Monthly Archives: August 2013
On To The Gate . . .
Today is our last day here in Houston for a few months and we still had some last minute things to wrap up. So after dropping off my last bundle of Gypsy Journals at the park office, Jan and I headed out about 1pm
Getting down to the Clear Lake area, our first stop was at a client’s office to look at a few problems that they were having. One of them I couldn’t do anything about because the client was trying to run a new piece of software on an old laptop running Win XP. He just couldn’t understand why it wouldn’t work. I told him he had to buy a new laptop at least once every 10 years or so.
Then after a quick stop at a nearby CVS, we headed over to the Friendswood area to get haircuts. I dropped Jan off at a SuperCuts and then I headed over to the barbershop I have used for about 20 years. I was in and out is less than 15 minutes (Hey, I don’t have a lot to work with), and went back over to wait for Jan.
An hour and a half later she finally came out. She said the place was jam-packed. Don’t know why it would be on a Wednesday afternoon. Maybe because school starts on Monday?
I then called a take-out order into King Food and we headed over there to pick it up. Brandi and Lowell have really been jonesing for KF Chinese since they moved up to Katy. So we’re taking a big batch up there to have a last dinner with them.
Finally on our way to Katy, we made a quick stop at a Sam’s Club to pick a few bulk things. The nearest Sam’s to where we’ll be gate guarding is about 60 miles away so we wanted to stock up on a few things.
We got to Brandi’s about 5:30 to find Lowell already there and then Brandi and Landon showed up a few minutes later.
After a really good dinner, Jan wanted to recreate a series of photos we had made of Landon sitting in the same chair with his big green frog.
Here he is at about two months. He’s not really sure what that is sitting next to him.
And here he is at about 7 months. Happy Go Lucky and the frog’s his best friend.
However now is a whole ‘nother story. Same chair, same frog, but now with a 3 year old. Here’s what we got this time.
And we only got the last shot right before he threw the frog at me.
After saying our goodbyes and getting last hugs from all, we headed home a little before 8. Tomorrow we’ll leave out about 9am, heading for Whitsett, TX and the Gate Guard Services yard about 255 miles away.
We’ve got several stops planned along the way, the first being at the Buc-ee’s in Luling on I-10 for coffee and kolaches. Then after we turn south onto I-37 at San Antonio, we’ll stop at the Pilot at exit 125 to top off our diesel. Last we’re going to stop at the Wal-Mart in Pleasanton to stock up on groceries, just like we did last year.
Don’t know yet how long it will be before we get a gate. Last year it was about 10 days, but that included driving down to Corpus Christi to apply for our Security Guard Licenses and then waiting for the OK to come back. That was only about 4 days, so we’ll see how it goes.
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Thought for the Day:
“Courage is fear that has said its prayers.” – Dorothy Bernard
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Wrapping things up – Almost . . .
Today we started wrapping up our time here in the Houston area. So Jan and I headed out about noon down to the Clear Lake area. Our first stop was Monterey’s Little Mexico, down in Dickinson. No way could we come through the area without getting a big bowl of their Chicken Tortilla Soup. the soup that all others are compared to.
And it’s always nice to see Julie, our favorite waitress, who still remembers what we order, and how we want it. Even the young man who brings the chips and salsa to our table remembered we always want two salsas instead of the normal one salsa and one green sauce.
Finishing up at Monterey’s and telling them we’ll be back in November, we headed up I-45 to Academy Sports. I was looking for a canopy for our gate guarding sojourn.
Based on our experiences last year, we wanted a canopy that has an air vent at the top, and has a UV coating to shield out some of the sun. But after looking at Academy, Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart with no luck, I’ll probably order this one from Amazon
It’s Amazon Prime so two-day shipping is free, but what may be the only downside is the fact that at 13 x 13 feet, it’s 69 square feet larger than the 10 x 10 one we had last year.
Our next stop was to check in with one of my clients for a few minutes before making a stop at Half-Price Books so Jan could stock on Gate books.
Then, after a another stop at our storage room to pick up some gate-related things we had stored away last year. Then it was on to Chris’ to kill some time before we met Piper for dinner at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, our favorite local Cajun place.
Gooood Gumbo!
It was really nice to have Piper all to ourselves and be able to catch up on what’s going on in her life. It’s really hard to believe she’ll be 20 next month. It seems like only yesterday she looked like this.
or like this.
Yep, she started on computers early.
Tomorrow we’ll wrap things up here in Houston, and then have dinner with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon tomorrow night.
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Thought for the Day:
People who do not study history are destine to believe really ignorant statements.
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