In celebration of our 41st anniversary Janet and I purchased a new camera that should allow us to capture much better wildlife pictures. Our little Kodak cameras, that we have used for all of our pictures thus far, are small and easy to use but aren't the best for trying to get pictures of birds etc. without getting close to them. Our new camera is a Nikon P510 and has an adjustable telephoto lens of 24mm to 1000mm so it is very flexible in terms what type of pictures we will be able to take. We'll see if the quality is the same or better than our current cameras. One advantage with the new camera is it has a view finder and an lcd screen so in bright sunlight you can use the view finder since the lcd screens can be almost impossible to use. The downside is it doesn't fit in my back pocket when I am riding my bicycle.
On top of all of the news about the healthcare debates at the Supreme Court this week we have been dealing with getting approved for our own private health insurance since our Cobra runs out the end of July which is 18 months after retiring. As it turns out Janet only having one kidney is no issue but me being a foot too short gives me an unfavorable height to weight ratio. Beyond that I have a few other strikes against me like the plate in my cervical spine, being on blood pressure and cholesterol medicine etc. etc. so my decision is very easy. What is ironic is I retired from a medical device company that made money faster than they could print it and they cancelled their retiree employee health care insurance (kind of reflects the personality of the people running the company). After talking to others in the park from bus drivers to executives employed at a variety of companies and industries it was clear I had the worst retiree health care deal of anyone in the RV park. What blew their mind is when I told them how much I would be paying for our health insurance premiums. Oh well don't feel sorry for Janet and I because we are just fine but I do feel bad for other people who do need help in this area.
Well Sunday it's on to Jacksonville but we probably won't be back in Indiana before the first of May. Then we plan on staying in Indiana only a few weeks and then we are going to take off and head west maybe to Yellowstone. We are not sure exactly where we are going but we know we are going somewhere, God willing. Then we will be heading south to Dunedin, Florida the first of November, assuming we get into the park we like. Below are a couple of pictures with the new camera although these were taken inside the 5er the first night we got it so they don't show what the camera is capable of doing.
Later,
Jack
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| Kind of looks like professor Peabody on the cartoons I used to watch many years ago |
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| Sydney and Tanner get groomed today |
