shorep
Guest
Overpriced timeshare from developers who use very questionable selling tactics.!!
You brought that with you on vacation?Overpriced timeshare from developers who use very questionable selling tactics.!!
I no longer bother with newspapers, but I do check the local Craig's List musical instruments section for French horns -- snagged a few nice ones that way.I love reading local newspapers wherever I go as well. I find it really gives you a sense for a place.
I also compulsively check real estate listings wherever I travel.
I used to play French Horn also!! As a kid it traveled everywhere with me. Beautiful instrument.By me, nothing is strange or unusual about French horns. But in the timeshare context, I'm sure a French horn belongs high up in the unusual category.
Sometimes when we drove to Florida for timeshare vacations in Orlando & Kissimmee, I used to bring along a French horn so I could sit in with a community concert band in Lakeland FL not far away. (I skipped it when we traveled to Florida by airline -- although I have taken horns along on flights to or from other destinations.)
Last time we drove to Orlando, I picked up an eBay French horn along the way (by arrangement with the eBay seller, to save shipping the cost). While I was at the eBay seller's location, I bought another horn he offered at a price I couldn't turn down, so during the rest of the trip I was schlepping 2 horns around with me. Most of the time, that was OK. It became problematic while we were driving around with all our stuff (The Chief Of Staff's & mine), plus our 2 granddaughters & their backpacks, plus our granddaughters' 2 friends & their backpacks, plus 2 French horns, one in a carrying case & the other just bare naked out in the air. The car was jam-packed for sure, but it all worked out OK.
-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.
DH collects and reads all the real estate papers and magazines where ever we go. If I loose him at the grocery store I know he'll be at the big display of the real estate papers near the exit. We even have to bring some of the 'best' ones home so he can show the house prices to our family or the guys at the firehall.
~Diane
I shipped myself a waffle maker to Hawai'i. I left it for housekeeping. Front desk personnel were lobbying for it.
I always take a cooler full of frozen food to the Bahamas and St John USVI. My kitchen bag includes spices, knives, silicone baking mat & a digital meat thermometer that has a bottle opener(for the one who does the grilling. Not sure what's more important the bottle opener or the thermometer? )
I think if we were doing a driving trip, I'd bring a portable induction cooker and compatible pans, utensils if our room didn't have cooking facilities.
The crystal is the winner so farWe did just that when we visited Washington DC several years ago. I couldn't get a timeshare so we booked a hotel room. I packed our induction burner, a pot and a frypan that were compatible with it, as well as my crockpot and an electric kettle. I also packed a few cooking utensils, a teapot, 2 Corelle plates, bowls and mugs, some cutlery and a few spices all in a tote box. The days I left dinner cooking in the crockpot we put it in the bathroom with the fan going so the smell of our dinner wouldn't waft into the halls.
On the few timeshare stays where we've only been able to book a partial or mini kitchen I have packed my electric fry pan and my crock pot. DH thinks it is strange that I lug all this kitchen stuff on vacation, but then he doesn't complain about all the money we save by eating in our unit instead of eating out all the time!
I guess the strangest thing we ever took was 24 pieces of my grandparent's crystal when we were going to Florida not long after they had passed away. My uncle/their son, lives in California and really wanted it. Since neither of us were going to drive all that way and shipping is so much cheaper within the US rather than from Canada to the US we took the box of it to Florida to ship it from there. The box took up half the back seat and we even seat belted it in but it was worth the trouble as it all arrived safely.
~Diane
Just wondering how many of those you own -- and where do you keep them?I no longer bother with newspapers, but I do check the local Craig's List musical instruments section for French horns -- snagged a few nice ones that way.
-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.
Four keepers & a variable number of flippers, plus a few bent horns lined up for repairs so they'll become flippers.Just wondering how many of those you own -- and where do you keep them?
Sounds like a wonderful, self supporting hobby.Four keepers & a variable number of flippers, plus a few bent horns lined up for repairs so they'll become flippers.
The keepers are a Lawson 804, a Lawson-modified Alexander 103, a Lanstro-modified Conn 6D, & Yamaha YHR-666N.
The flippers currently include a Conn 6D, 4 copies of Conn 6D by other makers, a Conn 8D, 2 Yamaha YHR-668Ns, a King Eroica, a Yamaha YHR-322, & I don't know what-all.
The keepers are in my music room upstairs. The flippers & bent horns are in an open hallway right outside the music room. The Chief Of Staff does not fuss about the horns or their location. In fact, she's supportive & semi-enthusiastic about them. Maybe that's because she's grateful I'm not into something even weirder, or engaged in some other hobby that doesn't pay for itself.
The bent horns include a silver plated Conn 6D with ruined bell flare (to be replaced with screw-on Yamaha flare); a near-pristine but neglected Conn 8D with stuck slides, stuck valves, & 3 small dents; and a Reynolds Contempora with stuck slides & valves & 2 broken solder joints.
Some bent horns are also at the workshop of a professional horn fixer (former member of the U.S. Marine Band) who's currently away at a music festival, returning next month.
The pace of flipping horns has slowed because of the coronavirus shutdown -- not stopped, but slowed way down. With luck, it will pick up again once schools reopen & school band gets up to speed once again. We'll see.
-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.
If I were 25 years younger, I would learn how to do at least some horn repairs myself.Sounds like a wonderful, self supporting hobby.