Monthly Archives: January 2021
Drink More Coffee . . .
I mentioned the other day that according to the IRS website, GET MY PAYMENT, our two $600 Stimulus Checks were mailed out on January 6th, and then yesterday I got an email from DakotaPost saying that our checks, and well as a DMV refund from our Jeep tags, were sent via Priority Mail yesterday, the 14th. So it should be here in the next couple of days.
Is there anything it can’t do?
A new study was just released showing that drinking coffee helps reduce your chances of prostate cancer. And the more you drink, the less your risk.
The highest level of coffee consumption ranged from two to nine or more cups per day, while the lowest level ranged from none to fewer than two cups per day, they said.
Good to hear since I average about 10 cups a day.
And for those of you of the non-prostate persuasion, you’re not left out either. Past research has linked coffee consumption to a reduced risk for liver, bowel and breast cancers.
So Drink Up!
Thought For The Day:
We used to just have village idiots. But now with the Internet, the idiots have gone global.
January 15, 2011
Our Cute Blond Chipmunk . . .
Catching up on some old stuff, someone had asked about Brandi possibly having the flu last week. Turns out it was a false alarm. After having flu-like symptoms on Monday, she felt fine on Tuesday. Dodged a bullet there.
I did get a chance to check out my new Sears Air Compressor yesterday and found it worked as advertised. It was able to inflate a rig tire from 90# to 100# in less than a minute. Probably better than I could do with on-board air compressor. Really worth the money.
On a completely different note, I found this fascinating, and maybe a little scary.
They could actually have a real live Woolly Mammoth born in the next 4-5 years.
Jurassic Park, anyone?
The other day I was going thru some paper work and came across the title for our toad, a 2004 Dodge Dakota Crew Cab pickup. It had about 101,000 miles on it when we bought it in December 2007, just a little over a month before we hit the road.
I noticed the other day when I had the brake work done that the Dakota now had over 163,000 miles on it, which means that in our 3 years of traveling, we’ve put 62,000 miles on it.
What’s amazing about this is that this does not include the 37,000 miles being towed behind Beauty. When the truck is in tow mode, it doesn’t register mileage.
This means that besides that 37,000 miles, we’ve driven the truck almost twice that distance just riding around seeing the sights after we park the rig.
==================================================================
This morning, after a very late night (early morning??) we left the rig a little before 11am heading to the Texas Tea Room to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon for lunch. We’ve really grown to like this place, with their great soups and sandwiches.
Jan was going to Landon-sit this afternoon while Brandi and Lowell take in a movie and run some errands, so she rode home with them while I headed out to do some errands myself.
First stop was Kroger’s to pick up some lottery tickets, then it was on Chis’ to drop off some magazines for Miss Piper.
Piper had two wisdom teeth pulled out Friday morning and the poor thing was still suffering. Her cheeks were still puffed up and swollen.
I told her she looked like a “cute blonde chipmunk” and wanted to take her picture for the blog. She told me in no uncertain terms “NO”.
Awww! And she was so cute!
Then I stopped by Home Depot looking for my undersink icemaker water filter. But they didn’t have it. Turns out a little later research showed that my model had been discontinued. So I’ll have to try and figure out how to fit another type in its place.
Finally I headed over to Brandi’s to get the small share of Landon-sitting that Jan allows me. I only somewhat jokingly said that Landon may not walk until he’s two, because between Jan and Brandi, he never gets put down.
Brandi and Lowell got back home about 5 pm and we decided to have dinner at our favorite King Food. Hmmmm! Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce, Extra, Extra, Extra, Extra Spicy, and then add jalapenos!
We got home a little after 7, certainly better than last night’s 1:30am.
More tomorrow…
______________________________________________________________________
Thought for the Day:
There’s no such thing as a stupid question, but they’re the easiest to answer.
January 15, 2012
Second Times the Charm . . .
This morning started out a little after 10am with with the breakfast buffet at La Brisa right up TX 146. One nice thing about their buffet, unlike a lot of others, is that all drinks are included in the $10.50 price, including coffee, milk, and OJ.
And on top of that, the food is really good too.
Getting home I finally decided to do something about my leaky tire. It’s the driver’s inside rear dual, and it’s been leaking on and off for a while. It will go for several months with no problems, and then gets where I have to add air every few days. I had pulled off the Tire Pressure Sensor and the valve extension to be sure they weren’t the problem, but it didn’t help.
It was fine when we got here almost two months ago, but in the last week or so it’s been dropping overnight so it’s time to do something about it. So after we got back from breakfast, I put in a call to Coach-Net to send someone out.
But it took two tries to get it done. I told Coach-Net that I needed someone with a air jack that could lift at least 10,000 pounds, and the gear to handle a 22.5 inch tire.
The first guy came out in a pickup truck with a 2000 pound floor jack and no way to remove the large lug nuts on the wheel. So after sending him on his way, I called Coach-Net back and told them the problem. They said the guy had told them he could handle the rig. He lied.
But the next guy had what it takes – a big dually truck with a large gas-driven air compressor, a 20,000 pound air jack, and a big impact wrench to get the lugs off.
And this guy knew what he was doing. He had the inside tire off in about 15 minutes, and found a slight leak with the valve core. But the big leak was caused by a loose nut on the valve stem itself. He replaced the valve core, and then after putting a little Loc-Tite on the valve stem threads, tighten up the nut.
After airing up the tire to 110 pounds (I normally run 100 pounds in the rear), he dabbed bubble soap all around and found no leaks. Then, before remounting the tire, he carefully checked for any nails or leaks on the tire itself.
He quickly had everything back together and ready to roll in a total of only 45 minutes. A real professional.
Coach-Net covered the service call, and all I had to pay was $65 for the labor. Not bad at all.
Later, after doing some other chores around the rig, I headed up to my client’s office to install the new computers and router. Kept finding other things to do, so I didn’t get back to the rig until after 9pm, but I did get a lot done.
Thought For The Day:
You live and learn. Or you don’t live long.
January 15, 2014
TSC and PPL . . .
Another nice day. Another nice walk. And nice hot coffee afterwards.
Jan and I headed our about 1:30 PM for an afternoon of errands and then ending up with dinner with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon.
Our first stop was the Tractor Supply Company in Alvin for a magazine Jan likes and a few other things. Then it was on to PPL Motorhomes at the junction of Beltway 8 and US59. We were stopping there to pick up the Linkage Repair Kit for my Kwikee step.
Now something on my ‘do before we leave’ list.
We also picked up a new step stool since our other one finally wore out.
After a stroll through their RV Parts Store we headed on out to Brandi’s, getting there about 3:45. Lowell was already home and Brandi showed up about 30 minutes later after picking up Landon at his daycare, which is conveniently located right down the street from their house.
After talking for a while we all drove a little down the road to Fulshear to have dinner at Dekker’s Mesquite Grill.
Lowell and I had their great Chicken Fried Steak with smashed potatoes, and really,really good green beans. They were cooked until just crispy and very well seasoned.
Jan had the Shrimp Scampi with Fried Asparagus. Also very good.
Brandi had the Rotisserie Chicken which she said was some of the best chicken she’s ever had.
It was lucky we got there early because by the time we left about 6:15 the place was pretty full. Really good. We’ll go back.
Out of 6 tries in taking Landon’s picture, this is the only one that came out.
Heading home after saying our goodbyes and getting Landon hugs, we luckily missed most of the ‘going home’ traffic. Getting back to the Clear Lake area, we stopped off at the Sam’s Club to see if they had a K-Cup storage drawer like the one that Lowell and Brandi had gotten there. But we didn’t find them.
Since we were so close, we next stopped off at Chris’ to pick up our mail, and then started home again. But remembering the Sam’s Club down in La Marque, only about 5 miles further down I-45 from our normal Dickinson turnoff, we drove on down there.
But that Sam’s said they hadn’t had any since around Christmas, so then it was finally home about 8:30 PM.
Later I found one on Amazon and it will be here Friday.
Orlyn, one of our fellow gate guards who was down the road from us last year, called about my blog concerning changing the batteries in his Tire Pressure Sensor like I did, and wanted know how I did it. Turns out he has a Pressure Pro system, and like the previous Doran system I had, the batteries are not replaceable. You have to send the sensors back to the company and they will sell you new ones. That’s one of the reasons we changed to the TireTraker. Orlyn also said our gate is still going strong, and our replacements, Jim and Linda Mossman, are still there. Glad to hear they’re doing OK.
On another note, one of our readers, Jerry Criswell, alerted me to the universally bad reviews on Amazon for the One Touch Can Opener that I mentioned the other day.
I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe they made them better 10 years ago or so when we bought ours, but ours has worked perfectly every time. As they say, Caveat Emptor.
Thought for the Day:
More of
WHY MEN ARE NEVER DEPRESSED:
You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.
A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
Car mechanics tell you the truth.
January 15, 2015
Scary Cherries . . .
When I got up this morning I saw something I haven’t seen in a while, bright sunshine, finally nice enough for some outside work. But first I had some client web stuff to work on, updating some things and working on a couple of other problems.
A little later I called the client who’s computer I delivered yesterday to see if she was having any problems. She said that she was having a problem with YouTube videos being scrambled. Audio was OK, just a video problem.
After a quick Google, I told her to left-click on the YouTube screen, select Settings, and turn off Hardware Acceleration. She said that fixed the problem. Good!
Then I was on the phone to American Coach to ask about a leaky shower. For a while now I have had water leaking from the shower under the wall into the bedroom and wetting the carpet.
It only happens when the shower is running, and by looking into the access port in the shower base and I can see the water dripping down from the back of the shower enclosure. Which is where the Moen single handle faucet is on our shower as you can see here.
It was obvious that I would have to cut an access hole through from the bedroom to the rear of the faucet since there was no access panel, but first I wanted to double-check with American Coach.
And as it turns out, I’m supposed to have an access panel there. Apparently there is normally a mirror on that wall and the access panel cover is behind it. We don’t have a mirror just a blank wall, with no panel.
So it looks like I will be cutting through the wall. In anticipation of this, when I was at Harbor Freight Tools the other day,, I found a Multipurpose Oscillating Tool on sale so I picked one up with a set of blades.
It should cut right through the thin wall with no trouble, and then I should be able to see what the problem is. If I’m lucky it will be something easy like a loose connection.
As far as outside, I did a few easy chores that were at the top of my list.
First up, I repaired the Charge Wire connection on the truck. I noticed it had come loose a few weeks ago, and wanted to get it fixed before we head out west this year and encounter a lot of hills.
The Charge Wire is part of the electrical hookup between the RV and Truck that syncs the truck taillights with the rig’s. On flat terrain, it’s not really needed, but when we’re going though a lot of hills, the truck’s auxiliary braking system gets a workout. And since the Brake Buddy runs off the truck’s battery, you can sometimes arrive at your destination after a long day of hill climbing and descending and find your battery dead
The Charge Wire takes care of this by connecting the truck battery to the RV battery so that the truck battery is kept charged as we travel.
Next I dumped a batch of Biocide into the fuel tank to take care of any algae growth caused by the high humidity and cold weather we’ve had. I got caught by this in 2009 up in Massachusetts and ended up with a clogged fuel filter. Been using a biocide every since and have not had another problem with it.
Finally, I did my monthly check of the water levels in the house batteries. Not needed for the engine batteries since they’re sealed and maintenance free. I was happy to see that the water levels were fine, especially since I recently install the new power converter.
For dinner Jan fixed up our steak leftovers from last night, really good, and then for dessert, I made Scary Cherry Sundaes.
Scary Cherries were one the ‘hot’ gifts that our son-in-law Lowell gave me for Christmas
Scary Cherries are Maraschino cherries soaked in hot pepper solution, in this case, Carolina Reaper peppers, the hottest in the world. They also have two weaker heat levels, one with Ghost Chiles, and one with Scorpion Chilies. But why mess around with the kiddie stuff?
To make the sundaes, I started with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla, and then dusted them with three chopped-up cherries each. Then I chopped up some Hershey’s Cherry Cordial Kisses and sprinkled these on. Last up was a heaping pile of whipped cream, topped off with a whole cherry for me, and a chopped-up one for Jan.
She was kind of worried about eating a whole cherry by itself, so that’s why hers was chopped up.
As it turned out we both really liked the heat from these cherries. Glad I’ve got more ice cream and more cherries.
Tomorrow’s supposed to be even warmer than today, maybe more conducive to spraying water and vinegar on the roof to remove the drilling mud, but we’ll see.
_________________________________________________________________
Thought for the Day:
Remember, here at Microsoft, we’re not happy till you’re not happy.
January 15, 2018
I Give Up . . .
Back at work this morning, I gave up.
For the last couple of months I’ve been trying to move my client’s website and online store off the in-house Linux server and up onto Godaddy. But so far everything I’ve tried has been a dud
To do that I need to set up a new version of Zen Cart on Godaddy and then copy the Zen Cart MySQL data from the Linux server and then just install it on Godaddy’s version.
Yeah, right!
Well it would be that easy except that access to the MySQL file is password protected. And the password is not any of the ones from my list of the previous guy’s passwords..
But I kind of figured out a workaround only to find that the data file itself is encrypted. Why the hell, I don’t know. There’s no reason for it.
And even worse, it’s encrypted with AES-256 encryption, the same standard used for online banking. So good luck breaking that. So now it’s down to grunt work.
We presently have about 1680 products in the database, so my fall-back is to just start copying the individual products over one at a time. It’s likely to take several months, but as I told Jan if I’d done this to start with, I’d be done by now.
At least it’ll keep me off the streets and out of trouble. Well, one of them, at least.
We had originally planned to have our left-over El Pollo Loco for dinner tonight, and then eat out tomorrow, but the incoming weather intervened. With tomorrow, we’re expecting temps in the low 20’s with freezing rain, sleet, black ice, and snow flurries/snow. Sounds like a good day to stay home.
So as soon as I got home we turned back around and headed back up FM646 to have dinner at our local favorite, Pho20.
We both started out with their delicious House Crunch Salad, with Miso Dressing and Tempura Crunches. Then while Jan again went with the Hibachi Chicken,
I once again got the White Chicken Pho with Vegetables.
Really good and enough to bring home more than I ate to start with.
Before heading home we made a detour by the nearby HEB for a few things.
Tomorrow I’ll double check that our fresh water tank is full and then disconnect us from the Shore Water for the next couple of days, since we’re looking at 23° tomorrow night and 26° on Wednesday.
Since we’re looking at possible icy road conditions Wednesday morning, we may find that Jan’s lithotripsy gets rescheduled. We’ll have to see.
Thought for the Day:
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. Teach a man to create an artificial shortage of fish and he will eat steak. – Jay Leno
.
Then What’s The Point?
Jan and I headed up to the Webster area for another visit to Snooze, our favorite local breakfast-breakfast place, well, as opposed to Denny’s, which is our favorite breakfast-dinner place.
Jan loves their version of Avocado Toast and says it’s the best around.
For my part, I got my usual Shrimp & Grits, with a side of Fruit.
Then it was on up to the Ace Hardware for a few things before finally heading back to the rig.
I had originally planned to get back under the rig to work try and wrap up my oil leak problem. But it was still too wet back that there, so I’ll see how it goes this weekend.
Elsewhere on the repair front, a few days before we made our New Year’s trip up to Fredericksburg and Kingsland in our new (to us) Jeep, the AC/Heater blower lost all speeds except HIGH.
Luckily this is pretty easy to diagnose since if the blower runs on HIGH, that means that it’s OK. And it’s highly unlikely that a problem with the speed selector switch would affect all 4 speeds. So that leaves the blower resistor pak. Which turns out to be an easy fix, at least in the Jeep.
It’s located right behind the glove box. Just open the door, pop the side latches and there it is.
Then it was just a matter of unplugging the cable, removing the resistor pak,
screwing down the new one, plugging the cable back in, and I was done.
Next up on the repair list is to replace the Jeep’s Driver’s Door Window Actuator Motor. It’s been getting noisier and noisier, and sometimes doesn’t want to completely unlock the door. So I found I could buy a new one for about $135, or get a used, tested, guaranteed one for $43.
Guess which one I got?
And it looks to be pretty easy to replace. At least according to YouTube.
So What’s The Point?
Why vaccine recipients should still wear masks
People who receive a COVID-19 vaccine should continue to wear a mask and practice social distancing after their first and second dose, according to Indiana physician Mandy Armitage, MD.
“Experts still aren’t sure if the vaccines will prevent spread of the infection. The vaccine studies looked at how well the vaccines prevented symptomatic disease, but not asymptomatic infections or transmission,” she wrote. “In other words, if you’re vaccinated, you are more likely to be protected from severe disease, but you could still carry it and pass it along to others.”
Thought For The Day:
Sure, I have a few skeletons in my closet. But every single one of them deserved it.
January 14, 2013
Cloudy, Cold, Wet, Damp, Flu – Blah . . .
We’re now into our 5th day of cold, rainy, miserable weather. Today’s high was 45 with a low tonight of 37. Then tomorrow it’s 40 and 35. And of course don’t forget the intermittent rain.
And even better, we’re looking at another week of this.
Blah!
I had appointments with several clients this morning, but that got cut short due to the flu.
Not me. Them.
But since it’s been about 10 days since I’ve seen them, and the incubation period for the flu is 1 to 4 days, I should be OK.
So far they’re the only ones I know with the flu, so I hope my luck holds.
I didn’t get the flu shot this year, and haven’t gotten one since the mid-60’s. I’ve the shot twice and both times I got sick. The last time I had to be hospitalized for 10 days..
So now I depend of the kindness of strangers. I figure that if everyone else gets their flu shots like they’re supposed to, then I don’t need to get mine.
So, get your flu shot today.
My continued good health depends on it.
So after checking in with my healthy client, I headed over to the house to check the mail. I was hoping that the door switch to fix the washer had come in, and it had. Of course I still have to pull the washer out of the wall to fix the ‘no-heat’ problem, but I’d rather only pull it out once to fix both problems.
Leaving the house my next stop was Fry’s Electronics to pick up a new computer for a client. Fry’s is starting to run out of Windows 7 machines, so I hope they hold out until Jan and I leave here next month.
Getting back to the rig, Jan and I headed back out about 4pm to first have dinner at Chili’s and then on to Kroger’s for some groceries. Then it was home for the night.
Tomorrow I play Splendide repairman.
——————————————————————————————————————–
Thought for the Day:
“I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.” — Benjamin Franklin
January 14, 2014
Never Again . . .
Another beautiful day in the neighborhood. Jan and Mister and I sat outside and enjoyed our coffee. Well, Mister didn’t have coffee. He just enjoyed licking himself.
But we all had fun.
I took the day off from chores and worked on some computer things for a couple of clients. Still working on the laptop that was infected with the Conduit Search problem. I’ve got most of it cleaned out, but there’s still a ‘poison pill’ left in there somewhere. After Conduit Search is removed, everything works, but it keeps trying to come back. SuperAntiSpyware is blocking it, but warnings keep flashing up which gets to be annoying very quickly. But I’ll find it eventually.
Conduit Search is one of those programs that you usually infect yourself with. It normally gets installed because you didn’t check carefully when you installed another piece of software. You need to read all the fine print in the “Terms and Conditions”, and at the bottom of the install screen, usually a number of check boxes that if you don’t uncheck them, you get all sorts of junk along with the problem you wanted.
Conduit Search is not a virus per se, but is usually referred to as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program), though I think the acronym should be Positively Unwanted Program.
Running the paid version of either SuperAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes should protect from this being installed on your system. Note I said the ‘paid’ versions, because the programs have to be actively running to do this, and only the paid versions allow this.
FWIW I run the paid versions of both. They don’t conflict.
For the record, these are the “protection programs” I run.
AVG Free Virus Protection
ZoneAlarm Firewall
SuperAntiSpyware – paid version
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware – paid version
CCleaner
Glary Utilities
Microsoft Security Essentials
If you have any questions about any of these let me know.
About 1 PM Jan and I headed out to have lunch at King Food and then some errands. After lunch I made a client stop for a few minutes to update some software. I’ll be back here Saturday night to do some stuff that can’t be done in the daytime when they’re using the system.
We next decide to check out the Wal-Mart down in Texas City, and Jan said “Never again”. Traveling around so much, we’re used to finding Wal-Marts with different layouts, but this one looked like someone had just scattered the rows out at random. It was the screwiest layout I’ve every seen.
As Jan says “Never again”.
Thought for the Day:
Foolproof system are always undermined by fools.
January 14, 2015
Hot Stuff . . .
Jan and I headed out about 10am with our first stop Katz’s Deli in the Montrose area for lunch around 11:30. We always try to eat here when we’re in this part of town, and it never disappoints.
We always start out with some of their complementary pickles and coleslaw.
The kosher pickles are the kind that you bite into with a big ‘crunch’. Jan doesn’t really like pickles, but she really likes these. And the coleslaw is also unique, as it’s sliced rather than chopped, and has a very spicy , but a little sweet, dressing.
Jan had a Tuna Salad Sandwich with a cup of their Broccoli Cheese Soup, and I had a Rueben on Grilled Rye with a cup of their Corn Chowder.
Leaving Katz’s, our next destination was about 15 minutes away with a stop at iBurn.
Our son-in-law Lowell turned us on to this place, and has given me several items he got there for us, but this was our first time to actually visit.
The place is ‘Hot Stuff’ heaven with row after row of bottles, bags, and boxes of the hottest concoctions you can imagine. I was like a kid in a candy store, believe me. And I came away with $30 of hot stuff. Yummm!
The next stop was at my client’s in Pasadena to deliver her new computer. But in trying to get it set up, I ran into a problem. She has an older keyboard she likes, and by older, I mean it has the big AT connector, the one that’s about the size of your thumb. But for her last couple of computers, we used a AT to PS2 adapter like this:
But computers these days no longer have PS2 Keyboard/Mouse connectors on them, so I needed another adapter, a PS2 to USB like this one:
But after checking a nearby Office Depot and a Best Buy, with no luck (they didn’t even know what I was talking about) Jan and I headed down to Clear Lake to the Fry’s Electronics, who of course had exactly what I needed.
Finally getting the computer set up and configured to her liking, and after I fixed a couple of problems on her laptop, Jan and I headed for home. We quickly decided to put our El Pollo Loco visit on hold due to how late it was, And after looking at the traffic delays on Sigalert , we decided to have dinner along the way and wait out the traffic. We looked for a Texas Roadhouse, but couldn’t find one along the way so we ended up at a Saltgrass Steakhouse.
Luckily for us, we got there just before the rush and were seated immediately. Our steaks and steak accessories were just as good as our last visit to the one in Conroe, and we had enough leftover to bring some home.
Our last stop was a nearby Kroger’s for a few things as well as gas for $0.79 a gallon (with my $1 a gallon Kroger’s Card discount).
Heading home, we found the traffic was gone, and we were able to do the speed limit all the way, getting home about 8:45.
Tomorrow afternoon is supposed to be sunny, so maybe I can get some stuff done outside. We can only hope.
________________________________________________________________
Thought for the Day:
‘Then I learned there are troubles
of more than one kind;
Some come from ahead
And some come from behind.’ – Dr. Seuss
January 14, 2016
Lottery Lore . . .
And More.
Well, it was spitting rain this morning, so we didn’t walk today either. But there’s always tomorrow, right? And if you can keep a secret, a world-famous mystery writer and his wife may be accompanying us along the way.
On the PowerBall front, as I thought, the prize made it up to $1.6 Billion right before the drawing last night, and yielded three winners. And the California winner didn’t even have to buy his ticket. His boss gave it to him.
A multi-millionaire, who owns 80 assisted living facilities in California, bought 18,000 PowerBall tickets and gave them to his employees, and one of those tickets was a winner.
I guess now it’s possible that the employee might be able to buy out his boss.
Quite a few blog readers emailed me about the odds of winning the top prize, and how that works. Here’s some info I posted here in a comment, and also in several forums online.
Actually the odds of YOU having a winning number never changes, no matter how many people enter.
It’s always one in 292,201,338. This is based on the possible number combinations derived from the first five numbers 1 to 69, i.e, 11,238,513, and the Power Ball number that goes from 1 to 26.
And so 11,238,513 x 26 different Power Balls gives you 292,201,338 chances.
But two things do change as people buy more tickets as the jackpot increases.
1. The pot IS more likely to be won by someone. The more tickets, the more combinations sold, the more likely a winner.
2. And the chances of there being more than one winner also increases.
I heard yesterday that over 85% (it was 90% at the time of the drawing) of the possible number combinations, i.e. the 292.2 million, had been sold. Thus there is an ~85% chance that someone will win. But for an individual, it’s still one in 292.2 million.
Statistics are funny things and often run against ‘common sense’. For example, if you flip a coin, and it comes up heads 10 times in a row, it is no more or no less likely to come up heads again, i.e. a 50% chance.
We’ll see.
Thought for the Day:
Politics: from the Greek “poly” [many] and the English “ticks”.
So ‘Many Blood Sucking Ticks’.
Sounds about right to me.
We May Have To Move . . .
Now the Oil Patch picks up,
when we’ve only got a month left down here.
About 8am this morning, my Tab tablet chirped, and I was awake enough to check it out, hoping it was a gate job. But it was just a reminder to pay a bill. Bummer. Then a couple of minutes later, another chirp, now a text, and now a job.
And a job that looks to have a major effect on us.
The gate is north of Westhoff, a little over 40 miles from here, a little less than an hour away. But it does have a lot of plusses . . . steady employment. There’s a good possibility. that this gate could keep us BOTH working until we leave Feb. 15th.
But it was a scramble this morning. By the time we knew where and when, it was almost 8:30. And we were supposed to be at the gate by 10am. Yikes.
But we were showered, dressed and out the door with enough time for a McDonald’s stop, and we got there at 9:59am. To find no one waiting for us. We had beat Todd, the shack, the generator, and the potty. In fact it was after 10:30 before they showed up. Well, not the potty.
Brownie points for us.
Today it’s only a one person gate, at least today. Jan and I shared the Gate Guard job at the entrance right off the highway, working from 10am to 5pm. Then tomorrow, we turn around to night shift, with Jan working the shack at the entrance, and me working at the pad, about 5 miles in, out of my truck.
So two paychecks.
This should hold for a week to two weeks. Then after a break for a few days, the frack will start, and with 4 holes should last until we’re scheduled to leave. But this will mean another shift change for us.
The job will drop back to just the shack with Jan and I on opposite shifts, days for her and nights for me. Not easy, but doable for two or three weeks.
So two paychecks.
That’s the plusses. Now the minuses.
The distance, of course, is one. It’s about twice as far as our farthest gate, with nearest big town, and Wal-Mart, being Cuero.
This is why we might move. There is a small RV park in Westhoff, that looks OK. It looks to be a worker’s camp, just like ours now. Not as nice, i.e. no Wi-Fi, or free laundry. In fact no laundry at all. So back to using our Splendide.
With 3 big free washers and dryers, and located 50 feet away, Jan had gotten used to using the park facilities, doing one or two loads and not five or six. But the park cost is less than 1/2 of what we’re paying here, so that’s a plus too.
Another minus is again, no Verizon phone service at the gate. Don’t know yet about the RV park location. I do have text and data, though. So it’s workable, I guess.
BUT the possibility of the move is probably going to be decided by whether or not we have Verizon phone service at the RV park. So we’ll see,
If we do move, it will be during the short downtime before the frack starts up.
The other minus is that although Jan is exempt, I will have to wear the the full FRC regalia, including steel-toed boots, hardhat, and safety glasses. YUCK!
As least it’s cooler now.
Finishing up, I want to thank all of you for your RV park suggestions from yesterday. I’ll try to get them combined and compiled as soon as I can, but it may be a few days with all the job stuff that’s come up.
Thought for the Day:
On a long enough timeline the survival rate of everyone drops to zero.
January 14, 2019
Wrapping Up 2018 . . .
I’ve installed and set up Jetpack so the blog email function should be working now. If not, you might try re-subscribing using the using the requestor at the top right of the blog.
Wrapping up 2018
In yesterday’s blog I covered our Christmas get-together at Brandi’s on Sunday the 23rd. And after seeing Brandi’s brisket, several readers ask for the recipe, so here it is. And it’s really pretty simple
10 pound brisket
1 bottle of Allegro Original Marinade
Put the brisket in a pan.
Cover it in the marinade.
Cover the pan
Cook it at 250° for 6 hours
Easy Peezy!
Though I might try it with the Hot & Spicy version of the Marinade.
For most of the last 40 years, we’ve eaten a family Christmas Eve dinner at our favorite King Food. But since we’d already had our family Christmas, it was just Jan and I this time.
Since I’ve already posted many pics of KF food, just know that our Hot & Sour Soup, Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken Wings, Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce with Jalapenos, and Special Fried Rice, was as delicious as always.
Christmas Day we decided to head out to the movies to see Bohemian Rhapsody, the Queen biopic. We both really enjoyed it, though they did play fast and loose with some of the timeline.
But all in all, a really good movie.
As I said, Brandi’s brisket was delicious, but it was Christmas after all, and Jan had to get her Turkey and Dressing fix, so Thursday we were off to Cracker Barrel, meeting Miss Piper, for their really good T&D.
Sunday the 30th found us up in Sugarland, first eating dinner at the Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, starting with a dozen raw oysters,
along with Shrimp Gumbo, Grilled Catfish, and Grilled Veggies.
Then it was right down the road to the Smart Financial Centre to see Mannheim Steamroller.
And, unlike last year’s Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert, I didn’t have another attack of BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo). And except a couple of small attacks over the next few days, I’ve never had a reoccurrence of the problem. And I don’t know what caused it then, either.
We both really enjoyed the concert, but were surprised to find that it was a much smaller production than TSO.
In fact the touring company consist of only 6 musicians. The rest of the orchestra consists of about a dozen musicians hired locally at each stop. And I think the only equipment they travel with is a snow machine for that real Christmas spirit
And while the light show with Mannheim was nice,
it really didn’t compare with the light show put on by TSO. With multiple stages overhead,
enough lasers to take on the Deathstar,
gigantic flame pots, and enough speakers to make your fillings rattle, and you could feel the heat.
it was a totally awesome experience.
But as I said we also really liked Mannheim, with of a homey, intimate feel. They did mention that this performance was the last one of the season for them, starting back on November 9th, with a show almost every night.
But actually like many similar shows, there are two touring companies for Mannheim, a Red Unit and a Green Unit, that let’s them cover more cities.
All in all a great time.
New Year’s Eve found us at a wild party at a local restaurant. Well, actually we had an early dinner at the Saltgrass Steakhouse up in Webster. We both had our usual Wedge Salads and steaks, but, since it was New Year’s Eve, we splurged a bit and split a Pecan Pie Bread Pudding. Party Hearty.
Bazinga!
Thought for the Day:
“Love your neighbor, yet don’t pull down your hedge.” – Poor Richard’s Almanack
