Monthly Archives: October 2022
Winter Is Nigh . . .
We got our first real taste of winter yesterday with a high of 55° and a low last night of 43. Then a 66 today and a 47 tonight.
Cold enough to turn one of our electric heaters on for the first time this season.
But after this initial tease, tomorrow it’s back to 81° tomorrow, and days in the low 80’s for the rest of the week.
That’s Texas weather for you.
A while back I posted a photo of this old truck that was parked in the new area of our RV park where the new sites are going in.
It was left over when the previous occupants moved out. And until recently there was a tree growing out by the rear axle.
Several readers suggested that Rob keep it as a yard decoration, and that’s what he plans to do. Not going to do anything to it. Just leave it as is.
If he was going to get rid of it, I was thinking my son Chris might want to take a shot at it.
This is a previous project of his.
It’s a 1977 18 ft. Century Arabian that also had a tree growing out of the hull when he got it. A friend gave it to him, probably just to get it out of his yard.
It took him two years, but he rebuilt it from the keel up, including rebuilding the 351 Windsor inboard drive engine, boring it out and adding a hotter cam.
Besides repairing the hull and completely repainting it, he also reupholstered the interior.
It’s a great ski-boat, but it’s also nice for just putt-putting around the lake.
Not exactly sure where the name “Little Thunder” came from. Maybe “Big Thunder” was already taken?
Just think what he could do with a old truck.
I mentioned a while back about the new epilator machines we’re importing from Poland. I designed the customized faceplate for the units, and I was anxious to see how they were going to look.
The initial shipment came in today and I’m really happy how they turned out. And even more important, my client was very happy too.
Thought For The Day:
Remember when we had to smack the TV because the channel wasn’t coming in clearly?
Sometimes I feel that way about way too many people.
October 19, 2009
A Job Complete…
I wanted to spend the day finally getting the bathroom faucet changed out so we ate a lunch of leftovers.
It took all afternoon and two trips to Lowe’s, but I finally got the old one off.
And, ironically, the Lowe’s trips didn’t help.
It just took a lot of brute force, I.e., a screwdriver and a big, honking hammer.
It turns out all I had to do was just beat the crap out of it.
Finally getting the old one out, I got the new one in and working in only about 10 minutes.
Here’s the result.
The old one was a two handle model that couldn’t be repaired when it started dripping. This one can be fixed.
About 6 pm we headed out for dinner at Ryan’s, dropping off a bag of garbage at the dumpster on the way out of the park.
We got back home a little after 7, ready to enjoy our new faucet.
It’s Still Raining In Elkhart, IN
October 19, 2011
Man the Lifeboats . . .
We seem to be on day 3 of the 40 days and 40 nights of rain. I expect Ark building to commence momentarily.
It’s the Lord, Noah!
Right!
For a real laugh, check out Bill Cosby’s take on Noah and the Ark.
After coffee, and later lunch, I headed back over to the RV/MH Hall of Fame. I think I’m finally on the downhill run on this, and hope to finish Friday, or Saturday at the latest, unless I run into something else unexpected.
Getting home about 5pm I found our daughter Brandi had sent us this new Landon picture. Wonder if he’s also wearing the cowboy boots we bought him?
Nick was head down trying to finish up the latest issue of the Gypsy Journal, so by the time he was finished and uploaded it to the printer, it was almost 8, so we wanted to eat close by. And our choice was King Wha and their great Chinese food. And they were really on their game tonight with a great meal.
Getting back to the rig, the pond surrounding our rig is getting bigger and deeper. If this keeps up we’ll have to break out our waders.
October 19, 2012
The Post Office Does Something Right . . .
Wednesday afternoon I sent off our absentee ballot requests to the registrar in Madison, SD via a Flat Rate Priority Mail Envelope. And lo and behold, it was delivered this morning at 8am.
Maybe the Post Office should just ship everything Priority Mail. Two days from Virginia to South Dakota is pretty good.
We had planned to drive down to the Gloucester area and sightsee. But when we got up about 8am it was pouring down rain and had been for an hour or so. So confirming the weather said it would rain all day, we went back to bed. We’ll try it again tomorrow
Only to wake about 10:30 and find it bright and sunny outside.
WTH?
Oh, well. There’s still tomorrow.
For lunch Jan fixed cheese toast, and then we finished it off with a couple of Cranberry Nut Muffins.
A little later, Charlie Kitchens walked over from a nearby site to say hello. His wife reads our blog and they actually stopped off here due to our blogging, although they thought we had already moved on.
About 3:30 I called the Bass Lake RV Park in Dillon, SC to check if they would have a couple of sites available for us on Sunday night. This will be our stopover point on our way down to Savannah.
It’s also only about 5 miles away from South of the Border, a famous tourist trap since 1949. Never let it be said that we would pass up a place like this. The name refers to the fact that the place is just south of the North Carolina / South Carolina border.
South of the Border does have an RV park, but it’s almost twice as much as the Passport American park right down the road.
We headed out for dinner about 4:30. On our way over to Colonial Beach we checked out the local Moose Lodge to see if they had any RV parking available. There were two RV’s parked there but no hookups, so no such luck.
Our destination for dinner was the Dockside Restaurant, the same place we ate our first night here.
After checking the menu I ordered the Andouille Sausage appetizer with Creole Mustard. Very spicy and very good.
After that Jan and I split the Fried Seafood Platter because we wanted to have room for desert – the Pumpkin Cheesecake for Jan and the Whiskey Glazed Apple Cake for me.
And I’m glad we did. Both were really delicious, especially my Apple Cake. As much as Jan likes pumpkin anything, I think she was gazing wistfully at my Apple Cake.
Tomorrow we’re going to try our Gloucester trip again, so we’ll see how it goes. The weather is supposed to be better, but of course they were wrong this morning so who knows.
October 19, 2014
Good Stuff . . .
Our vehicle count seems to have settled down for now, with today’s count of 181 pretty much the same as yesterdays. We’ve been told that our last remaining frack still has a few more days to go. But we’ll see. Everything always seems to take longer than planned out here in the oil patch.
For the first time since we’ve been at this gate I heard coyotes (the 4 legged furry kind) about 5am this morning. I used to hear them every morning at last year’s gate. They sounded like they were right across the road, and probably were. But I never saw one.
We talked to our son Chris today about his bike trip out west. He and his fireman buddies went all the way out to Monument Valley in Utah. His best description of the trip was “Cold”. Cold on the bike, cold in the tent.
I finally remembered to ask one of the computer support guys for the password to the rig’s Wi-Fi network. My Verizon data signal here is sometimes iffy, so hopefully this will help.
For dinner tonight we had more delicious food from Ama’s catering. Frack Food, as we call it. This time it was really good Beef and Cheese Enchilada’s with Rice and Beans. And one more thing that made it even better.
This past spring when we were orbiting back and forth between the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails and the Colorado River Thousand Trails, we met up with Greg and Lynette McHenry. And somewhere along the line Greg McHenry gave us a jar of his homemade hot sauce. Well, as can happen, the jar was put in the refrigerator and slowly worked its way to the back, while we were dealing with all of Jan’s breast cancer stuff.
But recently Jan was trying to clear room in the frig for all the Ama’s we’re getting and came across the jar of hot sauce. So we’ve been using on all the Mexican dishes we’ve been getting, including tonight’s enchiladas, as well as the fajitas a couple of nights ago.
And this is some Good Stuff. Really good, as in ‘Greg should bottle and sell this stuff’ good. We’re really sorry we didn’t find this earlier. Of course we would have already run out by now.
So, never mind.
October 19, 2015
Lights and Sheets . . .
Another quiet day, even apparently for the frack up the road. The water guys weren’t around, the frack pond pumps weren’t running, and the big blue hose was flat.
Since they just started fracking last Monday, I doubt they’re finished up, but probably just switching over to the second hole. Neither of these wells are as deep as any of our three were, so they might possibly be finished up next week.
Other than that, we had some tankers coming in hauling out water, and some other trucks hauling out some other stuff.
Later in the afternoon, I started filling our water tank from the well hose. I tried hooking up the hose directly to the rig, but with only about 20psi, it didn’t work out very well. So every week or so I just fill up our 500 gallon tank. Of course with the low pressure it takes two to three hours to top it off.
I’ve noticed a number of y’all still buying the Striped QUEEN Sateen Sheet Sets we mentioned a while back. We came across these a year or so ago and bought two sets.
They’re still very soft, with no pilling or wearing, and they still look great. They come in 9 different colors, and even better, they’re inexpensive (cheap). Only about $25 per set.
Several readers had asked me about how I liked the new Camco Bright White Light LED Bulb that I got for our shower after the old one burned out and blew a fuse.
After a little over a month it’s still working great. One thing I’ve noticed about this one is that there’s been no fade. Many LED lights, especially cheaper ones, tend to dim noticeably during the first few months. But I measured the output of this one when I first installed it, and then again a couple of days ago, and found no discernable difference. The same goes for the LED Strip Lights that I use as fluorescent bulb replacements.
And speaking of the LED strips, I mentioned a couple of days ago that I was going to use these strips to replace the 4ft fluorescent tubes in our kitchen when they died.
And of course, today die they did. At least one of them did, and they won’t work with just one bulb. So I dug into my storage bin and discovered I only had five strips.
I decided to do just a quick and dirty hookup until I could get some more strips. I had planned to use four on each side, but five would have to do for now.
After cutting the 12v wires going into the ballast, I wired up the strips using wire nuts. Like I said, quick and dirty.
I then used clear packing tape to fasten them to the diffuser panel. And when it was all closed up, it looked like this.
Based on the light output, the five strips shown here are brighter than the tubes they replaced. So I’ll just add one more strip when I get some more in. Although the point source effect of the lights doesn’t bother Jan or I, when I get the new one, I’ll stick them to the top of the fixture using the furnished adhesive tape, which should diffuse the light even more.
I didn’t get to my laptop repair today because I couldn’t find one of my two soldering irons. I did find both of my soldering guns, but they’re too big for this fine work. I guess they must both be out in one of the bays, so that’s where I’ll look tomorrow.
October 19, 2016
Gas Buddy Lies . . .
Today being a travel day, Jan was up about 7:30 while I slept in until 8:30. Since I always get my shower at night, this gives Jan time to get her shower and then get dressed.
While Jan got the Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Biscuits ready, I started the coffee and then went outside to stow some more things away.
It had been foggy earlier and the dew was on everything, including this spider web covered in dew drops.
Pretty neat!
We were hooked up and on our way a little after 11. Friend and Park Ranger Barbara Spade even got a picture of us hitching up before we headed out.
Our first stop was at the halfway point, which turned out to the Buc-ee’s near Luling for Kolache’s for lunch, and Cranberry Nut Muffins for breakfast tomorrow. Oh, and also a large Coffee / Cinnamon Buns / English Toffee Cappuccino for me and a small Coffee / Pumpkin Spice Cappuccino for Jan.
Then a few miles past Luling, we turned south on SR 80 for the last 60 or so miles. I was actually going a few miles out of the way to make a diesel stop at the Stripes Truck Stop coming into Karnes City, rather than cutting directly over to Kenedy.
The trip down SR 80 was smooth and scenic . . . until we got to the last 20 miles or so. Which consisted of two 10 mile long one lane sections. We had to wait for a pilot truck to lead us through each 10 mile stretch, but that wasn’t the real problem.
That was the fact that that had the pavement completely torn up for repaving, and we were just driving on dirt and gravel. And because they were watering the dirt and gravel to keep the dust down, we arrived at the Lone Star RV Park #2 covered in a hard coating of brown mud.
I wanted to top off our tank before we parked for several months, and Gas Buddy said that Stripes had diesel for $1.96 a gallon, noticeably less than the $2.08 – $2.09 at the nearby stations.
I checked Gas Buddy again this morning and it was still $1.96 this morning as well. But when we got there about 1:30, it was now $2.08, but I was there so I filled up.
But to further rub my nose in it, when we actually got in Kenedy, the HEB had diesel for $1.94, and Gas Buddy didn’t even list it at all.
Some Buddy!
After we got parked, I called Nancy Christian, the park owner, to let her know we were here and what site we were in. Then a couple of hours later she showed up at the rig to ‘officially’ welcome us and give us a folder with all the park info.
She said to see how things are going to work out and then we’ll settle up. According to the info packet, the rate is $500 per month which includes electric, Wi-Fi, DirecTV cable with HBO, and a free laundromat.
Not bad at all.
After supper I emailed Todd to let him know we were here and ready to go. He said we’ll get together tomorrow for an hour or so at the local McDonald’s to go over things.
So hopefully we’ll be up and running soon.
October 19, 2018
Got The Last One . . .
Wanting to get a really early start, we were up at 6:00 and pulling out of our site at the Seasons In The Sun RV Park in Mims, FL at 7:30am
Sunrise was 7:27am.
We circled through the propane fill-up area to hitch up and were pulling out on the main road a few minutes before 8. We were on our way so early for two reasons.
One, with all the hurricane cleanup workers in the area, it was dicey as to whether or not we would be able to get a site at the Beaver Lake RV Park in Quincy. They don’t do reservations and it was first come, first served.
Two, if we didn’t get a site here, it would be another 130 miles to a park in Holt, FL.
We hit a few rain squalls between Mims and Jacksonville, but nothing for very long. An then it was clear and sunny west from Jax. And with temps in the low 80’s, it was really comfortable, even cool enough to turn off the dash fans for a while.
We were about 40 miles out of Jacksonville before we started seeing any hurricane damage, but it was mostly downed trees out at the tree line, none of which looked like they would have ended up on the roadway.
I called the Beaver Lake RV Park (with neither a lake nor a beaver to be found) when we were about 20 miles out and was told that they had one site left, but it was still first come . . . well, you know.
We pulled into the park and I ran into the Marathon station to see if the site was still open. I did notice that there was a work truck parked at the entrance to the RV park area, but didn’t see anyone around it.
When I got inside I got the last site, paid the fee, and also bought Mega-Million tickets for tonight $1 Billion drawing. Coming back out, a 5th wheel pulled past our rig and up behind the work truck.
Turns out that the work truck and the 5th wheel were together and apparently didn’t know that they were supposed to check in at the Marathon station, and instead, were wandering around the RV park beside the station looking to check in.
So we really lucked out.
For dinner tonight we had the Sonny’s BBQ that we picked up yesterday morning just for this meal.
Tomorrow we have a short 188 mile run to Robertsdale, AL. Riverside RV Park is right off I-10 with an easy in-easy out. It really didn’t make sense to make the 40 mile round trip down to the Escapees Park since we’re only staying one night.
We had a fantastic time seeing everyone again. Long-time friends, Carol and Charlee, Bill, and Monica. We won’t wait for another ten years to come down here again.
I told Jan that there was only one thing that could have made this visit better. She asked, “What?”
I said, “Two more weeks.”
Then she said, “Yeah, but it still wouldn’t have been enough.”
And that’s the truth!
Now for the Recap:
Wednesday, Oct 17
There was a Atlas-Centaur launch from the Cape scheduled for about 12:15am. Checking I found the launch streaming online, and as soon as I heard ‘Ignition’, I went outside and scanned the trees, not knowing what I would see. But then rising through the tree limbs, I saw this.
It was a couple of minutes before I heard the deep rumble, more like distant thunder echoing on for several minutes.
Nice but not nearly impressive as the Shuttle launch we saw when we were here in 2009.
With that one you actually felt the physical ‘push’ when the sound hit you a few seconds later.
For dinner that night we made a second visit to the SeaShack up in New Smyrna Beach. Just as good as the first time.
Later, coming back to the rig we decided to check out Frisbee’s Ice Cream Stand. In the daytime it looks like this.
But it’s even more impressive at night.
Jan got a delicious Pumpkin Parfait, with Caramel and Pecans,
while I got the Coffee. Both really good.
BTW the name of the place, “Frisbee’s’ is not named for the flying disc, but it’s the name of the family that owns and runs the place.
A neat place.
Thursday, Oct 18
First up this morning we drove into Titusville to pick up a to-go order from Sonny’s BBQ to have Friday night after we’re back on the road.
After sitting around talking for a while, we headed up to the Daytona Beach area. Jan and I were up here several times when we were dating, but except for the Speedway, there was nothing really recognizable to us.
Our first stop was at Hankster’s Hot Rods, a classic hot rod / muscle car showroom / museum.
Now that’s a engine – A 426 cu.in. 425hp Hemi.
Pretty much all the cars here are for sale, with prices ranging up to $70,000. So if you’ve got the bucks, that Hemi ‘Cuda you were drooling over when you were 16, could be yours.
I mean, the Mega-Million’s is up to $1 Billion tonight.
Finishing up, we checked out a Chinese place, the Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffett, just down the road from the Daytona Speedway. Really good, and one of the largest selections we’ve ever seen.
October 19, 2019
Up In Katy Landon/Dogsitting Most of the Day
while Brandi, Lowell, and Lowell’s sister and parents all went to a family wedding.
L to R. That’s Lowell’s sister Sherry, Lowell’s father, Lowell’s mother, Brandi, and Lowell.
Later in the afternoon Landon, Jan, and I all headed up Mason Rd for a few things at the HEB and then supper at Chick-fil-A.
Tried to get Jan to stick her head in the scarecrow, but she wasn’t having any part of it.
So since we didn’t get home until almost 10pm, this is all you’re getting for today.
See you back here tomorrow.
October 19, 2021
Twin Peaks, Again . . .
Jan and I had lunch at Twin Peaks once again, with Jan getting her usual Spicy Chipotle Chicken, with a cup of Tomato Basil soup.
Since they still haven’t brought back my Venison Chili with the Wedge Salad, I had the Green Chicken Chile and 1/2 a BLT, with Sweet Potato Fries.
Delicious as always, and of course there’s the nice ‘scenic views’.
The last week or so I’ve made good use of Amazon’s Next Morning or Same Day Delivery options.
Last night a little before 11pm I placed a order that said it would be delivered this morning between 7am and 11am. It showed up a few minutes after 6am.
Then this morning I placed an order a few minutes after 10am, that said it would be delivered between 2pm and 6. It showed up about 3pm.
Very nice!
"Silence! I keel you!"
After last night’s blog about problems filing my taxes, several readers asked why I was waiting so late.
In other words, the last minute.
Well, for several reasons.
Ex-IRS agents who now are tax advisors say the later you file, the less likely you are to be audited. And I’m not talking about getting audited because of your suspicious bank accounts in the Caymans.
There are two kinds of audits that don’t mean the IRS suspects you of anything.
The first is the Taxpayer Compliance Audit which is used by the IRS to set the baseline for deciding when to audit other taxpayers. In other words it sets the average limits for different deduction categories. If your deductions fall outside the normal limits for other taxpayers in your income range, the IRS will look at your return much more thoroughly. Not a good thing.
However the real problem with the TC audit is how intrusive it is. You have to justify EVERY single entry on your return.
“You say you’re married. Could we see a marriage certificate please?
‘You say you have 3 children. Could we see birth certificates please?
And on and on and on. Every entry, every receipt, every deduction.
The second is the Random Audit, where when your number pops up, you get an audit.
Either way, it’s not a good thing.
And lastly I don’t like to give the IRS my money any earlier than I have to.
Normally I owe money every year due to my IT consulting income. But this year we’re getting money back due to pandemic adjustments.
Nice!
The problem I had last night trying to e-file was that as part of uploading your return, you have to enter the AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) from your last year’s return.
Not a problem, right?
Just look at last year’s return on my computer, right?
But for some reason, I had not saved off that return in PDF form.
So just load the return back into last year’s TurboTax and look at Line 11 on my 1040, right?
Unfortunately that didn’t work. For some reason TurboTax didn’t want to run. So I decided to just uninstall and reinstall it.
But no luck. The reinstall would just get to 9% and hang up. And even after rebooting, the reinstall would still hang.
And after going around a couple of times, it finally occurred to me to try installing TurboTax on my Hungarian laptop. And it worked.
And after moving the tax files over there I had my AGI. And after some more rigaramole, I got the return uploaded. And about 20 minutes later it was accepted by the IRS.
Done. For this year.
Coming home from San Antonio Sunday afternoon, we saw one of those big electronic billboards advertising an upcoming performance by Jeff Dunham, the ventriloquist here in Houston.
We’ve always enjoyed his TV performances so we had to get tickets to this show.
And now we have two seats on the floor in Section 3, Row 19 on January 11th at the NRG Arena.
Really looking forward to it.
Now With More Cinnamon!
Thought For The Day:
All Who Wander Are Not Lost. Sometimes It’s The GPS’ fault.
Elkhart, IN
October 18, 2009
Home of the Great Pumpkin…
Jan decided she wanted to eat at Das Essenhaus again so we headed over to Middlebury, only to find out that it was closed on Sunday.
Bummer!
Our GPS showed a number of other restaurants down the road in Shipshewana, about 7 miles away, only to find that every restaurant we tried was also closed.
Double Bummer!
We saw a lot of Amish carriages along the way, so maybe that was why all the restaurants were closed.
Anyway, we ended up making a big loop out into the country. A nice drive, but we were starting to get hungry.
When I mentioned to Jan that our big loop was taking us right back by El Maguey, the Mexican restaurant we had eaten last night.
So what was good for dinner is good for lunch right? And it was, too!
After lunch we headed back down a country road to get some pictures of a pumpkin patch we’d seen last week.
We also went by the American Countryside Farmers Market and found it also closed. Check the web when we got home we found it’s only open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We’ll go back then.
Coming home we stopped off at Menard’s and Big K looking for some small plastic containers.
Finding those we went next door to Martin’s, a local supermarket chain to get some of those delicious Honey Crisp apples.
On our way out of the store, we got Pumpkin Latte at Starbucks. We decided we like Starbuck’s Pumpkin Latte better than Dunkin’ Donuts, which is good, because the Starbuck’s is much closer.
A few minutes later we were back home at the rig.
Still In Elkhart, IN
October 18, 2011
Buns and Bays . . .
Well, the rain and other miscellaneous bad weather fronts moved in right on schedule today, with more high winds gusting to 40 mph waiting in the wings for tomorrow. Oh boy!
After our coffee I got back on the phone with Galveston Bay RV Resort. We’ve stayed there over the holidays for the last three years and really like the place. But after I called to get our site #, I realized they had put us in a site too small for our coach, so I called them back to get it straighten out. Then while waiting to hear back from them, I spent some time on the phone with a client trying to straighten out his email problem. And as soon as I hung up with him, Galveston Bay called back with a good site for us for this winter. These photos are just one reason we like this park so much. This is the view out our windshield.
After a great lunch, I got ready to head over to the RV/MH Hall of Fame to work on setting up their new computer system. Ended up having to order a new external HD case from Amazon to help straighten things out, but it’s finally starting to come together.
Leaving the museum, I stopped off for one of my semi-annual haircuts before heading home about 5. And then a little while later we headed out to Culver’s, a fast food chain where the food tastes much better than fast food.
All in all, a nice day, despite the weather.
And now for another installment of . . .
Things Every RV’er should have:
Today I’m going to tell you about a service, and not a gadget. It’s Amazon Prime, a special service from Amazon.com, and we find it invaluable while traveling full-time.
The bad news is that it costs $80 a year, but the good news is that if you order a lot, or want to order a lot from Amazon it will save you money.
But in our case, we also like the time it saves us. Time, as in how long it takes to order and receive something.
And Amazon sells pretty much everything.
Need a genuine Cummins Fleetguard Fuel Filter for your diesel pusher? They’ve got it. Need a giant 50” black spider for Halloween? Take a look. Need diabetic test strips? Just place your order.
How about a Cisco Ethernet 8-port Switch? You’re good to go. Or maybe a Valterra black tank waste valve for your RV? Well, you get the picture.
But the fact that they have all this stuff is not the main thing. The main thing is that with Amazon Prime you get 2nd Day shipping FREE on all items shipped by Amazon. And it you want it tomorrow, it’s just $3.99.
I just checked my Amazon account, and so far this year we have purchased 66 items from them. At only $2.00 each shipping charge, that would be over $130 for the year. And it’s pretty much impossible to get anything shipped for $2.
But, for us, it’s not only the free two day shipping, but it’s the fact that it IS only two days. Only occasionally are we in a place long enough to receive something shipped in “3 – 5 business days” like normal shipping. And when we need something fast, there’s the overnight shipping for $3.99.
An example of how this can be useful is a story I read about a guy who lived near the coast of North Carolina during the recent hurricane. A few days before the storm was supposed to hit, he decided to buy a 4000 watt generator, and he also wanted some extra ‘D’ batteries.
But when he went shopping, he found every local store sold out of both. Then he thought about his Amazon Prime. He went online, found the generator he wanted, added in a case of ‘D’ batteries, and placed his order about 4pm that afternoon, selecting Next Day delivery for $3.99 for each item.
At 10 am the next morning, the FEDEX truck pulls up and unloads his generator and his batteries. He said he just wished Amazon sold gasoline too.
Lastly, Amazon recently added over 10,000 movies and TV shows that you can stream to your computer for free with Amazon Prime.
Check it out.
October 18, 2012
Boxes and BBQ . . .
Today was another nice, quiet day. You can never have too many.
The park maintenance guy came back to tell us the water was back on for a while so we could top off our tanks if we needed to. He said the backhoe man was coming this afternoon but didn’t know when it would be fixed.
We’ve all been using our onboard water supply since day before yesterday, but we still had over a half a tank left after one wash load and 4 showers, but topped off anyway.
I forgot to mention the other day that Janis Thomas came by Tuesday night to drop off some delicious candy before they headed Wednesday morning for North Carolina.
Thanks, Janis. You too, Lenny.
A little later I talked to Galveston Bay RV Park to confirm that we would be arriving there one month from today, and to be sure they would have a space for us for the winter.
Next I spent some time cleaning up after Mister’s latest box devouring episode.
I’ve mentioned before that Mister loves cardboard boxes. He likes to cram into them and then he starts eating them. Well, not really eating them, he just tears off chunks and then spits them out. Over a period of a week or so, he’ll eat a box down to the ground.
And of course that leaves little pieces of cardboard everywhere. So after throwing out the remains of the box, I swept and vacuumed up all the bits and pieces too.
Mister will just have to wait for the next Amazon order to come in.
A little later we headed up the road to Willey’s BBQ to have dinner. It turned out to be pretty good, except their version of ‘hot’ BBQ would get them laughed out of Texas.
Leaving Willey’s we drove about 10 miles north to the closest Wal-Mart up in King George. Everyone needs a Wal-Mart fix now and then.
The park guy stopped by again before we left and said the water was back on, so hopefully that’s fixed.
Tomorrow we’re going to head south about 60 miles to check Urbanna, Gloucester, and the Chesapeake Bay Thousand Trails.
Hopefully the 40% chance of rain will hold off. We’ll see.
On A Gate In North Zulch, TX
October 18, 2014
“You Fall Good”
Well, our vehicle count dropped again, down to 183 from yesterday’s 202. That’s always nice. The new workover rig came in this morning, but except for the rig itself, which is all on one big truck, we didn’t get a lot of traffic from it, just a few extra workers.
Early on, before our two fracks started up, someone had mentioned that there could be a problem fracking too close to a current drilling operation. At the time we thought that might delay the fracks until the drill rig in front of us finished up and shut down.
But then then both fracks began and we didn’t think anymore about it. But today someone said that they alternate. When the fracks start actually fracking, the drill rig shuts down for that period. Which explains the long periods of inaction I see regularly across the street. You learn something new, and all that.
“You fall good” is what Jan said when I did a face plant in the gravel this morning. When I get up in the morning, normally around 11:15 to 11:30, I fix coffee and bring it out to Jan. I’m usually just wearing shorts, a T-Shirt, and Crocs. We sit out for a while and talk, and if anything comes in the gate I get up and log them in so Jan can take a little break.
Well, this time when I got up I didn’t realize that Mister, who came out when I did, had gotten his leash wrapped around my feet. So when I got up I took about three steps, and SPLAT!
Now it’s been about 50 years, but between judo-jujitsu and learning to jump out of perfectly good airplanes, I guess my body hasn’t forgotten how to hit and roll. So the only damage was a small abrasion on my left knee as I rolled off to the left.
The last time this happened was a couple of years ago when we were in Lake Tahoe. We had stopped at one of the scenic pullouts along the lake, and as we were walking back to the truck, I was fooling with my camera, and stepped off a high curb that I swear wasn’t there before.
Without thinking about it, I pulled the camera against my body, and was apparently already rolling when I hit the pavement. Before I knew it, I had rolled over completely and come up standing on the other side. What’s really strange is that I don’t even remember hitting the ground. But I was stiff and sore the next day, believe me.
Today was a two-fer, or maybe a three-fer, with Ama’s frack food delivery. They actually deliver food twice a day to the frack site. Once around noon, and then again in the evening. This way both shifts get to eat. Normally when they drop off food for us, it’s from the noontime run. But today we got food dropped off both times.
Jan says we’ve got to eat faster because we’re running out of room in the refrigerator. And in trying to do that, we didn’t split tonight’s meal. We each had our own, and boy, was it good.
It was a grilled chicken breast, stuffed with cream cheese and HOT jalapenos, and wrapped in bacon, along with steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, and mashed potatoes. And not to forget, banana pudding for dessert.
Man, I was really stuffed when I waddled off the bed a little later. And I still am. I guess we shouldn’t try to eat like oil rig workers.
Lowell sent over this photo of Landon’s Halloween costume.
Note the thick rubber collar around his neck. It’s to hold his space helmet.
NEAT!
On A Gate Near Carthage, TX
October 18, 2015
When the Rig’s Away . . .
The Gate Guards Play.
Again, another day of resting up and goofing off. But on the other hand, it seems like we should be gate guarding, or something.
Pretty much the only vehicles coming through are the guys running the pumps at the frack pond that are now supplying water to the new frack site, and we don’t log them anyway.
I did get a few things done around the rig that I’ve been putting off, and tomorrow I’m probably going to bite the bullet and tear my laptop apart to replace the power jack, but we’ll see.
When I walked around to the backside of the rig the other day, I saw these on the ground.
These are some leftover Whataburger fries that just won’t die. They’ve been out here since the very first time I brought Whataburger back to the rig. We both got Combos and couldn’t eat all the fries. So we tossed them out for the birds. So far there are no birds, and that was five weeks ago.
What are these really made of?
I’m mean, the birds won’t eat’em. The ants won’t eat’em. What will?
We had the herd of cows around the rig again today.
They just walk by and stare at us, and then move on. At least they’re not doing like last year when they kept tripping over the satellite wires and yanking the dish off the stand.
For the last week or so, I’ve had a pesky piece of malware in my desktop computer called ‘cnfg.toolbarservices’ lurking around in my machine. It kept popping up as being blocked from accessing the Internet by Malwarebytes, but nothing I tried could find it and kill it.
But some Googling told me about SpyHunter, a Spyware Detection and Removal Tool from Enigma Software. Since it was free to download, I thought I’d give it a try.
And it not only found ‘cnfg.toolbarservices’, but a lot of other things that Malwarebytes had been also blocking. But neither Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, or Spybot – Search and Destroy would actually find them.
But the hook here is that the free download only detects bad stuff, but it won’t remove it until you buy an Activation Key. $39.95 gets you a six-month license, including personalized help from them if you come across something really difficult to eradicate. You just email them a copy of the Support Log that the program generates and they will send you back a customized solution to your program.
I normally don’t care for the ‘license’ type software, but since nothing else had even found the problem, much less eliminated it, I decided to spring for the Key. And 5 minutes later, I had the Key, the malware program (and the rest) had been killed off, and my computer was rebooting.
I’ll wait a few days to see if the fix holds before I give my final stamp of approval. I’ll let you know. But it can’t hurt to download the program and see what it finds.
For our second night of freedom, we headed out for dinner once again about 4:45. Although last night we just pulled the gate closed since we hadn’t let the water guys from the frack up the road know we would be locking up. But the Company Man had given us a key and told us to lock the gate when we left, so tonight we did.
I’ve seen a number of these multi-lock gates, but this is the first one like this.
Usually they use kind of a barrel mechanism, but they all do the same thing; let several people open a gate with their own key.
Our dinner selection for tonight was The Jalapeno Tree, a Mexican place we last ate at the first week of September when we had a couple of nights off between the frack prep work finishing up, and the frack crew and equipment actually moving in.
Tonight we started things off with a White Sangria, made with Moscato wine and three or four fruit juices.
I think the last time we had an alcoholic drink was this past April in Las Vegas at the Lindo Michoacán Mexican restaurant down in Henderson. Twice in one year. I think we’re on a binge.
Jan had the Chili Rellenos, the same as last time.
A lot of places only have them with cheese, but here they also have them with beef, which is Jan’s favorite.
Last time I had a Combo Platter, but this time I went with the El Diablo Jack Combo Fajitas.
It’s Beef and Chicken, with crispy bacon pieces, sautéed mushrooms, and covered in Monterey Jack Cheese. Beef, Chicken, and Pork on the same plate. You can’t go wrong.
And I didn’t.
They were really good. And we both had plenty to bring home.
October 18, 2016
Gateward Bound . . .
This morning started out slow, but got busy fast.
After nothing from anybody SiteWatch-wise, I put in another call to Todd about 12:30, and ten minutes later he called back. We talked for about 20 minutes going over what the job entailed and what we could expect.
We will need FRC’s, hardhats, glasses, and steel-toed shoes. So we’ll need hardhats and Jan needs steel-toed shoes. I’ll probably just order her a pair of these Skechers from Amazon.
Hard to believe they’re steel-toed.
We’ll be working opposite 12 hour shifts at a guard shack in the Kenedy / Karnes City area, probably following a Marathon Completion crew.
The only think out of the ordinary, at least for us, is that we have to get a DBA (Doing Business As) license (cost $11 at the courthouse) and then open a business account at a bank. We will be paid as contractors on a 1099, but for some reason they will only pay into a business account.. Strange.
Todd also said our expired security licenses shouldn’t be a problem, and that we should just be able to renew them online. Then we’ll have to transfer them from GGS Services to SiteWatch.
So the gist of all this is that we’ll head out tomorrow morning about 11 for the 3+ hour trip down to Kenedy . Todd, and a couple of others on Facebook, recommended the Lone Star RV Park #2 so that’s where we’re heading.
I talked to Nancy, the owner, this afternoon and they have a short-term/long-term site available for us. Don’t know the price for sure, but I’ve heard $450-500 and that includes electric. They also have a completely free laundry, which is very unusual.
After we get the DBA/Bank Account stuff done, the next thing on the list is to attend the Marathon Orientation Course Friday afternoon at 1pm. So maybe we can be on a gate by Saturday, who knows.
About 1pm, to celebrate Jan and I drove in to have the lunch buffet at Schobel’s Restaurant. Coming home we stopped off at the park office to let them know that we’d be leaving tomorrow morning and to put our remaining money on account.
Later in the afternoon, I went online to see about our license renewals, but I quickly found a problem. You could renew an expired license, but not if it’s been expired for more than a year. Which let’s us out.
So we have to start over, but I’m not sure if that includes fingerprint cards or not. So I’ll find out tomorrow.
October 18, 2017
Now it’s Jan’s Turn . . .
Yesterday Jan started coming down with what I’ve got, just as I’m starting to get over it.
Some people are attributing this to the Harvey Hack, an upper respiratory infection seemingly caused by all the moldy debris laying around as the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
But my symptoms don’t quite fit. I started with a nagging cough that got worse and worse over a couple of days, finally getting so bad that my chest and diaphragm were so sore that it hurt to even stand. But that, along with a slight fever, is all I had. No sneezing, no congestion, just the cough.
But this morning I felt well enough to go back down to the Clear Lake area.
I spent most of the day catching up on making labels for a bunch of products using Avery Labels Design & Print program. If you don’t have a copy of this free program, you should.
It will do all this different types of these and more.
I had tried to call Jan several times during the day, but I guess her cell phone had run out of juice, because it keep telling me her phone was offline. So coming home, I took a chance that she might be hungry so I made a stop at the Willis Whataburger to pick up dinner.
She was asleep when I got here but with the smell of Whataburger, she rallied enough to eat and have some of the Coffee Milkshake I also brought home. Hopefully she’ll be better tomorrow.
The FBI just released their UCR 2016 report breaking down Murder by State, and by Weapon.
Turns out you’re almost 5 times more likely to be killed by a knife or other bladed weapon than a rifle of any type, including any type of ‘assault weapon’. And almost twice as likely to beaten to death with hands, feet, fists, etc. than killed with a rifle.
On the recent Las Vegas Shooting front, a number of ex-military riflemen and hunters have come forward to say that the fact that the shooter used a ‘bump stock’ to spray bullets around meant that a lot less people were killed than might have been.
Their claim is that if he had used a rifle with a good scope and took his time he could killed a lot more people one at a time during the 10 minutes he was firing. And probably attracted a lot less attention. The distance was only about 500 yards, a distance that hunters regularly take down deer in the hill country. In fact you can go online and find videos of guys shooting golf balls at 500 yards. So a person wouldn’t be a problem.
October 18, 2021
Upcoming . . .
Yesterday I mentioned the two Immersive Van Gogh exhibits over the next couple of months. But that’s not all on our upcoming plates.
The first part of November we’ve got the Nutcracker Market at the NRG Center.
Think of every Christmas Market you’ve ever been to, and then triple it. Or more.
And of course we’ve got our Branson trip coming up the first part of December. Really looking forward to that.
But now there’s something new on the horizon.
Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs starts November 20th at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the same location we saw the Pompeii exhibit a few months back.
Brandi’s checking to see if Landon and Sophie are interested before we book tickets.
