Monthly Archives: September 2020
Been There, Done That . . .
Jan and I have been watching a CuriosityStream show called The History of Home. And starting with Neanderthal caves, Indian pueblos, and mud huts, it segued to Versailles, King Henry VIII’s Hampton Court, and on to Hearst Castle and The Biltmore. Many of which we’ve been to.
But as we were watching the segment on Hampton Court, Jan mentioned that our visit there was at the top of her Bucket List. I asked her if she’d like to go back, reminding her that during our grueling 13+ hour flight home from London, she told me that if I ever took her on a flight like this again, she’d rip my arm off and beat me to death with it, she looked at me for a long time, like she had to think about it, and then finally said “No. Been there, done that.”
So I guess I get to keep my arm(s) for a while longer.
For those of you waiting for the WuFlu vaccine –
Two participants in an 8,000-member Oxford vaccine trial have now been diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a condition that normally afflicts one in 236,000 people. So when when two subjects in an 8000 member trial come down with it, red flags go up.
Transverse myelitis is a rare neurologic disease of the spine that causes inflammation of the spinal cord that can cause weakness or paralysis of the limbs. Which sounds like very similar to the Guillain–Barré syndrome cases that resulted from the Swine Flu vaccine back in the 1970’s.
So we’ve got the possibility of transverse myelitis with AstraZeneca’s vaccine candidate.
Once again, hands up, everyone that’s going to be first in line for the WuFlu vaccine, or plan to stay in lockdown until there’s a vaccine.
.
A few days ago I posted this about the use of masks.
A recent statistical analysis done by The Ohio Star, an Ohio newspaper, showed that virus cases INCREASED after masks were mandated.
And this is not a one-off case. The same thing showed up in Hawaii and Los Angeles County.
So maybe this video will explain why masks don’t seem to work as well as some people think, or hope.
Seeing what happens with a mask, you can just imagine how effective those face shields would be.
The weather didn’t cooperate with my Helicoil installation plans today. Although the temps were great, just barely getting into the 70’s, the on and off heavy rains put the kibosh on that idea.
And unfortunately due to the probability of incoming Tropical Storm Beta, I’ll be lucky to get back to the project before Thursday, and maybe not until Saturday.
We had dinner at Denny’s about 4pm today, and then decided to pick up some groceries at the WalMart next door since with the incoming storm/rain our normal Tuesday grocery run might not happen.
I did notice that since we were at WM earlier this week, they’ve apparently given up on the one-way aisles thing. Nobody seemed to be paying any attention to them anyway, but now all the stickers on the floor are gone too.
.
September 20, 2009
Back in the USA…Again!
Today we finally get back to the USA…at least for this year.
The Grenville RV Park where we’ve been staying is right on the St. Lawrence River and it’s really nice.
Even Mister approves.
We left the park about 9:45 am, heading about 7 miles back in the wrong direction so we could have breakfast at the 730 Truck Stop Restaurant where we ate dinner last night. It was that good!
We normally don’t eat breakfast when we’re on the road, but this place was too good to pass up. And after a great breakfast, we finally hit the road about 11 am for the 165 mile trip to the Rome, NY area.
We went thru Customs into the US a little after noon. It was good to be back.
We did have a small problem in that I got fussed at by the Border Agent for going the wrong way.
As we approached the border crossing the signs said Autos to the left and Trucks to the right. Now, when we came back into the US at Houlton, ME last week, the signs said Autos/RV to the left and Trucks to the right, so no problem.
But when we got to the crossing here, there were no other RVs so I didn’t have an example to follow. In the past, when I have had to go thru toll booths and crossings that weren’t really meant for RVs, it was a very tight squeeze, in some cases my mirrors cleared the pillars with about an inch on each side.
So I took the safe approach and went thru the truck side. Wrong.
We did have to go thru the VACIS gamma ray scanner on our way out. This scanner X-rays the vehicle looking for hidden compartments and contraband. I guess they didn’t find anything because they let us go.
All in all, waiting in line and the inspection/scan only took about 15 minutes.
We arrived at The Landing Campground about 2:30pm and got set up. Even though there are a lot of trees in the park, I was still able to get a good satellite signal.
A couple of hours later we went to supper at Gary’s restaurant on Lake Oneida. Very good, and the lake view was great.
After we got back, we set outside out with Mister for a while so he could check out the area.
Then it was in for the night.
Tomorrow we’ll drive over to Rome to try and find where Jan and her family lived when her father was stationed at Griffiss AFB here.
Thought For The Day:
If you aren’t part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.
September 20, 2014
A Scary Night . . .
Or To Skid or Not To Skid . . .
Or The Cow Strikes Again . . .
Our son Chris called about 6 this evening with some scary news. We were expecting to hear from him because he and Linda were planning on coming up tomorrow to visit and pick up our granddaughter Piper’s laptop that I had been cleaning up.
But he said they were on their way up in this direction now because Piper was up kind of near here ATV’ing with some friends and there had been a accident and they were all being taken to the hospital in Crockett, TX, about 55 miles away, and on the east side of I-45. He said all he knew is that Piper was the least injured, but he didn’t know to what extent.
When he called I was just getting ready to go to bed, and since I knew it would take them at least 2 hours or more to get up to Crockett, I went ahead and tried to sleep, but without a lot of luck. I finally got up around 9:30 just as Chris called.
He said Piper was basically OK, just banged up, but she did have a hole in her wrist all the way to the bone. He said they were going to keep her overnight to be sure there was no damage to the tendons and ligaments and that they got everything cleaned out.
So I guess we’ll know more tomorrow.
As I mentioned a few days ago, they were originally supposed to skid our rig over to the new drill hole today, but I didn’t see any sign of that happening. Turns out it’s now scheduled for Wednesday. But we’ll see.
What I’m not quite sure about is how they’re going to do it. I was surprised to find out today that they’re skidding the rig closer to us and not away. It doesn’t look like there’s enough room between the rig and the edge of the pad to get the two cranes in place. But since we’re kind of looking uphill at the rig, the lack of room may be an optical illusion.
And of course they might plan on having the cranes down here on the road and doing it that way. I guess we’ll know on Wednesday. Or not.
Well, the cow(s) struck again this evening. When Jan went in at 11pm to go to bed, she stuck her head back out and said DirecTV was down again. So I went around the front of the rig to check it out, expecting to find the sat dome on the ground again. But this time the stand was just tilted over and the wires jerked around.
I just wish the cows would pick up their feet (hooves), and stop tripping over the wires. This time I moved the sat stand up against the sewer trailer and then routed the wires up in the air through the trees. So unless some really tall cows come by, I should be OK.
Hopefully we’ll know more about Piper’s condition tomorrow.
_________________________________________________________________
Thought for the Day:
“If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.” — Thomas Jefferson
September 20, 2015
It’s Back!
Well, the package I sent off via USPS Priority Mail last week finally showed up in north Houston today, five days after it left Shreveport last Tuesday. So hopefully it will be delivered tomorrow down in Friendswood, but you never know.
At least it’s not still lost.
I ordered my second Mighty Mule Driveway Alarm about 11:30 last night. What’s kind of strange is that I ordered the first one last week on Sunday and it got here Tuesday. I ordered this one on Saturday and it’s coming in on Wednesday.
So the later I order, the earlier it gets here? Does that mean that if I keep going, it will get here before I even order it.
If so, that’s got drone delivery beat all to hell.
The other thing I ordered was this.
KJL Cree LED 900 lumens Flashlight
Right now Jan and I are using an UltraFire 300 lumen flashlight to check tags as vehicles come in at night, but sometimes it’s just not enough. With all the bad roads these guys travel on, the tags get really chewed up.
Yes, literally, some of them look like they’ve been chewed on. Plus in many cases, most or all of the reflective stuff has been worn off, so you need a lot of light. And hopefully this will do it.
It also may help me give some of these guys a brief lesson in ‘bright’ lights. There always few that leave their high beams on, no matter what, so maybe now I can give them a little taste of their own medicine.
Of course it may blind them and then they run me over, so I’ll have to think about it a little more.
A neat thing about this order is how I did it. I normally just stick things in my Amazon cart, and then at some point I place the order. But this time I told my Amazon Echo to place the order from me. And she did it perfectly.
I’ll have more info on the Echo soon, but I will say it’s one of my favorite gadgets of all time.
Thought for the Day:
In my optimistic moments, I think that we verge on total chaos. But usually I’m not that optimistic.
September 20, 2016
Going Back to Kansas City . . .
Well, Amber, our PO mail carrier showed up right on time today, with our Amazon order, but tomorrow may be the real test.
Last night I ordered this Yagi directional Wi-Fi antenna to try and resolve my Internet problems.
If I can get a consistently good signal from the Company Man’s system, then I’ll be OK. The problem right now is that sometimes I’ve got 1 – 2 bars, and sometimes I’ve got 4 bars, and the desktop in the rig can’t even see the signal. So this antenna, along with a 10 ft. cable will hopefully do the trick.
Anyway, because I ordered the antenna Next Day, it’s coming by FedEx, not the PO, so we’ll see what happens. Tony, the landowner here, says UPS and FedEx have both delivered to his house at this address, and his house is about a mile down the road past us. So hopefully it will work out. But you never know.
On the same subject, I’m beginning to think that the 3G problem here is not with my Wilson system but with the Verizon 3G signal. And if that’s true, it explains a lot about all the squirrely problems I’ve had.
I have always used the Open Signal App on my phone to point me in right direction of the closest Verizon cell tower. And that’s how I knew in 2012, the last time we used the Wilson system, that we were hitting a tower over on I-37, 19.5 miles away. Open Signal even showed me the Lat/Long coordinates of the tower itself.
But things got strange when I did the same thing this year. First off, although OS showed me the direction of the nearest Verizon tower, it also said there were NO towers nearby. And although it gave me Lat/Long coordinates, it did not give me a distance.
Hmm!
But where it really gets strange is where OS thinks the cell tower actually is. Since it wasn’t telling me the distance to the tower, I thought I’d just type the coordinates into Google Maps and see where it was really located.
And suddenly the weak signal made sense, because according to OS, we hitting a cell tower about 80 miles SW of Kansas City, MO. Now that’s a long distance phone call. Something is screwy somewhere.
OS also gives me both the actual and the relative signal strength, which in this case was –111 dBm and 56%, not a good signal at all. I had been messing with the Wilson system, but at this point it was turned off, and I’m just staring at the OS display while I’m running through ideas about what the problem was, and what else could I check.
Suddenly the signal strength readings jumped to – 93 dBm and 100%, a good signal.
WTH?
Looking up at the top of my phone display, I noticed that it had dropped back to 3G mode instead of the normal 4G. And it stayed like that for a couple of minutes, when it then jumped back to 4G and –111 dBm.
WTH?
And as of right now, a little after midnight, I have no 3G or 4G,data at all, even on my Galaxy S5 phone. And when I try to Hotspot it, I get either ‘Fatal Error: No Connection’ or “No Data Connection’. And it’s been that way for a couple of hours. But the phone call part still works just fine. So this may all be Verizon’s fault.
But as they always say when you call them, they’re working on it.
I still haven’t heard back from Colaw RV Salvage since my phone call last week about a replacement screen door latch, so I’ll try to give them a call again tomorrow.
Thought for the Day:
“The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making mistakes.” ~ Meister Eckhart
September 20, 2017
It Was A ‘1’ . . .
Today was moving day for us, for the first time in 34 days, a new record for us at a Thousand Trails park. Of course, due to Hurricane Harvey.
But since we only had a 26 mile trip, we took our time. Though Jan was up at her usual 7am or so, I managed to sleep in until about 10.
About 10:45 we drove into Conroe to have breakfast at the local Cracker Barrel, something that’s become kind of a tradition for us. And after a nice leisurely meal, we were back at the rig and on our way about 1:15 with Jan following me in the truck. Didn’t seem worthwhile to hook up for this short a distance.
We pulled into the Hillcrest RV Park in beautiful downtown Punkin about 2pm and found the small office locked, but this note on the door.
At this point the discussion started. Is that site 2J, or site 27, or even site 25?
I quickly figured out that they didn’t have any ‘J’ sites, and this was parked in Site 27.
So what about site 25?
Well, 25 was vacant, but it was only 30 amp and we had asked for 50amp. But we decided to park there temporarily until the owner’s came back from shopping. I tried to go ahead and at least hook up to the 30 amp so we could shut the generator off, the main breaker to the pedestal blew. The local 30 amp breaker was just fine, though.
So it was back to the generator to keep cool. When no one had showed up after an hour or so, I started walking around the park looking for 50 amp sites.
After checking out about about 6 sites toward the back, I headed back up front and found the elusive prize, a 50 amp site.
It was a “1”, not a ‘J’, and not a ‘5’, and not a ‘7’.
It was a ‘1’.
I mean, does that look like a ‘1’ to you.
So here we are, happily ensconced in site #21.
When I was down in Clear Lake yesterday, I picked up my new HP 4650 printer that had come in on Monday, but I didn’t set it up until this evening.
Although it’s noticeably bigger it still fits in place of my old one.
And it was really easy to set up too.
One thing kind of neat is the swing arm that comes out to catch the paper as it is printing.
Unlike most printers where you have to move it out yourself, this printer swings it out automatically when you start to print. Neat!
Tomorrow it’s back down to Clear Lake for the last time this week.
Hopefully.
Thought for the Day:
It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place. – H. L. Mencken
September 20, 2018
Dodged A Bullet . . .
I mentioned yesterday that I had a dermatologist appointment this morning, and as it turns out, I’m really glad I did.
It seems that the scaliness on my head and nose that I thought might be eczema or psoriasis is actually actinic keratosis, a pre-cursor for Squamous Cell Carcinomas.
And long-time readers will remember that back in July 2014 I had a Squamous Cell removed from my head while we were up in Elkhart, IN. So it fits, I guess.
Once thing kind of interesting is that, although I could feel the scaliness, it wasn’t really visible on my scalp, so it tended to mask the problem.
The doctor used a canister of liquid nitrogen to burn off about a dozen or so ‘hot spots’ on my head and nose that he saw today. But this doesn’t get rid of the real problem. So in November, after we’re back from Florida, I’ll have a procedure called PDT (Photodynamic Therapy) to head off any further complications.
They’ll coat my head with a chemical in the form of a liquid or cream, let it dry for 30 to 60 minutes, and then expose the area to a special wavelength blue light. The pre-cancerous areas absorb the chemical more than the non-cancerous areas, and when the light is used, the chemical activates and burns the selected areas out, leaving me with a somewhat severe sunburn for a few days. And I will have to wear sunscreen and a hat (which I already do) for a few weeks.
Then in another month, I’ll have to do it again. And hopefully that will be the end of it.
Afterwards Jan and I stopped off at the BayBrook Mall-area Starbucks. It’s Fall and her favorite Pumpkin Spice Latte’s are back, so it was a must-stop. Then we made a stop by Fry’s Electronics so I could look for a replacement connector for the foot pedal for Jan’s Viking sewing machine.
I didn’t find what I needed, but I did come across something that would certainly be useful during the coming Zombie Apocalypse.
And this Gerber set can be yours for only $300.
So Be Prepared!
After Fry’s we headed over to East Star Chinese Buffet for lunch, and then on to Sam’s and WalMart for a few things, and then it was home for the day.
Wrapping up, Brandi posted photos of this visitor to her backyard this afternoon.
Looks like somebody’s pet got loose. Or maybe there’s a colony of them roaming around Cinco Ranch.
Of course, big green iguanas kind of run in the family.
Here’s Jan and her new green friends when we were in Puerto Vallarta in 1997.
I’ve heard they taste like chicken. Sounds like a perfect way for Lowell to try out that new big grill they’ve got.
Thought for the Day:
Newspaper Ad in UK paper.
YORKSHIRE TERRIER. 8 years old, Hateful little bastard. Bites!
September 20, 2019
Stirring The Pot . . .
On ‘Climate Change’
This being ‘Global Climate Strike Day’, whatever that is. I thought I’d jump in and stir the pot a little. Or a lot, depending on your point of view, I guess.
First off, NOAA, you know the US Government’s Weather Bureau, says that their new system of remote weather stations shows no warming since 2005
“In January 2005, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began recording temperatures at its newly built U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN). USCRN includes 114 pristinely maintained temperature stations spaced relatively uniformly across the lower 48 states. NOAA selected locations that were far away from urban and land-development impacts that might artificially taint temperature readings.”
These new sensing locations were necessary because most of the old ones, some dating from the 1930’s and originally sited out in the open countryside, were now in built-up areas, next to office buildings, factories, and highways. All sources of localized heat. So NOAA decided to build a completely new system.
And that new system shows NO WARMING since 2005. So no warming in the last 14 years, and probably no real warming since the 1930’s. And this lack of warming matches up pretty well with the global satellite readings.
Or how about these Global Warming ‘Facts’
Or how about the fact that ice cores going back 150,000 years show that CO2 levels lag temperature rise, and don’t lead it.
Carbon dioxide increases historically lag temperature increases. “In 1985, ice cores extracted from Greenland revealed temperatures and CO2 levels going back 150,000 years,” . . . in 1999 it became clear that carbon dioxide rose and fell after temperatures did. By 2003, we had better data showing the lag was 800 ± 200 years. CO2 was in the back seat.”
Or how about the fact that 95% of carbon dioxide emissions come from natural sources, and not man.
Less than 5% of carbon dioxide emissions are produced by man. Web searches turn up what seems like an endless list of stories and blog posts reporting that CO2 levels in the atmosphere have reached or exceeded 415 parts per million. This has been almost universally treated as the tip of an imminent disaster, as man has pushed greenhouse gas emissions beyond a dangerous threshold.
Or there’s a study by NASA almost 20 years ago details how the main reason for cyclic climate change is the SUN. You know that big ball of flaming gas around 93 million miles away.
The sun’s rotation, orbit, and tilt, along with the earth’s rotation, orbit, and tilt says this:
If we had to sum the whole thing up in one simple phrase, it would be this: The biggest factor influencing weather and climate patterns on earth is the sun, period. Depending on the earth’s position to the sun at any given time, climate conditions are going to vary dramatically, and even create drastic abnormalities that defy everything that humans thought they knew about how the earth worked.
For more on this idea, think about it like this.
What would happen if the sun suddenly DOUBLED its output? Think it would get hotter on the earth?
What would happen if the sun suddenly HALVED its output? Think it would get colder on the earth?
What do you think?
Earth’s climate has always cyclical. Scientist have confirmed that over the 600 million year or so the earth had been almost completely covered in ice and snow at least twice, and maybe more. Called the Snowball Earth effect, these periods lasted at least 10 million years.
So what caused these?
On a most recent time scale, we know the last Ice Age ended around 10,000 years ago. During that one almost half of the US was covered in mile-deep sheets of ice.
So what causes these repeated Ice Ages, and what causes them to go away?
Maybe the sun’s orbit moving further from the earth due to these orbital variations?
And then moving back closer thousands of years later?
For more info about these orbital variations, check out this about Milankovitch Cycles
On an even more recent time scale, we have the Medieval Warming, the Little Ice Age, and even the Dust Bowl. The last one is a little controversial, but many scientists think that this is a possibility, and not the fact that farmers weren’t plowing the right way.
And recently, the ‘settled scientists’ can’t seem to keep their stories straight.
Back in the 1920’s it was Global Cooling.
Then in the 1930’s, it was Global Warming (I.e. the Dust Bowl, remember)
Next up, in the 1970’s, they ‘settled’ on Global Cooling again.
And of course, now we’ve circled back around to Global Warming again.
For more info on this, check out this article from 2006 called Fire and Ice.
Or this one entitled Climate Change Has Been A Routine Scare Tactic Since the 1930’s
Complete with newspaper headlines.
And of course there are the ‘predictions’. Though ‘wild-ass guesses’ might be a better description.
How about these?
1967 — Stanford University expert Paul Erlich predicted “time of famines” in 1975.
1971 — A top NASA expert predicted an “ice age” by 2021.
1988 — It was predicted that the Maldives would be under water by last year.
2008 — Gore said the Arctic would be free of ice by 2013.
2009 — Prince Charles said there was just 96 months left to save the world.
For some more detail on this, check out this article, complete with newspaper articles. Wrong Again: 50 Years of Failed Eco-pocalyptic Predictions
And finishing up, here’s the first 20 predictions from a list of 41 failed predictions.
In fact, not one of these 41 predictions, made by these ‘leading Climate Changers’ has come true.
0 for 41 is not a good record.
OK, I’m off my soapbox. Feel free to jump in.
Thought For The Day:
Coming Up . . .
Later in the afternoon, I crawled underneath the rig to check out my access to the oil filter adapter, so I can install the Helicoils tomorrow afternoon. And it looks like it will help my reaching the adapter if I use a propped up big piece of plywood to lay on to raise me up.
Coming up. Reliving our Viking River Cruise in May 2019 later in this blog.
September 19, 2009
A Long Day and Bad Roads…
Today we left Quebec about 9:30am for a 266 mile drive to Grenville RV Park in Johnstown, ON.
We needed to make this long trip to be sure we have time to see Niagara Falls and other places before our rally in Ohio on Sept. 27th.
Even though long, we expected the trip to be relatively easy because it was 4 lane all the way.
But that was not to be.
Passing thru the Montreal area we encountered the worst 4 lane road conditions we’ve ever seen.
The roads were either under construction, or should have been. And on top of that, they weren’t very well marked, either.
The one nice thing about the trip were the beautiful colors. Fall is here, at least in Canada. It’s amazing how much the leaves have changed just in the three weeks we were in Canada.
We arrived at Grenville RV Park in Johnstown, ON about 3:15pm and were given a very nice pull-thru site right on the St. Lawrence river.
After getting set up and settling in, we went out for dinner at a place recommended by the RV park called 730 Truck Stop Restaurant.
And like the truck stop restaurant in Houlton, ME that we really liked, this one was excellent also.
Getting back to the rig, we let Mister stretch his legs for a while before we went in for the night.
Thought For The Day:
Karma’s a Bitch, especially if you’re the Bitch.
September 19, 2010
Stormy Weather. . .
Although today’s forecast was for Partly Cloudy with a chance of rain, we awoke to Fully Cloudy, with this coming in on us. We’re right in the middle of this radar picture between League City and Texas City.
And while we were drinking coffee, this was the view out the front of the coach.
And a little while later it had deteriorated to this.
We’d already lost the satellite signal when the rains finally moved in.
And it rained and stormed with a lot of wind for the next several hours.
We left about 3 pm to have Linner/Lupper at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, our favorite local Cajun place, and our favorite place for gumbo in this area. It’s not quite up to Mulate’s in Breaux Bridge, LA, but it’s real close, and and it’s less expensive.
Leaving Floyd’s we drove across the Interstate to Fry’s Electronics.to see if they’d gotten any more of the backup drives I was looking for. And luckily for me, they did.
Heading toward home we stopped off at Walmart for cat food and bird seed, and were home by a little after 5.
We’ll just have to see about the weather tomorrow.
Thought For The Day:
There are millions of paranoid people in the world and they are all out to get me.
East Texas Gate outside Carthage, TX
September 19, 2015
Summer’s Back . . .
Well, Summer’s back, apparently with a vengeance. That cooling-off that was supposed to come through on Monday, dropping temps back into the high 80’s, low 90’s went somewhere else, because now it’s mid to high 90’s as far as the eye can see. Of course that could change too.
Maybe it’s like talking about a possible no-hitter during the ball game and jinxing it.
Today was a little quieter than usual, with only 90 vehicles coming in, as opposed to the usual 120 – 130 we’ve been having recently. Don’t know if it was because it was the weekend or not, but it was nice anyway.
Right before I came on at 1pm, I went down and permanently installed my Mighty Mule Driveway Alarm system, using the plastic fence post I picked up from Tractor Supply on Friday.
Here’s what it looks like directly from the side.
Originally I had the transmitter hanging from one of the vines, but it wasn’t waterproof that way and was more visible.
Here’s what it looks like as you’re coming toward it.
The reason I’m trying to hide it somewhat is that a couple of years ago I had one like this stolen.
Don’t know what they could do with it without the receiver that it talks to, but $80 walked away. Ouch!
Because the sensor/transmitter are in one unit, the whole thing needs to be right beside the roadway, and it’s very visible.
But with the Mighty Mule, the sensor and the transmitter are two separate units separated by a 12 ft. cable. And the sensor itself is pretty inconspicuous. It’s that black pipe at the bottom of the first photo.
So far the Mighty Mule has a perfect record. It’s never missed a vehicle coming by it, and it’s never false alarmed. You can’t ask for any better than that.
On the false alarm question, I find I always enjoy reading the questions people ask about products on Amazon. In this case, the question was “Does the wind set it off?”, and the answer was, “Not unless the wind blows a car past it.”
There is one thing that bothers me about the unit though, and that’s the alarm sound.
It’s sharp.
No, not pointy sharp. Musically sharp.
The alarm sound is made up of four tones, three identical ones, and then a fourth, lower tone, like the opening four notes to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, i.e, G G G Eflat. But the alarm’s last tone is somewhere between an E and an F, and it just grates on my ears.
In a way I guess I’m kind of like Sheldon yelling at the mockingbird outside his office window that he accused of being tone deaf.
“Just pick a key and stick with it.”
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Thought for the Day:
Everyone has a right to be stupid. But politicians just abuse the privilege.
Still At An East Texas Gate
September 19, 2016
Another Month . . .
As usual Monday’s count picked up from the slow weekend, a lot of it due to salespeople trying to get an early start to the week. I guess some of it’s just subjective, because at 44 vehicles coming in, it was only 10 more than yesterday. But those extra 10 were concentrated in just a couple of hours so it made it seem like a lot more.
Today starts the beginning of our 2nd month here at Blue Moon Gate, and so far it hasn’t been bad at all. Not quite as good as last year’s Carthage Gate, mostly because of the sucky Wi-Fi/Internet and the distance to Wal-Mart. It’s hard to beat 4 bars of 3G/4G and 5 miles to Wal-Mart/Whataburger/Chicken Express/Sonic/ McDonald’s like we had last year, I guess.
We did get our Amazon order this afternoon, right on schedule, and Jan told the mail carrier lady that we had another one coming tomorrow. Today’s care package was a 2nd remote for the new Samsung TV, and a new computer mouse.
Tomorrow’s will be a new beard trimmer for me, and a couple of new AC to USB charger modules so it will be easier for Jan to keep her Kindles charged outside here under the canopy.
I still need to figure out what to do about our Internet here. I still haven’t been able to get our Wilson Booster working. It seems to work, i.e.its showing the correct lights, and if I bring the inside antenna near the outside antenna, it goes into feedback/overload just like it should. But as far as actually amplifying a 3G phone signal, zip, zero, nada, nyet.
The last time I used it in 2012, I was able to go from no signal whatsoever to 4 bars of 3G hitting a tower, that according to the Open Signal app, was 19.5 miles away. Now I’ve got 1 to 2 bars of 3G here, and I can’t seem to amplify it at all.
My fallback position here was to use the pad’s Wi-Fi, and I was able to get the password to the Company Man’s system, but unfortunately due to the distance his trailer is from our rig, the signal is OK sometimes, and not OK others. And the desktop computer in the coach can’t see it at all
I think maybe the variation in signal level I’m seeing is due to someone sitting at the Company Man’s desk between me and his Wi-Fi router. The water-filled human body is a good absorber of the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi signal. In fact at a high enough level it can cook you.because that’s how a microwave oven works. It’s in the same 2.4 GHz band, just closer, more powerful, and concentrated.
So maybe don’t sit too close to your Wi-Fi router, especially if it makes you feel a little warm.
There are a couple of stronger Wi-Fi signals that show up and I’ve been trying to track down who owns them. But I found out tonight that it might not do me any good. As it turns out one of them is just a Wi-Fi data link between the drill rig and the directional drilling company’s instrumentation in their trailer. It’s not hooked up to the Internet at all. And I suspect the other signal might be the same.
So my next thought is to just get a better, stronger, directional Wi-Fi amplifier/antenna, mostly for the desktop in the rig for Jan. Outside here, my laptop and tablet are OK, not great, but usable.
So we’ll see what I come up with on Amazon.
On another note, I’m still trying to figure out what to do with my old RCA flat screen. I called what seems to be the only recycling center in B/CS today, and they don’t take TV’s, nor do they know anyone that does. So I may just have to find a lonely dumpster somewhere.
I still haven’t actually thrown away the box the new Samsung came in. I told Jan I want to keep if for at least two weeks before I throw it out, to get us through the ‘infant mortality’ phase in case I have to take it back. We’ll see.
After yesterday’s mini-rant on the lack of Fall, I guess Mother Nature heard me and decided to help out . . . somewhat. Although we’re still looking at temps in the mid-90’s for the next week or so, starting tomorrow night we’ll be having temps in the high 60’s for awhile.
So we’re halfway there.
Thought for the Day:
“What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.” —Lord Melbourne (1779-1848)
September 19, 2017
Zen and Rudy’s . . .
I slept in a little this morning, not feeling all that great, but I was on the road for Clear Lake by 10am, getting there a little after noon.
But although I stayed busy, I didn’t really visibly accomplish much. I spent part of the morning trying to change the owner’s wife’s laptop version of Microsoft Word from Spanish back to English.
Now how it got changed over to Spanish nobody knows, or will admit, but apparently it’s been that way for a while. And it’s still that way now. I tried repeatedly to reset it to English, but it wouldn’t stick. It would just change back. So after about an hour fooling with it, I just deleted Office and downloaded and installed latest version, 5.4.1, of LibreOffice, an really good MS Office clone.
Next I was trying to update some prices on the Tattoo website when I discovered that the admin password in Zen Cart had expired, which they do every 90 days. I’ve never accessed this site before, so I guess the ex-guy hadn’t done it for a while either.
So I clicked the Forgot Password? button, entered my email address, and about 30 seconds later I had a new temporary password. Easy Pezy, Right?
Wrong!
The new password didn’t work, Nor did the second or third one. And going to the Zen Cart website wasn’t much help either. So I submitted a help request and now I’ll just have to wait and see.
Heading back north a little after 4pm, I met Jan, and Chris and Charles Yust at the Rudy’s BBQ on I-45 north about 5:30 and we all got our BBQ fix.
Jan had the Chopped Baker,
while I got a Brisket Sandwich and a Jalapeno Sausage Link.
And of course, a quart of their fantastic creamed corn. Even Jan loves it, and she doesn’t really like corn. That’s how good it is.
Tomorrow we’ll move over to the Hillcrest RV Park in Punkin, TX, about 20 miles away, on the road to Livingston.
Since it’s so close, we probably won’t head out until about 1pm, so that’ll give us plenty of time to have brunch at the nearby Cracker Barrel about 11. And as it stands now we’re not even going to hook up the toad, but Jan will just follow along behind.
Thought for the Day:
Scientists say we’re due for the next ice age. So what if ‘global warming’ is the only thing holding it off?
September 19, 2018
A Sleeping Tiger . . .
Several readers asked why I hadn’t posted photos of Jan’s new Vera Bradley bags. When I was ready to photograph the bags, Jan was asleep on the sofa with them all clutched to her bosom. Never awaken a sleeping tiger.
But here they now.
First up is her new Shoulder Bag on the left, with the two lanyards draped across the top. Hers matches with mine the black. Everyone says we will need them on the cruise to hold our shipboard access passes. And on the right is a matching Cross The Shoulder mini version.
She also got this Over The Door travel bag that folds up and holds makeup and other toiletries. She didn’t get it in the matching print since she won’t be carrying it, and it would have been full price and not discounted 70% like the others. In fact, at full price it would have cost more than everything else put together.
That’s my girl.
When we were at WalMart yesterday, I was behind this lady who had piled up Halloween candy on the conveyer belt.
And this is only about half of what she had. Total was over $500.
When I asked her, “How many people come to your house on Halloween?, she said, “We usually get about 600 or so. It’s become kind of a party every year.”
Of course, if you’re really into Halloween you can could to Home Depot and get this 6 foot tall, animated, lighted dragon that roars.
It blows out smoke, and according to some Googling, you can make it breathe fire. And it’s only $300. Neat.
Now that our test drive is out of the way, and I’ve confirmed that our oil leak is fixed, I get back on my generator problem. I’ve been going over the manual and talking with Onan so I’ve got some more things to check on.
But if I don’t get it fixed before we leave for Florida on Oct 3rd, we’ll just get an earlier start before things heat up, and with the cooling temps on the way, we should be fine.
Tomorrow I’ve got a dermatologist’s appointment and then some errands, and well as lunch at East Star Chinese Buffet.
YUM!
Thought for the Day:
I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.
September 19, 2019
A Hot & Sour Soup Kind of Day . . .
Apparently, in some parts of Houston, it’s 3 feet (and more) high and rising. It’s been raining pretty steadily for 3 days now, and it seems now that there’s heavy flooding all over the Houston area.
A local TV weatherman reported that over 43” of rain had fallen northeast of Houston towards the TX-LA border in the last few days.
And although we had some high water in the ditches yesterday, by this afternoon it was just about gone. It was still raining lightly when we left about 1pm for lunch at Yummy Yummy’s.
We haven’t seen the sun in the last few days, and it hasn’t gotten above 75°. Not exactly cold, but good enough for a couple of bowls of Yummy’s Hot & Sour Soup. And those ‘couple’ of bowls were both for me.
Jan had to get her own.
Jan and I have gotten hooked on an new BBC series (at least new to us), but unfortunately, it’s a short term addiction.
Don’t know how many of you are Rowan Atkinson/Black Adder/Mr. Bean fans, but back in 2016 – 2017 he did a short-lived series based on 75 novels by Georges Simenon.
Atkinson plays Jules Maigret, a world-weary, measured and insightful detective, and are set in Paris in the 1950s.
And by ‘short-lived’, they did two 2-hour episodes in 2016, and then two more in 2017, with unfortunately, no more forthcoming.
The four episodes are presently showing on Ovation, and are well-worth your viewing, whether you’re a Rowan Atkinson fan or not. The cinematography is great, and it turns out that Atkinson is as good a serious actor as he is a comedy one.
Check it out.
Ardis, one of our Viking Bunch, sent over some photos she found on her phone that show our antepenultimate Taste of Germany meal on our Viking Cruise.
Jim and Deb
Mike and Melissa
Ardis and Larry
Ardis said that they’re doing another Viking cruise next March, this one from Paris to the Swiss Alps, and wanted to know if we were interested in accompanying them. But as I mentioned before, Jan said she would beat me to death with my own arm if I ever took her on another 8-10 hour flight.
And even our 3+ hour flight to NYC in December is pushing it.
Yours truly and my Sweetie
Thought For The Day:
It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. – Noel Coward
