It's A Bit Different Now

Hello to Everybody or Anybody that might stumble across this weblog... Well, I had forgotten how to get into this site for some time (5 years, I think) and I found an old hard drive in a closet full of electrical equipment, and here was the key to allow me to say hello again! It was sad that I left the blog with the last post being my little buddy Smokey having passed away, but after this much time Luann and I adopted 2 cats from a local shelter and brought them home. They are litter-mate brothers and one (Andrei) is an orange tabby while his brother (Rocket) is what is considered as a 'cream-sickle' cat, as he is orange tabby and white in coloration. The 'boys' are 3 years old now and are outright characters in their own right, and are diametrically opposite in personality and attitude. Andrei is the social tiger, while Rocket is real slow to warm up to visitors. I think that's enough about the cats for right now though. Well, quite a few things have happened since my last post and I really don't have time to write about it all detail right now, so here are couple of snippets. We no longer live in Tampa, Florida after having lived in the same house for 30 years. We decided we had enough of the area and sold our house. We just needed to get away from the constant hustle and bustle of Tampa life. This moving idea had been brewing for some time, with one of the first indications that we needed to move was when I discovered bullet holes in the stop sign on the corner of our yard. Then there the several interactions with the local police because we had video cameras surrounding our house and they asked us if our system had recorded a crime that occured in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the answer we typically gave was; "Yes, and here are the camera views on a thumb drive". Then there was the drug dealer catty-corner across the street from us that had one of her 'customers' die on her front door step... So yeah, it was long past time to leave. So, we have been in our new (to us) home for 4 years and it's a nice place, in a quiet area with enough acreage to have some distance between the neighbors. In the time we've been here, we've made good friends with our neighbors up and down the street and we've completed several sizable projects around the house. The largest one so far, was building out the basement completely and turning it into a full-blown 80s style arcade. We started it in 08-2022 and just finished it in time for guests that are coming over for Christmas 2025. There are 18 games that range between pinballs, standup and sitdown video games, and lso a Skeeball and shuffle bowling game. I really like finding the older games and restoring them to good operating condition, or better. We also have another 4 games in the garage, but they are either not working or undergoing reconditing to get them into good working order to swap out with other games in the basement. Well, this is about all that my ADD-addled mind can handle right now, so I'll post this and hope to come back with more details of our lives that might be worth reading about. Take care! Hans.