Daily Archives: December 21, 2020
Just Karma and Me . . .
First off I want to thank everyone for the many prayers and condolences.
It means a lot.
The shock was two-fold. Not only losing two aunts in two days, but also the fact that we would have been up there during all this, but then canceled because Aunt Virginia’s doctor was so concerned about us infecting her.
Could we have done anything? I don’t know.
Would just the fact that we were up there to see her have helped? No way to tell.
But it’s hard not to second guess things.
Once again, thanks to everyone.
I’m meeting Brandi, Landon, and Jan for lunch tomorrow at 11:30 at the Cheddars on Westpark, then I’ll bring Jan back home with me, much to both Karma’s and my relief.
Of course Karma will be glad to have her back since Jan gets up a lot earlier than me, so Karma gets fed earlier.
Me, I’m just lonely and will be glad to have her back.
December 21, 2011
Fans and Cookies . . .
One of the packages that came in yesterday was the new fan motor for our Splendide washer/dryer. So before I went to bed last night I pulled the old motor out.
I had been told when I ordered the new motor that I would have to remove the squirrel cage fan from the old motor and install in on the new one.
It also helped that they told me that the nut holding the fan on was reverse threaded. Otherwise I might still be trying to get the fan loose.
It’s reassuring that the new motor is much heavier and better built than the old one. I mean the old one only lasted 13 years.
What kind of quality is that?
Here’s the new motor and fan all ready to go.
But Jan says I can’t finish installing it yet. She’s in Christmas Cookie baking mode and really likes having the washer by the kitchen counter for the extra space while she’s baking.
I might have to come up with something similar that I can put up and take down for Jan.
This morning started out with coffee and a call from a client whose computer wouldn’t boot up this morning. Told him I’d be there in the next hour or so.
But after heading out, my first stop was at Brandi and Lowell’s to start a load of laundry since Jan won’t let me fix the washer yet. LOL.
Then I headed over to the client’s. At first I thought his hard drive had died. The computer would start up and then hang at the point where it should start booting from the drive. But the BIOS setup said the computer was still seeing the drive, and I could hear it spinning up.
So while pondering this, I looked down at the bottom of the computer case on the floor and noticed Max had gotten himself an early Christmas present, (or probably a Chanukkah present), a brand new iPod Nano.
Which was plugged into a USB port. I unplugged the iPod, rebooted the machine, and everything was working fine.
Many computers are set up by default to boot from a USB port or the CDROM drive before the hard drive. A thumb drive is usually not enough to trigger this, but a iPod Nano looks enough like a bootable device that the computer tries to access it and then hangs.
Finishing up there I headed back to Brandi’s to put the clothes in the dryer and then it was back over to Lowe’s to pick up some things, including a piece of 3” metal duct to help me reconnect the dryer vent when I reinstall the Splendide.
Then it was back to Brandi’s to pick up the laundry. Lowell was there and we got to spend some time talking and that was good.
Getting back to the rig, I could smell the results of Jan’s labors as I came in the door. Batches of her famous melt-in-your-mouth Candy Cane Cookies were coming out of the oven. There’s nothing like the taste of one of these in your mouth, straight off the cookie sheet, almost too hot to eat, but you don’t care, they’re so good.
Resisting the urge to eat more cookies, Jan and I headed out about 5:15 to meet our long-time friends, Bob and Beth Young, at King Food for a great Chinese meal. We always try to get together several times while we’re back in the area, and enjoy hearing about what’s going on with their big family of five kids. We’re going to try to do this at least once more before we leave town.
Thought for the Day:
Was learning cursive really necessary?
December 21, 2014
Let There Be Light . . .
Our day really started today when we headed out about 1:30, on our way to Brand’s for the afternoon. Going through Columbus, we got gas (for $2.19. So far the cheapest I’ve seen is $1.98. $2.64 for diesel) and then made a stop at Wal-Mart to pick up our prescriptions. But that didn’t work out One of the two pharmacists was out sick so the other one had to close the pharmacy while she went to lunch. And guess when her lunch period was? So I’ll have to run back down there tomorrow to pick them up.
We got to Brandi’s a little before 3, and after getting our Landon hugs, Lowell and I got to work.
A couple of weeks ago, the power in a bedroom and the adjoining bathroom went out at their house, both lights and wall outlets. I had looked at the problem a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t have any tools with me. But today I came prepared.
Since Lowell already knew that a number of the labels on his circuit breaker panel were incorrect, we started there by taking the cover off the panel and checking the output of each breaker with a voltmeter. And no luck there. They were all good.
Normally the way these things are wired up, one hot wire (black) comes from the breaker panel and then loops to each outlet and switch in a daisychain.. So a break anywhere along the line will knock out everything below it. The problem is figuring out which device is first in line, next in line, and so on.
And as was the case here, sometimes you just have to pick a place and start opening outlet boxes and switches, and testing them. In this case, the seventh time was the charm. When we took the cover plate off the 4th outlet (one on each wall) in the room, and then pulled the outlet itself out of the wall box, the lights came on for a few seconds. Got it!
These outlets and switches have a quick connect feature that allows you to just strip the wire and push it in a hole on the back of the outlet. It suppose to lock in like sticking your finger in one of those Chinese finger traps. But in this case it was broken and the wire would not stay in. So I just used my needle-nose pliers to bend a hook on the end, and tightened it down under the old-fashioned screw terminals. Slower to hook up, but more reliable.
Our job done, we all headed right down the street to Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro for our usual delicious meal.
On the home front, my new transfer switch came in, which I’ll probably install next week, and I’m going to have to do an electrical repair of my own here in the rig. The last fluorescent tube has died in the ceiling fixture in the hallway, and, as I did the bathroom, I’m going to replace the tubes with two small LED strips. Cheaper and brighter.
More tomorrow.
__________________________________________________________________
Thought for the Day:
Actual Houston Lawyer’s Ad
His name is Eric Dick.
I’d hire him.
December 21, 2015
Old Friends, New Friends, and Chinese . . .
Jan and I headed our for our inaugural walk here at Lake Conroe Thousand Trails. Since they don’t seem to have a real designated walking path like Colorado River, I used Google Satellite View to map out a 1 mile route, which is pretty just the circumference of the park.
About a quarter of the way around, we ran into our old friend’s Garland and Valencia Scott. We first met them last winter when we were parked near each other here at Lake Conroe.
Since we were both out walking, we ended up making the circle together as we caught up on our travels this last year, and talked over our travels to be for the next year.
Garland and Valencia are the couple closest to the camera, and behind them are Gordon and Merlyn Pendergast, also new RV’ers.
Garland and Valencia are leaving for a week starting tomorrow, but they’ll be back while we are still here, so we’ll get together then. Really looking forward to it.
A little before 4pm, Jan and I headed out to meet Ed and Debi Hurlburt at the nearby China Delight Chinese Restaurant. Ed is the moderator of two popular Facebook RV groups, RV Tips and RV Chat. And not to be outdone, his wife Debi has her own Facebook group, Debi’s RV Cooking. Jan says she’s gotten some really good recipes from there, so check them all out.
Ed and Debi have been eating here for years, and after trying the food, it’s easy to see why. We’ll definitely go back.
That’s Ed in the blue shirt and Debi to his right.
Along with themselves, Ed and Debi also brought two other RV’ing couples for us to meet. That’s Jim and Claudia Horak on the right, and Jack and Lynette Starwalt behind Jan.
We all had a great time comparing places we’ve been and places we’d like to go around the country, and talking about all the things RV’ers talk about when they get together.
Leaving the restaurant, we stopped off at Kroger’s to pick up the last of the needed Christmas food supplies, as well as some Christmas gift cards. This should wrap it up, except for the Coconut Cream Pie we’ll pick up from the Fish Pond Restaurant tomorrow evening, and the Cornbread Dressing and Turkey Gravy we’ll pick up from Cracker Barrel Thursday morning on our way to our daughter Brandi’s down in Katy.
Tomorrow we’re driving over to Livingston to visit Dennis and Carol Hill at the Escapees park there, and having sampled his past culinary delights, we’re really looking forward to whatever Dennis pulls out of the smoker.
Thought for the Day:
This is kind of unusual for a TOTD, but this is really a big deal.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX company achieved a real milestone today when one of their Falcon 9 rockets launched 11 satellites into Low Earth Orbit and then returned to Cape Canaveral to land vertically on its tail, just like in the movies.
Being able to reuse the complete rocket could reduce the cost of going into space by a factor of 100 and pave the way for lunar and Mars colonies.
You can see the launch and landing here.
December 21, 2016
Even Closer Than We Thought . . .
As I said yesterday, today was just a nice stay at home day, or at least it started out that way.
Jan whipped up another loaf of her delicious Cranberry Orange Nut Bread, that we’ll have for breakfast over the next week or so. Nice.
Then later in the afternoon Jan and I took several of our big heavy throw rugs over the RV park laundry to give them a thorough cleaning. If she does them in our rig washer, but only one at a time. But with a FREE laundry right across the road that’s the way to go.
Jan’s used the washers once before, but it was my first time to look it over. And I was really surprised at how nice it was. Three new looking washers and three new looking dryers, all big heavy-duty units. And I did mentioned there were FREE, didn’t I.
And as it turned out, Nancy Christian, the park owner, and furnisher of the FREE washers and dryers, dropped by with some Christmas goodies and a couple of small gifts for us.
The goodie was a big batch of ‘Christmas Reindeer Crack’, a snack mixture I don’ think we’ve had before, but it sure was good. Maybe the best-tasting of any of these mixtures I’ve tasted.
I’ve posted the recipe for the Christmas Reindeer Crack under Jan’s Favorite Recipes if you want to take a ‘crack’ at it.
In another Attack of the PC Idiots, the classic Winter/Christmas son, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is an assault on women and is considered, ‘rapey’. In fact one couple, who I won’t waste a link on, wrote a ‘less sexually aggressive version of it.
Here’s a quote from them:
“You never figure out if she gets to go home,”
“You never figure out if there was something in her drink.”
“It just leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth.”
So apparently there was even a date rape drug involved.
The song was actually written in 1944 by Frank Loesser for him and his wife Lynn to perform at parties, and it quickly became a big hit.
Here’s an article on the Baby, It’s Cold Outside controversy
And falling even further down the PC rabbit hole, some SJWs (Social Justice Warriors) now want grandmas (and granddads, I suppose) to get active consent before they hug a grandchild, even signed consent forms in some cases. You can read more about it here: Grandma Consent Forms
For dinner tonight we again made trip down to Beeville to have dinner at the Beeville Diner. Last time we each had a salad and split an order of their wings. But the wings were so good that this time we each got an order of the wings and split a salad.
We get the wings with their Sweet Tangy Golden Sauce and they’re delicious. They’ have a crispy, crunchy crust, juicy insides, and an a really great sauce.
We split the Berry Nut Salad, the same one I had last time, but this time with grilled chicken instead of fried. Just as delicious as last time.
Tomorrow we’ll have the leftover Bella Sera pizza and then I’ve got a gate starting at 5:30pm, and then the next three days at another gate starting at 5:00pm.
Work, work, work.
Thought for the Day:
“A man chooses. A slave obeys.” – Andrew Ryan
December 21, 2017
Fantastic !!!
After a multi-bumpy start, including my being very under the weather this morning, we did make the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert at 3:30 this afternoon.
But we’re both pooped and are going to bed early so I’ll tantalize you with a few pics, and post a detailed blog tomorrow night.
The Word of the Day is: Boniface
Thought for the Day:
Half the people you know are below average. Unless you’re from Lake Wobegon.
December 21, 2018
Christmas Comes Early . . .
And an unconventional one, at that. At least as far as Christmas dinner goes.
Because of all the different travel plans this year, December 25th for the White/Morrison clan will be on Sunday, December 23rd. And rather than the usual boring turkey/ham cuisine, Brandi’s doing a brisket with potatoes, baked beans, green bean salad, tortillas, and brownies.
If that doesn’t scream ‘A Texas Christmas’, I don’t know what does.
And even better, Lowell will be heating up the pool/hot tub area for some prime soaking.time.
Most of my day at work was going back and forth between eBay and PayPal to get a refund on a machine that my client bought off eBay that looked like this on the sale page.
But what we received looked like this.
And since the seller is no longer answering our emails, I submitted this to both eBay and PayPal, and then it was back and forth between the three of us trying to work out the details.
Coming home this afternoon I stopped off at the Costco for gas, this time down to $1.78. And according to GasBuddy the Sam’s Club down in Texas is at $1.74.
Nice.
Originally we were going to eat at home this evening, and then do our Christmas dinner shopping and eating out tomorrow. But with the Christmas/Christmas Dinner scheduling change, we had supper at Chili’s once again. And with Jan’s favorite Honey Chipotle Ribs and my Grilled Chicken Caribbean Salad, the food was as good as always. However, as usual, the service sucked.
And although it was Friday, it wasn’t busy when we got there. At this point we might be better off checking out one of the other Chili’s in the area.
Tomorrow will be a busy day of present wrapping and recipe making so we’re ready for Sunday’s get-together. We’re still looking for just the perfect gift for Landon, and then I came across this. Since their new house has a big fire pit, I thought this would be perfect.
I’m not sure how Brandi feels about it, however.
Thought for the Day:
It takes three men to make up a conspiracy, but only one women. And two women can make a revolution.
