Daily Archives: November 23, 2022
Emotional Support Bears and Sketchy Owls . . .
Well, 1 out of 3 ain’t bad.
I got another Amazon delivery today, and it actually ended on my doorstep. I’ve got more stuff coming on Friday, so I hope it holds.
Apparently some women want to cuddle with someone (or something?) that they say, “He doesn’t snore, he doesn’t grumble or get angry.”
So they get an Emotional Support Bear.
And as the article says, he comes ‘bear’ naked, so you get to dress himself.
Grown-up version of Ken and Barbie, I guess.
Arizona police are warning people about doing drugs or buying Sketchy Owls from strangers at gas stations.
Or maybe it was not to buy owls from strangers at sketchy gas stations.
One or the other. Either way you end up with an owl, it seems.
Tomorrow morning I’m picking up our Canadian friend’s Ron & Anne and driving them up to our daughter Brandi’s house in Katy for Thanksgiving Dinner with Jan and I.
Brandi, et al., are still out in Colorado visiting with friends, and will be back late Friday night. Then I’ll go up and pick up Jan sometime Saturday afternoon.
And speaking of Thanksgiving, here’s a long-lost photo of a Hooterville Thanksgiving in 1968, uniting the casts of Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction.
All 3 shows took place in the same TV universe, were produced by Paul Henning, and shown on CBS, so it was easy to do a combination episode.
Brings back memories.
Thought For The Day:
November 23, 2009
Gumbo…Gumbo…Gumbo…
Today was the first day of our two day trip back to Houston. We left the Gulf State Park at Gulf Shores about 8:00 am, but we didn’t get far. Only to the Cracker Barrel in Foley where we decided to stop for breakfast..
Finally, about 9 we hit the road…again. Being pretty much all Interstate, we had a smooth trip, all 300 miles of it. About 2:45pm we pulled into the parking lot of Mulate’s here in Breaux Bridge, LA, (pronounced ‘mu lots’) pretty much our favorite Cajun place. There’s a place in Houston that runs a close second, but this one is the best.
I have been eating the gumbo here for almost 15 years. From 1994 until 2006 I made the round trip from Houston to Birmingham every month to visit my mother. And I always stopped at Mulate’s both going and coming. It go so that I would just walk in and sit down and they would bring me my order…large seafood gumbo, extra rice, and Ice tea, and then bread pudding and coffee for dessert.
Actually, I’m starting to salivate just typing this. And I just ate there 5 hours ago. It’s that good! It was nice to walk in, have Tracey run over and give us a big hug, and then bring us our order. Just like old times.
Right now we’re parked right down the street in the Walmart parking lot for the night. Tomorrow we’ll make the 250 mile run to the Galveston Bay RV Park on Dickinson Bayou, where we’ll be parked for the next couple of months or so.
November 23, 2010
Bingo Bound . . .
Today was the 3rd, and hopefully last, day of Jan’s migraine series so we didn’t do much of anything, but sit around the rig and enjoy the view, and coffee, of course.
About 4:30 we headed up SH 146 to Stomp’s Burger Joint to meet our friend Maria Sutton for supper. Then she and Jan were going down to La Marque to play Bingo again at the Knights of Columbus Hall
Leaving them I drove over to Kroger’s to pick up a last few things for Thanksgiving dinner preparation, and then came back to the rig.
Then, about 9:30 I drove down to La Marque to up Jan. Once again she was within just a couple of numbers of winning the big prize. Bummer!
November 23, 2011
Turkey Day Eve . . .
Waking up to a cool morning, hot coffee was a big hit, with a later lunch of leftover Sonny’s BBQ from last week with a little of the delicious Creamed Corn from Rudy’s BBQ last night.
Jan doesn’t like corn, but she loves Rudy’s Creamed Corn.
About 1 I headed out on some errands, and another client visit.
My first stop was EPO, a great local electronics parts place that I’ve been going to since we moved here in 1978. I needed some heavy-duty ‘F’ connectors and they had exactly what I needed.
Then it was Sam’s Club for some Joint Juice. They were really, really busy with the whole parking lot full. I can imagine what it’s going to look like on Friday. I certainly won’t be there.
Then it was back to my client’s for a couple of hours. On the way home our daughter Brandi called to say that they’ve made it to Oklahoma OK. They left about 7pm last night for the 7 hour drive, and Landon slept the entire way.
Getting home about 5 pm, we turned right around and headed back up SR146 to La Brisa, another great local Mexican place, and even better, it’s close by. And they have really good Chicken Tortilla Soup.
And actually, we’re having Thanksgiving dinner at the La Brisa over on I-45 in League City tomorrow. But rather than Mexican, It’s a traditional Thanksgiving buffet with all the trimmings. It’s be our first time for their Thanksgiving buffet, but they do a great job on their Saturday and Sunday morning breakfast buffet, so it should be good.
November 23, 2012
Turkey Day + 1 . . .
This morning started out on the deck with Starbuck’s coffee, compliments of Lowell’s early morning run, though really it was Lowell, Brandi, and Landon who went. Jan and I were still asleep.
Actually even Landon slept in, since he didn’t wake up until about 6:45am.
We’d all decided that that today was going to be a do-nothing day, and it pretty much was. A lot of reading, resting, napping, and enjoying the view on the deck went on.
About noon Jan and Brandi put out the leftovers and we made another pass on all that delicious food, but it seems like we still haven’t made a big dent in it yet.
And after turkey it was nap time again.
About 3pm we all headed over to the local Wal-Mart to pick up some things. We were wondering how the Black Friday crowds would be, but although it may have been busy by small-town Marble Falls standards, for us it just a not-so-busy Saturday in Houston, so we were in and out relatively quickly, at least for us. But we were still there over an hour.
By this time we were all starting to get hungry, and by hungry, I mean we wanted some Mexican food. And the best place for that is The Maxican. And yes, that’s the way it’s spelled. We’ve been eating here for a number of years, pretty much every time we’ve come up here, though usually it’s closer to Christmas.
Jan had the Nachos, and I had the Marsha Special, which is a Poblano Pepper stuffed with Chicken and Cheese, and then covered with a Chipotle Cream Sauce. Really good.
Coming home we stopped off at Walgreen’s so I could get some cash from their ATM. They had a Chase Bank ATM so I wouldn’t have to pay a fee. And since we’re going to eat at Salt Lick BBQ tomorrow afternoon, and they don’t take credit cards, I’m going to need some of the folding stuff.
Tomorrow will be our last full day here, and we’ve enjoyed it so much, it’s going to be hard to leave Sunday morning. We all agree that we want to come back here again.
November 23, 2013
Changing of the Guards . . .
Well, it’s done. We’re off the gate for this year.
I spent last night getting everything but our canopy taken down and packed away, even if somewhat soggy. Tearing down the canopy can be a one man operation, but I didn’t want to chance it in the 20 mph winds we were having all night. Before I can take it apart, it has to be completely un-staked and all the tie downs removed. And of course right about then a big wind gust would make it look like Dorothy’s house in the tornado. So I saved that for when Jan got up about 7am.
About 8:45 I called our support guy Todd, and got Joseph instead. Todd was off this weekend and Joseph was filling in. I called to be sure he would have an extension cord on his truck. While I was reconfiguring the cords getting the rig unplugged from the generator, I found the plug on one cord had overheated and just came apart when I pulled on it.. This one powered the front set of light stands and also the bell. So the new guards were going to need it.
At about 7:30 Jan and I started in on the canopy, and since the wind had died down it went pretty easy. The only problem was that the canopy was wet from the rain when we took it off, so rather than pack it away in the case, we just stuffed it in a large garbage bag, and we’ll dry it out after we get back to Houston and the weather improves.
My last chore was to stow the water and sewer hoses, leaving only our electrical cord to unplug from the generator before we pulled out. Well, that and the slide.
Then it was just a matter of waiting for our relief. I forgot to ask Joseph whether it would be just him relieving us until the new guards showed up, or if he was bring them with him.
As it turned out, Jim and Donna Mossman showed up with Joseph about 9:30. While Jan went over the logs with Donna, I caught Jim up on some things about the site. Interestingly, Jim and Donna are long-time blog readers, so It was good to finally meet them. I think we left our gate (ex-gate?) in good hands.
When I saw them pulling in, I went ahead and cranked up the rig, so by the time we were ready to leave, the rig was up on the airbags and ready to roll. After saying our goodbyes, and unplugging the electric and bringing in the slide, we pulled out.
Well, I pulled out. Jan on the other hand, took off like a bat out of hell, never looking back and leaving me in her dust. I finally caught up with her at the Gate Guard Services yard and we parked and got set up. As it turns out we’re parked in exactly the same spot as when we first got here in April last year for our first gate guarding adventure..
We’ve just got 50amp, but that’s no problem for one night. As soon as I was done with the set up, I headed off to bed since It was now 10:30, and I was already 3 hours into my normal sleep time. So a nap was in order to start getting me back on a somewhat normal sleep schedule.
About 3:30 Jan and I headed over to Pleasanton for dinner and some grocery shopping. On the way we drove by the gate to check things out, and it looked like Jim and Donna were all set up and had made themselves at home. Good to see.
Dinner was at Chili’s, and the shopping was Wal-Mart and HEB, and we were home by a little after 6pm.
Tomorrow, we’ll head for Houston about 9:30 with a stop at the Buc-ee’s in Luling for coffee and a kolache for breakfast. Tomorrow night we’re meeting Chris, Linda, and Piper at our favorite Chinese restaurant, King Food.
Family and good food. Can’t be beat.
November 23, 2014
Websites and Enchiladas . . .
Based on the original weather forecasts, we really dodged a bullet last night as the bad weather moved through. But as far as Livingston was concerned, it was much ado about not much..
Looking at the radar during the night, the storm pretty much split into two parts and went north and south of Livingston, giving us only a steady, but light rain, and none of the extremely high winds that hit other areas.
Chris and Charles left about 9:30 this morning for a wedding down in Houston, so after coffee I went next door to clean the gunk out of their computers. Using CCleaner, Glary Utilities, SuperAntiSpyWare, and AntiMalwareBytes, I spent several hours going through them, optimizing them and removing useless items from the startup.
After finishing that I installed and linked DropBox on both machines, and then installed the Dropbox apps on Chris and Charles’ phones. Tomorrow I’ll do the same for Evernote, and then we’ll have an in-service on how to use them.
Our dinner this evening was in-house, with Chris serving Salad, and a delicious batch of her Homemade Hatch Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas, along with Pinto Beans, and Ice Cream for dessert.. A really great meal.
Tomorrow we’ll work some more on the C and C RV Insurance website, and talk over more ideas for changes and upgrades. Then we’ll help them load their RV for their upcoming trip on Tuesday.
About 4pm we’ll head down to Dennis and Carol Hill’s place on the next block for some of his delicious smoked pork.
We’re all really looking forward to it.
November 23, 2015
First Day of Freedom . . .
Our first day of gate freedom and I slept in until about 11am, my first full nights sleep in 3 months. When I’m on the gate I normally sleep 3 or 4 hours at a time, twice a night. I can do this for long periods with no problems, but it’s certainly nice to not have to.
Along with our morning coffee and pumpkin bread, we enjoyed just sitting and talking, and not jumping up at the sound of the bell alarm. Jan did say that she still hears bells in her sleep. For my part, I find myself checking out tag numbers to see if I recognize them as we walk around.
About 1pm Jan and I headed out for some shopping and then a trip down to Katy to have dinner with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon. They leaving tomorrow for Oklahoma to visit some friends and then spend Thanksgiving with Lowell’s parents before coming back home Sunday night.. So this would be our only chance to see them for a week.
Our first shopping stop was the Convenience RV Store a couple of miles north of here next to the Fish Pond Restaurant. I was looking for a couple of things, 12v light bulbs, and a shower door latch.
in our bathroom, besides the overhead lights, we have six light bulbs, three on either side of the vanity mirror. A week or so ago, four of them suddenly died, all three on the left side, and one on the right.
Now three bulbs going out in one fixture is kind of suspicious, and makes you think that maybe there’s a problem with the fixture itself. But I took a good bulb from the right side and it worked in the left fixture, and one of the dead bulbs still didn’t work in the right side. At first you’d want to chalk this up to just a coincidence, and it kind of is, but not quite.
In the 8 years we’ve own this coach, I’ve replace two of these six bulbs, both on the right side. And I’d be willing to bet that those two bulbs are the ones still working. The other four are original to the coach when we bought it in 2008, and may just be original to the coach from 1999.
And actually it’s not that unusual for bulbs with the same amount of hours to go out in a group. Back in my younger, skinnier (stupider?) days when I was working in radio and TV broadcasting, I used to moonlight replacing the bulbs in those 400-600 ft. transmitting towers for a number of stations in the area. I have no fear of heights, and I worked cheap, so I usually got the job. And one thing you did when you went up to replace a bad bulb, you replaced them all at the same time. Otherwise, if one went out, more would follow, sometimes within a few days.
These bulbs were kind of expensive, and sometimes the station would try to cheap out by only replacing the bad one. I’d warn them that I’d be back in a short time, but they wouldn’t listen. And anywhere from few days to a few weeks, I’d be back.
I was also looking for a new shower door latch, but as it turned out they did not have either the bulbs or the latch in stock, but they did order them for me, and they should be in by noon tomorrow.
Nice service.
Our next shopping stop was Wal-Mart, of course. It’s not really shopping without a Wal-Mart stop. Beside the groceries and stuff, we both got haircuts while we were there. I hadn’t had one since the 1st of October so I was starting to look a bit shaggy, at least on the sides. Not a lot to worry about on top.
Finally about 4:15 we were on our way down to the Katy area to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at one of our favorite restaurants in that area, Torchy’s Tacos.
Where else can you get a taco with a grilled jalapeno sausage, Queso Fresco, shredded cheese, and Pico de Gallo. Not your average taco.
Later, after some time at Brandi’s, we finally headed back to Conroe, getting back to the rig about 9:15.
Another nice, but long day.
November 23, 2016
DashCams and Space Pens . . .
I spent the afternoon finishing up a couple of things on our truck for our trip tomorrow.
After I filled up the windshield washer fluid tank with the Rain-X washer fluid I got at Wal-Mart yesterday. I’ve used this stuff for years and it really works. During light to medium rainstorms you don’t even have to turn the wipers on. The water just beads up and rolls up the windshield.
Then I installed my latest new toy.
A week or so ago I found this article on Road and Track’s site about the Top 5 Best Dashcams. And their favorite was the cheapest one at around $50. Then in one of those serendipitous things, a few days later I got an online ad from Amazon listing the $50 cam for $30 so I ordered one. Amazon DashCam
It was quickly installed and configured. I like the bigger screen and larger, easier to use buttons. We’ll give a good try-out on our trip tomorrow and I’ll let you know.
Well it was a lot of work but we now have all our Christmas lights up in the rig.
I think the one most impressed with them was Karma. After I put them up, she got on the kitchen counter and just stared up at them for about 20 minutes.
Over the years we slacked off our decorating. This was what we did in 2009, our first Christmas in our rig.
Talking about Karma, this afternoon she jumped up on the back of the sofa and was chasing something in the front end of the window, pawing at it. Then I heard a ‘yelp’ and Karma started licking her left paw. Looking down in the window track I found a honey bee. Don’t know how it got in, but I got rid of it.
Karma only licked at her paw for a few minutes and then it didn’t seem to bother her any more. I looked at it awhile later and it wasn’t swollen and didn’t seem to be tender, so I guess she’s OK.
This afternoon I came across this graphic on Facebook and couldn’t resist making a comment correcting all the misinformation in it.
And here was my comment.
Having spent 10 years at JSC on the Shuttle program, I can tell you why NASA didn’t use pencils. Pencil ‘lead’ is graphite. And graphite is electrically conductive.
When you use a pencil in space the tiny graphite particles shed by the pencil float off around the cockpit, coming to rest everywhere, inside instruments, electronics, etc., causing random shorts and problems. With the wrong short at the wrong time, you could lose a spacecraft.
While the part about the Russians using a pencil is true, the rest is just completely wrong.
Paul Fisher of the Fisher Pen Co. spent $1 million of his OWN money to develop the Fisher Space Pen for sale to the public. In 1968 Fisher sold 400 pens to NASA for $2.39 a pen, a 40% discount from the retail $3.98 because they bought in bulk.
In 1968 the Russians saw the light and ordered 100 pens and 1000 refills for their space program.
Then in 1969 the Apollo 11 crew used parts of a Space Pen to fix a broken rocket engine arming switch, letting them make the return trip back to Earth
A pretty good deal for $956 of Fisher Space Pens. And a lot better than the fictitious $12 Billion.
Oh, yeah. The pen won’t work at 300°Celsius either. That’s 572°F. The pen would melted long before that. As well as the person using it.
November 23, 2017
They Lied . . .
About 2pm Jan and I headed up I-45 to League City to have Thanksgiving Dinner at the Cracker Barrel. Jan was hopeful that by getting there after 2 we wouldn’t have too long a wait. But when I caught with her after dropping her off while I parked, she sheepishly said, “An hour and a half”. But at least there were plenty of rocker openings.
And lucky for us (and Jan) they lied. It was only 40 minutes until we were called in.
Don’t know why they even give anyone menus
Everyone’s pretty much there for the same thing.
And even better is was surprising how quickly it came out. We were served only 10 minutes after we sat down.
So it’s Turkey & Dressing with Gravy, Ham, Sweet Potato Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Cranberry Relish, Pumpkin Pie, with Biscuits and Cornbread Muffins. And a drink.
All for $12,.99. A really good deal.
As we were finishing up, our waiter brought our our Pumpkin Pie.
However I thought they were a little chintzy on the Whipped Cream. It should have looked more like this.
There is actually pie under there.
As we were eating I told Jan that it would have been hard to beat this with most homemade Thanksgiving meals. She agreed and said even better she didn’t have to worry about this.
Previously the one thing that Jan didn’t like about eating out for Thanksgiving is the fact that there’s no leftovers for the next day, for turkey sandwiches, etc.
So we solved this dilemma by ordering two more Thanksgiving meals to go. Now we’re all set for tomorrow.
When we left about an hour later they seemed to be just as busy as when we got there so I don’t think waiting until later would have really done any good. But the 40 minute wait we did have wasn’t too bad.
Our next stops were at my client’s to pick up the Pumpkin Bread that the Office Manager had given me on Wednesday which I forgot to bring home. Then it was the CVS right down the street before heading home.
A very nice, tasty day.
Amazon’s started their Black Friday Sales early and I really liked this
Furbo Dog Treat Tossing Camera
Pretty neat, and you can check it out. Pretty for those of you who have dogs at home.
Though I guess it would work with cats, too.
They’re also have a great deal on their Echo Dot, Alexa’s little brother.
Normally they’re $49.99, but now they’re only $29.99,
We’ve already got one, but that price is so good, I almost bought another one.
I’m not working tomorrow so I’ve got a nice long weekend off. Yah!
November 23, 2018
Black Friday . . .
I felt a lot better this morning, almost back to normal. Of course maybe it’s because Jan is back home. I certainly think so. And so does Miss Karma.
About 2pm Jan fixed us both a plate of the leftovers from the Thanksgiving feast at Brandi’s yesterday.
Then about 5 I fixed coffee and we had it with the pumpkin pie also left over.
Other than that, we stayed hunkered down, trying to keep out of the stampeding hordes on Black Friday. Or maybe Black and Blue Friday if you’re trying to fight your way through the crowds to grab that last Instant Pot or Grinch doll.
However we did order several things online that will just show up next. No fuss, no muss, no crowds. Nice.
The stuff we ordered last week from Costco came in right on time, matching Amazon. And besides gas, Costco is cheaper on a lot of stuff. The Rotisserie Chicken we got there week before last for $4.99 runs $7.98 at HEB. However I did get a Rotisserie Turkey Breast from HEB this last Monday to flesh out our leftovers.
Yesterday I got up to Brandi’s about 11, bringing the Cracker Barrel Cornbread Dressing that I had picked up the night before.
Of course, we had the Turkey that Brandi fixed,
a HoneyBaked Ham that Chantelle brought,
Jan’s Green Bean Casserole,
and much more.
Then it was time for everyone to line up for the feast.
Even Miss Piper.
How she eats like this and still stays this svelte is a real mystery.
This is my 1st plate.
Emphasis on ‘1st’.
Tomorrow we’ll probably sneak out for a bit, for some groceries and probably breakfast somewhere. Hopefully we can still avoid the leftover hordes.
Next week, on Tuesday, I’ll be taking Jan back to Brandi’s so she can dog-sit while Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, along with Chantelle, who’s also our travel agent, her husband Eric, and son Maddox, head down to Disney World for a week.
It’ll be Landon’s first trip to see the Mouse.
Then I’ll go back up on Monday afternoon to pick her up.
One thing about all these to/from trips to Katy is that they’re giving the recent transmission rebuild in the Dakota a real workout. With almost 300 miles on the meter, it’s still purring right along with nary a bobble. So far, so good.
November 23, 2020
Like A Baby . . .
Or Babies, I guess.
Jan said she loves our new mattress topper and I’m really glad to hear that.
She’s got a ‘Princess And The Pea’ kind of back, and she’s really sensitive to what she sleeps on. And I’m happy too, since so far it’s seems a lot cooler than our old. Probably because of the open coils of gel-infused foam.
Well, it looks like Cracker Barrel has run out of Thanksgiving. Or at least Turkey Dinners.
I mentioned yesterday all the rigmarole I had to go through to order a Turkey Dinner Bundle to be picked up tomorrow afternoon. But we really lucked out in comparison to my client’s office manager.
She also tried to order using the app last Friday and it didn’t work for her either. But when she called the local store, they told her to call back on Monday. But when she called back this morning they told her they had no more openings, and thus, no more Turkey Dinners. And they said that all the CB’s in the Houston area were booked up.
So how the heck does Cracker Barrel run out of Turkey Dinners. I mean they have serve Turkey and Dressing every Thursday anyway. It’s not like they could over-order or anything.
Yesterday Jan and I had breakfast for dinner at Denny’s once again, both of us having our favorite omelets, mine their Ultimate Omelet, with a little bit of everything, ham, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, onions, and cheese, along with fruit instead of the has browns, and an English muffin.
Really good, too.
November 23, 2021
Now I Know Why The 3 Bears Were So Upset . . .
Our day started this morning with two Amazon deliveries, one of which was my Respawn Gaming Chair.
Of course I can’t start using it until I get somebody over here to get the old one out of the rig.
Before my recent unpleasantness, I could have done myself in an hour or so, but not now, especially with the 20# weight limit on what I can lift. So I’m going to try and get someone over here this weekend.
I also ordered a chair mat to go on the floor underneath it. It should be here Friday.
The second delivery was a couple of small shelving units for Jan. So it should be a busy weekend putting all this together.
Before we left the rig this afternoon, we fired up our old faithful workhorse Dodge Dakota for the first time in several months. We were going drop off the Jeep at my mechanic’s so he can take care of a couple things before our upcoming Branson trip starting the 4th of December.
Then it was up to Webster to have lunch at Snooze, our first visit in a while. They’ve got a new Holiday menu, and one of those items caught my so I decided to give it a try. And now I know why the 3 bears were upset with Goldilocks for messing with their porridge.
The new item, called Goldilocks’s Porridge, was delicious.
Made with a mix of steel cut oats, quinoa and millet simmered in almond milk, and then topped with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, bananas, toasted almonds and hemp seeds, it’s probably the best oatmeal-ish dish I’ve ever had.
And I paired it with an order of their special bacon, rubbed with brown sugar, cayenne, chili flakes and drizzled with black peppered maple syrup.
Jan went with her usual Bravocado Toast. So mundane.
Finishing up our afternoon, we made a Kroger’s stop for a prescription and a WalMart visit for some needed stuff before getting back to the rig a little after 4pm.
Today was my first day driving again since my operation, and it felt good to be back behind the wheel.
