Monthly Archives: November 2020
Well, It’s Not That Hot . . .
Since we got there too late on Saturday, I went by Dunkin Donuts this morning on the way into work to finally get a taste of their new Spicy Ghost Pepper Donut.
It’s a yeast cake donut with Strawberry Icing infused with Cayenne Pepper and Ghost Chili Pepper spices, and coated with Red Sanding Sugar.
I got two, one to have with my coffee at work, and one to bring home so Jan could have a taste, and just a taste, since she didn’t want a whole one of her own.
And though it’s probably really hot for some people, it’s more lukewarm to mildly warm for me, since I regularly sprinkle Carolina Reaper flakes, now the hottest-rated pepper and much hotter than the Ghost Peppers,
on my omelets, shrimp & grits, taco salads, and tortilla soups. Now that’s hot.
Coming home this afternoon I stopped in once again to our new Cowboy Coffee kiosk that just opened this past Saturday. I was happy to see a long line at the place this morning, and a much shorter line at the Starbuck’s that I pass a few miles down the road.
I got Jan another Pumpkin Caramel Scone coffee and I tried the Egg Nog version. Both very good as before. I also got Jan a small regular coffee so she can dilute her Pumpkin for the sweetness.
She doesn’t like things too sweet, (maybe because she’s already so sweet) so she uses a little plain coffee to de-sweeten hers.
Several of our local friends have wondered about this small drive-thru coffee shop and I told them you see these a lot out west and up north, especially in Alaska. But this is the first one I’ve seen in this area.
Hope they continue to do well. Nice people!
Thought For The Day:
“Get it all on record now — get the films — get the witnesses — because somewhere down the track of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower 1945
And now this.
November 2, 2009
“Hitch Itch” Scratched
Today was a fairly long travel day for us. We left Michigan about 8 am headed southwest about 330 miles to Vernon IL to visit Jan’s sister, Debbie, for a few days.
But since the trip was almost all Interstate/Tollroad, it wasn’t that bad. We stopped at a rest area about 40 miles down the road to get a breakfast sandwich at McDonald’s. The rest areas on the tollroads up here are full service, with gas, and several restaurants, not just restrooms.
It was raining slightly for the first couple of hours, but no problem.
I’m really appreciating the new shocks. They’re still a little stiff, but they’ll loosen up in the next few hundred miles. But, the excessive roll and porpoising are gone.
About 1 pm we stopped at a McDonald’s in Rantoul, IL. Luckily it had a large parking lot in back so we had no trouble getting in and out. We did get some strange looks from people, though. I guess they thought we were trying to go through the drive-thru line.
We pulled into our parking spot about 3:30 pm, having gained a hour since we crossed into the Central Time Zone again.
We’re parked next to a barn owned by a relative of my brother-in-law, Jim. And even better, we have a 30 amp outlet to plug into. Since we leave the cats in the coach, we leave the heaters and a couple of lights on, so plugging in keeps the batteries charged.
Jan’s sister Debbie had a great meal for us that evening and it was good to talk over old times. We’ll be here until Friday or Saturday at least.
Thought For The Day:
“Education doesn’t make you smarter.” — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
November 2, 2010
Rain and RED, again . . .
Today, actually last night started out with a heck of a thunderstorm. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt the entire coach shake, rattle, and roll just from the thunder rumbling overhead.
Here’s what the radar looked like when I got up, and it wasn’t really moving. It just sat there.
Here’s what it looked like outside the rig.
Even Jan’s bird feeder ended up under water. The ground got so soggy the pole pulled out and fell.
One side effect to all the rain was that we discovered some new leaks in the rig. Of course with the rain blowing sideways a good part of the night, it’s not really surprising. But it looks like I’ve got some more caulking to do.
About 10am I headed out to check in with a couple of clients. Then getting back home about noon, Jan and I headed back out to the Star Cinema Grill to see the movie RED again.
We really enjoyed it when we saw it the first time last week, and wanted to see it again. It seems that with all the action going on, it was sometimes hard to keep up with the dialog.
And it was still good the second time around.
Leaving the movie we stopped off at Home Depot. I’m looking for a check valve that I can install in the water line going to my water pump. Apparently the check valve inside the pump is leaking so that the onboard 100 gallon fresh water tank fills up and then leaks out of the overflow.
There’s nothing else wrong with the pump so I thought I just add a external check valve instead. I think I found one that will work, but I want to check out what kind of connectors I need first.
Leaving HD we stopped off at PETCO and then headed home.
Getting back to the rig it had cleared up enough so that Jan and I could take our walk, but we’re supposed to have more rain tonight and tomorrow.
Oh Boy!
Thought For The Day:
Arguing with a woman is like getting arrested. Everything you say can and will be used against you.
November 2, 2011
Another nice, laidback day . . .
Once again, another laidback day.
Sometimes it’s not even easy to nail down the location of a part on the RV. The manual will say one thing, and then, not finding it there, you call the factory and they tell you, well, check here or there.
So the factory is not always sure either. I’ve been told that where something is located can even depend on who installed it. One guy likes to mount it in one location, but the guy working on the next rig on the line is too big to squeeze in there, so he mounts it somewhere else.
Just keeps life interesting.
A little after 1 pm I put Mister outside on his leash and drove down to the office to get a new barcode card, after we got locked out yesterday.
Turns out we weren’t the only ones to have a problem. Apparently the gate operator was not supposed to change the code this week since the park closes this Monday, but he did, and then left for the season. So there is no one manning the gate anymore since no new rigs are coming in.
It’s starting to get real quiet around here. Three more rigs, including the monkey people, pulled out this afternoon, so things are really thinning out. It will be interesting to see how many will be leaving on Monday like us.
About 4:30p I drove down to the Exxon station by the Interstate to buy some Powerball tickets. It’s up to 245 million dollars tonight so I thought I’d take a chance. Crossing my fingers.
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Thought for the Day:
Remember, wind is just air, but pushier.
November 2, 2012
Down Home Alabama . . .
After sleeping in a little our first day back in Alabama, we headed out about 10:30 for lunch and some errands in Huntsville.
But our first stop was at the Athens Post Office where we dropped off our South Dakota Absentee Ballots in a Priority Mail envelope. They’ll be there Monday just in time to go to the polling place on Tuesday.
Next we headed about 20 miles over to Rosie’s Cantina in Huntsville, our favorite Mexican place in this area. Jan says their Chili Relleno ranks up there with some of the best, and my combo Chicken/Beef Fajitas were great, too. They also have a great Tres Leches, but we were just too full.
After that great lunch, we headed down the road a couple of miles to Sam’s Club to pick up a few things, mostly vitamins.
Then heading back toward Athens, we stopped off at Books-A-Million, probably our favorite bookstore. They have a much wider selection of magazines than Barnes & Noble, including many I’ve never found anywhere else.
We got back to the rig about 2pm and after putting things away, we had plenty of time for a nice nap.
About 4pm we drove right next door to my Aunt and Uncle’s house for dinner. My Aunt Jan fixed a great dinner of Chicken Wings, Cole Slaw, and Potato Salad. Really good.
Later we were joined their son Wes, my cousin, his wife Helen, and their kids, Stahlie, Darby, Luke, and Harland. We had a great time talking and catching up with the rest of family. It always feels good to come back home here.
We finally headed back to the rig after everyone started yawning. Tomorrow we’ll be getting together with some other branches on the family tree.
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Thought for the Day:
The only thing “Green“ about Green energy is the mount of money that is invested into it.
November 2, 2014
Not Too Bad . . .
So Far.
Don’t know if it was the fact that we were doing two fracks at one time before, but this time we’re only doing 8 or 9 pages a day. Much better than the 13 to 14 pages last time.
Halliburton is using our pad to stage the frack sand trucks as they come in, since they can only fit 3 trucks at a time on the pad where they’re fracking right down the road.
As it is, it’s a tight turn getting out of here.
In fact the Halliburton guy came down a little while ago to ask if he could move the light tower back about 6 feet. I told him, “Sure, but it’s not going to help much.” He said, “What do you mean?”
I said, “This trucking company you’re using has a lot of guys who can’t drive. Most of them know to swing wide and have no trouble, but a lot of them are going to have a problem no matter how far you push it back.”
And sure enough, while we were standing there talking about the frack job, another sand truck cut it short, knocked over the Stop sign, and set the light tower rocking like an upside down pendulum. He just shook his head and went over to yell at the driver.
My great-niece Darby Calvin has a book of poetry out in Kindle format. Or maybe I should say a ‘book of poem’, since that’s what it is. Called “The Queen of the Dance”, it’s a 67 page epic poem in the manner of Sir Walter Scott’s “Lady of the Lake”.
The poem tells the story of a beautiful elf and her adventures in the world of the mortals.
Stahlie, Darby’s equally talented sister did the beautiful cover art. Really nice.
It made it down to 38 degrees last night, the coldest night on the gate so far this year. I did OK, but I think I’m going to pick up a box of those chemical handwarmers at Wal-Mart this week. If I wear heavy gloves so my hands are warm, I can’t write in the logs, so I wear light gloves with the fingertips cut off. But then my hands get cold. So maybe these will help.
OK, two days of fracking, and still no Frack Food.
What’s wrong with this picture.
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Thought for the Day:
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” — Henry David Thoreau
November 2, 2015
Turkey Day’s Coming . . .
And Landon’s ready.
Well, today’s AM Cloudy / PM Sunny forecast started out right on schedule, but the PM Sunny part apparently took a wrong turn somewhere because it never showed up. Instead we got an afternoon of very overcast sky with no sun to be seen, more like it was trying to rain, but couldn’t quite get up the energy.
I started noticing this morning that our Mighty Mule Driveway Alarm that monitors vehicles coming into our gate, seemed to be missing a truck every now and then. And this was unusual since it’s never missed a beat since I installed it the first part of September. Then when I brought our coffee out at 11:30, Jan said it had done the same thing to her. She’d look up from her book and a truck would be pulling up in front of the gate.
At this point my first thought was batteries. Although the receiver here at the canopy has a ‘Low Bat’ light on it, I’ve never seen it on, and it wasn’t on now. But since these were the original set of ‘AA’s that I installed when I set up the Mule, I figured changing out the batteries was a good start to fixing the problem. And it turns out it did the trick.
Since the second Mule was replaced by Amazon, and since we’ve only got three weeks left here, the batteries in that unit will hopefully last.
About a half hour after I took over from Jan at 1pm, I hear the rig door open and a stern voice say, “Gregory White, get in here.”
Oh, Lord, what have I done now. At least she didn’t use my middle name.
Turns out that this woman, who stomps on scorpions while wearing sandals,
and watches tarantulas stroll by a foot from her chair,
she was terrified of a tiny, smaller than a dime, spider on the ceiling of the rig. So I performed my husbandly duty, one of them anyway, and removed the spider from the rig.
I mean, aren’t tarantulas just big spiders? They’re OK, but little tiny ones are scary?
Who knew?
Late Friday afternoon I placed an Amazon order and was told that with free Prime 2 Day Shipping, it would be here Tuesday. Ok, no problem.
Then later that evening I got an email saying that the first of my three boxes had already been shipped. Then early Saturday morning, I was told the two remaining boxes had been shipped. WOW!
And with Amazon’s usual great service, everything showed up today, rather than tomorrow. And a friend actually had an Amazon order delivered by the USPS on SUNDAY!
With service like this, why do they need drones?
I’m sure readers will remember my Tale of Two Laces from a few days ago, Well I think I’ve found what I need, on Amazon of course. These 550 Paracord Steel Tip Boot Laces are made from 550 pound test Paracord, or parachute cord.
Anyway, they’ve certainly got to be better than the ones made from cheap Indian cow parts (as Lolita Gupta said, “Our kind of Indian, or the Come to Our Casino type of Indian). And at $11.50 for two pair, they’re actually cheaper, too.
Unfortunately I didn’t come across them until after I placed my order this past Friday, so I’ll wait until we’re at the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails to order them.
BTW one of the 8 colors available for these laces is ‘Coyote’. Is that really a color, or just a made-up one, like mauve or fuchsia. Or maybe made from actual coyote?
Our daughter Brandi sent over this latest piece of Landon’s artwork. She ask him to draw a turkey, and here’s what he came up with in about 10 minutes.
He even put the Pilgrim hat on top (note the gold buckle), as well as the flowers and the tree, all on his own.
In case you didn’t remember, he’s FIVE. And they’ve even made comments at school about his artwork. He must get this from his uncle, our son Chris, who also is a talented artist.
I must say though, with all the multi-colored tail feathers, I would suspect some hanky-panky with the NBC Peacock.
Just sayin’
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Thought for the Day:
I was reading the other day about a new, improved Bear Spray that’s come on the market in Alaska. You’ve gotta figure it’s a big improvement over the Bear Roll-On they sold in years past.
November 2, 2017
It Was Godaddy’s Fault . . .
I think.
After my client’s email problems last night, I was up early since I figured I’d would have to go in this morning, but it turns out it was all working OK and all the missing emails had shown up.
After I got home last night I began to wonder if the problem was not with our email server, but with the domain name itself which is hosted on Godaddy. When an email comes in, it gets fed through Godaddy and then down to our server. The fact that some emails were coming through after a long delay, and some not at all, led me to believe it wasn’t us. So hopefully it’ll settle down for now.
I’m still trying to figure out how the rain gauge is supposed to work on my new La Crosse Weather Station.
Yesterday morning about 5am it poured down rain for about 45 minutes so when I got up about 9 and checked the display, I was surprised to see that it hadn’t recorded even .01 of an inch. So when when I got home from work last night I brought it inside and removed and replaced the batteries, and then put it under a drip in the sink.
And in about 30 minutes it was reading 3.65 inches, so I guess it was working now, and I set it aside. But then when I happened to look at the display a little later, about 7:30, It was showing 0.00 again.
Now weather stations I’ve worked with in the past, at TV stations and NASA, monitored the rain on a 24 hr. basis and would reset at midnight, so I’m not sure what this one is doing. Just something else to look into, I guess.
About 5pm, Jan and I headed over toward I-45 to try out a Vietnamese place in the area called Phở 20. We were looking for a local restaurant to replace the Asian Grill in Conroe and Little V’s in Katy. It had 4.4 stars on Google so we had high hopes.
We started off with an order of Pork Spring Rolls, good with a really good peanut sauce, though not quite as good as Little V’s. But good enough that I forgot to get a photo.
Next up, I had a bowl of Miso Soup,
very, very good, while Jan got their Crunch Salad with Tempura Crunchies.
Also very good.
For our entrée, Jan got the Chicken Vermicelli Bowl,
while I got the Beef, Chicken, and Shrimp Vermicelli Bowl.
Everything was really good, and we’ll certainly go back.
The owner waited on us, and we enjoyed talking to him and his wife. Very nice people.
Since we had had spring rolls and soup/salad to start, we both had leftovers from our entrées, and as we were getting into the truck, the owner’s wife came running out with a big order of Fried Rice to take home with us. Very nice.
Tomorrow it’s back to work, and then dinner with friends at Jimmy Changa’s tomorrow night. Really looking forward to it.
The Word of the Day is: Ebullient
Thought for the Day:
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” – George Orwell, “1984”
November 2, 2018
Everyone Is Unique!
Our venerable Lasko tower ceramic heater died this morning, so I guess we’ll be heater shopping this weekend. I think we got it in 2008 when we first started RV’ing, so I think we’ve gotten our money’s worth.
]We first use it this winter a couple of days ago and it was working fine. But this morning when it was down to about 50 degrees, I turned it on and it worked for about 10 minutes and then shut off.
The red power light was still on, but that’s it. I can unplug for about 15 minutes, plug it back in, and then it will work again . . . for about 10 minutes.
It maybe clogged up and overheating, kicking off the thermal switch, so I may try to take it apart and see if the vents are clogged. Though it doesn’t look like it’s really made to take apart.
But when has that ever stopped me?
Coming home from work, I finally got gas at the new Costco. Of course the last time I tried it, I couldn’t get the gas cap cover open.
I don’t know if it’s some grand opening special or what, but the gas here is $2.17, 18 cents a gallon cheaper than the next closest, $2.35 at WalMart. Hope it holds up.
For dinner tonight we finished off the last of Jan’s famous chili. Even better this time since she added more ground habanero powder.
Still didn’t hear anything from Snider Transmission today, but I told them to take their time, so I figure early next week. In the meantime I’ve been browsing online, looking over possible Dakota replacements. but nothing has reached out and grabbed me yet.
FWIW when we were toad shopping in 2007, we both thought the Dakota was the one.
Spent a little more time calling around looking for the Shingrix shingle vaccine with no luck. If we don’t find some by the end of the month, we’ll probably go ahead and get the old Zostavax shot.
They’re not as effective for seniors as the Shingrix, which is actually a two shot treatment, but it’s supposedly better than nothing. And it won’t interfere with the Shingrix shots later.
Thought for the Day:
Everyone Is Unique! Just Like Everyone Else!
How Did Landon Go From This –
And This.
Through This,
And this one, a contest winner designed and built by his Uncle Chris.
To Mr. Pug last Halloween.
Only to end up here in 2020.
Brandi had this to say –
Landon created his own costume. Pic doesn’t do it justice. He googled the hand trick. Looks like he’s holding a bloody hand that is still moving when he wiggles his fingers. He said “one of these days mine will be as cool as my Uncle Chris'”. He was so excited to create his own and refused to buy a cheap plastic costume.
And even Jack the Dog gets a taste.
Well, it is 2020 after all.
And he’s not even a teenager yet.
Yikes!
Thought For The Day:
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.” ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero 106 BC – 43 BC
November 1, 2009
The Fourth Time’s the Charm…
Today we finally leave Elkhart, but it’s going to be a short trip…just up north into Michigan. We have some things to do up there before we head south.
Around 10 am I fixed coffee and we had some Pumpkin Cheese Bread to go with it.
Coming back in, I puttered around the coach, getting things ready to travel. Next I took down the satellite dish and dumped the waste tanks. Lastly I stowed everything away and close all the bays. Everything was ready to go, except for disconnecting the shore power. I always save that for the very last.
Coming back inside, I finished up by vacuuming the carpet. Then about 3:15 Jan pulled in the slide and locked down all the doors.
I fired up the diesel and went outside to disconnect the power, while waiting for the air pressure to build up.
And then about 3:30 pm we headed out up north to Michigan. Since we weren’t going far, we didn’t hook up the toad. Jan just followed me.
We had a great dinner at Lunkers and then drove the toad over to the Tractor Supply Store in Niles, MI
Tomorrow we’ll drive about 330 miles southwest to Vernon, IL to visit Jan’s sister Debbie for a few days.
After that we may head toward Branson, or we may not.
We’ll see…
Thought For The Day:
Sometimes, someone unexpected comes into your life out of nowhere, makes your heart race, and changes you forever. We call those people cops.
November 1, 2012
Rut Roh . . .
That’s what you say when you turn the key to crank the RV and absolutely nothing happens. All the lights came on just like normal, but,
No clicking, no cranky, no nothing.
Bummer!
We were getting ready to head out on our 150 mile trip up to north Alabama, so this was a kink in our plans.
Although my Silverleaf display showed my battery voltage was fine, I next tried the AUX Start, again with no luck.
Nada, not a peep.
I had a similar problem three years ago when we stopped for lunch in Jacksonville, FL. We came out to find that the engine wouldn’t crank. After a little troubleshooting I discovered that the Start wire had broken off the starter solenoid. Replacing the wire and the connector got us back on the road in about an hour.
But I doubted I had the same problem again. So my next idea was to call American Coach Customer Support. And it was a really good idea.
After thinking a minute, Jim, the tech guy, led me to a connector next to the Battery Control Center at the rear of the coach beside the engine. He said to pull apart the 2 wire connector and plug in the dummy connector that should be hanging on the cable. He said a Start Signal is routed through the box and using the dummy plug bypasses it.
And that did the trick. It cranked right up. Jim said there is a relay and a 5 amp fuse in the box that might be causing the problem. Since I wanted to go ahead and get on the road I asked what would not work with the BCC bypassed. He said that the house batteries would not charge.
Since we didn’t plan on running anything off the batteries, I decided to hit the road and worry about the fix later.
We pulled out of the Cane 9 Creek RV Park just 18 minutes later than I had planned and got on I-20W. But I got off about 10 miles down the road and got on US-431, a nice 4 lane highway heading for Huntsville, AL, about 100 miles away.
Taking I-20 all the way into Birmingham and then I-65 north to Athens, AL would have been faster, but US-431 was certainly more scenic.
Getting into Huntsville, we got on US-72W for the last 20 mile leg into Athens, and Northgate RV Park, which is owned by my cousin. It’s always convenient to have an RV park in the family.
After checking in with the family and resting up for a while, we headed out for dinner at a local favorite of ours, Catfish Cabin. Luckily for us, it was as delicious as always.
Tomorrow we’ll try to catch up with some more relatives.
Thought for the Day:
Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue.
November 1, 2013
WhooHoo! Two Blogs in Two Days . . .
I was bored. What can I say.
First off, I’m not sure why we suddenly got so popular just yesterday, but I want to welcome the six new followers who signed up yesterday to receive these blog posts via email. If you would like to do the same, just check out the Email Subscription area on the left sidebar, enter your email address, and then click the “Sign Me Up” button.
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Well, it looks like the winter temps may have finally arrived. After today’s 92, Saturday’s high should be in the upper 70’s/lower 80’s with night temps in the mid 50’s, and it’s forecasted to stay that way for the next 10 days or so. Mid 70’s/mid 50’s are supposedly the November averages for this area so we’ll see how that works out.
Although a supervisor stopped off to look at the gate damage today, no one showed to start working on it yet.
That round barrel-looking thing is the remains of the group locking system. It’s a device that holds up to ten separate padlocks, anyone of which can open the gate. That way everyone that needs access to a site can supply their own lock, and not have to worry about syncing up with everyone having the same key or combination. A simpler way of doing this is to have everyone’s locks in a daisy-chain loop so that opening any lock will allow the gate to open.
The truck drivers are really enjoying the missing gate section. In fact they’ve been driving over it all day. There may not be a lot left to work with if the repair guys don’t get here soon.
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Thought for the Day:
Physicist Ernest Rutherford once described a public official as being “like a Euclidean point: he has position without magnitude.”
(Hey, how many blogs give you a physics joke? Sheldon would appreciate it.)
November 1, 2014
A Three Heater Night . . .
Because I couldn’t find 3 dogs, just one large extra-fluffy cat. And he wouldn’t leave the warm rig.
It went down to about 41 degrees here last night, but with the three heaters I stayed pretty comfortable. One thing I noticed is that these Wrangler FRC jeans are warmer than the cargo pants I usually wear.
It finally got up to about 62 degrees in the afternoon, but it was still only 58 when I came out to relieve Jan at 1pm. But the fact that it was bright and sunny all day helped out.
Of course tonight we’re scheduled for 39°, but tomorrow’s supposed to be 72 and sunny with a low of 52. Much better.
Finally after all my complaining, they sent a guy with a front loader over to fill in the pothole along the edge of the road running in front of our pad. I say pothole, but it was more like a canyon or a crevasse. I measured it the other day and part of it was almost a foot deep. But because it usually stayed full of water from the road being watered daily, it looked like it was only an inch or so deep. So it was a real surprise when two vehicles tried to squeeze by each other and one of them bottomed out in the hole with a big clunk.
Our next frack job is set to start up early tomorrow morning (Sunday). They’ve been prepping for the last couple of days, so they’ll get an early start. And since it’s at the next pad right down the road from us, we’ll be right in the middle of it this time.
I’m not sure how busy we’ll be exactly. Last time we had two fracks going on at the same time and were doing over 14 pages a day. That’s over 330 vehicles. That’s busy.
But on the plus side, there’s Frack Food.
We hope.
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Thought for the Day:
Marriage is grand. Divorce is about 50 grand!
November 1, 2015
Three Weeks and Counting . . .
Jan has shifted into high giddy, as today marks three weeks and counting until we leave the gate for this year, heading back to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails and the Houston area for the winter.
Assuming our gate lasts until then, and it sure looks like it will, it will be only the second time in four years that we’ve stayed at the same gate for the entire three months. The first time was in 2013 when we were at a multi-well frack gate down in south Texas near Whitsett. They also had a number of production wells, so a lot of trucks were in and out taking out crude, while they were also constructing a pipeline into the area. So, along with miscellaneous workover rigs, it was a pretty busy gate.
But the thing I really remember about that gate was how bitterly cold it was during the month of November. There were several days when it barely got into the 30’s, and because of the way we were set up, our canopy was open to the north. And by north, I mean the north wind that comes sweeping down the plains. Yeah, I know that’s Oklahoma, but it fits so I’m using it.
There was a light tower right behind us so I finally draped a tarp around the back of the canopy using the light tower as an anchor.
Without the tower taking the wind load, the canopy wouldn’t have stayed up.
I vividly remember one day, about a week before we left, where the high was 25 degrees, and it was sleeting. In fact ice was forming on the canopy struts. I didn’t own enough clothes to put on to keep me warm, and we didn’t have enough heaters either.
Good times.
But this year our low temps has been in the 40’s, and we’ve got the rig directly behind the canopy to the north, so that cuts out the cold wind.
We also have two of these Sunbeam heaters. I bought one last year and then a second this year because they work so well.
Sunbeam Dual Comfort Heater+ Fan
And as a backup, we have this Lasko heater that usually stays inside, but we have brought it out a couple of times
Lasko Digital Ceramic Tower Heater with Remote
You can really hear the generator groan when I turn on all three heaters at the same time. But so far it’s held up. In fact I think this is the first year we haven’t had a generator problem, knock on wood.
Today was a little busier, with 60 vehicles through the gate, and of course, back out. Six of those were the crew, and the rest were the water trucks cycling in and out, taking out the flowback water. Three or four come in every couple of hours, stay about 30 minutes filling up, and then head back out to offload. Rinse, Repeat.
I don’t know what Jan did with it, but I left her with a perfectly good day this morning, and she broke it.
When I went in to go to bed at 7am, it was a little foggy, but nice. But when I came back out around 1pm, it had been raining for a good while, then rained all day, and was still raining when I went in at 6pm. But tomorrow’s supposed to be better.
Yeah, right.
Of course we’ve certainly had it better then many other people. Our DIL Linda emailed to say that they had a lot of rain and bad weather in the Friendswood area on Saturday, including six tornados running around.
Because of all this they lost power for 29 hours!, from 10:20 Saturday morning until 2:15 Sunday afternoon. Luckily they had a portable generator to keep the refrigerator and other stuff going, so they didn’t lose any food.
Hopefully all this bad weather will be over for a while.
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Thought for the Day:
She was probably going to Wal-Mart.
November 1, 2016
Four Days Down . . .
And Three Days to Go.
After a very quiet night, I.e., one truck left that come in on day shift and nothing else, I was home and in bed by 5:30am. So no cows, no excitement.
Getting up about 11:30 the first thing I did was to call the Karnes County National Band to see if our VISA check cards had come in. And they hadn’t.
Well, actually, based on the reaction, which was Huh?, I suspect they never got ordered. I had ask for them to be sent to the bank here, rather than the account address, our house in Friendswood, so we would get them quicker. They said they would call me when they come in. We’ll see how that works out.
I did use the bank’s Telephone Banking to confirm that our 1st SiteWatch pay check had in fact been direct deposited into our account, so that was nice.
Hoping our absentee ballots had finally come in, we headed for lunch, once again at Barth’s Restaurant. We’ve gotten hooked on their daily Lunch Buffet and are working our way through their menu.
Every day is different, with two meats, two or three veggies, soup, salad bar, and homemade bread.
Today was Fried Chicken, Roast Beef with Gravy, Creamed Red Potatoes, Corn, and Broccoli-Cheese Soup. Delicious, and with our $3 Senior Discount, it was only $6.50.
A really great deal.
So all we have left are Monday with Chicken Fried Steak and Chicken Fried Chicken, Wednesday with Chicken and Dumplings and Hamburger Steak, and Thursday with Fried Pork Chops and Meat Loaf.
Sounds like a plan. Only three days to go.
Leaving Barth’s, we next stopped off at the Lone Star Real Estate office to see if our ballots had come, but the office was closed for lunch, saying they would be back at 1:30. So we decided this would be a good time to check out the H.E.B. right down the road. Turns out to be a nice store, with maybe a little better selection than the local Wal-Mart.
Back at the office, we had about a 10 minute wait until they showed up, and our ballots were there so we’ll get them filled out and off with Priority Mail tomorrow.
Getting back to the rig I took a nap before heading off to the gate for the night. As it stands right now this is my last scheduled shift until I hear from Todd again. I’ve already been extended here for one night. A few more would be nice.
Yesterday I cleaned the filters on both our Coleman AC units. The older, bedroom unit uses the old school foam filter that I hose off in the shower and re-install. And about once a year I replace the foam sheet with a new piece because it does deteriorate over time.
But the new Coleman Mach XV model that I installed last year uses a couple of these electrostatic filters.
They’re made of a metallized plastic mesh that attracts dust by electrostatic action caused by the airflow through the filter. This allows the filter to attract dust without restricting the airflow. And just a quick spray in the shower cleans them off.
Heading in to work this afternoon, I dropped off the rent check at the park office, so I guess we’re here for another month.
Thought for the Day:
There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning and yearning.
November 1, 2018
Stopping Auto Stop . . .
Before we left this afternoon Jan and I walked a couple of bags of garbage down to the dumpster. Then coming back I stopped off at the laundry room to drop off the November rent check.
And that’s when I saw it.
The new Change Machine
Oh, the horror!
So I couldn’t let this affront to grammatical correctness pass by unremediated.
This is what comes of being the son of an English teacher.
Jan and I left the rig about 2:45 for our get-together with Miss Piper for dinner and then to pick up her bike after its flat tire repair / tune-up at the Bike Barn. But first we stopped off at Sam’s Club and WalMart for a couple of prescriptions.
We also checked both places to see if they had the Shingrix Shingles Vaccine in stock. There’s a real shortage of it, and no more is expected until the end of November . . . they hope.
And while we were at WalMart, Jan did go ahead and get her Flu shot. As for me, I think I’ve mentioned before, I don’t get flu shots any more. In fact the last one I got was my senior year in high school in 1966.
I got my first flu shot the previous year and was very sick for about 4 days. Then the next year I was in the hospital for two weeks after that one. My doctor at the time told me that another flu shot might kill me.
So, would YOU get another one? Would YOU take the chance?
I tell people that I just depend on the kindness of strangers. I figure that if everyone else gets their shot like they’re supposed to, then I don’t have to worry, since there will be no one to catch it from.
At least that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
Turns out that Miss Piper had a lot of homework to do, so she bowed out of dinner tonight, so we just dropped her bike off at her apartment. Then coming home we stopped off at the local Denny’s to once again have breakfast.
Good as always.
As I figured, and echoed by several of our readers, it is possible to turn off the Auto Stop ‘feature’ on our rental Malibu. But not having an owner’s manual, I had to do some Googling before I found the correct method for our model. Apparently it differs depending on the version. The only problem is that it has to be redone every time you start the engine.
On our model, you start out by putting the transmission in ‘L’, not ‘D’
Note the ‘1’ to the right of the ‘L’.
Then, using the + and – on the top of the gearshift knob,
you increase the ‘1’ to a ‘6’.
I’d been wondering what these + and – buttons were for, and now I know.
Apparently you can also use this method to lock the transmission in any gear you want so it won’t upshift.
It’s just a bonus, I guess, that it also disables the Auto Stop.
Thought for the Day:
The stone age didn’t end because we ran out of stones.
November 1, 2019
Oompa-Loompas . . .
I fooled around with the blog last night, and I’m not sure what I actually did, but apparently readers are getting the blog via email again. Hope it holds.
This morning I put in a call to Snooze to see if anyone had found Jan’s Opal Ring and turned it in. But no luck. I also checked out the parking lot at work but no luck there either.
I spent pretty much all day at work retro-fitting all our inventory of Red and Black Electrode Cords to use the new banana plugs that came in yesterday.
They’re really easy to install, and because they have setscrews locking down both the wire and the insulation in place, meaning it won’t be easy to pull it apart. I was also happy to discover that though the barrel looks like metal, it’s non-conductive plastic.
Brandi’s office always dresses up in theme costumes for Halloween, and this year it was Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
That’s Brandi the second in line as one of the Oompa-Loompas.
When we were at WalMart yesterday, I came across this great example of a Chevy Nomad.
Based on Internet photos, I think it’s a 1955 model. In later years, the tailfins became more pronounced.
One thing interesting was the paint finish. It’s a completely flat finish with no shine. At first I thought it might have been a primer undercoat, but getting closer, it’s a very nice smooth finish, just no gloss. I guess it saves on waxing.
Now that Halloween is over, Jan’s started putting together her Christmas wardrobe with this shirt that came in today.
Too bad it doesn’t light up. I did tell Jan that I could make it light up for her, but I think she’s afraid she’ll get electrocuted.
Tomorrow looks to be nice enough to try and install my new oil filter adapter on the rig. If everything goes OK, then it should only take an hour or so.
Of course, seldom does everything go OK.
Thought For The Day:
Remember the Good Ole Days when you could mail-order your own Nazi 20mm Anti-Tank Gun?
