Monthly Archives: September 2018
IHOP and Eileen . . .
We were up at 7am so we could meet our long-time friends, Barbara and Tom, at the IHOP over in Clear Lake Shores for breakfast.
There’s not too many people we’d do this for, but Barbara and Tom are on the list.
We got there about 8:15, to get ahead of the crowd, and luckily too, since the place started filling up by 9. One thing kind of disappointing though, is that Dean retired last month.
We’ve had Dean as our waiter there for more than 15 years, and always looked forward to seeing him again. But no more, I guess. He retired last month.
Hope he’s enjoying his retirement though, since they said that he and his wife come in regularly to have dinner, so it seems it’s still in his blood.
It took us until about 10:30 for all the catching up we had to do since our last get-together in January, so we need to do it again sooner next time.
Later in the afternoon I checked out my battery hookup in the rig, and discovered that that I’m not going to need any new cables, which saves me at least $30+. Turns out that the two cables that connect each of the 6 volt batteries in series will work just fine for paralleling the two 12 batteries. And the other cables connecting them to the rig will work just fine too.
So with my new terminals coming in tomorrow, I’ll be all set.
I got a couple of new toys to play with in the last few days. First up was a Netgear N300 WiFi Extender.
I ordered one for my client’s office to boost the WiFi signal in the back shipping area, and decided to get one for the rig. Found it quick and easy to set up, and it really boosts the park WiFi signal from 3 bars to 5.
The only downside is that it only handles the WiFi 2.4 Ghz band and not the faster 5 Ghz one. But that’s not a factor either with my client or the park WiFi systems.
Nice and only about $25. Check it out.
Next up, as I was in Home Depot the other day I picked up one of these.
It’s an Ever Brite Ultra Solar Powered Motion-Activated Light. And at 320 lumens, it’s definitely bright. But it is a little different than most others of these type lights that I’ve seen. Once it gets dark, the light comes on at partial brightness. Then when it detects motion, it switches on full bright.
I was skeptical about this, so after letting it charge for two days per the directions, (Yes, I do occasionally read the directions), I turn it on and let it on the kitchen corner overnight, checking on it several times. And it stayed on all night and seemed to have plenty of full brightness left to go.
I’m going use it to replace our front patio light, and if it works out, I’ll replace the back one too.
I’ll let you know.
Thought for the Day:
asdfad
Happy Birthday, Brandi!
First off, Jan and I want to wish our beautiful daughter Brandi a very Happy Birthday.
We love you, sweetie.
Because of the 70% chance of rain forecast for today, we put off our rig’s planned test drive/top off the diesel until Tuesday. Of course it dawned bright and sunny this morning with nary a drop to drip. And now the rain chances have gone up a little for Tuesday.
Jan and I headed out for the afternoon about 1pm, starting with breakfast for lunch at the nearby Denny’s, probably our favorite meal. Then it was off to the nearby Lowe’s to pick up my new rig batteries.
I must have missed it on the news, but apparently the universal gravitational constant has changed. At least that’s the only reason I can see that would cause these new batteries to be so much heavier than their 56# used to be. What’s up with that?
Then it was on up to the Baybrook Mall area to visit JoAnn Fabrics so Jan could get some new needles for her Viking sewing machine. Then, with that done, it was off to Kemah to check in with West Marine and their battery cable-making setup.
Their 00(2/00) cable runs about $9 a foot, with a set of two crimp-on terminals also $9. I know I’ll need two 1ft pieces and 4 terminals to connect the batteries in parallel. After that I’ll have to take a closer look I may need to change out a couple of the rig cables due to the different positioning of the battery terminals.
I also ordered two sets of these Battery Terminals from Amazon today.
The rig’s cables are all the bolt-on type, while the new batteries have the standard automobile post terminals. So these will make that conversion.
Leaving West Marine, we stopped off at Bodhi’s Essential Oils in the Kemah Boardwalk area so Jan could pick up some more of her Migraine Protocol, and then it was home for the night.
Tomorrow morning we’re meeting some long-time friends for breakfast at the IHOP over in Clear Lake Shores about 8:30. Almost too early, but it is breakfast at IHOP, after all.
Thought for the Day:
Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.
dfgsdfg
