Monthly Archives: January 2017
A New Gate? And A New Puppy . .
Well, Texas’ weird winter weather is on a roll again. Yesterday and today were in the 80’s, but in the 40’s at night. Then for the next few days, it’s high 50’s/low 60’s with 30’s and 40’s at night.
Jan wanted to get some groceries today so we combined it with Fried Chicken/Roast Beef day at Barth’s before ending up at HEB and then home. The HEB is really nice here and closer than the Wal-Mart, so we go there a lot if all we need is groceries.
Tonight looks to be my last night at this gate . . . for now. But it seems like I keep getting rotated through the same ones over and over. But I would be perfectly happy to not come back to this gate, or the last one either, because of all the Internet/Phone problems.
So hopefully I’ll have a new gate in the next day or so.
I mentioned in last night’s blog that the Internet had gone down about 8pm and was still down at 11pm. Well at midnight it all came back on like someone had flipped a switch. Which I figure is what happened.
Then tonight everything was great until about 7pm when it died, only to come back on at 8pm.
And on the subject of the Internet I recently had a comment from a new blog reader, or at least a new commenter (I have to approve all first time comments) complaining that my blog about Internet service was boring, and I should be blogging more about RV’ing.
Here’s how I replied.
Sorry to disappoint.
We’ve been full-timing for 9 years and blogging about it for 8.
Our blog is not necessarily an ‘RV’ blog, but ‘our adventures’ as we RV. And I can tell you from experience that cell phone service, Wi-Fi service, and Internet service are prime topics as we all move around the country. In fact over the years I written whole blogs on the problems and solutions to getting Internet service in a particular area.
And of course without Internet service, this blog wouldn’t exist.
And of course right now we’re not RV’ing as such, but Oil Field Gate Guarding in south Texas about 60 miles south of San Antonio. This is something a lot of RV’ers do, and a lot of other RV’ers are interested in. In fact my wife and I give very popular seminars at the Escapee’s Escapade RV rallies on the subject.
I also write a lot about repairing things around the rig, also very popular with our readers. I’ve written blogs about repairing washing machines, toilets, rooftop AC’s, and much more.
But the main thing I can tell you is that after doing almost 3000 blogs, what I write about has to interest me. It’s not always easy coming up with 500-1000 words a day, believe me. That’s why you see so many ‘abandoned’ blogs around. They go gung-ho for about a month and then it peters out.
To keep my interest, I write on a lot of different subjects. If you check under Greg’s Musings on the top right menu strip you will find a number of well-received articles on the Election, the Electoral College, the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy, and losing our past through Political Correctness. Right now I’m working on another article on Global Cooling-Global Warming-Climate Change.
Hopefully we’ll manage to come up with enough stuff to keep you reading the blog. Keep in touch and feel free to post any more comments you have.
That’s why you see so many varied topics here. Otherwise I’d get bored. And that’s also the reason I started doing the articles for the Greg’s Musings area.
And on that subject, thanks for all the kind words about yesterday’s screed on Simple But Not Easy Solutions to the immigration problem. I’ll try to get it posted as a separate article in Greg’s Musings in the next day or so.
A large part of the problem with the immigration problem is that a lot of people, especially in our government and industry, don’t see it as a problem at all, just as cheap labor.
And those who question the influx of this ‘cheap labor’ are called ‘anti-immigration’ and even racists.
Personally I have no problem with immigration, that is ‘legal, controlled immigration.’ My grandmother, my father’s mother, was born in England and around the turn of the century immigrated first to Canada and then to the US where my father was born in 1909.
Meet Baxter.
Baxter is a new addition to the Morrison household, and a new little brother to both Landon and Kitty, their 125# Black Lab.
Landon and Kitty have been together since Landon was born, and although Kitty is very protective of Landon, they still scuffle over toys and stuff like siblings
Looks like he’s fitting right in with the family,
even to Baxter and Landon napping together on the dog bed.
Thought for the Day:
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts” – Richard Feynman
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Jan Got A Gate . . .
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Jan Got A Gate. Though it looks like it’s only for one day.
But still she’s happy about it.
This morning about 7:25 Jan got a text from Todd wanting to know if she wanted a gate. So she woke me up to check it out. (I had only been asleep for about an hour and a half.) Turns out that it’s for the the day shift guard on my night shift gate.
This morning when I was relieved, it was by someone I’d never met, but knew of. Then sometime later in the morning he told Todd he needed off the gate for some reason. So Todd needed someone pretty quickly.
Todd had apparently forgotten that I was already the night shift guard on this gate, but it really didn’t matter. So Jan had her shower and got dressed and we out the door in about 20 min. And 15 minutes later we were leaving the HEB McD’s with breakfast and a full tank of gas.
I had thought that the day guy might have gotten sick or something, but he seemed fine when we got to the gate. So who knows.
More money for us.
After dropping Jan off at the gate and getting her square away, I headed back to the rig to get some sleep. Then I relieved Jan at 5pm when I came on my shift, and then she took the truck home. Of course this means she’ll have to pick me up at 5 AM tomorrow morning.
In one of his texts about this gate, Todd said we could use one of the company trucks that’s left at the park just for this purpose. But I was so groggy at first that it didn’t click until we were almost at the gate that she could have driven our truck out here while I followed in the company truck.
Jan was a little leery of driving out here by herself for the first time which is why I would have followed her. But either way I could have then driven the company truck out to relieve her this afternoon so she wouldn’t have to pick me up at 5 AM.
I’ll know better next time. Or at least be more awake, maybe.
As we left the rig, Jan had grabbed a TV dinner from the fridge to have for lunch, quick and easy with the shack’s fridge and microwave. But her lunch was not to be.
When we first came in the guard shack, she put her dinner in the freezer section of the fridge, as the day guard was gathering up his stuff. But what we didn’t catch was that when he got his stuff from the fridge he also took Jan’s TV dinner. She was not a happy camper, or guard, around lunch time. Luckily she’d had breakfast, and had some snacks in her bag.
The day guard also brought a Winegard Satellite Dome and a DirecTV receiver with him, as well as a bunch of other stuff, so it took him awhile to pack up.
I thought I had a lot of stuff with my laptop and aircard/antenna, but I guess not.
And my aircard didn’t do me much good tonight. About 8pm everything died, phone service, 3G, and 4G. Zip, Zero, Nada, Nyet. All gone.
This gate is no fun anymore. And it’s still down at 11pm.
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Under the heading of You Snooze, You Lose, when Jan got back to the rig this evening our next door neighbor came over to ask about Jan’s day gate. Turns out that they didn’t get up until after 8am so they missed Todd’s text when he tried to give the gate to them first.
More money for us.
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Every shack has a flyswatter as part of its equipment, as well as paper towels, Lysol wipes, Windex, garbage bags, a broom and a sponge mop. But I’m not too sure about the flyswatter.
The only thing I can think of is that this is the PETA version, so as to give the flies a somewhat better chance. Kind of like catch and release when you’re fishing, I guess.
Now for more of Greg’s Musings – Stirring Up Trouble Since 1948.
Several readers asked me about the Ronald Reagan quote that was my Thought for the Day a few days ago. It goes like this:
“There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers.” – President Ronald Reagan
They wondered what he meant by it.
He was saying that often there is a simple solution to a problem, but the solution may not be easy to implement for various reasons, maybe either political or societal.
Here’s an example.
One of the prime issues of the past election was immigration – Build the Wall, Sanctuary Cities, Round’em up, etc.
And one of the main memes of this was, even if you do build the wall, how are we ever going to deport the 10 million, 12 million, 20 million, or 40 million (take your pick) illegals that are already here?
And here’s the Simple Solution I came up with a few years ago.
1. Mandate the use of E-Verify for all jobs.
The E-Verify system is already in place and many companies already use it. But it’s voluntary. Make it mandatory through the IRS reporting system. You would have to give the E-Verify transaction number for each employee you paid and reported wages for.
2. Then if an employer is caught hiring illegals –
a. $ 1,000 fine per illegal for the first offense.
b. $ 50,000 fine per illegal for the second offense.
c. $100,000 and 5 years in jail per illegal for the third offense.
3. Next mandate the use of E-Verify for all housing, sales and rentals.
4. Then if an seller/rentor is caught dealing with illegals –
a. $ 1,000 fine per illegal for the first offense.
b. $ 50,000 fine per illegal for the second offense.
c. $100,000 and 5 years in jail per illegal for the third offense.
Many/most rental agencies already run background/credit checks on prospective tenants. Just add E-Verify.
5. Then with nowhere to work and nowhere to live, the vast majority will leave on their own, or in other words, self-deport.
Think self-deportation won’t work? It already has.
Back around 2007 or so, Arizona passed a new strict immigration law. And although much of it was later struck down by the US Supreme, while it was in effect, illegal immigrants were literally ‘streaming’ out of Arizona. Check this article from CBS News in 2010.
Illegal Immigrants Leaving Arizona Over New Law
Yes, some of them went to other, less strict states, but many went back to Mexico.
Ironically, the Arizona law that was mostly struck down by SCOTUS was modeled on the US immigration laws that were not being enforced, mostly just substituting State of Arizona for United States Government.
And the reason the Arizona law was overturned was that SCOTUS said that states do not have the right to enforce immigration laws, only the Federal Government.
But if the Federal Government isn’t enforcing them . . . ?
E-Verify is quick and simple to use. And free. (Well, except for your tax dollars)
Each employer/rental agency, etc., is given an ID and a password to the system. They just log in, enter the person’s name and SS# and a few other bits of information. Within a few seconds they get verification of the person’s identity and a transaction number for the person that is entered into the paperwork showing that E-Verify had been checked. If it turns out later that the person really was illegal, the employer is off the hook as long as E-Verify has been checked.
So that’s the stick, now the carrot.
Although you would probably want to set a deadline, maybe three years for them to all leave, set it up so that the quicker they leave, the better chance they have to be allowed to come legally. When they pass through US Customs on the way out of US, they would register at the border and get pushed to the top of the list for a green card.
So First Out, First In.
Now there are a few additional things might want to implement, like maybe bounties for turning in employers/rentors/illegals who are violating the law.
Despite some of the bad historical connotations of this, it’s already done a lot. Whistleblowers can receive rewards for reporting government theft and corruption. And individual citizens can get bounties for the IRS for turning in tax cheats.
And I don’t know if it’s still done, but a number of years ago, employees could receive a reward if they turned in their employer, anonymously of course, for using bootleg computer software in the business.
So there’s certainly both the legal and moral precedent for it.
So here’s my quick, cheap, simple solution to most of the illegal immigrant problem.
But due to political and societal pressures from both sides, how easy would it be to implement it?
And while we’re on this subject, here’s a few thought questions.
How many is too many immigrants, illegal or otherwise?
At what point do you lose your country?
If you don’t enforce your borders, do you really have a country?
Discuss among yourselves.
Wrapping up, what ever happened the fabled ‘Melting Pot’ that we all heard about?
It seems like we do less and less to integrate immigrants (legal) into our society. Back when I was growing up, you had be able to pass a test on American History given in ENGLISH to become a US citizen.
Now I’ve read that New York City prints up ballots in over 100 languages. What’s up with that?
And remember when every January you’d see the public service announcements on TV about how every ‘alien’ (that’s the term they used) must register at the PO by January 31st. What happened to that?
In fact Mork and Mindy did a great episode with Mork down at the PO trying to register as an ‘alien’.
So let me know your thoughts on all this.
Thought for the Day:
From Scott Adams of Dilbert fame.
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