Monthly Archives: August 2022
My Beautiful, Brilliant Wife . . .
Has ‘Insights’.
Well, my lost in transit UPS package is still lost.
The tracking still shows that that the shipment was picked up by UPS on August 6th, and that’s it.
Zip, Zero, Nada, Nyet.
So still I wait.
I spent part of this afternoon trying to find and fix a leak in the bathroom lavatory. I let the water run, a mixture of both hot and cold, for about 30 minutes without a single drop showing up on the shelf underneath.
Giving up for a while, I called Jan up in Katy to check in. And that’s when my beautiful, brilliant wife gave me the solution.
She said, “What about the overflow drain?”
I hadn’t even thought of that, and didn’t even think it was a problem, since we never fill the sink up that high. Or so I thought.
Jan said that sometimes when she’s washing stuff out that water will splash into the opening. And that was it.
When I closed the drain and fill the bowl to the overflow level, water gushed out of the tube that connects the opening with the drain pipe. It looked like the tube had split along the top where I couldn’t get to it.
And in fact, it looked like I couldn’t replace or patch the tube with pulling the sink. And that would mean that entire countertop would have to come up, since it’s all one piece.
Or I could just put a piece of Gorilla Tape over the opening so no water could splash in.
Decisions, decisions.
As I said, Jan has ‘insights’. Often when I’m stumped on a problem, I’ll talk it over with her, knowing it’s something she doesn’t really know anything about. But then she’ll say something that puts me back on the right track.
And this has happened over and over.
Like I said, Beautiful and Brilliant.
Rob, our park owner, got the pad finished for his new shop/garage the other day.
I’m not sure why he built it up so high, unless he’s worried about flooding. There is a small drainage ditch about 20 feet behind it. But the park didn’t flood even with Hurricane Harvey back in 2017 right before we moved down here. And he’s going to need a big ramp, too.
We’ll see, I guess.
Thought for the Day:
The Federal Government says that 4,153,237 people got married last year.
Maybe it’s just me, but shouldn’t that be an even number?
Foxboro, MA
August 11, 2009
1759 and 99…
Today was a travel day. But first I had some maintenance work to do.
The circuit breaker on our 7.5 KW onboard diesel generator broke while we were in Williamsburg a few weeks ago, so I had to order a new one.
And it was waiting for me when we got to Joan’s this week.
And what should have been a 15 minute job took about 2 hours due to the bad design of the generator case. You should not have to disassemble the entire case of a washer-sized generator just to replace a component on the control panel.
After I got the generator back together and got cleaned up, we headed out about noon for our 100 mile trip east to Foxboro, MA near Boston.
Our park is called Normandy Farms Campground, and, as the sign says, it’s been here since 1759.
Normandy Farms
Yes… 1759!
Well, not the campground, but the farm itself has been owned by the Daniels family since 1759. The 7th, 8th, and 9th generations are now running the place.
The campground had been here for about 35 years
After getting everything set up, we headed out to get a bite to eat.
We had seen a new-to-us restaurant chain here in the East called 99 Restaurants and decided to give it a try.
And a good choice it was.
Jan had one of her favorites, Turkey and Dressing, and I had a Pecan-Crusted Chicken Salad. This place is now on our favorites list.
After we got home, I got the satellite antenna set up. Due to tall trees, the last two parks we’ve been in have been ‘satellite-less’, so it’s good to have it back.
Tomorrow we head into Boston to see the sights.
Elkhart, IN
August 11, 2010
Tooth Fairy gone bad…?
About 12:30 pm Jan and I headed out to the local Bob Evans restaurant for a lunch of Cranberry Pecan Salads before making a stop at the nearby WalMart to stock up on more stuff. We never seem to have enough stuff.
Coming back tot the rig, we stopped at a CVS pharmacy so I could return the I-Zoom toll pass I bought yesterday. It turns out that the I-Zoom pass does not work like the toll passes in Texas.
I had thought that having a pass for the one month a year we are in this area would be worth it for the convenience and slight discount on each trip. However digging into the fine print of the Terms and Conditions (page 27 of a 28 page document) I discovered that they charge you a $1.00 a month “maintenance fee” whether I use the tag or not. That means I would be paying $11.00 a year for the months we are not here, completely eliminating any savings.
Plus, you can not suspend the account, you can only cancel it by turning in your pass.
Getting back to the rig about 2:30 pm, I decided it was a good time for a nap.
And it was.
A little after 4:30 our daughter Brandi called with the latest baby Landon update. Everything is coming along fine, and he’s still on schedule for the first week in September.
About 5:30 we headed out for dinner at El Maguey Mexican restaurant. El Maguey is our favorite Mexican restaurant in this area, and it didn’t disappoint us this time, either. We’ve also gotten hooked on their white cheese Queso dip.
Coming back to the rig, we took a detour past the site of an old dentist office. The dentist used to save all the teeth he extracted, keeping them for years. Apparently the Health Department finally told him he had to get rid of them, since they were unsanitary. To get back at them he had them cast into a concrete block, using the teeth in place of the stone aggregate.
But a closer look shows that the concrete has started to erode leaving the many teeth very visible.
We got back to the rig about 7:30 after another nice day.
Tomorrow I’ll take 3 cargo bay doors over to Phoenix Commercial Paint so that Michele can start doing her usual excellent job on our coach.
All Together In Vandalia, IL
August 11, 2011
Landon’s Heerrreee!
All Landon, All The Time.
Landon getting to know his 1st Cousin Once Removed, Christina, who will probably be called just Cousin Christina.
Resting up, sitting in Daddy’s lap.
Landon standing on his own.
“Cake Face”
It’s Mac N Cheese Time.
Landon discovers he really, really likes YooHoo.
Landon with 1st Cousins, Once Removed Christina and Tana, and Aunt Debbie.
Landon with 2nd Cousin Gwen.
Landon recharging for the next round.
Athens, AL
August 11, 2013
Sour Patch Kids . . .
Brandi sent this movie over today of Landon getting his first taste of Sour Patch Kids candy.
Looks like they grew on him after a bit, though.
About 2pm some more of my relatives, my 2nd cousin’s Anna Jean and Marjorie, and Marjorie’s husband Walter came to visit. They are my Grandmother’s sister’s daughters, so I think that makes them my 2nd cousins.
Anna Jean and Marjorie keep up with everything about everybody in the family so we always enjoy talking to them to catch up. In fact we spent over two hours talking and laughing. And to make it even better, they brought CAKE! You just can’t beat guests like that.
After saying our goodbyes until next year, Jan and I headed out a little after 5pm for dinner. We both had a hamburger hankerin’, but the nearest Five Guys was about 30 minutes away. So we ended up at a nearby Wendy’s. I had seen their ad for the new Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger and wanted to try it.
The burger itself was delicious, but I was a little disappointed in the Pretzel bun. But that could be just my over-expectations, since I’ve never had one before. The taste was really good, but I guess I was expecting the bun to have a little bite or crunch.But that may be just me. I’ll have to try someone else’s to see. Dunkin Donuts has them too.
Yesterday coming back from dinner I stopped off to put gas in the truck, and once again I wondered about gas prices. All along the street were stations, Shell, BP, Exxon, etc., with unleaded at $3.39, and then right in the middle of them is Wal-Mart at $3.21. That’s an .18 a gallon difference! Why go anywhere else?
Gulf Shores, AL
August 11, 2014
And the Meat DOESN”T Fall Off the Bone . . .
After our coffee this morning, I started making a couple of phone calls. First up was the Galveston Bay RV Park to get our reservation in for this November. We’ve spent the winter there for the last six years, and see no reason to change. Except maybe for the cost.
The waterfront sites that we like, run about $525 per month plus another $100 for electric. Expensive, yes. But then we have views like this out our windshield.
The cheaper alternative would be to orbit back and forth between the Colorado River and Lake Conroe Thousand Trails parks, moving every two weeks. This would run us $240 per month, but would be a pain in the butt, and we’d be further from the kids.
So for right now it’s Galveston Bay.
My next call was to Jamie with Gate Guard Services. Jamie was our supervisor the first two years we gate guarded down in the Whitsett area. But now he’s over in the east Texas / north Texas area, and also Louisiana. So since we’ve been thinking about trying a different location this year, hooking up with Jamie was perfect.
I told him we would be available after the 25th of August, and he was pretty sure he would have something for us up in the Huntsville/Madisonville area north of Houston. It would be nice to be a little closer to civilization this year. We’ll see.
We headed out for Pensacola about 1pm for lunch and some shopping. Our first stop was a perennial favorite of ours, Sonny’s BBQ.
Jan and I go way back with Sonny’s. It was one of the first places we had dinner together when we started dating after we met down in Titusville, FL in 1967. And this one in Pensacola is a regular stop when we’re in the area.
Jan had her usual Big Deal Pulled Pork Sandwich with the BBQ Baked Beans and Homemade Mac N Cheese, while I went with my usual Pork Three Ways with BBQ Baked Beans, Corn on the Cob and two slices of Garlic Texas Toast.
The Pork Three Ways consists of Ribs, Pulled Pork, and Sliced Pork, all delicious. And the way it works out, I eat the Ribs and the sides, and then take the toast, pulled pork, and sliced pork home for later. Along with a to-go order of a side of the BBQ Beans, we’ve got another meal for both of us.
And Sonny’s Ribs are only slow-smoked, and are not pre-cooked or par-boiled first. This means they DON’T fall of the bone. And they shouldn’t. There should be some bite, some texture, to the meat.
Now that’s a meaty, tasty rib.
The other thing Sonny’s does right is their Iced Tea glasses. None of these dinky 16 oz. glasses, that after the ice is added, you get about a cup of actual tea.
No, these are big, honking 36 oz. glasses. (I checked the size on the bottom)
Leaving Sonny’s, our next stop was Artesana, a unique gift shop we’ve been visiting since before we moved to Texas from Alabama in 1978.
They have a little bit of everything, and Jan always finds something she wants. Except this time. Don’t know why, but she walked out empty-handed. Cheaper for me, though.
After a stop at Sam’s Club for some bulk stuff, we headed home via US98 through Foley, rather than the beach road like our trip over. Coming through Foley, we stopped off at Dodge’s to get gas for the truck and scope out rig access for diesel when we leave here this Friday. At $3.53 a gallon, their diesel is the cheapest around.
Gulf Shores, AL Again
August 11, 2015
Fan–Tastic . . .
About 2pm there was a knock at our door and it was the UPS guy delivering our new fan. I really love parks where they deliver right to to your door.
I had been looking for a better fan to circulate the cold air around the rig. Although our two roof AC’s are ducted together, the bedroom is always cooler than the front of the rig because it’s smaller and has less window area.
In the living room, the driver’s area is always 4 or 5 degrees hotter than just a few feet back. This is especially noticeable when we’re traveling and running both AC’s,.
So I was looking for a fan that would move the air around better, and this is what I came up with.
And boy, does it do the job. When I unpacked it and set it in the kitchen aimed for the front of the rig, it was 75 degrees at the sofa and 79 degrees at the dashboard. And 30 minutes later, it was 75 in both areas. Nice.
Surprisingly, even with all the air it moves, it’s very quiet. It measures 12” x 10” x 12”, and the output nozzle can be rotated from straight up to straight down. I think it’s going to make a big difference in keeping the rig more comfortable.
A little after 4pm Jan and I headed out to have dinner at King Neptune’s Seafood, another of our long-time favorites here in Gulf Shores. We’ve eaten here for years and always enjoyed it.
Until tonight.
Neptune’s has always been a place for good seafood, moderate prices, and great lunch specials. In fact at lunchtime you generally find more locals than tourists. But looking over the menu, the first thing we noticed was the big jump in prices since last year. Your first thought might be, well, prices are up everywhere. But, no.
For example, I had the Blackened Shrimp Po-Boy last night at Tacky Jack’s.
It was delicious, and only $11.
Tonight at Neptune’s I had the Shrimp and Oyster Po-Boy. It was not as flavorful, not as good, it was smaller, and it was $19.
Well, maybe the price difference was because I had both Shrimp and Oysters tonight. But no, their basic Shrimp Po-Boy is also $19.
Note the size difference too.
Next, compare the Fried Seafood Platter we had at DeSoto’s Seafood Kitchen our first night here.
It was $20, came with Flounder, Shrimp, Oysters, Crab Claws, and two sides, and was really good.
Neptune’s version comes with Flounder, Shrimp, and Oysters, and just Fries. And it’s $30.
For her meal, Jan got a mini Platter with just Catfish and Shrimp. The Mac N Cheese shown was a $3 extra order.
And it cost the same $20 as DeSoto’s for about 1/2 as much food. And Jan said it wasn’t near as good, either.
The one good part of the meal was the dozen raw oysters we ordered as an appetizer.
Paradoxically, at $10 a dozen, Neptune’s cost was less than any other place we’ve been.
Maybe that’s why everything is so high?
Tomorrow will be our last full day here in Gulf Shores, and the week sure went quickly. Too quickly, really. Thursday we’ll leave for Houston and the Colorado River Thousand Trails with a one night stop in Breaux Bridge on the way.
Athens, AL Again
August 11, 2016
Not Overly Impressed . . .
About 12:30 my cousins (2nd), Stahlie, Darby, Luke, and Harlan, came over to visit for a while.
Stahlie want to get my stories about the Calvin and Peagram families I had for a college paper she’s doing, and Darby is writing a book using the characters from from the original fairy tales and myths, many of which were pretty bloody until Walt Disney got a hold of them. She wanted some information about getting her book into Amazon Kindle format and online.
This is Stahlie and Darby. Luke and Harlan got bored and left.
She was kind of worried about the way her book was going. She said the characters seemed to be going off on their own. I laughed and told her not to worry, and that I’ve heard other writers say the same thing, and not to worry. Let the characters tell the story they want to tell.
Stahlie wanted to know what I remembered about my Grandmother and Grandfather who lived on the farm right across US-31 from here. In fact this RV park is built on part of their original farm
This is me with them when I was about 8 months old.
We had a great time, and spent several hours talking
Around 4:30 Jan and I headed out to have dinner at a favorite local BBQ place, 306 BBQ, out on Hwy 72 E toward Huntsville. We’ve always enjoyed this place in the past, but maybe because we had just recently eaten at Sonny’s BBQ in Pensacola, it no longer measured up.
Jan had a jumbo pulled pork sandwich with Cole slaw.
Putting Cole slaw on a BBQ sandwich seems to be pretty much a regional North Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina thing. I know if you ask for Cole slaw on your BBQ in Texas, they look at you real funny.
I had the Two Meat Combo Plate with Ribs and Pulled Pork, as well as the Brown Sugar Green Beans and Turnip Greens.
And you know this is a southern BBQ place since they do have Turnip Greens, and the Pepper Sauce to put on them.
Although Jan liked her sandwich fine, I was disappointed with my BBQ. Both the ribs and pulled pork were bland and tasteless, and the pulled pork was dry.
If I could have slathered on some good BBQ sauce, it might have been saved. But the sauce here is vinegar-based with a lot of Tabasco in it, not my favorite. All I taste is vinegar with these type of sauces. Actually I think I enjoyed my Brown Sugar Green Beans and Turnip Greens better.
Tomorrow we’re getting together with my Aunt Virginia for lunch and a lot of catching up since last year. Really looking forward to it.
Jan and I went outside about midnight to take in the ‘magnificent’ Perseid meteor shower. But for us it wasn’t very magnificent, more of a Comet Kohoutek.
They said we should see 160 to 200 meteors per hour, which would be about 3 a minute. Well, in 55 minutes we saw 12, so it was kind of a letdown.
Maybe we just needed some middle-age school teachers in a VW bus to give us cookies and we wouldn’t have cared.
August 11, 2017
69Raccoon . . .
Our grandson Landon starts 2nd grade this coming Wednesday, the 16th of August. Here he is meeting his new teacher for the first time.
Landon’s 2nd Grade teacher looks nothing like my 2nd Grade teacher, believe me.
It’s amazing how early they start school now. When I was growing up it was usually the Wednesday after Labor Day, not 3 weeks earlier like now. Gave everyone time to rest up from the holiday.
Regular readers will remember the saga of Landon’s missing teeth, when he lost two to hitting Miss Kitty’s hard head, Miss Kitty being their 120# Black Lab. Then a few months later he hit his father’s knee and lost the third one.
Well, they’re coming back in.
Just hope he doesn’t manage to knock out these permanent ones
This past week I was called back in to an old client’s office down in the Clear Lake area. The client had replaced me a couple of years ago with a new IT guy, someone who said he could do the job better, cheaper, faster, whatever. And the client fell for it.
So now the IT guy, who’s I think in his late 30’s, is dying in a nursing home. And the client has NO passwords for ANYTHING. Not for Godaddy, not for the office network, not for PayPal, not for the websites, not even for the office Wi-Fi.
Nothing.
So I have spent the last 3 days ‘hacking’ into things. I have started the procedures with Godaddy and PayPal to reclaim control of those accounts, and I reset and reprogrammed the Wi-Fi router so that’s working now.
Now when he took over from me, he had no problems like this. I immediately sent him a copy of a file I keep with all the necessary codes and passwords. The client had a copy of this himself, but couldn’t find it right then.
I actually talked to the guy on Wednesday, but he was so high on drugs that when I asked him about passwords, all he kept saying was ‘69raccoon’, 69raccoon’. But I don’t have any idea what it’s the password to, or if it really is a password, and not a hallucination. It certainly hasn’t worked anywhere I’ve tried it yet.
Of course the fact that I later discovered that the old IT guy was selling weed out the office may explain the whole ‘69raccoon’ thing. It seems that all those ‘friends’ who kept dropping by were also customers.
So the moral of all this is that if someone has almost complete control of your livelihood, be sure you have an up-to-date copy of all the passwords and codes. And check a few out now and then just to be sure they’re correct.
I could tell you some stories.
August 11, 2018
Trying To Finish Up . . .
Jan and I spent the morning talking over our Viking River Cruise plans, trying to get a better handle on when we want to go.
Right now we’re still looking at the last two weeks of April 2019 or the first week in May. The cruises actually start in March, but if you go too early the spring snow melt can make the rivers so high that the ships can’t fit under the bridges. So your river cruise becomes a 15 day bus trip. And there are a lot of complaints online about this happening to people.
It’s not going to be our problem, but often if you cruise in the late summer/fall, often the rivers are too low, and it’s back on the bus.
Jan has discovered a lot of info online about river cruising. Blogs talking about “What To Do On Your River Cruise., What Not To Do, What To Take, What Not To Take, etc. And in some cases they seem to contradict each other.
We headed out a little after noon to first have lunch/breakfast at the nearby Denny’s. Then it was on up the house to start getting the last of our stuff out. We had originally planned to make at least two, or maybe three trips back down to the storage unit. But it didn’t work out that way.
We ended up spending most of the afternoon sorting through and throwing a lot of stuff away, so by the time we were done we only had time for one load. And even that didn’t quite work out.
When we got down to the storage area we found a large moving van parked in front of our entrance door with no indication that they would be moving any time soon. So we decided to drop the stuff off tomorrow before we head back up to the house again. At least we hope they’ll be done by tomorrow.
So it was on to our next stop, Pho 20 Vietnamese Cuisine, for a light dinner of a House Crunch Salad (we split it) and a order of Shrimp Spring Rolls. The perfect meal.
Tomorrow we’ll do it all over again, but with Mexican this time.
August 11, 2019
Don’t Be Stupid. Be Crazy . . .
After a nice quiet morning I drove over to the NTB tire store (not Discount Tires) to get my rounded-off lug nut off. I got there about 12:20 for my 12:30 appointment and found them really busy. After finding a place to park, I went inside to check in.
When I said I had a 12:30 appointment to get some lug nuts off, the clerk said he couldn’t find my appointment, and since they were really busy, I’d have to come back at another time.
I told him to check using my phone number.
“Nope. Nothing here. You’ll have to come back later.”
“So you’re saying I don’t have an appointment.”
“No, there’s nothing in the system about it.”
“Then why is my name and appointment time scheduled on the monitor right over your head?”
Turning and looking up at the monitor, he grinned sheepishly and said, “Oh, here it is. Pull up to Bay 2.”
Since he had a lobby full of ‘real’ customers, I guess he didn’t want to fool with me.
About five minutes a tech came out with a special socket and a big hammer. When I pointed out the bad lug, he hammered the socket on the lug, and used his impact driver to remove the lug.
Or tried to.
It even took him several tries to break it loose with his driver, but finally it came free.
Now I don’t feel so bad.
Then I ask him to break loose the lugs on the driver’s side rear just in case. As he was doing that, he said what must have happened was the wrong impact driver was used. Some of them are set up to mount heavy truck tires and shouldn’t be used on regular vehicles.
He left the bad lug nut off and handed it to me, saying that the wheel would be OK with just five.
This reminded me of a favorite story of mine.
While driving out in the countryside, a man found himself with a flat tire. As he removed each lug nut he placed it in the hubcap for safe keeping. Mounting the new tire on the hub, he accidentally stepped on the edge of the hubcap, flipping 4 of the 5 lug nuts into the water-filled ditch next to the car.
As he was trying to figure out what to do, he hears a voice behind him. Turning, he saw a high chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. And a small sign on the fence that said, “Meadowbrook Insane Asylum”.
The voice belonged to a man standing behind the fence, who said,”You wanna know what to do?”
“Sure. What?”
“Take one lug nut off the other three wheels, and that, with the one you have left, will give you four lugs on all the wheels, fine to get you to the next town.”
“That’s brilliant, but why are you . . .?”
“Why am I in here? I’m in here because I’m crazy, not because I’m stupid.”
Moral: Don’t Be Stupid. Be Crazy.
About 4pm Jan and I headed over to the Denny’s to have our usual Sunday afternoon breakfast for dinner.
Always good.
August 11, 2021
A New Toy For Work . . .
When I got to work this morning, I had a new toy waiting for me. A new (to me) Dell OptiPlex 9020 Tower Computer for the Shipping Department.
It’s an i7-4GHz with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a DVD drive. Then before I started setting it up, I added another 16GB for a total of 32GB, and 1TB Hard Drive for daily internal backup of the SSD.
This computer, as well as all the other computers I’ve bought for work, and as my personal one at home, are Amazon Renewed, I.e. Refurbished with a 90 day full warranty. Then for $61 I add an additional 3-year warranty.
In pretty much every case these are computers that are surplused from business who often change out their computers every two years. Refurbishers buy these in bulk, check them out. and often upgrade them at the same time. Then they’re put up on Amazon.
Back in the early 2000’s when I worked Tech Services at UHCL (University of Houston-Clear Lake), we did the same thing, though with locally built computers. They came with a 2 year warranty for parts, and we did the repairs, when needed.
Every computer at the university was replaced every two years, and the old ones were sold off, just like this.
Coming home I stopped off at the Verizon store at FM646 to see if they could figure out what was wrong with the text messaging on Jan’s phone. Or rather with Jan’s account.
We discovered this when we moved Jan over to my old S8+ and the text problem followed along. Then last week when the S8+ died and she moved back to the S5 the problem moved back too.
And after I finally convinced them it was not a phone problem, three techs spent about 20 minutes rummaging around in her account, using the phone, a computer, and a tablet before they finally found the weird setting that was causing the problem. And then after rebooting her phone, she has finally has texting.
Tomorrow we’re heading up to the Spring area to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt for a our monthly get-together once again, this time at Razzoo’s Cajun Café. Then instead of coming straight home, we’ll detour back down SR99 to the Katy area where I’ll drop Jan off for a weekend of fun, frivolity, and dog-sitting while Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and Sophie head up to Lake Livingston for the weekend.
Finishing up, I thought this was a really neat shot of the Pharaoh Khufu’s intact Solar Boat being moved from the Great Pyramid, where it has rested for over 4,600 years, to its new home in Egypt’s new Grand Museum.
Solar boats were buried in pits next to royal burial chambers in the belief that they would transport the departed into the afterlife.
The boat was commissioned by Khufu, a Fourth Dynasty monarch who ruled during the Old Kingdom.
The ministry boasted that the 42-metre (138-foot) long and 20-ton solar boat is “the biggest and oldest organic artifact made of wood, in the history of humanity”.
Amazing!
I’ll come back and finished up our Museum tour in tomorrow night’s blog.
Thought for the Day:
Like the city of Austin, who’s thinking about changing the city’s name because Stephen F. Austin was pro-slavery, San Francisco was thinking about changing its name because it was named after a saint.
However they dropped the idea when they found that Needles, CA was already taken.
Tracking? What’s That?
Except for Amazon, I’m not sure tracking a package with UPS or USPS really does much good.
I recently reposted this from 2012 about a package shipped through USPS, and after getting from CA to TX in one day, it then preceded to orbit around Texas for 5 more days before it finally got delivered to me here in Houston.
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-08, 00:07:00, SAN ANTONIO, TX 78284
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-07, 13:28:00, DALLAS, TX 75398
Depart USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-07, 00:00:00, DALLAS, TX 75398
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-06, 16:04:00, MCALLEN, TX 78501
Depart USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-06, 00:00:00, SAN ANTONIO, TX 78284
Depart USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-06, 00:00:00, MCALLEN, TX 78501
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-05, 21:58:00, SAN ANTONIO, TX 78284
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
2012-08-04, 21:20:00, SAN BERNARDINO, CA 92403
Dispatched to Sort Facility
2012-08-04, 14:37:00, MURRIETA, CA 92563
Acceptance
2012-08-04, 13:39:00, MURRIETA, CA 92562
And more recently, I ordered something from eBay on August 5th, and it was shown as being picked up the next day by UPS.
And that’s it.
There has been no more tracking info, so I have no idea where it is.
And even calling UPS didn’t help.
So I guess I wait.
For dinner tonight I stopped off at Whataburger on the way home to pick up a free Bacon Bleu Cheeseburger. Well, it was free with a coupon if I bought a medium fry and a medium Coke.
Since the drive-thru line was pretty long I just went in and ordered to-go at the counter. And had my order in less than 5 minutes.
Much faster than going through the long line of about 10 cars.
But the funny thing was that right before I got my order, a guy walked me to throw his trash away, and I noticed he was wearing a Five Guys employee badge and T-Shirt. And it’s not like he was far away from work.
The Five Guys is only 1/2 mile away. Guess he knows who has the best burgers.
Thought for the Day:
Never mistake my silence for weakness. I mean why would I plan a murder out loud?
Chicopee, MA
August 10, 2009
Best Friends and Bears…
Today is our last full day here so we wanted to make the most of it.
After picking up a bolt at the hardware store, we headed back over to Joan’s about 3pm.
Jan and Joan have had a great time recalling stories about each other. Here’s the two trouble makers themselves.
Joan had said Charlie, a friend of hers, was coming by to take us on the base at Westover.
Jan had a great time finding her way around the base. Some buildings she remembered were still there, but many had been torn down.
After stopping by Walmart again to pick up my prescription, the four of us drove over to Tavern on the Hill for dinner. This restaurant is built on the peak of Mt. Tom in Easthampton, MA and the view is fantastic.
And so was the food!
After saying our goodbye’s to Joan and Charlie, we headed back home.
On our way I took some pics of the bear mascot statues in Easthampton.
During our travels, we’ve seen pelicans in Seabrook, TX, mermaids in Beaufort, SC, moose in Cour d’Alene, ID, and horses in Kentucky.
Here it’s bears.
And even a Wanted Poster for a bear that’s been ‘Bear-napped”.
We had a great time catching up with Joan and hope to see her again in a month or so when we come back thru here on our way back from Newfoundland.
Tomorrow morning we head east to Boston.
Elkhart, IN
August 10, 2010
Sex and RunPee…
After a lunch of sandwiches and chips here in the rig, we decided to have another try at seeing Sex and the City 2 over in Mishawaka at the same theater we saw Iron Man 2 the other day.
We left about noon, but first stopped off at CVS Drugs to purchase an I-Zoom toll road pass to use while we’re here in Elkhart. Not only is it faster, but the toll to Mishawaka is $.40 instead of $.50.
Since Sex and the City 2 is a long movie at 2 hrs. and 30 minutes, Jan used RunPee, a website that lets you enter the movie title and then it gives you the time into the movie and how long you have to…wait for it…Run Pee.
And it worked great. At 74 minutes into the movie, Jan made a break for the restroom and was back before the end of a scene where nothing really happened.
And so did several other people. Guess RunPee’s pretty popular.
After the movie, we stopped off at a nearby Michael’s and then a Sam’s Club right down the street.
Getting back to the park about 4:30, we set up to head out to supper at North Garden Chinese Buffet about 5:30 pm.
Al Hesselbart would be joining us for dinner. Al is the historian at the nearby RV/MH Hall of Fame and recently returned from a trip to China as a guest of the Chinese government.to discuss RV’ing and the budding RV industry in China.
We had a great time at dinner listening to Al as he regaled us with the tales of his travels. We had a great dinner and a lot of fun.
We got back to the coach a little after 7 after a very nice day.
We did get some more photos of our daughter’s bridal shower, wedding , and baby shower, and some more granddaughter Piper pics.
Here’s a photo of our beautiful daughter Brandi at her bridal shower.
Brandi, Brandi, and Shawna at Brandi’s baby shower.
And here’s our daughter-in-law Linda, our granddaughter Piper, and our son Chris at Brandi’s wedding.
And here’s Piper in Times Square in July of last year.
And here’s Piper at F.A.O. Schwartz Toy Store in New York City, also last year.
More tomorrow…
On To Vandalia, IL
August 10, 2011
It’s Almost Landon Time . . .
We really enjoyed our stay at here at Kamp Komfort. It’s a real gem, especially when it’s only $14 a night for 30 amp full hookups with Passport America. Nice.
We pulled out about 11 am heading for Mulberry Grove about 140 miles away. We’ll be spending a week there visiting Jan’s sister, Debbie, her family, kids, and grandkids, and of course, Brandi, Lowell, and Landon coming in tomorrow afternoon..
We got into the Timber Tails Campground about 2:30 and got set up. We stayed here last year and it’s nice to be back.
The park even has some of Jan’s favorite fauna.
A little after 4 pm we headed over to Debbie’s about 25 miles away. After every one showed up, we all headed back into town to have dinner at the Pizza Hut in Vandalia, the nearest big town. Surprisingly, the pizza was really good, especially the Stuffed Crust.
Jan got this shot of these three beautiful young ladies. That’s Gwen on the left. She’s Tana’s daughter, and our grand niece. Next is Christina, our niece, and then Avery Jane, Jason and Laura’s daughter, and also our grand niece. Missing from the picture is our other grand niece, Ella.
To try and keep things straight without a scorecard, Debbie and Jim, Jan’s sister and brother-in-law, have three children. They are Jason, Tana, and Christina.
Jason and his wife, Laura, have Avery Jane and Ella, and Tana has Gwen.
Glad we’ve got that straight now.
After a fun dinner, Jan and I headed back to the rig for the night. We’re all getting together at breakfast tomorrow, and hopefully we’ll get to see everyone else.
Athens, AL
August 10, 2013
Family Fun . . .
Today started out slow and easy, but quickly got busy.
While Jan was in the shower and I was still asleep, Sonja Morrison called and left a message for Jan. Sonja is Lowell’s mother and Landon’s other grandmother.
Jan called her back so that they could talk about Landon’s birthday party on Saturday, August 17th, a couple of days after we get back to Houston. Sonja, and Lendell, her husband, will be in Houston for the party, and she wanted to coordinated with Jan about some things.
We’re really looking forward to getting back and seeing everyone next Thursday.
Around noon, my aunt Janis called and invited us next door for homemade fresh peach pie and ice cream. But even better my Uncle Tom and Aunt Lenette were over there too. Due to their busy schedule, we hadn’t been able to get together our last two visits here, so we were really glad to see them this year.
My Uncle is probably the only person I know, and certainly the only family member I know, that has his own Wikipedia page here at Tom Calvin, and is also listed on several other pages like here – Oldest Living Pro Football Players, and here – Alabama Football Coaches
Tom was a star fullback for the University of Alabama from 1948 – 1950. and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the ‘51 NFL draft. He turned them down because he didn’t like the contract he was offered, and so he took over the Head Coach position at a south Alabama high school, taking them to their first winning season in years.
Here he is at Alabama in 1949.
He even had his own football card.
Months later, he received a personal call from Art Rooney, famous owner of the Steelers, offering him a better contract. This led to him playing 4 years for the Steelers, from ‘52 to ‘55, as a star fullback and kick returner.
Finally, after 4 years of hating the bitter cold Pittsburgh winters he returned to Alabama and began a 33 year high school coaching career ending with a 201-130-11 record, making him the winningest high school coach in Alabama history. During that time, he took 3 losing school football programs to Championship status.
And his wife Lenette is no slouch in the sports world either. She’s a well-known gymnastics coach who’s worked with world-famous coach Béla Károlyi at his Houston facility, and taken teams to several Olympics herself.
Hopefully it won’t be another two years before we see them again.
While we were over there I finally got the kids to sit still for some photos. My Uncle Ed and Aunt Janis are their grandparents, which makes them my 2nd cousins.
This beautiful young lady is Stahlie. She’s a wonderful artist and a budding film-maker who’s had several films win prizes in local contests.
And this also-beautiful young lady is Darby. Darby is the family dancer, from Ballet to Swing and Ballroom.
And this handsome young man, who just turned 13, is Luke.
They are all homeschooled, and are smart as whips. Their father, Wes Calvin, owns the RV park here where we’re staying.
After getting in all our hugs and hellos, Janis served us her delicious warm homemade peach pie along with ice cream, which cut down on the conversation for a while until everyone got their fill. Hmm, good.
Finally, after several hours of catching up, we all headed home, giving Ed and Janis some peach and quiet.
Later, after some nap time, Jan and I headed out to 306 BBQ, a couple of miles east of town on US 72. We always eat here every visit just for their wonderful pulled pork BBQ.
Tomorrow afternoon we’re getting together with a couple of my cousins (my grandmother’s sister’s daughters. Not sure what that makes them) for a while to catch up with them.
Gulf Shores, AL
August 10, 2015
Not As Good . . .
Once again I spent some time trying to remove the bottom access panel so I can get to the back of my water heater. Despite the label saying to remove the panel to access the unit, it sure doesn’t look like it’s supposed to come out. But I’ll get it off eventually. We’re still doing OK on LP so it’s not an urgent problem.
About 4:00pm Jan and I headed out for another of those something ‘old/new’ things. We were going to have dinner at Tacky Jack’s, but not the one in Orange Beach that we’ve eaten at for years. but the newer one on the south side of the Intercoastal Waterway, diagonally across the canal from Lulu’s At Homeport.
I started out with a cup of Seafood Gumbo, which didn’t measure up to what I had at Lulu’s the other night. It wasn’t near as favorable, and it was even thicker. It didn’t have any okra in it, which I know is normally added for thickening, but it does add flavor. Ironically, although I like the taste of okra in gumbo, I don’t really like it thick, as in gravy-thick. I prefer the thinner, almost broth-like gumbo. But I’ll have to wait ‘til we get to Breaux Bridge this Thursday for that kind.
Jan got their Grilled Shrimp Tacos, which like my Gumbo, did not measure up to the ones she had at Lulu’s the other night. Lack of flavor was also a problem with these too.
I’m starting to see a pattern here.
But I must say however, I really enjoyed my Blackened Shrimp Po-Boy.
I think this is where all the flavor from the other dishes went. Very good. I’d have it again. But maybe we ought to go back to our old reliable one in Orange Beach next time.
Finally heading back to the rig, we made a quickie Wal-Mart stop to pick up a prescription on the way.
Then later, about 7 we headed back out to the Boardwalk area in Gulf Shores, just to sit out on the beach, watch the ocean and the sunset.
There must be some dust in the air to the west of us, because I was surprised at how bright the sunset was. But it only lasted a few minutes before it faded away.
Before heading back to the park, we made a stop at Scoop’s Olde Fashion Ice Cream, a place we been going to for years, and it’s still good.
All in all, a very nice day.
Back in Athens, AL
August 10, 2016
Shoney’s and Showers . . .
First up, for those of you with Yahoo email addresses, change your password.
A hacker recently put what he claims are 200 million Yahoo email usernames, hashed passwords, and birth dates on sale on the Dark Net, asking about $1,800 for the entire data dump.
Even if it’s not true, it never hurts to change your password. Here’s more about it.
http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/08/yahoo-email-data-breach-dump/
I spent the morning working on website stuff, while Jan read her Kindles. Yes, Kindles. She had 3 – a Fire, a PaperWhite, and a second PaperWhite, which is mine. She trades between them, with one or two of them charging while she’s reading the other one.
I don’t use my PaperWhite any more, doing all my Kindling on my Galaxy Tab 4.
A little later, Helen, my cousin Wes’ wife came by to say Hi and catch us up on all the family news. Between her kids, Stahlie, Darby, Luke, and Harlan, she’s got a lot to keep up with.
About 5pm Jan and I went next door to check in with my Aunt Janis and Uncle Ed whose home is right behind the RV park. And although they may not realize it, Janis and Ed have a lot to do with Jan and I being together.
In June of 1967 I left Athens and drove down to Florida to bum around for the summer. I ended up in Sanford, FL where my Uncle Ed had a veterinary practice. I stayed with them for a few days while I looked around for something to do.
Checking out the Florida Today paper, I saw an want ad for someone to do the shows and to take care of the animals at the Marine Life area of Florida Wonderland, an amusement park in Titusville, FL.
Yes, that’s me with hair.
A couple of days later, on July 5th, I started working there, and that afternoon I met Jan who was working as Saloon Girl in Miss Kitty’s Pleasure Palace, the western town’s soft drink saloon.
It took me a while to get her to go out with me. She said later she thought I was a just stuck-up college kid with a red sports car.
And this coming September we will have been married 49 years.
Leaving Ed and Jan’s, my Jan and I heading out for dinner. Jan had seen an ad for Hot Fudge Cake, and I wanted a big juicy hamburger. And we were able to get both at the local Shoney’s.
Although they weren’t really busy it took almost 30 minutes to get our food. But it was hot and delicious anyway.
Jan got a Mushroom-Cheddar Burger while I went with Double-Decker Burger.
Really, really good, hot and juicy, just like I wanted.
For dessert, Jan got her Hot Fudge Cake,
while I got the Hot Apple Crisp.
Well worth the wait.
Wrapping up, tomorrow night is the big night for the yearly Perseid Meteor Shower. And it’s supposed to be a doozy.
Where you would typically see 80 to 100 showers per hour, tomorrow night should be 160 to 200 per hour.
The Persids are actually remnants from the comet Swift-Tuttle that orbits the Sun every 133 years. As it rounds the Sun, it is constantly shedding small particles in its wake. And once a year the Earth sweeps through that trail giving us a spectacular show in the sky.
Hopefully our skies will be clear enough here to give us a chance to see the show.
Check it out where you are.
Thought for the Day:
You may have seen the story online about the service monkey getting loose on a Frontier airliner.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/airport-official-says-monkey-flight-was-certified-service-animal
But if you think that’s weird, how about a service turkey?
Well, I guess it’s better than ‘Snakes On A Plane”, anyway.
August 10, 2017
I Feel The Need For Speed . . .
I like to drive fast.
Jan can attest to that. But not in the RV of course. That’s 55 – 60 mph all the way. But on the track, and on west Texas roads, it’s another matter.
Back in the day, I raced SCCA in my very souped-up ‘65 Triumph Spitfire and hit a little over 140 mph on the track. Above that, the front end got a little squirrely, floaty even. But I did have the pleasure of beating a couple of Vette’s when I was running in the Unlimited Class.
And when we were dating, I did ‘test drive’ Jan once, hitting over 125 on a long deserted stretch of Florida four-lane highway. When she didn’t scream or faint, I decided she had possibilities.
And actually I’ve been faster than that. In 1966 and 1967 I took both the Basic Road Racing and the Advanced Road Racing Classes at Bob Bondurant’s Racing School when it used to be at the Atlanta Raceway in Georgia, to get my SCCA Racing License.
But part of the fun was the final exam, where we got to take a Porsche (or Porsche ‘Ah’ as Alan says) out on the road track and had to match or beat a specific time during one of three tries. I passed the second time, and was clocked at over 160 on the straights. But with all this background in speed, and still feeling the ‘need’ now and then, I’m often amazed, and sometimes ‘scared’ by Houston drivers.
Coming home from Louisiana this past Monday night about 11pm, I’m on I-10 passing through downtown Houston, and doing about 70. Of course the speed limit is 60 mph, and it had been raining, but no one else seemed to care. And even driving 70 I was the slowpoke of the bunch, with people passing me on both sides, sometimes flashing their lights, apparently because I was in the way and slowing them down. Most were doing 80-85, but I swear that some were bumping up against 100 mph.
Makes me think the Texas State Motto shouldn’t be ‘Friendship’, but maybe should be ‘Punch it, Margaret’.
And on that note, how in the heck is one word a ‘motto’? That should be the the Texas State Word, if anything. I contend that it takes at least two words to make a motto.
‘Be Prepared!’ Now that’s a motto.
August 10, 2018
My Sweetie’s Back Home . . .
Yah!
I spent most of the day at work trying different ideas on how to move the company website from our old in-house Linux server up to a dedicated Godaddy server.
One of the problems I’ve been having is that the previous IT guy had not updated the Zen Cart shopping cart software since it was installed in 2013. So we’re 18 updates behind, ones that came down when he was still working there. And now I’m kind of stuck. Everyone warns me that trying to update now might be fatal to the shopping cart.
I’ve set up a test area on Godaddy using the latest version of WordPress and Zen Cart installs they use. But the shopping cart doesn’t work correctly when I move the databases from the old cart to the new one. And I now think that the problem is caused by the different versions.
In many cases when an update is done, sometimes it also modifies the database.
But now I may have a solution. Burrowing into the Zen Cart site I found that old versions of the program are available, including my 6 year old version. So my idea now is to manually install the old version of Zen Cart on the Godaddy server. Then I’ll try to move the database files over and see how it works.
Then if it does, I’ll start trying to update the version until I get it to work. At least I hope that’s the way it will work. We’ll see.
Looks like we’re going to the Texas Renaissance Festival again this year. This will be our 3rd year in a row. Kind of unusual since we’re normally either traveling or gate guarding that time of the year. But it just worked out.
I got an email last week announcing a half-price sale on tickets this past Wednesday, starting at 2pm, with only 20,000 going on sale. They were only for the first 3 weekends but that was fine with us.
I figured the tickets would sell out fast so I was all ready to go right at 2pm. But the half price tickets didn’t show up on the website until about 3 minutes after. And I immediately ran into a problem.
The website asked for a password before it would let me buy the tickets. Thinking I may have missed something about this in the email, I checked it out. But nothing about a password.
So I first tried no password, hitting Return. No luck. Then I tried ‘password’, but that didn’t work either. Then I went with Texas Renaissance Festival. Again, No.
Then, one at a time, I tried Texas, Renaissance, and Festival. Nada. So then I tried ‘renfest’, the abbreviated nick name for the event.
And it worked!
So I got 5 tickets and a Preferred Parking Pass, and I was done. Later in the afternoon at home I checked the website again and they still had tickets, and still had the password request. I would have expected the tickets to go pretty fast, but I guess the password thing slowed people down. But I still don’t understand what the purpose of it was.
Tomorrow Jan and I will make some more trips bring stuff from the house to the storage unit because it’s now possible that we’ll close as soon as this coming Thursday, over a week earlier than expected. So tomorrow and Sunday looks to be busy.
August 10, 2019
Getting The Boot . . .
Landon’s starting off school this year with a bang. Or at least a boot.
A month or so ago he was a trampoline park and said he hurt his foot. But then didn’t say much more about it. Then the other day it was hurting again so Brandi took him to the doctor. And X-raying showed a stress fracture.
So now he has to wear the boot for a couple of months, though he can take it off to swim and bathe. I predict that as soon as he gets back to school it’s going to be covered in girl’s autographs.
Brandi did have this to say later.
“We had barely left the parking lot and he asked if I could buy him a bell so he can ring me when he needs something. I was a nice mommy and did not tell him what he could do with his bell.”
I went through the OTA TV signals from our new antenna this morning, logging all the channels we’ll be interested in. Here’s what I got.
2-1 Channel 2 — NBC Network
2-2 MeTV — Old TV Shows
2-3 H&I TV — Old TV Shows
2-4 Start TV — Old TV Shows
8-1 Channel 8 — PBS Network
8-2 Create TV — PBS Specials
11-1 Channel 11 — CBS Network
11-2 Bounce TV — Movies
11-3 Justice TV — Crime Shows
11-4 Quest TV — Various
13-1 Channel 13 — ABC Network
13-2 LivWell — Health & Food Shows
13-3 Laff TV — Movies
20-1 Channel 20 — My TV Network
20-2 Movie TV — Movies
20-3 Decades TV — Old TV Shows
20-4 Buzzr TV — Old Game Shows
26-1 Channel 26 — FOX Network
26-2 Light TV — Old TV Shows & Movies
39-1 Channel 39 — CW Network
39-2 Ant TV — Old TV Shows
39-3 Comet TV — Old Movies
39.4 TBI TV — FailFactory
45-3 Escape TV — Crime Shows
46-3 Nudu TV — Old TV Shows & Paid Prgms
46-4 Heartland — Country and Cooking Shows
46-6 TCN TV — The Country Network
46-7 NewsNet TV — 24 Hour News
49-1 ION TV — Old TV Shows
49-3 ION Plus — Old TV Shows
57-1 KUBE TV — Old TV Shows
57-4 COZI TV — Old TV Shows
57-7 This TV — Old Movies
67-2 Get TV — Old TV Shows
67-3 Grit TV — Old Movies
One of the unusual ones is on 39.4. Called the FailFactory, it seems to be a channel that just shows Funniest Home Video type clips 24 hours a day.
This afternoon we headed out about 4 for dinner at Los Ramirez Mexican Restaurant once again. Then we stopped at the tire store and made an appointment to come by at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon for them to take care of my stuck lug nut problem. Then after a WalMart stop we headed home.
August 10, 2020
Chip Off The Old Block???
First up, a couple of interesting videos.
This one is a video of SpaceX’s recent 500 foot test hop of their Starship SN5.
And, yes, it does look like a grain silo. But that’s because it’s the top of a future 400 foot rocket, minus the nose cone. It will sit atop a Super Heavy Booster and will take 100 people or 120 tons of supplies to the moon or Mars.
This is what it will look like when it’s all put together.
Now that’s the way a Starship is supposed to look.
The next flight is supposed to be about 20km or 12 miles up. Soon.
Next up is a really interesting 4K video of the recent explosion in Beirut,Lebanon. The first part is in real-time, the second part is in slow-motion, and the third part is in super slow-motion.
Unfortunately the video wouldn’t allow me to imbed it into the blog so you’ll have to click on the link itself.
The resulting shockwave in slo-mo is devastating. Be sure and read the accompanying text from the guy who shot the video from his apartment balcony.
I mentioned in yesterday’s blog how I had started computer programming at the age of 10, albeit with one made out of Masonite. And as it turns out Landon’s doing pretty much the same.
His 10th birthday is in 10 days and for his big present he asked for this one-on-one Roblox online computer programming class. In case you’re wondering, Roblox is an online gaming platform that let’s you create and market your own games.
The course will not only teach him how to create and program his own games, but also how to market them.
A Chip Off The Old Block???
August 10, 2021
Nothing New Under The Sun . . .
Jan and I were on our way into Houston by 9:45 this morning, meeting Brandi, Landon, and Sophie at Cleburne Cafeteria. We got there a little before they opened at 11 to be sure that we didn’t have to wait in line.
Cleburne’s is fabled in the Houston area, having been around for over 80 years, and surviving two fires during that time.
This place is not your Luby’s or Piccadilly’s, but a high-end restaurant that’s also a cafeteria. You can even order a custom-cooked Ribeye or Prime Rib. All of their veggies and fruits are fresh, never frozen, and all the sauces and salad dressings are made from scratch. And they’re known city-wide for their desserts, with all the pies, cakes, and puddings made daily.
We did park Landon and Sophie in their own booth, just so we could have an actual conversation.
Getting to the Houston Museum of Natural Science we parked in the parking garage (worth the $20) and headed inside. For some reason when I bought the tickets online, I was only able to select Will Call and not Digital Tickets.
But there was no obvious Will Call booth, just a long line of people buying tickets. I thought that’s why I got my tickets online ahead of time. I even asked an employee, and was told that this was the line for Will Call.
Of course 20 minutes later, as we all walked down the long hallway to the actual entrance to the museum area, what do I see but this.
Well isn’t that special!
Inside we came across Victoria the T-Rex from the ads.
and also a T-Rex skull.
Finally in the Pompeii exhibit area, we found a lot of neat items, many demonstrating that there’s nothing new under the sun.
These are Roman keys from there.
And some of glassware looked like something you could buy at WalMart. Especially when you consider that the art of glassblowing had only been introduced to Roman culture in the last 50 years before.
The horn-shaped piece on the left is a wine glass.
But the cooking utensils were even more amazing.
The iron skillet looks like it could have been my grandmother’s.
And the two ladle-looking pieces are actually colanders.
I gonna wrap up tonight’s blog with Landon and Sophie watching the movie about the 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii, on August 24-24. So an anniversary coming up.
It also destroyed nearby Herculaneum, but Pompeii gets all the press. Probably had a better agent.
I’ll finish up our fun day in tomorrow’s blog.
Thought For The Day:
Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?
GRANDPA: In my day we didn’t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.
ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.
COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?
