Our RV Adventures

Since the frack was down most of the day (we only had 91 vehicles come in) and nothing much else happened, I thought maybe this would be a good time to talk about my new Amazon Echo.

To say it’s my favorite new toy is an understatement. It maybe my favorite new toy ever. Or at least it’s in the top three, along with the Lionel train set I got when I was 10, or my first computer, an Exidy Sorcerer I got in 1978.

Though when I think about it, my first ‘computer’ was a Geniac I got when I was 9.

Anyway, I digress.

I’m sure most of you are familiar with at least one of the voice-activated digital assistants, like Siri, Cortana, or OK Google. Well the Amazon Echo is all that, and more. And even better, it’s hands-free, kind of an OK Google on steroids.

You can ask her any question, and get an answer, even if she doesn’t know it.

I say ‘she’ because she is a ‘she’. And her name is ‘Alexa’. Or at least ‘Alexa’ is her wakeup word, like ‘OK Google’, or ‘Siri’. You can also use ‘Amazon’, but that’s no fun.

You can ask her, “What’s the weather today in Dallas?” and she will tell you.

And once you set your location, you can ask her “What’s the weather today?” or “tomorrow”.

You can ask her to set an alarm for 10pm, or set one for 15 minutes.

If you link you Google calendar to Alexa, you can ask her, “What’s on my calendar for Friday?” and she will tell you.

A week or so ago when I was replacing the thermostats in our rig’s water heater, I was down on my knees in the bathroom and wanted to double-check what the temperature rating was. So I said, “Alexa, what is 60 degrees Centigrade in Fahrenheit?” And she came back, “60 degrees Celsius is 140 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Note that she not only gave me the correct answer, but she corrected me with the more modern Celsius, rather than the older Centigrade. And also she was in the living room while I was in the bathroom working and she still heard me.

The Echo has seven microphones spaced around her circumference, so it doesn’t matter which direction the question or request is coming from.

And Alexa even has a sense of humor. You can tell her to “Open the pod bay doors, HAL”, and she say, “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that. I’m not HAL and you’re not in space.”

Or you can ask her to tell you a joke. “What did the zero say to the eight?

“Nice belt.”

Tomorrow I’ll have some more info about Alexa, including what has turned out to be our favorite feature. Stay tuned.

Speaking of tomorrow, Jan of course has gone into giddy overdrive because of our upcoming Anniversary Eve afternoon off. We’ll head over to Shreveport about 1pm for 6 hours of fun and frolic. Or maybe just dinner, shopping, and a movie.

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Thought for the Day:

“The work never ends…always another palm to grease…always another weak sister that needs shoring-up”. – J. R. Ewing

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After my Wal-Mart run this morning, and filling up with gas ($1.96/gallon) to be ready for our Anniversary trip to Shreveport  on Sunday, I headed into downtown Carthage to the NAPA Auto Parts store.

This past summer as we were heading east from our two month long blowout repair in Prescott, AZ, I noticed I needed to add some coolant to our rig’s Cummins 350 ISC engine. But when I checked my bay, the jug was almost empty. Well, I’ll just stop at the next truck stop and pick up a couple of gallons. But easier said than done.

Along the way, I checked Pilot/Flying J, TA, Love’s, etc., all with no luck. No one carried the old style green diesel antifreeze any longer. Just the new red type, and various shades of red, i.e pink and magenta. Magenta?

But since you’re not supposed to mix the two colors, I kept looking.

While we were staying in Amarillo for a couple of days, I noticed a Cummins dealership right across the road, so I stopped and picked up a couple of gallons of this.

Zerex Nitrate Free Extended Life Antifreeze

Not having used this brand before for the rig, I double-checked the label for Cummins diesel compatibility, but was really surprised to read that it’s also gasoline engine compatible as well.

Well, that’s a first. In the past there’s been diesel engine antifreeze and gasoline engine antifreeze, and never the twain shall meet. But hey, that just means I’ll only have to keep one type of antifreeze on hand for both our vehicles. Neat.

But the two gallons I bought in Amarillo didn’t last very long. In fact I never got to put any in the rig engine, because I ended up using it when we were having the leaking radiator problem on the truck. So now I needed more.

But when I checked AutoZone and O’Reilly’s, the two places along my usual route here in Carthage, I was again out of luck. They didn’t stock it and couldn’t order it. But after checking online and making some phone calls, I found that the local NAPA store could order what I needed. So I went by there today to pick up a couple of gallons of the concentrated stuff, not the 50/50. The concentrated is only about a 1/3 more for twice as much. You just have to mixed it first, yourself.

I’ve already decided that when RV Mobile Lube comes out to do my service this winter, I’m going to have them flush my system and change me over to the newer red type. That way I won’t have this problem any more.

Then on the way home I made the obligatory Whataburger stop for lunch.

Things were awfully quiet here at the frack this afternoon, and after checking with one of the company guys coming through, I confirmed that they had finished the second well and were reconfiguring to get started on the third one. And this one has 35 stages, so it’s going to be a long one.

We hope.

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Thought for the Day:

“Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates.  There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backward, or sideways” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

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