Random Thoughts #1

Hampton Lakes Community

I hear through the grapevine that turnover is going to happen in November. That’s it. No details. There’s some people that think we own all the amenities already and no money will have to be paid out. I hope that’s true, but I don’t think so. No reliable information or communication, just gossip. I am going to slow down my Facebook interactions within our various community groups. The only thing you can post out there is a picture of a pretty sunset. Otherwise, things tend to go bonkers! I talk a little bit about our school speed zone in the Driving section down below.

Update on Turnover – 12/08/2025

I hear Riverhall Country Club is going to turnover in December, but the Amenity Center and Hampton Lakes is delayed for 5 years! Yep! The developer and his lawyers changed the bylaws! Thank you oh lord of the land! We are your humble servants. Just please, fix the potholes on a more timely basis. Thank you oh lord of the land. Maybe heat the pool? Use your money, so we don’t have to get involved with another BS study that will be thrown out by your lawyers at the last minute. Just do it and bill us later when we turnover. Whenever that is. Probably in five years the lawyers will change the bylaws again for another 5 years, and so on, and so on. We’re so lucky to have such a benevolent lord of the land! I just hope there’s no funny games going on with our fees. I know, the developer people say there are auditors, but I bet they just add up the same numbers you give us. Not a deep dive. Who checks to see if there really is $30,000 worth of flowers being installed? Hmmmmm? Thought so!

Cats

my cat just jumped in my lap, so now i can only type with one hand.yu7u6 Ooops, that was Jinks trying to type his thoughts!

He left, back to two hand typing!

Politics

When I was in college back in the 70s I was a democrat, maybe even a communist. When you’re poor and don’t have anything its easy to be a communist. I voted for Jimmy Carter! Do you know why? Of course you don’t, so I’ll tell you. The country just got done with all that Republican chicanery with Nixon and Watergate and the Spiro Agnew resignation and all that behind the scenes in smoke filled rooms dealing and then after Nixon resigns, Gerald Ford becomes the first president that nobody voted for. So Jimmy Carter comes along and says he’s not a Washington insider and he’s going to clean things up in Washington. So I voted for him. Apparently, I like guys that say they are going to clean up Washington because I also recently voted for the guy that was going to drain the swamp! Yes, I went from left wing democrat to republican over the years. Once you accumulate stuff, you don’t want anybody else messing with your stuff. So say no to communism. Good luck New York!

Driving

I just drove down our community’s main drag, Riverhall Parkway, which goes by a grammar school. For the four years I’ve lived here there was no school speed zone signs or markings on the road. So now its 15 miles an hour at certain times during the day. Let me tell you, 15 miles an hour is incredibly slow. Snails were passing me! Not a kid in sight, which by the way there never is, because they all get dropped off by car or school bus inside the fenced in area of the school. I’ve never seen anybody walking to this school. There is a corner where kids wait for a school bus, but that’s right outside our community’s gates, so no need to walk down the main drag. Then there’s people talking about installing cameras for speeders! Even if there’s no kids present! Say NO to ticket cameras!

I remember one time we had our car packed with family and went to a beach on a lake somewhere in Madison, Wisconsin. It was a small parking lot that was full. The only spot available was a single handicap parking space. So I pull in the space, unload the family, escort them and all the crap to a spot on the beach, then head back to the car to move it somewhere legal. By the time I got back to my car, maybe five minutes, I had a ticket for $300. I look around for a cop, but nothing in sight. I thought about leaving the car there since I already got the ticket, but there may be a real handicap person that needs to use that spot, so I moved the car. That handicap spot remained empty the whole time we were there!

Driving in Future World

You know how on today’s cars that have the GPS thing going on and they actually display the speed limit on your dashboard for the road you’re driving on? What if in future world they limit the speed of your car to that speed limit? Or better yet, they don’t limit your speed, but if you go over the speed limit, you get a ticket in the mail for $200 or whatever. Or, better yet, when you go to fill up your car you don’t get any gas until you pay all the fines you’ve racked up while driving since your last fill up! Big brother is coming to your car! They can turn your car off or maybe they can make your car drive right to the nearest police station! Or drive to Alligator Alcatraz and you’re on the next flight out to Guatemala! Crazy!

Computers

You can’t live with them and you can’t live without them! My computer wouldn’t turn on one time. I checked everything out and determined it must be the power supply. I go to Amazon and buy a power supply for my computer. I get it, install it and the computer has been working fine for 2 years. Just the other week I turn on my computer. The screen turns on, but goes dark. I check the computer lights and see something is going on, but nothing on the screen. I try around 30 times to interrupt the start up to go into safe mode, but the screen keeps disappearing. Finally, I connect my computer to my wife’s computer screen and everything is working fine! I buy a new monitor and everything is working fine. In both instances, I had this dreadful though that everything I’ve done on this computer was gone! Norton does a back up to the cloud, but I hope I never have to that type of restore.

I’m writing this part 5 days later. So right after I wrote the above paragraph my computer locked up. I turned it off and tried to power it back on, but it wouldn’t boot up! So I go on Amazon and buy a new computer. Then a couple hours later I turn the computer on and it boots up! I was thinking about cancelling my Amazon order, but the computer locked up again and I can’t get it to boot up anymore. I’m now finishing this post on my new computer. This new computer is awesome!

Xfinity and Sound bars

My xfinity remote was unresponsive, so I unplugged the xfinity box and reset the remote. I later figured out that when I put my big feet up on the cocktail table in front of me they were blocking the line of sight of the remote to xfinity box, but the damage was done. I had a heck of a time pairing my remote to the TV and sound bar. So I get it to work the TV, but not the sound bar. I tried every variation of hooking the sound bar to the TV, but nothing worked. I bought a new sound bar, connected it and everything works fine. So did the old sound bar go bad from all my playing around with it, or was its time just over! I guess we’ll never know.

Substack

I get a lot of emails in my inbox from a variety of substack writers telling me how to get paid subscribers or sell newsletters and then live a life of leisure as the money just keeps rolling in with little or no effort. Its funny how many people are out here making money off of other substack writers who want to learn how to make money with substack! I’m sure there are a lot of other people out here that are just following their dreams and writing what’s been inside their heads for a while. So I am going to just start writing. The biggest words of wisdom I’ve received from these emails is to just be you and hopefully that will help you make a connection with your readers and build a community. Also, one email said to stop scrolling on Instagram and write instead. So why waste time when you can be productive instead. That’s a good one because I’ve been wasting a lot of time lately!

The only other thought I have with substack is trying to figure it out! If you only get exposure by having popular posts then how do you get your first popular post? Does the word conundrum come to mind? I guess I’ll just keep writing and see what happens.

NFL

Can’t wait for the NFL season to begin. Go Bears!

That’s all for now.