Monthly Archives: September 2022
Nothing Much . . .
Happened Today. So just our reruns.
Thought For The Day:
This is called Irony.
September 16, 2009
Canada, Oh, Canada…
Today we headed back into Canada for a few days on our way to Rome, NY and Niagara Falls.
We could have gone back by staying in the States, but going through Canada was only about 50 miles further.
So why not?
About 9:30 am we drove the truck down to have breakfast at our favorite Big Stop truck stop and then by 11:15 we were back there with the rig filling up with diesel. While we were in Canada last week I just put enough in to get us back to the States since diesel is about $1 more a gallon there.
We put in 102 gallons for $280 and by 11:30 we were on our way up US 1.
We were heading toward Quebec and the town of Notre Dame du Lac (Our Lady of the Lake) about 150 miles away.
One of the things we wanted to do was to drive to the end of US 1 in Fort Kent, ME, since we had been in Key West, FL at US 1’s Mile Marker 0, and although we didn’t travel all of US 1 between FL and ME, we did travel a lot of it.
Here is the photo I took of Mile Marker 0 in Key West.
And here is the other end in Fort Kent, ME.
And then about a block past the end of US 1 we took a right turn across the Rue Ferry bridge and we were back in New Brunswick, Canada.
Customs took about 10 minutes and we were on our way. And about 12 miles later we entered the province of Quebec for the first time. Then an hour later we pulled into our park in Notre Dame du Lac.
This may be the most beautiful site we’ve been in so far. We’re parked on a bluff overlooking a lake.
And Mister really enjoys the view too.
After we puttered for a while we headed to find a place to eat. We drove about 6 miles north to the town of Cabano and found a nice-looking restaurant called ‘Bistro du Duc’ or ‘Duke’s Bistro’.
Our waitress didn’t speak much English and I don’t speak much French. Spanish and German are more my thing. But we did get our order OK. We ordered the Spaghetti with Meat Sauce and it was really good.
One thing I’ve noticed is that in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, pretty much all signs, I.e. traffic signs, street signs, billboards, etc., are in both English and French. However that apparently doesn’t work both ways.
Here in Quebec, everything is in French, with no English at all. Even Stop Signs say ‘Arret’, and not ‘Stop’.
We saw this last year too, going through Canada to Alaska. All of the English TV channels had French subtitles and/or French audio subchannels.
But the French language channels had no English translations whatsoever. When I mentioned this to a waitress in Whitehorse last year, she just laughed and said “You’ve noticed that, have you”.
Getting back to the rig, I got the satellite set up and Jan and I just enjoyed the view. By then it was starting to get a little chilly, so we went in for the night.
Tomorrow we will head for Quebec City about 150 miles away.
September 16, 2010
Great Sunset . . .
Not much going on today.
After a lazy morning of coffee and conversation, we left about 12:30 to head over to Brandi’s. Jan was going to Landon-sit while Brandi took a nap.
After dropping Jan off I headed out to check on new tires for the truck. I checked out three different places, and I’ll go back to NTB tomorrow to get them installed.
I told Jan I’d give her two hours of private Landon time before I came back, so to kill a little more time, I stopped off at Starbucks to get a Cinnamon Dolce Latte and catch up on some reading.
Getting back to Brandi’s about 3 pm, I got in some Landon bottle feeding time and even got a couple of good burps out of him.
About 3:30 pm we headed back to the rig, stopping off at La Brisa on SH 146 in Bacliff for dinner. I had their great Chicken Tortilla Soup and Jan had the Shrimp Nachos.
We got back to the rig about 5:30 and settled in for the night. A little later we got to enjoy this great sunset.
This shot in the other direction shows lights from the many refineries in Texas City.
More tomorrow…
September 16, 2011
RV Surplus and Bob Evans . . .
I got up a little early this morning, about 9:30, so I could go over to the RV/MH Hall of Fame and pick up one of the computers that I’m installing so I can get all the bloatware taken off, and everything else set up.
Getting back to the rig, I made coffee and then got started on the computer setup. I was immediately impressed by the speed of this Acer mini-Tower. I have a 2 year old version of this model, and the difference is extreme. I normally upgrade my computer every two years, so this looks good.
A 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo processor with 4GB of RAM, a 1 TB HD, DVD drive, and HD 5.1 Audio. Not bad for under $400.
One thing I found out in ordering these computers is that Amazon has a purchase limit.
I tried to order 5 computers, but they would only let me purchase 4, even though I was trying to do it on 3 separate orders. When I inquired about how to know how many I could buy, I was told to check the ‘Quantity’ dropdown box right above the ‘Add to Cart’ button on the item page. The max quantity shown in the dropdown box is how many you can buy every 7 days, in this case, 4.
But apparently, the weekly quantity varies from item to item. Amazon will sell me 99 of the LCD monitor that I ordered, and will even sell me 999 of the Kindle that I bought this week, but only 4 computers. Go figure.
About 12:30 I headed out on some errands to the bank and then to RV Surplus to pick up some supplies.
Later in the afternoon I finished up the computer setup. I’ll take it back tomorrow morning.
A little after 5pm Jan and I headed out to Bob Evans for supper. And as usual we had another great meal, and then we split a Pumpkin Cheesecake for dessert. YUM!
Just as we were finishing up, our daughter Brandi called with the latest Landon story.
It seems that last week while he eating lunch at his daycare. they had a fire drill. And after a few minutes later when they had all the kids outside, someone noticed that Landon was still holding his fork. Apparently he thought that wherever they were going, there’d be food there, and he was going to be ready. That’s my grandson.
About 8:30 Chris Yust called with a computer problem. Chris said to bring the ‘pretty one’, too.
But the ‘pretty one’ was already in her jammies and dozing off, so it was just the ‘not so pretty one’ who went over. It was a great time with a lot of laughter. A great way to round out a day.
September 16, 2012
Short and Sweet . . .
Not much happened today. We had planned to do some more sightseeing, but Jan still wasn’t feeling too great. Her voice is slowly coming back, but her stomach is still bothering her.
I worked on some computer stuff and then spent some time in the afternoon outside working on replacing the chrome tailpipe on our coach. The old one started rusting out so I ordered a new one to replace it.
But the problem is that so far I can’t get the old one off. I got the clamp off, but so far the pipe won’t come loose. I tried prying up the flanges and spraying PB Blaster into the gap and letting it soak. Then I tried banging on it with both a rubber mallet and a piece of pipe, all with no luck. Probably tomorrow I’ll dig my torch out and try heating up the outside of it. Hopefully that will loosen it up. We’ll see how it goes.
About 5 Jan was feeling better so we headed back over to Greensburg IN to once again have dinner at Chili’s. Then after dinner we drove across the road to do some Wal-Marting.
While we were shopping, Brandi called so we could talk with Landon. He’s only about 25 months old and you can carry on a conversation with him. He said he loved Nana and Papa (us) and that he’d played outside today.
On the way home we stopped for gas at a Marathon station. Seems like after helping them get the oil out of the ground for 4 months this summer, we’d get a discount, but no luck.
September 16, 2014
It’s A Three Holer . . .
Got some interesting news today about our rig. Well, the rig right in front of us. We have another rig right down the road. And two more right up the road, for that matter. But those two are not ours, I.e. not behind our gate.
Anyway our rig is a 3 holer!
No, not like an outhouse. Well, maybe, kinda. In that 3 holes are involved.
No, what this means is that they’re going to drill 3 separate wells on the same pad here. And amazingly, they do it by dragging the drill rig 25 feet until it’s over the new drill hole. And in a couple of weeks they’re gonna do it again.
When the rig was first erected, it was done on big steel plates. And when the time comes to move it, they grease up the plates, hook up two big honkin’ cranes like this one,
and just drag the 100 ton rig to its new location, using the two cranes to both pull it and steer it.
When we were following a Marathon/H&P rig down in the Eagle Ford area in 2012, they did this on our rig. And the nice thing about it was we got a couple of days off while it was going on. But since we have multiple pads here, we won’t have that luxury this time.
A few days ago, I started working with the Gate Guard Logging program that I wrote last year while we were on our frac gate.
Right now I’m just using to set up a database of everyone who comes through our gate, I.e. name, company, and tag number. This is all the info we need, other than how many people are with him, and where he’s going, which can change with every visit. The program is capable of logging people in and out, but I’m not using that function right now. I’ll talk about that in a later blog.
Right now it’s running on my laptop, but it would be easy to convert to an Android tablet like a Samsung Galaxy Tab, and use it instead of paper logs. I know some companies are using iPads for this, so we’ll see how it works out.
September 16, 2015
Christmas in September . . .
Well, Mister continues to improve every day. He’s less restless and his hunger is more controlled. The vet said to bring him back in 10 days, which will be next Thursday so I guess we’ll know more then.
I do want to thank everyone who left comments about their experiences with their cat’s similar problems, especially those who’re using the cheaper human insulin on their cats. I’m definitely going to check this out.
When I came out at 11 this morning with our coffee, I found Christmas had come early this year. There were 3 big Amazon boxes waiting for me. I’d given up trying to find a local place to send my orders to, so I ask our landowner’s son and he said he’d be glad to. I offered to pick them up from him, but he said he came out here almost every day, so it was no problem.
First off, I got a bunch of repair parts, the new thermostat for our water heater,
the new LED bulb for our shower,
the new connector for our sewer,
and a new ball and shaft for our toilet.
I’ve already installed the LED light and the sewer connector, and I’ll do the thermostat tomorrow morning, but unfortunately the toilet repair will probably have to wait.
A couple of weeks ago the foot flush lever on our Sealand toilet went limp and stopped flushing. At first I thought it was the spring cartridge had broken so I got a new one (for $30!) and quickly found that it wasn’t the problem.
I finally figured what the problem was after looking at replacement parts online. I noticed that the online parts had a square brass shaft, but my shaft was plastic. It looks like that over time, the sharp corners on the square shaft had rounded off until it was just turning inside the spring cartridge and not moving the ball. So for the last few weeks we’ve been flushing the toilet with a pair of Vice Grip pliers on the plastic shaft.
But right now I’m not sure I will be able to change things out while we’re on the gate. The toilet will need to come completely apart, since I want to also clean the entire thing, and the replace the seals as well as the ball and shaft assembly. Which is all going to take several hours or more, and that’s hard to find while we’re on the gate.
So we’ll see how long the pliers work. Hopefully until we’re off the gate.
I also ordered one of these.
It’s a Mighty Mule Driveway Alarm. We had another brand for a couple of years, but it was kind of finicky, and finally died. We didn’t use one last year due to where we were located on a road with private homes, but this year it would be nice.
A number of other gate guards have recommended this one, so I thought I’d give it a try. It also didn’t hurt, that at $60, it’s half the price of the other one.
I quickly got it set up and took it down the road and place it where the trucks first come into view around the curve. It’s at least 400 feet, and it works great. I’ll probably order a second one to monitor the trucks leaving the pad and coming our way.
But the best thing in the boxes, and my new favorite toy ever, is an Amazon Echo.
But more about it tomorrow.
September 16, 2016
Three Neats and Two Peeves . . .
First up, Piper had surgery on her recently-broken arm this morning, and everything went fine.
Don’t know yet how long she’ll have to have her cast on, but if it’s like it was when she broke it two years ago, she’s also looking at several months of physical therapy with it.
That hurts just looking at it.
I put in a call to Colaw RV Salvage outside Carthage, MO this morning trying to locate a new (used, but new to me) screen door latch for our rig. As I mentioned, American Coach no longer stocks them, so Colaw’s was my next bet.
The guy muttered for a few minutes and then said that he didn’t have them in stock. So I reminded him that out in his back lot, he has an American Eagle (like ours) and an American Dream, both of our vintage, and could he please have someone check to see if there is one still on the door jam of either coach.
He was kind of curious how I knew that they had those two, so I told we’d been there and bought parts off the Eagle, and that several body panels for our blowout repair last year came off it too. He said he’d have someone check it out and get back to me, but I haven’t heard anything yet.
My Plan B on this is to have my son Chris bend me one up out of aluminum stock and drill a couple of holes in it, but I’ll wait to hear from Colaw’s first.
If you haven’t been to Colaw’s, you need stop by if you’re in the neighborhood.
The rig’s out front are for sale, but in back are hundreds of wreck/burnt RV’s. They have golf carts for you to drive around back there, and maps to show you what rigs are where. Neat!
I’m really liking our new Samsung TV more and more, and I’m still discovering all the neat stuff it can do. I spent a while this morning playing around with it, trying different things, the first of which was the Screen Mirroring function.
Any it only took about 10 seconds to have my Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 displaying on the TV screen.
Not exactly sure what I’ll use it for, but it is neat.
Another neat thing is that you can never lose the manual. It’s built right into the TV. Just hit the ‘E-Manual’ button on the remote and there it is on the screen. You can search through it, scroll through it, however you want. Another neat.
Of course, you can also download a computer copy if you want, which brings me to my first peeve. When you download the manual file, this is what you get.
ENG-US-NMATSCJ-1.104-0410.pdf
Why in the He . . . Heck can’t what it’s for be in the file name? Not only can’t you tell what model of TV it’s for, you can’t even tell it’s FOR a TV, period.
I see this all time when downloading manuals and such, and there’s no excuse for it. Depending on your directory path length, you’ve got a couple of hundred characters to play with.
Why can’t it be something like –
SAMSUNG_SMART_TV_5200_ENG-US-NMATSCJ-1.104-0410.pdf?
That’s got something for everyone, and I don’t have to rename it. Otherwise I won’t remember what the file is for next week, much less in six months.
Now on to peeve two. The remote is too small for the number of buttons it has.
Count-wise it has a few more buttons than our DirecTV remote, but it’s a good bit smaller. Plus the up, down, right, left arrow function needs to be separated out somewhat so that it’s easier to find in dim light.
The buttons are just too small and too jammed together, so it’s not a very ergonomic design. They should have taken a cue from the DirecTV one. It’s much more user-friendly.
After two fairly busy days on the gate, today we only had 42 vehicles come through. So that was nice, but of course to balance it out, at 95 degrees it was kind of hot. It’s looks like our Fall weather that was forecast last week, with highs in the low 80’s and lows in the high 60’s went back into hiding, since we’re now looking at low to mid 90’s for the next 10 days or so.
But on the plus side, tomorrow’s Blue Moon BBQ day, so that makes it all better.
September 16, 2017
Up Way Too Early . . .
But Well Worth It!
Today was the big birthday celebration down in Galveston. Our granddaughter Piper’s was on September 7th and our daughter Brandi’s was yesterday, the 15th. And also thrown in here was Landon’s 7th birthday last month.
His big party for all his friends got hurricane-cancelled, so he was in on this too.
So Jan and I were on the road by 6:30, more than 30 minutes before sunrise, way too early for anyone, especially me. The one positive thing to all this was there was no traffic, even through downtown Houston. It was just 70mph all the way.
We got to our son Chris’ about 8am where we were all rendezvousing. Brandi, Lowell, and Landon showed up a few minutes later, and in turn, we were all on the road with Jan and I riding with Chris and Linda, and Miss Piper riding with Brandi, et. al.
Our destination, the Sunflower Café, has been a favorite of ours for a number of years, since Brandi and Lowell introduced us to the place. It’s always been a great place for breakfast , brunch, and lunch, with a wide array of specialty dishes, like Fried Quail and Grits, Crab Cakes and Eggs, and Eggs Benedict Surf and Turf.
Of course, with all these wonderful selections, Jan got Eggs, Bacon, Potatoes, and Toast.
For me, I branched out a little with the Hatch Green Chile Omelet, stuffed full with Hatch Chiles, and Havarti Cheese, along with Potatoes and Jalapeno Toast.
The Hatch Chilies were very hot, and really good.
And it was all topped off with a large carafe of OJ and a bottle of Cook’s Champagne for breakfast mimosas.
It’s always hard to get this ragtag bunch to all smile at the same time. In fact a couple of them are downright surly.
But I get other photos when they’re not paying attention.
Leaving breakfast we all headed over to Moody Gardens to check out the newly-remodeled Aquarium Pyramid, and the da Vinci exhibit.
We started off with the penguins, always everyone’s favorite.
They’ve really got a great habitat here and they seem to be very happy.
Here’s Miss Piper and Landon trying to get a shot of a baby penguin who was very curious and kept coming right up to the glass.
And the many reef and coral displays are just beautiful.
One of my favorites, the Lionfish.
And they had a number of tanks filled with jellies.
Finishing up the Aquarium, we next headed over to the da Vinci exhibit in the Discovery Museum, but I’ll save that for tomorrow since this is running long.
Since we’d eaten early, by the time we got back to the Clear Lake area, we were all hungry for Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, one of our favorite places since the 90’s.
This is Jan and I finishing up a dozen raw oysters, with Chile sauce and a lot of horseradish mixed in.
Jan got her favorite CFS, gravy on the side,
while I just had a bowl of their Shrimp Gumbo, chock full of shrimp.
All really good, and the perfect way to end a wonderful family get-together.
We finally got back to the rig about 5:45, and both immediately took naps. An even better way to end a really great day.
Finally I want to thank everyone for their many kind words about the blog. It’s much appreciated.
September 16, 2018
IHOP and Eileen . . .
We were up at 7am so we could meet our long-time friends, Barbara and Tom, at the IHOP over in Clear Lake Shores for breakfast.
There’s not too many people we’d do this for, but Barbara and Tom are on the list.
We got there about 8:15, to get ahead of the crowd, and luckily too, since the place started filling up by 9. One thing kind of disappointing though, is that Dean retired last month.
We’ve had Dean as our waiter there for more than 15 years, and always looked forward to seeing him again. But no more, I guess. He retired last month.
Hope he’s enjoying his retirement though, since they said that he and his wife come in regularly to have dinner, so it seems it’s still in his blood.
It took us until about 10:30 for all the catching up we had to do since our last get-together in January, so we need to do it again sooner next time.
Later in the afternoon I checked out my battery hookup in the rig, and discovered that that I’m not going to need any new cables, which saves me at least $30+. Turns out that the two cables that connect each of the 6 volt batteries in series will work just fine for paralleling the two 12 batteries. And the other cables connecting them to the rig will work just fine too.
So with my new terminals coming in tomorrow, I’ll be all set.
I got a couple of new toys to play with in the last few days. First up was a Netgear N300 WiFi Extender.
I ordered one for my client’s office to boost the WiFi signal in the back shipping area, and decided to get one for the rig. Found it quick and easy to set up, and it really boosts the park WiFi signal from 3 bars to 5.
The only downside is that it only handles the WiFi 2.4 Ghz band and not the faster 5 Ghz one. But that’s not a factor either with my client or the park WiFi systems.
Nice and only about $25. Check it out.
Next up, as I was in Home Depot the other day I picked up one of these.
It’s an Ever Brite Ultra Solar Powered Motion-Activated Light. And at 320 lumens, it’s definitely bright. But it is a little different than most others of these type lights that I’ve seen. Once it gets dark, the light comes on at partial brightness. Then when it detects motion, it switches on full bright.
I was skeptical about this, so after letting it charge for two days per the directions, (Yes, I do occasionally read the directions), I turn it on and let it on the kitchen corner overnight, checking on it several times. And it stayed on all night and seemed to have plenty of full brightness left to go.
I’m going use it to replace our front patio light, and if it works out, I’ll replace the back one too.
I’ll let you know.
September 16, 2019
They’re Officially Stumped . . .
I was on the phone with Cummins Tech Support for about 45 minutes, as they went back and forth, talking with various people, trying to figure out what was going on with my oil filter adapter problem.
But they finally came back with “We’re Stumped.”
Well, that was helpful.
I think that part of the problem is that these guys are not mechanics, but just tech support, reading from the same bulletins that I am. So now I have 3 paths to follow now.
1. Call the RV Mobile Lube people to see if they might have any input on the problem.
2. Call the local Cummins repair place up north of Houston, and see I can talk to a ‘real’ mechanic to see if they have any ideas.
And also check with one of the Rush Truck Centers to see if they have some ideas. Rush was the place out in Los Cruces that repaired our bad fuel line sensor back in 2012, the only time I’ve had to put our rig in the shop.
3. The next thing that I’m going to do personally is to put the 4 bolts back in the adapter, fill the filter with oil and then reinstall it. This will let me crank up the engine, and lower the rig so I can hopefully reach the adapter with my hand.
When I can do this I’ve got two things to try.
First, can I push in the small pin until it’s flush with the shaft. This might release the adapter so it will slide off the shaft?
Maybe.
Second, can I pull down on the shaft and then turn it, perhaps releasing a lock up inside the adapter, letting it come loose?
Maybe.
Jan and I have been going over the Fall TV schedule, anticipating some new shows like Emergence, Prodigal Son, and Stumptown. And mourning the loss of favorites like Instinct.
Instinct was set to be renewed, and ended the season with a big cliffhanger. But then it was apparently cancelled at the last moment, leaving us all hanging, so to speak.
Maybe another network will pick it up.
Our cold ‘snap’ is looking better and better, with the high on Wednesday now forecast to be 80°. And it never got out of the 80’s at all today.
Very nice.
September 16, 2020
Coiled And Ready . . .
My Helicoil installation kit came in today, but it looks like my gaskets/bolts won’t be here until Saturday. So I probably won’t get to try it out this weekend.
As I’ve checked out Helicoils on Google and YouTube, I’ve seen a number of articles about how, because of the fact that the Helicoils are Stainless Steel and the way they lock into the base, they can be torqued down more than in the soft aluminum.
So rather than just redo the two holes that are stripped out, I’m going to do all four threads. That way I can torque the bolts down to 20-25 ft. lbs., rather than the original 17+ ft. lbs. That, coupled with the two new gaskets, will hopefully fix this once and for all.
Of course I’ve said that before.
So right now the plan is that as soon as this is done, Jan and I will take the rig out on a test drive, probably all the way out to Luling, about 175 miles away. We’ll stay overnight and then come back the next day.
The last time we tried this, we had no leakage when we got up to the Katy Buc-ee’s and thought we had it fixed. But then it started leaking again about halfway between Columbus and Luling. And leaking worse than before.
But we figure if we can do a 350 mile round trip with no leakage, then we can call it fixed. But if not, while we’re still configured for traveling, we take it up to the repair place in Channelview to let them fix it.
We figure we’ll just get a hotel room in the area, since they will need us to test any fix, since the leaking only occurs when we’re towing the truck.
But hopefully it won’t come to that.
September 16, 2021
We Had Given Up Hope . . .
Jan and I left the rig about 11:20 to meet up with some old Alvin Opry friends at Ellie’s Kitchen, a Greek restaurant over in Friendswood. But along the way. we got a phone call saying that it seems that Ellie’s had closed down. Just in the last month it seems, since we called last month before we scheduled it for the group.
By phoning back and forth, on the fly, we moved the lunch to the La Casita Mexican Restaurant, also near Friendswood. Jan and I used to eat here about 20-30 years, but it had fallen off our schedule since then.
But it was as good as we remembered. I had the Dos plate, with a Beef Taco, a Bean Chalupa, a Tamale, and two Cheese Enchiladas, along with Rice and Beans.
There was a Beef Taco on the left plate, but it didn’t last until the photo. But it was all delicious.
Jan got the Chicken en la Plancha.
Jan said the Caramelized Onions were really good.
We spent the next two hours eating and talking, and also scheduling our next get-together, on October 14th, at the Texas Roadhouse over on Hwy 288 in Pearland.
And next up on our social calendar is lunch up at the Golden Corral in Conroe next Thursday with Debi and Ed Hurlburt, and maybe Janice and Dave Evans, we hope.
During our lunch we were all talking about our favorite places to eat in our area, and the late-lamented Yummy Yummy Chinese Buffet came up. Yummy Yummy closed down ‘temporarily’ back in February 2021 saying they would reopen soon. But they never did, and eventually the signs saying they would be back soon also disappeared.
But still not giving up, we would drive every couple of weeks, always finding a shuttered building and an empty parking lot. Then finally a couple of months ago we just gave up hope.
Then our long-time friend Maria said she thought it had reopened. So coming home we made a detour down Hwy 3, and to our great joy, Yummy Yummy’s had reopened, apparently in just the last few days, since an online review last Thursday the 10th said that they were still closed.
So it’s on the menu for this coming Sunday.
Can’t wait.
Happy Birthday to My Other Sweetie . . .
Today is our favorite daughter Brandi’s Birthday. That’s her on the left with her BFF Shawna.
Happy Birthday, Sweetie! Love you!
While I was up at Brandi’s in Katy on Tuesday, I noticed that Verizon has 5G in her area now. And it’s really fast.
Yes, that’s 186 Mbps fast, though the upload speed is nothing great.
But it is the fastest 5G speed I’ve seen so far.
Coming soon to an area near you. Maybe.
On another speed note, our park owner, Rob, texted us the other day that the park WiFi will be down on/around Saturday, September 19 while Comcast is working on it. Hopefully it will mean a speed increase for our park WiFi.
We’ll see.
We’re starting to get our first and second tastes of Fall around here. The first one is the daytime temps are staying the high 80’s, and that’s been going on for a couple of weeks now. However the second one we’re just starting to see, and that’s the nighttime temps falling into the 60’s. We’ve only seen it once, a 68 a couple of days ago, but hopefully more soon.
The only thing still left over in the new area of our park is an old truck.
I figure that someone, somewhere would want this to rebuild it. I would hate to see it trashed.
I guess it’s lucky that it didn’t get ‘eaten’ by the excavator.
Lunch today was Los Ramirez Mexican once again, with a change for me this time. Jan always raves about the Pechuga Rellena, a large grilled chicken breast, over a bed of grilled shrimp and broccoli, and covered in cheese.
So I had to try it for myself.
And she’s right. It’s really delicious. It may be my new go-to dish for now.
After that it was on up to the Webster area to get my haircut, and then back down to the HEB for a few things before getting home a little after 4pm.
Another nice day!
Thought for the Day:
A watched pot never boils, but it does get paranoid.
September 15, 2009
Back Home in the U.S.A….for now…
First off, Happy Birthday to our daughter Brandi.
Today was a rest and recuperation day back in the US. But it’s our last full day in the US for about a week.
Tomorrow we leave for Canada again. This time we’re heading up north thru Quebec and Ontario and then down to Rome, NY and Niagara Falls.
So all we did today was eat lunch at a good Chinese buffet and then did the Walmart thing.
We’re beginning to see the leaves change up here. Two weeks ago when we were here, this tree was solid green.
Now look at it.
This is a real nice park and we’re back in the same space we were two weeks ago. Mister certainly likes the grass and trees.
We’ll go ahead and top off the diesel tomorrow before we leave since I didn’t fill up in Canada the other day.
Then we’ll head up to Notre Dame du Lac about 130 miles north for the night.
September 15, 2010
Happy Birthday, Brandi Leigh White Morrison . . .
First off, I want to wish our daughter Brandi a Happy Birthday. Here she is with her husband, Lowell.
I spent this morning checking in with several clients, and catching up on things. Then on the way home I stopped by the bank. I love the new ATM deposit feature where you just stick your checks in and it does it all for you.
An interesting new local attraction.
And, of course, here’s your obligatory Landon “Ahhhhh” moment.
About 4:30 pm we all (except for Chris’ wife, Linda, who had to work) met at Chuy’s, a Mexican restaurant we really like. We have eaten at the one down in the Galleria area a number of times, but they just opened a new one yesterday right here in the Clear Lake area. A lot more convenient.
And, of course, being all together, we all got some quality Landon time.
Landon started out sleeping peacefully in his carrier, but that didn’t last long.
Here’s “Nana” Jan
“Papa” Greg
“Uncle” Chris
And here’s a great shot of our son Chris, and our granddaughter Piper.
More tomorrow…
September 15, 2011
Happy Birthday!
To our Wonderful Daughter Brandi.
Or Amish and Avanti’s . . .
On a first note, I guess I’m officially ‘old’ now. This morning when I got up and checked my email, I had . . . my first email for a Hoveround Power Chair. Oh, the horror!
Just thinking, I wonder when the time comes though, can I tow it 4 down?
So, after an otherwise quiet morning, about 1:30 we headed out for an afternoon drive thru the Amish country around Shipshewana.
And it wasn’t long until we came over a hill and ran into an Amish traffic jam.
We spent several hours just driving up and down the country roads, admiring the neat and tidy farms.
Coming into Shipshewana, we saw a group of Amish women and children having a picnic in the city park with their buggies parked nearby.
Coming back into Shipshewana we decided to stop off at E & S Sales. It’s kinda like an Amish Sam’s Club, but without the clothes.
Want that 50 lb. bag of grits. They’ve got it.
Need a 25 lb. round of cheese, or a 10 lb. block of butter. You’ve come to the right place.
They also have a large selection of bagged goods, like wheat, rice, cake mix, and many others.
Although there was a lot of ‘English’ (that’s what the Amish call us non-Amish) in the store, the majority of the customers seemed to be Amish, or maybe Mennonite, which is kind of like, Amish-Lite.
I was interested to see what the Amish families were buying, and it seemed to be pretty much what you would see in any grocery store, I.e. potato chips, snack crackers, cookies, etc.
One cart I looked at had the child seat area completely filled with many bags of Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip Cookies. I thought they must have a lot of kids, but looking around I just saw the husband and wife, both kind of young.
Someone has a secret addiction left over from their Rumspringa.
Leaving E & S, we headed back to Middlebury, and our dinner at Das Dutchman Essenhaus.
This is a large Amish-style restaurant that serves really good food three different ways. You can get it family style, where they just keep bringing food to your table until you either surrender or explode, or buffet style, where you get up and get your own food until you’re too fat to walk to the buffet table again, . . . or you explode.
Or you can just wimp out and order from the menu, but what’s the fun in that?
As we were coming into the parking lot for the restaurant we noticed that a car club was having a old car show, so after dinner, I had to check it out.
They did have some cars you don’t see too often. This is a 1964 Amphicar, a car/boat, or a boat/car, take you pick.
About 4000 were made between 1961 and 1965, and is considered one of the most “successful amphibious civilian autos of all time”, although Time’s Dan Neil called it “a vehicle that promised to revolutionize drowning”, explaining, “Its flotation was entirely dependent on whether the bilge pump could keep up with the leakage.”
An owner said “It’s not a good car and it’s not a good boat, but it does just fine” largely because of modest performance in and out of water. “We like to think of it as the fastest car on the water and fastest boat on the road.”
Next up was a BMW Isetta 300. This design originated in Italy and was licensed to several other countries, including France, Spain, Belgium, Brazil, The United Kingdom, and of course, BMW in Germany. And the BMW version was very successful, selling over 160,000 units.
The BMW had a one cylinder 13hp engine and a top speed of 53 mph. You enter the car by opening the entire front, just like a refrigerator. Which makes sense, I guess, because the Italian company that designed it, made refrigerators before it got into the car business.
We saw a number of really neat cars, like this 1960 Corvette,
This 1926 Model T,
And this Model T with an all chrome engine. “Just look at ‘dem’ pipes.”
This is a beautiful 1934 Dodge Delivery Sedan. Made for salesman making deliveries, it had no back seat, but the enormous trunk extended into that area, making it kind of an early station wagon, I guess.
These last two are a 1971 and a 1974 Avanti. Originally made by Studebaker from 1962 to 1964, the Avanti Corporation bought the tooling after Studebaker folded. They have been in production almost continuously since then, and you can still buy one today.
Besides the GTO, I really lusted after one of these as a kid.
Then I discovered girls.
September 15, 2012
Ah, Peace and Quiet . . .
Jan has laryngitis. (ducking)
She is feeling better, but over the last two days her voice has been reduced to just a squeak. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.
Later in the morning we called our daughter Brandi to wish her a happy birthday. And since Jan could only squeak, I had to provide a running translation.
After working on some inside stuff, I moved out to the picnic table to install the replacement 12 volt power cord on my Brake Buddy toad braking system. The outside looks like this.
On the inside it looks like this.
It’s actually pretty simple inside, consisting of an air pump, a air reservoir, a 12 volt vacuum switch, and an air-powered actuator that pushes down the brake pedal
Replacing the power cord turned out to be pretty simple once I got the case open.
At that point I found the power cord connected via two spade lugs. So I got my connector kit out, put new lugs on the new cable, unplugged the old cable, and then plugged in the new one.
Easy Peazy.
I wrapped things up by putting the case back together and then testing it in the truck to be sure it powered up.
Another item checked off my list.
About 5pm we headed into Harrison, OH to have dinner at La Rosa’s Pizza. As it turns out the pizza was so-so, but as usual the company was great and the conversation was sparkling.
September 15, 2013
Someone really knows their way around a pork chop . . .
Or maybe the storm is over.
After vehicle-count highs of 255 and 291 a couple of days ago, yesterday’s count was 237 and today’s was 133.
Very, very nice, believe me.
For dinner tonight we shared one of the Hell Fighters’ Kitchen meals that they dropped off last night. It was a 2 inch thick pork chop, with green beans, twice-baked potatoes, salad, and an almond cookie. And this was the best meal yet.
Someone there really knows how to cook. And how to use spices and seasonings, too. And even better, since they always drop off two meals, and splitting one is plenty for us, we have another one for tomorrow. With them coming every other day, this pretty much means no cooking for Jan. And she likes that.
That’s about it for tonight.
September 15, 2014
It’s a Yugo!
Well, we bumped up to 100 vehicles today, but not bad at all. Pretty much slow and steady, sometimes not seeing a vehicle for 30 minutes or so. But it’s still going to be interesting to see how we’re going to handle things when the fracks start. Not the logging, but physically getting all those trucks in and out of our one lane gate.
As it is now, trucks leaving, come around the curve about 100 yards away and head toward our gate. It’s only when they get here that they can now look down the road to see if anyone is coming in. If there is, the truck leaving has to back up into a pull-out just below us. This is because the incoming trucks have nowhere to pull off coming in.
So if there’s a line of trucks coming in and a line of trucks coming out, everyone’s stuck. But, who knows. It may work. And then again, “maybe the horse will sing.”
It made it up to 88 today, really pretty nice, with 90 expected tomorrow. Then it’s 80’s again for a while, with maybe some rain. Of course that could change. It always does.
Our drill rig is back to making a lot of funny noises again, and they don’t seem to be using the hanging drill pipe very fast. But maybe there’s a reason.
A couple of nights ago, I was talking to one of the contractor guys as he was leaving. We’d gotten friendly over the last few days, so I asked him about this rig, about why it was taking so long to set up and start drilling, and why it was making all these noises I hadn’t heard before. I then mentioned that, of course, my only experience was the Marathon/H&P rig we followed for 4 months in 2012.
He laughed and said, “Them H&P rigs are nice. They’re compact, and made to tear down and put up quickly. And they run great. H&P rigs are the Cadillac of rigs.”
“These here rigs, these are Yugo’s”
Ah, well, that explains everything.
About 4:30 this morning I had the feeling that someone was watching me. And he was.
I looked up from my laptop, and about 6 feet away was a big black steer, just standing there, staring at me. He stood there for about 15 seconds and then turned away and starting walking across the road. By then I was finally able to get a photo of him as he moseyed away.
Our new GGS support guy, Scotty, came by today to top us off with diesel and water. We weren’t hurting for either one, with about 80 gallons of diesel left and 200 gallons of water. While he was here, he also did an oil change on our generator, which meant he had to shut it down for about 10 minutes or so. But no problem since it was still pretty cool. And not worth starting up our onboard generator for that time, as we’ve done when it was 100 degrees in past years.
I mentioned yesterday that today, the 15th, was our daughter Brandi’s birthday. What I didn’t know was that she’s in Atlanta for a business conference this week and Landon and Lowell are batching it. But Landon had to wish his Mommy a Happy Birthday anyway.
September 15, 2015
Chicken or Fish . . .
First off, Jan and I want to wish our wonderful daughter Brandi a very Happy Birthday.
Sorry we couldn’t be there, sweetie, but we’ll see you soon.
Mister still seems to be doing fine with his insulin shots. He never meows or even jerks. He just looks at me with that, “Can I have my treat now?” look. He also seems to be eating and drinking less. So far, so good.
The procedure is pretty easy and only takes a couple of minutes. I just get the insulin out of the fridge and roll it between my fingers (don’t shake it). The I pulled a new syringe out of the container, pop off the end caps and drop them in the disposal top. Next I insert the needle into the bottle of insulin and first pull out 5 units. Then I push back in until I only have 2 units left in the syringe.
At this point I’ve already got Mister up on the counter, watching me as I do all of this. Then I just pinch off a fold of skin on a thigh or shoulder, and pop him. Easy Peazy.
Apparently for both him and me.
I had to go into Carthage this morning to drop some packages off at the Post Office, and on the way back I stopped off to pick up lunch. No, not Whataburger this time.
Jan said she was wanting chicken so I decided to check out Chicken Express. They’re always busy when I drive by, and they’ve got 4.5 stars on Yelp, so it looked like a good bet. And it was.
I’ve seen them around, and according to their website, they’ve got over 200 locations, but this was our first time to try one. Unfortunately, as they say, no good deed goes unpunished. But it wasn’t Chicken Express’ fault, it was mine. Sometimes I’m just too polite for my own good.
As I started to enter the store, I could see in the glass door reflection, a lady about 30 or 40 feet behind me following me in. Now she was far enough back that I could have been at the counter before she got to the door. But Nooo, I had wait the extra time to hold the door open for her, and then follow her in and get in line behind her.
Whereupon she proceeded to order 250 chicken tenders to go. I was going to be here for a while.
But, as they say, it was worth the wait.
Jan got the chicken tenders, FINALLY, along with Mac N Cheese and a biscuit. I decided to check out their catfish fillets and hushpuppies, along with corn on the cob and fried okra.
Jan said hers was delicious, and some of the best Mac N Cheese she’s had. For my part, the fish was great, with crunchy crust, and the fried okra was some of the best I’ve had. So we were both happy.
We did get some rain around 8pm. Not long, only about 20 minutes, and with no wind to blow it under the canopy.
Pretty much the perfect amount to settle the dust for a couple of days.
September 15, 2016
Boy, that’s big!
First up, Jan and I want to wish our beautiful daughter Brandi a Happy Birthday! Sorry we couldn’t be there, but it looks like she had a nice lunch with some of her coworkers. That’s her on the left in both photos
Since I was not only getting groceries today, but also returning and then getting a new TV, I was out the door and on my way a little earlier this morning.
As usual Wal-Mart didn’t give me any problems returning the old one, giving me the money back on a gift card instead of cash. Cash didn’t make sense anyway since I was just going to give it right back to them.
Luckily the new one I wanted was right out on the shelf so I was in and out fairly quickly. I paid for it back in the TV department rather than taking up front, because then they have to put one of those ‘Spider Wraps’ (that’s what they call them) on the box. And in the past they’ve had problems getting them off up front.
Once again I anted up for the 3 year extended warranty, giving me a total of 4 years on the new one. Usually though, if electronics makes it past the “infant mortality’ stage, then it’s going to keep working. Of course there’s always just the luck of the draw, like the failure of our old one. You never know.
Finishing up with the groceries, I again headed across the parking lot to the Chick-fil-A for our lunch. One thing I sometimes wonder about is why people wait in long drive-thru lines?
I parked in the parking lot, and then was in and out in 8 minutes with my order. Meanwhile, a red Corvette had moved forward about 4 cars, and still had about 10 cars in front of him. I was probably halfway back to the rig.before he got his order.
So are people just that lazy that they won’t walk 25 feet or what?
Back at the rig, we again enjoyed our Chick-fil-A lunch. While I stayed with my Spicy Chicken Deluxe Sandwich with Bacon, Jan tried out their Spicy Southwest Chicken Salad, that our daughter Brandi had recommended earlier. Jan said it was delicious, and one of those ‘get again’ meals.
Unlike yesterday when Jan stayed outside longer and got too hot while I set the new TV up, this time I made her go on inside, and said that I would set it up tonight. I told her she could just stare at the box in Antici . . . Pation. (some of you may get that.)
When I got up at 10pm, it only took me about 30 minutes to get our new Samsung 40” TV up and running. Luckily this larger model comes with the pedestal base rather than the two widely spaced feet, so it’s much more stable in position.
Although mathematically it’s only 25% bigger, it looks a lot bigger than that. And the picture quality increase, with brighter colors and blacker blacks, is really noticeable.
And the new TV has Screen Mirroring, so our Samsung TV can connect with my Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and my Samsung Tab 4 tablet. Neat!
Now I just have to figure out how to dispose of our old one.
The rig completed their move to the next hole this afternoon, but as of midnight, they’re still not up and running yet.
Fine with us. The longer we’re here, the better.
September 15, 2017
I Could Have Told You That . . .
With another Clear Lake work day on tap, I was on the way south about 9:45, getting there about 11pm
I spent most of the day catching up on long-missed product/price corrections to the paper catalog and online website that had been neglected for months. Then I got back searching through the computer’s folders one at a time, cataloging and renaming them. For some reason the ex-guy just stashed critical files all over, in folders called Temp, New Folder, Stuff, etc. So one folder at a time, I’m gradually finding what I need.
I was on my way back home up in Conroe by 3:45, hoping to get ahead of the traffic, but today the traffic got ahead of me. Don’t know if there had been an earlier wreck, or it was just Friday, but it was bumper-to-bumper, stop and start, from Fuqua all the way into the I-69/US59 split. But after taking 59, it was full speed around to the Hardy Toll Road and on up to I-45. Even with speedup, the 1:15 trip took me 2 hours.
But it did have a nice ending, because our friends Debi and Ed Hurlburt had picked Jan up at our rig, and then we all met up at El Bosque Mexican Restaurant for dinner about 5:45pm.
Jan tried something new this time, the Pollo Mar, a chicken breast topped with shrimp, mushrooms tomatoes, cilantro, and jalapeno cheese.
She said it was really good and she’ll definitely have it again.
I went back with my favorite Beef Fajitas Poblanos.
It’s Beef Fajitas with bacon-grilled onions, poblano peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, and two white cheeses. Again really good, as usual.
We always have a great time with Debi and Ed, and it’s amazing how much we all have in common. Just really great friends.
Tomorrow we’ve got another day-trip in store, first down to our son Chris’ in Friendswood, and then on down to Galveston to have breakfast at the Sunflower Café before heading over to Moody Gardens to check out their new Aquarium Pyramid and their da Vinci exhibit.. This is actually a dual birthday celebration, for our granddaughter Piper’s 24th birthday on September 7th, and our daughter Brandi’s . . . well,she’s one year older today, the 15th.
The only downside to all this is that we have to be on the road by 6:30am, way too early.
Finally, under the heading I Could Have Told You That.
The University of Pennsylvania just released the results of a study showing bald really is beautiful. The UP study was composed of three major tests given to students on campus. Male and female students were asked to rate photos of men according to attractiveness, confidence, and dominance.
And bald men won out in all categories. Well, what else were you expecting?
For my part, very soon after Jan and I got serious, I told her I was almost certainly going to be bald by the time I was 25. And the reason I knew this can be seen in this photo of three of my mother’s four brothers. And the fourth one was bald too.
They say the baldness gene comes down the mother’s side. And it did.
Luckily for me, it turns out that Jan liked bald guys.
September 15, 2018
Happy Birthday, Brandi!
First off, Jan and I want to wish our beautiful daughter Brandi a very Happy Birthday.
We love you, sweetie.
Because of the 70% chance of rain forecast for today, we put off our rig’s planned test drive/top off the diesel until Tuesday. Of course it dawned bright and sunny this morning with nary a drop to drip. And now the rain chances have gone up a little for Tuesday.
Jan and I headed out for the afternoon about 1pm, starting with breakfast for lunch at the nearby Denny’s, probably our favorite meal. Then it was off to the nearby Lowe’s to pick up my new rig batteries.
I must have missed it on the news, but apparently the universal gravitational constant has changed. At least that’s the only reason I can see that would cause these new batteries to be so much heavier than their 56# used to be. What’s up with that?
Then it was on up to the Baybrook Mall area to visit JoAnn Fabrics so Jan could get some new needles for her Viking sewing machine. Then, with that done, it was off to Kemah to check in with West Marine and their battery cable-making setup.
Their 00(2/00) cable runs about $9 a foot, with a set of two crimp-on terminals also $9. I know I’ll need two 1ft pieces and 4 terminals to connect the batteries in parallel. After that I’ll have to take a closer look I may need to change out a couple of the rig cables due to the different positioning of the battery terminals.
I also ordered two sets of these Battery Terminals from Amazon today.
The rig’s cables are all the bolt-on type, while the new batteries have the standard automobile post terminals. So these will make that conversion.
Leaving West Marine, we stopped off at Bodhi’s Essential Oils in the Kemah Boardwalk area so Jan could pick up some more of her Migraine Protocol, and then it was home for the night.
Tomorrow morning we’re meeting some long-time friends for breakfast at the IHOP over in Clear Lake Shores about 8:30. Almost too early, but it is breakfast at IHOP, after all.
September 15, 2019
Happy Birthday, Brandi !!!
A Very Happy Birthday to Our Beautiful Daughter, Brandi !
Random Thoughts and Various Musings
Jan and I were watching a History Channel show about King Tutankhamen this morning, and the phrase ‘The Boy King”, was used. And that made us think of Steve Martin’s King Tut, first shown on Saturday Night Live.
So I went to YouTube and played it back.
But as I was reading over some of the accompanying articles, I found that in the last couple of years Steve Martin has come under severe criticism because of the ‘racism’ and ‘cultural appropriation’ found in the song.
It even seems like the saxophone player who comes out of the sarcophagus painted in gold, is the equivalent to being in ‘blackface’. Or maybe ‘goldface’, I guess.
Who knows these days?
See I told you it was good for you.
A recently uncovered study, dating from the late 60’s, seems to show that animal fats are no worse, (or no better) for you than vegetable fats. Yes, the vegetable fats did lower cholesterol slightly, but did not reduce the risk of coronary heart disease or death.
So have that Double Bacon Cheeseburger and enjoy it.
Regular reader know that I like trains and model trains, so I was really disappointed that our recent Viking River cruise through Europe didn’t go through Hamburg, Germany. Otherwise this place would have definitely been on my list.
It’s billed as the largest model railroad in the world, with airliners taking off and landing, Space Shuttle’s taking off , and pretty much everything else you can imagine.
Check it out.
And I also came across this one Large Scale Layout too. You can see it here.
Looks like the first hints of Fall are moving into our area, with temps in the mid-80’s by Wednesday. Of course we’ll see how long it lasts.
Summer around here digs in and hangs on tenaciously. Sometimes even into December.
September 15, 2021
Happy Birthday to our Daughter Brandi . . .
We love you, sweetie. And we’re so proud of you.
Joe the mechanic called me about 1pm to tell me that our Jeep was repaired and ready to go. Since they would be closed by the time Jan and I got there to pick it up, I gave them my credit card number and told them to leave it in the yard and we would pick it up later this afternoon.
According to the invoice our baby has a new starter, a new exhaust gasket, and a new set of upgraded valve cover gaskets, which were the cause of leaking oil that damaged the starter.
For those of you with Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited, you may or may not have noticed that Amazon has upped the number of books you can ‘check out’ has been increased from 10 to 20 books at a time.
Happy Reading!
