Monthly Archives: October 2020
It’s About That Time Of The Year . . .
About 2pm Jan and I headed up to the Webster area, first for lunch at Cheddar’s, and then on to the office to pick up an Amazon order that came in earlier this morning, and then finishing up at the HEB down in League City, before getting home a little before 5pm.
Jan got her new favorite, the Grilled Catfish with Veggies,
while I got the Veggie Plate.
along with a House Salad.
Delicious as always.
I’ve been checking the Voter Information Portal on the South Dakota website, looking to see if our Absentee Ballots have shown up, but no luck so far.
As far as our rig’s oil leak problems, I’m taking a break right now while I think about how to approach things again.
As I mentioned a couple of days ago, talking about us moving down to the Petticoat Junction RV Park in Santa Fe, TX, and saying we’d probably be here for a couple of months at least.
Today we’re starting our 4th year here.
Who knew!
It looks like the time has come for me to stop off at our storage room and pick up our two electric heaters. This past weekend when I checked the upcoming temps for the next week or so I was seeing lows in the low 70’s and highs in the high 70’s to mid 80’s.
But then when I checked today, there was a radical change coming. Tomorrow night’s low is supposed to be 43 and then Thursday night it’s 48. And then lows in the 50’s out for the next week.
Thought For The Day:
“Taxation WITH representation ain’t so hot either.”
At The Indian Lakes Thousand Trails Park near Batesville, IN
October 27, 2011
Not Much Happened Today . . .
and it was really nice!
All in all, a nice quiet day. Quiet, cold, and rainy. A perfect day for just staying in the rig, and enjoying hot coffee and each other’s company.
As it is, we probably won’t leave the park until Saturday when we make the drive into Cincinnati for shopping and dinner.
Leaving Elkhart yesterday started our three week journey back to Houston for the holidays. But leaving Elkhart is like leaving home just to go to another home. Bobby and Gita at the Elkhart Campground have always made us feel right at home. Well worth a stay over if you’re in the area.
Jan and I spent a large part of the day just reading and catching up on some of the programs we’d DVR’d.
As it stands right now we’ll leave here on the 7th, then it’s on to Vandalia, IL to visit Jan’s sister. Then after stopping off to visit relatives in north Alabama, we hope to spend about a week in Gulf Shores, AL where I grew up. We plan on being back in the Houston area the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and stay for a couple of months before we head back out for the year.
But who knows, our schedule can always change.
Thought for the Day:
“There is an old saying that if a million monkeys typed on a million keyboards for a million years, eventually all the works of Shakespeare would be produced. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.”
Visiting Old Haunts in South Carolina
October 27, 2012
Forts, Chapels, and Churches . . .
After Hazelnut coffee, we headed out about noon to visit Beaufort, SC, home of the Marine Corps’ Parris Island, and also their Marine Corps Air Station.
Jan and I lived here in Beaufort from late 1969 to late 1970 when I was working as a DOD contractor at MCAS on F-4’s and A-7’s.
We were able to found the two different houses we lived in while we were here. This duplex was the first one,
and this single family home was the last one.
After checking out our ex-homes, we spent some time driving around Beaufort, checking out the large, beautiful trees,
along with the many old homes.
Next we took the bridge over the Beaufort River that leads out of downtown Beaufort and headed over to Ladies Island.
Then after a short snack stop at McDonald’s, we drove on down the St. Helena Island. Our main destination was Fort Fremont, the remains of a Spanish-American War era fort.
The original fort covered over 170 acres, but these concrete gun emplacements and the attached hospital building are all that remain.
The other buildings, made of wood, have been destroyed or torn down since the fort was deactivated in 1921.
Driving back toward Beaufort we stopped off at these church ruins that we had passed on the way to the fort.
We discovered it was called the Chapel of Ease. It was built around 1740 as part of St. Helena’s Church for planters that had problems traveling to the main church parish in Beaufort.
It became a separate church after the Revolutionary War, and was burned out in a forest fire in 1886.
There is also a partially-destroyed mausoleum on the grounds which may have led to the stories of strange lights and ghosts in the area.
Next we headed back through Beaufort and up the road about 25 mile to the Yemassee, SC area to visit the remains of another church.
Built between 1745-55, the Church of Prince William’s Parish, also known as Sheldon, apparently was a magnet for destructive military attention.
It was first burned by the British Army in 1779. Then after being rebuilt in 1826, it was burned again by the Union Army in 1865. Sometimes you just can’t catch a break.
We didn’t want to get any closer to the building because there was a wedding ceremony going on at the time.
Leaving the church, we drove on into Yemassee to check out a nearby Mid-Atlantic/Encore/PassPort America park called The Oaks at South Point. Turned out to be a nice park, but with all the tall trees, it would be sheer luck if you could get a satellite signal.
Finally it was time to head back to the park and dinner. We had decided to check out The Pink Pig.
Serving BBQ and seafood, they’ve been mentioned on the Food Network and written up in Southern Living magazine. And we really enjoyed it.
For their BBQ they have both tomato-based sauces, and the mustard-based sauces, typical to Georgia and South Carolina, including a hot Gullah sauce.
I had a shrimp and rib combo platter, and the ribs were really good. meaty and moist.
We’ll go back.
Since The Pink Pig was only about a mile from the park, it was a short trip. Which was a good thing, since we were all so full.
Tomorrow it’s on to Fort Pulaski.
Thought for the Day:
If you believe in yourself, you clearly haven’t calculated the odds against you.
Gate Guarding in North Zulch, TX
October 27, 2014
Never Bite a Bee . . .
He might bite back.
After a fairly quiet weekend, things picked up today, with a little over 200 vehicles coming in. They’re bringing in the equipment to start fracking at the next pad about 200 yards down the road, which should bump up the vehicle even more. But hopefully, less than the 325+ we had during our double-frack period last month at the other gate.
About noon I headed into North Zulch to drop a letter in the mail and also to pick up some chicken from the gas station there for lunch. Strange as it may seem, gas stations in oil rig country have some of the best food.
And they do a booming business. The one here is open from 5am to 10pm, seven days a week, and have a menu bigger than most restaurants.
Unfortunately the one thing they don’t have that we enjoyed last year, was the seasoned potato wedges. So along with our chicken strips, I got Jan an order of tater tots, and I got a red beans and rice. All good. And I got enough chicken so we have leftovers.
After being at this new gate for a couple of days, it seems the prevailing wind is mostly from the south, or behind us, so last night/this morning I reconfigured the canopy so we have a windbreak behind us, and it also cuts down on the afternoon sun.
I got some idea of how much it helped when later I went back in the rig to get something to drink, and found out how cold it really was out in the wind. Makes a big difference.
We have a light tower here for our use, and it really helps.
In fact, Jan is now a fully certified light tower operator, i.e. she started it up and shut it down twice while I watched.
If you forget to turn the lights off before you shut the generator off, you can burn it out. Who knew. Now she starts it up at night and shuts it down in the morning after she relieves me at 7am.
Forgot to mention yesterday that Scotty, our GGS support tech, brought us a couple of pieces of Pecan Cheesecake for Jan’s birthday. Really nice of him.
As far as biting into the bee, it was the bee’s fault. He shouldn’t have been in my bottle of Lipton Diet Citrus Green Tea. I got busy after lunch, and when I finally got to sit down again, I took a big swig and bit down on something crunchy that suddenly burned like HELL, and I quickly spit out.
I don’t think he stung me. I think I just bit into his poison sac. I ended up with a big lump on the inside of my bottom lip that hurt for a few minutes before fading away. But 12 hours later the bump is still there.
That’ll teach him.
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Thought for the Day:
The Pleasure You Get From Life Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It.
Waiting For Flowback
October 27, 2015
Fried is Fried . . .
Well, the rain finally let up overnight, but the heavy cloud cover stayed around until later in the afternoon, before blue sky and sun finally began to show through.
The frack up the hill finished up this afternoon, and the water guys left for the night, saying they’d be back tomorrow morning. Don’t know what comes next for them. It seems like every frack is different, at least in how they wrap things up.
We’re still waiting for our Flowback crew, and every day Jan’s certain they’ll be here tomorrow. But it just seems to always be ‘tomorrow’. Which is fine with me.
I mean we’re spending our days, reading, watching TV, and playing on the computer. We’ve got full hookups and we eat out pretty regularly. In fact we’re probably going to eat out tomorrow again.
So how is this different from being parked in a RV park somewhere?
Oh, yeah. There is one difference. We’re making $150 a day. And that’s a really nice difference.
I got an email this morning from the Escapade Seminar Coordinator asking if Jan and I want to do our Gate Guarding for Fun? & Profit seminar at the 56th Escapade being held in Essex Junction, VT next July. We had a lot of positive responses from the one we did in Tucson this past March, so we’ll probably do it again.
We’re really looking forward to doing the East Coast again next year since we haven’t been back there since 2009 when we went all the way out to Newfoundland. Probably won’t do that again, but there’s still a lot we didn’t see last time.
A little after 11am I headed into Carthage to pick up lunch at Chicken Express. And of course what did I get at CE, why, the Fried Catfish Fillets, of course. And the Fried Okra. You can’t forget the Fried Okra.
A few weeks ago I made a comment about someone liking the Chicken Fajita Tacos at Whataburger. I said that you should always go to a restaurant’s strength.
You don’t order steak at a Red Lobster, you don’t order seafood at Texas Roadhouse (though I might give you a pass for Steak & Lobster. I said ‘might’), and you don’t order Chicken Fajita Tacos at Whataburger.
Then one of our blog readers pointed out my ‘hypocrisy’ in going to ‘Chicken’ Express and ordering ‘Fish’. But I pointed out that ‘chicken’ wasn’t the operative food here. It was ‘Fried’. As in ‘Fried’ chicken, ‘Fried’ catfish, and ‘Fried’ Okra.
Their strength is ‘Fried’ stuff. I wouldn’t order the Chicken Fajita Tacos from there either.
It’s Grilled, not Fried.
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Thought for the Day:
I don’t care what the UN says. Bacon Is Good For You.
Next Gate?
October 27, 2016
Closed Down . . .
Todd, our SiteWatch supervisor, and JM, the SiteWatch maintenance guy, showed up about 5:15 this morning to close down our gate and tow the shack and the generator trailer away.
I still wonder about all the equipment left on the pad. There is no physical gate to close along the way, so I guess they’re hoping the pad’s isolation will protect all their stuff.
But it meant that I was back home at the rig about 5:45am, 30 minutes or so earlier than normal. Nice.
Jan was already up, but I went right to bed, trying to stay on our night sleep schedule. I don’t know what our next gate will be, but I think Jan’s even coming around to liking night shift. Day shift sounds nice until you consider that a 5:30a to 5:30p shift means getting up around 4 in the morning. Even she’s not crazy about that.
I forgot to mention in last night’s blog that about 6:30 last night, Cole, of the father/son duo that own SiteWatch, showed up at the gate. He wanted to drop by to introduce himself, since we’d only talked by phone. He said we should have another gate ASAP.
While he was there he also went in to talk to the Marathon Company Man, I guess hoping to drum up some more business.
I was up about noon, and soon after we were off for lunch and shopping. Our lunch stop was another visit to RJ’s Burgers, a local place with great burgers. Unfortunately it’s only open for weekday lunch. So we get it while we can.
And as is usual with us, we find something we like and stick with it. So Jan got her Cheddar Mushroom Burger, this time adding Grilled Onions, as well as an order of their great homemade onion rings.
I stuck with the Grilled Ribeye Sandwich with a order of their hand-cut fries. Love their grilled buns.
While we were finishing our burgers, I looked up and there was Cole again. He’d been having lunch with a Marathon guy, and came over to say Hello, so now Jan got to meet him as well as me. He again said they hope to get us on another gate very quickly. I gather that SiteWatch was surprised that the gate closed so abruptly.
Like us, they had been led to believe that the guards would stay until the next crew moves in.
Our next stop, of course, was the local Wal-Mart for some supplies. Jan also wanted to see if they carried the steel-toed sneakers like the Wal-Mart in Huntsville, TX that we saw a couple of years ago. But they didn’t stock them, and neither did the Tractor Supply that we also checked on the way home.
There’s a big place here in Kenedy called Cadillac Jack Boot City that looks like they might be a possibility so we’ll check them out soon. Of course, we’ve still got the Sketchers we can get from Amazon, but Jan would like to try them on first.
So we’ll keeping looking, Of course it all depends whether she actually ends up needing any to start with.
We kept waiting to see if we’d get a text from Todd about another gate, but nothing so far.
But soon.
Thought for the Day:
If two wrongs don’t make a right, try three.
October 27, 2017
Renaissance Man . . .
and Woman.
This morning’s ~30 minute drive into work was really nice, almost over before I knew it.
And because I cut two hours off my round-trip I was able to spend a little extra time wrapping up some projects.
While I was at work, my new LaCrosse Remote Weather Station came in. Several readers already received theirs, and so far the reviews are very favorable.
I’ll let you know.
Getting home about 4:45, we turned right back around and headed over to Victory Lakes to have dinner at Whataburger. Delicious as usual.
Then it was a stop by the next door Chase Bank for some cash before hitting the across the street Wal-Mart to get rid of some of it.
Under the heading of “I Warned You.”
Check out this Denver TV Anchor take the Carolina Reaper One Chip Challenge and then proceed to throw up on-air.
A Person Gotta Know Their Limitations.
Blog reader Brenda Brown passed this on about Sears.
Sears just went into bankruptcy in Canada last week. They are having their liquidation sales for the next 12 to 14 weeks and then they are gone. Over 15,000 employees out of work and many of them that have worked there for over 30 years have lost their pensions.
Drip, Drip, Drip.
Coming next year the GPS in your new smartphone will be much more accurate, from over 16 feet down to 1 foot. Plus it will work better in the city canyons and use only have the power. Super Accurate GPS
Earlier in the month when we didn’t know we were going to be moving south, I went online to get us tickets to the Texas Renaissance Festival near here in Magnolia. Of course now that we’re down here, it’s time to go.
So tomorrow we’re going to be at Brandi’s by 9am, and then we’re all going up there. Really looking forward to it.
The Word of the Day is: Guisard
Thought for the Day:
“Trust in GOD, but row away from the rocks.”
October 27, 2018
It’s Push and Release . . .
We were out the door a little before 10:30 heading up to Webster to meet Miss Piper at one of our favorite breakfast places, The Egg and I.
Jan tried the Avocado Toast with a side of Greens,
while I got my usual Two Egg Breakfast.
But what I want to know is how someone this slender,
can eat like this.
Piper’s working at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where her Nana worked back in the early 80’s right after we moved out here from Alabama and I went to work for NASA..
She’s close to finishing up her B.A. in Psychology and then she’s going right into an MBA in Medical Administration, all while working full time. Pretty much like her Nana and PaPa did about 45 years ago.
While Jan and Piper went out to do the Mani-Pedi thing, I went by her apartment to pick up her bike and take in down to the Bike Barn to have a rear flat tire repaired. While I was there I told them to go ahead and do a Basic Tune-up while they’ve got it.
We all met up back at her apartment and got introduced to her new dog, Violet. Then Jan and I headed off to Sam’s for a prescription pickup and then WalMart for stuff. A lot of stuff, since we hadn’t really shopped since before we left for Florida on the 3rd of this month.
Finally heading home, we made a stop at the new Costco to fill up our Malibu. At $2.29/gal it’s the cheapest place around. But I ran into a problem. I couldn’t get the gas door open.
I first tried to push on one of the edges to ‘rock’ it open. No luck. Then I search all over inside for a remote release, checking in all the usual places, like beside the driver’s seat, inside the glove box, etc. Then I checked all the dash panels and hidden locations. Still no luck.
Then I double-checked the key fob. Also no.
Finally, and reluctantly, it was RTFM time. And . . . there was not one in the vehicle. So finally giving up, we headed on down to Dickinson for a storage room stop, before headed home for the night.
Tomorrow we’re going up to Brandi’s in Katy for an afternoon pool party/cookout. Miss Piper is coming up too, but separately since she’ll probably have to come home earlier.
Really looking forward to some pool time, especially since Lowell is heating it up just for the occasion.
Brandi sent over a photo of Landon’s prize-winning Halloween costume.
And it lights up, too.
Later a little Googling told me the secret of the Malibu’s gas door. You have to push in on the left edge in just the right place and then immediately release it. And then that edge pops open.
If you don’t push in the right spot, or don’t release it quick enough, it won’t open. Live and Learn.
Thought for the Day:
”True Love Is Being Stupid Together.”
Words That Jan and I Have Take To Heart.
October 27, 2019
Sunday Mish-Mash . . .
I mentioned the other day that, based on a blog reader’s suggestion, we might consider doing a Mississippi River Cruise after our Alaskan Cruise next year, and our possible Yucatan Mayan Ruins tour the year after.
But when I checked them out I was surprised how expensive they were, especially compared to our Viking River Cruise and Holland America Alaska Cruises.
A 22 day Complete Mississippi River Cruise, 7 days longer than our Grand European Viking cruise, is $13,600 PER PERSON, over $17,000 more than our Viking cruise. That’s almost $2500 per day extra.
YIKES!
As I mentioned the other day, we’ve booked a Larger Inside Room on our Alaska cruise, but the size is relative, I guess. Because at 233 sq ft, it’s 28 sq ft LARGER than the largest room on our Viking cruise ship.
NICE!
As usual Brandi’s family goes all out on Halloween decorating in their yard. It looks really good in the daylight,
and even scarier at night.
BOO!
Jan and I will be puppy-sitting at Brandi’s while they’re out of town for Thanksgiving with friends up in Cleburne, TX. So when we were up at Brandi’s last weekend Jan started getting in some practice.
Looks like Jack and Baxter are already breaking her in.
Thought For The Day:
“It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.” – Voltaire
MMR and Princess Leia . . .
Jan again wants to thank everyone for the many birthday wishes that came in over the last few days. She really appreciated all the nice thoughts.
There’s been a lot of speculation recently, both in the media and in the science journals about why there is so much variation in China Virus symptoms between people of like comorbidities.
And this article from The American Journal of Medicine talks about how individuals who have had the MMR (Measles-Mumps-Rubella) vaccine seem to be at lesser risk for Virus complications.
Measles epidemics leading to measles elimination programs with mass MMR vaccination may explain part of observed international variations, suggesting that MMR vaccine may provide strong protection from COVID-19 spread and mortality.
Although the individual vaccines were in use earlier, the combined MMR shot came into use in 1971.
These findings suggest the MMR vaccine may protect against COVID-19, including high-risk individuals, such as elderly with co-morbidities, health care workers and first-responders with COVID-19 patients, especially individuals living in long-term care facilities and the related institutional staff. Clinicians who are caring for such high-risk persons should consider the benefit/cost ratios of MMR vaccination to justify use of this simple, low risk intervention to reduce COVID-19 disease, especially until a specific vaccine is approved. Clinical trials to confirm this speculation are now being conducted.
Sounds like that if you feel you might at a severe risks for the China Virus, you might consider talking to your Dr. about an MMR shot.
You may have heard about how much worse the US is doing combatting the WuFlu compared to what’s being done in Europe.
It certainly doesn’t look like if from this chart.
And specifically, things aren’t going very well in France, either.
Virus patients now occupy more than half of France’s intensive care units, and some doctors are urging tougher restrictions after another record jump in confirmed infections.
Dr. Jean-Francois Delfraissy, head of the government’s virus advisory body, expressed surprise Monday at the “brutality” of the rise, after more than 52,000 new cases were reported Sunday.
In fact the only European country who seems have handled things properly is Sweden. Despite panicky alarms, they imposed only light restrictions and that resulted in this.
Or this one comparing Sweden and Israel.
It seems that, to paraphrase Princess Leia, “The more you lock down, the more the virus will rampage.”
Also known as the ‘Viruses gonna virus.’ mantra.
Thought For The Day:
“We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.” – Aesop, 600 BC
In Savannah, GA
October 26, 2012
Bombs Away!
Today started about 11am when we headed down to Pooler, GA to tour the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum.
We started out by going through a ‘full immersion’ show of a typical 8th Air Force bombing mission.
We begin our flight by sitting in Quonset hut and listening to the flight briefing given through a combination of video and a live presentation from a actual 8th Air Force crew member. Then it was on to an excellent movie about the flight line and preparing the B-17’s for the bombing raid.
The final presentation was multi-media presentation simulating a bombing run over Germany, complete with loud flak explosions, bright flashing lights, and even rushing wind as the bomb bay doors open.
A really moving presentation.
The 8th Air Force Museum is located in Savannah because that’s where it was born. It was activated on January 2th, 1942 at Savannah Air Base, Savannah, GA, less than one month after Pearl Harbor.
During its 3 year operational history, over 350,000 men cycled through the unit. And of that number, there were 26,000 deaths and 28,000 casualties, with the loss of over 4000 planes.
Toward the end of the war the 8th Air Force was sending out raids with over 2000 planes and 1000 fighters on a single mission to multiple targets.
It is said that by early 1945 there was nothing left to bomb in Germany. Every target of strategic or military value had been destroyed.
Leaving the presentation we walked through the many exhibits. They even had a couple of fantastic dioramas. This one depicted a raid on a German refinery. Very realistic.
And this one shows the 8th Air Force field at East Anglia, England.
They also have a number of planes on display, including this B-17, “The City of Savannah”,
which was the 5000th plane processed through Hunter Field in Savannah in 1944.
Here’s the P-51 Mustang, the most successful long ranger fighter of WWII. Its introduction allowed, for the first time, fighters to escort the bombers all the way into Germany and back out on even the longest missions.
And here’s one the P-51’s adversaries, the German bf 109.
They also had a few more modern planes outside. Here’s a F-4C Phantom.
A MiG 17A.
And finally, a Boeing B-47 Stratojet, our first swept wing all-jet bomber.
We really enjoyed the 8th Air Force Museum, especially Jan who was an Air Force Brats.
This is a must-see when you visit Savannah.
Leaving the museum, we made a couple of Post Office and bank stops before spending some time just driving around old Savannah taking in all the old homes. Then we made a couple of trips down along the waterfront checking all the neat shops and restaurants.
By this time it was after 4pm, and with us both hungry, we headed back to Jalapeno’s Mexican Restaurant, where we ate a couple of days ago.
It was that good. So good that we both ordered exactly the same thing we got last time.
Heading back toward home, we made a Wal-Mart stop along the way. We also made a few more passes up and down some more of Savannah’s streets.
The perfect end to a great day.
Thought for the Day:
If you understand, no explanation is needed. If you don’t understand, no explanation is possible.
South Texas Gate Guarding
October 26, 2013
They Broke Our Well . . .
Or at least it seems like it. They’ve been in Production here for a couple of weeks now which means they’re getting crude out, and there’s been a steady stream of tankers in and out ever since. At least until a few days ago, then things slowed down.
Now it turns out they have a problem and are going to have to redo the ‘coiled tubing’ phase again. Don’t know yet if there’s debris in the hole, or a clog of some sort. But the good thing for us is that it makes it more and more likely we’ll be able to stay at this site until we leave on the 23rd of November. Here’s hoping.
Also hopefully we’ll get a little rain (emphasis on little) in the next few days because the dust is getting really bad. Last year they had water trucks that would go though every few days and wet down the roads, but I’ve only seen that happen once, early on right after we got here.
Under the heading of Where’s Landon, he’s now firmly of the opinion he doesn’t like his picture taken. So much so that he goes out of his way to avoid the camera.
See if you can pick him out in this photo.
Hint: He’s the one in the middle with his back to the camera. He stayed that way the whole time.
But Brandi finally got a shot when he ran up to her.
Had something a little strange happen at the Wal-Mart in Pleasanton yesterday (Friday). I was there getting groceries and also picking up Jan’s 4 prescriptions. Told the young lady that I would just pay for them when I checked out with my groceries, so she clipped one of those anti-theft thingies you see on clothes, to the bag and off I went. When I got to the checkout, the lady removed the thingie and scanned the prescriptions in. The register beeped and said “Already Scanned In”. In my mind I figured it was because the pharmacy had already started scanning them when I told them I’d pay up front. So the cashier hits a couple of keys and then scans them again. Everything went thru fine and off I went.
Later in the evening, after I went to bed, I got a voicemail from the pharmacy asking me to call them. When I did this morning they ask ‘politely’ if I had paid for the prescriptions. Told them as far as I knew I had. Said the cashier had taken the thingie off and scanned them through. I did mention about the “Already Scanned In” problem. She ask if I still had my receipt and could I check it. I said I’d dig it up and call her back.
And as it turns out I almost got $82.84 worth of free prescriptions. On the receipt it showed they were scanned in, but then immediately voided. I never noticed the price change because I had looked at the running total after they were first scanned in and the amount seemed right. I didn’t look the final total since I would have had to take my glasses off to see it on the small screen.
I told the pharmacist that I wouldn’t be back over there until next Thursday, and did she want me to just give her a credit card number over the phone. She said no problem, just take care of it when I come in next week.
And I almost got away with it.
Thought for the Day:
We the people are the rightful masters of both the Congress and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who would pervert the Constitution. – Abraham Lincoln, 1859
or as my friend David Cross says:
All the monkeys need to be REPLACED AT THE SAME TIME.
Setting Up At A New East Texas Gate
October 26, 2014
We Miss Our Tree . . .
Well, we’re still settling in at our new gate, trying to get things configured like we like. Unfortunately some things we’re just going to have to not like, but put up with.
Right across the entrance way from us is a set of production tanks to store the crude coming out of the wells until a tanker comes to pick it up. Don’t know if they plan on putting a pipeline in yet. There are almost 15 wells back in here, with more on the way, so it would seem to make sense.
We’re parked parallel to the entrance to the pad so our rig faces south, and with no trees for shade, our rig AC’s are once again having to earn their keep. Not sure yet if I’ll put up the Reflectix radiant barrier in the rig windshield. Today didn’t seem too bad so I’ll give it a few days and see.
The other problem is that due to the way we’re parked here, our canopy and seating area is about 30 feet back from the road, so it’s a short hike out to the road to log people in. But the extra exercise is not the real problem. The real problem is going to be when it’s pouring down rain.
The entrance road coming from the highway is just to the left of the generator trailer.
At our old gate, the canopy was close enough to the road so that if it was raining we could stay under the edge and still check people in without getting things wet. And by ‘things’, I’m not talking about us, but the log sheets. We’ve found no workable way to keep the log sheets dry while logging in people in the rain, Jan often uses a pocket voice recorder, but this won’t work if we’re busy. It takes too long to transcribe login info when you’ve got six more trucks coming in. But we’ll work something out. We always do.
The FRC clothing has turned out to be pretty comfortable. We got the FRC T-Shirts, which although they’re long sleeve, are not too hot.
And finally, on the Landon front, here’s this.
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Thought for the Day:
“When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.”
Raining On The Gate
October 26, 2015
Monday Morning Coming Down . . .
And it just keeps on coming down.
Even later this afternoon, when the radar showed clear skies in the area for miles around, it was still drizzling here. It just doesn’t seem to want to let go. But it’s supposed to be just ‘Cloudy’ tomorrow, and ‘Sunny’ and 80 degrees on Wednesday.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how ‘Wet’ the ‘Cloudy’ is going to be.
But since we’ve been able to stay inside pretty much all the time, it hasn’t been a problem. All our stuff under the canopy has been staying dry, and I’ve got all the electrical connections wrapped and taped, so we haven’t had any problems with the genset’s GFCI popping.
And since our GGS service guy Todd replaced the bad sewer pump macerator last Friday,
that’s not popping the GFCI anymore, either.
We’re still waiting for our Flowback crew to show up. As it was we only had the two frack water guys come through as usual. Oh, and one guy who was lost, looking for the other frack.
He came in, said he was here to repair a pump, and headed down to the pad, which is totally black with no lights. There are light towers down there so I figured he was just going to crank one up and get his work done. But as it turned out he was just lost.
I do sometimes wonder though how some of these guys find their way around. He showed me his directions and they were correct. He just didn’t follow them. They said to turn off the main highway, go 1 mile and turn left at the ‘T’.
But he went 1 mile, turned right at the ‘T’, went another half mile and turned left onto our road.
Ya just gotta wonder.
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Thought for the Day:
“Never miss a good chance to shut up.” – Anonymous
You ever notice how many great things this guy Anonymous says.
Giddy On Our Gate
October 26, 2016
Jan’s All Giddy Again . . .
She got the day off.
And it looks like we’ll both have the day off tomorrow. And we’ve been told that it will probably be a couple of days before we’re reassigned to another gate..
Todd texted me this morning that I was to come in, but Jan had the day off because he had a couple of other guards he wanted to run through her gate for training. Then about 6pm he texted me that this gate was shutting down as of 6am tomorrow morning, i.e. the end of my shift. He said he hopes to have us another gate ASAP.
We already knew they were rigging down from flowback here, but there was some talk that the gate guards would stay until the completion crew came in because of all the equipment still here. But it seems that’s not going to happen.
Well, it was a nice gate while it lasted. On to the next one.
It has only taken me a few days to figure out that the person(s) who wrote this eWatch Gate Guard Logging program has/have never worked a gate with it. If they had, it wouldn’t be written this way.
In some cases, it’s just small things. Like when you have a vehicle come in, you click on the Entry box and the Entry screen comes up. So we tap the Tag# box and the keyboard comes up. But it comes up in Alpha mode and not numeric mode. So it’s another click to get there. And with the 100’s of vehicles I’ve entered in the last four days, not one of them had a Alpha character in the last four digits of the tag number.
And it’s just a single command string in the Open Keyboard code to make it work correctly.
Yeah, it’s a small thing, but when you’re entering dozens (or more) vehicles a day, and the driver’s are wishing you’d hurry the hell up, it’s annoying.
And it seems to sometimes lose track of people. For example, earlier this evening I had a truck come in with Antonio driving and Sergio as a passenger. Then about 10 minutes later, the truck leaves, but now Sergio is the driver and he’s left Antonio behind.
And the log shows this correctly.
But then a couple of hours later, Jorge, Jose, and Brian leave in another company truck, the same one they all entered in earlier, and now they take Antonio out with them. So on the Exit page I add Antonio as a passenger and then Exit the whole bunch.
And the log shows that Jorge, the driver, and Jose, Brian, and Antonio, passengers, all left in that vehicle. But when I now look at the Personnel log that shows everyone supposedly still onsite, Antonio is still here. And I can’t find anyway to manually get rid of him.
Then about 9:30 all 12 of one company’s trucks left in a convoy, one after the other. And there is absolutely no way to handle this on the iPad.
To Exit a vehicle, you first have to wake up the iPad (it goes to sleep automagically after a minute or so of non-use), then slide the graphic on the screen to unlock it, and then click the Exit box.
Next, from the list of everyone on site, you click on that truck, the data of which is then populated into the form. And this point you can now click Submit, the system asks “Are You Sure? You click Yes and they’re gone.
But now you’re back at the opening menu screen. And it starts all over again. Of course by this time 8 of the 12 trucks are already through the gate and off down the road. The only logical way to do this is with a pad and a pencil, and then enter it into the iPad.
But we’re told to do everything on the iPad.
Right!
Thought for the Day:
“Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.” – Mae West
Yes, We Have No Bananas
October 26, 2017
Who Doesn’t Have Bananas For Oatmeal?
For our move down to Santa Fe, we were up about 7:30 to start packing stuff away for the trip.
We were pretty much down by 9, so we headed out to the Conroe Cracker Barrel for our traditional travel day breakfast.
Jan had her usual eggs, bacon, and hash browns,
while I had their Oatmeal.
I really wanted bananas rather than the other fruity stuff, but Cracker Barrel doesn’t have bananas. I’m sorry but it’s not really oatmeal without bananas.
Back at the rig by 10:30, after saying our goodbyes to Dave and Janice Evans, we were hitched up and on the way by 11:30. and we weren’t out of our site for 5 minutes, when someone almost immediately grabbed our site while we still hitching up.
Even through downtown Houston our trip was pretty smooth with no problems at all. Our first stop was the La Marque Buc-ee’s about 1:15 to top off our rig’s diesel tank at $2.27 a gallon, the cheapest I’ve seen recently.
After traipsing through Santa Fe neighborhoods, we pulled into the Petticoat Junction RV Park about 1:45. Finding no one around, I put in a call to the park owners and was told to take site #7. Since it was right behind us I unhitched the truck and then backed us right in.
After resting up about an hour, we drove up to Clear Lake, first to my client’s to pick up Jan’s other birthday present. This:
Instant Pot 8 Qt., 6 in 1, Pressure Cooker.
So Jan’s the proud owner of an Instant Pot. Now to learn how to use it.
Then our next stop was Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, one of our long-time favorite places. We’ve been coming here since the mid-90’s when the place first opened as Thibodeaux’s. When it closed under mysterious circumstances, Floyd Landry, who had been a silent partner, and furnished all the recipes, took it over
Jan, as usual got her favorite Chicken Fried Chicken, with Fries.
while I went with the Seafood Gumbo and a side of Floyd’s Potatoes.
Every time I’ve been to a Floyd’s recently I’ve been alternating back and forth between the Seafood Gumbo,l which had Shrimp and Crab Meat, and the Shrimp Gumbo, which has, well, shrimp. I think I like the plain Shrimp Gumbo better. Actually I wish they offered Oysters with the Seafood Gumbo, but they don’t.
Years ago I tried to talk Floyd into making it that way , and he said it would make the gumbo too expensive. Told him he should just offer it as an extra cost option, then we could order it if we wanted to. But never could convince him.
Tomorrow it’s back to work, but with a much shorter drive. Nice.
The Word of the Day is: Vituperate
Thought for the Day:
“Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up.” – G.K. Chesterton
Rolling The Dice
October 26, 2018
A New Project . . .
I heard back from Snider Transmission with so-so news about our Dodge Dakota. There’s nothing externally wrong with the transmission, so the next step is to take a look inside. And that will cost me $300.
That’s the charge for removing it, disassembling it, and diagnosing the problem. If at that point I do decide to repair it, the $300 will apply to the bill.
But that doesn’t include putting it back together afterwards if I decide not to get it repaired. And in fact due to all the O-rings and gaskets that would have to be replaced even without actually repairing, it wouldn’t be cost-effective anyway.
But I decided to roll the dice and hope I don’t Crap out.
For a while now I’ve been trying to get my client to take a look at how they do shipping. Numerically, our order totals are pretty much equally divided between USPS and UPS. We do ship a few orders via FedEx, but they’re mostly international shipments. But money-wise, the $ totals are about 3 to 1 for UPS.
But there can be a lot of difference in shipping cost between the various methods. For example, if we ship a 10# package to New York City, NY with USPS, check out the possible differences in cost.
Via standard Priority Mail (weight-based) it would be $28.45.
Via a Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Box, it would $11.60.
And via a Priority Mail Regional Rate Box A, it would be only $9.70
That’s a big range!
To make things more confusing, there’s actually a fourth shipping method called Priority Mail Cubic, that’s only based on the size of the box.
And that’s not even bringing UPS into the mix.
The problem turns out to be how to quickly and easily figure out the cheapest way to ship a package. Your variables are package weight, shipping distance (Postal Zone), and package size. And the same weight package will ship cheaper either of 4 different ways, depending on how far away it’s going.
So what we need is a program that will take the weight and the destination zip code and tell you which way is the cheapest. There are a couple of online sites that purport to do this, but mostly seem to try and get you to ship through them.
So my new project is write a program that will take the shipping weight and the destination zip and tell you the cheapest way to ship it.
I’ll probably just do the first version in Liberty BASIC since it’s quicker for prototyping, and then once the logic flow is nailed down, I may move it into something like C+. But it may work just fine in Compiled BASIC. I’ll just have to see.
But at a quick glance, the first problem I see is that the USPS charts I need, like the Domestic Zone Chart that translates Zip Codes into Postal Zones, doesn’t seem be available in computer form, just printouts. But I’ll keep looking.
Tomorrow we’re meeting up with Miss Piper for breakfast at The Egg and I, then she and Jan are going to get Mani-Pedi’s. Well, just a Pedi for Jan.
Then Sunday we’re going up to Brandi’s in Katy and lounge around their pool while Lowell grills something.
Really looking forward to it.
Thought for the Day: Irony
More of The Birthday Girl
October 26, 2019
A Big, Shiny New One . . .
Several of our readers suggested that I just chuck the old filter adapter and buy a new one. And after looking at it closer this morning, I agreed and put my order in with DieselPartsDirect this afternoon.
Hopefully it will be here by the end of next week so I can wrap this up.
I mentioned yesterday that I had noticed pitting in the gasket area which I thought was strange on a piece of steel like this. But then it sat outside last night and got rained on, and then this morning I noticed the white rust corrosion spotted over it.
So it wasn’t steel like I was told, but aluminum, which explains better the pitting on the surface. And since some of the pits are along the gasket edges, I don’t want to take any chances with any leakage under pressure.
So a shiny, new one it is.
Coming from Jan’s Birthday dinner last evening, we stopped and got gas at Costco, and the price dropped again, from $2.08 two weeks ago, $2.04 last week, to $1.98 yesterday.
Nice!
Also forgot to post this of the Birthday Girl yesterday.
Jan and I had dinner this afternoon at our favorite Los Ramirez Mexican Restaurant. Then we made a stop by our storeroom to pick up our two electric heaters. It’s been going down in the low 50’s the last few nights, and we’re looking at the 40’s next week. Of course knowing Texas weather, we’ll have some 90’s mixed back in there again.
Finishing up, Brandi sent over this photo of Landon’s 1st Prize Halloween costume.
Readers will remember this as his Mr. Pug persona from his Facebook page.
Great going, Landon!
Thought For The Day:
Caidyn’s No Bullying Rules
