Monthly Archives: October 2020
Second Times The Charm . . .
No, not my oil leak. But back to that later.
As I mentioned the other day, our Absentee Ballots that had been mailed out to us on Sept 28th from Sioux Falls, SD. had never shown up over 3 weeks later. So Jan and I were thinking about checking nearby Dumpsters and ditches.
So this past Monday I put a call in to the Minnehaha County Auditor to see about getting replacements. And a very nice lady didn’t seem to be surprised at our problem, and said new ballots would go out to us that day. So this afternoon coming home from Spring Creek BBQ we stopped off at the Santa Fe PO, and, what do you know?, our ballots were here.
And, according to the postmark, they were the ones that were just mailed out. The lady said to just tear up the second set, and use the first ones.
So they will go back out via Priority Mail tomorrow.
This afternoon I pulled the oil filter back off the rig, and was surprised to find that it was not full of oil like I expected. I loosened the 4 bolts on the oil head adapter and then retightened them to a little higher torque. Finally I refilled the filter with oil and got it installed.
Then after I got cleaned up we were off to have linner at Spring Creek BBQ over in the Victory Lakes area, our favorite local BBQ place. And as usual we both had the Baby Back Ribs with Beans and Beans.
Really, really good.
Then it was on over to the WalMart right next door for a few things. Well, actually a lot of things. And by the time I got home, it was kind of late to do the 1 hour high-idle test run, so we’ll do it tomorrow after I get home from work.
Maybe.
Thought For The Day:
When I say, “The other day,” I could be referring to any time between yesterday and 15 years ago.
October 22, 2009
Amish Food and Amish Craftsmen…
About 12:30 pm we drove down to Middlebury to eat at Das Essenhaus, which in German is ‘The Eating House”, or ‘The Restaurant’
Very original name, huh?
They have great food, especially the fried chicken. The last time we ate there, we ate family style, where they just bring great food to your table until you explode.
This time we had the lunch buffet of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, muffins, salad, and dessert. Once again, it was really good.
Leaving the restaurant we stopped off at a nearby Dollar General to stock up on more Awesome Cleaner. This stuff is well known in the RV world for cleaning RV’s. It is fantastic for cleaning the bugs off the front of our coach.
Just spray it on, wait about 10 seconds, and then the bugs just wipe right off.
It’s Awesome!
I guess the Amish in the area also like the Dollar General, because there’s a hitching post right out front, complete with horse poo.
Leaving the DG we drove over to the American Countryside Farmer’s Market.
This place is amazing.
It’s a 3 story, 51,000 square foot building, entirely built by Amish craftsmen.
And it is beautiful inside.
And even more amazing is the fact that there is not a single nail anywhere in this building! It is all pegged together.
And here is one of the Amish carpenters working during the original construction. Only hand tools were used.
Coming home we stopped off at Martin’s Supermarket for more of the delicious Honey Crisp apples that are very plentiful right now. And while there we stopped in the Starbucks for a Pumpkin Latte and some pumpkin muffins. MMMMMM Good !
Coming back to the park we saw another great foliage view.
And here’s what it looks like in the summer time.
Another really nice day…
Thought For The Day:
Telling a woman to calm down works about as well as baptizing your cat.
October 22, 2014
Steak and Eggs . . .
For our first full day of freedom (temporary, we hope) we headed over to Bryan/College Station for the day. Our first stop was the IHOP on Hwy 6 for breakfast. Along with the obligatory coffee, Jan had Blueberry Pancakes, with Eggs and Bacon, while I went with the Bananas and Cream Waffle, and of course, bacon too.
It was really nice to just sit and talk, and enjoy a leisurely meal without jumping up at the sound of a bell to check a vehicle in or out. In fact we probably stayed longer than usual just because we enjoyed it so much.
Next up was a haircut for me and a trim for Jan at the Great Clips right down the street. And since they offered the service I went ahead and had her trim my beard, saving me from having to do it.
Then it was off to Wal-Mart for some shopping. And because it was so convenient, we dropped the truck off at the Tire and Auto area to get a new tire for the truck, something I’d been delaying doing so I wouldn’t have to leave Jan alone on the gate for too long. But today seemed the perfect time to take care of it while we were shopping.
Besides the usual stuff, Jan and I needed some new shoes. I wanted a new pair of black boots because my old pair of Red Wings finally started coming apart after about 5 years. You just can’t get good quality anymore. NOT!
One of the reasons I’ve usually bought my boots at Red Wing and paid a high price, $200+, is that they carry the larger widths. In my case I wear a 9 EEEE. In other words, I have snowshoes for feet. And it’s my father’s fault, as he had the same ones. In fact he said that he never had a pair of shoes that fit until he joined the Navy during WWII, as they had all the bigger widths.
But I recently noticed that Wal-Mart has also started carrying wider widths so I thought I’d give them a try. I found a nice pair of Brahma’s, Wal-Mart’s house brand that fit me great. They have a Goodyear sole, leather uppers, AND they’re Steel-Toed. All for only $35. If they only last a couple of years, I’m still way ahead.
For her part, Jan picked out a new pair of Dr. Scholl’s sneakers to replace the pair that started coming apart last week while working the gate. So we both left happy and re-soled.
When we got finished with our shopping, we headed back to the Tire area to find our truck all ready to go. Very convenient.
I mentioned a week or so ago that one afternoon while Jan was working the gate, the drill rig blew a seal and showered her and our rig with a mist of drilling mud. Luckily she was partly shielded by our canopy, but I didn’t find out how bad the front of the rig got hit until I pulled back the windshield curtains as we got ready to leave the gate yesterday. The windshield was almost entirely opaque with the mud spray. And the wipers and washer fluid wouldn’t touch it. Finally I ran the washers long enough to thoroughly wet the glass and then sprayed Awesome on it and let it set for about 10 minutes. Then the wipers gave me this.
Good enough to go. Luckily we had already planned to stop off at a Blue Beacon truck wash on the way back to Houston.
And the truck had similar problems, but not as bad since it was parked facing away from the rig. So we wanted to get it washed while we could. I finally located a carwash that uses brushes instead of just water pressure because I’ve found they do a much better job on a dirty, grimy vehicle. And that was really confirmed today.
Turns out this carwash had the side brushes, but not the big horizontal brush that comes down and does the roof and the hood. Instead it has the squiggly octopus arms of fabric that come down and gently caress the truck, rather than actually cleaning it.
So while the front, sides and rear of our toad are spic and spanned and shiny, the hood and I assume the roof, still has a very visible film of drilling mud on it. So now, break out the Awesome again.
After stopping off at Sam’s Club for a prescription, and their gas station for gas ($2.79), we started back toward Buffalo.
Coming in, we’d been talking about where we wanted to eat dinner tonight. Going through Madisonville, we saw a sign for Legend’s Steakhouse on the Courthouse Square. Steak sounded good, so while we were at IHOP, I checked Yelp and found 4-1/2 stars, so we thought we’d give it a try on the way home. And are we glad we did.
Everything was delicious, starting with the fresh, hot rolls, and large salads with their homemade dressings.
Jan then had a 10oz. sirloin with baked potato, while I went with the 14oz Ribeye with onions and mushrooms, and a baked sweet potato. Really great!
The portions were huge, and neither of us could, or really wanted, to finished our steaks, because we’d seen on the menu that they had bread pudding with Jack Daniels sauce as one of their desserts. So we couldn’t pass this up.
We also couldn’t eat it all either, even as delicious as it was too. So a 3rd takeout container was in order. We both agreed that this is probably the best bread pudding we’ve ever had. Better than the Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce at the Pont Breaux (nee Mulate’s) in Breaux Bridge, LA, and even better than the Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding at Lulu’s (Jimmy Buffet’s sister’s place) in Gulf Shores, AL. It was that GOOD!
And now it looks like we’ll be able to repeat the entire meal again tomorrow night. YUMM!
I always enjoy reading some of the negative reviews people write on Yelp. In the case of Legends, someone ‘complained’ that the food was great, the prices were great, but since they’d showed up without reservations on a busy night with a party of 12, and still got a private dining room, they thought it took them too long to get their food, She seemed kind of incensed that she had to ask for some crackers for her son while they waited.
So for great food, and great prices, she gave Legends 3 stars. Which is probably what kept them from getting a full 5 stars overall. Some people!
Leaving Legends, but before getting back on I-45, we had to stop in at the Madisonville Buc-ee’s to check it out. At one time, it was the largest one in the chain, but has now been outclassed by the ones in New Braunfels and La Marque. We normally would have gotten some of their great Cranberry Nut muffins, but what they had left looked like they had been baked earlier in the day and been sitting too long.
Maybe next time.
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Thought for the Day:
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
October 22, 2015
Well, that was a letdown . . .
The big inrush of trucks for the flowback didn’t . . . inrush, I mean. Between 1pm and 6 pm, I had four vehicles come though the gate. And one of those four came in twice. So just three, really.
Jan had a few more, but two of them were at the wrong gate, and the rest were just the frack water guys running the pumps at the pond for the new frack up the hill.
Well, there’s always tomorrow. Or not.
So far we’ve dodged all the bad weather here with most of it staying to our northwest. And from the radar it looks like that was a good thing. We’re forecast for 40% to 80% to 100% rain for the next five days so we’ll see how that plays out. I know the farms around here really need the rain, but it sure makes our job a lot messier.
* * * * *
In what’s too perfect to be coincidental, for each of the last three days, and today’s on track to be a fourth, there have been exactly 100 failed logins each day. And it looks like the hackers are spreading out.
Where most attempts used to be almost all from Russia and Eastern Europe, now they’re more diverse, also coming from Sweden, Denmark, France, Spain, and other Western European countries
I’m looking at a couple of plugins that would allow me to block IP addresses by country, if necessary. But I would have to block wide areas since in most cases, login-attempt IP addresses are identical only at the first octet.
I’m sure most of you, (some of you?) have come across a reference to your IP address on the Internet somewhere along the line. Something like 31.22.48.0 (Albania), or 5.79.68.161 (The Netherlands). Every single computer on the Internet has an individual IP address, and in most cases, unless you’re trying to hide, that IP address can be traced back directly to you, or at least, your household.
So by ‘first octet’, I mean the first set of numbers of the IP address.
More than you really wanted to know, right? At least that’s what Jan usually tells me.
* * * * *
Well, then, let’s talk about something more fun: Gate Guard Sewer Systems.
Todd, our GGS service guy, should be coming by tomorrow afternoon to bring us more diesel, and a new sewer pump.
The sewer pump is the small green barrel that sits out on the ground, and is where you hookup your rig’s sewer hose. It contains a macerator pump controlled by a float valve that shreds and pumps the waste up into the big green tank. The whole thing is pretty much a portable septic tank system.
IP address discussions are starting to sound better right about now, aren’t they?
Anyway, about a week ago, the GFCI on the 20amp outlet on our generator was popping every couple of days, and not for any reason I could find. Then it escalated to every day, and several times a day.
Two things are plugged into this outlet, the sewer pump, and the light stands. And I quickly discovered that if I left the sewer pump unplugged, the GFCI didn’t pop anymore. For now I plugged the sewer pump into the 30amp outlet on the generator which doesn’t have a GFCI on it. This should be OK since there’s nothing electrical exposed on the pump housing as it ‘s all inside the fiberglass tank. So no shock hazard.
Tomorrow’s Wal-Mart/ bring home lunch day, and she says ‘surprise her’.
Think she’d be ‘surprised’ if I didn’t bring home anything.
No, me neither.
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Thought for the Day:
October 22, 2016
Watch Where You Sit . . .
We were both up early this morning so I could finish all the paperwork we needed for SiteWatch.
The last thing I had to do was to get photos of myself and Jan as part of our application.
Here’s Jan’s great looking photo.
Mine I won’t post. I look like a homeless drug addict. Of course my excuse is that Jan took my photo and I took hers.
We were finally out the door a little before 10 to meet up with Tam, who was going to go over our duties at a SiteWatch gate. We spend a little over 2 hours checking the gate and the equipment.
The potty is on a separate trailer and has a flush toilet and a sink.
It even dispenses medical advice.
And or course being a potty out in the wild, it even warns you to watch where you sit.
The guard shacks (apparently they’re referred to as ‘shelters’. Maybe ‘shack’ sounds too low class) are really nice.
They’ve got 3 big windows, and as advertised, a refrigerator, microwave,and a color TV. And of course, they’re heated and air-conditioned. There is a desk running all the way across the narrow end opposite the door with plenty of room to lay all your stuff out.
About 12:30 we headed back into Kenedy, stopping to have the noon buffet at Barth’s, a local family dining place. Jan had the Chicken Strip Platter, while I had the Mexican-styled buffet with Beef Enchiladas, Carne Guisada, Rice, Beans, and Tortillas, as well as the soup and salad bar. Very Good.
And it got even better when Jan noticed that the Sunday buffet is Turkey and Dressing, and Fried Chicken, two of Jan’s favorites.
Guess where we’re eating lunch tomorrow?
Back at the rig, we both took naps, maybe our last ones for a while, before heading back out for a Wal-Mart run. And while we were there, Todd texted us with our first gate assignment.
Sunday, Monday,and Tuesday from 5:30pm to 5:30 am at the same gate we trained at today. How convenient.
For right now, we’ll both be working the gate at the same time. After that, who knows?
When we got back to the rig, Todd had left our SiteWatch red shirts and yellow safety vests on our rig step so we’re already to go for tomorrow evening.
Thought for the Day:
If you understand English, press 1.
If you do not understand English, press 2.
– Heard on an Australian Tax Help Line.
October 22, 2017
Guess We Should Watch the Local Channels More . . .
We didn’t do much of anything today except just lounge around the rig.
About 2pm I did go down to the Ranger Station to checkout / check back in. Of course we’ll be leaving for Santa Fe on Thursday so we’ll only be here for 4 more days. But if we were to be staying up here we’d almost certainly be doing our week out staying here under Passport America.
As long as we’re in Texas we usually can get the local Houston channels on our DirecTV spotlight, but it seems like we usually end up mostly watching the East Coast / West Coast network channels. And because of this we missed out on the fact that this weekend was the 2017 Wings over Houston Air Show at Ellington Field down in the Clear Lake area.
Before we started RV’ing in 2008 we went to the air show just about every year. With Jan being an Air Force brat, and my work for the DOD and NASA, we’re both really enjoy air shows. But due to not knowing when it was coming, and of course the fact that we were both under the weather this year, we missed out.
The last time we did make the Wings Over Houston Show was in October 2010 when we came home early due to Landon being being born. We got to see the Air Force Thunderbirds that year, who were also the Demonstration Team this year too.
Before that, the last air show we went to was at Eielson AFB near Fairbanks, AK in 2008 when we were up there. Since this was an Air Force show, of course we saw the Thunderbirds then too.
Of course over the years, we’ve also seen both the Navy Blue Angels and the Canadian Snowbirds.
Of course there’s always next year, I guess.
Concerning the Powerball drawing last night , (no I didn’t win. Nobody did.) several blog readers asked if I planned to live another 30 years since I would take the 30 annual payments as my payout. Well, actually, Yes. Yes I do.
I do plan to live a lot longer, if only based on genetics. My grandmother, my father’s mother, died at 89 after suffering a stroke while on a ladder painting her ceiling. My father died at 83 from a brain aneurysm caused by a known condition that I don’t have.
My mother died at 88 from an infection she got in the hospital after a hernia operation. All her brothers, her father and her mother, all lived to be in their late 80’s – early 90’s.
And Jan’s mother lived to be 86, so there’s long-livers on both our sides of the family.
But if I don’t quite make to the full 30 payments, it wouldn’t make any difference. If the winner dies before then, the rest of the money goes to a beneficiary or to the winner’s estate. So it still gets paid out.
Call me stubborn, but I plan to hang on until the very end.
The Word of the Day is: Perlocutionary
Thought for the Day:
Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.
October 22, 2018
It’s Good To Be Home . . .
We pulled out of Poche’s RV Park right at 10am, and were back out on I-10 about 15 minutes later.
Except for the really rough roads leaving Breaux Bridge, and then coming into Texas, it was pretty smooth sailing for the entire trip.
As I’ve mentioned before, from 1994 to 2005, I drove back to Birmingham once a month to check in on my mother. And I swear some of these same roads that were under construction back then, are still under construction now. They’re just never done.
And the section of I-10 leaving Lake Charles to the west is just as rough and potholed as it was back then.
Since we are going to be parked for a while, I wanted to top off the diesel tank before we got home,so we detoured down to La Marque and the Buc-ee’s there to fill up. As I was doing that, I also added a bottle of Diesel Kleen and a dollop of Biocide to keep the algae at bay during the cooler, damper winter weather.
After we unhooked the truck, Jan followed me back to our home site at the Petticoat Junction RV Park. Then after we got plugged in, we headed back out in the truck to have breakfast / dinner at the nearby Denny’s. Coming home, we stopped off to get our mail at the Santa Fe Post Office, before settling in for the night.
It’s Good To Be Home
Even though Tuesday’s not normally a client work day for me, I’m still going in tomorrow since I’ve been gone for almost three weeks, and I’m curious to see what cratered while I was gone.
Yesterday, after getting to Poche’s, we drove into Breaux Bridge to have dinner once again at Crazy ‘Bout Crawfish once again. And as before, Jan had the Grilled Catfish and Grilled Veggies,
while I had a cup of Seafood Gumbo,
and the super spicy Shrimp Boil.
And of course we had to finish it off by splitting an order of their Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce and Ice Cream.
Thought for the Day:
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” – Voltaire
If You Think You’re Tired Of Reading . . .
about the Trials & Tribulations on our rig’s Oil Leak Repair, think how it looks from my side of the equation.
When I come up against a stubborn problem, my first inclination is to out-stubborn it. Sometimes to my detriment.
But “It’s in my nature”, as the scorpion said to the frog, while they both were drowning.
Tomorrow I’m going to drop the filter again and see what I can see. Yesterday I could see that the oil drip was running down the side of the filter, pooling on the bottom, and then dripping down from there.
Then what I will probably do is to loosen the 4 oil adapter head bolts and then retorque them down a little tighter, maybe up to 25#.
And then another high-idle test.
Finally, on the China Virus front:
Two new peer-reviewed studies are showing a sharp drop in mortality among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The drop is seen in all groups, including older patients and those with underlying conditions, suggesting that physicians are getting better at helping patients survive their illness.
And then this:
A range of common household items – including mouthwash, nasal rinses, and even diluted baby shampoo – have been found to inactivate a form of human coronavirus in new research, highlighting another potential avenue to reduce transmission rates amid the ongoing COVID–19 pandemic.
Finishing up:
Dr. Deborah Birx, Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, also known as the ‘Scarf Queen’ for her many colorful scarves, said back in March 2020, the projections by Dr. Anthony Fauci that U.S. deaths could range from 1.6 million to 2.2 million is a worst case scenario if the country did “nothing” to contain the outbreak, but said even “if we do things almost perfectly,” she still predicts up to 200,000 U.S. deaths.
Sounds like she was right on target.
Thought For The Day:
I’d rather be anecdotally alive than scientifically dead.
Still Up In Elkhart
October 21, 2009
Yellow Trees and Red Bushes…
Today was another road trip day.
Once again we headed up into Michigan, or really Michiana, as it’s called around here.
We headed off in a different direction than last time, toward Niles, MI. We were looking for a place to have breakfast / lunch and then take a drive through the country, checking out the fall foliage.
Coming in to Niles, we saw the Blueberry Hill House of Pancakes and decided to stop. It’s a breakfast and lunch only type of place and was really good.
Jan had the blueberry pancakes, and I had something I’ve never had before, a Hawaiian Omelet. It had pineapple, bananas, and pecans drizzled with honey inside, and topped with strawberry topping. And, strange as it sounds, it was really good.
After breakfast, we came across a Tractor Supply Store and stopped in. Jan was looking for a magazine that she only finds there, and I needed to restock on some glues that had leaked and I had thrown away.
Leaving there, we headed out into the countryside and saw some great foliage displays with red, orange, and yellow trees…
And these beautiful red bushes.
Coming back home, I did some outside cleaning and repair work, while Jan sat out and keep an eye on Mister as he wandered around, checking out the park.
Thought For The Day:
Common sense is not a gift. It’s a punishment because you have to deal with everyone who doesn’t have it.
Still More Up In Elkhart
October 21, 2011
Doves and Deeres . . .
Well it looks like the doves have come back with the olive branch and the sun is trying to peek through the clouds. It’s actually supposed to be pretty nice until Tuesday. Hopefully things will be able to dry out by them.
After the usual coffee and lunch I headed over once again to the RV/MH Hall of Fame. I’m hoping to finish up tomorrow, or Monday at the latest. But then I’ve said that before.
Brandi, Lowell, and Landon are visiting Lowell’s parents in Oklahoma, and they sent us these photos.
Here’s Landon and his daddy.
And Landon with his other Grannie and Papa.
And here’s Landon showing off his John Deere cowboy boots.
And now for another installment of . . .
Things Every RV’er should have:
Today’s topic is Aerospace 303 Protectant. As I mentioned above, our friends, Dave and Jean Damon, are vendors for 303, and they turned me on to this stuff a couple of years ago. It’s been used in the aircraft and marine industry for years, but has only recently become widely known in the RV world.
303 is a UV protectant for any type of canvas, rubber, vinyl, latex, leather, fiberglass, or Neoprene. It is especially good on tires to help prevent the cracking and deterioration that shortens the life of your RV tires.
And applied to your awnings, it will increase their life and water repellency, while greatly reducing the fading.
If you can’t catch up with Dave and Jean at a rally, you can get it here on Amazon for Aerospace 303.
Thought for the Day:
“If this be Treason, then make the most of it.” – Patrick Henry, May 1765
October 21, 2014
Sometimes you shake the Jell-O,
And sometimes the Jell-O shakes you.
As of 6pm this afternoon we are off our gate and parked in the Gate Guard Services yard near Buffalo, TX.
Chelsie, our Gate Guard Services sales rep, showed about noon today with some new clothes for us. We had been expecting her to show up with our new GGS shirts that we would be wearing along with the new work pants we recently brought. But what we got was something completely different.
As it turns out, MD America, the oil company we were working for, has decided that all workers must wear the complete FRC outfit, including coveralls, steel-toed boots, and hard hats.
Including us.
And not just us, who work right across the road from the rig, but the gate guards up the road from us, almost a mile away, also have to wear the outfit.
These coveralls were heavily padded, and zipped all the way up to your neck. It was actually kind of hard to walk in them, and good luck getting them off enough to go to the bathroom back in the rig in the minute or so you have between vehicles coming it. And if it had been 100° in July, rather than October, you’d be looking at heat stroke.
So at about 1:30pm I called Jamie and told him this wouldn’t work for us. He said he understood, and there was a couple here at the yard that would take over for us. So Jan and I started tearing down, And about 4:30, after briefing the new guards, Jan and I headed out for Buffalo, TX, about 55 miles away. By 6pm we were parked, hooked up, and settled in.
After the busy afternoon, we were too tired to go anywhere for dinner, so we had one of Frack Food meals, Chicken and Beef Fajitas. Very good, especially considering there’s no more where that came from.
Tomorrow we’ll probably do our shopping trip that we had planned for this Saturday, just a few days early. It’s about the same distance to Waco or Bryan/College Station, so I imagine we’ll go back to B/CS since we kind of know the place.
But that remains to be seen.
You know, Jell-O, and all that.
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Thought for the Day:
“I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger, then it hit me.”
Still Gate Guarding in East Texas Near Carthage
October 21, 2015
In For The Long Haul . . .
Jan talked to one of the Company Men this morning, and right now it looks like we’ll be here until our optimum leave date of November 22nd. Rather than the workover rig up next as we’d been told before, flowback is coming in the next day or so, with the workover scheduled for a couple of weeks from now.
And we’re back on the gate starting tomorrow morning at 7am, so our brief respite is officially over. But in one last gasp of fun, we decided on another dinner out tonight.
After our morning coffee I started in on replacing the charger port on my ASUS laptop. As I figured it took me a little over an hour to get down to the base circuit board where the port was located.
Next up was to get the old port unsoldered from the board, and that proved to be much easier said than done.
The tip of my soldering iron is only 1/32” in width, but I still had trouble getting the tip and the solder wick in between the port and the parts on either side. I finally ended up using a pair of sharp cutter to clip the legs off so I could get the port case out of the way and get to the circuit board traces to clean off the old solder.
This should have been easy, but it seems they used some sort of high-temp solder on this board because my 100 watt iron had a hard time melting the solder joints to clean out the holes. My iron had no problem melting the rosin core solder I was using, so I know it was working OK.
By melting my solder on top of the circuit board joints, I was able to gradually dilute the high-temp stuff and get it off and the holes cleaned out so I could mount the new port. But because I had to take my time with this so I didn’t overheat the board, it took me several hours to finish this up.
By now it was getting close to dinner time, and finding I didn’t have rubbing alcohol to clean the sticky rosin gunk off the board, I put it aside until after supper.
And as far as dinner, where else but the Longhorn Grill for another great steak. And afterwards we were going to split a piece of their delicious Strawberry Cheesecake, but apparently it was so delicious that they were sold out. So instead we split an order of their Hot Peach Cobbler with Ice Cream. Also very good.
Coming home we made a quick stop at the HEB for a few things, including rubbing alcohol. Back at the rig I got back on the laptop project, cleaning off the rosin with the alcohol and preparing the board for the new part. Then the real problem started.
Although the Amazon listing said this port was OEM for the X53E (and several other similar models), it did not fit my board. The lead spacing was slightly wrong, and the leads themselves were too big for the holes in the board.
So for right now, I’m stuck with my laptop in pieces until I can come up with a solution. I could try another Amazon listing from a different vendor, or I might be able to come up with a kluge using pieces of wire to make new legs, or maybe using sharp cutters to trim the leads down to fit the circuit board holes
But I’ll have to think on it overnight.
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Thought for the Day:
Knowledge is knowing how, Wisdom is knowing when.
Getting Ready To Gate Guard Down in Kenedy, TX
October 21, 2016
Sunday Night?
After coffee and our Buc-ee’s Cranberry Nut muffins from our Wednesday trip down here, we were out the door to the Karnes County National Bank to get our business checking account under our DBA name.
Our first stop was the branch (1 of 2) here in Kenedy, but we found that the one person who could open this type of account had left for an early lunch. So we were off to the remaining branch over in Karnes City.
With this lost time we were starting to worry about being done before we needed to be at the Marathon Orientation Class about 10 miles away. But when we finally finished up al the paperwork almost two hours later, we made it to the class with 15 minutes to spare.
This was good because they lock the doors right at 1pm and won’t let anyone end. Then we’d have to wait until next Friday.
The class last for about two hours, and was actually pretty entertaining due to the skill of the instructors. Todd had told us to text him when we were done, and when we did, he said to meet him at the same McDonald’s where we met yesterday. Lucky for us it was only about 5 minutes away.
Todd was already waiting for us, and we quickly got right down to business. We went over all our paperwork, double-checking everything we’d done so far, and listing what we still needed to do. And now we have two new events on our calendar
We’re supposed to meet Todd and his wife Tam at a gate Tam is working just north of Kenedy on the way to Karnes City. We’ll spend a couple of hours going over the operation of the gate, working with the iPad and logging in some vehicles.
We’ll also get to check out the guard shack and how it operates, which Jan is really looking forward to.
And even better, we have our first gate scheduled. It’s a new gate, and Jan and I will work the 6pm to 6am shift together, and then we’ll where we go from there.
Jan and I both think this is kind of a test gate by Todd to see how we’ll do, and if we’ll even show up. He’s been burned a lot of times, including today. For example he was supposed to have about 8 potential guards at the class today, but it was only us and one other lady. And she didn’t text him after the class like she was supposed to do.
It’s easy to see that Todd doesn’t like people who can’t following directions.
Since this might be our last chance for a night out in San Antonio, Jan and I headed back to the rig so could feed Miss Karma, and then headed into town to have dinner at one of our favorites, La Fonda on Main
We’ve eaten here a number of times and it’s one of our ‘go to’ place here in San Antonio is La Fonda on Main. Opened by two sisters in 1930, it has grown (moved across the street in 1934) to one of the best Mexican restaurants in San Antonio.
Here’s what their website says about their history.
It is fascinating to hear how popular La Fonda has been as a dining spot of history’s most celebrated people. Every famous officer in World War II seems to have eaten here, including Generals Eisenhower, MacArthur and Hill. Even American presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson enjoyed La Fonda’s fare. Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Yul Brenner, Veronica Lake, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, along with many other stars, visited this historic restaurant.
Today to celebrate, we started out with a Margarita, or half a Margarita, anyway. We split a Sangria Swirl ‘Rita, and unlike the one we had recently at Saltgrass, this one actually had some alcohol in it. Very good.
Jan’s favorite dish here is their Chile Relleno platter.
The egg-battered poblano chile is stuffed with beef tenderloin, salsa and pecans, and an Enchilada Verde de Queso.
I tried something completely different this time with their Filete Regio, which is an Allen Bros. Oak-grilled choice beef tenderloin, papas rancheras, Oaxaca cheese, on a crisp chalupa, topped with Ajillo Gulf shrimp, peppers, and avocado slices.
Very spicy and very good.
Both our portions were big enough that we were able to bring half of it home for later, and that also gave us enough room to split a piece of their delicious Tres Leches cake.
Really good.
Looks like it’s back to work in the next couple of days. We’re actually looking forward to it.
Thought for the Day:
“The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.” — George Will
Still Up In Conroe north of Houston For a Few More Days
October 21, 2017
Running and Spiffing . . .
Although still not quite up to snuff, Jan was getting rig fever, so about 5pm she and I headed out to have dinner at Jason’s Deli right down in Conroe.
Jan just wanted soup and sandwich, in this case a cup of Broccoli Cheese and a quarter Turkey Muffuletta.
I got my usual, a bowl of Southwest Chicken Chili and a small Reuben sandwich.
For a non-beef chili, this one is pretty much the best.
Coming home I stopped off at the Kroger’s for a Powerball lottery ticket. It’s up to $173 million, so I’ll spend a few bucks. I don’t smoke or drink, so I’ve got to waste my money on something. And there’s not a chance that smoking or drinking will make me a millionaire.
Unfortunately I always have to stand in line at the service desk because the machines don’t offer you a choice of cash payout or annual payments, just cash payout.
So if I want annual payments, and I do, I have to get it at the desk. And the reason I want annual payments is that with cash payout I’m giving up $64 million. That’s the difference between the annual payment total of $173 million and the cash payout of $109 million.
And it gets worse as the jackpot rises. In January 2016 there was a Powerball Jackpot of $1.6 BILLION. If you took the cash payout you would only get about $1 billion, giving up 600 million just to get the cash up front.
In the case of tonight’s jackpot, if you won in Texas (no state income tax) and took the 30 annual payments, you would get almost $3.5 million a year after taxes.
While if you took the cash, you would get a one time payout of a little over $65 million after taxes. Now honestly, what can I really do with $65 million that I can’t do with the $3.5 million. Yeah, I could invest it, but then I’d have to worry about it. And more than likely I’d be investing a large part of the 3.5 anyway. I mean, what can I actually spend it on, anyway. Jan and I’ve already said we wouldn’t get a new rig, but just get Beauty a new paint job and spiff her up a bit. Including those new blue window awnings.
On the Mega-Millions front, it looks like they’re finally increasing the cost of a ticket to $2 to keep up with Powerball’s pot sizes. Powerball went to $2 in Oct. 2015 which, along with decreasing the odds of winning, greatly increased pot sizes, leading to the $1.6 billion one I mentioned earlier.
As I always say, “Let’s run the numbers”.
The Word of the Day is: Kafkaesque
Thought for the Day:
“Political Correctness is Tyranny .. with manners.” – Charlton Heston
On Our Way Back From Florida
October 21, 2018
Not Much Happened Today . . .
So Not Much Blog.
I had a headache a good part of the day so a short blog tonight.
We left the Riverside RV Park in Robertsdale, AL about 10am, and except for some unusually heavy Sunday traffic through Baton Rouge, it was smooth sailing all the way.
And not only was it smooth, it was also cool …almost cold, actually. The temps just barely made it into the 70’s, and we never even turn on the dash fans. In fact we hadn’t been on the road very long when Jan went back to get a long sleeve shirt.
We got in to Poche’s RV Park here in Breaux Bridge about 2:30, and parked in our usual pull-thru site.
Later we had dinner at Crazy ‘Bout Crawfish and then made a WalMart stop.
Tomorrow we’ve got a 245 mile run back to our site at the Petticoat Junction RV Park in Santa Fe, TX.
Looking forward to getting home.
Thought for the Day:
Why be difficult, when with just a little more work, you can be impossible.
Home in Santa Fe, TX
October 21, 2019
Extra Perks . . .
This weekend we booked our 13 day Alaskan cruise for next September 1 – 13. I also separately booked our 7 day pre-cruise stay that Best Western – Pioneer Park for about half of what we would have paid if we had stayed at the Holland America Westmark Hotel. In fact, what we saved between the two hotels was enough to cover our airfare up and back.
Normally I probably wouldn’t booked this early, 10 months out, but the cruise on our same ship, right before ours, is already completely sold out. So we didn’t want to lose out. Plus by booking this early we get a bunch of extra perks like $600 ship credit that can be used for extra excursions, gift shop, etc.
We’re still looking at our air flights, trying to figure out the best deals. Kind of surprised that HL doesn’t have something in place, but apparently not.
When we did our Alaskan cruise in 1998, our first night in Alaska, we stayed at the Alyeska Resort down in Girdwood about 30 miles from Anchorage.
Early in the morning we took the ski lift up to the top of the mountain to check it out, and also make reservations for the 4 Star restaurant at the top. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, and the workers were putting out tables, chairs, and umbrellas for the guests.
I guess no one thought to check the weather, since when we came back up about 6 hours later, it looked like this.
And this was the middle of May.
Thought For The Day:
Your secrets are safe with me. I’m usually not listening.
