Our RV Adventures

After yesterday’s busy day, it was nice that today was a little slower paced.

Slower paced, but COLD.

At 10:30am it was still only 35 degrees, after going down to 30 overnight. I’m hoping it will warm back up soon so I can get back to my outside rig maintenance stuff.

About noon, I drove over to the RV Park office to pay the site rent, and told them we would be leaving in the next month or so. Also told them we’d be back next year.

Then a little before 1pm I called Nick Russell to have him check something out for me on his computer problem. This is a really weird one that I’ll have to keep working on.

Next I started making some phone calls.

Jan ordered a blouse from Roaman’s a couple of days ago for $39.84. Then today I was checking one of our bank accounts and noticed we had 4 pending charges for the blouse, not just one. When I called the company, I was told that the extra 3 charges would disappear in the next couple of days, leaving only the one. She could not, or would not explain why the 3 extra charges were there in the first place. She first tried to tell me that maybe I submitted the order 4 times rather than one. Then when I asked her if that was the case, why did I only get 1 email confirmation and not 4. Again, no answer.

I’ll see what happens in the next several days.

Next I called Penn Warranty Corp. to cancel our truck’s extended warranty. After paying them almost $1300.00 the last 3 years, they paid $37 on a $600 brake repair bill that was caused by a faulty brake caliper, not wear and tear. And this was the first claim I’ve ever had with them.

Finally I called AT&T to cancel the phone and Internet service I still had at the house. There actually hasn’t even been a phone hooked up there since Brandi moved in. They just use their cell phones. I just kept it for the email service. But I’m finally configured somewhere else now.

By this time it seemed like a nice time for a nap, especially since Jan was already asleep on the sofa.

After our naps, we left the rig about 5:20 heading up to Webster to Chuy’s, another of our favorite local Mexican places.

But this was a special occasion. Jan was meeting five of her former Medical Records co-workers for an evening of good food and the occasional margarita. OK, maybe more than occasional.

Jan has done this every year since we’ve been on the road, and it’s always a good time to be had by all, and the occasional margarita, of course.

While Jan was having fun, and the occasional margarita, I, of course, was working.

I drove over to a nearby client’s office to update some software, and reprint some missing reports.

I picked up Jan about 8:30 and we headed back to the rig. She couldn’t stop talking about how much fun she had, and that she was already looking forward to next year.

That was about it for today.

See you back here tomorrow, same time, same channel…

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Thought for the Day:

“The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates.” Tacitus 115 A.D.

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Well, it got down to about 30 degrees here at the rig last night, a little warmer than the 25 or so up in Houston. Being right on the water keeps us a little warmer.

Our friend Nick Russell had mentioned on his blog that he and Terri were thinking about leaving Bushnell, FL and heading west to find warmer weather. I commented that it won’t do any good since it was in the 20’s at night from Florida all the way out to El Paso, TX.

Then tonight I saw a news story online that over 70% of the US was covered in snow, and it was snowing 49 of 50 states, including HAWAII!  Only Florida was snow-free.

About 10:30am a client called and said he had lost Internet to his computer last night and it still wasn’t working. He’d tried all the normal things like rebooting, etc., with no luck. He said his wife’s computer in her home office was working fine. I told him I’d be over a little later to check it out.

Then our son Chris called a little before 11 to lock in our dinner plans for tonight. We’re going to our favorite local Italian place, Mario’s Pizza, up in Seabrook.

After I got off the phone with Chris, I called my Doctor to schedule my yearly checkup for the last week in January. I also made an appointment for Jan since her old doctor had moved away, and she wasn’t enamored of his replacement in the group practice.

A couple of minutes after I got off the phone, I heard some indelicate words coming from bathroom. Turns out Jan had dropped one of her opal earrings down the lavatory drain. Telling her not to run the water, I got my strap wrench and took apart the upper and lower fittings and pulled the pipe down.

They don’t give you a lot of clearance, but after putting a bowl under the trap, I was able to splash enough water out to retrieve the earring.

When I started working, Mister was hanging right over my shoulder watching my every move. But he finally got bored and retired to the bedroom. Apparently he just couldn’t watch any more.

A little while later Jan and I headed up to Clear Lake to check out my client’s Internet problem and run some other errands. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out what happened. It turns out…

It was the cat’s fault.

This one to be specific. And no, this is not Mister. He does kind of look like him, but he only weighs about half of Mister’s 23 pounds.

He looks perfectly innocent, doesn’t he.

But apparently he walked across the power switch on a plug strip that powered a router that fed the Internet into his owner’s computer. At least he was the only one in the house who could fit behind the desk where the power strip was, so he gets the blame.

Leaving the cat to finish his nap, Jan and I headed over to Sam’s Club to pick up a prescription. Then next it was down the feeder to Baybrook Mall.

First Jan had a opal ring she wanted to get resized. You might have noticed a pattern here with Jan and opals. Opal is her birthstone and she’s really got a thing for them.

And this ring has a history.

It you watch the TV show ‘Pawn Stars’, about the pawn shop on the Strip in Las Vegas, you know where this ring came from.

Jan bought it last March when we were in Vegas with Nick and Terry Russell .

And if you watch the show, you’ll recognize Chumlee, one of the stars. He’s the one who sold it to her.

Next, we went next door to Sears where I was looking for an Sears Air Compressor like this one.

I wanted one that would handle both the toad tires, and our 22.5 coach tires that are inflated to 110#. No small order.

But according to several guys on the RV.net forums, this one will do the job. I’ll see when I try it out in a day or so.

Of course, I could use the air compressor built in to the coach, but that entails dragging out the hose and then cranking up the diesel. It’s a pain in the butt just to put a few pounds of air in a truck tire. So we’ll see how this one does.

Then we headed toward home, first stopping at the Kroger’s to get gas, and then Wal-Mart for more ‘stuff’.

One of the things I wanted to get was a new water filter, like this one.

I always start off the year’s travels with a new filter. I’ve also got one under the sink that feeds the drinking fountain and the ice maker, but I have to get it later at Home Depot.

We got back to the rig about 4pm with only about 45 minutes before we had to leave to meet Chris, Linda, and Piper at the Mario’s Pizza in Seabrook. While we were eating Nick called with another computer problem, but said to call him back after we got home.

Then our friend Maria called a few minutes later wanting to know if Jan wanted to go Bingo-ing tonight, but Jan begged off.

Boy, are we popular.

I called Nick back a little before 7 to try and get a handle on his problem.  And Nick, being true to form, came up with a real doozy this time. I sometimes thinks he does it just to see if he can stump me.

Something weird is going on between his computer and his external hard drive that I’ve never heard of happening, and, on top of that, can’t figure out how it COULD happen. So more research is needed.

And on that note, more tomorrow…

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Thought for the Day:

Freedom is not free. A free society has no choice but to put up with a great deal of bizarre behavior.

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