Our RV Adventures

I had my first PT session today and it went very well.

In fact, rather than being sore after my hour-long session like I feared, my back felt looser with more range of motion. And I even have homework.

I was sent home with these pages of exercises to do once a day.

For right now I’ll be going back once a week.

* * * * *

They Never Learn.

Santa Cruz Sugar Tax Faces Fight

Santa Cruz’s sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax measure is shaping up to be not only a battle over potentially higher soda prices, but also over a state law that bans cities from proposing measures like it at all.

City officials say Measure Z would promote a healthier community and a healthier democracy, while the opposition says it amounts to a regressive tax on consumers already struggling to get by.

Does anyone really believe this ‘tax’ is about ‘a healthier community and a healthier democracy’?

Or is it just the tax money?

The tax revenue would be placed in a general fund, but officials say the money will go towards improving parks, beaches and open spaces, as well as supporting health initiatives. A community oversight panel would also be created to make recommendations on how to spend the cash.

Here’s my take on this from a few years ago.

In other stupidity, the city of Philadelphia passed a ‘soda tax’ that took effect this past January. But unlike other cities that tax ‘sugary’ drinks, Philly is taxing everything non-alcoholic, fruit juice, diet drinks, anything with any sort of sweetener in it, artificial or otherwise at 1.5 cents per ounce.

In many cases it more than doubles the price of the drink,

and makes ‘soda’s more expensive than beer.

The mayor in pushing this bill though assured the public and the city council that the beverage distributors would absorb the cost of the tax and the public wouldn’t see any increase.

Unfortunately no one ask the beverage distributors about this. But even without eating the tax, they’re hurting anyway, with some reporting sales down nearly 50 percent, and both Coca Cola and PepsiCo having to lay people off.

And PepsiCo is no longer selling 12 pks and 2 liter bottle because they’re become so pricey no one is buying them anymore.

And now convenience stores and family grocery stores located near the city limits are starting to go under. If you going outside the city for your ‘soda’, why come back in the city for your gas, cigarettes, beer, etc.?

Oh, and the sales of alcoholic beverages have skyrocketed.

Who could have seen that coming?

Of course, not to be outdone, Cook County, IL (basically Chicago) had to get in on this largess of tax money. But they decided to cut the public a break and only tax ‘soda’ at 1 cent per ounce additional.

But then they already have a 3 percent soft drink sales tax as well as a 10.25 percent general sales tax. And it’s all cumulative. So you’re paying a tax on a tax on a tax.

And because many small business’ computer systems can’t handle all this taxing going on, people find that they’re paying the new tax on bottled water as well.

And now in one of those real ‘gotcha’ moments, the U.S Department of Agriculture is threatening to withhold $87 million in food stamp payments because of the new tax. Apparent food stamp recipients can not be charged this tax, since their purchases are supposed to be exempt from state and local sales taxes.

The city tried to have merchants charge the tax and then immediately refund the tax, but Ag Department said NO.

So the whole thing may go down in flames anyway.

Thought For The Day:

If you don’t terrify people a little bit, then what’s the point?

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

October 16, 2009

Drip…Drip…Drip…

Heading out for lunch we stopped by the park laundry room and dropped off a bunch of magazines that I was finished with.

For lunch we drove over to Mishawaka to eat at Famous Dave’s BBQ again.  Except that Jan ordered a cheeseburger.

What’s up with that?

Leaving Famous Dave’s we stopped off at nearby Home Depot to pick up a new bathroom faucet. The one we have has a small drip that’s slowly getting worse, and it’s one of those ‘washerless’ faucets that can’t be repaired.  We also picked up a Christmas tree storage bag that I plan on using to store the satellite dish while we’re traveling.  The box it came in is slowly coming apart after almost two years on the road.

Then it was across the street to Walmart for more ‘stuff’.

Heading home, we stopped off at a Goodwill store near the park to drop off some games and kitchen stuff that Jan decided we didn’t need anymore.

We’re still looking for a food bank or someplace we can drop off some food stuff, as Goodwill doesn’t take food.

After that it was back to the rig.

It’s supposed to get down to 30 degrees tonight, so I disconnected our water line and drained it, just in case.  We just turn on our water pump and run on our internal 100 gallon tank.

Brrrr !!!!

October 16, 2010

Dams and Taxes, or Dam Taxes . . .

After getting home so late after the Alvin Opry, Jan and I both slept late, really late. We were lucky to be up before noon.

It’s not really the Opry that goes so late – it’s over by about 10:15 or so – but after it’s over, a bunch of us drive about 20 minutes away to an IHOP and grab a late bite to eat. Then from there it’s about 40 miles back to the rig.

Friday for me was Tax Day, since I always file for an extension. I never like to give the government my money any earlier than I have to.  And because of the way I have things laid out, I only had to send them an extra $82 this year. The reason I always file for an extension is that I have read from several former IRS agents that by filing later you are less likely to be audited. So far, it’s worked for me.

Here’s the latest Landon pic. Brandi said he was sleeping soundly until Kitty, the 105 pound Black Lab, came over and woke him up. Probably with a big, sloppy kiss.

Saw in the news a couple of days ago that they’ve finally finished the new Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge. After next week when it formally opens, you will no longer be able to drive over the dam itself. Glad we got to do it several times in the last few years.

This photo shows it under construction. Note that, at this point they haven’t even started on the actual bridge roadway.

Based on what I saw I always thought it was a type of suspension bridge, like the Fred Hartman Bridge here in Houston.

But it turns out it’s not. The towers and cables were just to hold up the arch and roadway until everything was finished.

This is what the bridge looks like now.

It looks like it’ll be fun to drive over when we’re out there next year. Actually, I don’t think my wife Jan will be too happy.

I mean, what can I say? She doesn’t even like roller coasters.

And at Busch Gardens, this is considered the ‘kitty coaster’.

About 4:30 we headed up to Kemah to have dinner at Chili’s, and then after a quick stop at a client’s in Clear Lake, we did the weekly WalMart thing, and stocked up on stuff. Somehow, we keep buying stuff, using stuff, running out of stuff, and buying more stuff. It’s a vicious cycle, and personally, I think ‘Big Stuff’ is behind it all. You know, like ‘Big Oil’, or ‘Big Tobacco’.

‘Big Stuff’, it makes sense, right? I mean, somebody has to be to blame.

Well, the guy didn’t move out of our old site today, so I guess he re-upped for another month. I told Jan she might as well resign herself that Site 73 is going to be our home for the next 3-4 months, and not Site 80.

Here’s our old site 80.

And here’s site 73 where we are now.

Jan likes the island out there in front of 80 because she sees more birds.

We’ll have to see what happens.

October 16, 2011

He Be’s Busy . . .

Well, we’re now in our 4th day of rain and wind, and we finally got a small leak coming in under the slide. I suspect all the high wind has blown some water past the slide seals. Not enough to worry about though.

The RV/MH Hall of Fame is closed on Sunday, so since I couldn’t work there, I mostly goofed off on the Internet all day.

Today was a Landon-Skyping Sunday, but since he had a late nap, we didn’t get started until almost 5:30, but of course, better late than never in Landon-Skyping.

Our son-in-law Lowell got a new iPhone4S with the front and back cameras and is now using it to Skype. And the difference in picture quality is amazing.

One thing we can really see better is how much hair he actually has now, but it’s so blond it’s hard to see. Hopefully he inherited his father’s hair, and not his grandpa’s.

The other thing we noticed is how he never stops. He just runs everywhere. And this looks like something he did inherit from his grandpa.

When I was just a little older than Landon is now, my parents owned a motel on the beach at Gulf Shores, AL. One day my mother asked Annie May, one of the maids who helped her clean the cottages if she had seen me.

Annie May replied, “No, Ma’am, but wherever he be’s, he be’s busy!”

And so is Landon.

A little while after we finished Skyping, we all headed over to the North China Buffet to meet Al Hesselbart for dinner. With the addition of King Wha, we now have two favorite Chinese places here in Elkhart.

And now for another installment of . . .

Things Every RV’er should have:

You’ve probably all seen one of these, but may not have know what it’s for. It’s an AC Receptacle Tester, and should be used any time you plug your rig into a 20 or 30 amp AC receptacle.

Of course if you plug it into 30 amp, you’ll need to use a 30 to 20 amp adapter like one of these.

But however you plug it in, it will tell you if your outlet is wired correctly and safe to use. Depending on the age of your rig, and how the outlet is wired or mis-wired, it can be dangerous to plug into an outlet that has the hot and neutral wires reversed. There can also be a similar problem if your outlet has an open ground.

Either of these conditions can possibly cause the metal in your rig to become hot and give you a shock if you touch it while grounded.

The tester is very simple to use. Just plug it in and check the 3 lights on the end. If you have 2 yellow lights, you’re good to go. Any other pattern of lights indicates a problem. And the light code is printed on the side of the tester so It’s easy to know what’s going on.

If no lights are visible, then the outlet is dead. Used this way inside your rig, it makes it easy to find the popped GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) or circuit breaker controlling the dead outlet,

While parking people at a rally in Celina, OH last month, I used one to check the outlets as I parked people. I found 3 outlets that were wired incorrectly and reported them to the fairgrounds.

You can get a tester from Amazon for less than $8.  AC Receptacle Tester

And you can also find them at your local hardware store.

If you don’t have 30 to 20 Amp Adapter, you can get one from Amazon also.

October 16, 2012

Dockside Grill . . .

The other day when we were visiting the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitors Center, we saw this little mini CruiseAmerica Class C. I didn’t realize they even made them this small.

The one we rented back in 2007 for our first RV trip was a good bit bigger. And it was small enough to ensure that we wanted a 40ft coach.

Our Internet access has been slow here so I decided to put up my Wilson dB Pro 65 Amplifier & Antenna system to see if it would help.

After getting it set up, it does seem to have sped things up.

Tomorrow I’ll spend some time trying to aim it toward a different cell tower. I think the one we’re connecting to is overloaded, thus slowing down our speed.

Hopefully I can speed things up even more tomorrow.

Around 2pm the park guy came by to tell us that the park water would be off this evening and tomorrow due to a pump problem, and that we needed to fill our fresh water tanks to get us by.

Low water pressure has been a continuing problem since we’ve been here. Hopefully this repair will help things.

Around 5pm we all headed out for dinner, along with Janis and Lenny Thomas, on our way to Dockside Grill for some more good seafood. However when we got there we found them closed on Tuesdays. So it was back to Hunan Chinese for some more great Chinese food.

October 16, 2014

Nice, but Busy . . .

Very, Very, Busy.

Once the rain passed through the other day, we had a string of very nice days, with more to come on the horizon. With temps in the mid-70’s to low 80’s, and low humidity, it makes ideal gate weather. And the nighttime temps in the 50’s still aren’t bad either.

But the gate traffic has been . . . well, let’s just say, HEAVY. But the end is in sight.

After a couple of days in the 320+ range, yesterday and today tapered off a little to around 290. But it looks like one frack job is finishing up, and they’ve already started to pull equipment out, so we should see a sharp drop-off in the next day or two. At least the sand trucks have stopped coming in for that frack. But the other frack has about another week to go, or so we’ve been told. We’ll see.

I was feeling a little under the weather this morning so no grocery run today, but I’m pretty sure I’ll go tomorrow. We’ve gotten so much delicious catered food from Ama’s that we haven’t used much of our own, so we don’t need a lot.

And according to our logs, Ama’s has been going to the frack that’s got a week to go, so hopefully our food drop-offs have a week to go also. We can only hope.

With the nicer weather, Mister is spending more time outside with me in the afternoons. Of course this is how he spends it.

Not really great company, though.

We had another cattle stampede this afternoon. A herd of them came down the road, milled around for a while, and then headed along the berm beside the rig.

Then they headed back along the fence line and out of sight.

If you’re a Star Trek fan, especially of The Original Series (TOS), you might be interested in these two books. And the third season is on the way.

These Are The Voyages: TOS

Even better, if you’re a Kindle Unlimited member, you can read them free.

They’re the inside story of the creation of Star Trek, the fight to get it on the air, the infighting between Gene Roddenberry and NBC, why there were actually two pilots made, how the scripts got changed and rewritten, why Spock ended with a yellowish complexion, rather than the original reddish one, and even what Lucy did to save the Star Trek.

Each script is dissected, showing how it evolved, and what went into getting it into final form and on the air.

With interviews with the stars, the writers, and the crew, memos between the network and Gene Roddenberry, and Nielsen ratings that show it wasn’t the ratings failure NBC said it was, these books, both over 650 pages, have to be everything you want to know about ST:TOS.

As Spock might say, “Fascinating”.

(Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

October 16, 2015

A Last Minute Change of Heart . . .

When I got up about 10:30 am, I found that ‘Billy’ Claus had delivered my packages from Amazon. So, resisting the temptation to open the box that contained my new Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ70 camera (easy to tell which one it was because it had a big ‘Lithium-Ion Battery’ warning label on it), I opened the one with my replacement Mighty Mule Driveway Alarm in it first. Then it was off down the road to get it installed.

It only took about 5 minutes to change out the sensor and the transmitter, but I just reused the mounting poles. Getting it all squared away, I came back to the rig and plugged in the new receiver and power supply. But then in hurry up and wait mode, it was almost 15 minutes before a vehicle came past that showed it was now working. Hopefully that’ll be it for a while.

Today being Friday, it was another Wal-Mart/Lunch day. Before I went in to sleep at 7am, Jan had said she wanted a Sonic Chili Cheese Coney and an order of Ched’R Peppers for lunch, but by the time I was ready to head into Carthage about 11:15, the call of the burger was just too strong, so it was off to Whataburger instead.

The Wal-Mart here in Carthage is one of those ‘mini’ SuperCenters, so it’s laid out kind of weird, but now that I’ve finally got the hang of the place I can get in and out pretty quickly now. So I was at Whataburger by a little after noon.

But this time, for the first time, they completely screwed up our order. Jan and I each order a #6 Double Meat Whataburger Jr. w/Cheese, and I add Bacon to mine. But what we got wasn’t that.

Jan got a big Whataburger (Sr.??), but a single meat, and with no cheese. I got my Whataburger Jr., but also a single with no cheese. So, a disappointment, but still delicious.

Later in the afternoon, I finally had a chance to open the new camera box. As I mentioned before, it’s a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ70 like this.

The first thing I did was to get the battery charging while I threaded the strap and the lens cap onto the camera. Then I perused the manual for a while, waiting to get enough charge on the battery to try it out.

And I found a lot of neat, new features, like a built-in Panorama function with a guideline to help you keep the camera level as you pan it. And I’m sure you’ve seen those ‘artsy’ shots where the subject is in sharp focus in front of a blurred background. Well without getting into a bunch of technical stuff about aperture and depth of field, the FZ70 has a quick and simple way to do this on the fly. Neat.

One thing I hope they’ve improved is a better (easier) manual focus. Manual focus is usually needed when you’re trying to take a picture of an animal behind cage bars or a chain link fence. The camera generally tries to focus on the fence, and not on the animal. But with manual focus you can almost make the bars or fence fade out.

But the one on my old FZ28 was kind of clumsy to use. So hopefully this FZ70 will be better.

By now I had enough charge on the battery to check things out, so inserting my new 128GB memory card and the battery, I gave it a try. And I was VERY impressed.

The lens on here is really good, and the image stabilization is fantastic. I’ll have some shots in the next few days showing the difference between my old Lumix and my new one.

One thing I noticed was that the camera says that my 128GB card will hold 19,803 pictures. WOW! This is almost as many photos as we took in the entire seven years we had the FZ28 Lumix.

With that one we’ve taken 23,629 photos in that time, averaging a little more than 9 per day. Of course that’s more like 150 one day, and then none for the next week.

But it’s still a lot.

Jan had been taking a few pictures recently, some with the old camera, and some with the new one.

Here’s a sunset she took with the old camera about a week ago.

And here’s a few she took with the new one this evening when some visitors passed by. The landowner had released some cows and donkeys out into our pasture area, and Jan got a few shots as they came by the canopy. One thing to note is that it was after 7pm when these were taken with the new camera.

And a couple of donkeys wandered by too.

The landowner’s son said the gray one is almost 45 years old. He said they bought it when he was 15, and the donkey was 21 years old. Now Billy’s in his late 30’s, and the donkey’s still going strong, although he had lost all his teeth. He looks like he’s still eating pretty good, though.

I didn’t realize donkeys could live that long, but Google says 30 to 50 years. Who knew?

October 16, 2016

On Pins and Needles . . .

We’re still hoping to hear from the SiteWatch guy tomorrow morning, and I guess it’s possible that we could be on our way down to the Karnes City / Kenedy area tomorrow afternoon.

So I spent some time this afternoon looking over RV parks in that area in case we have to move in a hurry,

Debbie Clark did post a photo of one of Gate Guard Services guard shacks (I didn’t even know that GGS had guard shacks)

Seems a little small. I really hope ours is a little larger. Someone else who works for Guard 1 says theirs is 10 x 12. Now that’s more like it.

I wonder if we’ll get a flag too.

Speaking of possibly traveling tomorrow, Miss Karma has finally gotten used to traveling in the rig. This last trip over from Lake Conroe she spent a large part of the trip sleeping on the floor between Jan and me.

Much different than her first trip from Colorado River back over to Lake Conroe right after we adopted her back in February. Then she spent the entire trip hiding under the dining table, yowling most of the time.

About 4pm Jan and I headed into Columbus to have dinner at Los Cabos, a really good local Mexican place. Earlier in the afternoon, knowing he was ‘batching’ it this week, I walked over to Dick and Judy Mott’s to see if Dick wanted to go with us, but he was otherwise occupied, but we did spend a good while before I headed back home.

Jan got her favorite Fajita Beef Stuffed Avocado, with rice and a cup of tortilla soup.

For my part, I got the Beef Fajita Poblanos, a dish I haven’t had for a while, but always really enjoy.

And of course, Los Cabos more than meets my minimum Mexican restaurant requirements.

They’ve got to have good iced tea with no off-flavors or taste.

And they’ve got to have good chips and salsa.

If they cover these, I can forgive a lot.

October 16, 2018

Starry, Starry Night . . .

We were off about 10:30, earlier than normal, because this was going to be a roadtrip day.

After some shopping finally about 1pm we headed out for Mt. Dora, FL, about 75 miles away. Jan wanted to check off another item on her bucket list.

She’s been wanting to see the Starry Night house, i.e. The Van Gogh house, there. (Hey, what can I say? She’s checked off so many things over the years, it’s getting to be a short list).

Initially the owners painted just the wall in front of the house with a replica of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” to please and ‘soothe’ their 25 year old autistic son. The city of Mt. Dora immediately tried to force them to paint over the wall, fining them $100 a day until it was done.

Told that the wall had to match the rest of the house, the owners took them at their word . . .  and painted the rest of the house to match the wall.

At various times the city tried to label the house a ‘sign’ and then also ‘graffiti’. After winning a couple of initial court tussles, the Pacific Legal Foundation stepped in on the side of the owner’s, citing Free Speech rights, and the dominos started falling.

And by the time the last one ‘plopped’, the city was out almost $60,000 in legal fees, and paid the owner’s $15,000.

Oh, and they also cancelled the $10,000 of $100 daily fees, too.

So now the house is all Van Gogh all the time.

Jan and I, both Van Gogh fans, think it’s really neat.

I wonder how our RV would look painted like that?

After hitting a couple of antique mall/stores, where Jan added to her cloud of octopuses with a couple of new additions, it was on back over to Sanford where we had dinner at the Longhorn Steakhouse there.

I had my usual 12 oz. Ribeye, mine with Broccoli,

while Jan had her fav New York Strip.

Tomorrow will be mostly a stay-at-home day, where we’ll work on some more projects before going out to eat.

October 16, 2020

Long Sleeve Weather . . .

This morning it was 62° when we got up this morning, and didn’t get any warmer during the day. So today was my first long-sleeve shirt day of the season.

But, remember, this is Texas, so tomorrow is back in the low 80’s.

Oh, well.

But whatever the temps, I’ll be back under the rig tomorrow afternoon to try and get things finished up. First I’m going to run the tap back through the one bad hole and then try to install a new Helicoil.

Then if that goes OK, I’m going to use a 120 grit nylon end brush like this,

to burnish the flange before I’ll be ready to install the adapter head. Since it worked before, for at least for 150 miles, 100 miles longer than any other time, I going to again use Permatex Ultra Black sealer on the gasket. But a wiped-thin coat this time, rather than a thick bead like last time.

After I get it all tightened down, I’ll reinstall the oil filter and then I’ll be ready to try a high-idle test for about an hour. Then we’ll be ready to schedule our test drive.

October 16, 2021

Smoke, Smoke That . . .

Jan and I headed out for lunch about 12:30, a little earlier than normal because we had haircut appointments at 2. But since we were having BBQ at Spring Creek right across I-45 it wasn’t a problem.

Then after a great lunch of Ribs and Brisket, and getting our trims, it was on to WalMart for a few things, finally stopping off at Cowboy Coffee on the way home.

October 16, 2022

10 People, 4 Cars, 3 Hotels, and A

Partridge In A Pear Tree.

Well, no partridge, so how about a peacock?

After a very fun day at the Animal World & Snake Farm in New Braunfels, and then a really fun meal at Magic Time Machine last night, we wrapped things up this morning with a breakfast wrap-up at Domingo’s, a really good restaurant right on the Riverwalk.

Located in the Canopy Hotel, we all met there at 9am for a great meal, though I’m not sure quite sure about the whole Broom motif thing of the dining room.

Jan had what she said was probably the best Avocado Toast she’s ever had.

I got their Breakfast Burrito, also very tasty with egg, bacon, jalapenos, cheese, onions, and a bunch of other stuff.

Several of us got their Churro Waffles, which it seems they’re somewhat famous for.

They shared a couple of bites with Jan and me, and boy was it good.

And probably 3000 calories.

We got some time to talk with Miss Piper & Derek since they were sitting across from Jan and me.

Piper is now doing psychological counseling and interviews for prospective foster families and is looking at starting down the Master’s/Ph.D. path. While Derek is hoping to have his Master Electrician License soon. So maybe a two Master’s family.

Note no Landon or Sophie. It seems that they were still sound asleep back at the hotel. So they really missed out.

After a lot of hugs and goodbyes, we went our separate ways from Domingo’s, with everyone ready to head home after a really fun family get-together.

Tomorrow I’ll go back and start catching you up on Saturday’s adventures.

October 16, 2023

Well, That Was Strange . . .

Work today consisted of trying to get my new (to me) Dell computer set up, and I immediately ran into a problem.

The computer only had a HDMI video output and my old Acer monitor only had DVI and VGA inputs. So I started checking out our spare monitors and found only Jennifer’s monitor had an HMDI input, so since her computer did have a DVI output, I temporarily swapped them out.

Only to then discover that since we weren’t using HDMI on any of our computers, we didn’t have any HDMI cables, so it was off to Best Buy so I could start setting up the new one.

I also went on Amazon and ordered this new Acer 24” Monitor that was supposed to be delivered between 2 and 6pm this afternoon.

Acer 23.8” Full HD 1920 x 1080 IPS Zero Frame Home Office Computer Monitor

A great deal for only $99.

So now I got started on tracking down and installing all the software I’ll need. A real pain.

Later after getting home, I checked the Amazon tracking about 6pm and found my monitor was 2 Stops Away. And then suddenly the little van icon disappeared from the map. A few minutes I got a message saying that my monitor was delayed and would not be delivered until 6pm TOMORROW night. So what happened?

My first thought was that the delivery van ran out of charge. But I was OK since I just needed it by Wednesday morning.

Then about 15 minutes later, there was a knock at the rig door with Amazon delivering my monitor.

Strange.

Tonight looks to be our coldest so far this season, with lows in the mid-40s tonight. It did make it down to 49° last night.

Good sleeping weather!

Still going through all the AirShow photos, so hopefully tomorrow night.

Today was a nice, quiet day at home, prefacing tomorrow’s One Day A Week Back To Work, and then my first Physical Therapy appointment.

I had assumed that my PT would be at HPH (Houston Physician’s Hospital), where I had my Lumbar Fusion, and my PT back in 2021 after my Cervical Fusion. But it looks like they now have a satellite facility down in our area, so that’s where I will be going tomorrow after work.

Though our high today was in the low 90’s, tonight’s low is forecast for 60 degrees. Followed up by a high of 75° for tomorrow and low tomorrow night of 55°, our first 50 degree temp this year.

Then we’re looking at 70-80’s and 60’s for the next 10 days or so.

Maybe Winter’s finally here.

* * * * *

Is Your Roomba Spying On You?

Well, maybe.

It’s a tale as old as… well, the Internet of Things era. Robot vacuums made by Ecovacs have been reported roving around people’s homes, yelling profanities at them through the onboard speakers after the company’s software was found to be vulnerable to intrusion.

ABC News in Australia reports that there were recently multiple instances across the U.S. when owners of Ecovacs vacuums noticed their devices acting unusually.

“It sounded like a broken-up radio signal or something,” Daniel Swenson, an owner of an Ecovac Deebot X2, told the outlet. “You could hear snippets of maybe a voice.” He opened the vacuum’s app to find a stranger was accessing its live camera feed and remote control feature, but assumed it might be an error. After resetting the password and rebooting the X2, the vacuum quickly started moving again:

The more disturbing issue arises when smart devices can be remotely accessed and the manufacturer never considered (or cared about) the possibility that tricksters might take advantage of this to torment people in their own homes. Remote access is convenient, but every couple of years we hear about something egregious, like intruders accessing a baby monitor and whispering through it at night, or gaining access to a garage door to mess with its owner.  A lot of the time the intent of these intruders is just to be punks. But you have to wonder how many times it happens and no one knows about it.

And it’s not just the Ecovac Deebot X2 mentioned above, but even Roomba’s are vulnerable.

A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook?

In the fall of 2020, gig workers in Venezuela posted a series of images to online forums where they gathered to talk shop. The photos were mundane, if sometimes intimate, household scenes captured from low angles—including some you really wouldn’t want shared on the Internet.

In one particularly revealing shot, a young woman in a lavender T-shirt sits on the toilet, her shorts pulled down to mid-thigh.

Puts Rosie in a whole new light, now doesn’t it?

Thought for the Day:

Why is it that useful idiots still remain idiots long after they’ve exhausted their usefulness?

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

October 15, 2009

If it’s Thursday, it must be turkey…

Well, it’s officially Winter here in Elkhart.

Jan woke up to snow coming down this morning. Big fluffy flakes, but it didn’t stick because the ground wasn’t cold enough.

About 11 am we headed out to Cracker Barrel for lunch.  Thursday is Cracker Barrel day because Thursday is when they have Turkey and Dressing. And Jan loves their Turkey and Dressing.

Coming home we found even more GMC motorhomes here in the park.

I think there’s about 20 of them here now.

This picture illustrates the difference between the two styles of GMC motorhomes.  Basically there is a big one and a little one.  The one on the left is 26 feet long.  Note it has an extra window.  According to the factory brochure, the 26 foot model had 11 different floor plans and the shorter, 23 foot model had 4 different floor plans.

Almost 13,000 GMC’s were produced between 1973 and 1978, with about 9000 still on the road.  Quite a feat for a 25-year-old RV.

Coming back to the rig, I spent a couple of hours finishing up my taxes that had to be sent in today and then headed down to the Post Office to drop it in the mail.

Coming back to the rig, I stopped off at the office to check our mail.  Besides a package from Amazon, I was surprised to find that the new shocks that I’d ordered last Friday had already arrived.

So back at the rig I called the mechanic to let him know the shocks were here and he could schedule the install.

About 5 we headed out to North Garden Buffet, a really good Chinese buffet that’s nearby.

After we got back to the rig we talked to our son, Chris, who’s in SC going to Crime Scene Cleanup School.  His company, Garner Environmental, is branching out into this area.  Normally they do toxic spill cleanup, oil spill cleanup, and tank cleaning standby rescue. So I guess this is just another type of cleanup.

October 15, 2011

Cinnamon Buns and Crimson Crustaceans . . .

The BWF (Bad Weather Fairy) really pitched a hissy fit all night, with high winds and a lot of rain coming down. Finally about 5:30 this morning I went outside and took in the bedroom awnings so I could get back to sleep. The flapping was keeping me awake.

Another At-A-Boy to Daryl Lawrence of Lawrence RV Accessories. I bought his TireTraker Tire Pressure Monitoring System from him this past March at a Rally in Yuma AZ

When we ready to leave Celina last month I discovered the cap on one of my tire sensors had a large chunk broken out of it and water had gotten in with all the rain we had there. It looks like it took a hit from a rock.

I was able to get the sensor working again by drying it out and replacing the battery, and sealing the cap with Gorilla Tape. That worked but I wanted a new cap.

Daryl was down in Goshen at an RV rally, and after contacting him, Daryl said to come down and pick some up. When I got there he had a bag of four caps waiting for me. Thanks, Daryl.

About 2pm I headed back over to the RV/MH Hall of Fame. I told Jan this is now officially a ‘tarbaby’ project. A ‘tarbaby’ project is one where the further I get into it, the more stuck I become. I keep finding things they forgot to tell me about, things I would have done differently if I had known ahead of time. Oh well. That’s why they pay me the big bucks . . . well, that’s why they pay me, anyway.

Dinner tonight was at the Crimson Crustacean, known as Red Lobster to some people. so we headed over there a little before 6 pm. Only had about a 15 minute wait, pretty good for a Saturday night.

After a great meal we got back to the rig about 7:30, and looking at the weather radar, it’s going to be another bumpy night.

And now for another installment of . . .

Things Every RV’er should have:

But first, a blog reader wanted to know how to use a Volt-Ohm Meter to test a light bulb like I’d mentioned in yesterday’s blog.

First off, we talking about regular incandescent bulbs, not fluorescent, or LED. Sometimes the bulb is small and it’s hard to see the filament, or the glass is opaque and you can’t see it.

You test a light bulb exactly like you test for a blown fuse. Set your VOM to Ohms and touch the leads together. You should see a reading on the meter. Separate the leads and touch one lead to the bulb tip and one to the threads. If you get a reading the bulb is good. If the meter doesn’t change, the bulb is bad. And you test a fuse exactly the same way.

Here’s a link that will get you started using your VOM.

Measuring Stuff with a Multimeter

If you go to YouTube and type in ‘Using a Multimeter’ you will find a bunch of instructional videos on VOM use. Check it out.

Today’s gadget is the Kill A Watt.

There is a 3-prong AC plug on the back of the unit, and using a short extension cord, if necessary, plug the Kill A Watt into a wall plug. You can then plug any device into the socket on the front.

Then using the buttons on the front you can check the voltage coming into the KAW, the amps the device is pulling, and the watts used. You can also measure the kilowatt hours (KWH) the device is using just like the power company’s electric meter at your sticks & brick.

Another good use is to check the AC frequency of your power when using your generator. It should be 60 Hz, but how would you know?

I used ours earlier this year at the Rally in Yuma. We had to live on 20 amps for a week before the rally started, and by plugging the rig power into the Kill A Watt we could monitor how many amps we were pulling and how much more we could use without popping the breaker. Very useful.

You can get your own Kill A Watt from Amazon for less than $20.

October 15, 2012

Another Day, Another Blog . . .

Today was another stay-at-home, dreary, slightly rainy, very nice day. One of those days just perfect for sitting around the rig doing pretty much nothing.

Unfortunately, I had to do something: finish up my taxes and get them submitted before midnight. But it mostly consisted of double-checking all the figures so it didn’t take too long. And thanks to online filing, I didn’t have to make a run to the Post Office. Just click the ‘Submit’ button and a little while later an email tells me it was accepted.

Ain’t modern technology grand?

Our grandson Landon had tubes put in his ears this morning. Brandi called to say everything went fine with no problems. Hopefully, this will take care of all the ear infections he’s been having. It certainly did wonders for our son Chris when he had it done years ago.

And of course, I can’t mention Landon without posting the obligatory photo.

We started off the morning with big steaming mugs of Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Coffee, and then for lunch Jan heated up the leftover Baked Spaghetti from our visit to Angelo’s Pizza last Thursday. Italian always gets better reheated.

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon watching some of our DVR’ed TV shows so we would have room to DVR more TV shows.

It’s a vicious circle.

Then about 5:15 we all headed out for dinner. We wanted to go back to Angelo’s Pizza down in Montross again so off we went.

And just like last time, it was delicious. I wouldn’t be surprised if we managed to go back again before we leave here next Sunday.

Looks like tomorrow will be another nice goof-off day. Great!

We love goof-off days.

October 15, 2013

A Big Jump . . .

Well, after things slowed down here a bit, they’ve really picked back up. We had almost 80 vehicles today, a big jump from the 25 of a few days ago. Turns out the drill rig about a mile south of here, but on the same land, is finishing up and now they’re getting ready to frack. So they’re getting set up to pump the water from our frack pond up to another one closer by the new site.

Under the heading of a problem solved and a problem found . . .

Our cooling mist system does a great job of keeping us cool on the hotter days, but it does have a downside. It tends to get your glasses wet. Normally this isn’t a big problem, but combined with the caliche dust blowing around, it becomes a problem.

Caliche is basically limestone, and when it settles on your wet glasses and then dries, it turns hard as rock. And becomes very difficult to get off. So you end up with a hazy film on your lenses. A truck driver last year told us to soak them overnight in a solution of Dawn Dish Soap and water, and while this helps, sometimes a bad encrustation just won’t come off.

So after thinking on the problem for a while, I finally remembered some basic chemistry. Most acids will eat limestone. And vinegar is an acid, acetic acid, so I thought I’d give it a try.

And it worked. I dampened a rag with some vinegar and then carefully wiped the lenses several times, and that took care of the problem. And we probably won’t have any more problems with that this year, because with the cooler temps, we haven’t used the misting system in a week or so.

Jan fixed two of my favorite dishes this week. Well, one of them is a new favorite, anyway. First up was a big batch of her Crockpot King Ranch Chicken, big chunks of chicken, beans, Rotel Habanero Tomatoes, and pieces of corn tortillas.

HMMM Good. And really spicy, too.

My new favorite is a 7-UP Strawberry Cake, iced with Cool Whip. We both decided it would be even better with crushed pineapple in it, so next time a small can of that goes it too.

Finishing up, a Landon fix, what else? Landon loves Starbucks. He and his daddy Lowell have been going there since he was a baby.

Of course, Landon gets hot chocolate, but he tells everyone he’s drinking coffee like his daddy.

October 15, 2014

Bubba, Bubba, and Bob . . .

Well, I think we’re officially a Texas drill rig now. We have our very own flare stack, though it’s only been in operation a couple of times since they put it up a few days ago.

Hope it’s not going to act up like the one in front of us last year. That one was more like a volcano, with burning oil cascading down the sides and shooting smoke rings and fireballs into the air.

But it was very entertaining.

Normally when a vehicle comes up to the gate, I write their tag number down as they approach, and then I greet them with Good Morning or Good Afternoon, and ask for their first and last names. Then if there’s no company name on the vehicle, I ask “Who’re you with?”

Meaning, of course, the company they were with.

But I may have to change this. The other day when I asked this to the driver, he turned to look at his passengers and said as he pointed, “This is Jose, and Hector and Juan.”

Then last week when I asked the same question, I got, “Bubba, Bubba, and Bob.” I guess my look conveyed my confusion, because he then said, “They’re cousins.”

Yeah, like that explained it all.

Of course it could have been worse.

It could have been Larry, Darryl, and Darryl.

We got more Ama’s catering today, but I forgot to ask Jan what it was. So far we’ve had that delicious seafood and chicken pasta, then next we had beef and chicken fajitas, which we had tonight, very good, and then next up is Chicken Fried Steak.

YUM!

Brandi sent over this photo of Landon’s recent T-Ball game as he was presented the Game Ball for being very focused and doing a really good job as pitcher.

Based on what I’ve seen at other games with kids this age, I think the ‘very focused’ part means he didn’t wander off in the middle of the game to play in the dirt.

Way to Go, Landon!

Brandi also sent over this shot of Landon showing off his new winter jeans.

Tomorrow is grocery day, so I’ll head over to B/CS in the morning to take care of that and also bring back lunch. I’m going to get a few extra things to last us for 10 days this time since we won’t be getting groceries again until our day off on Saturday, the 25th.

Jan’s getting giddy again.

October 15, 2015

No New Toys, Yet . . .

Well, all my stuff was delivered here in town, but as I figured, Billy, the landowner’s son, who is also a Deputy Constable, won’t bring them by until tomorrow sometime. So I’ve got one more day of ‘Antici . . . . . . . . pation!’

Well, it did make it up to 98°, our hottest day here so far, but since the humidity was so low, it wasn’t too bad.  And tomorrow’s high is forecast for 86, with a 79 on Saturday. A lot nicer.

We still don’t have a firm handle on how much longer we’ll be here. Depending on who we talk to, it’s two more days, two more weeks, or two more months. I figure the ‘two-week’ figure is probably closer than the first or last ones. But we’ll just have to see how it goes.

A couple of days ago I mentioned the LED strip lights that I used to replace the small fluorescent tubes in our rig, and a blog reader asked for more info. So I thought I do a refresher course.

The LED Strip Lights I used are actually automobile accent lights, so they’re heavy-duty and waterproof.

Here’s my previous blog on how I changed them out. Just scroll down toward the bottom.

https://ourrvadventures.com/2014/12/batteries-and-balls/

Although the lights look yellow, they glow white, and are brighter than the standard fluorescent tube. And at $7 a pair, they cost less than the price of one new fluorescent tube, much less two. And they’re certainly cheaper than some of those commercial LED replacement tubes I’ve seen. Here’s what the final product looks like.

The remaining two fixtures in the bedroom are next when those tubes go out. I’ve already got two sets of strips ready to go. And when the 4 foot tubes in our two kitchen/living room fixtures finally go out, I’ll probably replace them with 4 sets of the strips. 3 sets would about equal the lumen output of the old tubes, but 4 would probably be better.

I’m sitting here watching the ‘Failed Login Attempts’ counter ratchet up, with more than 20 attempts in the last 15 minutes. One thing funny though, is the login names they’re trying to use. Besides OurRVAdventures, Administrator, Admin, and even occasionally the real one, there are also some very strange ones that I have no idea where they came from.

The blacked-out one is the real login name.

To see if it helps, I just went in and changed the number of ‘Allowable Retries’ from 2 to 1.

You really don’t want to set it to 0 because then if you make a mistake logging in, you’ve just locked yourself out for 4 hours. So I guess if the blog is very late one day, you’ll know what happened.

Just check back in 4 hours.

October 15, 2016

Coming Back ?

It looks like once again Summer is hanging on by its fingernails.

We’re supposed to have low 90’s for the next 5 days or so before a front finally comes through on Friday leaving a Sunny and 71 degree day, with a long string of low-80° days following.

We’re still in a holding pattern waiting to hear from SiteWatch on Monday. Or we hope to hear from them by then.

While I was looking at RV parks in the Kenedy / Karnes City area in case we do end up down there, I discovered that RV Park Reviews, my go-to website to check out RV parks, now has a Android app available. You can find it here – RV Park Reviews app. There’s also an Apple version if you lean that way.

On another note, today is National I Love Lucy Day. I Love Lucy, which was the first scripted television program to be shot on 35 mm film, premiered 65 years ago today.

The show was also the first episodic one to be shot in front of a studio audience. In fact the studio had to knock down a concrete wall on one side of the studio to have a place for the audience to sit. And even the set had to be reconfigured to allow the audience to be able to view the action.

The individual sets were even redecorated to represent Fred and Ethel’s apartment as needed.

The fact that the show was done on film, the $500 a week cost paid out of Desi’s pocket, is one of the main reasons the show still looks so good today.

Oh, like the fact that Captain Kirk never actually says, “Beam me up, Scotty”, Dr. McCoy never says, “He’s dead, Jim”, and Humphrey Bogart never says, “Play it again, Sam”, Ricky Ricardo never says, “Lucy, you got some ‘splaining’ to do.”

Brandi and Lowell’s sister Sherry did the Annual MS Society Muckfest Run over in Baytown this morning. It’s a 5K obstacle course, with all of the 18 obstacles involving mud. Lots and lots of mud.

But it looks like they had fun.

About 3:15pm Jan and I headed into Katy to get together with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, as well as friends Chantelle, Eric and Max.

But we made a first stop at Harbor Freight Tools to look for a couple of things. I was looking for a small jigsaw and a right-angle polisher for the rig’s aluminum wheels.

After looking over what they had, I ended up with an air-powered polisher, since I can tap into the rig’s compressor, or use my Sear’s standalone model. And with no electric motor, it was cheaper too.

But the only jigsaws they had was an expensive cordless model, for more than I wanted to pay. So maybe a Home Depot sale.

By then it was time to meet up with everyone at a favorite new burger place. And by ‘new’, I mean it opened just a few days ago.

It’s Willy Burger. And of course they say it’s willy, willy good. And it was.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos.

Jan had the #47 burger, a double cheeseburger with mushrooms, grilled onions, and tomatoes, while I had the Hee Haw burger, a double with homemade pimento cheese, a fried green tomato, lettuce, and 3 strips of bacon. And it’s all topped off with a large dollop of red pepper jelly.

Along with orders of Parmesan Garlic Fries and Sweet Potato Fries, it was, as they say, Willy, Willy good!

Brandi had a couple of things for us that came in the mail recently. The first package was the engraved sunglasses that Greg Gray, owner of Eyes Of Texas Sunglasses, sent to Brandi and Jan.

Brandi loves hers, and Jan loves hers, especially the Breast Cancer Awareness one.

And you’ll love yours. Order yours today.

From Amazon, I got a new hard drive for my 4-year-old ASUS laptop. When I shut it off after we made our move from Lake Conroe to Colorado River this past Thursday, I got my second warning from the S.M. A. R. T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) software on the laptop, warning me that my hard drive was sickly and fading fast.

So I’ll make a .iso copy of the old one, put in the new one, and then copy everything back. And I’ll do this hopefully before it fails.

My second package was a new Otterbox Belt Clip for my Otterbox-encased Samsung Galaxy S5. The Otterbox case seems to be pretty bullet-proof, and has protected my S5 several times as it bounced down the rig stairs and onto the concrete with no problems.

But after three years one of the corners broke off the belt clip part so I ordered a new one.

Leaving on a high note, high as in rig count, the sign that we passed coming into Katy gave the US Rig Count as 539 (+15). When we came by on Thursday, it was at  524 (+2). So that means the count is +17 for the last two weeks.

So it certainly looks like the oil industry is coming back.

October 15, 2017

BSOD and New Friends . . .

Jan and I spent the morning ‘running the numbers’ again, this time on whether or not it would be worthwhile to move down to the Clear Lake area for the rest of the year since it’s costing me about $280 a month in gas traveling down there 3 times a week.

It costs us $56/week here at Lake Conroe TT, so figuring TT and PA for a full month’s stay here, that’s $353.50. And when you add in the $280, it’s $635. And there are a number of parks down there in the $350 to $500/month plus electric. So it looks like it would be a good deal, BUT – are there any openings with all the Hurricane Harvey FEMA, Insurance Adjusters, and Contractors down there too? So we’ll have to see.

One thing that makes it easy for us to “run the numbers” is that the Screen Mirroring function on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 is that it will talk directly to our 40” Samsung TV.

All I have to do is click the Screen Mirror button on the Tab and in a few seconds whatever is displayed on the Tab’s screen is duplicated on the TV.

Makes it really easy for both of us to watch a video, see a photo, or use a calculator.

About 2pm I went down to the Ranger Station to check out of the park under TT and then back in under PA. Considering how hard it had been to actually MAKE the PA reservation, I was expecting trouble, but that part went pretty smoothly.

It was when she went to print out our car passes that things fell apart. Just as soon as she clicked the PRINT button, the machine locked up . . .HARD. When nothing happened after 15 –20 seconds, she tried CTRL-ALT-DEL. At that point, after another short delay, she got this.

The dreaded BSOD. Otherwise known as the Blue Screen Of Death

At this point, the only thing she could do was to power off and back on. Then it took about 5 minutes to get Windows back up and working, and then about 10 minutes to get fully back into the program.

Then she was able to print out our passes.

It’s really problematic that this works at all since Thousand Trail’s entire reservation system is so old, that it’s a DOS program that they’re running on Win7. And I can pretty much guarantee that it won’t run under Win10 at all. No wonder they have so many problems with it.

About 4pm Jan and I headed back down to China Delight to have dinner with friends, old and new.

The old ones are Debi and Ed Hurlburt on the left next to Jan, and Dick and Judy Mott on the right. And the new ones are Dave and Judy Evans in the back.

What’s funny with Dave and Judy is that we have so many mutual friends that it’s amazing we haven’t run into them before now. But in the RV world new friends quickly become old friends. That’s part of the fun

A great meal and a great time.

We need to replace the window awnings on our rig. One has a fist-sized hole in it, and they’ve all never really recovered from the drilling fluid drenching they got back in 2014 when a hose burst on the drill rig across the street from us and soaked the area around it for about 50 yards, including us.

Now at the age of 18, the rig’s gray-silver-light gray-cream paint scheme has faded a little, but still looks pretty good, so I wanted to brighten things up a little with these dark blue awnings instead of the original gray ones. This is not the exact color of blue that I’ve seen, but you’ll get the idea from this photoshopped pic .

I tried a number of other colors, but I like the dark blue the best.

So let’s hear it from the peanut galley.

Yay, or Nay?

October 15, 2018

Another Day, Another Shack . . .

Today, another one in our ‘Back Home in Titusville Tour’, we checked in with an old high-school friend of Jan’s, had a really good meal, visited family graves, had some more great food, did some grocery shopping, then came home and took a nap.

We needed it after all that.

We left the rig about 10am heading for Molly’s Seafood Shack out on Cocoa Beach. We were meeting up with Carol Burkott, a high-school classmate of Jan’s from when they both were in school in Chicopee Falls, MA.

Both their fathers were in the Air Force, and they were also members of the same church. Then a few years after Jan’s father retired down here, Carol’s family did also.

Carol was grand-baby sitting so she had 1-year-old Alexander and 3 year old Leilani with her.

Both were very well-behaved. and Alexander and I had a good time playing with Leilani.

Molly’s is a local favorite, and folks were waiting in the parking lot for the place to open at 11:30. And the food showed why.

Jan had a nice salad, and then got the  Shrimp Tacos.

I had a cup of their Roasted Chicken and Crab Corn Chowder,

and then went with the Southern Style Shrimp and Sausage Cheese Grits, and an ear of Roasted Corn, along with a really good Jalapeno Corn Muffin.

Everything was really delicious and will be on our list for a repeat visit next time we’re in the area.

Finishing up, with Carol et. all, following in her car, Jan ran into the nearby WalMart to buy flowers, and then we all headed back up toward Titusville to visit the graves of Jan’s parents, brother, sister, and niece.

Jan’s father died in 1994, and then Jan’s mother died in 2007.

I loved the inscription on Trudy’s gravestone, “I KEPT BREATHING AS LONG AS POSSIBLE”. Something both Jan and I aspire to, also.

Jan’s brother Wayne was buried here in 2000,

as well as Jan’s niece, Jaime, who was stillborn in 1981 to Jan’s younger sister, Beverly.

Then Beverly died in 2013 and her ashes were scattered over the family graves.

This leaves Jan’s sister, Debbie, her only remaining relative who lives in Illinois.

Leaving the cemetery, and saying our goodbyes to Carol, we drove a little further north to the house where Jan was living when we met in 1967.

It really looks good. One thing we both remembered was that in 1967 there was a chain link fence surrounding the yard with a gate. The first time I came over to pick Jan up for a date, she opened the gate so I could drive into the yard.

And in doing so, she managed to slam the gate up against the side of my Triumph Spitfire. She said that from the pained look on my face, she figured she’d never see me again.

She couldn’t get rid of me that easy, but it did hurt.

By this time it was almost 5 and we were getting hungry again. So since Jan had been ‘jonsing’ for some of the Clam Chowder at Dixie Crossroads. I had let her taste some of mine last week, and now she wanted her own.

We both got a bowl this time,

which was large enough to have some to take home.

Then we split an order of broiled shrimp with their Steamed Veggies.

One thing we’ve noticed on this visit is the proliferation of ‘chowders’. Maybe it’s got something to do with all the ‘Yankees’ moving down here from up north. But it’s kind of new here, at least to us.

Finishing up, and before heading home, we stopped off at the nearby Publix Supermarket for a few things.

Tomorrow, more fun and frolic.

Getting back to yesterday’s Shack adventure, we ended up at The SeaShack, up in New Smyrna Beach.
Sunday is a good time to go, because a lot of their menu items are half price. Always a good thing.

Jan got her fav Wedge Salad, but this time with Shrimp,

while I started off with a cup of their New England Clam Chowder / Roasted Red Pepper and Crab Bisque Swirl.

Like a swirled vanilla/chocolate ice cream cone, this is a swirl of both their soups, and it’s really great.

Next up for me was a Shrimp Lover’s Bucket, what in Louisiana/Texas we call a ‘Low Country Boil.

Whatever it’s called, it was fantastic.

And Rachel, our waitress, could match us quip for quip, which made the meal even better.

And tomorrow?

Well, who knows?

October 15, 2020

And The Winner Is . . .

Still Landon!

A week ago I posted Landon’s entry into his school’s yearbook cover contest.

And as I mentioned then, Landon’s entry came in second, so his picture will be on the back cover.

But not until today did we get a look at the winning entry.

Landon took one look at it and said,

“What’s with all the primary colors? And bubble letters? That’s a kid move!”

Now they were told to use a lot of color, but when Brandi pointed out to him that he might need more color, Landon said,

“It’s outer space, Mom. It wouldn’t be realistic if I added a lot of color.”

No compromising his artistic integrity for him.

So Landon draws a very realistic dachshund in a spacesuit and the other kid draws a lot of circles. No biased grandpa here

Oh, and the winning artist?

He’s the son of the PTA President.

But you didn’t hear it here.

I was back under the rig this afternoon again working on the rig’s oil filter mount. I used the new Helicoil set I got at O’Reilly’s to quickly install the last Helicoil with no problems and no trouble getting the install tool out like I did the other day.

Then I ran bolts in and out of the holes as a test and they worked fine.

But then I noticed a problem. The last coil I installed the other day didn’t get screwed in all the way, so one turn of the coil was sticking up above the surface of the mounting surface, not a good thing for a tight seal.

I tried to screw it in further with no luck. But I was able to grab the coil edge with a pair of needle-nose pliers, and unwind it out of the hole. Then I tried to install another coil using the new tool and it would only go so far. So I pulled that one back out too.

So, either for some reason I didn’t tap it all the way, or the threads are messed up at the point the coil stops. So that wrapped it up for today.

The reason I quit was I wanted to check with the family mechanic, our son Chris, to see if he thought I could just run the tap back in again. Said it shouldn’t be a problem.

So that’s on for this weekend.

October 15, 2021

What To Do? What To Do?

Most of you in our age range have probably been taking a low dose (81mg) of aspirin every day because doctors told us that it would help prevent heart attacks and strokes. Jan and I certainly have been.

But now that’s all out the window, apparently. So we have this.

Older adults without heart disease shouldn’t take daily aspirin to prevent first heart attack or stroke, panel says

Older adults without heart disease shouldn’t take daily low-dose aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke, an influential health guidelines group said in preliminary updated advice released Tuesday.

Bleeding risks for adults in their 60s and up who haven’t had a heart attack or stroke outweigh any potential benefits from aspirin, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said in its draft guidance.

But it seems if you mix it with some other things, it works to prevent strokes and heart attacks again.

Combo therapy cuts risk of heart attacks and strokes in half

A combination therapy of aspirin, statins and at least two blood pressure medications given in fixed doses can slash the risk of fatal cardiovascular disease (CVD) by more than half, says an international study led by Hamilton researchers.

The fixed-dose combination (FDC) therapies were examined both with and without aspirin versus control groups in a combined analysis of more than 18,000 patients without prior CVD from three large clinical trials. FDCs including aspirin cut the risk of heart attacks by 53 percent, stroke by 51 percent, and deaths from cardiovascular causes by 49 percent.

So do we, or don’t we?

But then there’s this

Aspirin may lower pancreatic cancer risk, Study

Or this too.

Aspirin every day can cut cancer risk by 60%: British scientists find first proof of preventative effect

Or this.

Low-dose aspirin lowers colon cancer risk: UK study

Or this.

An aspirin a day could keep diabetes at bay: study

Follow the science they keep telling us.

But if Doctors, Scientists, and Researchers can’t even agree on Aspirin, a drug that’s been around for almost 130 years, how can they be so sure about HCQ, Quercetin, Ivermectin, and others, especially since Doctors, Scientists, and Researchers in other countries say they’re very effective.

Ya pays your money and ya takes your chances, I guess.

October 15, 2022

New Braunfels/San Antonio . . .

After a fun, but long day at the Animal World & Snake Farm in New Braunfels,

and a really fun & delicious dinner at Magic Time Machine,

we’re pooped. So this is all you get tonight.

October 15, 2023

eFiled And Done

I was busy finishing up my taxes and getting them eFiled today, so I didn’t get to go through the AirShow photos. So that’s for tomorrow.

Our daughter-in-law Linda sent over this photo of the Ring of Fire eclipse filter through the leaves at their place up in Kingsland

Coming home from the AirShow yesterday, we decided to have dinner at Armadilleaux Cafe, a local Santa Fe place that friends had told us about.

And what got Jan’s interest was the fact that they have Pumpkin Shakes, made with real pumpkin puree. And they were delicious.

We both agreed that it’s probably the best ‘pumpkin-related’ dish we’ve ever had.

We both got their Seafood Combo, with Jan’s Fried,

and mine Blackened.

Jan got hers with Fries and mine with Fried Okra. So we could both have some of each.

Really, really good. We’ll definitely go back.

Soon!

Lunch today was at Los Rameriz Mexican once again, first time in a while, and it was just as good as always. Then it was on over to HEB for our weekly HEB stuff. Followed by a PO and a park mailbox stop, and then home.

Jan’s license didn’t come, but our Voter Registration cards did. For some reason though, Jan got two identical ones. And, I was able to confirm that like my DL number, Jan’s DL is the same now as it was on our Texas DL’s that we gave up in 2008.

I was also surprised to find that our new Texas DL’s don’t expire until our birthdays in 2031. So 8 years.

Nice.