1,000 Foot Ore Freighter, Soo Locks, MI

1,000 Foot Ore Freighter, Soo Locks, MI

Near Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia

Near Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia

Colorful Truck Sales, Weed, CA

Colorful Truck Sales, Weed, CA

Hollywood Sign

Hollywood Sign

Mackinac Bridge, MI

Mackinac Bridge, MI

Pelicans, Grays Harbor, WA

Pelicans, Grays Harbor, WA

Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park

Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park

Still Stuck . . .

NASA thinks they now have an idea on the problem with Starliner’s thrusters, but are still not sure how to fix it.

But they still have no idea when the two astronauts will be able to come home.

Maybe August, maybe . . .?

The goal of this testing was to gain a better understanding of why the spacecraft’s thrusters unexpectedly shut down, and what — if any — dangers are associated with turning those thrusters back on.

Officials said they were able to recreate how the thrusters in space deteriorated during flight with the ground tests. And the testing may have helped give engineers a better understanding of the issue’s “root cause”: Heat building up inside the thrusters may be causing Teflon seals to bulge, restricting the flow of propellant.

Still, officials did not definitively say Thursday that the Starliner spacecraft that carried veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the space station would be the same vehicle that brought the astronauts back home.

“There is a lot of good reasons to complete this mission and bring Butch and Suni home on Starliner,” Stich said after noting that NASA does have contingency options if Starliner is not approved to bring the astronauts home.

Once again, Paging Elon Musk!

It seems like we’ve been making up for the lack of rain with Hurricane Beryl, where we only had about 2.75 inches. But now in the last 4 days or so we’ve had over 6 inches, really filling up ditches around here. But it looks like it will all clear up by Monday.

Tomorrow it looks like lunch is going to be at Schafer’s over in Clear Lake Shores once again. Then it’s on over to Wal-Mart for our weekly, well, Wal-Mart stuff.


Thought for the Day:

In 1969, we built the C-5A, a transport plane whose cargo bay was large enough to accommodate the entire first flight of the Wright brothers only 66 years before.


Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2011 – On To Jackson Hole And Yellowstone

2013 – Last Day in The Soo

2014 – Lego My Queso

2018 – An Old House and A New House

And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™


July 26, 2009

Weeerrreee Baacckk!

Today Jan and I just rested up from our week-long fling in New York with Brandi and Piper.

We put them on the plane in Philadelphia yesterday afternoon and they arrived safely back in Houston last night.

About noon, Jan and I drove over to Middletown to get more ‘stuff’ at Walmart and Sam’s, and have lunch at Cosimo’s again.

Tomorrow,  Jan and I will travel back into New York one last time to visit the Empire State Building and have lunch at Junior’s again.

We didn’t go with Brandi and Piper when they went because it was pouring down and Jan didn’t want to traipse over there in the wind and rain.

So tomorrow, it’s our turn.


July 26, 2011

What do you see in this picture?

We headed out on our overnight trip this morning, leaving a little after 8 am. Our first stop was Peter’s Coffee in downtown Cody for coffee and a breakfast roll, then a quick stop on the way out of town for gas.

Very quickly we were back in the same beautiful vistas we saw last Friday when we did Yellowstone with our friends Al and Adrienne. But it’s hard to get too much of these views.

GTNP 1

GTNP 2

Although we were heading for Jackson, WY, and Grand Teton National Park, we decided to backtrack up past Old Faithful to see the Paint Pots and some of the other geysers.

As we came back by the same place we saw the grizzly last week we slowed down to check things out. Unfortunately, no grizzly, but right down the road we did see this female elk out in the brush.

GTNP Elk 1

Our first stop in Yellowstone was the Fountain Paint Pot area. There is a boardwalk that makes a 1/2 loop out and back so it’s an easy walk.

Paint Pot 5

It’s really hard to describe the Paint Pots. Some of it looks like the surface of the moon.

Paint Pot 1

Paint Pot 4

Some of it looks like the bowels of Hades.

Paint Pot 9

Some of it is very beautiful.

Paint Pot 2

And some of it looks like all three.

Paint Pot 6

Paint Pot 7

But however you want to describe it, it’s not to be missed.

Paint Pot 8

Our next stop was right down the road at the Midway Geyser Basin. A bridge from the parking lot takes you across the Firehole River ( apt name, don’t you think.) and out into the Basin.

Midway Geyser 1

The runoff from the geysers flows into the river and keeps it warm. In fact warm enough to be comfortable for swimming when there’s snow on the ground in the dead of winter.

Midway Geyser 2

I’ll let the rest of the photos tell the story.

Midway Geyser 3

Midway Geyser 4

Midway Geyser 5

Midway Geyser 6

By this time it was about 1 pm and we were getting hungry. So heading back to Old Faithful Village we decided to have lunch at the Old Faithful Inn where we ate last Friday. We didn’t have the buffet this time, but we definitely wanted some more of the bison chili. In fact we split a BLT (Well, Jan had a BT because she doesn’t like lettuce on sandwiches. Salads yes, sandwiches, no.) so we would have room for the chili.

Leaving Old Faithful and heading south once again we came across another female elk. So we’re two for two on elk today.

GTNP Elk 2

Down the road a ways we stopped to check out Lewis Falls, a very pretty sight.

Lewis Falls 1

Lewis Falls 2

As we finally got into Grand Teton National Park we started paralleling Jackson Lake that runs for about 20 miles along the roadway.

Jackson Lake 1

What do you see in the middle of this picture?  I’ll bet you don’t see two large bull moose.

GTNP Moose 4

But they’re there.

Jan’s Holy Grail!

What she’s been looking for since we hit the road for this year this past February.

What we made a special trip down to Grand Teton National Park for, when she heard there might be some down here.

GTNP Moose 1

We were able to get as close as about 50 feet since they were in heavy brush. There was a Ranger there keeping everyone from getting too close. Otherwise, SOME people would have been trying to pet them.

GTNP Moose 2

GTNP Moose 5

We watched them for about 20 minutes before they disappeared deeper into the brush and we lost sight of them.

Jan said this made the whole trip worthwhile.

Hey, if she’s happy, I’m happy.

GTNP Moose 3

Getting closer to Jackson we came across this group of bison who had knocked down the fence and were almost out into the highway.

There was a Ranger there too, keeping people back.

Man, these Rangers are real party-poopers.

GTNP Buffalo

Arriving in Jackson a little after 6 pm and getting safely ensconced in our Motel 6 room, (very nice, by the way) we heading out to get some dinner.

We had noticed a place called Bubba’s BBQ on the way in and decided to give it a try.

It was easy to see why we had to wait 20 minutes for a table. Boy, was it good.

So good, in fact, we’re going back for breakfast.


July 26, 2013

Last Day in The Soo . . .

First up, some follow-up info on yesterday’s visit to Mackinac Island.

Since there are no private motor vehicles allowed on the island, horses (and bikes) are everywhere, and their by-products, of course.

According to our carriage tour guide, there are about 550 horses on the island at any one time. Contrast this with there being only about 500 full-time residents. Another interesting fact is that for those 500 residents, there is only one doctor. But the 550 horses had THREE veterinarians. Shows you who’s the most important there.

Plus the fact that the horses don’t even have to spend the winter on the island. At the end of the season, they all get a ferry ride to the mainland and then spend the winter on a 2000-acre horse farm up near Pickford, MI, which is about halfway between St. Ignace and Sault Ste. Marie. Must be nice.

Due to the Lake Snow Effect, supposedly Mackinac Island gets about 40 feet of snow a season. Seems like a lot. I guess I wouldn’t want to spend the winter there either.

They have three main breeds of horses: Percherons, Belgians, and a Percheron/Belgian cross, called a Bay. In the photo below, the two black horses are Percherons, and the brown one is a Bay.

Mackinac Island Horse 2

Someone asked our tour guide why they don’t use Clydesdale’s. Our guide said that Clydesdales are really show horses, and their ankles are really too weak to work as real draft horses, and said it would take 4 or more Clydesdales to pull the same weight as two Percherons.

She then said “That’s why they use them to haul “light’ beer.

Ba-Rump-Bump


We woke up this morning to heavily-overcast skies and the promise of later rain.

Oh Boy!

Sure glad we didn’t wait until today to visit Mackinaw Island.

About 3pm Jan and I headed out for Wal-Mart and dinner at China Cate, the Chinese restaurant we ate at last Saturday, right after we got here.

It started a light rain as we left the rig, but while we were in Wal-Mart the bottom fell out. We could hear the rain coming down heavy on the roof. And then my pocket started going “BEEEEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEEP!”

And then I could hear other alarms faintly all around me.

Turns out it was a weather alert coming in on everyone’s phone. A tornado had been spotted somewhere west of us, over around Newberry, and was supposedly headed our way. All during this the rain just came down harder. It had slacked off somewhat by the time we had finished at Wal-Mart, but we still had to make a run to the truck.

We were sure glad to get some of that Hot & Sour Soup into us. And as before our meal was really good, approaching that of our fabled King Food back home.

By the time we got home, the rain had pretty much slacked off, hopefully for the rest of the night. Otherwise, we may have trouble getting out of here tomorrow.

We’re parked on grass and headed downhill so we’ll have to back out of here. We’ll see how it goes.

Tomorrow we’re heading south about 220 miles to spend one night at the Little Rivers Casino near Manistee, MI, before heading on to Elkhart, IN on Sunday.


July 26, 2014

Lego my Queso . . .

Since it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, we all headed out about 1pm to the Caesar Creek Flea Market right down the road. With almost 160,000 sq. ft. of indoor space, it’s one of the largest flea markets in the Midwest.

Caesar Creek 5a

In addition, they’ve got over 500 outside vendor spaces too, selling your more typical flea market stuff, used bikes, dishes, crafts, and old tools.

Caesar Creek 1A

The inside vendors are more like your typical stores, with new merchandise, as well as antiques.

Caesar Creek 2a

They did have one area set up with a very large Lego exhibit, showing what can be done with these little blocks.

Caesar Creek 3a

Caesar Creek 4a

We spent about an hour checking out the outside vendors first, as a number of them were starting to pack up due to the heat, and incoming T-storms.

Then it was inside to the nice, cool A/C, and row after row of pretty much everything from tires to ATV’s to old books. It took us another couple of hours to check out all the inside vendors. But after all that the only one of us that bought anything was Jan, who bought some small cars for Landon. But we had a good time even so.

Leaving the flea market and heading into Wilmington proper, we stopped by the Post Office to mail some letters before deciding on El Dorado Mexican Restaurant for dinner.

The lady that cut Jan’s hair the other day said it was really good and Yelp gave it 4-1/2 stars so we thought we’d give it a chance. And we’re glad we did.

Everyone was really happy with what they had.

Jan had the Pollo Loco platter.

El Dorado 2a

And I had the Chili Verde. My Verde (green) sauce was really good, and really spicy.

El Dorado 1a

Even the chips and salsa, and the cheese dip were excellent.

FYI Here up north they call it ‘cheese dip’. In Texas we call it Queso. But if they take their ‘cheese dip’ and put meat in it (usually chorizo), then it suddenly becomes Queso Fundido. Which is the same thing we call that in Texas.

We’ll go back.

Our daughter Brandi sent over this photo of a friend’s two kids who came over to play with Landon. The photo’s not too good because there was too much light from the windows behind them. But I thought it was hilarious how they’re playing together. Look what’s propped up in from of them.

Landon with Friends3a

Tomorrow looks to be a stay-home day with some really bad weather rolling through, leading to our next cool front Monday and Tuesday with highs in low 70’s and lows in the low 50’s for two or three days. Nice.


July 26, 2015

Make Up Your Mind . . .

When we first got here last Sunday, I was happy to see 3 bars of 3G on my Verizon air card. But, unfortunately, it was not to last.

A couple of days later, I was crawling along the Internet with 1 bar of 1X.  I didn’t realize there still was 1X around. But since it is, the hills of Tennessee are probably the place for it.

Do I hear banjos?

I’m not sure what Verizon is doing around here, but my signal is all over the place. Right now, a little before midnight, I have 4 bars of 3G. While 30 minutes ago, I had 1 bar of 1X again.

Make up your mind. Find a speed and stick to it.

For dinner tonight Jan whipped up one of her great Taco Salads, using ground beef she cooked earlier, and then vacuum-sealed and froze.

Jan's Taco Salad

What she usually does is buy one of those big packs of ground beef and then take the electric skillet outside and cook it all up, That way it’s always available for a quick meal, and it doesn’t smell up the rig.

Tomorrow looks to be another movie/dinner/shopping trip

First up is the Minion’s movie at the same theater we saw Jurassic World this past Friday. Jan and I both enjoyed the two Despicable Me movies, and the Minions turned out to be the breakout stars, so now they get their own movie.

Next up is a return visit to The Bar-B-Q Shop. We first ate here in 2010 and really enjoyed it, but since then we’ve always come through Memphis on a day when it’s closed. So we’re really looking forward to eating there again tomorrow.

But even better, just a couple of months ago the Food Network did a series on the Top Five Restaurants in the US in six different categories: burgers, steak, pizza, tacos, barbecue, and ice cream. And we were really surprised to see the one on the Top Five BBQ Restaurants in the US .

As it turns out, we’ve eaten at two of them, and will check out the 3rd next month.

Killen’s Barbecue
3613 E Broadway St, Pearland, TX 77581

The Bar-B-Q Shop
1782 Madison Ave, Memphis, TN 38104

Skylight Inn
4618 S Lee St, Ayden, NC 28513

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q
1715 6th Avenue SE, Decatur, AL 35601

Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que
3002 W 47th St, Kansas City, KS 66103

Of course The Bar-B-Q Shop is on the schedule for tomorrow, and we’ve eaten at Big Bob Gibson’s in Decatur, AL a number of times, and will eat there again next week when we’re visiting relatives in Athens, AL.

Killen’s in Pearland will be on our list for next month when we’re back in Houston. It’s apparently opened in the last couple of years, and it’s been a while since we’ve been over there. But we’ll certainly check it out.

And since we plan on doing the East Coast next year, maybe we’ll able to try the Skylight Inn in Ayden, NC on the way up the coast.

But Joe’s in Kansas City will have to wait until we finally do Kansas, because along with Nebraska, it’s one of the two states we haven’t done yet. But there’s always year after next.

Then coming home tomorrow we’ll probably make another Wal-Mart stop since Jan discovered they still had stuff left after our visit last Friday.


July 26, 2016

Tires and Taco Salad . . .

When I got up this morning, I thought it was still nighttime. It had rained off and on through the night, and was still pretty much black outside when I came out of the bedroom.

And it was 75 degrees. Very nice.

Later in the morning, in between raindrops, I went outside to check the rig’s tire pressures. I had last checked it two months ago right before we left here for Lake Conroe. Normally I check them once a month, but we’ve been parked here for almost 6 weeks so it still works out.

And in checking the pressures, once again I was amazed at how well these Hercules Ironman tires hold air. Each tire was within a pound of 96 pounds. I normally keep them all at 100#, but the last time I measured them at that pressure, it was 95 degrees. So 96# at 75 degrees is just about perfect.

Although a lot of rainy circled all around us, it never rained very heavy for very long. But the nicest part was that the high temperature for the day here was 82 degrees.

Amazing!

For dinner tonight Jan fixed up one of her delicious Taco Salads. She cooked up a pound of ground chuck with some onions, added fresh sliced jalapenos, and along with salad greens, sliced cherry tomatoes, black beans, and shredded cheese, layered it all over a bed of chips and topped it off with Salsa.

Really, really good.

Jan's Taco Salad 2

And of course, we had some of last night’s Pineapple Angel Food Cake for dessert.

Tomorrow we’ll leave her about 11am for the drive down to the Clear Lake area to have lunch with our son Chris and DIL Linda. And hopefully Miss Piper too.

Then on the way back we’ll probably stop in to say Hi at Brandi, Lowell, and Landon’s for a few minutes.


July 26, 2017

It Really Works!

With a 300+ mile trip in front of us today, we were up about 6:30am and pulling out of our site at Colorado River a little before 9, with our first stop right down the road at the Colorado County Oil Co. to fill up with diesel at $2.14 a gallon for 122 gallons.

Jan had followed me in the truck, so we hitched up while we were filling up, and were on our way about 9:30. We would have probably left even earlier, but it’s a fine line between leaving early and leaving so early that we run into Houston traffic since we were going through downtown Houston and out the other side.

But apparently we timed it just fine because we held 60mph all the way through town except for a couple of short slowdowns. Coming out the other side and into Baytown we made a breakfast stop at the Buc-ee’s there.

After stocking up on both breakfast and sweet kolaches and a couple of their great Orange Cranberry muffins we were back on the road with our next planned stop at the rest area as we entered Louisiana.

Since it was under reconstruction last year when we came through, I checked the state website which said it was now open. They were WRONG.

It wasn’t even close. In fact it was completely torn up, but we found a nearby pullout for our potty break.

We took the Breaux Bridge exit and pulled into the Poche’s Fish ‘N Camp RV Park about 4pm. After getting everything set up except for satellite we headed out to have dinner at Pont Breaux (nee Mulate’s).

Pont Breaux

Under the Mulate’s name, we’ve eaten here for more than 30 years until the family sold it in 2011 after their mother, the founder, died.

Jan got a cup of Seafood Gumbo, and an order of Crab Cakes with Remoulade Sauce,

Pont Breaux Crab Cakes

while I got my usual bowl of Seafood Gumbo

Pont Breaux Gumbo 2

which comes with potato salad and bread.

And of course, we couldn’t leave without finishing up with their bread pudding with whiskey sauce, and a cup of Community Club coffee with Chicory.

Pont Breaux Bread Pudding 2

A great meal.

On the rig A/C front, it turns out that my recent air deflector install really worked after all. And it was working the other day too. Or at least it would have if we hadn’t been streaming 95° air right into the coach.

Turns out the dash air vent had popped off the Recirculate setting so just hot air was coming in. Now I always keep those vents turned off on my side anyway, and Jan just had hers on her feet so she really didn’t notice it at the time either.

We did discover the problem on our trip over from Lake Conroe this past Sunday and turned it off, but then the generator stopped when we got too low on diesel, so we never got to see it that was the problem.

But having it turned off today fixed the problem and we were cool the whole way.

Tomorrow we’ve got about a 240 mile run to Theodore, AL, so not quite as long a day.

Nice.


July 26, 2018

An Old House and A New House . . .

I was back at work today, not a normal Thursday for me, but I was helping to cover for my client who was taking some CE courses today and tomorrow.

I did sneak out around 12:30 to meet up with the last scheduled potential buyer who’s looking at the house. Got some nice ideas from him on how to proceed, and he’s going to get back with me with his proposal.

Hopefully we’ll be able to have all the info and make a decision later this weekend.

After I got home about 4:15 Jan and I headed right back out to have dinner at Pho 20 once again, our first visit since we got back from our trip.

I got my usual White Chicken Meat Pho and a couple of Shrimp Spring Rolls.

Pho 20 White Chicken Pho

While Jan had her now-usual Teriyaki Chicken, starting with the House Crunch Salad.

Pho20 Lemongrass Chicken

All delicious as usual, and as usual, Sherry, the owner, sent us home with more food than we ordered. While we’re eating, she’s always in the kitchen whipping up some special dishes for us to take home. And she also sent Jan home with a big box of blueberries and half a dozen tomatoes still on the vine.

When I mentioned my new Digital Voltage/Amp Meters,

Digital Power Meter

I forgot to tell you how inexpensive they are at only $17.00 each. A real deal.

Looks like I will be getting a new GPS in the near future. I got my replacement Charger Cord in today, but it didn’t fix the problem. The GPS works just fine on the battery, but it will not run on the 12v charger, which means, I guess, that there is a problem in the internal power circuitry in the unit. So I get a new GPS. Yah!

Brandi, Lowell, and Landon have a new WOW house. At least according to Jan. She always called their old house, a WOW house, and it really was.

Brandi's Living Room

They sold that house last December, because they wanted something a little smaller than the almost 4000 sq. ft. one they had, and, more importantly, they wanted a much bigger backyard, big enough for a pool. They have been renting since they sold and had said they were going to start looking for something new in the fall.

But in a surprise announcement, they bought a new home today, and it looks like they got what they wanted . . . in spades.

Brandi New House 3

Brandi New House 5

Brandi New House 2

Brandi New House 4

Brandi New House 1

Brandi New House 6

WOW!

And yes, the present owner really likes RED.

The house is about 1000 sq. ft. smaller than they had before, and they certainly got a larger backyard. At over 11,000 sq.ft., there’s room enough for several pools, not just the one the place comes with.

As it stands right now, and assuming the inspection goes OK, they’ll close on August 31st.

And Brandi’s already invited us to Thanksgiving at the new house. Really looking forward to it.


July 26, 2019

Wash Day Blues . . .

As I mentioned, I have a chore list of stuff to do while Jan is gone, and at the top of the list was to get the dryer working again. It quit right before we left for Europe, and with my recent ‘under the weather’ phase, and the problem at work, I’m just getting around to fixing it.

The reason I was able to let it slip for a while is that the park’s laundry is just two sites away. So I had some breathing room

So the first thing I did was get my washer dolly out of the bays and then pull the washer out onto it until I could get the top off.

Washer Dolly

A while back I had configured the hoses so that I could partially remove the washer from the cabinet and get the lid off, since that’s usually where most problems are.

Since everything worked fine except no heat from the dryer, I figured it was the Thermal Overheat Fuse like a couple of times before.

Dryer Thermal Fuse Bad

A fuse of the correct temp is no longer available, and the replacements I found on Amazon aren’t quite the right temp rating so they only last a couple of years. But when I checked the fuse it was still good, as was the thermostat also.

But as I looked around I noticed the heater blower motor was loose on the mount, enough to make the motor twist around so that the squirrel cage fan rubbed against the inside of the blower housing, tearing it loose from the motor shaft and damaging the fan itself.

So my first call was to Westland Sales out in Oregon, but I was pretty sure I already knew the answer. And I was right.

A replacement was no longer available, not the first time I’ve heard this on my 20-year-old Splendide Washer/Dryer.

A few years ago I had to replace the no-longer-available water pump with one from another make of washer by kluging up a mount for it in a new location with new hoses. But it’s worked for 5 or 6 years with no problems.

So now my Plan B is to check our storage room for my box of Splendide parts. These are parts that I salvaged out of an old 2000 unit when upgraded to a new 2100. But it’s been so long I don’t know if I pulled the blower motor or not. So I’ll see tomorrow.

But if I don’t have a replacement, my Plan C is to repair the squirrel cage and then create a new mount for it on the motor shaft.

So we’ll see how it goes.

My Alexa has a new response. We have an Echo Dot in the bedroom that controls several devices there, including a fan that’s mounted up by the ceiling that she controls. So when I get up, I say, “Alexa, turn the fan off, please”. And after she does it, she says, “OK”. And I, wanting to be polite to our future robot overlords, always say, “Thank you!”

Now, normally Alexa goes silent at this point, but today she said, “You’re Welcome. And have a great Friday!”

Hopefully, Alexa will remember my obeisance when they take over.


July 26, 2022

How Long Can You Tread Water?

Somehow I missed this yesterday, but 43 years ago, on July 25, 1979, Tropical Storm Claudette visited Alvin, TX and stayed for a while. And in the next 24 hours dropped 43” of rain on the small town, a U.S. record to this day.

We do it bigger in Texas.

At the time I was working at Johnson Space Center for a NASA contractor on the Space Shuttle, and as was usual for me, I was working the night shift and going into work at 11:30.

FWIW night shift is always my favorite shift for a number of reasons and I try to work it whenever possible.

1. It usually pays more, with a shift differential.

2. It’s easier finding a parking space.

3. It’s cooler here in Texas.

4. No bosses hovering around so you can actually get some work done.

So a little before 11pm I headed into work in our 1970 AMC Ambassador Station Wagon like this.

1970 AMC Ambassador Station Wagon

We bought it when were traveling around the country to different military bases while I was working for the DOD. It was our first new car and was set up with the heavy-duty suspension, the towing package and lift bags in the rear springs. It was also our first car with AC.

And it rode pretty high.

Anyway, it had been raining all day at our house, and as I backed down our driveway, the water was almost up over the curb, but the center of the road was open so I didn’t expect any problems. At least until I got to the end of the block and turned onto the main street leaving the subdivision.

Then looking through the rain coming down, and at the far end of my headlights, I could see some sort of wall out there.

And it was getting closer.

I quickly realized it was actually a 2+ high foot wave of water sweeping through our subdivision. Knowing I didn’t have time to turn around, I put the car in reverse and backed up down the street and into our driveway. And though some of the water spread out down our way, most of it stayed out on the main street, flooding a lot of the lower elevation houses.

In our case, when we picked out our house, I picked the one with the highest elevation that I could find. And it stood us in good stead. With all the rain over the next hours, the water only got about halfway up our yard. Unlike a number of our less-fortunate neighbors.

Getting back in the house, I called work and told Bob Squires I wasn’t going to be able to make it in to work tonight. He laughed and said that it was OK. They already knew they weren’t going to be able to get home either.


Jan and I left the rig a little after noon, on our way up to Webster for my Physical Therapy session at the Houston Physicians’ Hospital, the same place I had my Cervical Spine Fusion back last November. We should have had plenty of time to make my 1pm appointment, but a bad wreck on I-45 had traffic backed up for 3 miles. So instead of getting there about 20 minutes early, I was about 5 minutes late. But I had called to let them know, so they took me in as soon as I got there.

Well, as soon as they got my $20 co-pay.

We went through the 8 exercises that I had been doing, and then Jennifer gave me a couple of more that I will do standing.

When I got there, someone was already on the elliptical exercise bike, so Jennifer said I would do it at the end after we were done.

I had already told her about not wanting to do a full 10 minutes on it like last time and she said no problem.

So I just did 5 minutes this time. And I don’t know if it was the fact that I only did 5 minutes, or that the exercises I’ve been doing for the last week are showing some improvement, but I wasn’t wiped out like last time.

Finished up, we drove over to the nearby Snooze AM for lunch/breakfast.

Jan got her usual fave, the Bravocado Toast.

Snooze Bravacado Toast 20220726

I went with something I’ve had before, but not in a good while, the Shrimp and Grits.

Snooze Shrimp and Grits 20220726

Cheesy Grits, with Sautéed Shrimp, Andouille sausage, a spicy soffrito sauce, and topped with a sunny-side-up egg.

And as usual, we shared an order of their Maple Bacon.

Snooze Maple Bacon 20220726

A great meal as usual.

Our next stop was at Kroger to pick up a prescription for Jan, but there was a sign on the window saying their system? was down, and to check back in an hour. That’s what tomorrow is for.

Our next, and last stop, was at the Costco for a few things, and then it was home for the afternoon.

Another nice day.


July 26, 2023

Making A Spectacle . . .

After getting our eyes checked and new prescriptions this past Saturday, tomorrow, after lunch at Torchy’s Tacos, we’re going to check out Sam’s/Wal-Mart for new glasses. Then we’ll stop by Kroger’s for a few Kroger’s-only things before heading home.

I’m going to be really picky about my glasses this time. Last time, 5 years ago, we were in a rush leaving for an RV trip and I had to pick from the frames they had in stock. And I’ve never been happy with them.

Besides the fit, the lenses will often pop out just from laying them down a little hard. They kept trying to fix them but were never really successful.

So, Picky.

Turns out that the Artist Gene runs on both sides of Landon’s family. Sabey, Lowell’s niece, (so Landon’s cousin) has a business doing artwork on store windows.

Really talented.

Not sure if we’re going to do the Wing Over Houston Airshow this October, but they’re having a JetCar this year, which is going to be racing an airplane.

More Here.

 

 

 

 

Is It Something We Said?

Lunch today was at Saltgrass Steakhouse. We were originally scheduled to meet up there with our Alvin Opry group, but with one person afraid of the rain, and the other two maybe having CoVid, we decided to still have steak. Just as delicious as always, and our usual great service from Grace, our regular server.

25 years today, in 1979, T.S. Claudette came for a visit, and definitely overstayed her welcome. And stayed. And stayed.

And when she finally left a day or so later, she had left Alvin, TX, right down the road from us, with a continental U.S. record-setting 42” of rain in a 24 hour period. Only Hawaii, at 49”, has them beat.

Jan and I had just moved into our new house in Heritage Park a few weeks before, and I was working the night shift at NASA-JSC. It had been raining steadily all day, and though the water was filling the road edges, the road itself seemed to be clear.

So I headed out for work about 11:15, and getting to the end of our street, I made a left turn onto Pilgrims Point. As I did, I could see something large moving at the far reach of my headlights. Slowing to check it out, I realized that it was a wall of water, a mini-tsunami about 4 feet high sweeping down the road toward me.

I immediately put my station wagon in reverse and backed up, turning back onto our street, and then pulling up into the first house on the corner, still unsold, and got as close to the garage door as I could, and then waited.

A few seconds later, the wall of water passed by my street, and at the same time, spread out down our street, raising the water level from the street gutters to about halfway up our yard, a height of about 18”.

Luckily, our house was about two feet above the street, so we got no water in the house. But a lot of other homes in our subdivision did.

Getting soaking wet, I ran back to the house and called into work, telling them that I wasn’t going to be able to get into work. With a laugh, I was told, that it wasn’t a problem since they couldn’t leave

Jan and I are wondering if it was something we said. Back on July 1, the young man who has been living in his Class C since we got here in October 2017, pulled out. Then today the family on the other side left for Rawlins, WY in their camper.

Or maybe it’s all those loud, drunken parties we have.


Thought for the Day:

The fact that jellyfish have survived for 650 million years despite not having brains should give hope to many people.


Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2011 – Buffalo Bill And Cody, WY

2013 – Mackinac Island

2014 – Damned If You Do

2015 – Code? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Code!

2018 – Taken For Granite

2022 – Another Unintended Consequence

And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™


July 25, 2009

They’re Gonnnee!

Well, we drove down to Philadelphia today, and had lunch at Famous Dave’s BBQ before going to the airport to put Brandi and Piper on a plane back to Houston.

We had a great time seeing the sights of New York together and look forward to seeing them, and Chris and Linda, again in November when we get back to Houston.

Over the next few days,  I’ll be catching up on the blog on all the things we did while they were here.  We were leaving so early and getting home so late, that I didn’t have time then.


July 25, 2010

Hitting the road…

Today was our last day at The Rally, or half day really. I didn’t want to be trying to leave tomorrow morning along with 2000+ other rigs, so since there was nothing we wanted to see this afternoon, we decided to go ahead and leave. A few rigs have already started filtering out, and we won’t be far behind.

We did have a couple of early seminars this morning that we wanted to attend so we headed over to the hall about 8:30 am, and then afterward, we did one last pass through the vendor area, picking up a few last things.

Then it was off to lunch at Cottage Inn, the little local place we found the other day, except, apparently the Cottage Inn isn’t open on Sunday. So after a quick rethink, we headed over to Mark’s Feed Store, a really good BBQ place we ate at last Tuesday and wanted to try again.

On the way, we came across another of the Louisville horse mascots.

LouisvilleMascot 2

Here’s the one we saw the other day.

LouisvilleMascot

Mark’s Feed Store was just as good as last time, I decided to try a cup of burgoo, a local stew/soup in the Irish/Mulligan/Brunswick family. It had beef, pork, and chicken in it, along with corn, peas, and potatoes. Very tasty.

We also got an order of HoneyWings. These are chicken wings fried really crispy and then coated in a honey glaze. Really, really good, too.

MarksFeedStore

On the way home from Mark’s we stopped off at a Verizon Wireless Store to get another case and belt clip for my Blackberry Storm 2, and the PO to mail a letter.

Back at the Expo it took us about 45 minutes to get ready to leave, and by 2pm we were on the road. But not too far.

We went only about 38 miles north on I-65 to the Yogi Bear Campground in Scottsburg, IN.  Tomorrow we’ve got a 270 mile day over to Vernon, IL to spend a few days with Jan’s sister, Debbie.

More tomorrow from IL…


July 25, 2011

Buffalo Bill and Granny . . .

Today was another ‘play tourist’ day, so after coffee at the rig and a quick stop at McD’s for a breakfast sandwich, we headed over to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.

Buffalo Bill Historical Center

Today would be a ‘twofer’ with a 1 hour trolley ride around Cody, and then coming back to the Center to go through the five museums inside.

The trolley ride was fun and interesting, with a lot of good information from both Chuck, the driver, and Greg, the narrator.

BBHC Trolley Ride

It was interesting to discover that Cody (the town) was designed from scratch by Buffalo Bill to be a ‘tourist’ town. It was laid with very wide streets like the ones Buffalo Bill had admired when he toured Europe with his Wild West Show.

Also interesting was the story of his death and burial in 1917. He died in Denver, CO while visiting his wife Louisa. Cody hated Denver and its leaders with a passion because they had once foreclosed on him due to a debt he owed.

His 1906 will stated he wanted to be buried on top of Cedar Mountain just outside his beloved Cody. However, when he died in Denver, the town supposedly paid his wife $10,000 to bury him there.

To the public, they said that Cody on his deathbed had said he had changed his mind and wanted to be buried in Denver. The folks in Cody said “Yeah, right” and started hatching plans to steal his body back.

Hearing about this, the Denver leaders stationed the National Guard and a WWI tank at the grave. They kept this up for four years before finally sealing off the gravesite with 20 tons of concrete. You would think this was the end of the story, but it wasn’t.

Buffalo Bill died in January 1917 but wasn’t buried until June when the ground thawed out. Now as the story goes, a vagrant died in Cody who somewhat resembled Buffalo Bill, so the town mortician and several townsfolk got together and did some creative makeup on the vagrant’s body so he looked even more like Cody. They then put the body in an automobile, drove down to Denver, snuck into the funeral home where Cody’s body was being stored, swapped corpses, and hightailed it back to Cody.

They then buried his body on top of Cedar Mountain like he wanted, in an unmarked grave so Denver could not steal him back.

Now all this might seem kind of fanciful, but there was a break-in at the funeral home recorded in a police report, and apparently, no one thought to look closely at the body, which although it looked like Buffalo Bill, was more than 6 inches shorter than Cody’s slightly over 6 feet.

Now this story didn’t come out until after Denver had concreted over the gravesite, so there was no way to really check.

But the people of Cody, WY say they know for sure.

My favorite part of the Historical Center was the Firearms Museum.

In the main hall, they have over 1200 firearms on display, starting from the 1500’s to the present.

Cody Guns 1500

They also have rooms by manufacturer, with pretty much every gun that Remington, Colt, Winchester, Browning, Savage, etc., have ever produced.

They also have a number of unique firearms, like the very first production M1 Carbine from Winchester in 1941. During WWII they made over 800,000 of these.

First M1

Another very unique weapon is this Colt 1883 Gatling Gun.

Gatling Gun 1

It was acquired by Winchester in 1949 to test the feasibility of adding an electric motor to power it. This electric-powered Gatling Gun was the prototype of the M-61 Gatling Gun still in use on today’s military aircraft.

M61_Vulcan

Except instead of firing 200 rounds per minute of .45-70 caliber ammo, the Vulcan fires 6000 rounds per minute of 20mm ammo (approx. .78 caliber)

I think one of these would be really nice mounted on the roof of our RV. Idiots would think twice about cutting me off.

Another little fact about Gatling guns. Custer had two of them with him at the fort before he took off chasing Indians, but he didn’t take them with him because he thought they’d slow him down.

I imagine he was rethinking that decision a little while later.

According to the one of the museum displays much of how we see Indians of that era, tipis, warbonnets, warriors on horseback. etc. comes from Cody’s Wild West Show. But these only applied to a very few tribes of the Plains Indians.

I guess this is like supposedly much of the way we visualize Santa Claus today comes from Coca-Cola advertisements of the last 100 years or so.

And apparently like many of today’s rock singers, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show did ‘Final Farewell Tours’ for a number of years. An ad in the Stockton Evening Mail of October 8, 1910 states that “Buffalo Bill Positively Bids You Good-By”.  But 3 years later the show was still on tour around the country, including another show in Stockton 18 months later.

I’ve got a lot of other pictures but I’ll save some for later on a slow news day.

Leaving the Center about 2:30 we had a light lunch at McD’s before heading back to the rig to pick up Jan’s cat, Emma, and take her to the vet

Lately, she’s been losing weight, always hungry, and always thirsty. She’s about 15 years old and we wondered if she had diabetes.

But after blood tests and $200 later, it turns out she had hyperthyroidism which should be treatable by a pill twice a day.

I do want to give a big thumbs up to Lifetime Small Animal Hospital here in Cody, and Dr. Erin Pedersen, our vet. She was great!

Two of our other friends recommended Lifetime and they were right.

After getting back to the rig, and a nice nap, we headed out for dinner about 8 pm, and ended up at Granny’s Restaurant. It was very busy, and very good, just good down-home cooking.

Coming home we stopped off at Albertson’s to get a large disposable aluminum roasting pan to use as a secondary cat litter box.

Tomorrow we’re going down to Grand Teton National Park for a couple of days and this will make sure we don’t have any messes to clean up when we get back.

More tomorrow from Jackson, WY.


July 25, 2013

Three Things to Do When Visiting Mackinac Island . . .

1. Watch Where You Walk.

2. Don’t Step In Yellow Puddles.

3. Bring Plenty of Money.


After one of the muffins we got at Tim Horton’s yesterday, Jan and I headed about 50 miles south to St. Ignace, MI to catch the ferry over to Mackinac Island. To allow plenty of time to catch the 10:00 run, we left about 8:15. But making good time we got there about 9:15, just in time to catch the 9:30 trip.

Heading across the lake we found a lot of people already out there ahead of us.

Mackinac Island Parasail

One of the reasons we wanted to make the 9:30 or 10am ferry, is that these two make a quick detour over by, and under the Mackinac Bridge.

Mackinac Island Bridge 1

The two towers are 550 feet tall, and the suspended roadway between them is over 8600 feet long, making it the longest suspension bridge in the US, and the third longest in the world.

Mackinac Island Bridge 2

The supporting cables are 24-1/2 inches in diameter and are made up of over 12,000 smaller cables woven together. And even though the roadway is open grillwork to let the wind blow through, the bridge can still sway up to 15 feet during high winds. Hopefully not this Saturday.

Mackinac Island Bridge 3

Finally approaching the island, the first thing you can really see is the world-famous Grand Hotel, the site of two movies, including 1979’s “Somewhere In Time” with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

Mackinac Island Grand Hotel

Pretty much everywhere you look is a postcard view.

Mackinac Island Harbor 1

Mackinac Island Harbor 2

Getting our feet back on dry land, we spent some time walking the streets and checking out the scenery.

Mackinac Island Street View

Mackinac Island Yellow House

There are flowers everywhere you look.

Mackinac Island Flowers

Except for two police vans and three fire trucks, no motorized vehicles are allowed on the island. So this wagon is the UPS delivery van. There is a driver for the wagon, but a real UPS guy in his brown shorts actually delivers the packages.

Mackinac Island UPS Truck

And this is why you need to watch where you walk when you’re on the island. I also think it’s why the flowers are so bright and the grass so green. They’ve got to do something with all that ‘fertilizer’.

Mackinac Island Horse Poop

Taking the Carriage Tour, we drove past the Grand Hotel, the only hotel I’ve ever seen that charges you $10 just to walk into the place. Needless to say, we didn’t visit.

Mackinac Island Grand Hotel 2

Our next stop along the tour was Arch Rock which looks down on the beach way below.

Finally leaving the carriage tour at Fort Mackinac, we decided to have lunch at the Tea Room there that overlooks the harbor.

Mackinac Island Fort 1

One of the other ferry companies uses jet boat ferries, giving them this distinctive “rooster tail”.

Mackinac Island Fort 2

There’s even this beautiful two-masted schooner tooling around the harbor

Mackinac Island Fort 3

Sometimes there are so many ferries coming into the harbor it’s almost a traffic jam.

Mackinac Island Fort 4

Looking down from our restaurant perch, seeing all the neat, colorful houses, manicured lawns, and brilliant flower gardens, I almost expected to see a large white ball named Rover go bouncing by.

Mackinac Island Fort 5

Mackinac Island Fort 6

Walking back down the hill from the Fort, we once again walked along the quaint streets, checking out the many shops, and even stopping to buy some of the famous Mackinac fudge from Murdicks.

Later we spent an hour or so sitting in the rockers on the big front porch of the Lakeview Hotel, just people watching. Very nice.

A little later we caught the 4pm ferry back to St. Ignace on the mainland, giving us this great view of the Mackinac Bridge, a bridge that we’ll be crossing in our rig this coming Saturday as we head for Elkhart.

Mackinac Island Bridge 4

Before getting back on I-75N we stopped for gas, giving Jan a thrill and ending her day on a very moose note.

Mackinac Island Star Spangled Moose

Taking our exit off I-75 into Sault Ste. Marie, we drove through a nearby Holiday gas station to check out rig access to tank up with diesel when we leave here on Saturday.


July 25, 2014

Damned If You Do . . .

For dinner Jan heated up our Chili Hot Dog dish from the other night, She added another can of Wolf Brand Chili to stretch it out some, as well as some more heat. Along with some garlic bread, it was a great meal.


And Damned if you don’t:

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a big drought going on out in California. And the state has asked people to cut back on water usage, especially for watering your lawn.

Check out this link:

So this couple tried to do their part by taking shorter showers, doing bigger wash loads, and only watering their lawn twice a week.

And the State of California Water Board has now authorized fining people up to $500 a day for wasting water. In fact the Board Chairwoman said, “A brown lawn should be a badge of honor because it shows you care about your community.”

But now the city of Glendale is threatening to fine the couple $500 because their lawn is brown and not green.

You’re Government At Work.

Under the heading of “We’re gonna need a bigger boat”, check out this video of orcas racing a speedboat off the coast of Mexico. But not only chasing, but keeping up with the speedboat.

Thanks to David Cross for posting this.


We’ve been really surprised with what Landon is learning at his daycare. (He says it’s not daycare, it’s SCHOOL!)  And I think he’s right.

Landon Counting

Not only has he learned his numbers, his colors, and the alphabet, but right now they’re talking about the Revolutionary War, and learning the 13 Colonies.

And he won’t be 4 until next month!


July 25, 2015

Code? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Code!

A little before 3pm we lost power to the rig, so after waiting a minute or so to see if it would come back on, I went outside to check the pedestal. I expected to find a popped breaker like we had earlier in the week. But both breakers were fine.

So next I double-checked our Progressive EMS to see if it had a problem, but it was dead with no power coming in. Looking at our neighbors 3 sites over, I could see they had an oscillating fan going, so they had power.

I then took my test plug and found that the sites on either side of us also had power. So it was just me. Then after I called the park ranger, I ran my AC breakout extension cord over to the empty site next door so we’d have at least one AC running while we waited.

Jason, the ranger, showed up about 10 minutes later and I saw him doing something at a large tree two sites over.

So that explains it. Our electrical system here at the park is run by Keebler Elves. But it turns out it’s even worse than that.

I walked over to see what he was doing and found a main breaker box on a pole right beside the tree. So, no Elves, I guess.

Cherokee Landing Main Fuse Box

Looking over Jason’s shoulder as he reset our breaker, our 30 amp breaker, I asked him about these ‘fake’ 50 amp sites. He laughed and said they, ‘the park’, didn’t want to spend the money to upgrade panels for 50 amp service, so they just put 50 amp receptacles in the pedestals but kept the 30 amp breakers. So we have this ‘50 amp pedestal’.

Cherokee Landing Pedestal 1

But wait, it gets worse.

It turns out that this ‘50 amp’ pedestal is actually being fed by the 30 amp one behind it on the same post.

Cherokee Landing Pedestal 2

And by ‘fed’ I mean it goes through the same 30 amp breaker that also feeds the 30 amp receptacle in the box.

So what we have is a 30 amp breaker in the main breaker box feeding through another 30 amp breaker in the 30 amp box and then through another 30 amp breaker into the 50 amp receptacle.

Cherokee Landing Pedestal 3

Note the cable looping between the two boxes, even though both boxes are also being fed via conduits from underground.

So even using my AC breakout, everything was still running off the same 30 amp breaker, or breakers, actually.

Whoever decided to wire things up this way wouldn’t know the Electrical Code if it bit him.

“Code? We don’t need no stinkin’ code!”

I’m really surprised the whole thing doesn’t just burst into flames.

So I told Jason I was going to keep my AC breakout hooked up to the pedestal next door, and he said he’d tell the office to take the site out of service until we leave next Sunday.

Hopefully it’ll all hold together for the next 7 days.


July 25, 2016

Simple, Quick and . . .

Delicious.

Just to keep an eye on things, I checked my electric meter yesterday to see where I stand at the 3 week point. So far I’ve used 1316 kWh’s which at $0.12 a KWh gives me a total of $158, a $50 increase over last week. So I guess I’m looking at about a $200 bill when we leave next Sunday.

About 2pm Jan and I drove into Columbus for a Whataburger lunch and then a few things at Brookshire Bros, as well as a lottery ticket for Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing for $422 million. You can’t win if you don’t play.

Of course even if you do play, you probably won’t win.

Coming home I swung by the Colorado Oil Co Co-op to check the price of their diesel. Until recently it was always the cheapest place in the area, but not now. In fact now they are one of the highest. Don’t know what happened.

But maybe that’s why their diesel digital price sign no longer works. Which is why I was checking it out at the pump today. We want to top off our rig’s tank before we go too far so we don’t take a chance with our generator and A/C’s quitting when we head to Gulf Shore this Sunday.

And once again, while Brookshire Bros. has diesel for $2.03, Colorado County was at $2.09. No wonder their sign doesn’t work.

Getting into the park, it started to rain, coming down fairly heavy for about 30 minutes. The really nice thing was that it lowered the temperature all the way down to 82 degrees. Nice!

Then about 7:30 the bottom dropped out for a while, with a lot of wind and thunder. And then this knocked the temp down to the high 70’s. Nicer!

After we got home Jan whipped up one of her Pineapple Angel Food Cakes. Just combine a box of Angel Food Cake Mix and a 20 oz. can of Crushed Pineapple, juice and all. Mix it up and dump it into 9” x 13” ungreased cake pan. 350° and 30 to 40 minutes later you’ve got this.

Jan's Pineapple Cake

As I said, Simple, Quick, and Really Delicious! Especially with some whipped cream on top. YUM!

Give it a try.

Our daughter Brandi says this is her serious “I mean business” face. I guess she was psyching herself up for the 5K (3.1 miles) Blacklight Run 2016 that she did Saturday night. She did say she ditched the ears after about a mile.

Brandi's Business Face

She said she’s going to do a half-marathon (13.1 miles) sometime in November. I know she’ll do it.

And apparently she wasn’t too tired, since she, Lowell, and Landon spent Sunday afternoon at the nearby Typhoon Texas waterpark in Katy.

Brandi et all at Typhoon


July 25, 2017

Down To Clear Lake . . .

We were up about 8am and out the door at 8:45, for our two hour trip down to Clear Lake to meet up with our son Chris.

But our first stop was the Jack in the Box so Jan could get a Supreme Breakfast Croissant and me an Iced Caramel Coffee for the road. Then it was to Brandi’s.

We were hoping that the new Katy Buc-ee’s might be open, but no luck. But maybe when we get back from Alabama

Getting to Brandi’s, we found Lowell finishing up yard work before he headed up to Dallas on a business trip. While we were there, Jan took several photos of me so I can add myself to the Reunion Family Photo. More later

We also picked up our Amazon order that was delivered on Saturday. One thing new was the fact that this was actually delivered by Amazon themselves, not UPS, FedEx, or USPS. And just to prove it was delivered, they send you a photo with your tracking info.

Amazon Delivery Photo

We met our son Chris at King Food a little after 11 for a great lunch. Jan and I both got our usual Chicken with Hot Garlic Sauce XXXXXX Spicy with Jalapenos.

King Food Chcken Garlic 4

And it was a big enough serving that we had leftovers for supper tonight. Finishing up we followed Chris back to the house to pick up our mail, and also our rearview camera monitor bracket that he welded back together for us.

Getting there we were happy to find Miss Piper home early from work so we got to see her before we headed out. And after a stop at the bank and a nearby O’Reilly’s, we were on our way back to Columbus.

Leaving the Katy area we got a good look at Amazon’s new fulfillment facility being built just west of Katy.

Amazon Katy

At 1 million square feet, it’s the 3rd one here in Houston, with a 4th one right behind it. When it’s finally open, I wonder if they’ll have a Will Call desk so I can just drive over and pick up my orders.

We got home about 3:30, and started getting ready to head out to Alabama tomorrow.


July 25, 2018

Taken For Granite . . .

Ended up spending part of the morning at work helping my client’s wife with a problem she was having with her laptop.

Most of it due to the fact that her laptop is circa 2000 and is running Windows XP!  The system is maxxed out on RAM at 1GB, fine for when it came out, but today’s programs are much more RAM-intensive, and 1GB just won’t cut it.

I’m trying to get her set up with something newer, but she is really reluctant to switch to a new computer.

I also found out that I’m working both tomorrow as well as Friday because my client will be out both days taking CE courses for his medical license. I will have to duck out for a while about 1pm to meet the last potential buyer for our house, and then we’ll probably make a decision this weekend. But we’ll see how that goes.

Several readers have asked about Karma the cat.

Karma CloseUp

She doing fine, and as of our last RV trip, she’s finally settled down and doesn’t run and hide when she hears the rig engine start up. Now she either lays on the rug between our two chairs, or sleeps on the sofa.

Karma at Home 2

And she’s grown up to be a good-sized girl, at 13.2 pounds. We know her exact weight because the digital scale in the bathroom is one of her favorite places to sit.

And when I’m at the computer she normally sleeps on her perch right beside my chair.

Karma on her perch

And she’s turned out to be a much better kitty than I had expected from a half-feral stray.

Chris’ wife, Linda, sent over some pics of their new home up in Kingsland, TX, and it looks like it’s really coming together.

Kingsland House 5

And they’ve got Tonto, the real wooden Indian, in his new spot out on the front porch (shouldn’t he be called Kaw-Liga?).

Kingsland House 6

And this is what 3-1/2 TONS of crushed granite looks like. Chris hauled it in, got it unloaded, spread out, and leveled.

Kingsland House 7

Really looks great.

You all know I can’t resist a new toy, and this is my new one.

Digital Power Meter

It’s a Digital Voltage/Amp Meter that I want to connect to the rig’s shore power input. Actually I got two of them coming in from Amazon, one for each leg.

My Progressive EMS has an ammeter indicator on it, but it’s out in the electrical bay. The newer models have a remote display but it wasn’t available when I got mine.

I’ll mount these back in the bedroom, probably connected to the output of the transfer switch. That will let me monitor both the shore power and generator power. Of course that assumes that I get it working again. LOL

Last up, here’s a neat website that lists RV Salvage Yards by state around the country. Check it out.


July 25, 2019

All Alone Am I . . .

Well, not completely, Karma’s hanging around too.

Jan and I headed for Katy about 1:30 with our first stop the El Pollo Loco just off I-10 south on Mason Rd. Jan wanted to stock on a couple of their 2 Piece White Meat Chicken Meals with Pinto Beads and Side Salads.

Then it was a little further south on Mason to the HEB for more Pet-Sitting survival supplies. For my part, I was happy to encounter the sales guy for our favorite Lola Savannah coffee.

Told him that our HEB at I-45 and FM646 no longer stocked their coffee, and we had to go to another location to pick it up. He noted the address and said he’d check it out, since all HEB are contracted to carry it.

He also told me that they’re introducing some new flavors, and gave me a 1# bag of one of them, Cinnamon Stick. Since all their coffees are only sold as Whole Bean I went ahead and ground it up right there. And the smell was just fantastic.

Like their Texas Pecan has big chunks of pecans in it, the Cinnamon Stick has large pieces of cinnamon bark in it that get ground up along with the coffee.

We got to Brandi’s about 3:45, and after I got all her stuff unloaded, I got her laptop and Kindles logged in the house WiFi, and her device charger hooked up to keep her phone and Kindles topped off with juice.

A little later, after Lowell and Landon showed up, we drove over to have dinner once again at Astor Farm to Grill. Our first visit was when we were on the way from our Waco trip about a month ago after getting together with our long-time friend’s Bill and Carol Alverson, and Bill’s cousin June.

Jan got the same thing this time as last, the Lemon Chicken Breast with a side salad,

Astor Lemon Chicken Breast2

I went with something new, the Monster Pork Chop with Mashed Potatoes and Grilled Squash. as well as their homemade BBQ Sauce made with Macallan Whiskey.

Astor Pork Chop

Delicious, and the first time I’ve ever gotten a little buzz from a pork chop.

Back at Brandi’s, I killed a little time to let the traffic die down, finally getting back to the rig about 8:30, about 15 minutes late due to road construction at FM517 where I normally get off I-45.

Tomorrow I start hitting my chore list.

Oh Boy!

I mentioned that Brandi, et. all, are going to Costa Rica for a week, leaving tomorrow afternoon. Which is why Jan is pet-sitting.

But this afternoon we finally got a look at where they’re staying. And all I can say is WOW!   This place is fantastic!

It’s the Manuel Antonio 10 Bedroom Villa.

Escape Villsa Costa Rica 1

Escape Villsa Costa Rica 2

Escape Villsa Costa Rica 3

There are a total of 17 people going down so they’ll need the room.

And it comes complete with a chef and a sous chef. And just about anything else you can think of.

Click on the link above for all the amenities and more photos.

Landon’s looking forward to all the monkeys that will come to the porch to get treats.


July 25, 2020

Nice Forehand . . .

First up, I’ve got another very imaginative Comet NEOWISE photo for you.

Comet NEOWISE Tennis 468


July 25, 2021

Sour Grapes?

After we sat outside with our coffee this morning I prepped our Weber 200 grill for the hot dog roast this afternoon. Actually the prep just consisted of wire-brushing off the charred remains of our BBQ ribs from a few weeks ago. And it still smelled really good.

Since 2004 and up until July 20th of this year, the FAA said that a person who flew above 50 miles, or 80km, was entitled to Commercial Astronaut Wings.

Yes, there was that little quibble about outer space not really starting until 62 miles, or 100km (also known as the Kármán Line). But the rules are (were) the rules.

At least up until July 20th.

On July 9th Richard Branson, along with 5 others flew a 53 mile high sub-orbital flight on his SpaceShipTwo, qualifying them all for Commercial Astronaut Wings.

At least up until July 20th.

Then on July 20th Jeff Bezos and three others, including both the youngest (18) and the oldest (82) crew members ever, flew over 62 miles high, again on a sub-orbital flight. Qualifying them for both Commercial Astronaut Wings and the honor of actually making it above the Kármán Line (62mi/100km) and officially into outer space.

At least up until that same July 20th. That’s the day that the FAA suddenly decided to change the rules.

Now you have to fly above 50 miles and that would-be astronauts must also have “demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety,”

Well, I’m sorry, but I think ‘civilians’ putting 10 people ‘safely’ into space and bringing them ‘safely’ back to Earth should qualify. Plus the rules weren’t changed until after Branson’s flight, so he and his crew should still qualify.

Otherwise, it just seems like Sour Grapes. I mean, the last time NASA even put anybody into space was 10 years ago, in 2011 with the last shuttle flight. Since then all US astronauts sent up to the ISS went on Russian rockets, or more recently, on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, another one of those ‘civilian’ companies.

I may need a new front A/C or maybe not. Sometime during the afternoon our front A/C just up and quit. Every now and then over the last couple of days, Jan and I both thought we smelled something electrical getting hot, but I was never able to narrow it down to a specific location.

At first I thought it might be a bad breaker, but when I switched it over to another one, it popped back off immediately. So my first thought was that the A/C compressor had a dead short.

But then I got to thinking that the A/C compressor shouldn’t be coming on then anyway because the A/C was turned off at the thermostat. Plus even if it were turned on, there’s a 2-3 minute delay when you put power back to the unit before the compressor would come back on anyway.

So now I’m wondering if it might be the same control box up inside the unit that I replaced back in March after it burned out.

AC Control Box 2

AC Control Box 2 - 2

So I’ll pull it down tomorrow and take a look at it.

But I’m beginning to wonder if there’s not a problem with these boxes, since everywhere I’ve looked online either shows them Out of Stock or Back-Ordered.

If it’s a burnout relay like the last one, I may end up kludging in a new one. I’ve got the schematic of the box,

AC Control Box 2 Schematic

so the first thing I’ll do is short across the NO and COM wires on the Compressor Relay. If the A/C comes on, then I’ll know it’s not the A/C Compressor, but the Compressor Relay.

But if I get a big, blinding arc, then I’ll know the AC compressor is shorted, and I’ll be looking at $800 or so for a new rooftop unit.

We actually weren’t too uncomfortable today. Our rear AC is ducted to the front. Plus the humidity was low and with all our fans running, it only got up to about 83° in the rig, so not too bad.

I did go ahead and grill the dogs and brats outside and they were delicious.

Hot Dogs and Brats on the Grill

And we’ve still got enough for a couple of more meals.


July 25, 2022

More Unintended Consequences . . .

Tomorrow I have my 3rd Physical Therapy session, and I told Jan that I’ll probably do one more, next week, and then call it quits for a while.

By then I should have a nice repertoire of exercises to work with, saving me both the time lost at the class, and the $80 a month the sessions cost me.

Then after the class, we plan on lunch at SnoozeAM and a Costco stop.

Recently I’ve been reposted some old blogs that I wrote about “Unintended Consequences”

You know, like in British Colonial India when the government started offering a bounty for dead cobras, hoping to reduce the deadly population. For a while it worked . . . until people started breeding cobras so they could turn them in for the reward, saving them actually having to catch them in the wild.

Then when the government scrapped the program, all of the now-worthless cobras were released, resulting in more cobras in the wild than they were to start with.

Oops!

Or when in 1859 an Australian imported 24 wild rabbits from England and released them into the countryside so he could hunt them. But apparently they could make new bunnies faster than he could shoot them, because by the 1920’s, less than 70 years later the population was estimated to be over 10 billion. That’s BILLION, with a B.

By the 1890’s they had devastated over 2.5 million acres of Australia. Today, due to heavy eradication efforts, the rabbit population numbers around 200 million.

And now it looks like they’ve done it again.

Back in 2019, New York state outlawed the catching of Atlantic menhaden using drawstring purse nets, hoping to increase the Menhaden stocks that were down from overfishing. But what they failed to realize was one of the other reasons that the menhaden stocks were down.

Sharks love menhaden.

And now that the menhaden stocks are flourishing, the sharks are flourishing too. And very close to shore.

This drone photo was taken over water only 3 feet deep.

Menhaden and Sharks

And now six beachgoers have been bitten by sharks and there have been a slew of shark sightings from Rockaway Beach to the Hamptons, just in the past three weeks. On Wednesday, the corpse of a 6- to 8-year-old shark washed up on the beach in Quogue.

However, Assemblyman Steve Englebright, who sponsored the bill along with state Sen. Todd Kaminsky, said he didn’t consider the possibility it would lead to increased shark activity.

“I’m not sure that one could have predicted there would be the seriousness that this has become.”

And now scientists say the menhaden stocks are dropping again, not due to overfishing, but overeating.

By sharks.

it’s not nice to mess with Mother Nature.


July 25, 2023

Still . . .

Feeling A Little Peaked,

so again, not much blog today, either.

I did come across this fun video of, I guess you could call it an aerial demolition derby.

RC plane enthusiasts come from all over to Ohio to participate each year.

Check it out!