To all my readers and followers, I want to thank you for checking in! My last blog averaged 97 viewers per hour, which was enough to convince me not to end my blog just yet. It has undergone a bit of a makeover and I will focus more on current events with my usual humor served up with a side of sarcasm. But, of course, I will always make comparisons to RV life because there are just way too many funny things that crop up in my brain not to! Keep in mind, I am the person that laughed out loud when last year the news showed the bouncy house that started blowing away reportedly with a child inside. The kid survived just fine, so don’t be haters, but my brain couldn’t resist the humor in the exact moment it lifted off the ground and started bouncing across an open field. It was no different than all of us posting pictures of the guy just ahead driving down the interstate with the rear slide out! If you’ve been reading my blog, you get my humor and won’t send me hate mail! So today I will focus on a current story getting a lot of jibber jabber.

Saturday night on the world news, they shared the story of a California school district’s Board of Trustees saying some less-than flattering statements about parents and were overheard on a hot mic. I sat quietly listening to the reported story and upon the advertisement break couldn’t contain my thoughts any longer. But first, for those of you that may have missed it (it was all over social media so I’m sure you all know of it by now), let me recap the highlights:

School Board members were on a zoom call for a meeting and thought they were not live yet to the public. One of them said, “It’s really unfortunate that they want to pick on us, because they want their babysitters back.” Another one said. “I totally hear that, because my brother had a delivery service for medical marijuana, and the clientele were parents with their kids in school.” “When you got your kids at home, no more smoking,” he added.

Now, if you’re like me, I started laughing out loud (to my husband’s dismay) for several reasons. First, they are correct. Second, they are correct on both counts! If your child is in school, the teacher is an educator first, but they could indeed be referred to as babysitters, and you could try to argue that fact, but look it up. Babysitter: noun, a person who looks after a child or children while the parents are away. I say, if they’re not in your house and someone else is watching over them, babysitting does come to mind.

Think about parents during this pandemic that are dealing with children being at home every single day. You cannot argue the fact that they are extremely hopeful their kids will return to the classroom. Children need in-person schooling and parents need them out of the house for sanity during the week! Why do you think Grandmother’s stand by the door smiling and waive goodbye when you leave with your kids?

Which leads me to the 2nd statement of smoking pot. (I know some of you are laughing as well!) I don’t smoke it, but I certainly don’t care if anyone else does. Go for it! But I am certain beyond a doubt that there are parents who do and sneaking a toke or a jujube every chance they get if their children have been learning at home during this entire pandemic! Every single parent is in desperate need of a return to a normal household and feeling mentally fatigued. I am sure that one year later after playing teacher, cafeterian, janitor, parent, wife/husband, landscaper, maid and chef that I would be seeking more than just a toke or two myself!

The four board members were petitioned to resign and have submitted their resignations for talking truths that should have been private. Wow! Let that sink in for a minute.

Rush Limbaugh was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for ridiculing, demeaning, and persecuting people publicly on his talk show daily. People loved him! Our 45th President stood in front of very large crowds and said whatever he wanted because he could. People loved him! Didn’t matter if he bullied, lied, or could have shot someone (his words, not mine). But teachers say one thing about children or parents and it’s all about getting them fired. I think an apology with some sort of official reprimand would have sufficed, but that’s just me. Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone is my motto.

I understand the seriousness of this situation, but someone pressed the record button and targeted these folks by posting it on YouTube for the world to see. If there were a hot mic in any parent’s home, can you imagine the commotion they could cause if school boards heard what they had to say with the shoe on the other foot? I know, I know, we pay them to be educators and leaders. But we all know you don’t always get what you pay for. Just think of the bazillion dollars you’ve spent on repairing your RV. In fact, FT RVers have more patience and tolerance waiting for a repair guy to show up than these parents had with these Trustees overheard joking about being babysitters.

So my thought for today is this; think twice before you speak. Words cannot be unsaid. But if you thought absolutely no one was listening, what would you say? Think of yourself at work perhaps complaining about the company, your boss, your employees, your customers, customer service, etc. I know there were many times in my life while working that, if somebody told me I had just been recorded, I would have been running to the bathroom to prevent a big brown spot from showing through my pants!

I commented on a Facebook post regarding my thoughts on this story and some lady called me “simple minded.” I laughed about it, but the urge hit me to respond. “No, but it’s simple truth.” Yes, they are educators, but they are also people, and we all make mistakes. Yes, it is that simple. We get over far more serious and egregious actions from our beloved political leaders than we do teachers. Simple minded? Maybe so, or maybe just wishful thinking that people could be more open minded or understanding. Maybe I’ve just been isolated for too long…

If you have any thoughts to share, feel free to comment. I read them all, and as always, thank you for the visit.

I find it interesting lately that I have had nothing to write in my blog during a time in our lives when there is so much going on to write about. I am a “peacekeeper” by nature and pride myself on restraining my tongue so I can remain nonconfrontational in most circumstances. My readers know that in order to post my blog amongst my favorite sites, there are many rules to follow. I abide by all of them so that I may reach as many people as possible that have an interest in the RV life and enjoy my inciteful experiences with a bit a humor, and a dash of sarcasm. I find myself unable to write, not because I have writer’s block, but because I find it most difficult to restrain my tongue when my mind is running rampant! I feel exactly like when my husband would bring the RV to an almost stop at a unexpected crossroad and asked me “which way do I go” and I didn’t have a sure answer to give him! Heart pounding, palms sweating, anxiety mounting, because if I say the wrong thing, we could end up in a bad situation.

The Wreckage comes from the turmoil of all our normal lives coming to a screeching halt almost one year ago as we were on the brink of imminent disaster with a Pandemic and a history-making election. It is the equivalent of me telling my husband to go the wrong way on a one-way street into a neighborhood with low-hanging tree branches and power lines with nowhere to turn around! Yes, just like that! (ask me how I know…) And just when you get out of that disaster, you do it all over again at the next turn because there is NO WAY OUT once you screw up early on! You just gotta keep trying to figure things out along the way and hope you don’t end up going off the cliff your @ss-end is now hanging off of with your spotter screaming at you to stop! At the end of the day, you are just happy you got where you were going and thankful you weren’t towing a car behind you that day!

And then Groundhog’s Day comes along, and you find yourself well into the new year experiencing the same sh!t, different year, over and over again! The Pandemic is still here and more people around you are getting sick, and some even dying. The new President is here, but the old one really hasn’t left yet. “Don’t watch the news” they say, but it’s everywhere around you; your phone, your friends, your family, your spouse, cousins, neighbors, and the man on the moon (which I know, is just a conspiracy) and you can never get away from it all, hoping “the calm” creeps in among us. And when will that be, you ask? There is no end to Groundhog’s Day anytime soon, in my humble opinion, because there just isn’t. Unless everyone were to purchase an RV and travel into the sunset, living life happily ever after forever and ever! You can post pictures of puppies, babies, oceans and sunsets all you want, but when you are browsing through those adorable posts, enemy agents will sneak up and attack you and try to pull your heart right out of your chest as sure as a bear sh!ts in the woods!

As I sit here writing this blog today, I have 276 friends on Facebook. I used to have 399 on January first after completing a huge purge before the election. 123 people drove me to the edge of the cliff and I deleted them, or they deleted me before I had the chance to make the decision. (I usually slept on it one night before I would press that button.) Out of those 123 people, some were my biggest fans and read my blog faithfully every month, even urging me to write a book. Some of the 123 were my cousins. Family I loved growing up with and maintained contact with since forever. Some were people that I worked with for many years and always felt a common thread with. Others were from the group of RVers that we have met and became friends with since our first days on the road over ten years ago. Some were retired military, just like my hubby. 123 people that “liked” or “loved” many of my posts are now gone. People that tried to do battle with me when I never declared war. I was never a member of the Left or Right clubs, yet could never say a word on my own page without quick and decisive condemnation. So if I wrote a book tomorrow, there are 123 people that probably wouldn’t buy it among my closest allies. That is also to say, 123 wouldn’t care to promote it because I was in a raging crowd trying to stay safely in the middle without getting crushed from either side, yet still unfriended.

Yes, I am at a crossroad in the middle of the wreckage. We sold our RV and bought a cute little house in Florida, so I am no longer actually living the life of a FT RVer. I belong to several RV groups, yet I don’t have any new travels to excite you with. I could write a book, but the reality is; if 123 friends and family members are no longer interested in what I have to say, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be promoting it on social media forums. You gotta have an audience and I’m not sure I do anymore, so there’s that. You might say 123 is not a very large number, but each of those 123 people know at least 10 more people they interact with and so on. So it is actually a very big number. Almost 1/3 of my Facebook friends let political issues destroy them and became unfamiliar to me, and some even hurtful. These are tragic and historically sad times we are living in.

I loved creating Six Wheels Down and writing for a couple of years now, but perhaps all good things do eventually end. I am thankful that nearly 2000 people read my blog every single month that I posted it. I never joined the bandwagon of posting ads on my site because I never started it to sell anything to anyone, just simply to entertain folks with a common interest. I hope that in some way I have contributed to your RV experience and perhaps brought laughter into your RV’s. And yes, a side of sarcasm added to the menu! To that end, we have been in our house since June and still have had nothing break! So NO, RVing is definitely not the same as living in a house! LOL!!!

So for now, I have just a bit of advice. Since Groundhog’s Day is probably not going to end just because we have a vaccine or an Impeachment hearing this week, listen up! Continue to travel and make friends along the way enjoying all that life has to offer! It is far too short and you can’t back up, EVER! My Grandmother used to say to me when I was young; “By the time you get to be my age, you’ll be able to count your true friends on one hand.” She was right. But the more people you meet, the greater your chances are to count them on two hands! However, never count on friends and family to stand by you or promote your business. It seems you do have to choose a side in today’s world because being in the middle of the crowd will get you nowhere! Just look at the current events on The Hill. Speaking the truth or doing what’s right doesn’t necessarily get you anywhere and that’s my key principles in life.

Side notes:

If you have enjoyed reading my blog over the years, please be sure to click on “follow” on my website. Six Wheels Down will probably continue, but on a different path where my voice is not as restricted as it is with the private RV groups. I want to personally thank Tiffin Motorhome Lifestyle (especially Bill Flowers, Admin, for standing up for me when a few thought I was posting for monetary reasons, which of course, was not true) and allowing my monthly posts to his group! Also; Tiffin Motorhome Owners Group, Sigsbee Shufflers (especially Roger Ford, Admin), Full-Time RVers, Wilderness RV Resort, The Preserve Estates of the Wilderness, and Girls Time. Thank you all for allowing me to reach out to your base with RV fun and informative stories! I wish you all much success and happiness on your life’s journeys!! You can also comment on my website (I see all of them, I just don’t share all of them.)

Also, I want to say that for anyone that has suffered the loss of a loved one from Covid-19, my heart goes out to you in a very big way! At this point, almost everyone we know has dealt with it in some way, directly or indirectly. As I write this, a close life-long friend of my family and 30 year veteran has been in ICU for 3 weeks and now going to a long term acute care hospital after having a tracheotomy. It is so hard to imagine the mental exhaustion, the physical pain, and the financial burden of so many folks affected by this pandemic. Emotions run high and low during these painful days and my hope for all of us is that a new normal comes soon for much needed relief.

Lastly, A big THANK YOU to all of my followers and anyone that has tuned into Six Wheels Down to read my blog, even if just a couple of times! I paid extra for this site so that I could track my stats, and it has been amazing to me how many of you returned for more stories and advice! I will be back in some way, so stay tuned. But for now, until I figure out which way to turn at this crossroad, this is my last post on RV Life so carry on my friends…