photos - I just received email from Escape Trailer Industries - My 17B has come out of the mold & is on it's way! Two births this spring - My trailer & a new granddaughter due on the 10th of April...

Here are a couple of photos of the inside - kinda bare so far.

CNY RV & Camping Show

Today's Photo - A r-pod 172 at the Central New York RV & Camping Show















Went to the opening day of the CNY RV & Camping Show at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, NY yesterday.  Since my main interest is in fiberglass egg trailers and since most of the manufacturers of eggs sell direct & don't do shows, I just went to see what was new.

Well, not much.  Very few motorhomes - a few C's,  fewer B's and even fewer Class A's.  Trailers were the big feature, with many sporting signs stating "I only weigh ______ pounds.  I suspect the latest gas prices have got the dealers scrambling for the lightweight end of the spectrum.  There were a couple of $200,000.00 Diesel Class A's, but not too many were looking at them.

There were a bunch pop-ups and a couple of r-pods, the closest thing to a fiberglass egg.  The r-pods are much less expensive than the eggs, however they have seams between the roof & walls, very little storage, and the finish leaves much to be desired.  I see many ads for 20 & 30 year old fiberglass trailers; although they haven't been around that long, I suspect there will never be a 30 year old r-pod except in a museum. Still, a lightweight option.

It was crowded - I don't know how many were buying, but it was the most crowded show I've seen in the last couple of years.  In any case, I got my chance to see what else is out there & am still happy with my decision.  I also picked up a bunch of campground brochures - none available for the southwest, but I did get some for local & east coast locations.

Till next time...

NY Department of Motor Vehicles

Today's Photo - A Tufted Titmouse

















It has been an interesting day.  I decided to visit our local DMV to check which documents I need to register my trailer.  After waiting in line for 45 minutes, I finally reached the counter.  I explained what I wanted to do - register the trailer once I received the paperwork from the manufacturer, and take the plate to Chilliwack, BC with me.  Everything went well with the paperwork the manufacturer plans to send me  until the DMV stated I needed an import form CBP 7501 that I will receive when I cross the border from Canada into the US.  Only problem is I'm doing this 3000 miles from Oswego.  Since I plan to stay in the west for a couple of months, I'm not sure a temporary plate would be a solution (or even possible).

According to them there is no solution - I have to either bring in the form (not sure how I get the trailer from the west to NY without a plate) or mail the form to them, they will mail back paperwork, I mail it back to them & then they mail me the plate.  I'd only have to stay in one location for about a month for that to work!

I can't believe there is no other solution, but again, this is dealing with New York State. Sigh...