Daily Archives: September 7, 2022
Happy Birthday, Miss Piper!
Not much happened today, but it is a Special One.
It’s our beautiful granddaughter Miss Piper’s Birthday!
We’re so proud of you, Piper!
Thought For The Day:
Well, You’ve Got To Get It Home Somehow.
September 7, 2009
They called the wind Moriah…Mt. Moriah, that is…
After breakfast at our hotel, we left Twilligate about 10 am heading for Corner Brook, about 255 miles away. We had a really nice room overlooking the ocean. Here’s our morning view…
Around lunch we stopped in Windsor to eat at Mary Brown’s Chicken and Taters again. After lunch we placed a call to Miss Piper, our granddaughter, on her 16th birthday. We didn’t get her, but left a message on her voicemail.
About halfway to Corner Brook, around the Mt. Moriah area, we started running into a lot of wind…I mean a LOT!
In fact, even the birds were walking. While we were pulled over a while, we saw a raven trying to fly in the wind and being blown away.
After sitting on a guardrail post in front of our truck for a while, he finally jumped down and WALKED off.
While we were stopped at a Visitor’s Information Center, Piper called us back. She had been in Arkansas, kayaking with her boyfriend and his family. It was good to talk with her.
Fighting the high wind gusts, 40 – 50 mph, we finally arrived in Corner Brook and got checked into our Comfort Inn hotel.
After looking at a map, we decided to drive the 30 miles out to the Lark Harbour area at the end of the peninsular that looks out over the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And once more we were treated to spectacular scenery.
Coming back to the hotel, we decided to eat at Jungle Jim’s, the hotel restaurant. It’s a chain up here, kind of like a Chili”s or TGI Friday’s.
We both had Stir Fry’s, and then split a Spiced Apple Burrito for dessert.
September 7, 2010
Last Day in Elkhart . . .
Today was our last full day in Elkhart and we made the most of it.
And Mister is making the most of his new blankie. It’s soft and very fuzzy, and he’s crazy about it.
Later we drove over to Mishawaka to have ‘linner’ at Famous Dave’s BBQ, one of our favorite places.
Then, getting back about 3:30 pm I went down and got a new tire to replace the one that died when I was taking Jan to the airport in Chicago a couple of weeks ago.
About 7 pm we all drove over to DQ to have one last snack.
And about 9 pm our granddaughter Piper called us back so we could wish her a happy 17th Birthday.
Here she is at Brandi’s wedding.
Tomorrow we start our 6 day trip back to Houston with a 340 mile leg down to Vandalia, IL where we’ll visit Jan’s sister, Debbie, while we’re there for one night.
September 7, 2011
Happy 18th Birthday . . .
to our beautiful granddaughter, Piper Jean White!
It’s hard to believe how fast she grew up. And not only beautiful, but really smart too. Just starting her senior year in High School, she’s been taking college-level AP courses since she was a Junior.
I seem to be fighting off a cold or something so I didn’t get up until almost 11 this morning after not going to bed until 2 am and then tossing and turning all night. But after hot coffee and a cinnamon swirl bagel, I felt back among the living.
A little later Al Hesselbart of the RV Motor Home Hall of Fame came by to visit and ask about some problems they were having with their computer network. I told him I’d run by there this afternoon and take a look at their problems. While Al was still here, Dennis Hill of the RV Driving School came to chat. He and his wife Carol did the Alaska thing this summer, so we talked over old times up there.
After Jan fixed lunch I headed over to the RV Museum about 1:30 and spent a couple of hours looking over their setup. I’ll probably go back tomorrow.
A little after 6, Tom and Barb Westerfield, Jim and Chris Guld of Geeks on Tour, some other friends, and Jan and I headed over to North China Buffet for dinner. The more, the merrier. And as usual when you get this many RV’er’s together, loudness and hilarity will ensue.
Getting back a little after 8 pm we put in a Happy Birthday call to Piper, but she was probably at work so we left a voicemail. We really look forward to seeing her and her parents in November.
A few minutes later I went outside to get these shots of the sunset. I don’t know why, but Elkhart has some really great sunsets.
September 7, 2013
Birthdays and Boats . . .
First off we want to wish our granddaughter Piper a Happy 20th Birthday. It’s hard to believe how fast she’s grown up, and how quickly she went from this,
to this beautiful young lady.
One thing we’re enjoying about this gate is the fact that we’re not close to the action. On two of our four gates last year we were within rock-throwing distance from the drill rig, with 3 big tractor trailer-sized diesel generators running 24 hours a day. The noise never stopped. And if the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, the smell of the drilling fluids could get pretty strong too. So this peace and quiet is very nice.
After my scare about losing my Droid phone yesterday, I spent a few minutes playing with the Where’s My Droid system. I was curious about how accurate the GPS location was. And the answer is that it is really, really accurate.
That is exactly where we are parked. Neat program.
Hopefully our cooler fall weather may have started. Our high today was only 90, and the 10 day forecast is for the low 90’s the rest of the time. We’ll see.
But with cooler weather comes the possibility of rain. In fact we had a small cloudburst this afternoon that lasted for about 2 minutes from a clear blue sky. Just out of nowhere and then it was gone. Strange.
When I talked about Jan making Chili, Four Ways last week, she said I was remiss in not mentioned her Pasta Boat.
She says it ‘s the best thing she’s found for cooking pasta in the microwave. And it comes out perfect every time. You can get it here. Pasta Boat from Amazon
This afternoon about 4:45 there was a really big gust of wind and our generator just died. In hindsight I don’t think the two were connected, but it sure seemed so at the time.
I went back to try and restart it and found it completely dead. It would not turn over at all. I then put in a call to Austin, our support guy, but he was off for the weekend. So I called Jamie, our supervisor. And after telling him the problem, he said he’d be right over with a new battery and a new alternator. And about 15 minutes later Jamie and his wife showed up. And he was right.
Turned out the alternator had died and the generator kept running until the battery died. But what was a little strange is that after hooking up the new battery, the generator would crank but would not run. Somehow the fuel pump had cut out before the battery died completely and so the engine had run itself dry. And diesels don’t like to run out of fuel. They get air in the fuel lines and it can be hard to get them restarted.
But Jamie just loosened the fuel injector connections and cranked it until a little diesel started leaking out. Then after tightening it all back up, it started immediately. Shutting it down, Jamie changed out the alternator, and about 10 minutes later we were back up and running.
Turns out the Jamie had been in the middle of cooking dinner when I called and he dropped everything to get us fixed up. Now that’s service.
September 7, 2014
Happy Birthday, Piper!
Today is our Granddaughter Piper’s 21st birthday. It sure doesn’t seem like it’s been 21 years since she was born.
And she’s grown up to be such a beautiful young woman. And smart too.
See ya soon.
Today was a little busier than yesterday. We had 145 vehicles compared to 144 yesterday. So just a little.
So far this gate has pretty much been an 18 hour gate, but of course we man (woman) it 24 hours a day. It’s not unusual for me to have no vehicles come through between 11pm and 6 am. Or maybe just one, like tonight so far.
If I do get one during the night, it’s usually just a tanker coming in to haul out a load of crude from one of the production sites. Since there’s no pipeline connection here, all of the oil has to be hauled out by tanker. It’s takes them about 45 minutes to pick up the 8 to 9000 gallons of crude and be back on their way.
They brought a lot more of the new rig in today, including the 4 big pieces that make up the derrick itself. Sitting here and looking out, there’s just a wall of metal moving by. It’s amazing how big some of these pieces are that they move around.
The cattle guard that they cross over coming through our gate really sags under some of these big loads. I hope it survives this, because if it collapses it will bring all 6 sites here to a grinding halt.
One thing that’s interesting about this rig is the somewhat lackadaisical way they’re putting it up. When we followed a Marathon/H&P rig 2 years ago, it was a 36 hour turnaround.
It took them 18 hours to tear everything down, load it all onto a steady stream of trailers and haul it away. Then at the next site, they’d go from a empty pad to ready to drill in another 18 hours. It was just amazing to watch the choreography of the whole operation. As soon as they started the tear-down, we would moved to the next site and get set up. Then we would be off until they were ready to start drilling again. So we would get a couple of days off, but we still got paid. Nice!
Later I asked one of the grizzled old roughnecks why they were taking so long, compared to the H&P rig, he said, and I quote, “Them there H&P are the Cadillac of rigs. This here one is a Yugo.”
Well, alrighty then. Now we know.
But here, stuff has kind of come in over the last several days, with today being the first day they actually started putting things together. And then they quit at dark. Here’s yesterday.
And here’s today.
One thing that was funny today was a big lowboy hauler that came through the gate carrying a big bulldozer and an enormous crane. I think the cattle guard almost cried when it crossed over.
But the funny part was about an hour later when the lowboy left he had a Tonka toy truck strapped down in place of the bulldozer and the crane, kind of like this one from the Internet. I wasn’t able to get a picture of mine as it went by.
Tomorrow, probably more of the same.
September 7, 2015
One . . . Just One
I guess the porta-potty guy must have drawn the short straw this weekend, because he showed around 9am to service the one unit on the pad and was gone in 9 minutes. But he was the only person who came in all day.
I’m actually kind of surprised they haven’t brought in a few more, as it seems they normally have more for the typical frack job, otherwise there might be a line.
Jan and I headed out about 6pm to have what’s probably our last chance to get away before things really pick up this week. On our way out we detoured over to the pad so Jan could take a look at the layout. The only thing that shows what’s getting ready to happen is that there are now about a dozen frack fluid trailers lined up around two sides.
We had planned to try to find KJ’s Whistle Stop Restaurant once again after we came up short this past Friday. We’d been given better directions this time, but we were still unsure about the place, since when I tried to call them today to see if they were going to be open, I found they had no working phone number.
I first tried calling them using the number listed with the incorrect address that I found on Yelp and other sites and found it was no longer in service. So I called Verizon directory assistance and found there was no number listed for them at all.
I’ve heard of fancy New York restaurants having an unlisted number, but one in Carthage, TX? After two tries we finally did find the place, made even more difficult by the fact that the big sign on top said “Mom’s Country Kitchen” while the little sign, hard to see from the street, said KJ’s Whistle Stop Restaurant. And as I suspected from a restaurant that’s only open Monday through Friday, it was closed on Labor Day too.
So we were off to find another place to have dinner. Our first thought was to try El Rancho Grande, a place recommended by our friend’s, Lynette and Gregg McHenry, but it was also closed. But our decision was made for us when we came to The Jalapeno Tree.
When I came by here Saturday around lunch time, the place was jam-packed. People were circling the parking lots looking for a parking space. And yes, I said ‘lots’. They have three separate lots, and they were all full. And even by 7pm tonight, they were still very busy. So, as I said, our decision was made for us.
After our first few bites, it was easy to tell why they’re always so busy. Everything was really delicious, so much so, that we both dug in so quickly that I forgot to take any photos.
Jan had their Two Chili Relleno’s with Rice and Beans, one of Jan’s favorites. Especially since these were stuffed with ground beef and cheese, and not just cheese like a lot of places. These relleno’s were also made differently. They were large problanos, over two inches in diameter and about 6 inches long, stuffed solid with filling, and then dipped in coarse batter and fried. Really good.
And they were big enough that she had one to take home for tomorrow.
I went with one of their combo meals, that for some reason are all named after movie stars. My choice was the Arnold Schwarzenegger, a combo with a Cheese Enchilada, a Beef Enchilada, a Soft Chicken Taco, and a Soft Beef Taco, as well as Rice and Charro Beans. Delicious, and like Jan’s platter, I had the two enchiladas to take home as well.
With the frack starting up, I don’t know if we’ll get a chance to come back before we leave, but we certainly would like to.
Finishing up, her Nana and Papa want to wish our beautiful granddaughter Piper a wonderful 22nd birthday. She’s now working in the ER at UTMB Hospital in Galveston and loving it. She said it’s the best job she’s ever had.
September 7, 2016
I Give Up . . .
First off, Jan and I want to wish a Happy 23rd Birthday to our beautiful granddaughter Piper.
Unfortunately the other night at another party she fell and broke her left arm. . . again. This is the same arm she broke in a ATV accident two years ago.
Ouch! That hurts just to look at.
But she still got to celebrate anyway.
And these are a couple of my favorite photos of her. She has this Mona Lisa face thing going on with those eyes just looking right through you.
The rig spent most of the day drilling through some really hard rock which made it sound like if you put rocks and tin cans in a washing machine and turned it on High. I have never heard a drill rig sound like that. It was hard to even talk over. But now it’s not nearly as bad, but still louder than normal.
It’s been two weeks since we actually started drilling, so last night we got a new Company Man and a new Tool Pusher. We’re also getting new crew, but they change out every week, so this is our first time seeing some of these guys, but we’ll learn their names and faces pretty quickly
One thing different at this gate is that we can’t see the vehicles coming toward us like our other gates. We just hear the bell and then the vehicles suddenly appear around the back of the rig, meaning we can’t see their tag numbers. And their tag numbers are how we start to recognize the drivers.
Jan and I are both good about remembering numbers. So we know if we’ve seen a vehicle before, and if we have we just wave them through, only stopping ones we don’t recognize. Then we just we just get their login info from the last time they came in. Of course with Louisiana-tagged vehicles, we have to double check if we recognized the vehicle since they don’t have a front tag.
But since we can’t see the tags as they come in here, we have to stop everyone, at least until we’re sure we recognize them.
One thing unusual about this new Company Man is his rules on when he’ll see salespeople. Most CM’s only allow unsolicited sales calls on certain days. The previous CM only allowed them on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, no other time. Other CM’s may be Monday, Wednesday, or Tuesday, Thursday. But this new CM said to let them in any time. Makes our job a lot easier.
Because it can sometimes be tricky differentiating salespeople from workers. One clue is that the sales guys are usually in ‘civilian’ clothes, not the FRC (Flame Retardant Clothing) coveralls that the workers wear. But then some salespeople wear FRC’s to fake you out. And some will just plain lie to you. Over the years, both Jan and I have gotten phone calls from the CM complaining that we let somebody in we shouldn’t have, but it’s always been that they lied to us.
Another clue is that they’re with a company that you don’t recognize as already being onsite, which means they’re looking for business.
And a dead giveaway is if they’re female. We have occasionally had women coming in driving big rigs, (not this year so far) or women drivers delivering parts in a pickup truck, but normally if it’s a cute young lady driving an SUV, she’s in sales.
Picture Penny on Big Bang Theory doing pharmaceutical sales.
In the past, we have occasionally seen women geologists come through, but again they’re usually wearing FRC’s, so it’s easy to tell.
But all this picking and choosing salespeople coming through goes out the window if they say they’re here to get a ‘ticket’ signed. They get let in anytime.
A ‘ticket’ is basically a bill or invoice that needs to be signed by the CM so that it can then be submitted to the oil company so they can be paid.
But then we’ve been lied to about this in the past as well.
I’m always amazed at the many different people we have reading our blog. I’ve had a blog reader in Africa correct my identification of an animal we’d photographed at a wildlife park. Turned out it wasn’t me though. The sign on the enclosure was apparently wrong.
And once I was talking about the Potatoe Patch restaurant north of Houston, and how they advertise ‘Throw’d Rolls’ like the famous Lambert’s Throw’d Rolls chain. I mentioned how Potatoe Patch doesn’t really throw them, but more like tosses them from a couple of feet away.
Turns out a blog reader used to be the insurance underwriter for Lambert’s, and she said that was probably because of lawsuits. She said you wouldn’t believe how many lawsuits they get due to people being hit with soft, fluffy rolls.
So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised how many current and retired postal workers we have reading the blog who chimed in on my recent Post Office woes.
Based on their input, I may just buy a cheap mailbox and stick it out in front there and see how that works. Of course I’ve still got two other packages in the pipeline so I’m not sure what’s going to happened with those. I guess I’ll find out eventually.
I’ve now pretty much given up on using the pad Wi-Fi. I got the code for the new setup this morning, but as I feared, the signal strength is too low for me to stay connected and it keeps dropping out. So I guess in the next day or so, I’ll pull out my Wilson cell phone booster system and get it set up.
But it probably won’t be until Friday, since tomorrow is grocery day in BCS, as well as Chicken Express day coming home.
September 7, 2017
Amazon Lied . . .
Sandy at the Colorado River TT called this morning to let me know that our upcoming reservation there, starting September 20th, had been cancelled because the park will not be open again until sometime in October, if then.
All this of course, due to the flooding from Hurricane Harvey. They even lost some more sites due to erosion along the river bank.
When we are due to leave here on the 20th, we will have been here for 34 days, a new record for us. So I don’t think they’re going to let us stay any longer. So what are our options?
We could make the 580 mile round-trip over to the Medina Lake TT the other side of San Antonio, and that would cost us about $180 in diesel, plus $88 in park fees, so about $270.
Next up would be the Lake Tawakoni TT up closer to Dallas, but it’s only about 40 miles closer, so not a lot of difference.
Or we could go to a Passport America park just 20 miles from here and stay the 11 days for $160.
Guess which one we’re doing?
Our Mr. Coffee has been hissing and bubbling so much recently that I decided it was time to run the clean cycle on it to get the calcium out.
And on this model it’s really easy. You just pour 4 cups (real cups, not ‘coffee’ cups) of vinegar into the reservoir, put an empty coffee filter in the holder, put the pot on the warmer, and then press the Clean Cycle button.
The cycle takes about an hour and then it shuts off. The instructions say to do it once more, but I did it three times more. This is the calcium and sediment collected in the filter. Yuck!
Then you run regular water through a brew cycle for a couple of times. Again, I did it a total of four times.
Don’t want coffee smelling like vinegar.
I finally figured out why my normal hour and ten minute trip from Clear Lake back to Conroe took two hours and fifteen minutes yesterday, and I said it looked like there was just twice as much traffic on the road.
That’s because there was. Both the Sam Houston Tollway and the Grand Parkway are still closed in spots on the west side of town. So all the traffic coming from the north and heading west on I-10 has to come down I-45 and then get on 10 right of f the downtown. Hopefully they’ll have this cleared up soon.
Amazon lied.
They said the item I ordered Tuesday with 2 Day Prime was not going to be delivered until next Thursday, the 14th, due to Harvey. However it showed up today, right on schedule for the 2 Day delivery.
Nice work, Amazon.
Down at my client’s office I’ve found that a lot of the intermittent problems are caused by RJ-45 Ethernet connectors with the locking clips broken off. This means the connector will not lock in the socket and can pull back out. Here’s what I mean.
Now I have crimpers and could replace the connectors, but some of them are in tight places and would be hard to get to.
So that’s why I ordered these from Amazon.
They slip over the broken connector and provide a firm locking connection. Easy Peezy.
As it stands right now I will detour over to Katy to pick up Jan at Brandi’s before we head home to Conroe.
Maybe. Apparently, plans are still up in the air.
As usual.
September 7, 2018
Happy Birthdays . . .
Jan and I got several comments on yesterday’s blog about what Jan should do on our (her?) European Cruise next April in case I’m not able to make the trip (cause I’m dead.)
I had suggested she just drag me along in a body bag. But some of our readers had different ideas.
Chris Yust said Jan should have me cremated and carry me along in a bag with a hole in it, and scatter my ashes around Europe. Another friend, Tricia, said that Jan “should leave the body bag (formerly known as Greg) at home” and take her instead.
All I can say is don’t give Jan any ideas.
I finally got a chance to really try the Carolina Reaper paste that I found at Aldi’s last week.
And I’m still disappointed.
Last weekend we brought home some of the Costco Pulled Pork left over from Brandi’s Street Tacos that she fixed for dinner. So when we finished it up Wednesday night, I mixed a large glob of Reaper into some of the Famous Dave’s Sweet & Zesty BBQ Sauce that we had and gave it try.
It just wasn’t that hot.
Buffalo Wild Wing’s Blazin’ Wing Sauce is much hotter, and so is my Volcano Dust Pepper Flakes.
This contains 10 different peppers, including Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Peppers) & Moruga Scorpion Peppers, both recent holders of the World’s Hottest Pepper Award. So I guess that I’ll have to break down and order some Reaper powder from Amazon.
There’s a lot going on at Chez Chris&Linda up in Kingsland TX in the Hill Country. With all this free time he’s got in retirement, Chris made this large set of wind chimes for the back yard.
He welded up the pole and then turned the wood chimes on his lathe. Linda says they sound like cathedral bells. Nice job.
Also looks like they’ve got a new pet.
Linda said they found it crawling around the hanger so they put in the pond in the backyard. Looks like a Red-Eared Slider like the ones we had as pets a long time ago.
Years before we started RV’ing we had a couple of Sliders that we bought at a pet store. They started out about the size of Chris’, and over the years grew to be about the size of dinner plates, and lived in a kiddie wading pool.
They finally got so big that I gave them to the Aquarium Restaurant at the Kemah Boardwalk location. They had a swamp exhibit with small alligators, caiman’s, fish, and other turtles. They seemed to be pretty happy when we checked in on them a couple of years later.
One thing I’ve always found amazing with the varied patterns on the bottom of their shells.
They’re uniquely individual, like fingerprints, and remind me of ancient hieroglyphs.
Tomorrow is Landon’s Big Birthday Bash up at the Smith Ranch, an event facility north of Katy. Landon’s had birthdays there twice before, but outside. However since it’s supposed to be raining tomorrow, Brandi moved it inside.
So we’re heading up there tomorrow afternoon for the get-together, then Jan will stay over Sunday, so she can accompany Landon to his school on Monday for Grandparent’s Day. Then I’ll drive up after work Monday to bring her home.
Last up, Jan and I want to wish our beautiful granddaughter Piper a happy 25th birthday.
We’re really proud of her. She’s in Medical Administration up at M.D. Anderson Hospital, but hoping to get a transfer down to their new facility in this area.
Happy Birthday, Miss Piper!
September 7, 2019
Blog Called On Account of Landon’s Birthday Party . . .
Long Day at Landon’s (and his BFF Sophie’s) fantastic birthday bash.
More info tomorrow.
September 7, 2020
Happy, Happy Birthday Miss Piper . . .
Jan and I want to wish our lovely granddaughter Piper a happy 27th birthday.
It’s been so much fun watching her grow up into the beautiful young woman she’s become.
So here’s a little photo montage of the passing years.
And I always have a Miss Piper story I like to tell. In 2008 when we spent 5 months up in Fairbanks, AK, we flew her up to spend a week with us.
She had a direct flight going up, but had 3 hour layover in Seattle coming home. So she was sitting right outside her gate reading when a young guy in an Army uniform came up and asked if he could sit down.
Piper said they talked for an hour or so about music, movies, books, etc., and then finally, looking at her a little more closely, he asked her how old she was.
Knowing where this was going, she looked at him with a big smile on her face, and said, “Fourteen!!”
She said he just vanished. Didn’t say goodbye or anything. LOL.
Of course I guess he could be forgiven since this photo from above is her at “Fourteen!!”
As I told Jan, they didn’t make 14 year-olds like that when I was 14.
We love you so much Piper, and we’re so proud of you.
September 7, 2021
A Little Nip . . .
Our last two mornings outside for our coffee on the patio made it pretty obvious that a little nip of Fall is definitely in the air. Rather than the normal mid-80’s we’ve had recently, now we’re seeing mid to high 70’s.
Very nice!
I had planned to goof off today as far as the water heater project goes. Though it’s not finished, we do have hot water.
But I still had to go into work today. Jennifer, our office manager, emailed me that our office phone system was down. And it looked like it was the Internet signal coming in from Spectrum VOIP causing the problem.
And that caused me a problem, because while I’m configuring a new machine for the Shipping Dept., I was tapping into the Spectrum router back there for our Internet access. So when the Spectrum signal went down, so did our Shipping computer.
So before Jan and I could have lunch, we drove into Clear Lake so I could reconfigure things to get the Shipping computer back online. As far as the phone system, I don’t touch back. It’s not my problem.
Or, as they say, “Not my Circus. Not My Monkeys!”
Finished up, we headed back down to Dickinson for lunch, with a quick detour by Costco for gas. Then it was on to Monterey’s Little Mexico for lunch.
Again.
We were just there this past Saturday, the day they reopened after 4 years. And we figured a Tuesday afternoon for lunch would not be a really busy time. But we were wrong.
They were still on a wait. About 15 minutes this time.
This time Jan got her favorite Chicken Ixtapa,
while I got my usual big bowl of their Chicken Tortilla Soup, the gold standard for Chicken Tortilla Soups.
And if twice this week is not enough, we’ll also be eating at Monterey’s in Alvin this coming Friday before going to the Alvin Opry. ‘
Can’t wait.
