Visiting Jacksonville during Thanksgiving Day

Took some time to visit family in Jacksonville during the holiday Thanksgiving weekend.  I was surprised to find out that Greyhound bus station was running on Thanksgiving day.  and it was almost $30 cheaper to travel on that particular day.  So I booked it for the 27th of November.  and I arrived in Jacksonville Florida in the afternoon, had time to shop with my mother and sister Hilda before having dinner.  The trip on the way to Jacksonville was smooth sailing.  But had problems heading back.

So I book my ticket going back while I was in Jacksonville.  I booked it on my cell phone.  Which was not connected to the printer, so I had to use the "CALL IN TICKET" option.  This will allow you to pick up your ticket an hour prior to boarding.  I got the confirm email and transaction online seems to have went through smoothly.  But when I arrived at the station and use the Kiosk to print my ticket, even the Greyhound associate didn't notice that the ticket was not for that day.  It was scheduled for the next day.  Another associate noticed and immediately requested the manager for his assistance.  The manager said I just had to pay $20 bucks more or come back the next day.  I was furious.  I knew I booked the ticket on the right day.  I scrambled for my cellphone, browsed my emails and found the confirmation, but the confirmation email didn't have no information regarding my purchased ticket other than the confirmation number.  

here's a snapshot of the email greyhound sent me.

as you can see, the TRAVEL INFORMATION area is mumbo-jumbo.  

frankly, I think they did this on purpose, to take advantage of travelers during this season.  

But that was my holiday travel extravaganza.  

I was still thankful for the experience.  

and to add to my dismay:

The transfer from Savannah to Macon, the  bus was super late.  The associates called the passengers to line up on schedule just to realized that the buses that we were waiting for were so late.  about an hour, so our 45 minute layover became 2 hours.

But I still love to travel, even with Greyhound bus.

THE GOOD PART:

I am impressed at Greyhound buses.  They are clean, roomy, and comfortable.  Not stuffy at all, unlike other buses I've experience. 

and they have plugs and free wifi.  

I had so much fun with my mom and sis that taking photos was the last thing on my mind.  

But I had an hour before the boarding time, so I decided to put my luggage in the locker for $3 bucks and took a walk to Jacksonville Landing. 

The Landing was a bit empty. I'm pretty sure because of Game Day, Jaguars football.  So I just snapped some photos of my favorite spot at the Landing.  Even when I was younger, this was always one of my favorite spot.  You can walk across that bridge, which I often did along with my daughter Jamie.  

I snapped more photos of high rise buildings downtown, on my way back to the bus station.  We don't have these in Macon, not really.

I was shocked to see city buses running on Thanksgiving Day in Jacksonville Florida.  

I love this city!  because there's no way in hell Macon Georgia city buses would run on Sunday much less on Thanksgiving DAy!  lol!

Cox Cable in Macon - Review

So, I got a telemarketing call on my cell phone few days ago and it was Cox.  and because I am already a customer, I decided to entertain the call.  They offer a $24.95 deal for Cable TV this price is only good for 6 months and after six months it doubles.

The Deal:
$24.95 for six months
75 channel
and one receiver of HD

But what he failed to tell me is, without a HD receiver, you don't get all the channels.  Even though your tv is a smart tv and cable ready.  I was so disappointed and felt dupe.  OK, maybe I haven't had cable in a while.  But from what I can remember, if you're paying for cable, it doesn't matter how many tv you have in the house, as long as they are cable ready, you can plug the cable and you get what you paid for.  But apparently not any more.

The irritating factor:
More than half of the channels are not showing and will not show without the receiver.   and here is the most annoying part, when you are channel surfing, the tv no longer skips those channels, it goes through all the channels that you can't watch, by showing grainy and noisy page after page or I should say channel after channel.

Another irritating part, the tv with the HD receiver, when you channel surf, all the channels that you didn't get with the basic package, like HGTV, TLC, Discovery, oh yes, you do not get HGTV with basic package, it gives you a page that tells you to call customer service if you want this channel.  Talk about subliminal seduction.  If you keep seeing that message, you'll eventually call and spend more money.

More complaints.
What happened?... why is there such a long lag when channel surfing.  I just don't remember this issue.  It takes forever to go from one channel to another.

The good:
I can log in on abc.com, and other tv networks online, and watch episode I missed.  Usually I have to wait one week to watch the latest posted episode of my favorite shows.  with with cox cable tv, you can log in with your username and password and have instant access.  But is that worth it???

How to loose 10lbs in 3 days safely

Somehow I ran into this on Youtube.  It's called the military diet.  It suppose to have you loose 10lbs in 3 days by eating 3 times a day.  Because it's safe and 10lbs in 3 days, who could say no to that.  I'm giving it a try and will post my progress here.  I am extremely over weight.  I mean 220 lbs at 5.7 height.  My waist is embarrassing to measure.  So I am in desperate mode right now and holidays are right around the corner and hate for my family and friends see me this huge.

Here is my day one.  
My weight before eating is about 220.
and I woke up late and ate my breakfast around 10 am.
I had my lunch at 12:40 pm.

Breakfast is a cup of tea, toast with 2tsp of peanut butter, and half of a grapefruit.

Lunch is 1 can of tune 4oz, toast, and cup of hot green tea.

Mortal and Pestle, what to use it for?

As you know, I finally bought my 6" Kindle e-reader.  I think it was for $59 straight from amazon.com.  I quickly downloaded some free e-books and one of those e-books was "Essential Home Remedies" by Sue Woledge.   Although the e-book was not exactly what I wanted to add to my Kindle library, I actually truly enjoyed it.  The book only covers a handful of herbs but the way it was written, it kept me reading to the end.  I really enjoyed it and I actually listened and paid attention to a lot of her advice and recommendations.  One recommendation was the use of garlic.  I already knew the importance of garlic, but her recommendation was to use organic garlic.  I never really thought about that, but she was right and on point.  Although I love garlic and love using it on food and I even make my own garlic and vinegar potion, I never enjoyed preparing it.  It's so sticky and that layer of skin is so hard to remove and you have to press it with your knife or bang the ball of your palm to gain access to the garlic.  So I bought and tried all kinds of garlic presser and I was not satisfied and somewhat disappointed.  Until I bought a mortal and pestle.  

First of all, I didn't even know what they were called.  I do remember my grandmother had these and often used it for her tobacco.  I called them herb grinder or pounder.  and somehow in search of garlic presser on ebay, I found these.  I only found the two small ones,  They cost about $5 plus shipping.  I had no idea they were that small.  and I even tried using them, and they were a joke.

then, I found the big one at my local dollar store here in Macon, sold for $5 bucks.  I was shocked.  and it is now my official garlic presser and grinder.  It's made out of some kind of stone.  It's heavy and it does the job with ease.  So no more unused garlic in my house.  

I love it and planning on buying more soon.

St. Joseph Catholic Church in Macon Georgia

A must see for all of you architecture fans is the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Macon Georgia.  They don't build churches this way anymore.  This church sits where Poplar meets Washington Avenue in the heart of downtown Macon.  Literally steps away from the First Baptist Church.  This church demands the attention of your camera.  The best time to take the photos is right before sunset, you can really have some great shots.  Specially the way the sun rays illuminate the structure.

Beginning my vegetable garden in containers

I'm trying out my green thumb.  Well to see if my thumb is green.  I'm using the grow bags method that Larry Hall use in his YouTube videos.  The idea is to use Walmart re-usable grocery bags and fill it with your potting soil and plant your vegetable or flowers.

Ofcourse I tweaked it just a tiny bit, by using a storage container from Dollar Tree.  My idea is to combine the terrarium concept and Larry Hall's grow bag concept.  Here is a list of what I used:

• Walmart grocery bag (only cost .50 cents each)
• Standard potting soil, I bought from Walmart (small bag because I'm still in the experimenting method)
• $1 container from Dollar Tree, with holes, so the grow bag can breath while inside the container.  (This is another method I learned from Larry Hall, is called air pruning technique, suppose to help your plant to take in nutrients better and prevents root bound)
• Small rock pebbles
• Charcoal use for aquarium
• Moss
• Spinach seeds

BURPEE SPINACH SEEDS

I know I'm late starting my garden.  But I'm in middle Georgia, so we don't get frost until later in the season.  and besides according to the spinach packet I can grow this in the fall.

Sow in average soil in early spring for first crop, again late summer for fall crop.  In the south, sow in fall.  Sow thinly in rows 1 1/2 - 2" apart.  Cover with 1/2" of fine soil;  Firm lightly and keep evenly moist.  Seedling emerge in 7-14 days.

I'm hoping to have a good turnout and planning on purchasing more of these container and start my vegetable garden.  

Here is a video of Larry Hall explaining air pruning.

18 weeks pregnant and her water broke

It's Friday, and my daughter been in the hospital Sunday.  She's 18 weeks pregnant and her water broke.  She's on antibiotic and they just gave her another pill a few minutes ago.  She had discharge with blood today and had contraction.  Her contraction became as close as every five minutes.  I thought that was the end of it.  I really thought we lost the baby.  But now it is 12:27 am 9/21/2014, and she's no longer having contraction.  But they did gave her something for pain, morphine and something else.

Couple of black nurses came in to check on her and remove the machine that was monitoring her contraction.  So I had to ask them the question:  "Do you know anybody that had a successful outcome similar to her situation?"  One of the nurse responded:  Yes, one of our co-worker experienced the same thing at 19 or 20 weeks and now her baby is healthy.   Her responds gave me faith again.  I thought the Most High had made his decision to take my first grand child.  I'm hopeful and stable at the moment.  and my daughter continues to fight for her baby's life.

What I dislike the most about this experience so far is, one of the female doctor here name Dr. Wood, she kept pressuring my daughter to make a decision to terminate her pregnancy.  I told my daughter not to make a decision right now, because she was emotional and about to burst into tears, but the Dr. Wood kept insisting for her to make a decision.  Until the white nurse or doctor told her, that she didn't have to and that they will be here all day and to let them know.

Did you know that it is illegal to collect rain water?

Enjoying the full moon tonight

Another full moon tonight.  and I am enjoying it.  Burning saldalwood incense, swinging on hammack inside my geodesic dome while the full moon is taking a peak of me.  Love it.  Feeling more spiritual and connected with nature.

Visiting Five Points of Atlanta Georgia

We decided to check out Atlanta'ss infamous Five Points area.  We were all awe by the culture and arts that emanates in this neighborhood.  My first impressions was the easy, lay-back, colorful, freedom of self expressions, that are easily seen and portrayed in the many painted concrete and brick walls.  Arts definitely rules Five Points. Food is al 

Wireless mouse and wireless flexible keyboard from ebay - See review and videos

Declutering my work area by going wireless

I purchased an all in one desktop computer, finally. But I bought it used from a Pawn Shop in my area.  It's a 19 inch Lenovo All In One desktop computer. The big plus, instead of Windows 8, it has Windows 7 and it's a touch screen.  I think I got a deal.  I paid $275 each.  I also bought exactly the same unit for my daughter.

It came with a wired keyboard and mouse.  I'm all about simplicity and needed to stay compact in my tiny office.  To stay in budget, I went to ebay.com and purchased wireless keyboard and mouse.  So far, they are working and responding pretty good.  I'm getting used to the keyboard, more and more, even though I've only used it for a couple of days but I'm really liking it.

wireless mouse

wireless flexible mouse

flexible folding rolled up keyboard

all in one desktop computer 

How to build a geodesic dome out of metal conduit

I have postponed this project for so long and finally have a chance to build one after collecting all the tools to make the job easy.

Ques:  Why build a geodesic dome?

Ans:  My main reason to build a geodesic dome is for my dogs.  I didn't want to spend $200 to purchase a dog kennel.  I thought by building one out of geodesic design, that, it should save me money and earn a new skill.  But the use for geodesic dome doesn't end their.  I also, wanted one, just to have an outside room to chill at, a greenhouse, and a shed.  There are so many use for geodesic domes, and its a plus because they can easy be taken down and take with you on your next place, specially, I'm renting a house.

The Plan for Dog Kennel
The plan is to build a 2V geodesic dome and wrapped the bottom half part with a roll of wire fencing.  Covering it with a tarp that's secured with grommets or zip ties.

The Tools I've purchased for this project

• 12 Ton Press
• 5 Speed Drill Press 
• Safety Glasses
• 18 Volt Cordless Drill
• Titanium Drill Bits
• Titanium Nitrate Step Drill 
• Pipe Cutter

Materials Needed

• 1/2 Galvanized Metal Conduit (35 Quantity)
• Tarp
• 1/4 x 2 nuts, bolts and washers
• Round swimming Pool Cover

The Plan:  To build a 2v dome. 

The Size:  8ft 7in in diameter

I bought 35 of 1/2 metal conduit, cut them to size.  Strut A is 4.7 (You will need 30 of these struts) and Strut B is 5.3 (You will need 35 of these struts).  Struts are the frames for the geodesic dome.  In this case the 10ft metal conduit is the frame and is cut once to have two different size struts (leaving you with less waste materials).  2V, means two different struts size.  So if you are building a 3V dome, it means that you are using 3 different size stick or struts.  

The first thing you want to to do is to cut your metal conduit pipes.  Then you want to flattened each end. My calculations was already included to have 1.5" of area to flattened.  So don't forget that if you are using a different size.  Make sure to include 1.5 inch for flattening and drilling holes   And then drill a hole about 3/4" away from the ends.  

Putting it together

My experience, its better to build, bottom to top.  I tried the top, with a 1V dome, and it was a mess.  Won't do that again.

It's really hard to avoid using www.desertdomes.com  They have a more detail explanations of building and they have a dome calculator.

$5 Pipe Cutter from Harbor Freight, it cut all of my conduit with out problems

I got this to drill the holes at the end of each struts, but ended purchasing a drill press to speed up the process.  I ended using this cordless drill with a socket attachment to tighten the bolts.

Titanium step drill bit, this made drilling the holes without having to use a spare.  It works with the cordless drill and with the drill press

the pipe cutter still in packaging.  $5 from harbor freight

Pressed conduits or pressed struts

I marked each end with a template.  3/4" inch from the top. 

Mark for the holes.

Pressing the conduits struts

12 Ton Press from Harbor Freight

1V dome.  Although the plan was called for a 2V dome, I wanted to test my work.

This is a 1V dome using 25 of my B struts.

I just hand tightened, planning on disassembling it to build the 2V dome.