Monthly Archives: December 2020
Merry Christmas 2020!
We had a great time with family and friends today up at Brandi’s. But I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow.
Too full tonight.
December 25, 2010
Merry Christmas !
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Merry Christmas to Everyone!
from Jan and Greg White
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Jan and I got up this morning a little before 9 to find that the combination of heavy rain and high winds (very high – according to Weather.com – “winds at 31 mph, gusting to 47 mph”) had once again knocked the satellite off target, because the stakes holding the base down started pulling out of the soggy ground. Oh, well.
We left the rig about 10am, heading up to Brady’s Landing, a beautiful restaurant on the Houston Ship Channel next to the Turning Basin.
We’ve been eating here as a family on either Thanksgiving or Christmas for a number of years. They have a fantastic buffet with pretty much everything you can think of – fresh seafood, turkey, ham, roast beef, chicken, pork tenderloin, breakfast with omelets and waffles, vegetables, fruits, salads, and wonderful desserts, including large fresh strawberries and a chocolate fountain for dipping.
I’m starting to drool again, and I’m still stuffed to the gills.
Linda was being camera-shy, but I did get this picture of Piper, Chris, and Jan while we were there, with Miss Piper showing off one of her Christmas presents, the dress you saw her holding up last night.
We finally left Brady’s about 12:30 and headed home. After we arrived, Jan fill the bird feeders while I re-aligned the sat dish, though I don’t know how long it will hold with these winds. I’m starting to see why one of the rigs around here has his dish held down with 4 big concrete blocks. And I may do that next year.
We didn’t have this much trouble here the last two years, but we were parked facing in a different direction and the rig blocked the sat dish from the worst of the wind. But here the wind hits the dish head on coming off the water.
The push-pin at the bottom is where we are parked now. The one up and to the right is where we were the last two years.
We had thought we were in for the night, but about 5:15 our friend Maria Sutton called to see if we wanted to meet them and some more friends at the IHOP up the road in Kemah.
Well, Jan was in her jammies, and I in my cap (to keep my bald head warm), and had just settled down for a long… oh…wait. Sorry, wrong story.
Anyway, we got dressed and headed out. The place was pretty busy because it was one of the few places open, and the service was slow, but we had a great time anyway. And got a group picture out of it, too. (l to r) Bob, Maria, Jan, Me, Connie, and Herman.
We got back about 7:30, just in time to once again align the sat dish. Whoopeee!
I’m starting to think that, cheap as I am. spending $1,500 or so, for an automatic dome dish on the roof is looking better and better.
Getting home, I fixed another pot of the great coffee that Chris and Linda gave us, this time “Southern Pecan”. Just as great as last night.
That about wraps it up for a great Christmas Day. It’s supposed to go down to 31 degrees, and at 10pm it’s already 38. So, a nippy night, indeed. Thank goodness, for heated mattress pads.
More tomorrow…
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Thought for the Day:
My Rice Krispies told me to stay home today and clean my guns!
December 25, 2011
Merry Christmas to All . . .
Our morning started when we left the rig a little after 10am. Well, we left the rig, but not the park. The battery in the truck was absolutely, completely stone-cold dead. Not a peep when I turned the key.
Luckily the toad is parked right next to the battery compartment in the rig, so it didn’t take too long to drag out the jumper cables. But since the battery was completely dead, it took a few minutes to get enough charge into it so the engine would turn over and start.
The battery’s only a couple of years old and I’ve had no indication of any problems with it. The only thing I’ve done different is last night I left the power cord of my new Garmin GPS plugged in.
For a normal power cord this wouldn’t make any difference, but this is not a normal power cord. If also contains an FM Traffic Receiver. This receiver picks up traffic data that can be displayed along your route to show you traffic conditions ahead, i.e. congestion, wrecks, detours, etc. I assume that as long as the cord is plugged in, the receiver is active.
I’ll know more tomorrow when I try to start the truck again.
Finally about 15 minutes later we were on our way up to Brady’s Landing to meet all the kids.
It’s really good to have the whole family together for Christmas.
While we were eating Brandi showed us pictures of Landon with the new tricycle that Santa brought him this morning. He’s pretty happy with it.
After finishing our great meal we all headed our separate ways to spend Christmas Day. Brandi, Lowell, and Landon headed out to Katy to spend the day with her BFF Shawna, and her family. The rest of us just headed home.
Everyone waited around to see if I would need a jumpstart, but no problems. I still think it was the Traffic Receiver, but I’ll see tomorrow.
On the way home we stopped by Brandi’s to pick up some laundry and let out Kitty, their 105 pound Black Lab. She was very happy to see us.
We got these pictures of Jan’s sister Debbie’s family. From left to right, that’s Debbie’s daughter Christina, daughter Tana, Tana’s daughter Gwen, daughter-in-law, Laura, her daughter Ella, her husband, Jason, and their other daughter, Avery Jane.
Our Christmas afternoon consisted of a very nice nap and then a light dinner of potato skins, Jan’s Sausage Balls, and some of Chris’ Habanero Jelly spread over cream cheese, and used as a dip for crackers. For dessert we had a selection of Jan’s Christmas cookies, along with coffee made with the fresh beans and bean grinder that Chris and Linda gave us for Christmas.
All in all, a really great Christmas Day.
And Jan and I wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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Thought for the Day:
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.”
— Thomas Jefferson
December 25, 2012
Merry Christmas . . .
Well, the incoming cold front made itself known early this morning with 40 to 50 mph winds rocking the coach about 6am.
The high yesterday was 78, and the low last night was 68. But today the high is supposed to be 74 with a low of 31!
BRRR!
About 10:30 Jan and I headed over to Chris and Linda’s for Christmas dinner. Jan fixed a delicious corn casserole and deviled eggs.
As far as the eggs, we decided to try a different way to hard boil them. We BAKED them in the convection oven.
According to the Internet (and everything on the Internet must be true, right?) you can hard boil eggs by putting them on a rack in a 325 degree oven for 30 minutes, and then dumping them in an ice water bath. It worked pretty well, but a few egg whites had a partial brown discoloration, I think because they cracked.
The other problem was they were very hard to peel, but I don’t think this was because they were baked. Both the Internet and our daughter-in-law Linda said the fresher the eggs, the harder they are to peel.
And these eggs were very fresh. They were being loaded in the cooler as we were taking them out. Most websites say to buy them a week ahead of time and then boil them, We’ll try that next time.
Linda fixed a great meal with a spiral ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry gelatin salad, and delicious yeast rolls. And of course, a heavenly butter pecan cream cake.
After that fantastic meal, and fighting off a nap attack I spent some time cleaning up Chris’ computer and hooking a new laser printer. I also set up Google Cloud Print on the machine, and then on Piper’s iPad and Chris’ Galaxy SIII.
This way Piper can print to her home printer from anywhere she has Internet access.
Forgot to mention that Santa brought Piper a new bike this Christmas. Apparently they’re bringing back bikes in the retro style that look like they were built in the 50’s.
Since Chris had to go into work tonight, Jan and I headed home about 4pm, still fighting a lot of wind. And the temperature was distinctly cooler than this morning.
And it just got cooler all afternoon. And then the bottom dropped out. At 6pm it was still 70 degrees here at the park, but by 8:30 it was 40.
That’s quite a drop. And it’s supposed to go down to 31 tonight.
More BRRR!
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Things you thought were true, but aren’t:
Dinosaurs were cold-blooded. Increased K-12 spending and lower pupil/teacher ratios boost public school student outcomes. Most of the DNA in the human genome is junk. Saccharin causes cancer and a high fiber diet prevents it. Stars cannot be bigger than 150 solar masses.
December 25, 2013
Ho, Ho, Ho . . .
Lucky for us, Landon didn’t get up until almost 7 this morning. I reminded Brandi that she and Chris would try to get up around 4am, and we’d make them stay in their rooms until at least 6. So Brandi was getting off easy.
Here’s what Landon saw as he came out of his room.
At first he was kind of overwhelmed, but quickly got in the mood and started going through the packages.
What was funny is that, at first, Landon didn’t really want to have anything to do with the Kawasaki 4 Wheeler. He went through everything else first.
In the middle of all this, the Ghost of Christmas Presents, in the form of Miss Piper, passed through the scene on her way back to the sofa where she’d been residing all morning. Then a few minutes later, she gave it up and went back to bed for a while.
Finally Landon began to show interest in his new 4 Wheeler.
Then about that time, Landon realized that I was taking his picture and raised his shields to protect himself from the camera’s deadly rays.
But then it was back to his new toy.
Here you can see his old and his new 4 Wheelers. Quite a size difference.
Finally, it was time for him to strap on his crash helmet and hit the track, er . . . street. His helmet also came with knee pads, but he refused to wear them.
How did we ever survive as kids without helmets and knee pads?
Then it was out onto the street and down to the park.
Of course, Mommy, Daddy, and Miss Piper were along as the obligatory pit crew.
Later, about 12:30, Miss Piper, Jan, and I, headed back down to Clear Lake. Then stopping off at Chris and Linda’s to meet up with them, we drove over to the Luby’s Cafeteria across from Johnson Space Center to have our Christmas dinner.
We were kind of afraid that they might be really busy, being one of the few places open on Christmas Day, but were happy to find them no busier than a normal Sunday, and we only had to wait about 5 minutes before we were going down the line.
The food was really fresh and really good, and we got a couple of turkey and dressings to go, because Jan insists it’s not a real Christmas dinner unless you have leftovers. So we got our leftovers to go.
Jan and I got back to the rig about 3:30, and after we got unpacked, naps seemed to be in order, rounding out a really nice day.
Merry Christmas to everyone.
Thought for the Day:
“Just because it’s a conspiracy theory, doesn’t mean it’s a CRAZY conspiracy theory”.
December 25, 2015
Happy Boxing Day Eve . . .
Jan and I were up about 8am this morning, not to see what Santa brought us, I mean, no chimneys in the rig, right? No, we were up so we could have coffee and a few sausage balls for breakfast before we headed out for our daughter Brandi’s down in Katy.
On the road by 9, we made a quick stop at the Chase Bank ATM before joining I-45 south. There was probably less traffic than I’ve ever seen on Houston freeways during the day, or the night time, either. So it was an easy trip and we made good time, getting there about 10:30.
Getting the truck unloaded, we found Santa Claus had already come and Landon was deep in the wrapping paper playing with his new stuff. Even Miss Kitty got a new toy from Santa.
Landon was in charge of handing out the presents under the tree as Brandi gave them to him. At one point he ended up with a present for each of his grandmothers in his hands at the same time.
He ran out to the middle of the living room, looked back and forth, and then ran back to Brandi and said, “I’m confused. There’re too many grandmas.”
As far as Jan, Santa Greg brought her a new Amazon Fire
One thing I noticed is that apparently Amazon has just shut down all shipping until Monday. Normally if I order something on Friday evening, it will ship on Saturday and I’ll get it Monday or Tuesday. But now, nothing will ship until Monday, even if you select One Day Shipping.
Another thing I discovered with this is that there is apparently a new name for imitation leather – ‘Vegan Leather’
Funny, I thought all cows were vegans.
Chris, Lowell, and I received Air Swimmers. These are helium balloons shaped like fish or birds.
Chris and I got these.
A Shark and a Clown Fish. Should I feel insulted that I got the Clown Fish?
And Lowell got the Angry Bird from the Angry Birds game.
Here’s Chris with his.
And here’s Lowell with his Angry Bird.
Filled with helium from a small tank, and remote controlled, they have a moveable weight system that heads them up or down, and the tail flips back and forth like a real fish to provide propulsion.
Really neat, and fun to play with. But I wouldn’t really know.
Because I was the last to put mine together, and Chris’ ginormous shark bogarted the rest of the helium, there was only enough left in the tank for me to inflate mine just enough so that it would hang upside down just like a real dead fish.
I wonder how long before it starts to smell?
About 1pm, the food was laid out buffet-style and we all dug in. Turkey breast, Spiral-Sliced Ham, Cornbread Dressing and Turkey Gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Candied Yams with Marshmallows, Scalloped Potatoes, Corn Casserole, Baked Potato Salad, Cranberry Salad, and probably a few others I missed.
But it was all really delicious, and we ate until we hurt. Or maybe that was just me. But I did hear others moaning and groaning, so maybe not. And it seems like a lot of people disappeared for naps. Or was that just me too?
We got back to the rig about 7pm, bring home a lot more food than we took there. So we’ll be having delicious leftovers for a while. Nice!
So another really nice Christmas can be marked off the calendar for this year. Hope all of you enjoyed your Christmas as much as we enjoyed ours.
Merry Christmas from Jan and Greg White
Thought for the Day:
Peace On Earth
December 25, 2017
Family Traditions . . .
First off, Jan and I want thank everyone for their many Christmas Wishes. We hope ya’ll had a really nice Christmas and have a great New Year!
Finishing up last night’s visit to the Houston Magical Winter Light’s, we got here about 6pm and found it even more amazing close up, starting off with these two lovely ladies.
The whole area is made of these ‘set’ pieces, with many different themes.
Jan especially liked the dinosaurs which are about 50 feet tall,
as well as this Chinese dragon.
The detail on these is just fantastic.
The lights and decorations here are really something, and well worth a visit. Besides the lights they have a complete carnival ride area for the kids.
It’s open through January 2nd.
The only suggestion I could make is that it would be nice if they scattered more benches around other than in the ride area. Us old folks would appreciate it.
This morning we were on the road about 9:15 heading up to Katy and Brandi and Lowell’s.
Brandi has two trees, this smaller one at the front door,
and this larger one in the living room. Somehow I forgot to turn on the lights before I got the photo.
The cute redheads are Zoe and Zander, Lowell’s niece and nephew, who are here with their mother Grace from San Diego. The cute blonde, of course, is Miss Piper.
Landon’s showing off his Magformers with a heart he made, kind of like large Legos, but they’re magnetic.
The Christmas dinner spread was as delicious as usual, and bountiful enough that there was plenty for everyone to take home.
This was Landon’s big gift, a Nuvison 10 Duo Draw.
It’s a 10” Windows 10 laptop with a touchscreen that you can drawing on with a stylus. Plus the screen detaches for use as a tablet just like the Microsoft Surface Pro. Brandi got a really great deal on it from Costco.
I ended up bringing it home with me to finish setting up. Since it was several months old, it’s got hours of updates to download and then finished setting up. Landon was OK with it since he has so much other stuff.
Tomorrow’s going to be a nice stay at home recuperation day, that we’re really looking forward. Then it’s back to work on Wednesday.
Thought for the Day:
“The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. – Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180)
December 25, 2019
The Good Stuff . . .
Jan and I were out the door about 9:30 this morning heading up to Brandi’s in Katy for our Christmas family get-together. Along the way, we made a quick stop at the local CircleK for some coffee, since they had Jan’s favorite Pumpkin Spice Latte.
I was surprised to see that they had new coffee machines, ones that grind and make your coffee to order.
Each machine has 3 different coffee flavor/types, so you have 9 choices. I guess it works kind of like a large Keurig machine. But it does make good coffee. And it ‘s always fresh.
Then we made a 2nd stop right down the road at our storage room to pick up Brandi’s suitcase to take back to her. Then it was on up to Katy.
We got there and found Brandi’s home as beautifully decorated as usual. The big tree and the living room,
and the nicely laid out dining room.
Jan commented on the beautiful garland underneath the TV stand and found out Brandi had made it herself.
Right after we got there Brandi heard me coughing, and knowing about my stuffy head/hearing problem, gave me a Sudafed.
This was the Good Stuff. The locked up behind the counter, sign your life away to even look at the package, promise not to make meth with it, stuff.
So I took two, hoping for the best.
Then while I was setting up Landon’s new laptop, Lowell gave me a couple of ounces of this.
94 Proof Stranahan’s Snowmelt Single Malt Whiskey
This too, is the Good Stuff.
Aged for at least two years, made from high in the mountains snow melt, and only sold for one day a year, people line up and camp out in freezing weather to buy their two bottle allotment.
Lucky for Lowell, he has a friend out in Colorado who buys it for him.
Now in hindsight, it probably wasn’t a good idea to mix Sudafed and alcohol, and I don’t know which good stuff it was, the Sudafed or the Whiskey, or both, but as we were all walking into the dining room all of a sudden I felt a Snap! Crackle! Pop! in my right ear . . . and I could hear again.
It’s A Christmas Miracle!
We had a great meal, and a great get-together.
From the front on the left, it’s Landon, Brandi, Jan and me. And from the front on the right, it’s Lowell, Lowell’s sister Sherry, and Sherry’s friend Steve.
And through the magic of Paint Shop Pro, I also took the photo.
When we got there Landon was riding all over the house on one of those Hoverboard Electric Scooters that you’ve probably seen.
And we were surprised to see that Landon was riding it like he was born on it. He could turn, reverse, rotate in place, and stop, all without falling off.
Since I hadn’t seen it before, I assume it was a Christmas gift, so I asked if he had been practicing on a friend’s or something.
Lowell said, No, he just got on it and took off, and that they were surprised too. In fact he even served everyone with dessert at the table, carrying a plate in each hand, and never a bobble.
Impressive!
Thought For The Day:
”The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.” — George Carlin
And To All A Good Night!
EVE!
While orbiting the Moon on Apollo 8, Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968, Astronaut William Anders said, “We are now approaching lunar sunrise and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.”
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”
Merry Christmas From Texas, Y’all!
Jan and I headed up to the Clear Lake area to meet up with Brandi and the rest of the Morrison clan at King Food about 5pm. But we left early for a few errands along the way.
As I mentioned yesterday I want to replace the front disc brake pads on the Jeep this weekend so our first stop was at the local O’Reilly’s Auto Parts for a set of ceramic pads. Then a little further along, we stopped by our office manager Jennifer’s house to drop off a small present.
Finally heading up I-45 the next stop was at the office to pick up a couple of packages that had come in at the last minute. Then it was right down the block to my client’s home to drop off a Christmas present for them.
Now it was time to make our way back over to King Food. Since we beat everyone there, the first thing we did was to put in 3 orders of their Garlic Honey Crusted Crispy Chicken Wings.
This because they take a while. But they’re certainly worth the wait.
Starting on the right, we’ve got Lindell and Sonja, Lowell’s parents down from OK, and Lowell’s sister Sherry. Then on the left coming back this way, Lowell, Landon, Brandi, and Jan.
And for a change, Landon was all smiles in the photo. Must know that Christmas is getting close.
Now that is a cute kid.
Since we’re all seeing everyone again tomorrow up at Brandi’s, we finally went our separate ways about 7pm, with Jan and I checking out some Christmas lights in a past favorite area of ours.
The neighborhood we drove through used to be fantastic years ago, with entire streets coordinating their displays. But now, though there are still some very nice individual displays, overall, it’s a pale shadow of what used to be.
But we’ll give it another try coming home from Brandi’s tomorrow night, with a subdivision that’s on the top 10 list in the Houston area, so we’ve got high hopes for it.
We’ll see.
December 24, 2010
Merry Christmas Eve . . .
Our Christmas Eve day started out with a relaxing morning sitting around drinking coffee and talking about our upcoming travels this year.
As it stands now we’ll probably leave here February 6th, which will be the 3rd anniversary of the beginning of our full-time life in 2008. We’ll first head over to Canyon Lake, near New Braunfels, TX to spend a few days visiting our friend Gina.
Then it’s on to Las Cruces, Tucson, Gila Bend, and then into Yuma.
Everything after that is still kind of written in the wind. So we’ll see.
About 4 pm we left the rig for Brandi’s to pick up the mail, and then on to the storeroom to get some Christmas presents we had stored there.
Then about 5 we met Chris, Linda, and Piper at the King Food Chinese Restaurant in Webster.
Christmas Eve at King Food is a family tradition that we’ve done for somewhere between 20 to 25 years. We’re not exactly sure.
We’ve actually been eating there for 32 years, since December 1978 when we moved here from Alabama.
But this year was a little different since we now have to share Brandi with Lowell’s family in Oklahoma. This is why we had our King Food dinner with Brandi and family last Saturday night.
Any excuse to eat twice at King Food is a win-win.
After our usual great meal there, we headed over to Chris’ to open presents.
It’s always been a tradition in Chris’ family that they exchange personal presents on Christmas Eve, with Christmas morning reserved for presents left by Santa. But since Piper is 17 now, Santa doesn’t visit anymore.
Here’s Chris, Piper, and Linda, with Miss Piper checking out a new dress she received.
Piper gave her mother Linda this beautiful seahorse vase she made at school. There are actually two seahorses, one on each side. Piper did all this by hand.
And here’s a bowl Piper made about 3 years ago. A very talented young lady.
We left Chris’ about 7:45 planning on driving thru some neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights, another family tradition of ours on Christmas Eve. But it had started pouring down rain while we were inside which put a damper on the light viewing.
So after a short while we headed back to the rig, to finish up the evening with one of the great coffees that Linda had given us for Christmas.
We chose Cinnamon Coffee Cake, which being DeCaf, was perfect for nighttime drinking.
And to go with it, we had one of the gifts we got from Brandi and Lowell, a box of Williams-Sonoma Croissants.
These croissants are fantastic, so good, in fact, that they’re on the list of Oprah’s Favorites.
They come out looking like this, but they start as little frozen logs. There were two types in our box, plain and chocolate-filled. And both are delicious.
They’re shipped overnight, frozen in a Styrofoam container. You let them thaw out and rise for 9 hours and then pop them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or 13 minutes in our convection oven.
They come out crispy, flakey, and fantastic. And a perfect match for the coffee from Linda.
All in all, a beautiful end to a great day!
More tomorrow…_____________________________________________________________________
Thought for the Day:
If you give someone a piece of your mind, be sure you can get by with what’s left.
December 24, 2014
Merry Christmas Eve!
We were up about 7am (way too early for me) and pulled out of our site about 8:55 and right down the road to the propane fill station. I had make an appointment yesterday for 9am, and Bill Burden, the Ranger, showed up right on time. And he was quick too.
Ten minutes later I had taken on 28 gallons of propane, and was pulling out. I did have to stop off at the office to pay, but I was quickly back on the road with Jan following me in the truck as our next stop was the Colorado County Oil Company about 4 miles down the road, where we got about 35 gallons of diesel at $2.59 a gallon. Nice!
While we were filing up, Jan pulled in behind the rig and I got us hooked up and ready to roll. We pulled out at 9:50, having gotten propane and diesel and been back on the road in 50 minutes. A new record for us.
The trip back over to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails was uneventful with not a lot of traffic. Or at least not as much as I had feared. We pulled in the park a couple of minutes after 12 and got a big welcoming hug from Kim, the head ranger.
We asked about vacancies in the ‘E’ ring, but she didn’t think there were any available. And there weren’t. So we drove over to the ‘F’ area, and after trying out three sites that proved to be too uneven to be able to level the coach without a tire in the air, we finally settled on F41, which turned out to be very level.
Just about the time we finished setting up, our friend Garland Scott showed up, having seen us driving around the park looking for a space. That’s Garland on the left, and his wife Valencia on the right, next to Jan.
We first met them here last April, so it will be good to see them again. Made a date to get together for dinner after the holiday madness settles down.
About 2:30 we headed out for Clear Lake to meet up with the rest of the family at our traditional Christmas Eve dining establishment, King Food. We’ve eaten here on Christmas Eve for about 30 years now, and this year was no exception.
And after our usual great meal, Chris headed to work on his motorcycle, Linda headed home, Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and Piper headed up to Katy, and Jan and I stopped off at a nearby Kroger’s for a few things for tomorrow’s party. Then we also headed up to Katy to spend the night with Brandi, et.al.
Landon’s really excited about Santa coming, so much so that he’s got Elf pajamas to wear to bed tonight.
Really cute.
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Thought for the Day:
Oh it’s Tommy this, and Tommy that, and chuck ‘im out, the brute,
but it’s “Savior of our country!” when the guns begin to shoot . . . – Rudyard Kipling
December 24, 2015
Christmas Eve Travels . . .
Christmas Eve started for Jan and I this morning when we headed out a little after 10am. Our first stop was the Cracker Barrel right down at the next exit for breakfast, and to also pick up the Cornbread Dressing and Turkey Gravy that we called to reserve last Saturday.
And apparently a lot of other people had the same idea, at least the breakfast part, because the parking lot was full and there were people waiting outside in the rocking chairs. Pretty much like a Sunday morning, not a Thursday. Or at least not a Christmas Eve Thursday.
But while we were there to have breakfast, Jan was very happy to find that CB was already serving lunch, even though it wasn’t 11 yet. And Thursday being CB’s Turkey and Dressing Day, that of course is what Jan ordered.
Did she forget what we’re having for dinner tomorrow? For my part, I stuck to the script and had breakfast. While we were eating, the server brought out our 2 lbs. of Cornbread Dressing and quart of Turkey Gravy to take with us for tomorrow’s dinner at Brandi’s.
Traffic was heavy for a normal Thursday, but not bad at all, so we were down in the Katy area in just a little over an hour. But before Brandi’s, we made a couple of stops. Well, one stop, but two stores. The Harbor Freight Tools for me, and the 99 cent store for Jan.
I wanted a cheap pair of Channellock-type pliers to keep in my water bay, and Jan wanted to pick up some more wrapping materials. Lucky for us they were both in the same strip center.
We finally got to Brandi’s a little after 1 and got everything unloaded. While Jan wrapped presents, I worked with Landon putting together a Lego Santa Claus visit.
The box says it’s for 7+ years, but it certainly was a challenge for Landon and I. There’s never a 7 year old around when you need one.
About 4:30 we all headed over to the nearby Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro, one of our all-time favorite places. This was not our usual Christmas Eve eatery, since for many years we’ve all gotten together at King Food Chinese Restaurant down in Webster. But that didn’t work out this year.
The entire Friendswood contingent of the family, our son Chris,our daughter-in-law Linda, and our granddaughter Piper, all had to work at their respective jobs tonight. So as much we would have like to keep up the tradition, it didn’t make a lot of sense for all of us to drive down to the Clear Lake area for just ourselves. So Little V’s it was.
On the left side, it’s Lowell’s sister Sherry, our son-in-law Lowell, our daughter Brandi, and our grandson Landon. On the right side, it’s Lowell’s father Lendell, Lowell’s mother Sonja, and then Jan.
Landon’s thoroughly engrossed in watching a Minecraft video on Brandi’s phone.
Everybody has their standard order here, starting out with an order of their Pork Spring Rolls.
Really great! Very tasty with a crunch of vegetables, the slices of pork, and the herbs and spices.
Next up, I always have the Shaking Beef Vermicelli.
You can’t believe how tender the slices of beef are. The mix of vegetables really enhances the texture and taste in this dish. It’s a must have.
For dessert, there’s no other choice but the Mini Crème Brulees,
toasted up fresh when you order them. The perfect end to a great meal.
Getting back to the house, the ladies started a cookie/treat assembly line, making up Rollo Pretzel Bites and several others.
Wrapping up, Jan and I got back to the rig a little before 9pm, just to get ready to do it again tomorrow morning.
Really looking forward to having everyone together at one time.
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Thought for the Day:
December 24, 2016
Christmas Eve in the ‘Patch’ . . .
Although I’m writing this Christmas Eve, most of you will be reading this Christmas Day, so:
from the Texas Oil Patch.
Some gates and sites shut down for Christmas, while my site didn’t and that’s fine since I’m getting paid to sit here and do nothing. There is no one here and nothing going on. I’ve had two people in and out all evening, one topping off the diesel in the light towers and the other one double-checking some pressure readings.
But last night was an entirely different story. The shift started out OK but quickly went in the toilet.
It started with both AT&T and Verizon having cell service/data service problems in this area. I was having trouble getting online with my Verizon AirCard and my phone was showing only 1X. In fact I wasn’t able to upload last night’s blog until I got back to the rig about 5:30 this morning.
AT&T is what the iPad’s use for the program we log vehicles in and out, but it’s only used occasionally when we upload the data collected to the central server. Well, no problem since we weren’t suppose to be very busy anyway – only 10 vehicles or so all night.
But that was before some guy in a office somewhere decided that it might be a good idea to bring in all the equipment needed for the upcoming job here – Coil Tubing, Wireline, Fluid Tanks, Generators, Pumps, Fuel Tanks, etc., tonight!
Now normally we get a heads-up from the Company Man that we’ve got a lot of equipment coming in, but not this time. The only notice I got is looking out the window at a long line of headlights coming down the road.
Lots and lots of headlights. So grabbing the iPad, outside I go.
Now the company likes us to upload the vehicle data fairly often if we’re busy so we don’t lose anything if there’s a problem. So about 7pm I did just that when I had a short lull in traffic.
Big mistake. Big, big mistake.
Something about the flakey AT&T data signal locked up the iPad and froze the screen. But finally I got the iPad rebooted and figured I was in the clear. But No, it couldn’t be that easy. Now whenever I tried to start up the logging problem, all I got was an error message.
Rut Roh!
And now I’ve got more lights coming down the road. Well, no real problem. I’ll just go back to doing it the old-fashioned way, with paper logs. After all, that’s the way Jan and I have been doing it for the last 5 years. And I’ve never had a paper log lock up, or need to be rebooted.
But . . .
(You just knew there was a ‘but’ coming, didn’t you.)
there were no log sheets in the shack at all, not a single one. In fact there was not any paper either, just a few already-filled out maintenance forms.
And now I’ve got trucks waiting on me. Finally I see a stack of folded napkins, the kind you find in restaurant dispensers, sitting on the window ledge. So grabbing a handful, back outside I go. It’s not really easy writing on the textured surface of the napkins, but it’s getting the job done.
But . . .
(Yep, another one)
then it started to sprinkle. Not hard, just enough to wet the napkins so the ink starts wicking through the paper smearing everything. Crap!
Finally I was starting to run out of napkins, and so back inside for a few minutes, I saw a stack of SiteWatch Post-It’s that had fallen behind the console. So now I’m getting 3 vehicles to a Post-It and trying to keep track of all these little pieces of paper.
Then a Circle8 guy sees what I’m doing and hands me a company note pad.
Much better. Then about 2:30am it all wound down to a stop. I then went back and started transferring the napkin and Post-It scribbles to note pad pages.
Counting up, by the time I was done, I had logged 136 vehicles in the 8 hours between 6:30pm and 2:30am. That’s about 1 every 3 or 4 minutes on average. But I would get maybe 10 vehicles in a row and then have a 5 or 10 minute break before more started coming in.
Glad that’s over. When I got back to the rig this morning, I packed away in the truck a couple of legal pads and a pad of Gate Guard Services login forms.
Just in case.
Tomorrow Jan and I will have our Turkey & Dressing Christmas Dinner from Barth’s before I come back on this gate for the last day.
And now it looks like I got another gate STARTING Monday. This is the first time I haven’t just been given 3 or 4 specific days. So I’m hoping that the STARTING means it’s something long term.
We’ll see.
Thought for the Day:
”Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.”
December 24, 2017
Merry Christmas To All !!!
Jan spent the morning making her world-famous Sausage Balls and Green Bean Casserole for tomorrow’s big Christmas Dinner at Brandi’s.
Then about 3pm we headed up to the Clear Lake area, first for a quick stop at my client’s for a little bit to set up a system image backup on the Main Office computer. I’ll start it up remotely later tonight.
Then it was on to King Food for our big annual Christmas Eve dinner there. We’ve done this most every year for many years, except for last year when we were gate guarding in south Texas.
And this year we had some new family members from Lowell’s side of the family.
From left to right – Jan, Sonja and Lendel, who are Lowell’s parents, Sherry, who is Lowell’s sister, and Zander, Grace, and Zoe. Grace is Sherry’s daughter, with Zander and Zoe her children. Next up is our son Chis, Piper, our grand-daughter, and Brandi and Lowell.
After a really great time as well as a fantastic meal, we all headed down to La Marque to visit the Houston Magical Winter Lights.
I’ll have more about this tomorrow.
The Headline of the Day: Bees attack cops in sting gone wrong.
Thought for the Day:
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. – Romans 1:22-32
December 24, 2019
A White Family Christmas Tradition . . .
First off Jan and I want to wish our many friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope this year was good to you, and that next year will be even better.
For the past 35 years or more it’s been a White Family Christmas Tradition to have Christmas Eve dinner at our favorite King Food.Chinese Restaurant. I don’t know exactly how it got started, but I don’t think it had anything to do The Christmas Story movie. It could have been just the fact that it may have been the only one of our local places that was open Christmas Eve.
Sometimes it’s the entire family like two years ago,
and sometimes it’s just Jan and I like last year.
I think the only time we’ve missed in the last 10 years or so was Christmas 2016 when Jan and I were gate guarding down south in Cuero, TX during Christmas.
This year it was just Jan and I, and Lowell, Landon, and Brandi.
Lowell’s parents couldn’t come down this year, and both Linda and Piper had to work today, so it was just the Five Amigos.
Here’s Jan showing off her light-up Christmas earrings,
when she got photobombed by Brandi.
Hopefully we’ll be getting together with Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper as soon as we can.
One thing I found interesting is what while a lot of people in the States have Chinese food as part of their Christmas festivities, in Japan KFC fried chicken has been a Christmas staple since the 1970’s.
Now over there you’re likely to the Colonel delivering KFC dressed up as Santa Claus.
You just never know.
Coming home Jan and drove through a few neighborhoods checking the light show.
Sometimes entire streets get into the season.
Tomorrow morning we’ll be heading up to Brandi’s in Katy for our Christmas Dinner get-together. Really looking forward to it.
Thought For The Day:
The greatest wealth is to live content with little. – Plato
