Monthly Archives: September 2020
Giving Up, For Now . . .
On the brake lights, anyway.
Several people have agreed with me that my brake lights probably won’t work unless unless the engine’s running and the brakes are aired up. So I’m putting the brake lights and the backup lights on hold until I can crank up the engine.
And to do that I need to get the oil filter adapter head remounted. So today I ordered two new gaskets, and 4 new bolts from Diesel Parts Direct, and a Helicoil installation kit from Amazon.
The kit will be here tomorrow, and hopefully the other parts will be here by the end of the week, so I can work on all this over the weekend.
But we’ll see.
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Back In the USA
September 14, 2009
Cora, Cora, Cora…
Today we head back to the States.
But first we just had to eat at Cora again for breakfast before we left. And once again it was great. Their plates are almost works of art.
Supposedly they are hoping to bring these to the US. I think they would be a big hit. Where else can you get a great meal that looks like a work of art.
We headed out about 11 am for the 185 mile trip to Houlton, ME, which is about 3 miles from the US/Canada border.
It took us about 15 minutes or so, to get though Customs, most of it waiting our turn in line. But the questioning by the Border Agent was a little more thorough than we had last year going to and from Alaska.
The other nice thing about the trip was that we gained an hour as we are now back on Eastern Daylight Time.
We pulled into My Brother’s Place RV Park, into the same site we parked in two weeks ago on our way into Canada. Deja Vu.
After getting set up, Jan and I headed out to get our hair cut and grab a bite to eat.
Thought For The Day:
It has been said that the United States has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.
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An Armful of Landon
September 14, 2010
We want Fall back . . .
We had really gotten used to the beginnings of Fall while we were in Elkhart.
You remember Fall, you know, highs in the 70’s, low’s in the 40’s.
Well, not down here in Houston. When we got here yesterday it was 97 degrees. Today it was 93 degrees with a humidity “Feels Like” of 100 degrees.
And the low tonight is 75.
You know you’re back in Texas when the water from the cold water faucet is hot!
But there are some redeeming factors.
Here is our site here at Galveston Bay RV Park.
And here is the view out our front window from site 73. This is Dickinson Bayou which leads into Galveston Bay.
This is the slightly different view from site 80, where we’ve parked the previous two years. Jan likes this view better because the small island attracts a lot of birds and wildlife If and when our old site becomes available, we’ll probably move down the street.
Jan always puts out a bird feeder to keep the local avians from starving. We’ve gone thru as much as 50# of bird seed a week.
These are Monk’s Parakeets. There are large flocks of them in this area, although they are not native to here, but originally come from South America. They’re very hardy, and colonies are found as far north as Connecticut, and as far west as Washington state. The colonies are generally thought to have originated from escaped pets over the years.
But here’s the main reason for being here. This was my first chance to hold baby Landon. It’s really hard to imagine how small he is. The last time I held a grandchild this small was 17 years ago, with our granddaughter Piper.
About 11 am our son Chris came over to drop off a dead laptop for me to work on, and after talking for a while we headed out for lunch at Berryhill Baja Grill. They have great sandwiches, tacos, and tortilla soup, and we always enjoy it.
Coming home we stopped off at Kroger’s for some groceries, and then we were in for the day.
We’ll probably spend the next few days just jelling before we jump back in the swing of things.
Thought For The Day:
“Every morning, I get up and look through the ‘Forbes’ list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work.”
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Gate Guarding near Whitsett, TX
September 14, 2013
Mommy, Somebody Broke the Moon . . .
That’s what Landon said the other night about this.
And we also have this.
Well, it’s been a busy several days. We’ve approaching 300 vehicles a day, three times what we had last year at our drill sites. And we’re both pretty sure we don’t want to do a fracking site again, though the fact that they ran low on water and had to start trucking it in may be the problem. Of course along with the normal sand trucks. Don’t know yet if this is usual or not.
The weather is trying to cool off, at least. The last couple of days the high was 86-87, but then today it was 95, but at least the trend is there. Last night it was actually kind of chilly at 68. Thought about going into the rig and getting a jacket, but was too tired to get up when I didn’t have to. Ha!
I came out a little early last night and Jan and I took down our old new canopy and put up our new new one.
As usual Amazon really came through on replacing this defective one. They just sent me the replacement and then I have 30 days to get the old one back to them, at their expense. This new one is much more stable since it has all its struts. Nice
Jeff, our company man send over a few front loader scoops of pea gravel to put under our canopy site and our truck parking area. So we went from this
to this.
My truck was actually stuck in the mud the other day and I had to wait until it dried out before I could get it out. This is much better. And the area under our canopy was nothing but a full-on mud hole. We’ll see how it goes at the next rain.
Jeff also has us on a one week schedule for diesel, water, and sewer. So now we don’t even have to call anyone, or worry if we’re going to run out, or overflow.
Under heading – Missing in Action, one of our vehicle sensor apparently wandered off the other night.
At least that’s what I assume, because it’s no good to anyone without the receiver, which I have at the canopy. I noticed during the night that it quit working, but figured it had just fallen over. And the other one is still there and working on the other side of the road. I’ve put out the word with the company people, so hopefully it will find its way home sometime soon.
That’s about it for today. It’s about time to go out and relieve Jan.
Later.
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Thought for the day:
If you know how many guns you have, you probably don’t have enough!!!
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Another Day On The Gate In East Texas
September 14, 2014
Delightful . . .
Today was delightful, especially compared to yesterday. It finally struggled up to 80°, and partly cloudy with just enough breeze to keep things comfortable. Much, much better than yesterday.
It looks like the rig is finally up to speed on drilling. It’s not making as many of those strange noises, and they’ve now got drill pipe hanging from the side of the derrick, instead of bringing it up one stick at a time.
We had 83 vehicles come in today, which over the 18 hours the gate is really active, (I often have only two or three vehicles between midnight and 6am) means we get one every 15 minutes or so. But what really happens is that we’ll have nobody for 30 minutes, and then 3 in a row.
The landowner and some of his family came by in an ATV today. We met him last week and he seems like a really nice guy. In fact all the landowners we’ve worked with the last 3 years have been nice, although I’ve heard some horror stories.
I did think it was funny how he was asking me questions about what was going on where. Like we would know. We’re usually the LAST to know, even when it concerns us. He didn’t even know the cattle guard had been replaced, though he said the last couple of guards had complained about it. Guess it takes a tanker almost falling through to get some action.
Later on, the owner’s grandson came through in a pickup with his two dogs in the back, taking them for a swim at the big pond in the back. He has a yellow Lab and a Rottweiler that probably outweighed me. Big dog!
But thankful the only thing he seemed interested in was licking me to death and slobbering all over me.
For dinner we had BBQ sandwiches and sides from the Rudy’s I brought back last Wednesday. Really good, as usual, and Jan said we have one more meal from it. That means we’ll get 4 meals from $38 of Rudy’s BBQ. Not bad.
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Thought for the Day:
“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” – Abraham Lincoln
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A New Idiot Box
September 14, 2016
And Back It Goes . . .
I was on the road and heading for B/CS by 11:30 to pick up our new TV at Wal-Mart. Their website said that they had the one I wanted in stock, so I was expecting a quick trip.
Well, maybe not so much.
The Samsung I was wanted was not mounted on the display, nor did they have a box out there either. When I ask about it, the lady said they didn’t have that one. And when I showed them that their computer said they had them in stock, she said, “Oh, that thing lies all the time.”
But then another lady came over and looked, and then said, “I think I know where it is.” And about 10 minutes later, here she comes out with one.
When I checked out, I did something I normally don’t do. I bought the 3 year extended warranty. I’ve never been a big fan of these, but for $29, I thought I’d give it a try.
My next stop was the Chick-fil-A right out in front of the Wal-Mart parking lot to pick up lunch. When I first came into the lot it was about noon, and the drive-thru line wrapped around Chick-fil-A parking lot, out into Wal-Mart’s lot, up the entrance road, and then out onto the right lane on Briarcrest, the main road. So they were actually blocking the lane that turns into Wal-Mart’s lot.
Since there were about 10 cars out on the street, I was kind of surprised that the police were letting this happen. But then I saw two police cars in the line, so it made more sense.
And this is not the first time I’ve seen lines like this at Chick-fil-A’s. And the only other place I’ve seen it like this is In-And-Out Burgers.
But by the time I got there the line wasn’t quite as long, but then I went inside anyway. Seems like inside is always faster.
Jan got the Chicken Strips while I got the Deluxe Spicy Chicken Sandwich with Bacon. We both got Waffle Fries and the Kale/Broccolini Salad, along with Lemonade to drink.
Getting back to the rig about 1:15 and chowing down, we both quickly decided no more Waffle Fries. I had mentioned before about how Whataburger fries end up cold and chewy after the 30 minute drive back to the rig, so we were hoping the Waffle Fries being thicker would travel better.
Not so much.
But everything else was delicious.
After lunch it took me about an hour to set up the new TV, mostly due to the installation of the feet. I was hoping that it would come with the center pedestal, but that wasn’t the case. So I’ll have to figure out a way to make the feet work.
One thing that quickly struck me was how much lighter and smaller the new TV is, even though they’re the same screen size.
Our old RCA 32” weighs 26.6 pounds, while the new one weighs only 8.5 pounds, a big difference. And side by side, you can see why.
The old one has a 3” bezel around the top and sides, and about 6” on the bottom, while the new one only has about 1/2” on all four sides. The upshot of this is that it gives you the optical illusion that the new screen is actually smaller than the old one. Even though you can actually measure it to see they’re both the same.
Kind of like this.
Since Jan says it bothers her, and it looks like I can get the 40” version to fit, back it goes tomorrow for a bigger one.
It’s supposedly moving day for the rig. They’ve pulled the pipe loader down, but so far it doesn’t look like they’re moving yet. But soon, probably.
Thought for the Day:
The worst time to have a heart attack is probably during a game of charades.
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September 14, 2017
Boring, Or Not?
Jan and I left the rig about 1:30, heading out for lunch and groceries. But our first stop was at the park Ranger Station to try and extend our stay another 3 days, until the 20th of September rather than the 17th. And to also pay them for our stay here, the $5 a day, and the $3 a day for 50 amp. When I tried to do this last week the computer wouldn’t take the extension. It said the park was full.
But when they tried to ‘test’ extend someone else’s stay, it worked fine. So it was just me. And when they got the main office to try, they couldn’t do it either. And no one knew why it wouldn’t work.
But I suggested a workaround that did. So now we will check out on the 17th, but then right back in again for the next 3 days. Of course the rig will never move, but the paperwork will work out. And that’s what’s important, right?
I think this probably has something to do with the fact that when we finally do leave here on the 20th, we will have been here for 34 days straight. Certainly a new record for us.
Our lunch destination was the Chuy’s Mexican down near the Woodlands, a location we’ve never been to before, although we’ve eaten at several other of their places around town.
We actually go to Chuy’s for their salads, mainly their Mexi-Cobb salad, which is what I got this time.
Really good, especially with their Creamy Jalapeno dressing.
Jan decided to try their Chicken Fajita Salad for a change, which she said was good, but she’s going back with the Mexi-Cobb next time.
We both really like their sauces and queso. With the chips, they bring out the usual Pico de Gallo, but also a bowl of their Creamy Jalapeno dressing, but as a dip. Then we also ordered a small Guacamole for Jan, and a Queso for me.
Again, really good.
Then, after a great meal, we headed back up to Conroe to the Wal-Mart for groceries and gas at the Sam’s next door, finally getting back to the rig a little before 5pm.
Recently there has been a debate among some of our blog commenters about whether or not my blogs about computer stuff, the ‘never ending math’ about where to stay, or even ‘defragging a coffee pot’, are boring. Some thought so, but others came to my defense.
So maybe I need to talk about the origins of this blog. It started in January 2009 at the beginning of our 2nd year on the road. In 2008, our first year, we traveled all the way up to Fairbanks, AK where we spent five months workcamping, before heading back toward home on September 20th.
By the first part of November, we were in Gatlinburg, TN, before getting back to Houston the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
The blog started as a way to share our travels with family and friends as we traveled, but over time the blog has gathered a much wider following. In fact we had a little over 400,000 visitors last year, covering every continent except for Antarctica. (BTW if you know anyone on a science expedition to Antarctica, please ask them to visit our blog.)
I do this blog every day, and in 9 years I doubt I have missed more than a couple of dozen days. But as anyone who has tried this can tell you, doing a blog every night is not easy, as the many abandoned blogs around the Internet will tell you.
So I have to write about things that interest ME. It’s really the only way I can do this blog day after day. I’m not really a ‘creative’ writer, instead my forte has always been in ‘technical’ writing, doing manuals, courses, and how-to’s, for NASA, the DOD, manufacturers, and colleges. So I can write what I know and what I see. That’s about it.
Now when we’re traveling, seeing the sights around the country, blog writing is pretty easy. But when we’re wintering over here in Houston, or even gate guarding, it can get a little dicey. Because many days we don’t leave the rig, just reading, relaxing, computing, and enjoying life.
But of course this doesn’t leave a lot of hot topics to blog about, so you pretty much get my life, boring as it is. What we did, what we saw, where we ate, and what I’m working on, that’s about it.
Some readers refer to this as ‘reading my diary’. kind of a voyeuristic pleasure. Or maybe like peeking in your neighbor’s window.Anyway, maybe you can look at it this way.
You know how sometimes your favorite magazine has a ‘theme’ issue, and it’s a theme that you could care less about, or maybe even hate. But then the next month it’s a theme you’re crazy about.
Pretend it’s like that. Come back tomorrow and maybe you’ll like it better.
Thought for the Day:
Saudi Arabia actually imports sand.
The sand in the Arabian desert look like tiny crystal balls under a microscope. Pretty to look at, but useless for making concrete because it’s so smooth. Concrete requires a rough, jagged sand so it all bonds together tightly and makes a strong block.
So every bit of sand in every skyscraper in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, etc., is imported, in some cases from as far away as the US.
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September 14, 2018
That Was Quick . . .
I got an email this afternoon from Lowe’s saying that my new batteries had come in. Surprising because they weren’t scheduled to arrive until the end of next week.
To recap: Our house batteries are 4 years old and on the way downhill. I had looked at getting another set of 4 6 volt Interstate’s to replace the ones I have. Wired in series-parallel, this would give me about 450 amp hours for about $625. But then we don’t really boondock any more, and probably won’t in the foreseeable future.
So I ordered these two heavy duty 12 volt tractor batteries from Lowe’s.
Wired in parallel, this will give me 12 volts @ 2280 amp hours, and saving me about 140 # in weight.
And the cost is only about $250.
Bigger, better, and cheaper. Nice!
And again, I know these aren’t deep-cycle batteries, but we won’t be using them that way.
One thing I’ll have to do is make up some new cables to get the new batteries hooked up. And a while back I found the best place to do this is at a West Marine location.
They have the big 00 (2/0) gauge wire, the heavy-duty copper connectors, and the bench-mounted swaging tool
to crimp the connectors on with.
And even better, and cheaper, it’s do-it-yourself.
But just be sure they still do this, I’ll make a stop by there tomorrow to check it out after we pick up the new batteries, though I’ll have to do some measuring before I’m ready to make up the cables.
Under the heading, “How high’s the water, Momma?”, I still haven’t been able to get back to my Onan generator problem. Because it’s rained heavily each day for the last two weeks without letup. But things are looking up for next week, so we’ll see.
I did think it was really funny this morning as Jan and I were watching some North Carolina weather girl (woman/person?) gushing about all the rain they’d had in her area, saying that they’d had over 4 inches in the last 24 hours, and that another 2 or 3 inches were expected in the next day or so.
Laughing, I looked over at our LaCrosse Weather Station display which said that we’d had 5.1 inches just since midnight here at the rig with more expected during the day.
It’s all relative, I guess.
The rain is also delaying our plans to take our rig out on a test drive this weekend. Since we’ve been parked after we returned from our Illinois/Alabama trip in July, I want to take the rig out for a drive, and probably top off the diesel before we leave for Florida on Oct. 3rd. But I’d rather not do it when it’s pouring down rain, so with rain scheduled all weekend, but clearing next week, Tuesday looks like our next best bet.
Thought for the Day:
Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.
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Two Lights Down . . .
Well, the turn signals are fixed. Almost anyway. It looks like my front left bulb is out. So that’s next to be replaced.
Turns out to have been the flasher unit. Yeah, I know it should have been the first thing I checked, but this has been a weird problem.
I mean, this started out as a problem with my rear taillights/turn signals/brake lights, which you would think would indicate a ‘common’ problem, since it seems they all quit at the same time.
But my taillights turned out to be two bad bulbs with both filaments blown in each. And now my turn signal turned out to be a bad flasher unit. So now I’m looking at the brake lights.
I know the brake lights themselves work because I can trigger them from the rear relay panel. But so far the problem seems to be in the brake pedal switches.
The two switches are in parallel, probably for redundancy, and I’ve got power feeding to the switches from the 5A fuse, but nothing seems to be coming out the other side. So next I’m going to try to ring out the wire from the switches to the rear panel. But the big problem here is that I can’t really get to the switches themselves, since it’s buried in the floor under the pedal.
But that’s for Tuesday.
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Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy
September 13, 2009
Where else can you walk on the ocean floor…
Today is our last full day in Canada for a while, and is also our day to visit the Bay of Fundy area.
The Bay of Fundy is home to the highest tidal changes in the world. In a 6 hour period the water level can change 30-50 feet depending on the phase of the moon.
But first we decided to try a place we’d heard about here in Canada called Cora. Cora is a type of restaurant that seems very popular here in Canada. It is only open for breakfast and lunch. It closes at 3 pm every day.
And it was fantastic. The food is delicious, and every menu item is a work of art. Hopefully we’ll be able to eat here for breakfast tomorrow before we leave.
After breakfast, we made the 30 mile trip south to the Hopewell Rock area of the Bay of Fundy. On the way, we drove along the Chocolate River, which seems very aptly named.
As it was low tide and this river connects with the Bay of Fundy, it was basically a chocolate-colored mud flat.
And here is what it looked like coming back home.
We arrived at Hopewell Rocks about 1 pm, a little before the full low tide point at 1:41 pm. The trail down to the Rocks is about 3/4 mile though the forest. Getting there, here is what we saw.
Then we walked down the 125 steps to the ocean floor.
By the time high tide occurs, the water level will be to the top of the narrow sections of the rocks above.
There are a number of warning signs in the area.
Apparently people are often caught on the ocean floor when the tide comes in. Someone said that someone drowned here a couple of weeks ago.
Because it would be a little over 6 hours until high tide, we drove further down the coast along the Bay of Fundy. On the way we passed a couple of number of scenic views, including a couple of 100-year-old covered bridges, one of which is still in use.
As we neared the Bay of Fundy National Park, we came across these scenic areas. The first is a view of a cliffside shrouded in the fog that had settled in as the day progressed.
Nearby was a boat dock that shows the problem of mooring boats in an area where the water level varies 30-50 feet twice a day.
Finally we headed back up the coast to Hopewell Rocks to see the results of the tide coming in.
Unfortunately we weren’t able to stay for the full high tide because it would occur after dark, and there is no lighting at the Rocks, or on the 3/4 mile walk through the woods to the parking area.
The only downside to our visit was the fact that as the sun went down, the mosquitos came out…with a vengeance. You’d think they hadn’t eaten in a year, but they certainly made up for it that night.
We stayed as late as we could. In fact it was downright dark by the time we made it back to the toad.
I’d always heard of the tides at the Bay of Fundy and it was neat to be able to see them for ourselves.
But, maybe the best thing about our Bay of Fundy trip is that Jan finally got to see a Canadian moose!
Tomorrow we head back to the good ole USA.
Thought For The Day:
Some women won’t date a man who still lives with his mom, but will date a man who still lives with his wife.
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September 13, 2010
Going back to Houston. . . Houston. . . Houston. . .
As we were getting ready to pull out this morning, Emma and Mister started jockeying for position in Jan’s chair. Note the glare that Emma’s giving Mister, and Mister couldn’t care less.
We left Poche’s RV Park about 10:30 headed for Houston with a quick stop-over at Mulate’s for lunch before we left.
One thing we haven’t seen in a while since we’ve been out west and up north is sugar cane. From a distance it looks kind of like corn, but when you look closer, there’s no ears of corn.
The sugar cane stalk itself looks a stick of bamboo, but the inside is sweet and juicy.
We went back to Mulate’s for lunch for two reasons, the great gumbo and bread pudding, of course, but also to see Tracey.
Mulate’s – plain on the outside.
Very nice on the inside.
As I said yesterday, I’ve been eating at Mulate’s for over 15 years, and it seems like Tracey’s been waiting on me for most of that time. Here’s Tracey on the left, and Sheila on the right, Sheila’s also waited on me many times when Tracey wasn’t there.
Luckily, Mulate’s has a nice big parking lot that makes for an easy in and out.
We left Mulate’s about noon heading for Galveston Bay RV Park in Dickinson, TX.
I thought I’d include these bridge shots along the way to see if I could make Nick snivel.
The first one is the I-10 bridge over the Calcasieu River in Lake Charles. And Nick would want you to know that it’s148 feet above the water.
And this is the Fred Hartman Bridge on State Highway 146 southeast of Houston, and it’s 178 feet above the water.
On top of that it’s a really beautiful bridge in its own right.
We did have a couple of milestones yesterday and today. Yesterday we hit 37,000 miles since we hit the road in February of 2008, and today, right before we got into Houston, we crossed 100,000 miles on the coach itself.
And Beauty is still going strong and running great. And with a partial new paint job to boot..
We saw this sign for our favorite gas station/market store just past Lake Charles. It’s referring to the Buc-ee’s on I-10 in Luling, TX. Luckily we didn’t have to wait that long to visit a Buc-ee’s, since we always stop at the one in League City, TX, which is about 5 miles from the RV park where we’ll spend the winter.
They always have great prices on fuel, in today’s case, $2.70 a gallon for diesel, which is a nice change from the prices up north.
When we’re parked for a long time, in this case several months, I always fill the tank first to cut down on any condensation forming in the fuel tank. Diesel and water don’t mix well.
131.9 gallons later we pulled into site 73 at the park and got plugged in. We didn’t do anything else beside plugging in power, because we only had about 15 minutes to meet the kids at Monterey’s Little Mexico, one of our favorite Mexican places in Dickinson. I love their Chicken Tortilla Soup.
We had a great time seeing everyone, and the best thing is, I finally got to hold little Landon.
Getting back to the rig I got the sat dish set up while Jan let out the slide and got things put out inside.
We’re here until at least the middle of January, although we may move if our old site becomes available.
More from Houston tomorrow…
Thought For The Day:
“Government is not eloquence. Government is not reason. Government is force.” George Washington.
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Gate Guarding in South Texas
September 13, 2014
Miserable . . .
That’s what I was most of last night and early this morning. It drizzled all night, and that, combined with a stiff breeze and 62 degrees, made the wind chill in the 50’s.
And I was not prepared for 50’s. The outside heaters were still packed away, and the only thing long sleeve I could find without waking Jan was a light windbreaker. I really needed something with a hood because my ears were freezing due to the wind. Finally ended up putting a towel over my head.
Yeah, I know. Whine, whine, whine. Such is the life of a gate guard.
Today was a little better. It was cloudy, and only made it up to 67°, but the wind died down so that helped. And after Jan came out at 7am to relieve me, I dug out the heaters and a hooded sweatshirt for her, so she was pretty comfortable during the day.
Last night’s all-night drizzle was preceded by yesterday’s high winds and heavy rains. A lot of heavy rain. I believe the technical term is ‘gullywasher’. But the pea gravel we had them put down when we first got here pretty much kept the flooding under control.
And our Coleman 13 x 13 Canopy took care of protecting us from the high winds and rain.
This is our second year of use on this one and it’s still holding up fine.
The Wenzel 10 x 10 canopy we used our first year of gate guarding in 2012 barely made it through our four month stint. In fact I left it at the Gate Guard Services yard for anyone that wanted it. But based on our experiences with the Wenzel, I had a better idea of what to look for in our next one.
1. Bigger is usually better, so I went with a 13 x 13 rather than a 10 x 10. The legs are still 10 x 10 but the canopy overhangs.
2. I want one with the roof vent at the top. This helps keep the wind from lifting it so much, and also lets out the hot air. (no comments, please)
3. I wanted one that had UV protection in the canopy fabric. With the old one you could feel the heat coming through on sunny days. The Coleman has 50+ SPF protection and it really makes a difference.
4. I wanted one that was heavy duty, and again this one has held up with no problems.
The whole thing comes in a wheeled case about 9” x 9” x 5’ tall and weighs about 40 pounds. I paid about $170 for mine last year with free Prime shipping, which was only about $30 more than our first one. Well worth the cost.
For dinner tonight, Jan and I had the steak dinner that one of the guys dropped off for us yesterday. Really good, and even splitting it, there was plenty for both of us.
Today’s vehicle count was a little higher than yesterday’s 80, with 93 vehicles coming through. Still, not bad.
Tomorrow, just another day on the gate.
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Thought for the Day:
Short answer: no.
Long answer: nnnnnnoooooooooooo.
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Gate Guarding in East Texas
September 13, 2015
Brrrrr!
Last night turned out to be kind of chilly. Actually, at 55 degrees with a slight wind, it was down right cold. I kept adding layers until I ended up with a T-shirt, a long-sleeve FRC shirt, and a windbreaker and my orange vest, along with my pull-over knit cap. And still my hands were cold. It supposed to be about the same tomorrow night, so I’ll dig out my gloves. And maybe it’s time to start digging out the two small heaters we have for outside.
Today was another 85 degree day with a lot of sun and a light breeze. Very nice. It is supposed to warm up a little over the next few days, back in the high 80’s and low 90’s, with mid 60’s at night. Again, nice.
We’re always looking for ways to make our life a little easier on the gate so one of the things I do is preprint our log sheets with all the info except for the date and page number.
This saves us a lot of time writing the same things over and over. The log sheets come in pads, so I tear them off, stack the sheets in the printer, and then print them out using a template I made a couple of years ago. So at each new gate I just add the new info to the template and we’re ready to go.
Our vehicle count jumped a bit today, up to 125 over yesterday’s 108. Most of the increase seemed to be sand trucks. But, unlike other years, they come through the gate in smaller numbers, spread out over the day, rather than just one big gob like in previous years. Much nicer.
The new thermostat to fix my water heater should be here Tuesday in my Amazon order.
The repair kit comes with both a new thermostat and a new ECO, so I’ll go ahead and replace both. From the online instructions, it looks like both units are stuck to the side of the tank with some sort of adhesive. So you pull the old ones off, clean off the old adhesive, and stick on the new ones. Easy Peezy.
I hope.
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Thought for the Day:
“The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.” – A. E. van Vogt
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More Gate Guarding in East Texas
September 13, 2016
LCD’s and LED’s . . .
They’ve started completion on this well, the first of three, so our vehicle count really jumped up. In fact, at 68, it was our 2nd highest day so far.
The temperature made it all the way up to 90 before an unscheduled rainstorm blew through around 3pm. It was only heavy for a few minutes before it settled down to a light drizzle, with two good results.
It was just enough to settle the dust on the road without making things muddy, and it dropped the temperature down to the high 70’s, then stayed in the mid-80’s the rest of the afternoon. Nice.
After thinking about it overnight, I had decided to not wait until Thursday to get the new TV, but to go over this morning and pick one up at Wal-Mart. Between getting the groceries, picking out a TV, and then getting lunch to bring back, I’d have to either go over early, cutting way into my 4 hour sleep window, or I’d get back late, meaning Jan has to work a longer shift.
So I was going to get the TV today (and lunch), and then get groceries on Thursday (and lunch) as usual.
But then that all changed with an early morning comment from blog reader Rob Nixon. He clued me in to a website called ShopJimmy.com that sells boards and parts for hundreds of TV’s, and will even rebuild your boards for you.
So I decided to put off my BCS trip until I could check out ShopJimmy. But as it turns out, they no longer have parts for my 8 year old RCA, and when I called them, I found out that they not longer rebuild boards for it either, due to the fact that parts are no longer available. I did talk with the tech for a few minutes, and he at first thought that I might have a backlight problem.
Most people don’t realize that an LCD TV is actually kind of a slide or movie projector. The TV video is displayed on the LCD screen, but you can’t see it until it is lit from behind, as I said, just like a projector. So if your light source goes out, then you can’t see the video. But you can shine a flashlight on the screen at a 45 degree angle and see that the video is still there.
Up until recently , most backlights were actually small fluorescent tubes just like in your light fixtures, so they do burn out. But now more and more TV’s and computer monitors are using LED’s as a backlight source, giving you longer life and better colors. Over the years I’ve had the backlight go out on both a laptop and a monitor, so it does happen.
But I know a bad backlight is not my problem because my screen lights up, but there’s just no video getting to it.
So as it stands now I’m going into BCS tomorrow, Wednesday, to pick up a new one. And I’m looking at this one.
It’s Full HD at 1080p, a step up from the 720p model we have now, and it has LED backlighting. It also has built in Wi-Fi so we can stream Amazon Prime movies directly to it. And it’s only $228, which is less than half what our RCA cost us 8 years ago. And for a lot more features.
Whatever we get it needs to have a single pedestal base like the photo above, and not the two legs version like this one.
Where we set the TV on the dashboard is only about 20” wide so I doubt the two small feet will work for us.
Wal-Mart’s computer says that they them in stock, so we’ll see. I think as far as Jan’s concerned, I’d better not come home without a new TV.
After calling yesterday, today I heard back from American Coach about my broken screen door latch.
And as I found out earlier this year when I tried buy new hinges for my screen door, no parts are available. That’s apparently considered part of the entire main door, and that company went out of business years ago.
So my next step is try Colaw’s RV Salvage in Missouri. And if they don’t have it, I’ll have to try and make something up from some aluminum strips.
It’s always something.
Thought for the Day;
At what age do you think it’s appropriate to tell a highway it’s adopted?
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September 13, 2018
Betsy Rossing It . . .
I spent the morning trying to get Jan’s Viking sewing machine cleaned up and checked out.
It’s a Viking #1, a high-end one that Gina Ellis, a late friend of ours, gave Jan in 2009. I guess she gifted it to Jan because she got something bigger and better, though I can’t imagine what it could be, since this one seems to be able to do just about anything, including probably mowing your grass.
It comes with 6 programming cards like this one
that will do pretty much any embroidery stitch or pattern you can imagine, even monograms, words, or sentences in either block or cursive letters.
Or bears.
The reason his head is off a little is that the fabric got hung up while it was being stitched. Normally this is a hands-off function. Just push the button selecting the pattern, and press the foot pedal, and off it goes.
The machine automatically sets every thing – thread tension, stitch length, stitch width, presser foot pressure, etc. It’s all programmed.
Jan used the machine for a year or so and then it was retired to a rig storage bay for the last 7-8 years. So I figured I might have to spend some time getting it going again.
But to my amazement, I took the cover off, wiped it down, plugged in and turned it on. And immediately ran a stitch forward and reverse, and then embroidered a pair of birds. And it all worked perfectly.
For a few minutes.
Then when Jan tried it, it would run a long stitch, and then when you stopped, it wouldn’t start up again. Sometimes if you turned it off and back on, it would do another stitch of any length, but not restart.
I thought maybe I had set something up wrong, but no luck finding anything.
Finally it was time for us to head out so I thought I’d stop by the Viking dealer located in the JoAnn Fabrics at Baybrook Mall and ask some questions.
Our first stop was our local favorite, Pho 20, for lunch. Jan had the Lo Mein with
while I got the White Meat Chicken Pho, my usual.
Knowing I like it hot, Sherry, the owner, brought me out some really hot little Mexican peppers that one of the cooks got from his mother in Mexico. Jan even put some of them on her Lo Mein. And as usual Sherry send us home with a whole bag of extra goodies.
I also spiced things up by mixing in some of the Carolina Reaper paste I got at Aldi’s last week.
As I said before, it wasn’t as hot as I expected, but it does add a touch of good smoky flavor. Not bad at all.
Then, after Home Depot and WalMart stops, we went by JoAnn. I picked up a new ‘A’ presser foot, but they couldn’t help me with my problem. I did find out that I could bring the machine in for a cleaning and tune-up for $129.50. Might consider it.
Getting home I started fooling with the Viking again, and finally stumbled across the problem. Turns out that the cord that connects the foot pedal to the machine was flakey at the machine end of the connector. If you bent it one way, the machine got flakey, but if you bent it the other way, it worked fine.
So for right now I just left it bent the other way, so Jan could do her sewing project, which she did with no more problems. I’ll fix or replace the connector later.
Thought for the Day:
Maybe November’s are a little quieter now that they don’t play each other anymore
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