Started today off by going for coffee but finding the Highway 30 Eatery and Coffee Shop was not open. I guess they are taking a long holiday weekend. So ended up going to Denny's for breakfast and then on to Starbucks for coffee.

Now I want you to know that I think Starbucks has the best coffee out there. But I prefer a local non "clone" coffee shop. But when the only one around is not open I will go to Starbucks.

One other reason I prefer to go to a local, non clone coffee shop, is that Starbucks, not too long ago, made a business decision to stop cooking food. The reason behind that decision they said was the smell of cooking food interfered with the smell of the coffee. So they no longer make any breakfast sandwiches or even toast their bagels. That was the limit for me. I really enjoy a toasted bagel with two cream cheeses with my coffee. I can still get a bagel with cream cheese at Starbucks but not a toasted bagel. I hope they soon realize the mistake they are making and rectify it soon.

I read the other day that Starbucks was going to close 600 stores here in the US. They claimed that it was do to the slow down in the economy. I wonder. Some of that may have it's roots in that business decision to not cook any food inside their stores. Could be.

Like I mentioned the other day my son Ray, his wife Jennifer and my granddaughter Ellery are stopping by here in La Grande, Oregon on their way to the Oregon coast to visit for a day.

So part of today was me kind of getting organized and ready for their visit. The rest of the day I have been doing some research for the book I am writing (more on a future posting).

I also have spent some leisure time reading some comics. One in Particular is The Batman Chronicles V. 1 which is the chronological reprinting of every Batman tale from every comic in which he starred, beginning with "the Case of the Chemical Syndicate" from Detective Comics #27 (dated May, 1939). One I particularly enjoyed was the one that introduced The Joker to the series.

Well enough for now. More next time.

I enjoyed the parade very, very much. It was well attended with several hundred people lining both sides of the main street. Actually I was a little surprised to see that many people.

I took some pictures and videos of the parade. I will add some to my next Travel Diary entry.

I sort of was planning to stay for the BBQ but the line had over a hundred people in it. I don't know about you but I had enough of chow lines in the Navy.

I'm heading out the door in a few minutes. I will probably do at least one more interim thought after I have come back from the parade. Unless I see or hear something noteworthy while there.

Yes Sir, life is good!

Finished working and I'm setting in my lawn chair outside my RV. It's nice enough outside where I'm wearing shorts and enjoying a stogie. I'm enjoying the stars and a very pleasant breeze.

For me a simple and quiet lifestyle is all I ask for.

While I'm at it I'm thinking about what new feature to add to my business web site www.wwwhelper.com.

I'm thinking my business site is about ready for a blog. I will use the program I created for this web site. My Travel Diary. Of course it won't be travel based but will be focused on starting and running an online business. That's because that is the purpose of www.wwwhelper.com.

But first I will go to the Imbler parade this afternoon. Then maybe I will get it installed.

This program is now mature enough to be used for a business blog.

The only thing I'm still pondering is how will I use this "Interim Thoughts" feature. I will have to think on that some more. After all it is an optional feature that I can either use or not use.

It is well past midnight, I need to start thinking about heading to bed.

Good night!

I heard on the Radio this morning, KLBM La Grande 1450 AM, that Imbler had an independence day parade at noon. Then some sort of picnic at the local Baptist Church after the parade.

I don't remember Imbler having a 4th of July parade when I lived there. So I think I will wonder over that way tomorrow and see if anyone is left from my days.

As you can imagine, after my little flood last night, I was late getting to bed again.

Which means I was late getting up this morning. I was planning to go for coffee but I was faced with a still very wet carpet. So instead of going for coffee I went to work dabbing up as much of the remaining water as I could. This is going to be tougher than I expect.

Despite all the disruptions in my sleep habits I am really charged for getting some work done so I will go ahead and get some more work done today on my business web site www.wwwhelper.com.

I will discuss later today what my 4th of July plans are.

I heard a pop and all 3 of my cats jumped straight up in the air.

At first I didn't see anything then a few minutes later I went to the head and stepped in a puddle of water soaking through my carpet.

I immediately went out and turned the water off. After rummaging around in my basement I found where a hose had blown off. I fixed that now I'm drying my carpet.

I guess I still need a little excitement once and awhile.

I was working on my main business web site www.wwwhelper.com late last night. When I say late I mean until 2:00 AM this morning.

Sometimes when I get going on a programming project I loose track of the time and don't quit until I am satisfied with the amount of work I got done. The downside of that is the next day it throws me off.

It's kind of like my young Navy days where I would go steaming most if not all night then show up for work the next morning. Did you note I didn't say I would be ready to hit the decks a running?

Last night I worked on integrating a new web site design and layout. The way I created that web site it has a sort of switch where I can just flip it and it will switch the entire web site over to the new design. What you see today is my old design because I still need to do some tweaking. In a day or two I will flip that switch and go over to the new design.

In a few weeks I will integrate another design and then periodically switch back and forth between the various designs. Got to keep the visitors guessing whether they are on the right web site or a new one.

Yesterday, Sunday, I stayed in and played hookie. Not much else to say about that.

Today, I also stayed in but got quite a bit of work done.

I am planning to write a book about how I became and being a traveling webmaster. In addition to working up my outline I have been doing some brain storming. Putting my thoughts down on paper.

Doing it this way would normally mean I still would need to type it all up. Well I bought me a program called Dragon Speaking which allows me to dictate my notes and the software will type it for me. That is the way it is supposed to work. And I think it will.

It seems I have to train the program as well as train myself how to use it. Actually, it seems pretty easy. I will let you know how that works out after I have used it for a while.

This evening I decided to watch some classic TV. I watched an episode each of Mission Impossible, The Love Boat, Chips and Emergency!

I decided on work. I figured that I had better strike while the iron is hot. I'm sure in a few days I will have a low motivation day. So I will wait until that happens then go hookie.

I am Back at the RV and doing some programming modifications to this "Interim Thoughts" program and my new redirection script.

My son Ray called and he, his wife Jennifer and my granddaughter Ellery will be passing through La Grande, Oregon on their way to the Oregon coast for their vacation next Sunday 6 July. Since I live in an RV I don't have a spare bedroom so what I do when I have guests is rent them a room at a local motel. As often as this happens it is not a problem at all.

When Ray called and said they were on their way to the Oregon coast for their vacation next week I figured I would have a devil of a time getting them in a room on the 4th of July weekend. Well that was not the case. The La Grande Inn is right across Island City Drive from where I am staying. They didn't even bat an eye when I made the reservation.

Back to work.

I got up early this morning with enthusiasm coursing my veins again.

Just now I am setting in La Grande, Oregons Starbuck Coffee house trying to decide what to do today.

Like I said earlier I am highly motivated to do some work. But there is this little gnome setting on my shoulder saying play hookie.

Well I have a decision to make , work or play hookie. But first I need to take care of the business at hand. Morning coffee.

As I mentioned previously, I have a head of steam up for working. So today I created a new web application.

For those of you who know or even care what a web application is I created a redirect system that will convert a long URL, such as a Amazon.com, referral link which has URL links of 50 or even 100 characters, to a specific book or movie, to a short URL like http://www.wwwhelper.com/tinyurl/transfer3.html.

Additionally, this program will keep track of how many times that URL is hit and also organize it for reports based on campaigns or categories.

I may be a little strange but I get a kick out of creating a new web application. Just like I get bored doing the same thing every day in the same place. That is why I travel.

This is an interesting phenomenon I have encountered, and fortunately not often.

Yesterday I went for coffee first thing and while setting their realized I didn't feel like doing anything. I went home and for the rest of the day, except for a 2 hour siesta, I just laid around taking it easy. Lazy me.

Then this morning I woke up and was ready to hit the deck running. I am not saying that it was just my biorhythm cycle at work but more some other external force. Not necessarily the stars, but something.

To reinforce this external force I got a big 2 web site order this afternoon.

It happened on the up day when nothing happened on the down day.

Go figure.

The weather has been really nice this past few days. I have had the windows and doors open from morning to night and I love it.

I have setup my outdoor easy chair and have been kicking back for several hours a day listening to my iPod. I keep Old Time Radio shows on it so I have plenty of entertainment.

I bought me a new grill so this evening I cooked up a steak. Haven't done that in a long time. If this summer stays nice I will do a lot more of this and I'm sure it will.

What a great life!

I also bought me several new audio books. My latest is a book called "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson. It is actually the first non fiction audio book I ever heard and I am really enjoying it. He is discussing the new internet economy and why niche products can be big business now thanks to the internet.

Once I have finished reading (that is what they call it instead of saying listening to it) I will write a review of "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson. May not post it on this site but on my business site. I haven't decided that yet.

As you may have read in the last Travel Diary entry I have added this new twitter like program.

I will be using this system as a means of preparing my next Travel Diary entry. For now it will show more than the postings since the last Travel Diary entry.

But that will soon end. My plan is to limit the "Interim Thoughts" to only those posted since the last Travel Diary entry.

Been working on my next article in a series about how and why to start an online business for the over 50 community web site www.eons.com.

While writing it I used the example of turning a hobby into a niche business. Specifically, I used the Old Time Radio hobby as an example of how to find a hobby and build an online business around it.

In the process of doing this I found that there are several OTR Program selling web sites that have affiliate programs so I signed up for one.

This is a small step toward my new business model.

Sitting here at the Highway 30 Coffee Shop reading a copy of eWeek and I got an idea.

The idea was something else, but I was looking for where to record the idea. I already use all the obvious tools for this. I use MS Office Notes, digital audio recorder, a paper notebook and almost as often as the rest the back of a napkin.

Then the bright idea of creating an online note taking application based on this interim thoghts program I just created.

A place where I can quickly jot down an idea and have it added to a database. Being a web application I could access it from any computer any where. With it being a DB application I could manipulate the data anyway I want.

Unlike a napkin or digital audio recorder I can copy the ideas into any computer program I want or just print a custom report.

I get a lot of ideas so I might just take the time to program this.

In the rush to chronicle my meeting with Lynn I forgot to mention I got a haircut.

Not just any haircut but a flat top. Every few years I get tired of combing my hair and that time came today.

I went for coffee this morning. I went to where I'am starting to consider my regular coffee shop. The Highway 30 Coffee Shop located in
downtown La Grande.

This morning, however, I ran into Lynn Henderson who was a few years behind me at Imbler. His sister Durenda Henderson was in my class.

What really amazed me was he remembered my name. As soon as I said my name was Plumlee he said I must be Ray.

I started to work by checking my email then checked my daily comics such as Pickles (my favorite), Lola, Beatle Baily, Sad Sack, Blondie, Dilbert and a few others.

Then I went to the La Grande Movies web site and saw The Hulk was on at 1:50 at the Granada. I had planned to go this past weekend but worked instead.

When I get motvated and work weekends I often don't feel like working on Monday. So I went and saw The Hulk.

After the movie I went and did my main weekly grocery shopping.

Now I'm back at my RV sitting back and watching the history of Ice cream deciding if I feel like working or not. I guess we will just have to see.

I awoke this morning at 7:00 AM but quickly rolled over and fell back asleep until 9:30.

It is another beautiful day so I made me a pot of coffee & set back to read a book of comics. It is a book of superman dailies from the beginning in 1939. I read the introduction which explained how Jerry Siegal and Joe Shuster created the character. The first chapter, which is the story about Krypton and how his parents, Jor-L and Lora (spelled differently then than now), sent Kal-L to earth.

In the mornings I either go to a coffee shop for a bagel and coffee or I stay in. On days like today when I sleep in, I just stay home and relax until I get motivated enough to start work.

Well I'am now getting my motivation up and plan to get started. Later...

One use I can use this new web application for is recording things I need to do.

Such as I need to add a preview step so I can catch typos.

I also realize that I need to add another folding (hide/show) container so all these Interim thoughts don't show unless opened.

My new web Application is now operable. It took me about 5 hours to program nearly half of which was getting it integrated into my blog program.

Now I'm sitting outside kicked back with my feet up and enjoying a good stogie. I'm pretty pleased with myself. I had a good day.

This is me adding a short comment with my PDA.

Now I can post a thought or comment most any time I want. From just about anywhere I am. Neat!

I mentioned in my previous Travel Diary that I was going to go up to to the Wallowa Lake area. Well it was overcast Saturday and I decided to wait until today. Instead I worked on my main business web site. I have changed my main business plan so I have been spending a lot of time on that site.

Today came along and though it was a bright and sunny day I didn't feel like going anywhere. Instead I worked some more on my main business web site and then programmed this new web application.

I call this web application an "Interim Thoughts" program where I can add short and quick little entries between main Travel Diary entries. I programmed it so I can add entries using my PDA so I can add thoughts on the fly, so to speak.