Monthly Archives: October 2020
Well, Almost, But Not Quite . . .
After coffee this morning, I was back outside about 1pm to finally mount the oil filter adapter head.
My first job was spread a thin coat of the Permatex Ultra Black sealer onto the gasket like this.
I did in on a sheet of wax paper so that when I lifted the gasket up all the excess stayed on the paper. Then I mounted the gasket onto the adapter head and carefully spread a coating on the other side, the side that will seal up against the overhead flange.
Then it was back under the rig to mount the adapter. Because of the way the bolt holes are arranged, both the adapter and the gasket are keyed so they only go on one way. And it only took me about 15 minutes to get it in place and tightened down. And since I installed the Helicoils I was able to torque the bolts down to about 25# rather than the original 17#.
So now I was ready to install the oil filter itself, and that’s where things went awry. I topped off the Rotella 15W-40 oil in the oil filter I had stored away, (it’s supposed to be installed full of oil) and crawled back under the rig.
The first problem is lifting the 12 pounds or so of filter and oil over my head and then trying to screw it on the adapter. You’re supposed to tighten it down hand-tight and then use your strap wrench to give it another 3/4 turn to tighten it down.
But the problem was that I could not get it started. It’s always taken me a few minutes to get it going because it’s slightly cocked off to one side a bit. But today it seemed to be impossible.
You would think that with those big threads it wouldn’t be a problem. But 30 minutes later I was still at it. I even let it down to run my fingers around the threads on both the adapter and the filter, but I could feel no problem. Finally after another 15 minutes or so my arms were just too tired to hold it overhead any longer so I called it a day.
Getting cleaned up, Jan and I headed over to our local Denny’s for our usual breakfast for dinner. We both had the Ultimate Omelet, with Sausage, Bacon, Ham, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Onions, and Cheese. And along an English Muffin, and fruit instead of the hash browns, it’s really delicious.
Coming home I thought of a way to test the fit on the oil filter. I dug out my old adapter head, installed the old screws, holding them in place with 4 leftover Helicoils so they didn’t fall out.
Then I screwed it into onto the filter with absolutely no problem.
You can’t see it from this angle, but it’s screwed on the filter and tightened down.
So I guess come Tuesday I’ll be back under the rig and try it again.
Bummer!
Thought For The Day:
I don’t have grey hair. I have wisdom highlights.
Elkhart, IN
October 18, 2009
Home of the Great Pumpkin…
Jan decided she wanted to eat at Das Essenhaus again so we headed over to Middlebury, only to find out that it was closed on Sunday.
Bummer!
Our GPS showed a number of other restaurants down the road in Shipshewana, about 7 miles away, only to find that every restaurant we tried was also closed.
Double Bummer!
We saw a lot of Amish carriages along the way, so maybe that was why all the restaurants were closed.
Anyway, we ended up making a big loop out into the country. A nice drive, but we were starting to get hungry.
When I mentioned to Jan that our big loop was taking us right back by El Maguey, the Mexican restaurant we had eaten at last night.
So what was good for dinner is good for lunch right? And it was, too!
After lunch we headed back down a country road to get some pictures of a pumpkin patch we’d seen last week.
We also went by the American Countryside Farmers Market and found it also closed. Check the web when we got home we found it’s only open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We’ll go back then.
Coming home we stopped off at Menard’s and Big K looking for some small plastic containers.
Finding those we went next door to Martin’s, a local supermarket chain to get some Honey Crisp apples.
On our way out of the store, we got Pumpkin Latte at Starbucks. We decided we like Starbuck’s Pumpkin Latte better than Dunkin’ Donuts, which is good, because the Starbuck’s is much closer.
A few minutes later we were back home at the rig.
Thought For The Day:
Always remember, it’s Pillage first, THEN Burn!
More Elkhart, IN
October 18, 2011
Buns and Bays . . .
Well, the rain and other miscellaneous bad weather fronts moved in right on schedule today, with more high winds gusting to 40 mph waiting in the wings for tomorrow. Oh boy!
After our coffee I got back on the phone with Galveston Bay RV Resort. We’ve stayed there over the holidays for the last three years and really like the place. But after I called to get our site #, I realized they had put us in a site too small for our coach, so I called them back to get it straighten out. Then while waiting to hear back from them, I spent some time on the phone with a client trying to straighten out his email problem. And as soon as I hung up with him, Galveston Bay called back with a good site for us for this winter. These photos are just one reason we like this park so much. This is the view out our windshield.
After a great lunch topped off with one of Miss Terry’s delicious cinnamon buns, I got ready to head over to the RV/MH Hall of Fame to work on setting up their new computer system. Ended up having to order a new external HD case from Amazon to help straighten things out, but it’s finally starting to come together.
Leaving the museum, I stopped off for one of my semi-annual haircuts before heading home about 5. And then a little while later we headed out to Culver’s, a fast food chain where the food tastes much better than fast food.
All in all, a nice day, despite the weather.
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Thought for the Day:
“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.” — Samuel Adams
In Virginia
October 18, 2012
Boxes and BBQ . . .
Today was another nice, quiet day. You can never have too many.
The park maintenance guy came back to tell us the water was back on for a while so we could top off our tanks if we needed to. He said the backhoe man was coming this afternoon but didn’t know when it would be fixed.
We’ve all been using our onboard water supply since day before yesterday, but we still had over a half a tank left after one wash load and 4 showers, but topped off anyway.
I forgot to mention the other day that Janis Thomas came by Tuesday night to drop off some delicious candy before they headed Wednesday morning for North Carolina.
Thanks, Janis. You too, Lenny.
A little later I talked to Galveston Bay RV Park to confirm that we would be arriving there one month from today, and to be sure they would have a space for us for the winter.
Next I spent some time cleaning up after Mister’s latest box devouring episode.
I’ve mentioned before that Mister loves cardboard boxes. He likes to cram into them and then he starts eating them. Well, not really eating them, he just tears off chunks and then spits them out. Over a period of a week or so, he’ll eat a box down to the ground.
And of course that leaves little pieces of cardboard everywhere. So after throwing out the remains of the box, I swept and vacuumed up all the bits and pieces too.
Mister will just have to wait for the next Amazon order to come in.
A little later we all headed up the road to Willey’s BBQ to have dinner. It turned out to be pretty good, except their version of ‘hot’ BBQ would get them laughed out of Texas.
Leaving Willey’s we drove about 10 miles north to the closest Wal-Mart up in King George. Everyone needs a Wal-Mart fix now and then.
The park guy stopped by again before we left and said the water was back on, so hopefully that’s fixed.
Tomorrow we’re going to head south about 60 miles to check Urbanna, Gloucester, and the Chesapeake Bay Thousand Trails.
Hopefully the 40% chance of rain will hold off. We’ll see.
——————————————————————————————————————-Thought for the Day:
A woman begins by resisting a man’s advances and ends by blocking his retreat. – Oscar Wilde
North Zulch Texas Gate Guarding
October 18, 2014
“You Fall Good”
Well, our vehicle count dropped again, down to 183 from yesterday’s 202. That’s always nice. The new workover rig came in this morning, but except for the rig itself, which is all on one big truck, we didn’t get a lot of traffic from it, just a few extra workers.
Early on, before our two fracks started up, someone had mentioned that there could be a problem fracking too close to a current drilling operation. At the time we thought that might delay the fracks until the drill rig in front of us finished up and shut down.
But then then both fracks began and we didn’t think anymore about it. But today someone said that they alternate. When the fracks start actually fracking, the drill rig shuts down for that period. Which explains the long periods of inaction I see regularly across the street. You learn something new, and all that.
“You fall good” is what Jan said when I did a face plant in the gravel this morning. When I get up in the morning, normally around 11:15 to 11:30, I fix coffee and bring it out to Jan. I’m usually just wearing shorts, a T-Shirt, and Crocs. We sit out for a while and talk, and if anything comes in the gate I get up and log them in so Jan can take a little break.
Well, this time when I got up I didn’t realize that Mister, who came out when I did, had gotten his leash wrapped around my feet. So when I got up I took about three steps, and SPLAT!
Now it’s been about 50 years, but between judo-jujitsu and learning to jump out of perfectly good airplanes, I guess my body hasn’t forgotten how to hit and roll. So the only damage was a small abrasion on my left knee as I rolled off to the left.
The last time this happened was a couple of years ago when we were in Lake Tahoe. We had stopped at one of the scenic pullouts along the lake, and as we were walking back to the truck, I was fooling with my camera, and stepped off a high curb that I swear wasn’t there before.
Without thinking about it, I pulled the camera up against my body, and was apparently already rolling when I hit the pavement. Before I knew it, I had rolled over completely and come up on the other side. What’s really strange is that I don’t even remember hitting the ground. But I was stiff and sore the next day, believe me.
Today was a two-fer, or maybe a three-fer, with Ama’s frack food delivery. They actually deliver food twice a day to the frack site. Once around noon, and then again in the evening. This way both shifts get to eat. Normally when they drop off food for us, it’s from the noontime run. But today we got food dropped off both times.
Jan says we’ve got to eat faster because we’re running out of room in the refrigerator. And in trying to do that, we didn’t split tonight’s meal. We each had our own, and boy, was it good.
It was a grilled chicken breast, stuffed with cream cheese and HOT jalapenos, and wrapped in bacon, along with steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, and mashed potatoes. And not to forget, banana pudding for dessert.
Man, I was really stuffed when I waddled off the bed a little later. And I still am. I guess we shouldn’t try to eat like oil rig workers.
Lowell sent over this photo of Landon’s Halloween costume.
Note the thick rubber collar around his neck. It’s to hold his space helmet.
NEAT!__________________________________________________________________
Thought for the Day:
A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you’re responsible.
Carthage Texas Gate Guarding
October 18, 2015
When the Rig’s Away . . .
The Gate Guards Play.
Again, another day of resting up and goofing off. But on the other hand, it seems like we should be gate guarding, or something.
Pretty much the only vehicles coming through are the guys running the pumps at the frack pond that are now supplying water to the new frack site, and we don’t log them anyway.
I did get a few things done around the rig that I’ve been putting off, and tomorrow I’m probably going to bite the bullet and tear my laptop apart to replace the power jack, but we’ll see.
When I walked around to the backside of the rig the other day, I saw these on the ground.
These are some leftover Whataburger fries that just won’t die. They’ve been out here since the very first time I brought Whataburger back to the rig. We both got Combos and couldn’t eat all the fries. So we tossed them out for the birds. So far there are no birds, and that was five weeks ago.
What are these really made of?
I’m mean, the birds won’t eat’em. The ants won’t eat’em. What will?
We had the herd of cows around the rig again today.
They just walk by and stare at us, and then move on. At least they’re not doing like last year when they kept tripping over the satellite wires and yanking the dish off the stand.
For the last week or so, I’ve had a pesky piece of malware in my desktop computer called ‘cnfg.toolbarservices’ lurking around in my machine. It kept popping up as being blocked from accessing the Internet by Malwarebytes, but nothing I tried could find it and kill it.
But some Googling told me about SpyHunter, a Spyware Detection and Removal Tool from Enigma Software. Since it was free to download, I thought I’d give it a try.
And it not only found ‘cnfg.toolbarservices’, but a lot of other things that Malwarebytes had been also blocking. But neither Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, or Spybot – Search and Destroy would actually find them.
But the hook here is that the free download only detects bad stuff, but it won’t remove it until you buy an Activation Key. $39.95 gets you a six-month license, including personalized help from them if you come across something really difficult to eradicate. You just email them a copy of the Support Log that the program generates and they will send you back a customized solution to your program.
I normally don’t care for the ‘license’ type software, but since nothing else had even found the problem, much less eliminated it, I decided to spring for the Key. And 5 minutes later, I had the Key, the malware program (and the rest) had been killed off, and my computer was rebooting.
I’ll wait a few days to see if the fix holds before I give my final stamp of approval. I’ll let you know. But it can’t hurt to download the program and see what it finds.
For our second night of freedom, we headed out for dinner once again about 4:45. Although last night we just pulled the gate closed since we hadn’t let the water guys from the frack up the road know we would be locking up. But the Company Man had given us a key and told us to lock the gate when we left, so tonight we did.
I’ve seen a number of these multi-lock gates, but this is the first one like this.
Usually they use kind of a barrel mechanism, but they all do the same thing; let several people open a gate with their own key.
Our dinner selection for tonight was The Jalapeno Tree, a Mexican place we last ate at the first week of September when we had a couple of nights off between the frack prep work finishing up, and the frack crew and equipment actually moving in.
Tonight we started things off with a White Sangria, made with Muscato wine and three or four fruit juices.
I think the last time we had an alcoholic drink was this past April in Las Vegas at the Lindo Michoacan Mexican restaurant down in Henderson. Twice in one year. I think we’re on a binge.
Jan had the Chili Rellenos, the same as last time.
A lot of places only have them with cheese, but here they also have them with beef, which is Jan’s favorite.
Last time I had a Combo Platter, but this time I went with the El Diablo Jack Combo Fajitas.
It’s Beef and Chicken, with crispy bacon pieces, sautéed mushrooms, and covered in Monterey Jack Cheese. Beef, Chicken, and Pork on the same plate. You can’t go wrong.
And I didn’t.
They were really good. And we both had plenty to bring home.
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Thought for the Day:
Never take to sawin’ on the branch that’s supportin’ you, unless you’re being’ hung from it.
Heading South to Gate Guard
October 18, 2016
Gateward Bound . . .
This morning started out slow, but got busy fast.
After nothing from anybody SiteWatch-wise, I put in another call to Todd about 12:30, and ten minutes later he called back. We talked for about 20 minutes going over what the job entailed and what we could expect.
We will need FRC’s, hardhats, glasses, and steel-toed shoes. So we’ll need hardhats and Jan needs steel-toed shoes. I’ll probably just order her a pair of these Skechers from Amazon.
Hard to believe they’re steel-toed.
We’ll be working opposite 12 hour shifts at a guard shack in the Kenedy / Karnes City area, probably following a Marathon Completion crew.
The only think out of the ordinary, at least for us, is that we have to get a DBA (Doing Business As) license (cost $11 at the courthouse) and then open a business account at a bank. We will be paid as contractors on a 1099, but for some reason they will only pay into a business account. Strange.
Todd also said our expired security licenses shouldn’t be a problem, and that we should just be able to renew them online. Then we’ll have to transfer them from GGS Services to SiteWatch.
So the gist of all this is that we’ll head out tomorrow morning about 11 for the 3+ hour trip down to Kenedy . Todd, and a couple of others on Facebook, recommended the Lone Star RV Park #2 so that’s where we’re heading.
I talked to Nancy, the owner, this afternoon and they have a short-term/long-term site available for us. Don’t know the price for sure, but I’ve heard $450-500 and that includes electric. They also have a completely free laundry, which is very unusual.
After we get the DBA/Bank Account stuff done, the next thing on the list is to attend the Marathon Orientation Course Friday afternoon at 1pm. So maybe we can be on a gate by Saturday, who knows.
About 1pm, to celebrate Jan and I drove in to have the lunch buffet at Schobel’s Restaurant. Coming home we stopped off at the park office to let them know that we’d be leaving tomorrow morning and to put our remaining money on account.
Later in the afternoon, I went online to see about our license renewals, but I quickly found a problem. You could renew an expired license, but not if it’s been expired for more than a year. Which let’s us out.
So we have to start over, but I’m not sure if that includes fingerprint cards or not. So I’ll find out tomorrow.
Thought for the Day:
I have done so much with so little for so long, that I can do almost anything with practically nothing.
Now With More Cinnamon
October 18, 2019
More of It’s Like Y2K All Over Again . . .
Back in February I posted this article about the upcoming GPS Week Number Rollover Problem starting April 6, 2019. And then I kind of forget about it with the prepping for our European trip.
But now there’s been a date change.
Here’s what I wrote back in February:
It’s Like Y2K All Over Again , ,
Come April 6th, 2019, be careful where you drive. Or at least be careful where your GPS tells you to drive. Turns out that in a retro-Y2K twist, the date stamp in the GPS will reset, and it suddenly won’t know where it, and you, are. This is because they only programmed a 10bit register to store the week, So every 1024 weeks, or about 20 years, the date rolls back to zero.
This of course, is reminiscent of the whole Y2K fiasco where to save memory space (back in the days when it was really expensive) they stored the year as two digits, i.e., 1980 was ‘80’, 1999 was’99, and of course, 2000 was ‘00’.
WHOOPS!
Newer GPS implementations use a 13bit storage area, which should last until the sun goes red giant and engulfs the planet. Hopefully that’ll be long enough.
You can read more about it here:
Now, units produced since 2010 or so, should be using the new ICD-200/IS-GPS-200 specifications, and should be OK. I say ‘should’, because apparently some manufacturers have been somewhat lax in updating their software.
Saves a few bucks, don’t you know. So be careful out there.
But then today I got this email from Verizon.
Which says that the whole thing has been delayed until November 3rd. And now the problems extend to devices as recent as 2016.
Yikes!
As far as phones, luckily for Jan and I, only her Galaxy S5 is affected, and it’s just her phone here in the rig.
However, it looks like our Galaxy Tab 4 10.1 will also have a problem, disappointing since we often used it to display WAZE data on long trips.
You can click here to find out if your device(s) are on the GPS Naughty List.
Thought For The Day:
Now With More Cinnamon!
Coiled Up, Cleaned, and Ready . . .
First off, I want to thank everyone for the many kind comments and commiserations about Landon’s yearbook cover artwork and his contest loss. They were much appreciated.
Underneath the rig this afternoon, I ran the tap through the offending bolt hole and then easily installed a new Heilcoil and had no problem getting it below the flange surface. Then after I popped the tang out, I was able to screw in a test bolt with no problem.
Next up was to use the nylon end brush in my drill to clean off any small stuck pieces of the old gasket. Then I used a piece of 400 grit emery paper to polish it up, leaving me with this.
Then on the patio at my worktable, I did the same thing to the adapter head, leaving me with this.
Hopefully tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be ready to apply a thin coating of Permatex Ultra Black Sealer to the gasket and the adapter and install onto the flange over my head. Then I’ll install the oil filter and top off the oil level.
If all that goes well, it will be time to crank it up and see if anything leaks during a high-idle (1050 rpm) test, probably for about an hour. That’s assuming nothing untoward happens.
In fact, just in case, I’m going to have Jan crank it up while I’m underneath the engine on the phone with Jan. Who will have her hand on the key ready to turn it off if I yell, or maybe scream.
If all goes well, then we’re plan our test drive for next weekend, probably on Sunday, heading down Hwy 6, back north of I-45 with a first stop at the Katy Buc-ee’s to check things out. If all is still OK, we’ll head on out to do a loop around at Columbus and then back to Buc-ee’s once again.
We’re going to try to schedule a stop-over there for a dinner get-together with Brandi, et. al., before heading back down I-45. We’ll do a last stop at the La Marque Buc-ee’s to top off our diesel tank and back to our home park.
This will give us a 260 mile test drive which should be a good enough test. At least we’ve never been to get this far in the past without leakage.
Then it will be time to schedule our much-delayed Alabama trip, maybe around the middle of November.
Thought For The Day:
I wish to modify my RNA or DNA but thanks for asking.
Home In Texas
October 17, 2010
Mexican and More Mexican . . .
First off, here’s Mister really enjoying his fuzzy blankie.
Later, about 11:30 am, we met our son, Chris, his wife, Linda, & our granddaughter, Piper at Chuy’s for lunch. Chuy’s is one of our favorite Mexican places and it’s nice to have one so close by now.
About 1 pm I drove over to a client’s for some computer work. While I was there, our daughter, Brandi called and said Landon’s Baptism is set for Nov. 7th at their church in Katy. We’re really looking forward to it.
I headed back to the rig about 6:15, getting back just in time for this great sunset.
Among other great sunsets we’ve seen, is this one this past September in Elkhart, IN.
and this one in Gila Bend, AZ, less than two weeks after we first hit the road in February 2008.
I got home a little before 7, just in time to get Jan and head back out to meet out long-time friends, Bob and Maria at La Brisa about 7:15.
As usual, we had a great time talking and didn’t leave the restaurant until about 9. I think they were getting ready to close up.
Tomorrow I’ve got a bunch of errands to run and also pick up some computer stuff at Fry’s Electronics, my favorite computer store.
More tomorrow…
Thought for the Day:
”I sat through most of my college classes ruminating on whether it was the course material that made the professors so mind-numbingly dull, or whether they were dull to start with, and just gravitated to such course material”
Still Working In Elkhart
October 17, 2011
Mexican and Muffins . . .
After a relaxing morning of coffee and muffins, Jan and I just enjoyed the brief burst of sunny weather we woke up to today, because tomorrow we’re back to rain and more wind. Wheeee!
After lunch I headed back over to the RV/MH Hall of Fame to work on their computer system some more. And by the time I left about 4:30 I was finally starting to get a handle on the things that still need to be done..
After getting home we all headed over to El Maguey for a great Mexican meal and a lot of good conversation, getting back to the rig in time for our favorite Monday night TV programs.
And now for another installment of . . .
Things Every RV’er should have:
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about testing your power connections using an AC Receptacle Tester, todays post will tell you how to not only test your power, but protect your rig at the same time.
To do that you need one of these. a Progressive EMS (Electrical Management System).
They have permanently mounted units like this one,
and portable, hang-on-the-pedestal models like this one.
Available in both 30 and 50 amp models, these units monitor your incoming shore power three different ways.
First, after you plug into the pedestal and flip the breaker on, the unit cycles through a number of tests on the incoming power, including voltage, frequency, and all possible mis-connections, i.e. open ground, open neutral, etc., before it applies power to the coach.
Second, it monitors the power all the time to be sure that the voltage levels stay over 108 volts, and under 132 volts. Voltage levels outside this range can damage your rig and your appliances.
Third, it acts as a surge suppressor to protect your rig from voltage surges and nearby lightning strikes, just the surge suppressor power strips you plug your computers and other electronics into.
I bought my Progressive EMS from Daryl Lawrence of Lawrence RV Accessories, a month after we started our full-timing life. And in the last four years I’ve lost track of the times that the unit alerted me to problems with the power at the pedestal.
Once, on Cape Cod in 2009 the EMS gave its life in a shower of sparks to protect our rig from over 400 volts. And even though it was a weekend, Progressive overnighted me a new board to get my EMS going again. Now that’s service!
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Thought for the Day:
Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy is that in any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control, so that those dedicated to the goals the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.
Gate Guarding Redux
October 17, 2013
Groundhog Gate . . .
or The Ceremonial Changing of the Hoodie
Although our days have been very nice, in the high 70’s and low 80’s, our nights are getting a bit nippy, sometimes with a vengeance. Last week we were still having nights in the mid/high 70’s until the recent cold front came through.
A few nights ago the Weather Channel said the overnight low was supposed to be 62 degrees, but at 4am, it was still 77. So I’m thinking, Boy, did they screw up this forecast. But a few minutes after 4 a little north wind started up. Then the temp started falling like the bottom dropped out of the thermometer.
And by 4:30 it was 63 degrees! 14 degrees in 30 minutes. Maybe I shouldn’t have insulted their forecasting skills after all. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a drop like that.
Anyway, when Jan comes out to relieve me a little before 7am, it’s still pretty chilly, about 60 degrees, and for some reason, we only have one hooded jacket, so every morning before I go in to go to bed, we exchange the hoodie jacket outside.
In retrospect, this story was a long way to go to get nowhere.
As far as Groundhog Gate, as usual Jan has been counting the days until we head back to Houston, probably since before we even got here. So a couple of weeks ago she gleefully told me we only six weeks until we leave the gate. But after thinking for a moment I told here I didn’t think that was right, that it was more like 7 or 8 weeks. She said, No, she was sure that it was only six weeks, but she would go inside and check. Then a few minutes later, I hear some VERY unladylike language emanating from the rig. She had discovered I was right.
Then the other day she was watching a TV ad that mentioned it was only three weeks ’til Halloween, and I hear another “NNOOOOOOOOOO!”. Turned out she forgot she was watching a DVR’d show. Oops.
I told her later that this was a Groundhog Gate, where the day never changes. Trucks come in, trucks come out. It’s hot, it’s cold, it’s rainy, it’s windy. It’s just the same day, over and over and over again.
Or at least it seems like it some times.
Yesterday I finally completed a mammoth 22 hour, 1.7 GB download. And it only took me two tries. The first time it got to about 20% before it froze, but made it all the way though the second time. What I was doing was downloading the latest 2014 map update for the Garmin 1490 GPS that we use in our truck. And at 1.7 GB it’s probably the largest file I’ve ever downloaded.
They have a program called Garmin Express that, after you plug in your GPS to the computer, tells you what updates you need and sets you up to download them. The only real problem is that the Garmin Express software does not let you pause or resume the download, or pick up where you left off if you get knocked off line. So you just have to start it up and hope for the best. But it’s done for this year at least.
Thought for the Day:
There’s a saying that you can make something foolproof, but you can’t make it damn-foolproof.
More Redux
October 17, 2014
A Big Drop . . .
Today was grocery day so I left the rig (RV and oil) a little after 10 for B/CS about 25 miles away. But before I even got to the paved road, I had to stop and take some pictures.
I think I’d mentioned before about there being llamas along our road, but this was the first time they’d been near the fence. When I stopped the truck and got out to take a picture, a couple of them walked over to the fence, but I didn’t get any closer since I didn’t know the owner. And because they spit.
They seem to make themselves right at home among the cows. All told, there seem to be 20-30 out in the field.
Wal-Mart only took about 45 minutes since my list was pretty short, mostly because of all the Gate Food we’ve been getting from Ama’s, which as I hoped, has been delivering to the frack site that’s going to be working for another week or so.
One thing new on my list was doggie treats. If there’s a animal nearby, Jan’s going to try and feed it. Birds, deer, squirrels, and now apparently, dogs. Old Dog and New Dog will be coming around a lot more once they realize there’s treats involved.
And apparently Old Dog now thinks we belong to him. I mentioned a few days ago how Old Dog tried to run New Dog off one morning, even though New Dog is much bigger. Well, Jan said the other morning both of them showed up together, and immediately Old Dog laid down about 3 feet in front of Jan to keep New Dog away.
I think we have a new owner.
Getting back to my Wal-Mart trip, before I left there, I stopped in the McDonald’s for Ice Caramel Mochas and some pies before heading over to the Sonic out in the parking lot for Corn Dogs (Me), a Chili Cheese Coney (Jan) and Chedr Peppers (both) to bring back for lunch.
Due to one of our frack rigs moving out, the traffic was a lot lighter today, with 202 vehicles coming in, to yesterday’s 290, and 324 the day before that.
We do have a workover rig coming in there tomorrow morning, so that usually means they had a problem with the frack that they need to fix. But that shouldn’t increase our traffic too much.
Good.
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Thought for the Day:
Amazon Delivery Drones:
Hovering Piñata’s,
or Skeet Shooting for Presents
Time Off
October 17, 2015
A Brief Reprieve . . .
When I got up about 11 this morning, Jan was sitting in the rig watching TV.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Turns out that the company man had come by about 10, after all the equipment had rolled out, and said that we had a few days off until the workover rig comes in sometime next week. In addition, he gave us a key to lock the gate if we leave for a while.
Whoopee!
So we had a nice, quiet morning, just talking and relaxing for the first time in a good while.
Very nice!
Later, Jan and I headed out about 4:45 to have dinner once again at what’s turned out to be our favorite local place, Longhorn Grill. But first we drove down to check out the pad after everyone had pretty much pulled out this morning after the completion of Completion. But as it turned out, everything wasn’t cleared out, I guess waiting for the arrival of the workover rig.
Heading back past the rig, we crossed paths with the landowner, Mr. A. He was just doing his evening rounds, checking out things since the pullout. Told him we were heading out for dinner. We also stopped in for a few minutes with the other gate guards to see if we could bring them anything back from town.
And as our two previous visits, Longhorn was just as good as before. Jan had her 10oz. Sirloin, while I had my usual 14oz. Ribeye.
And of course, we both had a salad with their great homemade dressings.
Jan and I both agree that their salads are so good, they rank right up there with the ones from Outback Steakhouse, which are our other top favorite.
To wrap things up on a high note, we split a piece of their also-homemade Strawberry Cheesecake. And this time I managed to get a picture of it.
Compare the size of this normal single serving with those thin slivers you get at other places. YUM !
And even better, with the size of the steaks, we had a lot to take home with us, along with some of their homemade yeast rolls. This means steak sandwiches in a few days.
Coming home, we stopped off at the local HEB to pick up a few things, and maybe find a couple of items that the Wal-Mart here doesn’t carry. (Hint. HEB doesn’t either.)
Another good thing about not working for the next few days is that tonight and tomorrow night it’s supposed to be in the mid 40’s here, so it’s nice to be inside
On another note, since yesterday there’s been 131 attempts to break in to this blog. There will be nothing for an hour so, and then 15 minutes of almost constant attempts. Persistent little devils.
But they really don’t stand a chance hacking my password. Mine is 8 characters of upper case, lower case, and numbers. This gives a combination of 62 possibilities per character, i.e 26 upper case, 26 lower case, and 10 numbers.
Multiplying this out at 62 x 62x 62x 62x 62x 62x 62x 62 means they have a 1 in 218,340,105,584,896 chance to guess my password. That’s 218 Trillion with a ‘T’.
That means it would take 6,931,432 years to try every combination.
Of course they could hit the right one tomorrow, but it’s not likely..
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Thought for the Day:
“It’s only fair; we were stuck with them in the last war.” – Winston Churchill, upon hearing that Italy had declared war on England as Germany’s ally
No Gate Guarding Call Yet
October 17, 2016
Still Nothing Yet . . .
I waited until about 2pm without hearing from anyone before I put in a call myself. But only got voicemail.
So if I don’t hear from anyone by noon tomorrow, I start back calling some of the other numbers that I talk to earlier.
Catching Up on Small Stuff
I spent most of today finishing up my taxes on TurboTax and finally submitting them on E-File at 9:42 today.
According to the USPS Priority Mail tracking, the county auditor of Lake County, South Dakota received Jan and my Absentee Ballot Request Forms today, so hopefully we’ll get our actual ballots back later this week, or the first part of next.
When I mentioned that the S.M.A.R.T. software on my ASUS laptop was telling me to replace the HD soon because it was failing, several readers ask me where they could get this software, since they didn’t find it listed on Amazon.
And the reason for that is that the S.M.A.R.T. software is actually built into the HD firmware and is constantly monitoring the hardware. Now it’s not perfect because catastrophic failures are still possible. An example of this was a while back when the HD in my desktop machine suddenly died. The drive motor just froze up with no symptoms or warning.
It’s kind of like a tire pressure monitoring system on your RV. It will monitor and warn you about a slow leak, but a sudden blowout probably won’t show up before it goes “BOOM’.
Also be aware that since the S.M.A.R.T. operates at the DOS level so you’ll only get a warning when booting up and shutting down.
Several readers have ask for an update on the Zero G RV and Marine Hose that I started using a while back. It’s a flexible drinking-water safe hose that won’t kink. But though it’s flexible, it’s not expandable like the ones you see on TV. Instead it feels like canvas, like a fire hose.
And being flexible, it’s easy to just wad it up and stow it away. And no wrestling with a stiff hose when you’re trying to pack up when it’s 40 degrees outside.
The heavy duty cast aluminum couplings are nice too, and so far the hose shows absolutely no wear since we bought it in June.
Well recommended.
So tomorrow we’ll just keep circling in our holding pattern, waiting to hear from someone.
Thought for the Day:
“Too many people spend money they earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people that they don’t like.” – Will Rogers
Sault Ste. Marie and Bushplanes
October 17, 2018
Bushplanes and A Wild Moose Chase . . .
Today was another fun, but long day, and a late night too. So I’m reposting some more of our visit to the Sault Ste. Marie area in July 2013.
We left for the Canadian side of the Soo Locks about 1pm. And after showing our passports at the border, we first headed down to the Bushplane Museum.
First up was this Canadair CL-215 firefighting amphibious water bomber, one of the premiere planes of the type.
It fills its tanks by landing at high speed on a lake or river, opening the tank fill doors,
and then waiting until water starts gushing out of this overflow outlet. In 8 hours they can may as many as a hundred bombing runs.
Whenever I see one of these old Bell 47’s all I can think of is “Whirlybirds”, an old TV show.
Next up is this replica Fokker Tri-Motor, built for the movie, Amelia, about Amelia Earhart. Although I never flew in one of these, I did fly in a Ford Tri-Motor a number of times when we were living in South America in the early 60’s.
Here’s a neat little homebuilt amphibian, an Esperanza 4.
And this is pretty much the “end all and be all” of bushplanes, the de Havilland Beaver. First designed in the 1940’s, over 1600 were built until production ended in 1967, with more than 1200 still flying. A real workhorse.
And RC-3 Seabee
And for some reason, they also had several old cars there. This the fabled Stanley Steamer, a car that I had never actually seen in person before.
Doesn’t look like you’d have to change the sparkplugs on this one.
The next two are a couple of Fords. The only problem with the car displays is that there was absolutely no info on them anywhere, I even ask some of the guides and no one knew the make or year of any of them. Bummer.
After seeing a couple of good films on bushplanes and aerial firefighting, we left the museum and headed north up PH17, looking for moose.
Yep, we were on another Wild Moose Chase.
Jan had been told there were a lot of moose about 20 miles north of town in the Mile Hill area. So off we went. But although we found the area with a lot of “Watch For Moose” signs, no moose.
Sometimes I feel like Coronado searching for the Seven Cities of Gold. They’re always right over the next hill.
On our way north we had passed a Boston Pizza, one of our favorites, and by the time we came back past, it was 4:30 and we couldn’t resist stopping for dinner. And as usual, we ordered the large Meater, to give us plenty of leftovers.
On a related note, what is it with the northern Midwest and cold drinks. First, pretty much every place we eaten since Bend, OR never has any sweetener on the table. And after they bring you your drink, they don’t even offer. You have to ask for it.
What’s up with that?
And I’m sorry, but ordering a glass of ice water or iced tea does not mean three lonely ice cubes floating on top of a glass of tepid liquid. It’s usually pretty cold up here. Why do they have to ration ice cubes?
Leaving Boston Pizza and heading home, we stopped off at a Tim Horton’s to pick up some muffins for our next travel days, and also got Iced Hazelnut Cappuccinos to go.
Except for having to wait in line behind a bunch of semi’s, we didn’t have any trouble getting back across the border. I guess Jan’s past hasn’t caught up with her yet.
As I mentioned yesterday, tomorrow we’re going to drive down to St. Ignace and take the ferry over to Mackinac Island, and then the horse-drawn carriage tour around the island.
After we were home for a while, Brandi sent over a bunch of Landon school pics for this year. A real cutie. Can’t wait to see him in about 3 weeks.
Love the hat and bowtie.
Later, just as the sun was going down, I got this shot of a big freighter going by.
Don’t know what ship this is, but there are thirteen 1000 footers here on the Lakes, the largest of which at 1,013 feet, is the Paul R. Tregurtha. The American Century we saw going through the Soo Locks the other day is also one of those 1,000 footers.
Thought for the Day:
“Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.” – Albert Einstein
Another Day, Another Cruise
October 17, 2019
Choices, Choices, Choices . . .
Jan and I spent most of the day, on and off, talking about our proposed Alaskan Cruise-Tour next September. Or maybe I should call it a Tour-Cruise, since it starts in Fairbanks and ends up on Vancouver, B.C.
We have been trying to figure out many extra days we want to spend in Fairbanks before the cruise actually starts. We kept going back and forth on whether we wanted 4, 5, or 6 extra days. So I made an executive decision that we’ll just do 7 days extra,.
We had originally planned on staying at the Pike’s Landing Lodge, but since the cruise actually starts with a 1 one night stay at Holland America’s hotel, The Westmark, we decided to just stay there the entire so we wouldn’t have to move twice.
We had already planned to get an Inside room, based on our last Holland America Alaskan cruise back in 1998. We had a outside Partial Seaview room which meant we could look out and see the feet of the people walking on the Promenade Deck and the sky behind them. Plus we were almost never in the room during the day anyway.
But on this cruise we’ve got our choice of two different Inside rooms, one Regular and one Large. The only difference is the size, with the Regular one at 151 sq ft and the Large at 233 sq ft.
And since the price increase is only $65/person, we’re going with the bigger one.
The next decision was about our meals. On our 1998 cruise, we only had two choices, Early Seating at 5:45pm and the Late Seating at 8pm, and a pre-assigned table.
But we really liked the Open Time/Open Seating for meals on our Viking Cruise. Of course, within a couple of days we had met up with a great bunch of people and ended up sitting with the same people at the same table anyway. But it was our choice of friends and our choice of table.
But now we have a 3rd choice, Open Time/Open Seating just like Viking. It’s the same menu, just in a different dining room.
So that’s what we chose.
Thought For The Day:
Coffee Does So Much For Us And Asks For Nothing in Return.
