Monthly Archives: September 2022
Saltgrass . . . Again?
I left work a little early today, taking some time off for our Anniversary.
We headed down to Galveston to first drive around for a while, checking out all the new things that seem to spring up every time we visit.
We had a 6:30 reservation at our usual celebration spot, Saltgrass Steakhouse. We had ask for a window seat, and as always before, it was waiting for us with a great view of the Gulf.
The ocean was a little rougher than usual. Whether it’s due to Hurricane Ian on the other side of the Gulf, I don’t know. But it fun to watch.
Jan and I don’t drink much at all, usually just sharing a drink on a special occasion, so tonight we got an Amaretto Splash, with tequila, schnapps, fresh pineapple juice and Disaronno.
Jan was wearing one of her Anniversary gifts, a pair of Flamingo Earrings.
She says they’re new favorites.
Forgoing the Bread, we started with our usual Wedge Salads,
with Jan moving on to her favorite 9 oz. Filet with the Grilled Green Beans.
I, of course, got the 16 oz. Ribeye, also with the Grilled Green Beans.
Always delicious and perfectly done as usual.
One of the reasons we didn’t get the bread was to leave room for dessert.
Unfortunately for Jan, it was not yet Pumpkin Cheesecake time at Saltgrass, so we went with our old and delicious standby, their Carrot Cake, splitting a piece.
Here’s to another 55 years!
And tomorrow we get to do it all over again . . . kind of.
We’re having lunch tomorrow with our Alvin Opry Group at the Saltgrass up in Webster.
You can’t have too much steak.
Can you?
Thought for the Day:
Everyone thinks this photo is so cute, like maybe he’s asking, “Did you lose a kitten?”
Knowing raccoons, I think he’s saying, “Please, could you put some ketchup on this?”
But then that’s just me.
FYI – It’s photo shopped.
September 28, 2010
Happy Anniversary to my Sweetie,
My Beautiful Wife of 43 years!
We did the San Antonio – Alamo thing today. We got up at 5:30 am and it’s been a long day. And I’m too tired to post anything else today. So…
September 28, 2011
Happy Anniversary to my Beautiful Bride!
First thing this morning I want wish my beautiful bride a happy 44th Wedding Anniversary!
I love you, sweetie!
Jan with our daughter Brandi at Gulf Shores, AL in 1975.
Here she is making new friends in Puerto Vallarta in 1997.
And this is in Billings, MT in 2008, still as beautiful as the day I married her.
September 28, 2012
How Far We’ve Come . . .
This is what Amazon’s home page looked like the first day it went online in July 1996.
How things have changed.
For our anniversary I got Jan a Medi-Rub 2000 Foot Massager. I know it’s not the most romantic thing, but it’s what she wanted, so it’s what she got.
And she seemed real happy to get it and started using it immediately. And that’s what counts.
After coffee and muffins in the morning, Jan and I pretty much just goofed off all day, and that was really nice. It was overcast, just perfect for doing nothing. I had some projects I had planned to do around the rig, but those seemed to fade as the day went on.
And we did nothing until about 5pm when we headed out with Stu & Donna McNicol for dinner at Fuddrucker’s. And as usual when RV’ers get together, we spent more time talking than eating. I realize that might be hard to believe after looking me, but it’s true.
Finally leaving Fuddrucker’s , our next stop on the way back to the park was the Mazzoli Ice Cream shop. Jan had seen the place as we were coming into town on Tuesday, and it caught her eye because it was advertising Pumpkin Custard.
And Jan loves anything pumpkin.
But tonight was her first chance to try some, because the place is only open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Everyone really liked their homemade ice cream, and as it turns out, there’s a good reason for that.
Fred Mazzoli, the original owner, was Milton Hershey’s head dairy chef for almost 20 years, and developed many of Hershey’s famous products. And it looks like that goodness carries on today. Hopefully we’ll get to go back before we leave the area.
Luckily for us, tomorrow looks to be another do-nothing day. Maybe I’ll actually get some of those projects.
But probably not.
September 28, 2013
To My Sweetie . . .
Happy Anniversary!
Today, Saturday, is our 46th wedding anniversary. And we plan on having a lot more of them, too. We are really enjoying the RV lifestyle and plan on keeping on keeping on as long as we can.
We’ve got a replacement gate guard coming in for the day on Monday. She’ll work the gate from 1pm to 11pm while Jan and I spend the day in San Antonio, movie, dinner, shopping, etc. Jan’s really looking forward to it since this will be her first time leaving the gate since we got here five weeks ago.
We’ll probably do it again around the end of October for Jan’s birthday. At that point we’ll only have about 3 weeks left until we head back to Houston on the 24th of November so that will probably be it.
Luckily for us there are people here who do nothing but replacement gate guarding. And they stay pretty booked up. In fact we were originally planning to take off today, our actual anniversary date, but couldn’t find a guard with an opening. They not only have to be licensed, but they have to be licensed with Gate Guard Services, also. So it does narrow the field a bit.
Today was our slowest day so far. We only had 46 vehicles through the gate. Supposedly they have finished the “coiled tubing” phase, and won’t start the next phase, “flow back” until Monday. And even that probably won’t be that busy.
“Flow back” is where they actually start to put the well into production, i.e. starting to get crude oil out of the well.
We ended up having a good bit of rain this evening. A squall line moved through about 8:30 and drenched things pretty good. And there’s a 30% chance for more tomorrow. Oh boy!
Yesterday when I got groceries at the Wal-Mart in Pleasanton, I also picked up a 12’ x 20’ tarp to close end the back of our canopy once the temperatures start to drop. We have a couple of electric heaters that we’ll use out here and the tarp will help keep the wind out and the heat in.
I hope.
September 28, 2014
Rudy, Rudy, Rudy’s . . .
First off, Jan and I want to thank everyone for the many warm anniversary wishes. It means a lot that we’ve made so many friends along the way these last 7 years on the road. Thanks.
Following yesterday’s surprise visit, Brandi, Lowell, and Landon showed up about 11:45, bringing POUNDS of Rudy’s BBQ for our anniversary lunch.
Moist Brisket for Brandi, Lowell, and me, Lean Brisket for Jan (or as I like to call it, Dry and Chewy) and Hot Jalapeno Sausage for Lowell and me.
And of course you can’t have Rudy’s BBQ, without Rudy’s BBQ accessories, like Creamed Corn, Boiled New Potatoes, and BBQ Beans. All delicious as usual. And we’ve got so much left over that we can probably eat for another week or so on it.
You can never have too much Rudy’s.
After we got all our hugs in, the kids packed up and left around 1:30. It was really great of them to surprise us like this yesterday and today, and hopefully they’ll be able to come up again before we leave.
The other surprise Brandi left us with is that she told the gate guards up the road that it was our anniversary, and then they started telling the guys coming through their gate on to our gate. So all afternoon I had guys pulling up to our gate and wishing us a Happy Anniversary.
Neat!
And I guess everyone also wanted to give us the day off for it too. Or at least give us a really slow day. In fact our slowest day so far
Only 43 vehicles came in today, a new record for us here. Very nice.
Of course there’s probably fracking in our future, so that count could jump 8 or 10 times. But maybe not. At least for us.
One of the Company Men said they usually don’t frack when they’ve got active drill rigs nearby. So one of our rigs is right next to the frack wells, with still another well to drill after they slide, and the rig in front of us is less than 1/2 a mile from the frack site with only 1 out of 3 holes completed. And then two more rigs another 1/4 mile up the road.
So I guess it’s possible that they won’t frack here until after we leave toward the end of November. And then again we might not be here anyway.
Jan said the Company Man also asked if we were planning to move with the rig. My thought was, well, we haven’t been asked yet.
We did that in 2012, following a Marathon/H&P rig around for 4 months, and it wasn’t bad. Especially since we got off for two or three days whenever the rig moved.
But we’ve got a really nice location here, and the next location may not be as nice. So we’ll have to wait and see.
At least until we’ve been asked.
September 28, 2015
Oh, the Humanity . . .
First off, I want to thank everyone for the many Happy Anniversary wishes. They are much appreciated.
Well, according to the many photos I saw around the net, there was a spectacular ‘blood moon’ last night, but I’ll have to take their word for it. We didn’t see it here, in fact it was so overcast that we didn’t even see the moon at all. Bummer.
Of course we’ve been fooled before, but it looks like Fall has crept back in and Summer has slunk away . . . again. Our temps are back in the low to mid 80’s with nights in the mid 60’s, although we do have some 50’s coming up it looks like.
We did have a forecast of Scattered Thunderstorms for today and tomorrow. But today pretty much fizzled out with only a few drops here and there, and just a lot of dark clouds. So we’ll see how tomorrow goes. It would be nice for another light rain to settle the dust again, though.
I’m not sure if my WordPress blog thinks that I’m no longer human, or that I’ve been replaced by an cyborg, or maybe it just wants to be sure that I can do 2nd grade math. Of course with drones delivering packages, self-driving cars, and who knows what else, any thing is possible, I guess.
But a couple of days ago, when I logged into the blog so that I could upload a new post, after I entered my email and password, I got this:
Prove Your Humanity: 7 + 9 =
and then a box to enter the answer.
I guess this is supposed to be like one of the irritating CAPTCHA things used to defeat robot scripts,
and it’s probably easier since I’m better at adding two single digit numbers together than figuring out what some of those twisted letters really are. It seems like I never get one right on the first try.
But maybe this will cut down on all the Failed Login Attempts I get from Russia and Eastern Europe. We’ll see.
A lot of you have purchased my favorite new flashlight,
KJL Cree LED 900 lumens Flashlight
and it seems like everyone is as enamored as I am. One person even bought ten. (Thanks, Marty). It’s really amazing how much light this thing puts out. The other night it was really humid with a lot of fog in the air, and I was able make a solid white beam up in the sky. Hey, my own Bat Signal!
Wrapping up with a Landon sighting, he and his parents went to see Hotel Transylvania 2 this weekend.
Looks like he’s all ready with his kid’s snack box (popcorn, candy, and a drink) and his 3D glasses.
September 28, 2016
Freedom . . .
First off, Happy 49th Anniversary to my Sweetie. It’s hard to believe that 49 years ago I got you to say “I do”. And even then it seems like only yesterday when I first met you.
And it’s been a wild ride every since. And I love you more every day.
Jan and I really appreciate all the comments, both here on the blog and on Facebook also, about her kidney stone problem and our gate loss. We’re going to get back to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails tomorrow and rest up a few days before we seriously start looking for another gate.
In our first morning of freedom off the gate, I slept in until about 11:30, and I did need it. I was completely wiped after we got to Bryan around 7pm, too tired to even think about going out for dinner, or even eating anything at all. All I did was get a hot shower and went to bed and immediately fell asleep.
I did wait up at about 11pm which would have been the normal time I would have relieved Jan on the gate, but what I did was write and post the blog. Back to bed, I now had trouble sleeping, since this would have now been my awake time on the gate. Hopefully I’ll get back on a fairly standard sleep schedule soon. At least until we get another gate.
About 2pm I walked across the road to the park office to settle up for our 2nd day at Timber Ridge RV Park. This is a very nice park, and at $50 a night it should be. But it was the 4th park I called, and the only one that had a vacancy.
The first thing I noticed after we got parked and I hooked up electric and water. Here’s a photo of what I saw.
See what’s wrong. There are only two vehicles in sight in the entire park. Since Texas A&M is just up the road, Jan figured they might be rental units for people in town for the games. When I asked the guy in the office about it, it turns out that Jan was almost right.
They’re not rental units, but they are here for the A & M games. People bring their RV here and park them for the duration of the football season, so they have a place to stay and party. We drove around and saw everything from a small camper to an Airstream to a vintage American Tradition.
One thing nice about this part is the really large spaces, large enough to actually park two RV’s side by side, but the space is only for one RV
Really nice.
In addition they have an excellent free Wi-Fi system that covers the entire 90 space park. Speedtest.net shows a 26ms ping with 12Mbps down and 3 up. Not too shabby. And they also have a free DirecTV Cable TV hookup right at your pedestal with 32 channels. Also neat.
Tomorrow we’ll make the 70 mile trip over to Lake Conroe for a couple of weeks, or until we get another gate, whichever comes first.
Jan and I headed out about 2:30 with our first stop at Great Clips to get a haircut, my first in about 6 weeks, so well needed. I had called ahead to try and get an appointment for 3pm so we wouldn’t have to wait all afternoon to get taken care of.
But as it turns, they do not take appointments. You download their app and then you use it to ‘Check In’ at the location of your choice. Kind of like doing the Call Ahead Seating at many restaurants, you don’t have a specific time, but as soon as you get there, you’re the next in line.
And it worked just that way. In just a couple of minutes I was in the chair and the clippers were buzzing. Neat!
Next up was a quick stop at Sam’s Club for Joint Juice for Jan and Lipton’s Diet Green Tea for me. Then it was on down Hwy 6 to have our Anniversary Dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse, the same place we ate at when we first got here back in August. And it was just as good this time.
We started out with an Anniversary Amaretto Splash Sangria, which we shared. Needless to say, Jan and I aren’t big drinkers, maybe only once or twice a year.
We started out with salads, and I went for my usual Wedge Salad.
With a wedge of lettuce topped with homemade ranch & balsamic dressings with bacon, tomato & crumbled bleu cheese, it’s really good. And after Jan had a taste she said she’s getting one next time.
Jan got her usual 12oz Top Sirloin.
She likes it between Medium and Medium-Well, and always cuts it open to see if it’s right when they bring it to the table. Else she sends it back.
I repeated our previous visit with a Medium-Rare 16 oz Pat’s Ribeye along with really good Sweet Potato Fries.
They really know how I like my steak here. It’s Medium-Rare on the inside, with crispy charred edges on the outside. Just perfect.
And of course the big pat of garlic butter makes it even better.
And with these big steaks we had plenty to take home for tomorrow.
Our next, and last stop before heading home, was at the Kroger’s, for our favorite coffees, and also for Jan’s Anniversary Gift.
Now most people know that the 1st anniversary gift is Paper, and the 25th is Silver. And while the 50th Anniversary is Gold, most people don’t know that the 49th Anniversary is Small Appliances, especially Electric Can Openers.
Hey, it’s what she really wanted, and I aim to please.
Coming home, she said she was giddy and couldn’t wait to try it out.
Personally I blame the morphine.
September 28, 2017
Thanks To Everyone . . .
First off Jan and I want to thank everyone for all the congratulations and best wishes. We really appreciate the many kind thoughts.
Now to answer some questions:
First off, just to clarify, even though last night’s blog was dated September 27th, our anniversary is today, the 28th. That way everyone would see it on our anniversary.
Next, we have no pictures of our wedding. When I say it was a small wedding, I mean really small. There was the minister, the minster’s wife as the witness, and the organist. Now Jan thinks there was another couple there, our next door neighbors, but I don’t remember that.
But whatever, there was no one to take pictures. Remember this was 1967 when no one was carrying a cell phone camera. In that time period, it would probably been a Kodak Instamatic anyway. But we didn’t even own one of those.
Someone commented that she had seen other couples who were celebrating their 50th, and they “all looked so stiff, angry, sad, old and miserable.”
And we didn’t look that way.
This evening at the Longhorn Steakhouse when our server seemed surprised that we had been married for 50 years, I told her that we were married in Alabama and that they marry young there. And that I was 14 and Jan was 15 when we got hitched.
I let her stand there with her mouth opening and closing for about 10 seconds before I told here that actually, I was 18 and Jan was 19 at the time.
She’s 345 days older than me. I was born on October 5th and she was born on October 25th, but a year earlier. So we’re now coming up on that sweet spot where every year for 20 days we’re the same age.
Another question was whether or not Jan and my mother ever got along. The answer is a resounding NO!
Over the 40 years (my mother died in 2007) the best they were ever able to do is probably best described as ‘respectful disdain”, light on the ‘respectful’ and heavy on the ‘disdain’
That;’s why I said in yesterday’s blog that Jan was determined that the marriage would last at least 5 years, because my mother said it would never last. And I think my mother believed that until the day she died.
Jan and I headed out for the Longhorn Steakhouse down in The Woodlands about 3:45. About 5 miles before we got there it started raining a little, and then a lot. But by the time we pulled into the parking lot, it had slacked off to just about nothing, Even so I tried to let Jan out at the door, but she said it wasn’t raining so she was OK.
Boy, did she regret that.
I parked about 50 feet away, and just as we got out of the truck, the bottom dropped out, like someone had just dumped a water bucket on us. And by time we traversed the 50 feet to the front door, we were soaked. But our server quickly brought us towels to dry off with.
We each started off with a Black and Blue Margarita, made with Blackberry Tequila, Blueberry Liqueur, and Triple Sec, along with fresh Blackberries and Blueberries.
Very tasty and it really warmed us up.
After our salads, Jan got the 8oz. Flo’s Filet, and a Baked Potato.
She said it was so tender she could have cut it with her fork.
I bumped up my selection from the 12oz Ribeye to the 18oz Bone-in Outlaw Ribeye, as well as my favorite Grilled Mexican Corn.
Our steaks were just delicious. In fact we’ve never gotten a bad steak from either Longhorn or Saltgrass. They’re definitely both a cut above Texas Roadhouse where the quality can vary a lot.
Even though both of us had leftover steak, we decided to split a dessert, the Apple Goldrush, with Blue Bell Natural Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, and topped with Bullet Bourbon Caramel Sauce.
Also really good, and so big we had leftover dessert too.
Tomorrow we getting together again with Debi and Ed Hurlburt to check out the All You Can Eat Catfish at the Paradise Grill over in Coldspring. Really looking forward to it.
Wrapping up, several people want to know where I got Jan’s thermal Cat Mug.
You can get it here.
https://pro.teechip.com/3D-Lighting-Cat
September 28, 2018
The Story Behind The Story . . .
Many of you have seen the photo below of Jan and I on a Roller Coaster at Tampa’s Busch Gardens back in 2009. But for many of you, this will be your first time to hear the story behind the story.
It’s a Small World After All . . .
(Insert annoying theme song here.)
About noon Jan and I headed over to Huntsville for some lunch at Rosie’s Mexican Cantina. We had first eaten here several years ago, and we always make sure to go back when we’re in the area. It’s that good.
After lunch we made a quick stop at Sam’s Club for kitty litter and vitamins, and then it was back to Athens, where we found a note on the door telling us to come over to my Uncle Ed’s for dessert about 5:30.
We ended up going over earlier so I could see my cousin Anna Jean, who had dropped by for a few minutes.
And now back to the small world.
Our regular blog readers may remember the story of this picture.
It was taken at Busch Gardens in Tampa FL when we visited there in April of 2009. Jan and I were riding the ‘baby’ roller coaster in the kiddie area. Jan still swears it wasn’t the ‘baby’ coaster, but Busch Gardens disagrees and says it, but it’s now called the Sand Serpent.
To quote:
Travel to Timbuktu and you’ll find young kids’ favorite ride in the park, Sand Serpent, formerly Cheetah Chase.
This fun-filled family coaster zips, zooms and climbs five stories into the air before bringing riders back down in a roar of laughter.
As you can see one of us is having a good time, and one of us, not so much.
Anyway, when I first posted it here on our blog in 2009 it was apparently picked up by a reader and posted here on Awkward Family Photos.
Thanks a lot!
A few months later, we got an email from some friends back in Houston who told us our photo had gone viral. They said their son was in class the last day of school, and to kill time the teacher had brought in his laptop and was showing the kids some of the photos on AFP.
Finally the teacher said “And this last one is my favorite”. Our photo popped up and the class roared. Then after a few moments, our friend’s son pointed at the screen and said “Hey, I know those people.” And the class really broke up.
But wait, there’s more.
In November of 2009 we were back here in Athens on our way back to Texas, and visiting relatives. Coincidently, my cousin Glee and her husband were up here visiting from Florida. Now, I hadn’t seen Glee since I was about 13, and I had never met her husband before, so we had a good time catching up on things.
Sitting around talking, it turned out that Glee and her husband lived in Tampa. So I then related the story and showed them the photo on my phone. I also mentioned that I had wanted to ride SheiKra, the big vertical dive coaster, and had convinced Jan to do it with me by not telling her that it was 200 feet high, and that at the end of the ride, it drops you straight down from that 200 feet at 70 mph.
Well, my devious plan was working until we took the train ride around the park right before riding the coaster. As we pulled into the station nearby, the conductor who had been narrating our trip, said he had ridden SheiKra once, and he never would again. He said it scared him to death, and he almost wet his pants. Well, of course, that ended any chance of getting Jan on the ride.
Blabbermouth!
As I’m relating this story, Glee’s husband looked over and said, “At the end of the ride, did the conductor say, “If you enjoyed your train trip today, my name is Dave. Otherwise it’s Mary””.
I said, “As a matter of fact, he did.” And then Glee’s husband, Dave said, “That was me!”
You can start humming the ‘Small World’ theme here, because there’s still more to come.
On our visit here this time, my cousin Jimmy who is visiting from Fort Myers with his wife Beth, and who I also don’t think I’ve seen since we were kids, mentioned he was a Chiropractor there.
I then said that one of my clients, Dr. Heimlich, that I do the computer and website support for in Houston, was a Chiropractor.
Jimmy then said, “Well I went to chiropractic school with a Myron Heimlich in Texas.”
OMG! Segue the Small World theme into the Twilight Zone theme.
I don’t know what it is about coming back to Athens, but strange things happen here.
Tomorrow Jan and I are having lunch with two of my second cousins, Anna Jean and Marjorie. We got to see Anna Jean for a while this afternoon, but with both of them together, it should be a hoot.
And for another coincidence, Yes, my Dr. Heimlich’s uncle is the famous Maneuver guy.
September 28, 2019
The Big Five Two . . .
Yay Us!
Fifty two years ago today Jan and I stood in front of the minister in a small chapel on the Northington Campus of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL and said our I do’s. The only other person involved was the minister’s wife who played the organ.
And it’s been a wild ride every since.
Love You, Sweetie!
About 2pm Jan and I drove over to my employer’s office manager’s house to take a look at a computer problem she was having. She had moved her computer to another room and couldn’t get back online.
Turns out that the problem was that the outlet she was connecting her cable modem to was dead. It worked about six months ago, so no idea what happened.
Jan came along to see Jennifer’s kittens, the two that she found behind the office when they were about three weeks old. She ended up hand-feeding them every couple of hours for several weeks until they could eat on their own.
I told Jan that I would searching her thoroughly when we left to be sure she wasn’t trying to smuggle one home.
Jan and I had decided to have our anniversary dinner at our fav Saltgrass Steakhouse, the one over on the Kemah Boardwalk this time. We knew it would be busy on a Saturday night, so we called ahead and got a reservation for a window table at 6pm.
As far as our dinner, we went with our usual favorites, our Wedge Salads,
Jan’s Filet with Green Beans,
my Ribeye, large enough to have some to take home.
After a great meal, we walked around the Boardwalk,
and sat on the water just enjoying the view.
The rides were very busy with long lines at all at them. Typical Saturday night there.
A great time.
So now we’re working on the next 52!
September 28, 2020
53 And Counting . . .
In 1967, 53 years ago this afternoon, Jan and I exchanged vows, rings and “I Do’s” in a little chapel on Northington Campus, the married student’s housing at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL.
I was wearing a suit and my beautiful red-headed wife was wearing a wedding dress that she had made herself the week before.
We have no pictures of our wedding. When I say it was a small wedding, I mean really small. There was the minister, the minster’s wife, who was the witness, and also the organist.
But whatever, there was no one to take pictures. Remember this was 1967 when no one was carrying a cell phone camera. In that time period, it would probably been a Kodak Instamatic anyway. But we didn’t even own one of those.
Along the way we had two great kids, Christopher Andrew and Brandi Leigh, and two fantastic grandkids, Piper Jean and Landon Thomas.
At that time, Northington, an old Army Hospital dating from the beginning of WWII, was the married student’s housing for the University.
The long wings, making up the hospital wards, were cut up into individual one and two bedroom apartments, each with their own entrance. There was a waiting list to get in so it was a few months before we got an apartment there. In the meantime we lived in a concrete block duplex with cracks in the wall that let in daylight.
Later in the winter we got a letter from rental agency reminding us that during extremely cold weather it would be necessary to put anti-freeze in the sink, lavatory, and toilet drains to keep the pipes from freezing up . . . INSIDE THE APARTMENT.
We spent most of the winter cuddled up with our cats under the electric blanket.
Really nice for newlyweds.
Then ten years later, while we living in Montgomery, AL, we got to watch Burt Reynolds and Sally Field have Northington Campus blown up around them in the stuntman movie, “Hooper’.
And, amazingly, it all seems just like yesterday.
On our 50th anniversary, we were up at the Thousand Trails in Conroe, and had our anniversary dinner at the Longhorn Steakhouse in the Woodlands.
Our waitress, a cute Asian girl, seemed surprised that we had been married for 50 years, She said she had seen other couples who were celebrating their 50th, and they “all looked so stiff, angry, sad, old and miserable.”
And we didn’t look that way.
I told her that we were married in Alabama and that they marry young there. And that I was 14 and Jan was 15 when we got hitched.
I let her stand there with her mouth open for about 10 seconds before I told here that actually I was 18 and Jan was 19 at the time.
She’s 345 days older than me. I was born on October 5th and she was born on October 25th, but a year earlier. So we’re now coming up on that sweet spot where every year for 20 days we’re the same age.
And actually, she didn’t know she was older than until we went to get our marriage license at the courthouse. I think she stood there for a few seconds with her mouth open, rethinking the whole deal. But then, apparently just said, “What The Heck!” Or words to that effect.
But it worked out for the best. I got a sexy Cougar and she got her own personal Boy-Toy.
Another question was whether or not Jan and my mother ever got along. The answer is a resounding NO!
Over the 40 years (my mother died in 2007) the best they were ever able to do is probably best described as ‘respectful disdain”, light on the ‘respectful’ and heavy on the ‘disdain’
As I’ve said before, Jan was determined that the marriage would last at least 5 years just to spite my mother, because my mother said it wouldn’t even last that long. And I think my mother believed that until the day she died.
And it’s been a wild ride.
Three years later, in 1970 I was working for the DOD at the Marine Corp Air Station in Beaufort, SC, part of the Marine’s Parris Island complex. During the next 3 years, we were also at England AFB in Alexandria, LA and Otis AFB on Cape Cod, MA.
Two years later, I was a Broadcast Engineer at Channel 10 in Birmingham, AL, part of the Alabama Educational Television Network.
By 1974 I was a Broadcast Engineer at Channel 20 in Montgomery, AL. This is also where Jan started her first job as an Accredited Medical Records Technician at Jackson Hospital there.
Three years later, in 1977 I was Chief Electronics Engineer for Alabama and Georgia with Storer Cable, which later morphed into TCI and and then was parceled out into Comcast.
Then in December of 1978 we moved to Houston where I worked for a NASA contractor on the Space Shuttle.
Over the next 30 or so years, Jan worked, first at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, then Medical Center del Oro in Houston, Polly Ryon Hospital in Richmond, and finishing up at Clear Lake Regional Hospital here in Webster, TX.
Luckily we both chose careers where we never had any problems finding a job.
And then almost 30 years after moving to Texas, in 2007 we chucked it all, bought a big RV and hit the road full-time. And 13 years later, after 49 states, 8 Canadian Provinces, and almost 90,000 miles, it’s still our home.
Like I said, it’s been a wild ride, But a really fun one!
And it’s not over yet.
September 28, 2021
Does Amazon Read Our Blog?
First off, Jan and I want to thank everyone for all the many emails and comments congratulating us on our 54th wedding anniversary. We really appreciate all the kind words.
Readers will remember that back in June I ordered these flamingos for Jan’s Flamboyance.
According to the ad, they were Made In The USA, and Shipped From California, unlike most FB stuff that usually seems to come on a slow boat from China, literally.
The shorter one is is 28” high and the taller one is 32”, so good size, too. And it would be a perfect addition to the yard.
The first Rut Roh! came 9 days later when I received a notice that the order had shipped from . . . China, via China Post.
The second came about a week after that when I clicked on the ad again, and it had disappeared, or at least the flamingos had. There was something else being sold.
But since I was still getting tracking info as it crawled across China, I was somewhat mollified.
But then about a week ago, the entire company website just disappeared, but the tracking info said the birds were now in the US and in the hands of the Post Office, so maybe things were still OK.
Then yesterday, a package showed up in the mail. It was about 14” long and about 5” square, and it was half crushed. Not a good sign all around.
And it didn’t get any better, or any bigger when we opened the package. Inside was two smaller boxes, and inside those boxes was this.
For the record, they’re about 8” tall, and not metal, but some sort of resin. And broken, of course.
Well, $^%$#%
So without telling Jan I started working with PayPal (which is how I paid) to get my money back. And though it took a couple of months, I finally got a complete refund. Then checking around I found the same ones on eBay, for a little more money, but shipping from South Carolina, verified by eBay.
So I put in my order and six days later they showed up in a much bigger box than the little pink ones above.
And this morning Jan found them waiting for her out in the living room. Which is where they stayed, since it rained all day. And it doesn’t look any better for the next few days.
Jan and I headed down to Galveston about 3pm for Saltgrass Steakhouse Anniversary dinner, after spending an hour or so driving and parking along the Seawall.
Just as beautiful as when I married her.
After I mentioned in yesterday’s blog about Amazon ‘taunting’ me with same day delivery and then not delivering, Well, after I posted the blog last night, I went to Amazon to order something for us, rather than work, and it popped up and said that if I ordered in the next 13 minutes it would be delivered between 4am and 8am this morning. Which was only about 5 hours away.
So I had to try this so I went with it. And according to the email, the package was delivered here at the rig at 5:56am. Nice.
So does Amazon read our blog and decided to make amends?
Jan wanted me to clarify something. In last night’s blog, talking about the early years of our marriage, I mentioned Jan saying this.
Jan later said she was determined for us to stay together for at least the first five years just to spite my mother.
What I left out is that my mother said the marriage would never last five years. So the above was Jan’s response.
My mother was determined that I would marry the girl who lived here.
And yes, it was featured in Life magazine.
I dated her for about a month or so, and though she was rich, she was a little too crazy even for me.
Thought Jan and my mother settled into an uneasy truce over the years, my father was crazy about Jan, and she him.
Five Five . . .
By the time most of you read this, it will be tomorrow, September 28th, which has the honor of being Jan’s and my Anniversary. In this the big Five Five.
55 years ago today, about 1:30 in the afternoon, Jan and I exchanged vows, rings and “I Do’s” in a little chapel on Northington Campus, the married student’s housing at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL.
I was wearing a suit and my beautiful red-headed wife was wearing a wedding dress that she had made herself the week before.
Along the way we had two great kids, Christopher Andrew and Brandi Leigh, and two fantastic grandkids, Piper Jean and Landon Thomas.
Still in love, still best friends, and still having fun. You really can’t ask for more.
Jan later said she was determined for us to stay together for at least the first five years just to spite my mother who said the marriage would never last.
As I said, at that time, Northington, an old Army Hospital dating from the beginning of WWII, was the married student’s housing for the University.
The long wings, making up the hospital wards, were cut up into individual one and two bedroom apartments, each with their own entrance. There was a waiting list to get in so it was a few months before we got an apartment there. In the meantime we lived in a concrete block duplex with cracks in the wall that let in daylight.
Later in the winter we got a letter from rental agency reminding us that during extremely cold weather it would be necessary to put anti-freeze in the sink, lavatory, and toilet drains to keep the pipes from freezing up . . . INSIDE THE APARTMENT.
We spent most of the winter cuddled up with our cats under the electric blanket.
And, amazingly, it all seems just like yesterday.
Then ten years later, while we living in Montgomery, AL, we got to watch Burt Reynolds and Sally Field have Northington Campus blown up around them in the stuntman movie, “Hooper’.
The two large brick towers were part of the steam plant that furnished heat and hot water to the complex.
As far as celebrating, we’re going down to Galveston tomorrow to have dinner at the Saltgrass Steakhouse there. Kind of our go-to celebration spot.
As far as this morning, I spent a large part of it on the phone, first with Capital One Bank. I noticed last night that Jan’s and my Capital One debit cards expire the end of September, three days from today. And we had never received new cards.
So, after going online and confirming my mailing address was correct with them, I put in a call to their Customer Support. And a few minutes later I was talking to a service rep. He had a very heavy Indian accent (A dot Indian. Not a ‘Come to our Casino’ Indian and probably named ‘Peggy’).
It took a while confirming my identity, SS#, and a text to my phone, and then a repeat for Jan, but the result was two new cards being FedEx to us in the next day or so.
Next up, I was on the phone to the Lake County Inn up in Trinity, TX trying to correct our upcoming weekend booking there. I had made a reservation there for October 22-23 for when we’re going to be visiting friends Debi and Ed Hurlburt. At least I thought I was.
Turns out that Booking.com had for some reason carried over the dates from my previous booking for the weekend for our family San Antonio weekend, October 15-16. So I put in a change date request through Booking.com.
And heard nothing. Booking said that they were waiting to heard back from the motel. So finally after a week, this morning I put in a call to the motel and got a different story. He said that he had heard nothing from Booking about any change, but that he did have a room available for the next weekend, no problem.
But he did say he couldn’t change anything from his, and suggested that I just cancel the original reservation and then rebook for the correct date.
BUT! (there’s always a ‘but’)
For the first time for any of the dozens of our previous Booking.com reservations, this was Pay In Advance-No Refundable. Another surprise to the motel owner who didn’t know anything about that, and had not receive any money from them. So if I canceled so I could rebook, I stood a chance of losing my money.
So next I was on the phone with Booking and it only took about 10 minutes to get it all straightened.
As far as lunch today, Jan said I’d been a good boy lately, so she took me to Twin Peaks.
Jan got her usual Chipotle Chicken with Double Broccoli,
while I went a little different with the Soup (Brisket Chili) & Salad and a side of their really good Green Beans with Corn and Bacon.
Really, really good as usual, as was the service from our favorite server, Sylvia, who today had a trainee, Mariah.
That’s Mariah on the left and Sylvia on the right.
If Mariah turns out to be half the server that Sylvia is, she’ll do great.
When Sylvia dropped off the check, it looked like this.
The ‘Grandparents’ is kind of a joke between us.
One time when we asked to be seated in Sylvia’s area, the hostess said, “Oh, are you her grandparents?” and we just laughed. Then when the hostess told Sylvia that her ‘grandparents’ are here, she thought, ‘Who? I don’t speak to my grandparents.’
So we still laugh about it.
Thought For The Day:
September 27, 2010
The Egg and I & Café Adobe. . .
Today started off with breakfast at Egg and I, probably our favorite local breakfast place. We also like Jimmy’s Egg, but for some reason, perhaps because they have flavored coffees like hazelnut, we like the Egg and I better.
Then we headed about 30 miles south to Galveston Island to show Jim and Debbie around, and also check out the changes since Hurricane Ike.
We drove west along the Seawall all the way to Jamaica Beach. Along the way, we stopped to check out the Jamaica Beach RV Park, which is right across the street from the ocean. For some reason the park comes with its own alpacas.
We looked it over and got a brochure and a rate chart. It’s a nice park and we might stay there on our way out of town some time.
Coming back we drove into town to drive around the Strand area, and thru some of the neighborhoods looking over all the old, but beautifully remodeled homes. Based on what we had heard the Strand looked like after Ike, the area has really come back.
Leaving the Strand, we drove back over to the Seawall to get some ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s, and then headed back east to Murdock’s Souvenirs. I’ll have more about Murdock’s in the next couple of days.
Coming back from Galveston, we stopped by Brandi’s so Jim and Debbie could meet Mr. Landon.
Jim and Debbie also had to pass Kitty’s inspection. Kitty (Yes, this 105 pound Black Lab’s name is Kitty) is very protective of Landon, and if Kitty doesn’t know you, the dog will keep trying to squeeze in between you and Landon.
A little before 5 pm the whole gang met at Café Adobe for dinner. Here’s a photo suitable for a Most Wanted poster.
From left to right: Jan, Debbie, Jim, Lowell, Landon, Brandi, Piper, Linda, and Chris.
And here’s Mr. Landon sleeping through all the commotion. He looks like he’s ready for a fight.
And here’s Debbie, with Jim getting in some Landon feeding time. Jim and Debbie’s youngest grandchild is 1 yr. old, so he’s not as out of practice feeding a baby as I am.
Leaving Café Adobe about 6:15 Jan and I dropped Jim and Debbie at the hotel, and then headed back toward the rig, stopping off at Buc-ee’s to fill up with gas.
Tomorrow we’re planning to head over to San Antonio to see the Alamo, the Riverwalk, and other sights.
But…when we got home tonight Jan started feeling bad, so we’ll have to see how tomorrow goes.
September 27, 2012
Exploring PA . . .
We started out about 11:30 this morning. Ostensibly, we were looking for a nearby Camping World so I could check out some step covers, but we ended up on a wild goose chase through some beautiful Pennsylvania countryside.
Some of our wanderings took us through Hershey, PA, “The Town that Chocolate Built”. And even the streetlights are shaped like Hershey Kisses.
All over town there are hospitals, libraries, schools, colleges, and orphanages built by company founder Milton Hershey. And like all the towns in this area, it seems like every home is nicely painted and neatly landscaped.
Our quest for Camping World turned out to be a lost cause since we found out that Camping World’s website considers Camping World RV Sales sites the same as the camping stores. So we ended up at an RV sales lot, and found out the nearest Camping World store is actually in New Jersey, 87 miles away.
Oh well, we saw some beautiful countryside, anyway.
Our next stop was a Staples, where Jan got some fancy paperclips, and I got a new toy – A USB computer-controlled missile launcher.
Just another way to annoy the cats.
Afterwards we drove through a few of the surrounding towns, and also checked out a nearby Outdoor World RV Park.
We were all entranced by unique architecture of the area’s buildings.
After some more driving around and a few more stops we ended up having dinner at the Golden Corral in Lebanon, one of our favorite places around the country.
After a nice leisurely meal, we got back to the park to find our friends Stu and Donna parked right up the hill from us. It’ll be good to see them again.
It’s supposed to be a really rainy day tomorrow so it’ll probably be a stay-at-home day. Those are always nice.
September 27, 2014
Happy Anniversary !!!
And a Very Nice Surprise.
Although this blog is dated the 27th of September, most of you will be reading it on Sunday the 28th, which is Jan’s and my 47th wedding anniversary.
I know it’s a cliché, but looking back it seems like yesterday. Two kids, two grandkids, and 7 years on the road and here we are.
Still in love, still best friends, and still having fun. You really can’t ask for more.
And because it’s our anniversary, we got a really nice surprise today. A little after 5:30 Brandi, Lowell, and Landon showed up to help us celebrate, and brought brownies.
They’re actually staying overnight in College Station and will come back over tomorrow (Sunday) and bring Rudy’s BBQ for us all to have lunch together. Brandi said she figured this was the only way they were ever going to get to celebrate our anniversary with us.
The two previous years we were gate guarding, but too far from Houston to visit, and then before that, we were always on the road somewhere.
Landon always loves to visit our ‘truck house’ as he calls it, and had fun running around checking everything out at our site.
While Mister decided to check out a new lap.
On the Miss Piper front, she’s up and around, doing much better, and has a new puppy to keep her company.
His name is Nigel (Nigel?), and he’s cute as a button. And about the size of one too.
But their other dog, PJ, doesn’t look to impressed.
Or maybe he’s thinking more along the lines of ‘snack’.
In other gate news, the last several days have been very nice, weather-wise, and pretty slow traffic-wise. In other words, pretty nice too. It’s been partly cloudy, and in the mid-80’s in the daytime, and high 60’s/ low 70’s at night. Just about perfect.
And as far as traffic, we had 75 vehicles yesterday, and 67 today. So, also just about perfect.
And tomorrow, Rudy’s BBQ.
YUMMMM!
September 27, 2015
Anniversary Eve . . .
First off, although this blog is dated the 27th and our Wedding Anniversary is the 28th, (and I’ve never forgotten it, either) most people, and my Sweetie, won’t see it until Monday anyway. So
Happy 48th Anniversary, Sweetie. Seems like only yesterday.
As I said before, today was our afternoon off, so after Virginia and Bill Hickox, our relief guards showed up right on time, we were off to Shreveport for our outing.
But on the way out we stopped to drop some garbage off at the pad, and to show Jan what it looked like now, since the last time she saw it, it looked like this.
But now it’s just jam-packed with equipment. This what it looks like coming in to the pad,
and this is what it looks like around the back.
Like I said, jam-packed.
Then we were off on our trip, and an hour later we were sitting in one of our favorite places, Grimaldi’s Pizzeria. We first ate at the original one (and at that time, the only one) in Brooklyn, NY, I.e. New York City in 2009. It was located in an area called DUMBO. No, not the one with big ears. This DUMBO stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, but the neighborhood is actually located between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges.
And Grimaldi’s was located right under the Brooklyn Bridge itself, about 100 feet overhead. We had flown our daughter Brandi and our granddaughter Piper (aunt and niece) up to spend a week with us in NYC, and we all agreed this was the best pizza we had ever eaten. So we were really happy to find a few years later that they had started spreading across the US.
They now have over 40 restaurants around the country and they’re all as good as the original, and the one in Shreveport was no exception. In fact all eight locations we visited over the last few years have been equally delicious.
We started off with our usual ‘small’ salad, which doesn’t match its name. The big bowl of ‘small’ salad is enough for both of us to have two servings. I’d be afraid to order the ‘large’ one.
Next up was the large pizza (16”) with Pepperoni, Meatballs, Italian Sausage, and Mushrooms.
Yeah, I know this one has Jalapenos on it, but that’s because it’s not the one we had today. A couple of times in the past we tried it with Jalapeno’s, but they seemed to overwhelm the taste of the pizza, so we stopped that. But for some reason my photo of today’s pizza didn’t come out very well, so you got an old photo.
As usual, we plenty of pizza to take home for later, which is why we always get the large.
After our meal, we decided to walk off some of it by taking a stroll around Mall St. Vincent where Grimaldi’s is located. Jan was happy to find a Bath and Body Works so she stocked on some things.
Then checking the time, and what shopping we wanted to do, we decided to forgo the movie, and just take care of some errands. So after Cavender’s for some better boot laces, the last Radio Shack in Shreveport for a mini toggle switch for my AC fan speed control, a car wash to get the inch of dust and mud off the truck, we finally ended up at Wal-Mart.
Of course.
We always end up at Wal-Mart.
Jan wanted some new sneakers, and some other things on her list, and when I noticed there was no one in line, I decided to get a haircut.
The last one I got was around the middle of July in Albuquerque, so it was about time. But when I was checking out, I had my first inkling that I was not going to like the new ‘chipped’ credit cards.
I got my new one back in August when we were in Houston for a few days. But today was the first time I had to use it that way. Rather than slide it through the reader, you plug it in, like an ATM machine.
It’s supposed to make credit cards safer and less likely for fraud, but I’m beginning to think it does that by making it so hard to buy any thing, you just give up and don’t use it at all.
I plugged it in to the reader and it said, “Processing. Do Not Remove Card.” And it kept flashing this for about 30 seconds. Then it said “Card Read Error. Remove Card and Reinsert.” So I did. And then we did the whole “Processing. . .” thing over again, and again, getting the Card Read Error again. I’m now thinking I could have swiped my card, entered my PIN, and been long gone.
Finally after doing the whole ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ thing a couple of more times, it worked. The young lady checking me out said they had this problem a lot. So I chalked it up to just their flakey reader.
I was wrong.
About 45 minutes later I was checking out at a Wal-Mart reader, and things got worse. I inserted my card, got the “Processing. Do Not Remove.” thing again, and then after about 20 seconds, it ask if I wanted Cash Back.
Oh, good. It’s working.
NOT!
As soon as I hit “No Cash Back”, the screen said, “RETRY TRANS. CODE 01. PLEASE INFORM ASSOCIATE.” But my ‘Associate’ had no idea what CODE 01 meant.
So we went through this 3 or 4 times with no better luck.
Finally she manually enter the card number, the expiration date, and the 3 digit code, then I selected Credit on the terminal and it went through.
This all took over 10 minutes. As opposed to 10 seconds to swipe my card and enter my PIN.
Oh, and if you’ve got a ‘chipped’ card, and are using it on a ‘chipped’ reader, it will NOT let you swipe your card and use Credit or Debit. You must use the slot.
If this is the future, I don’t like it. Not one bit.
We got back to the gate a little before 7pm, and found that Virginia and Bill had actually been pretty busy with almost 6 pages done. That’s more than we’ve had in a good while. So much for telling them that Sunday would be an easy day.
September 27, 2016
Good News and Bad News . . .
The Good News is that Jan and I will have off tomorrow (Wednesday) to spend time together on our 49th Wedding Anniversary. And we’re really looking forward to having dinner together.
The other Good News is that Jan has completely recovered from passing a kidney stone today during a 4 hour stint at the CHI St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bryan, TX.
She woke up about 5:30 this morning with a severe backache on her right side, up behind her ribs. She’s had backaches before, though not recently, so no biggie at the time.
But after she relieved me at 7am, the nausea and vomiting set in. Since she felt better after each time she threw up, we were then thinking food poisoning. But finally she came in about 9am, woke me up again and said she couldn’t take the pain anymore.
So after I quickly got dressed, I called Jamie, our GGS supervisor, and asked him to get started our way, telling him I had to take Jan to the ER in Bryan and we were leaving the gate. By then we were both thinking kidney stone, but Jan has never had a problem before, but both our kids have. And apparently in your 60’s is kind of late to have a first one.
Next I went down to the pad to tell Pete, the Company Man, what was going on, and then we were leaving the gate, but had a relief guard on the way. Pete was out on the rig, but when the guy in the office heard what was wrong, he said, “Go, go. I’ll tell Pete,”
On the way back I picked up the truck and then helped Jan in and we were on our way.. Her pain severity was cycling about every 20 minutes, peaking and then dropping off.
I ‘OK Googled’ the nearest hospital ER, using ‘hospital’ so we didn’t get sent to one of those Emergency Clinics, and she took us right to the ER entrance at the hospital. I got Jan inside in a wheelchair and checked in before I went and parked the truck a couple of blocks away. Walking back I called Jamie and let him know we were here, but didn’t know anything yet, except Jan was still in a lot of pain.
Getting back, they already had Jan in a room getting her vitals, and then wheeled her back into a room with me following. Very quickly a nurse came in, got her in the bed and started prepping her for an IV, while another nurse drew blood.
Wow! Not the usual ER service I’ve had in the past, where unless you actually DIE in the waiting room, you won’t see a doctor for hours.
A few minutes later, after asking Jan about any allergies, etc., they used the IV/catheter to give Jan something for the severe nausea she was having as well as a light dose of morphine for the pain.
Around 11 or so, Dr. Montross came in and checked Jan out, pushing on her abdomen, asking about any pain there. She had none, only in her back. Dr. Montross then scheduled her for a CT scan.
A few minutes later, about 11:30, another nurse came in and gave Jan a large foam cup of ‘contrast’ for the CT scan, and told her to have it finished by 1pm, and they would take her for her scan right next door.
Jan said the ‘contrast’ wasn’t too bad, unlike some of this stuff, and had no problem getting it down. At this point, about 11:30, I called Jamie again to bring him up to date.
Jan was still having a good bit of pain and nausea, so they give more nausea meds and another dose of morphine, which this time helped a lot. And at 1pm they wheeled Jan off to the CT scan, bringing her back in less than 10 minutes.
About 1:30 they were back with the results, and that Yes, she did have kidney stones, a large one still in the kidney probably not causing any problems, and the culprit, a much smaller one, on its way out.
In the meantime, after drinking all the contrast, I helped Jan across the hall to the bathroom so she could pee. And a few minutes after that, she said she suddenly felt fine, great even. When the doctor came back to release her a little before.2pm, they figured she had passed the stone without really realizing it that last time.
So we were on our way home a little after 2, stopping at Whataburger for a lunch to eat on the way, and calling Jamie to see if he wanted something. We were back at the gate by a few minutes after 3pm.
And now for the Bad News. When I called Jamie at 11:30, he said we had lost our gate and were being replaced by another couple.
WTH?
He said that Chelsie, the GGS sales rep, said that Company Man Pete had called her, mad as hell that we didn’t talk to him about what had happened to us, and where we had gone. and wanted us replaced immediately.
WTH? That didn’t sound like Pete.
If I’d had his number with me I would have called Pete, but it was written on the logs back at the gate. So I called Chelsie and ask her what happened, and told her I had left a message for Pete since I couldn’t go out to the rig and talk to him directly.
She said she didn’t know what had happened, and that it must have been a liability issue for the energy company leaving the gate unmanned for a while , but that as far as Gate Guard Services was concerned, we didn’t do anything wrong.
Well, that was helpful.
So getting back to the rig, we had to start tearing down to move since the new couple was already on their way. Jamie was a big help in getting things packed up and stowed away, and I couldn’t have done it without him, because I was just completely worn out.
I had only gotten about an hours sleep that morning after Jan had relieved me at 7pm, and only about 4 hours sleep the time before that, so by the very end, I was just barely moving.
I had told Jamie at 3 when we got back, that it would be about 6 before we were done, and I pulled out the site at 5:59 with Jan following in the truck. We stopped at the Exxon station about 8 miles down the road for diesel, and we’re presently parked at the Timber Ridge RV park here in Bryan for a couple of nights, before we move on to the Conroe Thousand Trails.on Thursday.
But for the Big Finish, here’s the kicker.
About 4:30 Pete, the Company Man, walked up to the gate and asked how Jan was. What was wrong? Was she going to be OK, etc.
Strange I thought from the man who had just had us fired. But I didn’t say anything, just told him what had happened, and that she had passed the stone and was OK now. He seemed relieved, and then noticed we were tearing down.
“Are y’all leaving?”
Awkward Silence.
“Ah . . . Chelsie said you were mad because we left the gate without talking to you, and you demanded we be replaced, so a new couple will be here soon to take over the gate.”
Pete looked puzzled and said, “I wasn’t mad, and I said nothing about you being replaced. I just called concerned, and wanted to see how your wife was, and was she going to be OK.”
WTH?
So you be the judge. Was this miscommunication, or was it direct sabotage?
Jan thinks sabotage, because she and Chelsie have a history.
Oh, one finally thing.
Jan says morphine is GOOOOODDDD!
September 27, 2017
The Big Five Oh!
50 years ago today, about 1:30 in the afternoon, Jan and I exchanged vows, rings and “I Do’s” in a little chapel on Northington Campus, the married student’s housing at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL.
I was wearing a suit and my beautiful red-headed wife was wearing a wedding dress that she had made herself the week before.
Along the way we had two great kids, Christopher Andrew and Brandi Leigh, and two fantastic grandkids, Piper Jean and Landon Thomas.
Jan later said she was determined for us to stay together for at least the first five years just to spite my mother.
I made the Clear Lake run again this morning, with a quick segue to get a haircut (quick because it doesn’t take long.) before getting to the office.
I did make a lot of progress today, finally getting into the tattoo shopping cart and resetting the passwords, so that means I can now update prices and make corrections.
I also made a big leap ahead on hacking into the Linux webserver, finally getting access to the Linux desktop on the machine. So now I can see where I need to get to, and to do that I need to get ‘root’ access to the system.
That will let me get into the mail server and add and update email addresses. In addition, it will help me get further along on moving the Zen Cart shopping carts to an off-site server, along with the mail server.
So now I’ve got to start going through all the possible passwords I’ve gleaned from scattered text files and scraps of paper laying around. But as of yesterday, I’m completely on my own as far as the password situation goes, with no possible additional input from the previous IT guy, as he died in the nursing home yesterday.
Although I only met him a few times, I was sorry to hear that.
The Word of the Day is: ‘Tittle’
September 27, 2018
The Big Five One . . .
Although this blog is dated September 27th, most of you will not be reading it until tomorrow, September 28th, which just happens to be our 51st Anniversary.
51 years ago this afternoon, Jan and I stood before a minister in a small chapel located on University of Alabama’s Northington Campus and said our “I do’s”. At that time, Northington, an old Army Hospital dating from the beginning of WWII, was the married student’s housing for the University.
The long wings, making up the hospital wards, were cut up into individual one and two bedroom apartments, each with their own entrance. There was a waiting list to get in so it was a few months before we got an apartment there. In the meantime we lived in a concrete block duplex with cracks in the wall that let in daylight.
Later in the winter we got a letter from rental agency reminding us that during extremely cold weather it would be necessary to put anti-freeze in the sink, lavatory, and toilet drains to keep the pipes from freezing up . . . INSIDE THE APARTMENT.
We spent most of the winter cuddled up with our cats under the electric blanket.
Then ten years later, while we living in Montgomery, AL, we got to watch Burt Reynolds and Sally Field have Northington Campus blown up around them in the stuntman movie, “Hooper’.
And, amazingly, it all seems just like yesterday.
Jan and I headed out about 11:30 to meet our son Chris for lunch at King Food. He had come down from Kingsland to pick up an engine for his Jeep that was being rebuilt.
He had come down with his friend and fellow retired fireman, Corky, who was off visiting other friends in the area.
After our lunch with Chris, Jan and I drove over to the nearby Sam’s Club to get new glasses for both of us. Now as to whether or not they’ll come in before we leave for Florida next Wednesday, that’s a toss-up. If they don’t, it’s not really a problem, anyway.
I mentioned that I was looking at a Champion generator as a possible replacement for our Onan diesel generator, if necessary.
Besides being a little more powerful, it also has a 3 year warranty as opposed to the Harbor Freight’s Predator’s 90 days. And an email from Amazon added to that idea.
First off, a dual-fuel version, both gas and propane, is actually about $50 cheaper than gasoline-only version. Not sure if I’d ever use it that way, but I guess it would be nice to have.
Even better, for both the Champion generators, an additional 3 year warranty period is available from Amazon . . . for only $21. So a 6 year warranty on the generator.
Sounds better and better.
September 27, 2019
Wrapping Up Another Year . . .
I’ve gotten a lot of nice comments about my recent blog, Stirring The Pot – On Climate Change. And several people asked about a PDF copy, so I posted a copy under the Greg’s Musings tab on the top menu.
And here’s a few more. And this one is from 1934.
And here’s one from the UN, saying we’re all doomed, if we don’t reverse ‘climate change’ by . . . 2000.
And here’s some data from our northern neighbor.
For example, Vancouver had a higher record temperature in 1910 (30.6C) than in 2017 (29.5C).
Toronto had a warmer summer in 1852 (32.2C) than in 2017 (31.7C).
The highest temperature in Moncton in 2017 was four degrees cooler than in 1906.
Brandon, Man., had 49 days where the average daily temperature was above 20C in 1936, compared to only 16 in 2017, with a high temperature of 43.3C that year compared to 34.3C in 2017.
I’ve talked about Elon Musk and his SpaceX company several times before, most recently about a month ago, with his Starhopper flight.
This first flight only flew to about 500 feet before it landed safely, just as was planned.
This was the first test of his Starship, built to take people of the moon. Now he’s readying the next version, the Mk1
This one will test fly to about 60,000+ feet before returning to earth.
One thing I like about Musk’s Starship is that with every iteration, it looks more and more something that Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers would fly.
I still get goosebumps watching the simultaneous landing of the two Falcon Heavy boosters back at the Cape last April.
The Falcon Heavy used 3 Merlin engines with about 900 kN of thrust each and would be capable of lifting a fully-loaded 737 aircraft.
The Starhopper that flew last month used one of the new Raptor engines, with a thrust of over 2000 kN. And the Mk1 will use 3 Raptors for over 6000 kN, or over 1.3 million pounds of thrust.
WOW.
But the full-blown Starship, capable over carrying 100 passengers and cargo for a settlement to the moon, will use 36! of the Raptor engines, for a thrust of over 15 million pounds.
That’s twice as much as the vaunted Saturn V, which will make it the most powerful rocket in history.
Go Elon!
