Daily Archives: April 18, 2012
So Far, So Good . . .
Monday, April 16th
I was up at 5:30 and opened the gate at 5:45 just to be sure that I was ready to go for the first visitor. We’re really lucky that our first gate job is effectively only a 12hr gate, from about 6am to 6pm.
Jan was up about 7, and after puttering in the rig for a while, came out about 8 and we just enjoyed the view. We’ve got roadrunners, quail, doves, and a lot of other birds that we can’t identity yet, but Jan has her Petersen’s guide book and is working on it.
Finally, about 12:30pm I headed over to Pearsall, TX, to the closest Wal-Mart to pick up some things, but it turns out that it’s not a SuperCenter, so I had to go to HEB for the groceries.
I was looking for a cheapy AT&T cellphone but no luck. The only place in town that sold cell phones was a Tax Preparation office ?? that was closed.
Bummer!
We still don’t have cell or Internet service out here, which is the only downside to the job site.
I finally got back at 5, and after putting things away, I pulled out our Weber Q Grill to do hot dogs. It’s been awhile since we used it, so I was afraid we might be out of propane, but the bottle ran out just as the dogs were done, so it was all good.
More propane goes on the list.
The last truck out left about 6:30, so I locked the gate and we were done for the day.
We only had about 22 vehicles come through today, which was nice.
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Tuesday, April 17th
Our first truck didn’t come through until about 6:15, but a little before that, the coyotes woke up and started yipping and howling at each other. Thought they were supposed to howl at the moon, not the sun.
About 10:45am I headed about 50 miles north to Pleasanton, the closest Wal-Mart SuperCenter to check for AT&T phones, and they had what I needed. The two GoPhones were $15 a piece and then you buy time as you need it.
Hopefully this will work for us.
My next stop was the Verizon store across the street to see where the closest cell tower was to our job site, and how far away it was. I want to see about getting an amplifier so we can use our Verizon cell/Internet service that we already have.
And it looks like it can be done. I’ll have to order it from Amazon tomorrow.
My last stop was China Garden to pick up some more of their great food to take back to the rig for dinner.
And apparently I’m not the only one who likes their food. It was 1pm and the place was jam-packed. The parking lot was full and I had to park on the edge of the street. And there was a line out the door that I thought was to get in to eat.
No. The line was to either pick up a call-in order, or place a take-out order. So it took me almost 30 minutes to get my food and get back on the road.
Getting home, I got a Big Bummer. The new AT&T cell phones don’t work. I was told AT&T would work out here but I don’t have a signal.
Now I just hope the amplifier idea will work. We’ll see. As it is, I have to drive about 20 miles one-way to get a signal to post this from my laptop and check our phone messages.
That’s about for today. I’ll try to have some photos tomorrow.
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Thought for the Day:
Unlike King Midas, whatever the Government touches sure don’t turn to Gold!
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