Monthly Archives: November 2020
Once More Into The Breech . . .
Tomorrow (and maybe Sunday) I’m making one last attempt to fix our rig’s oil leak.
Or at least to fix it myself.
I’m going to pull the oil filter once again, remove the 4 bolts from the adapter head, and then try to remove the head itself. I’m not sure how easy this is going to be since I used the Permatex Ultra Black sealer to put it all together.
But once I get it off, and I will, I’m going to remove the one flakey Heli-coil, replace it with a new one, and then put it all back together, this time with two gaskets and no sealer. And then we’ll see.
If if makes it through the high-idle test, then we’ll schedule a test drive. Otherwise I’ll be making an appointment at the repair place up in Channelview.
So will my truck smell like pie?
Well, ii might.
Years ago I was following a pickup along a country road and I kept smelling French fries, but I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. I mean this was farm land.
But then I noticed that the closer I got to the truck in front of me, the stronger the smell got. (And the hungrier I got, too)
And then it dawned on me that the truck was a diesel and was running on bio-diesel made from used French fry oil. And I’ve noticed a couple of more times over the years.
So maybe pumpkin pie exhaust is not so far-fetched.
November 6, 2009
Skeletons and Dragons and Owls…Oh My!
Well, we’re presently about 40 miles southeast of St. Louis, MO. We’ll be here for a couple of days to check out the Gateway Arch and other sites in the area. We’re this far away from St. Louis because I had trouble finding an RV park that was still open. Most of them closed November 1st.
Sunday or Monday, we’ll head about 190 miles further southwest to Branson, MO for several days to take in some of the shows and attractions.
We spent the last 5 days visiting my sister-in-law Debbie and her husband Jim in Vandalia, IL. Just like last year, we were able to leave the coach parked at Burl and Shirley’s farm, right next to the barn.
We had a great time catching up with our nieces, Tana and Christina, our nephew Jason, and his wife Laura, and our grand-nieces, Gwen, Avery Jane, and the newest addition, Ella.
Here’s Gwen and Avery Jane helping Aunt Debbie water the garden.
And check out these Halloween costumes. Aunt Debbie made Gwen a great looking owl costume.
And here’s Miss Avery Jane and Ella as a scary Dragon and a skeleton.
Vandalia is a very neat little town with some strange features. I mean, how many towns do you know that have their own dragon.
And it breathes fire…if you put in a quarter.
Unfortunately we didn’t have any quarters.
We finally headed out about 11:30 am and made the 140 mile trip to the Stanton, MO KOA in about 3 hours. It was a easy trip because it was pretty much Interstate all the way.
More tomorrow…
November 6, 2011
Last Day in Indiana . . .
Well, except for the small decorative moose clock in the bathroom, all the clocks in the rig now automagically set themselves to the atomic clock in Colorado, so last night’s change from Daylight Savings Time went very smoothly. Besides the moose clock, all that was left was the clock in the toad.
Of course it’s really all for naught since tomorrow we move back into Central Time Zone, and except for our cell phones, I haven’t found any house clocks with GPS so they know when they’ve moved into a new time zone.
I hope someone’s working on that.
I spent some time today getting us ready to travel tomorrow. Since we’ll be boondocking at least one night I added some water to the fresh tank, and topped off the air in my driver’s inside rear dual. It has a slight leak, and after a couple of weeks always needs some air.
It’s been about a month since I last checked the batteries so I topped them off and then stored some things in the bays.
Tomorrow morning all I should have to do is bring in the satellite dish and unhook the utilities and we’re good to go.
A little before 4pm Jan and I headed into the Cincinnati area to have dinner again at Logan’s Roadhouse, the closest decent steak place. Texas Roadhouse is better, but the nearest one here is a lot further away.
We got back to the park a little before 6, and I parked behind the rig this time and went ahead and hooked up the toad and brake system so we’ll be ready to go tomorrow morning.
We’ve really enjoyed our stay here at Indian Lakes, and hopefully we’ll get to come back next year. It’s a really nice park.
Thought for the Day:
Remember, if you’re not playing the game, the game is playing you.
November 6, 2012
On to Gulf Shores . . .
Well, if the Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise, we’ll be on our way again down to Gulf Shores.
When we left Northgate RV Travel Park about 8:30 Monday morning, we were first headed about a mile and a half down the road to fill up with diesel at a Texaco station. Unfortunately we only made it about a mile before our coach diesel just up and quit. Just like I’d turned the key off.
Luckily I was able to pull off the road and into a long turn lane leading into an apartment complex.
Even though my Silverleaf said I still had about 40 gallons left, due to my problems a couple of months ago with a clogged fuel tank vent tube, and the resulting vacuum crushing in part of my fuel tank, I thought I might actually be out of diesel.
So, using my 5 gallon can, I put in 15 gallons of diesel (the amount Cummins says to use if you run out) and ran the priming sequence that Cummins recommends.
With no luck.
So after talking with Spartan, I checked the 4 fuses for the Engine ECU and the Fuel Pump.
Again with no luck.
So finally it was time to call Coach-Net Emergency Road Service to get us towed in to a service center. It almost two hours for them to locate a wrecker heavy enough to tow us, and then almost an hour to get us ready to tow.
But finally we were on the road following the tow truck in our toad, heading over to Bankston Motorhomes in Huntsville. We finally got parked and checked in there about 2:30, but it was about 3pm before a tech started looking at our rig.
But since the shop closed at 4:30 he only had time to run through some basic checks and tests before time ran out. But after trying to prime and crank several times, we still had no luck, and that was it for the day.
We had planned to stay in the rig since we had power available from the shop, but around 9:30 our power suddenly went off. So after thinking it over we headed over to a nearby Holiday Inn Express. We had been invited to stay with my Aunt and Uncle in Athens, if we needed, but as late as it was, and since we wanted to be back at the shop before 8:30am, we decided to stay local.
However it was about 9:30 before the tech got back on the job. The delay was caused by the fact that he wanted to use the computerized scanner and it was in use on another coach.
And when he finally got to use it, it didn’t really help. There were no codes and everything seemed to be working fine.
It still just seemed like fuel wasn’t getting to the engine. So the tech decided to try to just “brute-force” it.
Fill both filters with diesel and just crank it until it starts. Of course you can only crank it for about a minute at a time to keep the starter from overheating. And since we had been cranking off and on for a good while, our batteries, even using the AUX START switch, were getting too weak to do much more cranking.
So the tech went and got the Start Cart, a heavy duty wagon with 8 12volt batteries in it. The tech was also going to use a little ether. This is normally not a good idea because the intake air pre-heater can ignite the ether and cause things to go BOOM! But we pulled the fuse for the pre-heater to eliminate that problem.
This first time we tried this, the engine cranked for about 15 seconds and then caught. But it only ran for about 5 seconds and then died. So after letting it cool off for about 30 seconds, we tried it again.
This time it ran for about a minute and then died. And the third time was the charm. The engine caught the first thing and just ran. And ran. And ran.
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, I immediately ran to the office to pay so we could get on the road. But it still took about 20 minutes before we were pulling out.
Since it was really too late to head toward Gulf Shores, we just headed back to the RV park in Athens. On the way we stopped off at Kroger’s and took on about 90 gallons of diesel at $3.75 a gallon.
The rig ran fine all the way back to Athens, and restarted with no problems after fueling up.
Tomorrow we’ll try again for Gulf Shores.
Stay tuned.
Thought for the Day:
“Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts.” – William S. Burroughs
November 6, 2014
Drying Out . . .
I headed over to Bryan/College Station about 9:30 this morning for our weekly grocery/supply run. Since it’s almost a 90 minute round-trip, this gives me time to get everything done and still get back before it’s time for me to relieve Jan on the gate at 1pm, and also time to eat the lunch I bring back.
My first stop was the AutoZone to pick up the flasher control module for our 2004 Dodge Dakota. At least I hope that this $70 module is the reason my turn signals and emergency flashers are completely dead. I’m getting tired of waving my arms out the window. Now all I have to do is check my Haynes repair manual and figure out where to stick it.
Finishing up my Wal-Mart duties, but before leaving the store, I stopped in at their McDonald’s for Iced Caramel Mochas and 2 apple and 2 sweet potato pies. Since we’re having lunch for our big meal, we’ll have a couple of pies for dinner tonight, and then the others for breakfast tomorrow.
Then it was across the parking to the Sonic to get Jan’s Chili-Cheese Coney (light onions) and my Corn Dogs, and an order of Ched’r Peppers for our lunch. Unfortunately when I got back to the gate, we found that Jan’s Chili-Cheese Coney (light onions) was a bun, a coney, and light onions. And ONLY that.
No chili, no cheese, and no mustard. But she said the Ched’r Peppers were good!
Our frack finally got restarted this morning so the sand trucks are pouring back in again. We did 227 vehicles through the gate for the day, down a good bit since they weren’t fracking during the night, so no sand trucks during that time.
Coming back to the gate I once again saw that big orange ball of fusing hydrogen gas up in the sky, for the first time in days it seems like. Although it’s drying out, our road is still awash due to the runoff from the surrounding land, so it’s going to take a few days of dry weather before everything’s back to normal.
Or at least as normal as it gets around here.
Since we’re looking at nighttime temps in the 30’s for the next ten days or so, I picked up a box of these HotHands Hand Warmers at Wal-Mart today to give them a try.
You just open the package to expose them to the air, squeeze them a bit, and they heat up and stay hot for about 10 hours. They’re pretty ingenious in that they only contain iron power, salt water, charcoal, and kitty litter.
And they get hot by rusting. But they rust really, really fast which gives off heat. Pretty neat, and no dangerous chemicals.
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Thought for the Day:
Everything you’ve learned in school as “obvious” becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There’s not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines. – R. Buckminster Fuller
November 6, 2015
Either She’s Better Trained Now . . .
Or I am.
Probably a little of both
Starting tomorrow morning we’ll be keeping our heads down here on the gate.
It’s the first day of deer hunting season in this area.
And there will be deer hunters here. The landowner has deer stands and blinds set up all over, as well as a lot of game cameras, and he charges people to hunt on his land here.
They’re not supposed to shoot in our direction, and we are wearing orange safety vests, but a few of these idiots manage to shoot each other every year, and they’re wearing orange safety vests too.
About 11am I headed into Carthage for my weekly Wal-Mart shopping. Oh, and Whataburger too.
The first thing I noticed there was that gas was $1.91 at the station there. When I here this past Tuesday, I filled up for $1.83, a big jump for three days. But I guess it bodes well for the oil industry.
One thing I picked up at Wal-Mart was a bottle of Diesel Kleen. I try to dump in a bottle every 3rd or 4th tank of diesel
Here’s what I had to say about it when we were gate guarding in July, 2012.
A few days ago I was talking with one of the drivers for Macro Trucking, one of the big haulers in this area for the rigs. They have over 600 semi’s, and we get 3 or 4 a day in here.
The driver told me about Power Service Diesel Kleen with Cetane Boost.
He said the company had started using it in all their trucks about 9 months ago, after doing a six month trial run on about 50 of them. He said they were getting a solid 5-6% increase in mileage, along with cleaner injectors.
So I’ve used it every 3rd fill-up or so ever since. Can I tell you that my mileage has increased, or my injectors are cleaner?
No, it’s pretty much impossible to really see an MPG change with the varied routes and conditions we drive under. And I haven’t had my injectors looked at since I started using Diesel Kleen, or before, for that matter.
But we just recently hit 135,000 miles on our coach, about 70,000 miles of it from our travels, and except for a bad fuel line sensor a couple of years ago, we’ve had no engine problems in our 8 years of travel.
One reader asked if Diesel Kleen was approved by Cummins Diesel. I don’t know, but I kind of doubt it. The manufacturers can’t test every additive, and every combination of additives that you might use. But I’m pretty sure all these trucking companies wouldn’t be using Diesel Kleen if they didn’t think it worked, or that it would harm their engines.
When I put the Diesel Kleen in, I’ll also put in a slug of Biocide like this.
When the weather gets cold and rainy, moisture will start to condense in your diesel tank. And the moisture feeds algae, which starts to grow in the fuel. And when you start the engine, the algae clogs the fuel filter, and your engine stops.
Been there. Done that.
But a capful of Biocide will take care of the problem.
Was it always just this simple?
Recently I’ve mentioned (complained?, ranted?) about getting my order right at Whataburger. I would tell her that I wanted a #6 with cheese, and only these extras, which in Jan’s case, is ketchup, mustard, tomatoes, and grilled onions, and nothing else.
Then she would ask, “Do you want pickles?”, and we’d go around again.
And today it was the same girl, but I tried a different tack. I said, “I want a #6 with cheese, plain. Then I want following, ketchup, mustard, tomatoes, and grilled onions. After each item, I waited for her to hit the key on the register.
The first time, we just stared at each for a few seconds until I said “ketchup” again, and nodded at the register. And she hit the ketchup key and it came up on the little screen in front of me.
Eureka!
Then it was item, key, item, key, item, key, and we were done.
Then my burger went just as smoothly. So this time it took about 30 seconds total, instead of the usual 2 or 3 minutes of back and forth.
Of course with my luck there’ll be a new girl next time, and we’ll start this all over.
Who are you going to believe, me or the lying website
Seeing as how the equine carcass was still twitching a little, I decided to take another swing or two at it.
A couple of days ago I related how I had tried to buy a Thousand Trails Camping Pass to augment our park selection during our trip up to Vermont for the 56th Escapade next July. This was after trying to buy a Ready, Camp, Go card, or a Zone Pass for same reason. And this was based on this page of the website.
I was told that it did not mean what I thought it meant, and that I could not add a Camping Pass to my membership. Then yesterday I was back on the TT website and when I went to the My Membership page, I saw this.
Note the “Want to add more campgrounds to your membership?” part.
Why yes, thank you. I do.
So I “Clicked Here”, and guess where it took me.
No, go ahead, guess. I’ll wait.
Right the first time. And the second, and the third.
It took me right back here.
Ok, surely I had them dead to rights this time.
Well . . . NO.
This time I called Corporate Member Services instead of the phone number on the page. Surely they could straighten this out.
Well . . . NO
First off, the lady denied that the website said that. And after we went round and round about it, I gave her my password so she could log in as me. She was still insisting that I was wrong until she got to my My Membership page. Then she got quiet.
After about 30 seconds of silence, she said, “That’s not what it means.”
Me: “Well then, what does it mean?”
More silence.
Finally, “It means you can upgrade to an Elite Membership.”
Me: “Then what’s the Camping Pass part for?”
More silence.
Finally, “It’s to show you how much better an Elite Membership is than a Camping Pass.”
Me: “But I don’t have a Camping Pass, so why should I care? Since it’s on my My Membership page, why doesn’t it show my Alliance membership and compare with how much better an Elite Membership is?”
More silence.
This is getting to be fun.
It’s lonely on the gate, and I needed some entertainment.
Then she put me on hold and went away for about 5 minutes. When she came back she said, “We have no control over what’s on the website.”
Me: “Well, didn’t someone from Corporate have to tell someone at the website to put that up there.
Again, “We have no control over what’s on the website.”
Me: “Well, could I talk to someone who does have control over what’s on the website.”
Again, “We have no control over what’s on the website.”
Seeing as how we were circling back around for a fourth go at this, I thanked her for her time, and told her to have a nice day.
But the part of all this that really ticked me off was something she told me early on when I mentioned no longer being able to buy a Ready, Camp, Go card like I originally wanted.
I called in on October 4th to purchase the RCG card and that’s when I found out they were no longer available.
They stopped being available on October 1st.
I have no words.
Well, yes, I do. But you probably don’t want to hear them.
Thought for the Day:
Is Nothing Sacred Anymore?
I think my favorite part is that Aunt Bee hated everyone.
November 6, 2016
Living in Six Shooter Junction . . .
Well, I’m finished up at this gate and off for a couple of days. Todd says I’ll probably be back on another gate by Wednesday.
Actually, it’s going to be nice to be off for a few days, especially since I’ve been on Day shift. Besides having to get up at 5:30 AM, there’s real time to do any shopping. By the time I get home it’s almost 7pm, and by the time we eat supper and I do the blog, it’s pretty much time for bed.
And it would be even worse it I was on a 5am to 5pm shift, which means I would have to be up at 4am. NNNOOOOOOO!
Last week when I dropped off our absentee ballots at the Kenedy PO, I was amazed when I walked in. It was like walking back into the Post Offices of my childhood.
Turns out there’s a reason for this feeling. This Post Office is almost 80 years old. Build in 1937 as a WPA project during the Depression, it’s amazing how good a shape it’s still in.
There’s another building in downtown that has a 1912 date on the lintel, and then there’s this old time service station too.
Not bad for a town that in the early 1900’s was nicknamed “Six Shooter Junction” because of all the gunfighter shootouts that happened in the area.
Tomorrow we’ve got an Amazon package coming, and then the lunch buffet at Barth’s. Monday is Chicken Fried Steak and Chicken Fried Chicken Day, crossing off another day of the week.
Thought for the Day:
Always drink upstream from the herd.
November 6, 2018
Don’t You Dare!
We had our ophthalmologist appointments at 2:15 so we decided to go in a little early and have breakfast at The Egg and I once again. Jan’s new favorite is their Avocado Toast with Scrambled Eggs and Salad Greens
We had hoped to try out Snooze- An AM Eatery, a new breakfast place, right down the street from the Egg, but it doesn’t open until the14th. We’re looking forward to checking it out.
As far as the ophthalmologist results, Jan’s finally going to get her cataracts removed, starting with the left one on Dec. 6th. Otherwise everything else looks OK, with no signs of macular degeneration or retinal neuropathy.
My diagnosed cataract pretty much isn’t. After checking out my eyes, particularly the left one, said all I really have is a slight thickening or yellowing of the cornea, and not a cataract. He set me with an appointment with the practice’s cornea guy to double check for any problems.
He also scoffed when I mentioned that my optometrist said that I couldn’t drive at night, and had no problem filling out a new SD Vision Statement to get that restriction off my license.
This afternoon it suddenly dawned on me that the speedometer of our rental Malibu goes all the way up to 160 mph.
When I mentioned it to Jan, she immediately said, “Don’t You Dare!”.
She knows me so well.
When we were first dating in 1967, I had a souped-up red 1965 Triumph Spitfire like this.
Except that mine had a full roll-bar and a white racing stripe.
The original Spitfire had a 1,147 cc OHV inline 4 with about 67hp, good for about 95mph. Downhill, and with a tailwind.
But mine, purchased from the brother of an ex-girlfriend, had a full race-prepared engine, putting out 89hp at 6000rpm on the dyno.
But not to let well enough alone, I shoehorned a Triumph GT6 6 cylinder engine in, also prepped, this one to about 170hp. This on a 1500 pound car.
Which is why, when Jan and I were coming home from Orlando one night on a nice straight, deserted road, and I guess noticing how quickly the scenery was streaming past, she asked how fast we were going, and I told her.
135 mph!
Her eyes got really big, and she ‘eek’d’ a little, but that was it. I think that’s when I really knew I was going to marry this girl.
Previously, I had had it up to a little over 140, but the front end would get a little ‘bouncy’.
FWIW, I had taken both the Basic and Advanced Racing Courses at the Bob Bondurant Racing School in Atlanta, and had previously raced in SCCA F, G, and Unlimited classes. So it wasn’t like I hadn’t done this before.
So Jan had good reason to suspect that I might want to find out whether or not the Malibu was worthy of this speedometer.
Thought for the Day:
“Calling a thing by its right name is the beginning of wisdom.” – Kahlil Gibran
November 6, 2019
You Go, Girl!
I mentioned yesterday that I had taken our ASUS laptop with us on our errands so I could be sure my DeLorme GPS module was still working.
I use the module along with the DeLorme Street Atlas 2015 program to guide us on our RV trips, and have since 2007. The database has every RV park we’ve ever stayed at, all 339 of them, as well as many sites and attractions along the way. It also has every route we’ve ever taken.
When we’re traveling in the RV the laptop sits on a tray next to my driver’s seat, and displays not only the GPS directions at the bottom of the screen, but also my Silverleaf Digital Dashboard display.
But note above that I’s still using the 2015 version of the Street Atlas program. That’s because that was the last version that DeLorme came out with. And that was because Garmin bought out DeLorme, mainly for their Iridium Sat Phone technology. But they apparently didn’t want to continue with the Street Atlas program, so the 2016 version never appeared.
And that also means that there has been no map updates either. Bummer!
So occasionally we find ourselves driving ‘off-road, at least according to the map display. But it still gets us there.
But it’s hard to hate Garmin for this, because I like their GPS units so much. We’ve had this Garmin Nuvi 1490 LMT since December 2011 and it’s still going strong.
Well, with a little help, anyway. Over the last 8 years I’ve had to replace the power cord and the internal battery, but otherwise no problems.
I guess it’s a Love/Hate Relationship.
Recently I told you about the leggings that Jan recently bought, but up until yesterday she had only worn them in the rig because she thought only young girls wore them out.
But after I pointed out several women her age also wearing them, yesterday she wore them out on our errands. And after I was finished checking out at the WalMart while she waited out by the rest rooms and I caught up with her, she had a big smile on her face.
She said that while she was waiting for me, a young black girl came by and told her that she was ‘rocking those leggings’, and then said, “You Go, Girl!”.
Probably won’t be the last time she wears her leggings out in public now.
You Go, Girl!
Thought For The Day:
The foolishness of one’s actions or words is determined by the number of witnesses.
The Elusive Holy Grail . . .
First off, do any of our readers know anyone, or know anyone who knows anyone, or know anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone . . . Ad infinitum, know anyone who is on, or is going on a expedition to Antarctica?
You see, it’s getting toward the end of the year and Google, who tracks these things, has told me that over the years I have had blog readers from every continent . . . except Antarctica.
So every year about this time I put out a call trying for the elusive holy grail of blogging. So any help would be appreciated.
Jan and I headed out about 11am for the 90 minute drive up to Conroe to make a lunch date with long-time friends, Debi and Ed Hurlburt, at a local favorite, El Bosque.
When we made the date, Ed warned us that the place had moved since we last ate there together. But the move was just from the west side of I-45 at 105 to the east side of I-45 at Davis St. So not a big difference for our trip.
Jan got her favorite El Presidente platter with Rock Shrimp, Chicken and Beef,
while I got the Fajita Diabla, with Beef and Chicken Fajitas, along with Grilled Shrimp and Mushrooms covered with a Bacon Chipotle Sauce.
Really delicious, with enough left over to bring home.
And after a great time with Debi and Ed, and an idea to meet up again in about a month, we made good enough time to get back to Santa Fe about 5 minutes before Cowboy Coffee closed at 6pm.
Really needed since we didn’t have coffee this morning.
Thought For The Day:
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
November 5, 2010
That’s Mr. Coffee to you !
Jan and I spent the morning enjoying the view and the nice weather. The rain has finally gone, but it’s still a little windy. But the front that brought the rain and wind is also bringing us some cooler weather finally.
It’s supposed to go down to 40 here tonight and only be 70 tomorrow. Right now at a little after 11pm it’s 50 here, 30 in Elkhart, IN, and 9 in Fairbanks, AK.
I think I like right where we are.
I made coffee this morning but it took forever. It’s been getting slower and slower, and boiling a lot of the water away. Normally this means it needs to be de-mineralized with CLR or vinegar, but I did that a couple of days ago and if anything, it’s worse now.
I think maybe the heating element is getting flakey. It seems to just start and stop brewing, so much so that it took almost 30 minutes to make 8 cups of coffee this morning. This Mr. Coffee is over 5 years old, so I think it’s time for a new one.
I headed out about 1pm to drop some papers off at a client, and then dropped our warm weather comforter off at the cleaners. We have a lightweight comforter and a heavier one, and we swap them out when the weather starts to get cooler. So now’s the time.
Heading back to the rig, I stopped by Fry’s Electronics to pick some things I saw in today’s sale paper. While I was there I decided to take a look at their coffee makers.
I found the updated model of the Mr. Coffee that we have now, and then checked the Internet to see how the prices compared. Everyone was within a buck or so, plus or minus, except for Costco who was about $5.00 cheaper, but they’re all the way across town. It would cost me more in gas than that. So we now have a bright shiny new Mr. Coffee, this time in black rather than white. Should be easier to keep clean.
About 5:30pm we headed up to Floyd’s Cajun Seafood in Webster to meet our friend’s Bob and Beth Young. We try to get together once a month or so while we’re in town.
Jan had a shrimp cocktail and the grilled catfish, while I had a bowl of red beans and rice, and a grilled boudin link. Bob and Beth had blackened and grilled fish, respectively, but I’ve forgotten what kind.
As usual we had a great time talking, and hopefully we’ll be able to do this several more times before we leave town.
More tomorrow…
Thought for the Day:
People are like sheep and have two speeds: graze and stampede.
November 5, 2011
Happy Early Thanksgiving . . .
We got a really slow start this morning, For some reason, after I came to bed about 2, I had trouble falling asleep, and then when I finally did, I woke up with a headache about 5 am, took some aspirin, and then didn’t wake up again until 11:30. So I felt loggy all morning. You just can’t win.
A little before 3 pm I chopped up the onions so Jan could get started on her Broccoli-Cheese Casserole for the park Thanksgiving dinner tonight, Then she mixed all the ingredients up in the roasting pan and popped it into the convection oven for about 55 minutes so that it came out looking like this.
A little before 5 we loaded up and drove across the way to the Family Lodge where the dinner was being held. There were already a good many people there bringing in their covered dishes. I was actually kind of surprised to see this many people there, this late in the year.
This is just part of the spread set out on the tables.
A few minutes after 5 every one lined up for the feast. And between the dishes the attendees brought, and the meats and side dishes the park furnished, it was a real feast.
To Jan’s delight, they had real dressing, cornbread dressing, that is.
And as usual at these things, it got quiet as soon as everyone started eating.
We sat across from a local couple and their son, Bob, Dottie, and Brandon Hartman. They have a lot here at the park and keep an RV on it during the summer, but then store it away in the winter.
We had a good time getting to know them, and hopefully we’ll run into them next year.
About 6:30 Jan and I waddled back to the rig for the night. Well, we should have waddled all the way back, but really, we waddled out to the truck and drove back. Could have used the exercise.
Since we leave here Monday morning to start our trip back to Houston, I’ve been going over our route, and planning stops and visits along the way.
If we took the most direct way back, we’d have about 1150 miles to go, but of course we never take the most direct route. Where would be the fun in that?
Instead, it will take us about 1850 miles to get there. I mean, what’s a extra 700 miles? it’s only diesel, right?
Tomorrow will be our last full day here at Indian Lakes. So we’ll probably go into the Cincinnati area again for dinner and probably a little shopping. We’ll see.
Thought for the Day:
“We are going to do a terrible thing to you. We are going to deprive you of an enemy.” – Georgi Arbatov, Soviet expert on the United States said this at the end of the Cold War.
November 5, 2013
She’s Done It Again!
or A Reprieve . . . Kind of.
Long-time blog readers will remember that I posted a couple of years ago that I knew a famous author.
And you’ve also probably heard of her. Here’s what I posted almost exactly two years ago.
Some of our blog readers may remember that when I was growing up in Gulf Shores, AL, my babysitter was Patsy Neal.
She was about 4 years older than me and her family and mine were good friends. They owned a small amusement park while my parents owned a motel on the beach.I had not seen Patsy since I was about 8 years old until Jan and I, and Jan’s mother went to see her at a book signing in Houston in 2005. Although we hadn’t seen each other for about 50 years, our parents had kept in touch until they died in the 1980’s and 1990’s, so Patsy and I were able to pick right up seemingly where we left off. I think we held up the book-signing line for about 15 minutes.
Oh, you probably know Patsy by her stage name – Fannie Flagg, author of “Fried Green Tomatoes” and a number of other best-selling novels, plus being an actress, screenwriter, and Academy Award Nominee.
Well, the reason for this post is that Fannie has a brand-new book out. It’s called “The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion”, and it’s really good. Here’s the review I posted on Amazon.
Fannie Flagg has done it again with another true-to-the-south, heartwarming story.
Always feeling like she never lived up to her mother’s expectations, probably because she was constantly reminded of that by her mother Lenore, and also worried that she might end up in a ‘home’ like her crazy aunt and uncle, Sarah Jane (Sookie) Poole discovers that her perceived humdrum life is a lot more interesting than she ever imagined.
Jumping back and forth between the small towns of Pulaski, Wisconsin and Point Clear, Alabama, “The All Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion” takes us on Sookie’s journey of enlightenment and fulfillment, chronicling the lives of two families, past and present, with a connection known only to one person.
From Fannie’s first book Coming Attractions/Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, through Fried Green Tomatoes, Standing in the Rainbow, and A Red Bird Christmas, “The All Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion” takes it place among her very best.
And this glowing review has nothing to do with the fact that Fannie used to be my babysitter growing up. “Hi, Patsy. It’s Greg from Gulf Shores”.
And you can get it here.
The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion: A Novel
One thing I really like about Amazon is that when they say the book will be out on November 5th, they really mean it. At 5 minutes after midnight, November 5th, it’s on my Kindle. Neat!
So buy Fannie’s new book. You won’t be able to put it down.
As far as the reprieve, Jan was told this morning that we won’t be leaving the gate this weekend, but that we’ll probably be here until we were originally planning to leave on November 23rd. You know me, I’m happy not to miss out on that last two weeks of pay, but unfortunately, after the possibility came up, Jan was really looking forward to getting off the gate early
The flare stack really put on another show the other night, lighting up the whole area with a flickering orange glow. Enough so that I could feel the heat coming off of it.
And then in the morning, not to be outdone, the sunrise put on a pretty spectacular show too.
Sunrises are kind of novel for me here on the gate since it’s only been after Daylight Savings Time ended that I’m awake to see one. Normally I’m already in bed asleep by then.
And then a little later, without any rain in the area, we got a rainbow.
Several people has ask about the gate guard program that I wrote. It’s pretty much done and working great. And GGS said they didn’t care what I used to log people in, as long as they got logged in. But it’s kind of late in our stay to start using it now for logging, but it comes in really handy for tracking vehicles, since every vehicle tag number, company, and driver is in the database. So once we recognize a tag number, we can just flag them through without them having to stop.
Readers know how much I learn hot food, spicy hot, not just temperature hot. The hotter the better.
And now I have a new favorite hot seasoning. It’s called “The Hottest F****N’ (except it’s all spelled out) Seasoning.
The ingredients start off with Ground Red Pepper. Ok, not bad, but bring on the heat.
And they do. And it’s not any habanero ‘this’ or even Ghost Chili ‘that’. No, they go right for the jugular.
It’s just pure Oleoresin Capsicum. That’s the stuff that makes all the other stuff hot. And it really does the trick.
I think I’m in LOVE.
Thought for the Day:
Libertarians are such elitists. They think you know how to run your own life better than they do.
November 5, 2014
Make It Stop . . .
It’s been raining for two days now, never really heavy, just steady. And it’s not supposed to stop until around 6am tomorrow morning. And then just to top things off, this evening it started to get cold, down to the low 50’s.
What’s amazing is how big this storm line is, running down in Mexico all they was up to Quebec and New Brunswick, Canada.
As I mentioned yesterday, there’s no slope where we are, so the water (and mud) just puddled at our feet. I ask Jan to call the Company Man to see if they would drop off a load of pea gravel so I could spread it around under our canopy.
Well, my Sweetie done good! This is what I found when I came out to relieve her at 1pm.
They not only brought the gravel, they spread it all around for us too. Really nice.
Our frack has been down for two days now, due to interference with the drill rig. I mentioned this possible problem before when we had two fracks going at our other gate. Strangely the other two fracks were closer to the rig then this one, but this is the one having the problem.
When they shut down the frack, they sent out an email to all the trucking companies so that the dispatchers would halt the sand truck deliveries. But apparently a lot of guys didn’t get the word so they started piling up here in the staging yard.
There’s another row behind this one, and more parked around the sides, hoping I guess, that the frack would start back up some. But by the time I came back out at 11pm, there were only four left.
The restart date for the frack runs from ‘any minute now’ to Saturday, and times in between. So we’ll see how it goes.
Tomorrow morning I’ll make a run over to Bryan/College Station to pick up grocery/supplies, and also bring back lunch. I’ve also got to pick up the flasher control module that I ordered to fix my turn signals.
Well, right now it’s FedEx 1, UPS 0. Last week I ordered something from Amazon and FedEx delivered it right here to the gate. But this past Monday I ordered something else from Amazon that was shipped via UPS that was supposed to arrive today.
But according to the tracking info, it’s been sitting in Bryan/College Station since 5:45am this morning, and hasn’t moved. And I’ve got something else coming in today via UPS so we’ll see what happens.
Just given up on Frack Food.
__________________________________________________________________
Thought for the Day:
Too Soggy to Think.
November 5, 2015
Hacking and Leaking . . .
I don’t even want to talk about the weather anymore. Either the weather or the weather forecasters can’t make up their minds. Actually I suspect a little of both.
I think I’ve solved my problem with people (well, bots) trying to hack into my blog. I bit the bullet and installed a CAPTCHA program on the login page. In case you haven’t come across it online, CAPTCHA is that program that shows you weird, twisted letters and numbers like this.
Hopefully you can figure out what the letters are and type them in better than a bot script can. At least it worked in my case.
I went from over 250 attempts a day to 3. That’s a big difference. And I’m not exactly sure where the 3 attempts came from, because it won’t show a ‘failed login attempt’ unless it gets pass the CAPTCHA program. So maybe this was an actual person trying to get in, or trying to see why his bot wasn’t getting anywhere. But’s it’s a big improvement.
‘Billy Claus’ dropped off our Amazon stuff yesterday, so it was almost like Christmas. Besides a couple of tools and stuff I needed, the main thing I got was nine more sets of the Super Bright LED Light Strips. It looks like they’ve actually come down a couple of dollars, since they’re now $5.99 a set.
This will give me enough to do all the rest of the fluorescent lights in the coach. I have two of the small fixtures in the bedroom and two more in the living room. That will take four sets, but since those are all working OK with the fluorescent tubes, I’ll wait a while on those.
The other 5 sets will be to finish up the big fixture in the kitchen where I was short one strip, and then remount the strips on the top of the fixture instead of the glass.
But even with only 7 strips it’s still brighter than the fluorescent tubes that they replaced.
Then I’ll do the other big fixture right next to it over the dining room table. That will leave me one strip left over for a spare, I guess.
Around 4pm this afternoon I went around back to check the level in the water tank and discovered that we had a diesel leak in the generator where the line comes out of the fuel filter. Not good.
So I put in a call to Todd, our GGS service guy, to let him know about the problem. He was supposed to be here tomorrow or Saturday anyway to top us off with diesel and change the oil, so maybe he could swing by a little early.
Turns out he was almost two hours away, so it was a little more than a ‘swing, but he got here pretty fast and fixed the problem. I assume it was just a loose fitting since I was asleep by the time he got here.
I’ve been having a lot of fun the last few days, doing something I haven’t had a chance to do in a while. No, not that.
What I’m talking about is ‘hacking code’. Specifically someone else’s code. As in the guy who designed the theme that I’m using on the new blog I debuting in the next few weeks. I’ll let you know more about that later.
But the code I’m ‘hacking’ is the style sheet, the ‘style.css’ file that pretty much determines the size, look, and feel of the theme. It looks like this.
#sidebar-secondary {
overflow: hidden;
float: right;
width: 220px;
margin-left: 15px;
}/* =HEADER
————————————————————– */#header {
height: 66px;
padding:22px 0;
}.logo {
float: left;
margin-left: 15px;
}.logo h1.site_title {
margin: 0;
padding:0;
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif;
font-size:48px;
line-height: 40px;
font-weight: bold;
}.logo h1.site_title a, .logo h1.site_title a:hover {
color: #404040;
text-decoration: none;
}.logo h2.site_description {
margin: 0;
padding:0;
color: #4040FF;
/* =LAYOUT
————————-#A0C20B————————————- */
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif;
font-size:14px;
line-height: 14px;
}.header-right {
float: right;
margin-right: 15px;
}/* =MENUS
————————————————————– *//* Menu Primary
—————————-*/.menu-primary-container {
padding:0;
position:relative;
height: 34px;
background: url(images/menu-primary-bg.png) left top repeat-x;
This new theme is very similar to the one for this site. In fact it’s written by the same guy. And although it has some nice features, I didn’t like some of the layout, and the green and black color scheme just had to go. So my job is to comb through this code, figure out what’s doing what, and then change it to do what I want.
Sometimes it’s just trial and error. And a lot of error. You make a small change and then see what happens.
Oops. That’s bad.
But after a while you get a handle on how this guy does things, and figure out what you need to change.
Fun!
As I said, more about the new blog later. As a hint, it is related to this blog, but with a lot of new stuff. Stay tuned.
Tomorrow is Wal-Mart / Whataburger day, and I really hope my Whataburger experience is better this time. But I’m not holding out any real hope.
It is amazing what I’ll go through for a good burger, though.
___________________________________________________________
Thought for the Day:
It’s amazing how much ‘mature wisdom’ resembles being too tired. — Lazarus Long
November 5, 2016
Putting a Light on Things . . .
Today was my first morning to start out on a gate at 6:30am. Needless to say, I’m not a big fan.
One thing I do really like about SiteWatch gates is all the lights. With a light tower on the generator and another one on the shack, plus the other lights around roof edge, the entire area is lit up almost light daylight.
What this means operationally, is that I no longer need a high power flashlight to read the tags of incoming vehicles. And I don’t have to juggle the flashlight while I’m trying to write down the data on the log sheets.
Speaking of log sheets, I’m not a big fan of the ones we’re using here. I don’t know if they actually come from Marathon, or just what they want. to see.]
What’s with all the white space? They give you little tiny blocks to write down the time in and out, and the 4 digit tag numbers, which means it can be hard to read back later.
Make the forms bigger people!
I don’t yet know if this is going to be a long term gate for me, but if it turns out that way, the night shift guy and I want to switch shifts.
In thinking about it, it turns out to be really simple.
I work my day shift and then Bill works his night shift
Then Jan coms in and works 6 hours of my day shift and Bill’s wife works the remaining 6 hours of the day shift.
Then I come in on night shift.
Easy Pezy, and it keeps the money straight too.
Today was so overcast that I kept all the lights on until almost 8:30, but it finally burned off later.
Not too busy, though I did have one 12 vehicle convoy show up about 7:30. Otherwise I think I only did about 50 vehicles all day. So not bad at all.
Tomorrow’s day shift is my last scheduled one, until I hear more from Todd.
So we’ll see how it goes after that.
Thought for the Day:
Your reality is the only correct one. Everyone else is NUTS! – Scott Adams, Dilbert
November 5, 2017
Baby Steps . . .
Jan wanted to try out her new Instant Pot today, but decided to ease into it by first making a batch of her world-famous Chili using it in the slow cooker mode.
Rather than a list of ingredients, how about a photo?
Actually we ended up two more cans of beans after seeing the level in the pot. The cans in the photo pretty much filled up our 5 qt. Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker, but the 8 qt. IP had more room.
In getting this meal going I ran into a couple of problems (annoyances?) with the IP.
First off, in Slow Cooker mode anyway, you can’t change the cooking temperature, Less, Normal, More, while you’re actually cooking. You have to shut off the IP and then start all over again.
Nor can you change the cooking time, say to add a hour. Again you have to start over.
The other problem is with the cooking temperature itself. It’s too low on all three settings. After an hour on Low today, the chili wasn’t even warm, but it would have been in our old H-B Slow Cooker.
So next I rebooted the IP and set it for More. And after about three hours it was warm enough to eat. But after three hours in our old H-B it would be boiling. So I guess we’ll have to adjust our times and temps with the IP. Or just keep using the H-B for slow cooking, since Jan want’s to keep it anyway.
About 2pm Jan and I headed out to check out another couple of RV parks in the area, one new one to us, and one old favorite.
First up was Green Caye RV Park over in Dickinson, just north of FM517. We’ve never stayed here but it’s supposed to be pretty nice so we thought we’d check it out.
Turned out to be very nice, but kind of a weird layout, like a giant ‘T’, woven around the park models, apartments, and homes. When I saw the cost, $485 per month, I thought that was kind of high until I looked closer and found it also includes electric.
Pretty unusual for a monthly rate. And not a bad deal after all.
Then it on over to Galveston Bay RV Park, the park where we spent every winter from 2008 through 2013. Then it seem to be almost impossible to get a reservation, and we haven’t been back since. And that’s when we started spending the winter bouncing between the Lake Conroe TT and the Colorado River TT in Columbus, TX.
This was our site the first two years, Site 80.
But since then a new RV Park was built right next door, so this is the view now.
Not near as nice.
And this is site 75, where we stayed in 2011.
When we stayed here, we pulled in instead of backing in so we could have the bayou view out the windshield. Then we just hooked up to the pedestal underneath the rig.
And it looks like they’re getting ready to open a whole new area on the north side of the park.
Coming home we made a quick stop at the Kroger’s on Hwy 96 before heading back to the rig.
The Word of the Day is: Enjambment
Thought for the Day:
If the earth were really flat, cats would have pushed everything over the edge by now.
November 5, 2018
Potpourri & More . . .
I got a prelim version of my shipping program up and running today at work.
You enter the destination zip code and package weight, and It gives the rates for Priority Mail, Flat Rate Priority Mail, Regional Boxes, and Cubic Boxes.
And this can make a lot of difference in the shipping cost that you charge the customer, especially since, unlike many places, my client only charges the exact amount, with no ‘Shipping and Handling’ charges added.
For example, the cost of a 10# package shipped cross-country can range from $9.70 to $28.45, all with the same 3 day delivery time. A lot of difference.
Next I want to pull in the First Class rates, since that’s the way we ship a lot of small stuff. Then I’ll clean up the GUI (Graphical User Interface) so it looks pretty.
I’ve thought about trying in with the UPS system, but I don’t think it’s really necessary since we normally only use UPS for heavier shipments.
I’ve also been putting in a lot of time lately working with Zen Cart for a new client. I’m trying to get ZC to import a slightly off-beat version of SQL. It kind of works, but not consistently. I would think that there’s actually a glitch in the SQL file, but it doesn’t consistently fail at the same spot in the file. But I’ll get it figured out eventually.
Didn’t hear anything back on our truck. I told them to take their time since we had a rental car. Hope they didn’t take that too much to heart.
We’ve got a number of travel things coming up in the next week, and I’m not sure I want to trust the truck until I drive it for a few days. So we’ll probably keep the Malibu for a few extra days after this Thursday when we’re supposed to turn it back. Jan would also like us to take it in and have the inside cleaned out and detailed.
Of course this decision has nothing to do with the fact that I’m really enjoying driving it.
As I said yesterday, tomorrow we’ve got our ophthalmologist appointments. Besides getting some more info on the cataract in my left eye, I’m also hoping to get a full clearance on my nighttime vision problem diagnosis, since I can’t see any difference between my night vision in either eye when I cover one and then the other.
Of course, my optometrist said that’s just my ‘perception’. Isn’t that what vision is anyway?
I ordered Jan a set of Bluetooth Headphones like these that came in today.
This will let her listen to her programs on the TV without my having to hear them too. It can also connect to our Alexa, and has a built-in FM radio.
And if you Bluetooth it to your phone, you can also answer phone calls using the built-in microphone.
Oh, and you can just plug it in and use it as regular wired headphones.
Thought for the Day:
Yuor biran has teh alibtiy to mkae oderr out of caohs.
November 5, 2019
Time Compression . . .
Jan and I were just talking today and realized how much we have going on in the next few weeks. It’s like time is compression into shorter and shorter moments.
In a little over a week, on the 14th, we’re heading up to Kingsland for a big family get-together for the long weekend. So we’ve got a lot to do to get the rig ready to roll. Especially important since we haven’t taken a trip since last April when we went up to Kingsland right before our European jaunt.
The following Saturday, the 16th, Jan’s doing a local Home Tour with Jennifer, my client’s Office Manager. And then the next day, Sunday, she’ll going up to Katy to Landon-sit while he’s out of school for Thanksgiving. But she’ll stay over until the next Sunday, the 1st so she can dog-sit for Brandi while they’re up in Cleburne TX for Thanksgiving with some friends.
I’ll go up on Thursday so Jan and I can out to Cracker Barrel for Thanksgiving dinner. After she comes home on Sunday, we’ll be leaving on Thursday for our long weekend up in New York for our Christmas trip.
This afternoon I tried to book our limo ride up to Hobby Airport and then our ride home. But when I tried to enter our Southwest flight info, it came back as invalid. So I called Action Limo and they also said our flight numbers didn’t come up.
And putting in a call to Chantelle Nugent, our favorite travel agent, and left her a message about the problem. She called back about 30 minutes later to confirm that sometime since the past August when we booked the trip, that SW had changed the flight numbers, and also the departure times. But only by a few minutes on the times.
Jan and I headed out about 1pm, first for brunch at Snooze, and then some errands. I wanted to sure that my laptop GPS was still functioning after the recent GPS day number problem. So I took my laptop with us, running in the backseat and tracking us.
I was concerned if my ancient Earthmate GPS module would still work.
And even though it was 12 years old, it worked fine.
I’ve had it since 2007 when we used it on our first RV trip in a CruiseAmerica Class C rental.
These 3 weeks out west, including attending one of the late-lamented Life On Wheels seminars in Tucson, are what told us that we wanted to full-time RV.
And about a year later we were on our way to Alaska in our American Eagle Class A and starting a new life.
Thought For The Day:
Dear Life,
When I said “Can this day get any worse?”, it was a rhetorical question, not a challenge.
