Author: Jay

and then…… thing go horribly downhill

After an amazing weekend in New Orleans, things went downhill quickly. The snow came. And came. And still came. New Orleans is not equipped for snow. Especially 11.5 inches of snow in some parts. The snowfall trampled the previous snowfall record of 2.7 inches set in 1963.

And it was cold. Having a 4-wheel drive truck with appropriate tires and experience driving in snow didn’t scare me. I went out to do a few things on Tuesday night and on the way back noticed something odd about the way the truck was handling. I stopped, got out and saw two shredded passenger side tires. Not just flat but torn and destroyed.

I sat there for two hours trying to get someone to stop. I couldn’t find my phone so there was no calling anyone. Finally I pulled it in to a hotel that was right there (luckily) to get a room. I was not in a neighborhood that I was able to get out and walk and leave the truck. It was on the way to the RV Park where I was staying and I had been warned by several people that this particular section of town was not one that I wanted to be walking in – day or night.

I searched and searched for the phone but it was no where to be found. I got a room at the hotel and spent a sleepless night watching the truck and waiting for daylight to call AAA.

The morning came without incident and I called AAA from the hotel room. They assigned someone and I waited. And waited. And waited. I finally called them back and got the number of the assigned tow truck company and called them. They had rejected the order because the driver was on the other side of a bridge and all of the bridges had been closed due to the weather conditions. I hadn’t been notified.

The assigned a second company. Same thing – gor rejected. i didn’t get notified. It was now time to check out of the hotel. i got a late checkout and waited and waited. And got the hotel room for another day. This is when I realized that the phone in the hotel wasn’t ringing when calls were coming in. i bravely walked several blocks to a cell phone shop in the hopes of purchasing a cheap replacement until I could deal with the loss of my iPhone. They were closed, of course. The gas station was opened and I got some snacks as I had not eaten since Tuesday lunch.

Back to the hotel, back to calling AAA. After the second company rejected the order, they reassigned it to the first, who of course rejected it. This went back and forth all day.

Not having a phone and not being able to receive phone calls was really hindering my ability to handle the situation in a timely manner. I walked back to the cell phone shop to see if they were opened and they were not. I checked several nearby restaurants because I hadn’t eaten in nearly 48 hours by this point and i don’t remember ever being that hungry. Nothing was opened. A few blocks beyond the gas station there was a Wal-Mart so I decided to venture there – they don’t close do they?

They were closed. All there was present was a single police officer making sure that windows weren’t getting broken. She graciously looked up the number for the RV Park so I could call and let them know where I was – my reservation had ended there.

Back to the hotel to deal with the truck and AAA again. My order had been cancelled becuase the tow-truck company couldn’t get a hold of me when they called. Even though I stressed multiple times to the AAA rep that I did not have a phone but I would be at the truck and to send the tow regardless.

At this point I was beyond frustrated. I was in a city I didn’t know in a place that wasn’t safe and was stupidly hungry and tired. I didn’t have anything with me to call anyone, I don’t know anyone’s numbers and I didn’t have access to a computer. I couldn’t even buy anything to help me. I was giving up hope.

I’m sure my lack of resourcefulness was hindered by hunger, lack of sleep and an anger so strong that my blood was boiling. I continued despite my weakening resolve.

Thursday morning I finally got confirmation that a tow truck was on the way. I talked to the owner of the tow truck company and the owner of a shop where it was to be towed. I was assured he would be there in a couple of hours. At this point my hope had been slightly restored. I checked out of the hotel and made an arrangement with the hotel manager to hold my key for the tow truck company and asked him to call me a cab so I could get back to my camper, resolve my reservation and begin the hunt for my cell phone.

After arriving back at the RV park and eating everything in sight, I resolved my reservation extension and went to sit in the hot tub. I got on my computer to track my phone. Miraculously, it still had a charge and was reporting being near the French Quarter. I had stopped there on Tuesday night to get a drink with the locals stuck in the snow and chat and it must have fallen out of my pocket in the snow.

I put a lock on the phone and a message on it that read “I am lost, please take me to the Phoenix if found.” The Phoenix was the bar across the street from where I had parked. Then I grabbed a $40 cab ride to the bar.

I sloshed around in the snow and the gutter for probabaly 1/2 hour before giving up the search. I went in to the bar and in one last ditch effort to find the phone asked the bartender if anyone had turned it in. HE HAD IT. After 3 days it still had a charge. I was in shock and disbelief, but extremely grateful.

I got back to the Campground and got a call from the tow truck driver. AAA had reassigned the request to another towing company that was going to tow the truck to a different repair shop.

Sorry for my french, but FUCK. What the hell? AAA told Joe (the tow truck driver) that the truck had been towed by Green Acres towing to Lakeview Auto. What the hell? I called Lakeview Auto and they did not have my truck. He knew about it because Joe had called to verify that it was there. I called Green Acres and the guy stumbled his words but finally admitted he had not towed the truck. I panicked. I had just finally relaxed after 3 days of AAA hell and now I had no idea where my truck was. AAA told me Green Acres had towed it but it wasn’t anywhere to be found.

Once again, Apple to the rescue. I have an airtag on my key so I tracked it – it was still at the fucking hotel! Green Acres had lied to AAA. At this point I completely lost my shit. I called back AAA, asked for a supervisor and then asked for their supervisor. I explained my situation for the 400th time and my cool was not kept. I demanded that they send the order to Joe and to toe my truck immediately. I told them that if Joe didn’t have the order within the next 15 minutes, all further communication would have to be handled by my lawyer.

After a couple of more go arounds, Joe finally got the order. He would pick up the truck in an hour. About 45 minutes later, I get a call from Modern Auto Wreckers telling me that they are at the hotel to pick up the truck. I just told him to go home.

Finally, on Saturday morning I finally got confirmation from Joe/Brendan (Creamer Motors, towing and repair) that they had the truck in their possession. They ordered new tires and would work on it the following week.

A big shout out to the following businesses for being awesome in my time of crisis:

Rodeway Inn and Suites, 4940 Chef Menteur Hwy, New Orleans, LA 70126. They were flexible with checkout, assisted me with looking up numbers and the owner gave me a ride back to the campground.

Creamer Motors, Brendan / Joe. 1341 27th St, Kenner, LA 70062 Were available, willing to help and understanding of my situation. Got tires ordered and truck repaired in a very timely manner. Friendly, helpful and responsive. Went beyond the call of duty.

Jude Travel Park, 7400 Chef Menteur Hwy, New Orleans, LA. Management was super flexible with my reservation, worked with me on saving money with weekly rates and just an all around professional, beautiful oasis to park my RV and enjoy the amazing hot tub.

Phoenix Bar, 941 Elysian Fields Ave, New Orleans, LA. Babysat my iPhone while not in my possession. Friendly, accommodating staff and great drinks.

My mother said that if I can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all, so I’ll keep my mouth shut about AAA because I have nothing nice to say about them. That situation is certainly not over yet, however.

New Orleans part deux

So New Orleans is totally my type of city. I’ve been wanting to come here for years and my expectations have been met and exceeded.

It is a short $15 Uber ride from my camping spot to the French Quarter. I landed at a bar outside of the French Quarter because I wanted to walk a bit to see what the city was like outside of the FQ, and I also wanted a drink.

Normally I wouldn’t drink during the day because in my younger days, I just wouldn’t stop and sometimes that would make for a very short day. Now that I can’t tolerate hangovers, I generally stop at two, which I did. The two I had were strong, and I definitely felt the effects of the alcohol after the second one.

Everyone in the bar was abuzz about the snow that was coming to Nola – “oh i heard six inches”, “the city will just simply shut down”. Snow isn’t common here and the idea that some was coming had some excited and some scared. The snow is scheduled to hit on Tuesday, that being the day I’m also scheduled to leave so I’m falling in the scared category. If it does indeed snow, I’m going to have to either stay here longer or leave early to get to my destination before i does snow. I’m not pulling a. camper in the snow.

The architecture here is beautiful. Everything has shutters – doors and windows. The colors of the houses are beautiful and the style reminds me slightly of San Francisco and slightly of Boston. The streets are narrow and the houses are packed tight. I love the wrap around balconies and the ornate window decoration.

This is a city I could get used to.

Everything

actinium, aluminum, americium, antimony, argon, arsenic, astatine, barium, berkelium, beryllium. bismuth, bohrium, boron, bromine, cadmium, calcium, californium, carbon, cerium, cesium, chlorine, chromium, cobalt, copernicium copper, curium, darmstadtium, dubnium, dysprosium, einsteinium, element 113, element 115, element 117, element 118, erbium, europium, fermium, flerovium, fluorine, francium, gadolinium, gallium, germanium, gold, hafnium, hassium, helium, holmium, hydrogen, indium, iodine, iridium, iron, krypton, lanthanum, lawrencium lead, lithium, livermorium, lutetium, magnesium, manganese, meitnerium, mendelevium, mercury, molybdenum, neodymium, neon, neptunium, nickel, niobium, nitrogen, nobelium, osmium, oxygen. palladium, phosphorus, platinum, plutonium, polonium, potassium, praseodymium, promethi um, protactinium, radium, radon, rhenium, rhodium, roentgenium rubidium, ruthenium, rutherfordium, samarium, scandium, seaborgium,selenium, silicon, silver, sodium, strontium, sulfur, tantalum, technetium, tellurium, terbium, thallium, thorium, thulium, tin, titanium, tungsten, uranium, vanadium, xenon, ytterbium, yttrium, zinc, zirconium.

There you have it – the list above is everything that exists in our world. Everything you touch, see, feel, wear, meet, or eat is made up of combinations of elements on that list. There is nothing else. There never will be anything else. There will always be the exact same amount of everything listed above. It does not get destroyed nor made. It only changes form based on it relationship with other items on the list. Living organisms are primarily made of six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. And each of these important elements cycle through the Earth system. The things that we are made of will eventually return to the earth to become a part of something else.

The periodic table represents both the limits and the boundless possibilities of our world. These elements are finite, yet our creativity has no bounds. From splitting uranium to power cities to engineering silicon for microchips, humanity’s ability to work with this palette of elements has shaped the modern world.


This understanding gives us a humbling perspective: we are temporary arrangements of eternal matter. The calcium in our bones, the oxygen we breathe, and the carbon in our cells have existed for billions of years and will continue to exist long after we’re gone. We are both fleeting and eternal—part of an unbroken (block) chain of existence. The physical part of us truly has eternal life.

Why is this important?

When we realize that the atoms in our bodies have been part of countless other forms throughout history—rocks, rivers, plants, and even other people—it reminds us that we are deeply connected to the world around us. Our existence is not separate from nature but a part of its ongoing story. So as we have a familial relationship with other humans during our lifetime, we also have an elemental relationship with every physical object on earth. We are the earth, we were born from the earth, we will once again become the earth.


If everything is made of the same elements, how we treat those elements matters. Polluting water, depleting soil nutrients, or emitting harmful chemicals isn’t just damaging the environment; it’s altering the very building blocks of life. Recognizing this should inspire us to tread carefully and steward these finite resources wisely.

So the thought for the day – treat yourself with respect. Treat your neighbor with respect. Treat the earth with respect.

I love Pink Floyd’s Eclipse. The lyrics describe this interconnectedness of “everything under the sun” and our inability to see it because “the sun is eclipsed by the moon” which represents the lunacy of everyday life.

All that you touch
All that you see
All that you taste
All you feel
And all that you loved
And all that you hate
All you distrust
All you save
And all that you give
And all that you deal
And all that you buy, beg, borrow or steal
And all you create
And all you destroy
And all that you do
And all that you say
And all that you eat
And everyone you meet
And all that you slight
And everyone you fight
And all that is now
And all that’s to come
And everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

Hello New Orleans!

I have come to the conclusion that I do not like pulling something behind my vehicle. I love the travel part, meeting new people, camping and new adventures, but I need to find someone named James to be the driver.

After leaving Georgia, I headed west on I-10 through Mobile, Biloxi and landed in New Orleans last night. I spent a couple of days in Biloxi remembering why I am single, getting my casino fix, and losing my iPhone.

Thank the heavens for Apple’s security and locating abilities.

Within 2 hours I had been able to lock the phone, put up a message on the screen, locate the device and retrieve it without issue. Now losing my iPhone is a common occurrence for me. I use it several times daily, but when those are more like a ‘misplace’ than a lose. I misplace occurs when my hand puts down the phone somewhere in the camper or outside and my brain wasn’t paying enough attention to register when it got put. A lose is where I put it down in public – like on a shelf at a store or on the ledge next to a slot machine and then walk off. Sometimes it’s only minutes and other times it hours when I finally realize that I no longer have the device.

I think I’ve only had to invoke the insurance (for loss, damage is another story) twice. And one of those times the phone turned up in a tool box in the basement on the farm.

Anyway, it’s time to buy another iPhone leash.

<an hour later>

The idea is always to finish what I’ve started, but the last sentence above resulted in an ADD moment that I’d like to explain. These occurrences are never planned, they seem to just happen without my conscious knowledge. They occur hundreds of times per day. What is unusual about this one is that I have come back to the original task and am picking it back up again, which gives me the ability to walk through what happened in the hopes that it might provide some insight to those of you who observe how I operate. Here we go:

  1. I typed ‘buy another iPhone lease’ in this blog article.
  2. I remembered that I had signed up for the Amazon affiliate program and thought I would get an affiliate link to the leash.
  3. I went to the amazon affiliates program page in a different browser window and saw a notice that my number was no longer connected to an affiliate account and to check my email for a potential reason.
  4. I went to my email and searched for amazon affiliate.
  5. An email from AWS came up stating that I had a bill. I didn’t recall having anything on an AWS account that would be generating charges so I logged in and checked, there was nothing.
  6. I saw a link for a tutorial on how to create an app on AWS and I started the tutorial.
  7. <the step ususally doesn’t happen>. I remembered what I was originally doing and came back to the post.

Now the interesting part here is that this is actually a post about New Orleans, not ADD.

Welcome to my world.

Anyway, back to New Orleans – New Orleans is SOOOO much better than Old Orleans.

I haven’t actually been to New Orleans at this point – I landed in an RV Park in East New Orleans and I’ve chosen to believe that I’m on a different planet at this point. When talking to people along my route I was always immediately advised not to walk anywhere, even in the day. The landscape here looks like, well – the aftermath of Katrina. It literally looks like a bomb exploded. There is debris everywhere, half torn down 5 story buildings, tons of housing developments that look to be fairly new that are abandoned – broken out windows, empty lots. The whole scene is rather depressing.

The RV park that I am is truly an oasis amongst the destruction. It’s all gated in, is very clean and has a hot tub and a pool. The clientele is on the high end for trailer trash, with the majority of campers being $50,000-$225,000 models.

There is a shuttle to the French Quarter that I’ll be hopping on today to get a better view and impression of this city. More later.

Farewell to Georgia

The time has come to move on to different scenery and I will be picking up and moving on down the road on Saturday.

I have gotten to know Georgia over the past year and a half and I must say that I really like it here. The roads are in great shape (at least the paved ones), the people are generally pleasant and the scenery is beautiful.

From historic Savana to Macon, Augusta and Atlanta, Georgia has provided a comfortable place to rest my head at night, some fun adventures and some new significant friendships along the way – Love ya Brack, Jim and Howie!

There are some things I won’t miss – the gnats below Macon, red Georgia clay EVERYWHERE, big ugly bugs, gigantic spiders and the LACK OF CASINOS.

I’l be reviewing the three major campgrounds here shortly and will have some more photos to share.

My route will take me South (because north is not an option right now with the forecast of snow and ice!) along the Gulf Coast where I will get to enjoy Alabama, Mississippi, Louisana and finally Texas. The journey will be about 900 miles and I have two weeks to get there so there will be a little time to play along the way. My reservations are set for Grizzly Pines in Navasota, Texas, but are totally open along the way. I’ll probably stay at rest areas or random campgrounds on the route with a casino here and there to make up for lost time.

What year is this?

I have now been in Georgia camping for 12 of the last 15 months. I have found Georgia to be a state full of polite people, but then again I’ve put myself in a bubble of sorts. The campgrounds where I have stayed have been predominantly gay campgrounds which don’t represent the population at large. I was reminded of that with a story I heard from another camper yesterday.

This guy had lost his debit card and had a new one on the way. His bank had used FedEx to deliver his card overnight. It hadn’t shown up the next day. Or the next. Or the next. Finally he went to the office to inquire about it. The office people said they hadn’t seen a FedEx driver there in a couple of weeks. The camper called the FedEx office in Macon, and then the FedEx corporate offices.

As it turns out, the delivery driver assigned to this campground doesn’t like to deliver here so the packages have not been delivered. They are all just sitting on his truck waiting for who knows what to happen before getting delivered. Some of the “who knows what” has included recipeients driving all of the way to Macon (about an hour away) to pick up their packages, others getting refunds and other just not knowing what to do.

Companies shipping these products have paid FedEx to deliver them and are not receiving the services that they have paid for.

All because the guy doesn’t want to deliver here.

I don’t know what kind of crazy world this driver lives in in his head, but if you don’t do your job, you shouldn’t be getting paid for it. This has evidently been a problem here on and off for years. Why does this guy still have a job? He’s not doing it and is costing people money. Even worse, why isn’t FedEx doing anything about this?

When the camper called corporate, they told him they would be in contact with the driver and if it hadn’t been delivered that day, that they would have the driver turn around and come back to deliver it. If that didn’t happen, they said the driver would no longer have a job.

The package didn’t show up. I’ve yet to hear the final chapter of this story but will be sure to share when I do. I wonder if anyone from FedEx was around (of course they were, it went on for decades) to see what happened with the Coors Boycott that still has effects on its sales.

Here’s the fear: with the new administration removing LGBT protections and corporations quickly following (Wal-Mart, Target among others) there will be no retribution for these types of outward discriminatory behaviors not only aimed at GLBT communities but other minorities as well.

Prediction: We will see a lot more of this stuff in the coming years.

Say Goodbye to the Monarch Butterfly

This next 4 years will have devastating effects on the lives of every living being on this planet for the remainder of our existence on this planet. Every little piece of legislation we will see will harm our environment, make the people poorer and the rich richer.

The Endangered Species Act has saved countless species from extinction, including the hump-backed whale, the grizzly bear and the bald eagle. Now with animal populations decreasing by 60% since 1970, 3 billion birds vanishing and one million other species facing extinction by 2050, Trump has weakened the Act by redefining what a habitat it. By doing so, he will open up lands for oil extraction which we know further harms our existence in countless ways. This is criminal.

But what do you expect from the first elected convicted felon of the United States? This crime will seem insignificant as we sell what else will unfold.

Defective Flip-Flop

Subject: Defective Flip-Flop – Request for Assistance

Dear Reebok Customer Service,

I am writing to express my disappointment with a recent purchase I made from your brand. On June 18th, I bought a pair of Reebok flip-flops, which I was looking forward to using throughout the summer. Unfortunately, I have encountered an issue with the product.

Just a few weeks after purchase, the toe strap on the right flip-flop broke, rendering the footwear unusable. Given Reebok’s reputation for quality, I was quite surprised and disappointed by this defect, especially considering the minimal use they have seen.

I will let you decide how to make this right.

I’m less concerned with the outcome about my flip-flop complaint than I am in making a statement of dissatisfaction regarding the decline in quality I’m seeing in your products and those of other brands. If this statement falls on deaf ears with you, I have hope that it may have a small impact via social media, where I post the letters I write to companies.

I don’t find it acceptable to make an inferior product knowing that it will fall apart and assuming that the consumer will just buy another. I’m not doing that. Now I will throw these flips away and the machine will have to turn, making another pair and contributing further to the decline in the habitability of our planet. But it won’t be me who purchases them this time.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Jay Larson
3219 370th St
Stratford, IA 50249
jay@jaylarson.com
515-709-3114

HP (not so) Smart

I have been looking for a compact printer for my camper for well over a year without much luck. I ended up buying a Canon Pixma which ended up not being compatible with my version of MacOS. A few weeks ago I found an HP LaserJet Pro M15a at a second-hand store for a very attractive price. The box hadn’t been opened and was marked new and works (not sure how they knew this, but I’m just reporting the facts).

Everyday for about 2 weeks I attempted to get the damn thing to print. I tried it on my home Mac and my work Mac (both running Sequoia 15.1.1) and my older Macbook Air running Monterrey. Nothing. In all cases the printer would appear to be installed, say Ready when looking at the status, would cause Print Center to open and show the document printing, but the printer would do nothing.

I scoured the web, attempted to call HP Support, who couldn’t even confirm that my printer model/product number/serial number was something that existed. I was about ready to give up when something occured to me – I hadn’t asked ChatGPT what to do.

ChatGPT immediately gave me the solution. I carefully crafted the prompt to ensure the assistant had enough information in order to help me. He came back with several things to try and the first one worked. I still can’t find this solution myself anywhere on HPs site or on the web in general. Here was the solution in case someone else needs it:

  1. Open System Settings and choose Printers & Scanners.
  2. Right or Ctrl-Click in the area that lists the printers installed and choose Reset Printing System.
  3. Click Add New Printer.
  4. Choose the printer from the list.
  5. Select HP LaserJet Pro M14-17 in the Use field and click Install.
  6. Open the Mac App Store and search for HP Smart.
  7. Download and Intstall.
  8. Open it.
  9. Click Print Documents.
  10. Browse for the document to print.
  11. Print from the HP Smart Dialog, not the applications or the OSs.

This leads me to a really baffling question: How can Amazon know that I merely thought about a warmer jacket and then display to me repeatedly on its own website and the website of many others ads for jackets for several months when HP can’t even retain what printer I’m looking for support for from one page on it’s site to the next in the same browsing session?

Food Delivery Service Dilemmas

Every once in a while we all get tired of cooking and cleaning up afterwards and want to eat food prepared for us in containers that can be discarded. And many times after a long day, the thought of getting dressed and going to a restaurant isn’t so appealing either. Food Delivery services like Uber Eats and Door Dash have been a nice alternative and especially handy when traveling.

For those in urban areas, this is a great way to get a nice hot meal delivered fast. When in a remote area, a recent experience has left me with the conclusion that perhaps it isn’t such a good idea to even offer it.

I’m staying at a campground in South Central Georgia. The nearest town is 10 miles away with a very limited choice of eats. About 35 minutes away is a city of decent size with choices that Uber Eats indicated would deliver to me.

My choices were Dairy Queen, Red Lobster, Wendy’s or Subway. I wasn’t in the mood for fast food, but I don’t eat fish. I ended up going with Red Lobster and choosing their sirloin steak, some garlic linguini, a caesar salad and a chocolate cake for desert.

When I ordered at 630, the estimated time of arrival was 7:25. At 6:45 it had jumped to 7:35. Then I got a notification that it was delayed and would be there at 7:55, almost an hour and a half from when I ordered. I wasn’t too upset, knowing the distance between the campground and the restaurant.

The food ended up arriving at 7:45. The food was horrible. The fries were soggy and cold. The meat was not cooked properly and was cold. The cake lacked the ice cream described in the description. The pasta had shrimp in it which wasn’t indicated when I ordered.

I paid about $50 for this meal and was left with a bad impression of Uber Eats and Red Lobster. What should change here? Should I as a consumer expect less having a delivery a log ways away from the restaurant expecting that it be substandard? Should the restaurant or Uber Eats invest in technology to keep the food hot and fresh? Or should this service just not be offered when the distance is so great? Not sure of the answer here, but I’m not a customer of the service any longer.