Monthly Archives: January 2021
Gentle Gonging . . .
Jan and I headed up to League City about 1pm to have Turkey & Dressing at Cracker Barrel, it being Thursday, after all. And it also helped that we had a gift card for CB given to Jan as a Christmas present by Sonja and Lendell, Lowell’s parents.
Then after Jan got her Turkey fix we headed back down to the Santa Fe area for a PO/Dollar General stop, finishing up with coffees from Cowboy Coffee.
Getting home I finally had a chance to assemble Jan’s Wind Chimes and then we sat outside in our new chairs and enjoyed the view and the gentle gonging of the chimes.
We’re coming up on a year with our Rubbermaid storage shed and I’ve been very happy with it. It survived the Texas summer with no fading or warping, and in fact it still looks brand new. Very nice.
When we got the Jeep I couldn’t mount our Garmin GPS like I did in the Dakota. There just wasn’t room. But with a little research I found this one that works great.
It works great and it was only $14.
The Echo Dot is normally only used on long trips to listen to music and news without having to keep finding a new station. To keep it connected I just hotspot it to my phone, and it works great.
Tomorrow night we’ve got another Alvin Opry show, so probably not much of a blog then.
Thought For The Day:
There is nothing wrong with your television set.
Do not attempt to adjust the picture.
We are controlling the transmission.
If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume.
If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper.
We will control the horizontal.
We will control the vertical.
We can roll the image, make it flutter.
We can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity.
For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear.
We repeat: There is nothing wrong with your television set.
You are about to participate in a great adventure.
You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to . . . The Outer Limits.
January 7, 2011
Toys and Tea Rooms . . .
Another early morning started when we left the rig about 9 am heading up the road to Webster for Jan’s 9:45 dental appointment.
While she was there, I ran some errands, ending up at EPO (Electronics Parts Outlet), one of my favorite places to explore.
They have computer stuff, electronic parts and tools, science kits, and best of all,
TOYS…lots and lots of Toys!
And as Jan says, I can resist anything but temptation. I saw a new helicopter that I just had to have. It’s a new 3 channel model that has both gyro-stabilizers and an accelerometer, so it’s very stable and easy to control.
And a lot of fun to annoy the cats with. Of course sometime the cats annoy it back.
I’ve lost several copters that way.
You can see it fly here.
As I was leaving EPO, I got a call from Brock’s Car Care telling me what they’d found on my truck. And as I suspected, a stuck brake caliper was the problem. So the caliper, pads, and rotor on the right side had to be replaced. But because of the higher pressure in the brake lines caused by the stuck caliper, this caused the left side to stick and grind down the pads and the rotor on that side too, though not as bad.
Brock’s said the total would be about $650. So next I called my extended warranty company to see what they would be able to take care of.
And the answer, as I suspected, was pretty much nothing. They ended up paying $70 of it.
Which was 1 brake caliper. Apparently they pay for the bad part, but not anything the bad part damages. Huh?
Oh well, I’d been trying to remember to cancel them anyway. This just gives me incentive.
I’d originally got the warranty free for the first year when I bought our 2004 Dodge Dakota in December 2007, and then kept it going since then. But this is the first time I’ve used it, because nothing has gone wrong so far, just maintenance stuff.
Jan was done about 11:30 so after picking her up we drove over to Jason’s Deli for lunch. Jan loves their Muffalettas and Broccoli Cheese Soup, and I really like their Southwestern Chicken Chili, so we were both happy.
Finishing lunch, we headed home to the rig. While Jan feed the birds and then sat outside with Mister and enjoyed the nice weather, I went back to finish flushing out the water heater, now that I got the drain plug off.
I use one of these wands to do a better job of flushing it out. It goes on the end of your water hose and lets you get up in there and get all the ‘gunk’ out. You’d really be surprised how much stuff comes out.
One more job on my pre-flight checklist done.
We left out again about 3pm so Jan could meet Lowell and Landon at Landon’s pediatrician’s office.
Brandi had noticed a lot of wax in Landon’s right ear and wanted to get it checked out. Jan was along for moral support and to help manage all the bags, bottles and carriers that seem to accompany any moving of Master Landon. He has his own ‘posse’.
It turns out that Landon does have a slight ear infection, so the doctor prescribed an antibiotic to take care of it.
I left them there while I went by Home Depot to get some more Teflon tape and then by Sam’s Club to pick up our prescriptions for the month.
Then I headed over to the house to wait for them. On the way I got a call from Brock’s saying my truck was ready. But I had to wait for Jan get there so I could go get it.
After Jan got there and we got our truck, we drove over to Texas Tea Room to supper. Then it was finally back home for the night.
More tomorrow…
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Thought for the Day:
”There is nothing so aggravating in life as being condescended to by an idiot”
January 7, 2012
It’s Dead, Jim . . .
Thought I’d start off today’s blog with a little musical interlude.
Here’s “Sweet Georgia Brown” on 3 Guitars and A Tractor, in German, no less.
“Sweet Georgia Brown” on 3 Guitars and a Tractor.
After coffee this morning I got back on my truck’s power window problem. I wanted to pull out the motor – regulator combination and see if it can be repaired, or will need to be replaced.
First I had to get the glass out, by removing the trim strips from the window edge,
and then the front window guide inside the door.
After removing the two bolts at the bottom of the glass, I was able to carefully lift the glass out of the door and set it aside.
Then 5 more bolts and I was able to pull out the motor and regulator combination. It took a while to figure out how it works,
but finally I found the culprit.
This piece of plastic had broken off, letting the the cable that raises and lowers the glass, wear thru the plastic guide and snap off.
I spent some time trying to figure out if it could be repaired, but it quickly became obvious that if I did fix it, it wouldn’t last.
So my next step was to order the replacement from Amazon that I found yesterday. Hopefully it will be here toward the end of next week.
In the meantime, while I’ve got the door panel open, I’m going to take a look at a problem with my door lock. The key unlocks the door, but does not turn off the alarm. I fixed it once before, but I haven’t had any luck this time. I may have to replace the lock, and if so, now would be the time to do it.
Tonight was Jan’s night to get together with her former coworkers like she does every year. This year it was at Café Adobe up in Webster, so I dropped her off a little before 5:30, and I headed over to one of my client’s office to work on configuring his new computers and router.
I picked up Jan about 8:15 and we finally headed home after another busy day.
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Thought for the Day:
“No clever arrangement of bad eggs ever made a good omelet.” ~ C.S. Lewis
January 7, 2013
Depots and Dinosaurs . . .
Today started out slow but ended up being fairly busy.
My first job was to get outside and caulk the roof seam right over the window next to my computer desk. We’ve had a lot of rain since we got here at Galveston Bay RV Park right before Thanksgiving. And during the last several downfalls, I’ve started to get some water leaking in down the inside of the window.
So I got out my ladder and my trusty caulk gun and went at it. The seam I was trying to seal is where the roof rolls down and meets the vertical side. I had caulk part of this a couple of years ago, but as it turned out it was a length of the original caulk that had a lot of voids and holes in it. I caulked about 2 feet of the seam, and we’ll see how it does over the next several days.
The reason I wanted to get the problem fixed today is that we’re expecting 4 days of solid rain.
My next task was to call Westland Sales out in Clackamas, OR. I need a new door switch for our Splendide washer/dryer. Lately it has developed an intermittent problem of not wanting to open at the end of wash or dry cycle. Sometimes it will open immediately, sometimes it takes overnight.
So a new switch was needed. When I talked to Westland, the tech said it’s a known problem with this model and he was surprised it lasted this long. A new one will be about $80 and will go out First Class today. I always have gotten great service from Westland.
Luckily I will be able to replace the switch from the front and won’t have to pull the washer out of the cabinet.
About 3:30 Jan and I headed out for dinner and some errands. Our first stop was at a local feed store where we were finally able to find Jan some deer corn. Or at least we will find it there when we go back tomorrow afternoon after their shipment comes in. So hopefully that is taken care of.
Our next stop was at the TGI Friday’s across the Interstate from Baybrook Mall. We haven’t been there for several years and thought we’d try it again. Don’t know why we haven’t been back more. We’ve always enjoyed it and this time was no exception.
Then it was right down the road to the Home Depot for a return. When I bought caulk last week, I thought I was buying one tube of clear and one of white, but ended up with two of white. Guess they were mixed up in the bins
Our last stop was at Kroger’s. Jan’s going to make a big batch of veggie soup tomorrow and wanted to get a fresh onion and some garlic, along with a few other things.
Hot soup sounds great for these next few cold rainy days.
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Thought for the Day:
“It is virtually impossible to clean the pond as long as the pigs are still crapping in it”
January 7, 2014
Peaks and Fountains . . .
We’re both pretty much back to normal this morning (well, as normal as we get, anyway) , and after 4 days at the rig, Jan was starting to get cabin fever, so about noon we headed up to Clear Lake. Our first stop was Twin Peaks for lunch at Jan’s new favorite place. Mine too, but don’t tell her that.
She had her Spicy Hot Chicken Ranch Sandwich, while I had a cup of their really good Venison Chili and an order of the Average Joes, the mini sausage dogs with spicy mustard, and chopped onions and jalapenos. A great meal.
And of course it wouldn’t be Twin Peaks without our lovely server, Lauren.
Our next stop was Bed, Bath & Beyond for a couple of things. A blog reader said that they had a good K-Cup selection, and Jan wanted to check out their bed sheets
They did have a large K-Cup selection but nothing that really caught our eye, and Jan didn’t find any sheets she liked, so our next stop was at a client’s office to install some updates.
Then it was off to Sam’s Club for a few things before heading over to our son Chris’ house to pick up Jan’s Mary Kay order that had come in yesterday.
Heading home, we stopped off at the Victory Lakes Wal-Mart for a few things. And I finally found some K-Cup Hot Chocolate.
It was Café Express by Green Mountain Coffee, so we thought we’d give it a try.
We got home about 5:30 and then about 7:30 I fixed Jan and I some of the K-Cup Hot Chocolate to have with some of the cookies she bought.
The Hot Chocolate turned out to be pretty good, but I doubt we’ll buy it again. It’s more expensive in K-Cup form, and compared to the Swiss Miss packets, it’s more work.
With the packets, I can microwave enough hot water to make a cup for each of us at the same time, but the K-Cups have to be done sequentially. Plus if you follow the directions, you’re supposed to run a cup of just water through your brewer to clean it out after you make the hot chocolate. Just more trouble.
One thing I did figure out is that why the all the K-Cup hot chocolates seem to have both sugar and sucralose (Splenda) in them. Some of our blog readers, as well as some online reviewers don’t like the taste of sucralose and wonder why they put both in the K-Cups, but not the packets.
I think it’s because it won’t fit if you sweetened it only with sugar. I took an empty K-Cup pod, cleaned it out and then try to pour a packet of the Swiss Miss into it. And it overflowed the K-Cup. By a good bit.
Artificial sweeteners are much sweeter per weight than sugar, so they use as much sugar as they can, and then finish it off with Splenda. A bad break for people who don’t like Splenda or NutraSweet. Personally I can’t tell the difference between sugar and Splenda or NutraSweet, but Sweet N Low taste bitter to me. Different strokes, and all that.
It looks like the freezing weather is gone for a while so I hooked us back up to shore water this morning. It did get down to about 27 degrees last night, but tonight’s supposed to be in the 40’s.
However it was much colder last night up in the Katy area where this fountain froze over.
You’d think we were up north, or something.
Thought for the Day:
“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
January 7, 2015
Moving On, Again . . .
Today was our day to oscillate back over to the Colorado River Thousand Trails near Columbus, TX., our second two-week stay here this season.
Since we only had about a 2-1/2 hour trip over from Conroe, we didn’t need to leave very early. So about 8:30 we drove down to the nearby Cracker Barrel for breakfast. CB usually has great coffee and today was no exception. Perfect for a 40 degree morning.
And as sometimes happens at CB, Jan found a $35 blouse she really liked, to go with our $22 breakfast. Funny how it works out that way.
So is CB a gift shop with a restaurant attached, or a restaurant with a gift shop attached?
We pulled out of the Conroe TT about 11:30 and after a very smooth trip, pulled into our site at Colorado River a little after 2pm. And we once again got our favorite site, A2. And apparently we really lucked up with that. The ranger said that the couple who had been in this spot had just left this morning. and a week early.
Lucky us.
Getting parked and set up, I did get to try out the new leveler pad / awning hook tool that I made. My homemade pads are very strong, but pretty heavy. And normally I use the awning hook to push and prod them into position. But if the ground is rough, then the awning hook flexes and bends instead of pushing and prodding. So I’d been thinking about coming up with something a little stronger.
So a couple of weeks ago when we were going through stuff in our storeroom, I came across a metal mop handle with a screw-on mop head,
and this got me to thinking about how I could use it.
Remembering the extension poles I’ve used with rollers to paint ceilings, it seemed like the threads were pretty similar. So when I was in Home Depot the other day I picked up a small foam paint roller, being sure to get the heaviest one.
And as it turned out, the threads were a perfect fit.
And removing the roller gave me a hook that is strong enough move the pads around with no problem, and it’s still a great awning hook too.
I love it when a plan comes together.
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Thought for the Day:
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. – Terry Pratchett
January 7, 2016
A New Hack?
When I got up about 11 this morning, Jan was knee-deep in spring (winter?) cleaning in the rig. She had things emptied out from all the cabinets in the kitchen area, and was scrubbing them out, before cleaning the contents, and then replacing everything.
Thus there was no walk for us today. But it looks like it should be OK for tomorrow morning, so we’ll see how it goes.
While Jan finished up with her cleaning and putting stuff back where it goes, I worked on blog and website stuff. I’ve learned to only help Jan with this stuff when she directly asks me for help. Otherwise, it’s almost guaranteed that I’ll put something back where it doesn’t belong.
My Next Hack: Our daughter Brandi gave us this really nice bathroom soap dispenser for Christmas.
Bath & Body Works Touch Free SmartSoap Automatic Hand Soap Dispenser
It works great and there are a lot of different scent refills available online. But it has one almost certainly designed-in fault. It seems to spit out about twice as much soap as you really need to wash your hands.
Of course, if you’re the soap manufacturer, that’s exactly what you want it to do to sell more soap refills at $14.95 a pop.
So what I want to do is to figure out a way to change the amount of soap that comes out. And to do that I see two different possibilities. First I can try to change the actual amount of soap that comes out, based on how long the pump runs. And it’s a fixed amount, not dependent on how long you have your hand under the spigot.
Or I can try to hack the circuit so that the pump only runs as long as your hand is in place. Since the timing is possibly hard-wired into the circuit, it may be easier to just bypass the timing circuit altogether, and wire it up so that the pump only runs as long as your hand is in front of the sensor.
So in the next few days, I’ll take it apart and see what I find. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’m still trying to track down a new glass/LED screen for my son Chris’ Galaxy S5 smartphone. As I recounted last weekend, when trying to replace the cracked glass, I found the underlying LED screen was also cracked. So now I’ve looking for a new screen combo, but I’m finding a lot of the one for sale are not OEM, but some 3rd party parts. And the online reviews of these are not very good.
So now I’m shopping around for an original Samsung model, with a decent price, and a quick delivery time. Hopefully I find something soon.
Tomorrow afternoon we’ll be getting together with some other RV friends, meeting them at the great BBQ buffet up at Peter’s BBQ up in Ellinger. Really looking forward to it.
Thought for the Day:
“The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.” – William Gibson
January 7, 2017 Uncategorized 7 Comments
22°!
We had 24° forecasted for Kenedy last night, but here at the rig it went down to 22°. Tonight’s looking like 25°, so not much warmer then either.
Today’s high was 43°. but tomorrow’s looking up with 55/40, and then 73/56 on Monday. So nice. So we should be able to hook back up to shore water tomorrow.
One thing I also do during cold weather like this is turn on the light in the water bay. Since it has a regular incandescent bulb and not a LED, it provides a modest amount of heat, actually raising the temp about 10 degrees, enough to safeguard the pipes from freezing. We’ve had the coach down to 6 degrees so we shouldn’t have a problem. But safe is as safe does.
Our last gate was Tues. night/Wed. morning, so I texted Todd this morning to tell him we’re bored and ask what’s on the horizon gatewise. He said they’re waiting on a number of gates to start up. Just waiting for the Company Men to call. Here’s hoping.
Jan and I tried to like last night’s 2 hour premier of Emerald City, a retelling of the Wizard of Oz, we really did.
We normally like stuff like this. Grimm, Once Upon A Time, Sleepy Hollow, etc. are all favorites of ours, so we had high hopes for Emerald City. But we only lasted 20 minutes.
When they referred to the show as a ‘reimagining’ of the Wizard of Oz story, we didn’t realize that they would ‘reimagine’ Dorothy as an illegal immigrant from Mexico who steals drugs for Auntie Em from the hospital where she works, and kills the Wicked Witch of the East by running her over in a police car she stole. And Toto is a German Shepherd police dog.
Oh, and the Wicked Witch of the West runs a brothel.
In hindsight, it’s amazing we lasted the entire 20 minutes.
Of course they did the same thing a couple of years ago with Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, which was a spin-off from Once Upon A Time. By the time they got through with it, it was not only ‘reimagined’ but also unwatchable.
Which is probably why it only lasted one season.
But we did really enjoy the season premiere of Grimm. Really sorry that it’s the last season.
We had thought about heading down to Beeville this afternoon and catch the 4pm showing of Passengers, and then have dinner at a well-recommended German place. But inertia kept us at the coach. So maybe tomorrow.
For dinner tonight we had our leftovers from La Fonda on Main a couple of days ago, Jan added some of her delicious homemade Nachos.
All really good.
Thought for the Day:
Leo Tolstoy took six years to write War & Peace. Almost as long as it takes to read it.
January 7, 2020
Little Crunchy Meat Nuggets . . .
Jan had her dermatology appointment at 1:30 which only took about 45 minutes, so then we were back onto the other side of I-45 to have lunch at Black Bear Diner once again.
Jan got her new favorite, the Chopped Steak & Eggs, which is actually a breakfast item. But she gets it without the eggs, potatoes, and biscuits. Instead she gets is with their Seasonal Veggies and a Side Salad.
Lately I’ve been getting their Sirloin Steak and Eggs, but this time I went back to my old fav, the Bacon Cheeseburger Salad.
Really filling and only about 850 calories. I always remember to tell them to do the burger part as Medium, because the first couple of times I got it, the meat was Well-Done, i.e. hard and crunchy little meat nuggets.
But it was delicious this time.
Then it was back to the other side of the Interstate again for some WalMarting. We checked out their wings, i.e. chicken drums for our Air Fryer, but they didn’t have any drums, or wings, for that matter.
So we’ll check back again, or it’s off to HEB again. But we have enough for our dinner tomorrow night, so we’re good for now.
Since we started RVing almost 13 years ago, we’ve always had one of these Day Clocks.
It has performed yeoman service all these years, including a couple of falls. But a few days ago it quit working. I assumed it just needed a new battery, but it was for naught.
It was dead.
In other words, to paraphrase –
It has passed on! This clock is no more! It has ceased to be! It has expired and gone to meet its maker! It’s bereft of life. It has kicked the bucket. It has shuffled off the mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible!!
THIS IS AN EX-CLOCK!!
But since we’ve found over the years that it is pretty easy for us RV’ers to lose track of the day of week, I went to look for a replacement, and remembering this is 2020, I decided to go digital, so I ordered one of these that came in this past Friday.
Jan really likes it, it’s easy to read from across the room, or across the rig, I guess, and you can make the text either yellow or white, and we chose yellow. It really stands out.
It was only after I ordered it and we got it, that I noticed that it was specifically designed for Dementia and Alzheimer’s patients to remind them what day it is. Hopefully it will keep working a lot longer in case we actually need it for that.
But you never know.
Replacing the MicroSD card in my GPS was successful, and it was working fine after I downloaded about 5GB of replacement map data. Glad I got it working again.
I’ve had this one since 2011 and I wasn’t looking forward to replacing it, mainly because I didn’t really like any of the new ones.
Thought For The Day:
Apparently not your Average Bear. And where’s Boo-Boo?
Our Lucky 13th . . .
Yesterday I signed us up for both Disney+ and Discovery+, and got a 6 month free trial. It turns out that if you have any Unlimited phone plan with Verizon, you can get these 6 month free trials for both Disney and Discovery, as well as a couple of other streaming services.
Jus log into your Verizon account and click on Add-Ons.
It looks like the check’s in the mail, again.
According to the IRS website found here,
https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof-wmsp/notice
our $600 stimulus checks went in the mail today. Of course, this IS the IRS so you never can tell.
When I was waiting for Jan to catch up with me in WalMart yesterday, I saw a lady walk by pushing a cart. But what was unusual is that she was wearing THREE face masks, a cloth one underneath, and then two of the disposable paper ones.
And then a face shield on top of it all. You’ve just got to believe that she wears it while she’s driving too.
But the really strange thing was that she could only walk about 20 feet or so before she had to stop. Then you could watch her try to catch her breath, panting heavily, while the masks contracting tightly against her face as she struggled to pull air in through all those layers.
But looking at these statistics from Florida makes you wonder about what’s really happening.
Florida is one of the least locked-down states with no state-wide mask mandates or lockdowns. But according to this chart, complied from Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration data, there has been virtually no increase in hospitalizations in 2020 vs 2017, 2018, or 2019.
Around 1900 – 2000 per day per million population, for the last four years.
And as I usually do with these charts I’ve gone in and skimmed the actual data on the Agency’s website, and found no inconsistencies. Check it out for yourself.
So where’s the massive increases in hospitalizations that we should be seeing?
Or is this just more confirmation for the people that say that masks and lockdowns don’t really matter. After all, New York and California, two of the most heavily locked-down states, have some of the highest rates.
Thought For The Day:
I was thinking about old age and decided that old age is when you still have something on the ball, but you are just too tired to bounce it.
Of course now it’s been 13 years since we hit the road in ‘Beauty’.
And We’re Still having Fun!
January 6, 2011
Happy 3rd Anniversary . . .
Today is our “Beauty’s” 3rd anniversary. Three years ago today we picked her up Roman Holiday Motorhomes in New Braunfels, TX.
Then, one month later, on February 6th, 2008 Jan and I began our full-time life on the road. And if we stick to our plan this year, we will hit the road again this coming Feb. 6th.
A little synchronicity at work.
But this morning I left the the rig a little before 11 am heading back to the same client I was at yesterday. But today was already scheduled before yesterday’s emergency laptop repair visit.
Leaving the rig I noticed we’re finally getting street lights here in the park. They’ve been installing the forms and rebar to pour concrete for the pedestals. And they’ve already finished some of them.
Jan and I both have mixed feelings about the street lights. The darkness is kinda nice and the lack of light lets us see the stars better. Oh well.
Finishing up at the client’s about 2:30 I next drove over to Brock’s Car Care to see about getting my front brakes fixed. A few days ago I started hearing grinding from my front right brake. Since it hasn’t been that long since I had the brakes done, I suspect that I may have a stuck caliper that caused the brakes to not release completely after braking and then grinding the pads and rotor down.
They said they could get me in tomorrow with no problems, so I told them I’d drop it off either this evening, or the first thing tomorrow morning.
I got back to the rig about 3:30 just to turn right around and leave about 4 pm.
Jan and I were heading up to League City to the Cracker Barrel. It’s Thursday so it’s Turkey and Dressing Day there, Jan’s favorite.
And even better, we got to eat for free.
As I mentioned back on December 23rd, we stopped by Cracker Barrel to pick up a take-out order of Turkey and Dressing so Jan could have ‘leftovers’, since we were eating out on Christmas Day.
But then the day after Christmas, when Jan went to have her meal for supper, she found that no only did she not get any cranberry sauce, but that her Turkey and Dressing lacked any dressing.
Sacrilege!
So to avenge Jan’s slight, I emailed the Cracker Barrel home office, and lo and behold, a few days later, I got a call from the manager. And after another few days, we received a coupon in the mail for two free meals. So Jan finally got her dressing and all’s right with the world.
After we left Cracker Barrel I called our son-in-law Lowell to see if he was home yet. Luckily he was, so we drove by the house to borrow his truck so we’d have a vehicle to drive tomorrow while my truck is in the shop. Especially since Jan has a dentist’s appointment tomorrow morning.
This way we were able to go ahead and drop off my truck at Brock’s tonight so they can get started on it the first thing after they open at 7 am.
And, of course, while we were at Brandi’s Jan and I also got in a little Landon time since Lowell had already picked him up from daycare.
We got home about 6:30 after a busy day. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back on rig stuff tomorrow afternoon. We’ll see.
More then…
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Thought for the Day:
”When there are more people riding in the cart than there are pulling it, the cart stops moving…”
January 6, 2012
Wipers and Doors . . .
I spent this morning working on a few things around the rig, starting with installing those expensive Rain-x windshield wipers I just bought. It only took a few minutes, and even on a dry windshield, they were nice and quiet. I only did the truck today. I do the ones on the rig later.
My next chore was a big one. I was going to take my truck driver’s door off and see what I need to do to fix my broken power window. The window motor still works and the window moves freely up and down in the track, so I figure the motor and the window are no longer connected together.
Removing the door panel wasn’t as difficult as some I’ve done. Five screws, and after disconnecting the two electrical plugs, just lift it off. The only real problem was disconnecting the two control rods that connect the inside door handle to the door lock.
The next thing I did was lay out the screws on a table in the pattern they came off the door and take a photo. This makes it easy to remember which screw goes where when I put it back together.
Getting the trim panel off and setting it aside, I peeled the plastic weather shield back to try and get a look at what’s going on inside the door.
I plugged the window/door lock control panel back in so I could run the window motor.
I used a suction cup to hold the window in position so it wouldn’t fall down into the door frame.
In trying to see how the window mechanism worked, I found a cable hanging down loose inside the door. A little Google research told me that these Dodge Dakota windows use a motor-driven cable to move the window up and down, and they sometimes break loose. Some people have had luck reconnecting the cable, while others say it quickly breaks again and they end up replacing the window regulator anyway.
I’m going to go ahead and pull the motor/regulator unit out and take a look at it. It’ll got to come out either way. A new unit from the dealer lists for $331.00 with installation extra. I found one on Amazon, a brand-new, OEM part for $59.00.
I love Amazon.
I ran out of time today so if the weather holds out tomorrow, I’ll pull the unit out then.
I stuck the weather shield back on the door and just left the window control panel hanging. To open the door I have to pull on one of the control rods, but it works for now.
Jan and I headed out on some errands about 3pm. First up was dropping her off at a laundromat in Friendswood so she could do some heavy rugs and blankets that won’t fit in our rig washer. While she was doing that I ran some errands and then stopped by Brandi’s and talked with our son-in-law Lowell for a while.
By the time Jan was finished up, it was time for supper, so since King Food was nearby, we couldn’t resist. And of course, more great leftovers.
After supper we stopped off at Brandi’s again to pick up some packages that had come in, before heading over to Kroger’s for a few groceries.
Then it was finally home for the night after a busy day.
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Thought for the Day:
Aim High. Time Flies.
January 6, 2014
I Depend On The Kindness Of Strangers . . .
I’m sure you’ve been seeing the PSA’s on TV and ads in the magazines saying that everyone should be getting a flu shot right now, especially due to the H1N1 (Swine) flu that’s also going around.
When Jan was working at the hospital, she was required to get a flu shot every year, whether she wanted to or not. On the other hand I haven’t gotten a flu shot since the Fall of 1964 when I was in military school and didn’t have a choice.
I started throwing up about 30 minutes after that shot, and was sick and running a fever for about 3 days.
So when we all got lined up the next fall, I tried to tell the doctor at the school clinic that I had been been really sick last year and didn’t want to take the shot again. But the doctor didn’t believe me, and the Commandant said I could either take the shot, or starting walking PT’s until I did.
PT’s, or Penalty Tours, consisted of walking around the Quadrangle with a pack filled with 60# of sand while carrying an ‘03 Springfield rifle which weighed another 9# or so.
So I took the shot.
Getting out the hospital 10 days later, I was told I didn’t have to take the shot next year, not a problem since I was graduating that next May, and that I shouldn’t ever have a flu shot again, or it might kill me.
Well, thanks a lot.
So now, like Blanche DuBois, I depend on the kindness of strangers. I figure if everyone else gets their flu shots like good little girls and boys, then I won’t have to. There will be no one for me to catch it from. Works for me.
I’m sure many of you out there remember The Great Swine Flu Pandemic of 1976? The one that the government said would be so devastating that they rushed an untested vaccine into production and use, resulting in dozens dead and hundreds reporting serious side effects like blindness and paralysis?
No, thank you.
And now we have dozens of people contracting narcolepsy after receiving the most recent vaccine.
And to answer your next question, yes, I have had the flu a couple of times since then. But that just means that you aren’t doing your part. So everyone get on the stick out there.
Well, after a high today of 38 degrees and 29 last night, we’re looking for 25° tonight.. I pulled a second electric heater out of the basement, that along with the heated mattress pad on our bed, keeps us warm and toasty.
If it gets down in the ‘teens’, I have a small cube heater like this that I put down in our water bay.
With the heater plugged into this Inline Thermostat, we’ve been good down to 6 degrees (Garrison, MT in 2008).
The thermostat turns anything plugged into it on at 35 degrees and off at 45 degrees. Works like a champ.
Thought for the Day:
Give power to imbeciles, you get imbeciles with power.
January 6, 2015
Just Damn!
With the sunshine today, Mister found himself a nice spot on the dashboard to soak it up after all the cool, wet days during the last week or so.
Never seen him with three legs together like this, but he seemed comfortable.
About 2pm I went outside to do some maintenance on the truck. Besides checking the oil, coolant, etc., I wanted to do some rechecking on my AC problem.
Regular blog readers may remember that back this past August, the AC in our truck died while we were visiting relatives in north Alabama. I first put my gauges on the Freon line and found the pressures were fine. Next I unhooked the connector that feeds power to the AC clutch to check it.
The AC clutch is what you hear making that ‘CLUNK’ when you turn your AC on. The clutch pulls in and starts the AC compressor turning, cooling the vehicle. First up, with the engine running and the AC turned on, I checked for 12 volts at the connector coming from the dashboard. And finding the 12 volts told me that part of the circuit was working.
Then setting my meter to Ohms, I checked the resistance of clutch coil, and found the coil open, showing no resistance. Which meant that the problem with the AC was the clutch. With the coil open, the clutch would not pull in, and the compressor would not turn.
So now I had to decide if I was going to replace the clutch, which I could do myself, or replace the compressor, which I could do, but not longer have the vacuum pump and other equipment necessary to recover the Freon and then replace it after the new compressor is installed.
A new coil is about $125, while having a new compressor installed would run $600-700. The other thing to consider is the fact the original compressor (and the truck) are 10 years old. So do I want to spend $125 on a 10 year old compressor that might completely die next month?
So with all that on my mind, and while I had the hood open, I decided to check the coil once again. And lo and behold, this time the ohmmeter showed 80 ohms, not open as before.
WTH
Then as I moved the connector a little, the ohmmeter suddenly showed open. And pulling a little bit on the wires coming from the connector showed me the problem.
The insulation was cut, and by moving the wire around I could tell it was broken inside the insulation as well.
Could it really be this simple?
Twisting the wires around a bit got it in position where it seemed to be connected. So I started up the engine and turned on the AC.
And heard a ‘CLUNK’ as the compressor started turning. Getting a thermometer from the rig, I placed it in front of the vent and watched the temp. Within about 5 minutes it had pulled the temperature down from about 65 degrees coming out of the vent to about 44 degrees, a typical 20 degree differential. And this while it was 63 degrees outside.
Well, that will teach me to always investigate a little further on a problem. If I had done so, we could have avoided all those hot trips in the truck during August and September.
Just damn.
After we get to Colorado River, I’ll splice the wire to fix the problem. It’s always nice to save several hundred dollars or more when you can.
About 4:15 we headed out to dinner with our friend Randy. I had helped Randy rewire his electrical system a couple of weeks ago while we were both at the Colorado River Thousand Trails, and since I wouldn’t let him pay me, he insisted on taking us out to dinner. So we were off to the Buffalo Wild Wings right down the Interstate.
Randy had never been to one, but it turns out he likes stuff hot like we do, so he fit right in And today was 60 cent wing Tuesday so that was even better.
Leaving the restaurant we stopped off at Sam’s Club to pick up Jan’s prescription that wasn’t ready yesterday. Then last up was a stop off at the Post Office to mail a letter before heading home.
We plan on leaving for Colorado River TT about 11am tomorrow. But first we’re going to have breakfast right down the road at the Cracker Barrel before coming back to head for Columbus.
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Thought for the Day:
“I like going to the Dollar Store because you don’t have to dress up like when you’re going to Walmart” – Heard on TV
January 6, 2016
Wednesday Roadtrip . . .
I was up at 8 am, way too early for me, and then about 9, Jan and I headed out for our day down in the Clear Lake area, missing out on walking, but since it was completely overcast, cold, and rainy, that was probably a washout anyway. Hopefully tomorrow will be lucky.
We made a fuel up/potty stop at the Flying J in Brookshire where I had planned to get a coffee/cappuccino combo for the road. But it looks like Flying J has screwed up their cappuccino selection.
I first noticed this a few weeks ago when we stopped at the Pilot/Flying J on I-45 north of Houston. They have two cappuccino machines, each with six spigots. In the past they’ve had a choice of probably 8 to 10 different flavors, like Hazelnut, French Vanilla, English Toffee, Pumpkin Spice, Mocha, Cinnamon Vanilla Nut, etc., I.e. fairly decent coffee/cappuccino flavors.
But now, at both Flying J’s, eight of the flavors are variations of French Vanilla, French Vanilla, Sugar-Free French Vanilla, Mocha French Vanilla, French Vanilla Alert (extra caffeine), etc.
The remaining 4 flavors were Hot Cocoa, Mexican Chocolate, Winter Dark Chocolate, and Raspberry Truffle (?).
Not exactly my favorite flavors of coffee. So until things change, no more coffee at Flying J for me.
Getting into Webster, we met our son Chris and his wife Linda a little after 11 at our favorite local Chinese place, King Food. It’s so good we’ve been eating here since 1978, almost 35 years. In fact we’re on our fourth owner.
Jan and I had our usual Chicken with Hot Garlic Sauce with jalapenos, Extra, extra spicy.
![King Food Chick with Hot Garlic_thumb[5]](https://i2.wp.com/ourrvadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/King-Food-Chick-with-Hot-Garlic_thumb5.png?ssl=1 "King Food Chick with Hot Garlic_thumb[5]")
With Hot & Sour Soup, Fried Rice, and an Egg Roll, it’s a great meal, just perfect for a cold, rainy day.
Finishing up, Jan and I headed off to get our haircuts, with me first dropping Jan off at the Friendswood SuperCuts, while I drove back down to Lou’s Barbershop where I’ve been going for almost 20 years, so long that I don’t even have to tell them how I want it cut.. Sheldon would say it’s because they have my haircut records.
Picking up Jan, I made a stop at O’Reilly Auto Parts to get a new gas cap for our Dodge Dakota. The old one gives me a Check Engine code every second or third tank of gas from removing and replacing it when I fill up. This should fix the problem. I hope.
Next stop was a nearby dry cleaners to drop off our summer quilt to have it cleaned. We have a lighter quilt that we use during the summer, and a heavier, winter one for the . . . well, the winter. So when we get back to Houston every fall, we drop it off at the cleaners, and switch over to our winter one that we left at our son Chris’. Then a week or so before we head out for the year, we swap back again, leaving the now cleaned winter one again with Chris.
After a client stop for a while, we drove over to the nearby Harris County Public Library so Jan could get a library card, not to check out any paper books, but so she check out Kindle books online. That way she won’t have to pay the high prices for mainstream publisher books, but can just check them out online.
By now it was after 3pm, and rather than hang around to have supper down here, we decided to head back toward home to get ahead of all the going home traffic on the Katy Freeway.
Along the way, we thought we’d stop off for dinner at the Grimaldi’s Pizzeria in the Katy area. Grimaldi’s has become our favorite pizza place, especially since they’ve spread out across the country.
When we first ate at one in 2009, it was at the original (and only) one, located in Brooklyn, NY under the Brooklyn Bridge (DUMBO) area.
Heading home, we made a pit stop at the Sealy Oasis, a new large convenience store about 15 miles out of Columbus, before getting back to the rig a little after 7pm.
Another nice day and good times.
Our granddaughter Piper is on a ski trip with some girlfriends in Breckenridge, CO this week, and sent back this photo.
![Piper in Breckenridge_thumb[5]](https://i0.wp.com/ourrvadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Piper-in-Breckenridge_thumb5.png?ssl=1 "Piper in Breckenridge_thumb[5]")
That’s Piper on the left. Looks cold.
Thought for the Day:
“All pop music is about sex. Rock is about wanting to do it, jazz is about doing it, and country and western is about feeling guilty after you’ve done it.” – Robert Waldo Brunelle, Jr.
January 6, 2017
A Three Heater . . .
And A One Cat Night.
It finally struggled up to 35° today after a low last night of 33. Big difference.
Our low for tonight has been downgraded to 24° with 25 tomorrow night so later in the afternoon I topped off our fresh water tank and then disconnected both ends of the shore hose and let it drain. So we’re all set for the next couple of days.
Glad we’re not on a gate tonight, though with the shacks it wouldn’t be too bad. Back in 2014 we were on a frack gate over in Whitsett. And one night in November a couple of weeks before we left, it was 26° and sleeting, and I had icicles hanging off the edge of the canopy. Never again.
Of course from up in Paul’s Valley, OK, about 50 miles south of Oklahoma City, our son-in-law Lowell’s mother Sonja sent us these photos today.
Sonja said it was 16 degrees today with a wind chill of 5 degrees. Then after 4 inches of snow it supposed to be 10 degrees tonight with a wind chill of –5. Just glad it’s not us.
For breakfast this morning we had a couple of the tacos I picked up on my way home from my gate the other morning.
During our first week here back in Oct. Jan and I stopped off at the Stripes/Valero Truck Stop coming home one morning from our gate. We found they had a 24 hour Taco/Burrito Shop so we each got a couple of breakfast tacos to bring home. Since they were so good, it was worth doing again.
This afternoon I took my anemometer outside and found the wind speed here at the park to be about 25 mph, so with the 33°, that gives an wind chill of 20°. No wonder it felt so freaking cold wind we left the rig about 4pm.
We’ve always heard about how good the burgers were at Barth’s, even seeing people ordering them when we’re there for the lunch time buffets. So if they’re better than the buffet, they must be good. And they certainly were.
Jan got the Cheeseburger and I got the Bacon Cheeseburger.
These are huge burgers, with 6” buns and a hand-formed patty sized to match. And they were really good. The thin edges were crispy-charred and just perfect. A really delicious burger. It’s easy to see why they’re so popular.
We’ll use all 3 of our heaters tonight, the Lasko Ceramic Tower,
and two of these smaller Sunbeam units.
Normally one of the Sunbeam’s stays in the truck for use on cold nights on the gate. The rooftop heaters don’t always work too well in some of the shacks so I always have a backup plan.
Always have a backup plan . . . for everything.
Thought for the Day:
“Maybe this world is just another planet’s hell.” – Aldous Huxley
