Monthly Archives: December 2022
It Was A Fraud . . .
I made a couple of phone calls this morning before I went into work.
The first was to Medicare to report the bogus? charges to my Medicare account.
And they were bogus.
And it turns out that they already knew about the guy.
They did want to know if I have received any thing from the company, which I haven’t.
And have I received any ‘odd’ phone calls about it?
No. At least I don’t think so.
I told her that I don’t normally answer my phone unless I recognize the number, or they come up in my Contacts. If they want to talk with me, they can leave a voicemail. And I had had no voicemail messages from them.
They thanked me for calling and to let them know if I received anything further from the perp.
My second call was to Roland, the guy who is rebuilding my Jeep engine. He said the last parts, the pistons and rings, should be in today, and they hoped to have the engine rebuilt by Thursday. Then, since they’re closed Friday and Monday, it will be next week before they have it checked out and back in the Jeep.
So, hopefully by next Thursday, since they’re going to be closed on the Friday before New Year’s weekend too.
I heard from my neurosurgeon’s office today, and the first time they can see me to evaluate my recent MRI/X-Rays is Monday, Jan 9th.
So now we wait.
Tomorrow lunch looks to be at Pho Barr once again, and then we’re going to brave WalMart 5 days before Christmas.
Are we brave or crazy?
Two years ago, the 18th and 19th of December, 2022, I lost two of my favorite aunts, my Aunt Janis on the 18th, and my Aunt Virginia on the 19th.
This is her with my Uncle Theo and me in the summer of 1949 in a photo I colorized.
She was amazing!
How many women with just a high-school diploma do you know that could start out as the secretary to a bank manager, and then end up many years later as President of the bank and Chairman of the Board of Directors, with a college degree?
And this wasn’t some podunk local Alabama bank, but First Federal Savings & Loan, a nation-wide banking system.
And this is the two of them in 2015.
Two years later they’re both still missed.
Thought For The Day:
I would really like to have the Detonate option on my Where’s My Droid app.
December 19, 2010
Sunday Morning Coming Down . . .
We got up to hot coffee and another beautiful day here in Texas, though the weather in many other parts of the country is pretty nasty.
I finished up one computer and started on cleaning up another one. And I’ve got two more out in the truck. Work, work, work.
But it’s not really work to me, because I enjoy doing it. A long time ago someone told me that if I wanted to be happy in life, I needed to find something I loved to do, and then figure out a way to get people to pay me to do it. For me that was electronics, and later computers.
And it’s certainly worked for me.
About 3:30 we headed up 146 to the Sonic Drive-In in Kemah. Jan had a craving for one of their new foot-long quarter-pound chili cheese coneys.
After Sonic we drove over to Kroger’s to get some groceries. While we were there we got a Starbuck’s coffee. Jan wanted a Pumpkin Spice Latte, but they were out, so we both got our fall-back flavor, Cinnamon Dolce Latte.
After that it was home for the evening. All in all, not a very exciting day, but relaxing never the less.
December 19, 2011
Heady Company . . .
Jan did the early morning thing again a few days ago and got some great shots of the sunrise over Dickinson Bayou.
And because of the way we’re parked out on this spit of land on the bayou, we also get great sunsets too.
Just one of the many reasons we keep coming back here for the holidays year after year.
I headed out on another day of errands and clients about 10:30am, and also trying to finish up the last of the Christmas shopping. Got everything pretty much done. Hopefully my clients will be happy until after Christmas.
We’ll see.
Got back to the rig about 3:30, and then a little before 5pm Jan and I headed up TX 146 a few miles to Bacliff to have dinner at Stomp’s Burger Joint. Stomp’s is the Tookie’s clone that opened while we were here last year.
Tookie’s, having opening in 1974, was severely damaged during Hurricane Ike in September 2008, and never reopened. Water was almost 4 feet deep in the building and the inside was trashed.
Finally last year some Tookie’s aficionado’s and ex-cooks opened Stomp’s, named after the original Tookie’s premier burger, the Stomp’s Ice House Special.
Then, this past year, the owner of one of our other favorite places, T-Bone Tom’s, bought the old Tookie’s building and all the recipes, and then reopened it earlier this year.
Tonight was our first time this winter to eat at Stomp’s, and now I have to agree with Jan:
Stomp’s is better than the original!
The onion rings are better, and tonight the burger I had was better than the one I had at Tookie’s a week or so ago. And it’s cheaper too.
December 19, 2012
Another Day, Another Client . . .
I’m trying get some of my clients out of the way so I can not worry about them until after Christmas, or maybe even the 1st of the year.
So my first stop was to drop off a laptop at a client’s office that I had worked on. They were at lunch, but luckily I know where the spare key is hidden.
Then it was off to the same client’s home office to drop off the computer that I bought at Fry’s yesterday. I’ll come back after Christmas and get it set up and everything moved over from the old one.
Next up was a stop to another client’s office to figure out why their Carbonite online backup wasn’t. As it turned out, they had started to restore a couple of files, but then decided they didn’t need to. The problem was that when you start to do a restore, Carbonite freezes the backup process to be sure they don’t overwrite a file that you’re trying to restore.
What they failed to do was unfreeze the backup process, so one mouse click and the problem was fixed. I love problems like this.
My last stop was the house to pick up some packages that had come, and then it was back to the rig for the afternoon.
About 4pm Jan and I headed over to Dickinson to have dinner at the local KFC, as I was pining for a Double Down Sandwich.
The Double Down is a sandwich made from bacon, two kinds of cheese, and secret sauce, sandwiched between two pieces of Original Recipe chicken fillets. So you’ve got meat and cheese between two pieces of meat. Now that’s a sandwich!
And it’s delicious!
And now for some completely useless personal trivia about Col. Sanders and KFC.
I had the pleasure of meeting Col. Sanders in 1967, when I started working during the summer at a new Kentucky Fried Chicken that was opening in our area. In fact it was the first one in north Alabama.
Although he sold the company in 1964, he still visited every new store that opened, checking up on things, and being sure that we were trained correctly.
He was very particular about the gravy, and in fact said the gravy was his favorite part. He publically boasted that his gravy was “so good you can throw the chicken away and eat the gravy,”
He was so particular about this that when Heublein, Inc., the next company that owned KFC, dropped his secret gravy recipe because they thought it was too much trouble for a fast food chain, he described the new gravy as “wallpaper paste with added sludge”.
In 1973 Heublein unsuccessfully sued him for libel, so I guess he was right about it.
Now, as far as the “11 different herbs and spices”, lab tests done in the 1980’s showed no herbs, and only salt, pepper, and MSG in the breading.
This was probably another thing that got dropped by Heublein, along with the gravy. I know that KFC chicken does not taste as good as I remember it. Maybe this is why.
I do know that in 1967 we mixed up the coating in a 30 gallon plastic trash can using a boat paddle. We started with a 50# bag of flour, a large bag of salt, and a couple of cups of black pepper. The 11 different herbs and spices came in a silver foil packet about the size of the paperback book.
When you tore it open and mixed it into the flour, it smelled like a spice shop had exploded. So there was definitely herbs and spices in there in 1967.
One of those guys that tries to recreate recipes came up with this list.
1 teaspoon ground oregano
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground sage
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon onion salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons Accent (an MSG-based seasoning)
People in the know say this is pretty close.
Now for one last tidbit. At one time, Miss America was one of only 9 people in the world who knew what the 11 different herbs and spices were.
That was Miss America 1971, Phyllis George, who was then married to John Y. Brown, Jr., former Governor of Kentucky. Brown is the one who bought KFC from the Col. Sanders in 1964 for $2 million (He sold it to Heublein seven years later for $287 million. Not a bad deal.)
And knowing that recipe, that Heublein was no longer using, it may only be a fluke that in 1986, she came out with her own line of “By George” chicken fillets. They were apparently so good that two years later she sold the company for a very large sum of money to Hormel Foods.
Coincidence? You decide.
Finally heading home, I made a Home Depot stop to get some more silicone caulk. I’ve got a small leak about a window that I want to take care of.
December 19, 2013
Guitar Man (Men) . . .
I spent most of the morning going through some bins and throwing stuff away that had been accumulating since before our gate guarding adventure. If the weather hadn’t been so sucky I might have worked on the outside bins for a while too. But it was blowing rain most of the day as the front came through.
I recently got a couple of photos of my great-nieces up in North Alabama. First up is Stahlie.
and this is Darby.
Growing up on a farm and being homeschooled really agrees with them. They’re both smart and beautiful.
When we were at Chili’s yesterday, I found this beautiful Chevy coupe out in the parking lot. Don’t know what year it is.
A little before 6 we headed up 146 to La Brisa to meet our son Chris and daughter-in-law Linda, along with fellow RV’ers and gate guards, Dick and Judy Mott
Besides getting together with family and good friends, we wanted to get Dick and Chris together, because as it turns out, they’re both into building Cigar Box Guitars.
Here’s some of Dick’s.
It was really fun to see them trading ideas back and forth at the table, and then later out in the parking lot, showing off their creations to each other.
Hopefully we’ll have a chance to get together with Dick and Judy again before they leave. We all had a great time.
Tomorrow night we’re going to the Christmas Show at the Alvin Opry. We’ve been going since the late 90’s and always have a great time, Seems like the favorite part is always everyone trying to sing “The 12 Days of Christmas” and keep it straight.
December 19, 2014
Charge!
After coffee and muffins this morning, I went next door to check in on our next door neighbor Randy and his batteries.
Yesterday he came over with a problem with his chassis and engine batteries. Although he had been here for several days, and was plugged into shore power, his 12v batteries, both chassis and engine, were going dead.
After spending a little while looking at the setup in his 2001 Monaco Diplomat, the only thing I could see was that his Magnatek Converter was turned off at the control panel. And turning it on seemed to start the batteries coming back up. He said he hadn’t turned it off, so I thought he may have bumped with his shoulder since it’s in the hallway.
But when I went back over to check this afternoon, he was still having problems. He said later in the evening the converter switched off and the batteries dropped back down. He had been on the phone with an RV Electrical Tech who was having him check all of the big heavy-duty fuses in the electrical bay by putting a voltmeter across them. The tech thought maybe the batteries weren’t being charged because the 250 amp fuse between the converter and the batteries had blown.
If a fuse has power on it and you put a voltmeter across it, the meter should read 0.0 volts. If the fuse is bad, you should read ~12volts. But all of the fuses, especially the big 250amp one, read good. But once Randy moved out of the way, I got a closer look at the fuse and saw the problem.
The 2/0 cable came from the output of the Magnatek converter to one side of the fuse block, just as it should. But the other end of the fuse went nowhere. There was a stud with a nut and lockwasher on it, but nothing was connected to it. And the nut was loose.
So the power converter was not connected to the coach at all. And apparently hadn’t been since he bought the rig a short time ago. I think only thing that kept him going was the 3 big solar panels on his roof. But the last 3 or 4 days have been overcast and rainy without any sun, so it finally caught up with him.
He has a setup I haven’t seen before. His house batteries are six 12volt batteries, arrange in two banks of three batteries, with these two banks in parallel. But each set of the three batteries are housed in a black plastic box with a set of terminals at one end and two water fill caps for each battery. The internal connections paralleling the three batteries are all internal to the plastic box. No problem, just different.
I then started tracing out cables, trying to figure out where the missing cable was that was supposed to go from the fuse block to the battery, but it wasn’t there. There was no loose or unused cable. But as I was looking, something kept nagging at me about the way everything was wired up. Then it hit me.
The first thing I saw that that both the engine batteries and the house were wired directly together with a big 2/0 cable. Right off the bat, this explained why both sets of batteries were being pulled down. Normally there is a isolator between the two sets to prevent this from happening, so that if you run you house batteries down, you can still start your engine or generator to recharge them. But not wired up this way.
On the back of the compartment I saw the isolator mounted on the wall. In this case it looks to be pretty much a standard automotive starter solenoid. And it was wired up, but for some reason it was wired between the two banks of HOUSE batteries, not between the house batteries and the engine batteries.
WTH?
In looking at the cable length, it looked like the short cable now going from the isolator to the house battery bank should go instead over to the unconnected end of the fuse block. This would get the converter output in to the battery banks.Then it looked like the long 2/0 cable going from the engine batteries to the house batteries should instead go to the isolator.
To try and set this right, I disconnected the short cable from the isolator and touched it to the stud on the fuse block, getting the expected spark. And as I held it in place, I could hear the converter whining as it ramped up to try and charge these almost dead batteries. So far, so good.
But then I encountered another problem. The hole in the lug on the end of the cable was slightly too small to fit over the fuse block stud. So where ever it had been, it had not been here originally. But I was able to wedge the lug onto the stud enough to hold it in place, and it was charging the batteries which was the most important thing right now.
And that’s where we left things for now, as I had to get ready for Jan and I to head down to Alvin for the Alvin Opry Christmas Show.
As far as what happened here, I don’t know. Some of the solar installation stuff looks kind of ‘kludgey’, so maybe it got screwed up during that installation.
Or maybe someone who didn’t know what he was doing, tried to change out batteries or something, and got lost and hooked things back up wrong.
Or maybe more likely, the battery isolator circuit or controller had died, and they were trying to make things so that the engine batteries would be charged as well as the house batteries. But they ended up screwing things up so nothing was being charged on shore power, only from solar, the genset, or the engine.
What I want to know is how a dealer let this get off his lot this way.
Oh, and I want to know who the dealer is so I can stay as far away from him as possible……
December 19, 2015
Cornbread and Coconut . . .
Jan and I hit the walking trail again this morning, extending our distance to 0.92 miles according to the RunKeeper app on my phone. When we come back here in two weeks I’ve mapped out another trail that will push us up to about 1.25 miles.
Looking at the site map it doesn’t look like Lake Conroe TT has any discreet walking/hiking trails. Instead it seems they have a path marked out along the park roads, I guess hoping you don’t get run over by a golf cart or an RV. But if the weather holds, we’ll keep walking while we’re at Lake Conroe, and then back here at Colorado River.
For our post-walk coffee and English muffins, we sat outside for a while enjoying the warm sun, and watching the deer down in the field.
We really hope we’re lucky enough to get this site when we come back in two weeks.
Finally coming inside, Jan started putting together a batch of her Famous King Ranch Chicken in the slow-cooker, and I made some phone calls setting up some food for our Christmas dinner.
First up was the Fish Pond Restaurant in Willis so we can pick up one of their great Coconut Cream pies for Christmas dessert, and then I called the Cracker Barrel up in Conroe to order some of their delicious Cornbread Dressing and Giblet Gravy that we’ll pick up Thursday on the way to our Christmas Eve get-together.
With everyone scattered around between Conroe, Friendswood, and Katy, and Lowell’s parents coming in from Oklahoma, we’re trying to keep the whole ‘cooking’ thing as simple as possible.
Next up I went back outside to get a jump on our move to Lake Conroe TT tomorrow morning. First thing, I checked my tire pressures and found them all OK. These Ironman tires that we got after our blow-out in Arizona this past summer, really hold air well. Except for adding or releasing air to allow for summer/fall temperature changes, I’ve never had add any air since we bought these tires in Prescott, AZ this past summer.
Next up I packed away the chairs and other stuff into the toad, and then dumped the waste tanks. When that was done, I went ahead and disconnected us from shore water and stowed all the hoses. This means that tomorrow morning I will only have to stow the satellite dome and unplug shore power, and we’ll be ready to roll. Finally, having walked almost a mile this morning, and then accomplished so much around the rig, I rewarded myself with a nice little nap.
While I was asleep, our friend Janice Evans dropped by to visit with Jan for a while, I slept through it all. Nice!
After that I remember that I had bought some hooks at the hardware store to use on my truck floor mats. While we were on the gate, I had used my grommet kit to install some grommets on my floor mats.
They keep sliding forward and scrunching up under the pedals, so I wanted to fix that. I looked around for the right hooks, but they were all either too small, or too weak. Finally I found some coat hooks that look like they’d do the job.
It was quick work to screw them into the floor board and get them ready to use. I had already checked with a Dodge dealer to be sure there were no wires or hoses running underneath that I might puncture, so i was OK there.
And here’s what it looks like with the mats in place.
Although they are kind of ‘white’, they’re actually up under the seat so they’re really not easily visible. We’ll see how they’ll hold up.
Following up with my shower leak repair, it looks like whatever leak I had is gone. Here’s what leaked out after four showers.
Absolutely nothing.
I’ll keep the foam bowl in place for a while, especially to see what happens after we travel tomorrow.
We’ll plan on heading out to Lake Conroe TT, 120 miles away, tomorrow morning around 10am. Being Sunday, we shouldn’t have much trouble in the way of traffic, but you never know with Houston traffic.
December 19, 2016
A One Cat Night . . .
Our temp made it down to 28 degrees last night, but didn’t cause us any problems since I had disconnected our shore power earlier. I also turned on the lights in our basement compartments to add some extra heat to our water bay just in case.
We don’t use heaters in our bedroom on cold night, instead relying on our Touch of Class heated mattress pad that we bought at Sam’s Club in 2010, and it’s worth great ever since.
With its dual controls, we turn it on an hour or so before bedtime so it’s warm and toasty when slip under the covers. And Karma has discovered that the bed is warm, so she’s already waiting us on the bed and then snuggles up at our feet, or on our feet, sometimes.
About 1:30 Jan and I headed out for the afternoon. Our first stop was at Lone Star Real Estate to pick up our Amazon orders and also drop off a plate of Jan’s Christmas cookies for Nancy Christian, who also owns our RV park. A really nice lady.
Then it was on to Bella Sera, our favorite local Italian, or ‘EyeTalian’ place as they say here in Kenedy, TX. Besides having another delicious pizza,
we also dropped off a plate of Jan’s cookies for Candace, our favorite local waitress.
After our usual great meal, and leftovers for later, our next stop was right up the road at Great Clips for my quadannual haircut, which obviously didn’t take long at all.
After my clip job it was off to the nearby HEB to retrieve a lost package of Hawaiian Savory Butter Rolls. We purchased a package of them yesterday but they never followed us home. So I went back today to see if maybe they didn’t even make it into our cart.
As it turned out they hadn’t, and had been turned in. So we got our missing rolls as well as a second package for our trouble. Nice!
Then after gas and a car wash, our last stop was at the PO to send off the last of our Christmas Priority Mail envelopes. Finally getting home, we delivered the last of the cookies to our fellow gate guards on either side of us, and we were done.
A couple of things that came in our Amazon orders this afternoon were upgrades to our Ozark Trail Mug.
I got a tighter-fitting lid that also seals the drinking spout,
and a nice handle too.
Tomorrow and Wednesday we’ll probably just stay around the rig and goof off until I’m back on a gate Thursday night.
December 19, 2017
Have You Seen Enough . . .
Today was pretty much an errand day, with lunch to start it off.
And that lunch was at one of our favorites, King Food. But we had a secondary reason and that was to let them know that we’ll be coming there Sunday, Christmas Eve, with a group of 15 or so family members. We’ll be eating at 4:30 so we can head down to the Houston Magical Lights in La Marque.
Then it was over to my client’s office to drop off some mail in the outgoing box and set up a system image backup on one of the machines. I’ll start it from home later tonight so it will be done tomorrow morning.
Next up was the Supercuts right down the street for Jan to get her hair cut. I was glad to see she had a smile on her face when she came out. That mean she was happy with it. Sometimes she’s not and I can tell by her look.
After that it was quick stop by our son Chris’ for our mail, and then it was over to the Lego Store in Baybrook Mall to buy a Lego motor repair tool. Or at least the parts to make one. Brandi gave me Landon’s Lego motor to repair this past Sunday so I wanted to get it fixed before Christmas.
It has a broken wire where the power cable enters the motor housing. It looked to be easy to fix . . .if I could get the motor apart. So I went to the ultimate resource – Google. And I found a number of videos illustrating just the type of repair that I needed.
But . . . there’s always a ‘but’, right? But all the videos used other Lego parts to get the motor apart.
They use a gear with 3 axles to press into the motor housing which releases the internal tabs and lets the motor case come apart. So I figured the Lego store would have the gear and the axles that I needed.
But turns out they didn’t have them. The reason is that all the motors and gear stuff are actually Technics parts and not ‘Lego’ parts. And the store sells Technics motor kits and other things, they don’t sell individual Technics parts like they sell Lego parts.
So I’ll have to improvise something.
Next up was a haircut for me at Lou’s Barber Shop where I’ve been going for about 30 years. I don’t even have to tell him what I want. I just sit down. After all he does have all my haircut records.
Kroger was our next stop, right down the street, for a few things, plus a couple of Lottery tickets for the upcoming PowerBall and Mega Million’s drawings. Both are over $220 Million, with the PB at $269 million and MM at $223 million.
I’m feeling lucky.
Our last stop was Cracker Barrel, not to eat, to order a big pan of their delicious Cornbread Dressing to be picked up Thursday for Christmas dinner on Monday.
With the urging of my SIL Debbie, I finally finished the Family Group Shop from this summer’s family reunion at Brandi’s. Jim, my BIL, and I weren’t in the photo because we were both taking pictures, and Annisten was down for a map. So I wanted to add us all in later.
I started with this.
And ended up with this.
Of course the finished version doesn’t have the arrows.
A couple of nights ago we DVR’d the ‘A Christmas Story’ musical on FOX, and tonight we thought we’d start watching it. I figured we probably wouldn’t get all the way through it since it was 3 hours long, but at least make a start
We had heard the reviews weren’t very good, but thought we’d give it a try ourselves. But as it turns our, the reviews were right.
We were 6 minutes in when Jan said, “Have you seen enough?” I laughed and said I was done at 4 minutes, but I just wanted to see how long she would last.
One of the online reviewers said he was going to have to watch all 24 hours of the ‘A Christmas Story’ movie marathon to get the musical out of his memory.
December 19, 2018
I’ve Been Fuch’d . . . Maybe
Yesterday we started off with brunch at our favorite The Egg and I about 1:30 and then it was on up to the Coastal Eye Associates office in the Almeda Mall area just inside the Sam Houston Tollway.
We got there about 2:45, unsure if my appointment was for 3 or 3:30. The appointment card they gave me at my last visit said it was at 3:30, but the robo-call I got on Monday said it was for 3pm.
And the receptionist confirmed it was for 3pm, so of course they didn’t call me in until 20 minutes till 4. Then I spent about an hour being cycled through just about every diagnostic machine in the large office. Then it was back to the waiting room until the doctor could finally see me.
But when he did, he didn’t like the way the scans were done. So it was back around the track again, this time with some gunk in my left eye that felt like heavy weight bearing grease. My nurse, Jennifer, said the doctor sometimes liked to do the tests himself, and he did several this go-round too.
Then it was back out to the waiting room for awhile. By now it was after 5pm and we were still going strong. Finally I was called back in to the doctor’s office to get the diagnosis.
And it was Fuchs’ Dystrophy . . . possibily . . . maybe?
Fuchs’ Dystrophy is a problem where some of the cells of the thin endothelial layer on the inside of the cornea start to die off. This can cause swelling of the cornea leading to blurriness and problems with glare.
And of course I have to buck the trend, since it normally affects more women than men, and usually affects both eyes, And it’s usually inherited and smoking is a factor. But, as far as I know, none of my parents or grandparents had the problem.
When I got my new glasses back in September, the best my left eye could be corrected to was 20/100, while my right eye corrected to 20/20 with no problems. But as the doctor mumbled something about Sam’s Club optometrists, he said that when he checked it, it was corrected to 20/50.
He also said that the problem is very slow progressing, and might not be a real problem before I . . . well, die.
For people who have severe problems with it, i.e., they’re blind, there are only two real solutions – A cornea transplant using a donor cornea, or Descemet’s membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) which is a less-invasive method of just replacing the endothelial layer itself through a small slit in the bottom of the eye.
As for right now, I’ve got some steroid drops for my eyes 4 times a day for a couple of weeks to see if that affects the swelling at all. There’s also the possibility of a soft contact lens that might alleviate the problem somewhat. But that’s all down the road.
For my part I’m just hoping the problem progresses slow enough that I really don’t have to do anything about until it . . . well, I die.
Tomorrow morning Jan and I are heading up to the Spring area to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt, Janice and Dave Evans, Judy and Dick Mott, and maybe others, at the EL Palenque Mexican Restaurant there.
December 19, 2019
The Power Of Peppers . . .
I woke up feeling a lot better today, hardly coughing any last night, so I slept a lot better than last night. And whatever was in my head seemed to be breaking up.
Personally I attribute it to ‘The Power of Peppers’.
Normally we would have eaten at home last night, but with my fuzzy head, I managed to come home from work minus my cellphone. Usually, before I turn out the light in my office I take one last look to be sure I’m forgetting anything. But somehow I didn’t see it laying right there on my desk.
So I called Jennifer to ask her to bring it home with her, since she lives close by. But when I thought about going by her house a couple of hours later, I decided that I needed more encouragement to leave the rig,
So I told Jan to get dressed and that we would pick up my phone and then head on over to Yummy Yummy’s for dinner. When we got to Jennifer’s and I got my phone, I invited her to go with us, but she already had dinner on the stove.
Usually here I have a plate of the boiled shrimp, but the way my throat felt, I thought some Hot & Sour Soup would hit the spot. Emphasis on the ‘HOT’. So before I filled my bowl, actually a large cup, I dumped in some of their Hot Spicy Chicken before ladling the soup on top of it.
And if that wasn’t enough, I dumped some of my Carolina Reaper flakes into the cup. At this point I think my soup was pretty much just bubbling all on its own. It burned like crazy going down, but my throat quickly felt better.
Or maybe just numb.
But it did feel so good, I had a second bowl.
And it’s not just me. Check this out.
Eating Chili Peppers May Save Your Life
And whether it was the peppers, or just time, I did feel much better this morning and seemed to be pretty much back to normal.
For lunch today, Jan wanted her Turkey & Dressing fix so we stopped off at the Webster Cracker Barrel on our way out. It’s looks like we’ll be having a non-traditional (no Turkey & Dressing) Christmas Dinner at Brandi’s this year, so Jan didn’t want to miss out.
For me, I had a House Salad, and then a plate of their Beans & Greens. Always good and one of my favorites.
Delicious!
December 19, 2020
Can You Die Of Loneliness?
As I mentioned in today’s earlier post, my Aunt Virginia died this morning, from as my cousin said, probably loneliness and a broken heart.
And that ‘loneliness’ I heard in her voice on the phone, is why we had planned to be up in Athens this past week. She had been begging us to come up and see her since late summer, but we held off hoping the flu situation would slack off. But when it didn’t we were planning to make the trip anyway.
But when she mentioned that we were coming up to see her to her doctor, he really chewed her out about it. And when she called to tell us, she was so upset she was crying.
And now we’re so sorry we canceled.
Virginia (I always called her Ninny because I couldn’t pronounce Virginia when I was little) was an amazing woman.
Yes, that’s me, with Virginia and my uncle Theo. This was the summer of 1949 when I was about 9 months old. See I did have hair once upon a time.
She was about 21 at the time.
How many women with a high-school diploma do you know that could start out as the secretary to a bank manager, and then end up many years later as President of the bank and Chairman of the Board of Directors, with a college degree?
And this wasn’t some podunk local Alabama bank, but First Federal Savings & Loan, a nation-wide banking system.
Ninny was just one of those people that everyone liked, or loved.
My cousin Marjorie said that Ninny was really upset Friday when she found out about Aunt Janis passing, but Marjorie finally got her calmed down and she seemed OK.
But when she went by Ninny’s house this morning to see her, there were police, an ambulance, and more telling, the coroner’s van outside her house.
I don’t know for certain, but I assume that the lady who looks in on her several times a day found her this morning. And no word yet on what happened.
Maybe just as my cousin said, “Loneliness and a Broken Heart.”
She was 92.
Much loved, and greatly missed. A remarkable women.
December 19, 2021
Braving The Crowds . . .
After yesterday’s front came through, bringing rain, thunder, and lightning, and much colder temps, today stayed in the 50’s with a lot of sun. Very nice!
We headed out for lunch a little before 1pm, with Gator’s on our menu. Jan got the Grilled Chicken Sandwich rather than her usual Strawberry Walnut Salad.
I did a repeat on our last visit, getting the Egg in the Hole BLT Bagel.
And of course we both got their Sweet Potato Fries.
As usual we finished off by sharing one of their Keto Blueberry Muffins, heated of course.
Then it was on up the feeder to WalMart.
Yes, we were braving WalMart during Christmas week. And it wasn’t all that bad. It was busy, but not a lot busier than a typical Sunday. And on the plus side they had a lot more checkouts open.
Even more on the plus side, this was our first WM visit where I was actually able to get a parking space in a handicapped space.
Next up it was right across the Interstate to HEB for a few more things. And again I was able to get a handicapped space for the first time there too.
It’s the little things.
It became pretty obvious that once she sat in it that I was going to have to share my new chair with Jan.
But now it looks like we’re both going to have to share it with Karma.
It has become her new favorite place to nap.
A Mistake or Fraud?
Lunch today was at Yummy Yummy, our great local Chinese Buffet place. And it was just as good as always.
And very busy.
Then it was on up the feeder to the HEB for some stuff. Some of it for Christmas Day dishes Jan and I are going to take up to Brandi’s on Sunday, Christmas Day. And it seemed that we weren’t the only ones prepping for the big day. The place was really busy.
Next up, and last up, was a quick stop at the Santa Fe PO to pick up the latest tranche of Christmas cards, finally getting home about 3:30.
I did get a couple of other things in the mail, one was from the Social Security people letting me know how much my SS check will go up next year. On the face of it, a nice jump until I take into the consideration all the increases in pretty much everything we buy. In fact I’m pretty sure if I totaled it all up, we’re still falling behind.
The other letter was from Medicare about a recent charge to my account. I figured that it would be for my recent 1 year evaluation on my Cervical Spine Fusion or the MRI/X-Rays I had last week.
But instead it was for a for a “Receiver (monitor), dedicated for use with therapeutic glucose continuous monitor system”. In other words, a glucose monitoring system for someone with diabetics. Which I don’t have.
And the charge came from West Lake RX LLC in San Antonio, TX, and ordered by someone named Michael O Olatunji.
Neither of whom I ever heard of.
So either this is a mistake, or deliberate fraud. Either way it’s not mine, so I’ll put a call tomorrow to the Medicare Fraud Hotline and let them know.
So far it looks like we may have dodge a bullet on the Big Arctic Freeze around here. Right now we’re looking at a low of 21° on Thursday, and 25° on Friday, with a 30° low on Saturday. So hopefully Sunday will be even warmer.
But the big help is that there’s no rain in the forecast, so no ice.
But of course, that means no snow for Christmas either.
Bummer!
I’m going to put in a quick call tomorrow morning to see how our Jeep rebuild is doing. Hopefully it will be ready soon.
Thought for the Day:
A few years ago Corpus Christi had to shut down their city water system because of the release of less than 25 gallons of Indoline from a Valero asphalt plant in the industrial area. Apparently a 3rd party contractor opened the wrong valve.
What’s interesting about all this is that at the Valero plant Indoline is used as an asphalt ‘emulsifier’, in other words, to make it creamy. Strangely enough it’s also in common use in women’s cosmetics and anti-aging products for the same reason.
So it’s bad for your stomach, but OK to rub on your face.
December 18, 2010
Landon’s First Christmas . . .
Since we didn’t get home from the Alvin Opry until after 1am, we both slept really late this morning, with Jan getting up after 9. And I didn’t get up until about 10:30.
I fixed coffee and we just enjoyed life for a while. Later Jan wrapped Christmas presents and I worked on de-virifying another client’s computer.
About 3 I decided it was a good time for a nap, and it was a good one.
At 5 we headed up to Webster to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at King Food for a early Christmas Eve dinner.
It’s a family tradition that every Christmas Eve we have dinner at King Food, and we’ve been doing it for about 25 years. In fact we’ve been eating there since we first moved to Houston in 1978. And we’re actually on our 4th owners, but lucky for us they’ve all kept the same great menu.
But this is the first year we won’t all be together here in Houston. We now have to share Brandi with Lowell’s family in Oklahoma.
So this year we’re having two Christmas Eve dinners. One tonight because Brandi, Lowell, and Landon are leaving Wednesday to spend Christmas with Lowell’s family in Paul’s Valley, OK. And then another one with Chris, Linda, and Piper next Friday on the other Christmas Eve.
But Landon wasn’t very impressed with the whole tradition. He slept through the whole thing.
After dinner we went over to Brandi’s to exchange gifts, and got to see Landon’s first Christmas tree.
And he was fascinated by it.
About 8:30 Santa came by on a firetruck giving out candy to the waiting kids. This is something that the local volunteer fire department has done for the kids in the subdivision for as long as I can remember. And the kids turn out for it every year.
Landon couldn’t take his eyes off Santa and the firetruck. But he wasn’t letting go of dinner, either.
Chris and Piper came over for a while to visit with Landon. Unfortunately Linda had to work tonight, so she couldn’t be with us.
December 18, 2011
Christmas Trees and Christmas Cookies . . .
Today we wanted a quiet laidback day so we started off by having breakfast about 11 at IHOP. We’ve been eating here for a long time and it’s always nice to run into waiters/waitresses who remember us from last year.
Leaving IHOP we drove across the parking to Home Depot for a couple of things before ending up at Wal-Mart, where Jan was stocking up on supplies for her Christmas cookie baking marathon later this week. Then it was home for the afternoon.
On another note, we finally got our Christmas trees set up this week.
The inside one,
and the outside one.
Hey, it’s Texas, what can I say.
Since we’re always here for Christmas, we leave everything in our storeroom here and don’t have to lug it around.
Later in the afternoon, Jan fell asleep on the sofa, so I decided a nap was also in order for me.
That certainly was two hours well spent.
About 6pm we headed up to Seabrook to have supper at Hooter’s for a batch of XXX hot wings. Too bad we didn’t wait until Tuesday.
Tuesday is Sexy Santa Day!
But since Tuesday is also Bingo Night, it’s probably not going to happen.
Tomorrow looks to be another day of clients and errands with some Christmas shopping thrown in for good measure.
December 18, 2012
Gunsmoke and Dragnet . . .
Today ended up being a ‘errand’ day, but started with lunch at Monterey’s Little Mexico for some Chicken Tortilla Soup, and also to catch up with Julie, a waitress there that we’ve known for a long time. She only works the lunch shift Monday thru Friday, so we don’t get to see her when we go there for dinner.
After that, our next stop was Fry’s Electronics so I could pick up a new computer for a client. I was looking for one that still had Windows 7 on it, but they’re getting to be scarce. However I did find a Acer on sale that will fill the bill. Fry’s had it for $800, which is a good deal since Amazon has it for over $1100.
Next up was a stop at Catherine’s so Jan could get a Christmas theme blouse to wear for several upcoming events. We did have to drive through the Baybrook Mall area, but it turned out to be not too bad.
Then after a quick stop at Brandi and Lowell’s to check our mail, our next stop was a client’s to stomp out a couple of problems.
Later, on the way home, I dropped Jan off to get her hair done while I went across the street to the Kemah Post Office to buy Christmas stamps and get our cards in the mail.
A while back I came across a really neat website for whiling away those late night hours. It’s located here.
http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/oldradio.html
It’s a link to pretty much every old time radio show there ever was. As a kid in the early 50’s, I remember listening to Gunsmoke and Dragnet sitting around the radio, and these bring back a lot of memories.
And now for some completely useless Gunsmoke trivia. On the radio version, Matt Dillon was played by William Conrad, later of Cannon, Nero Wolfe, and Jake and the Fatman fame. A fighter pilot during WWII, he was thought to be too portly (fat) for the TV role, which ended up going to James Arness, after a recommendation from John Wayne.
Also on the radio show, Doc Adams was played by Howard McNear, who went on to fame as Floyd the Barber on The Andy Griffith Show.
See, I told you it was useless.
December 18, 2013
Mister Fixed My Shower Leak . . .
Well, maybe he didn’t fix it, but he did help me find it. Turns out that there was a gap between the floor plan and sidewall that only showed up when there was someone in the shower. But standing up in the shower you couldn’t see the gap.
So the other day when I was down on my knees outside the shower checking for leaks, curious Mister was in the shower, and his weight was enough to show the crack. So as a temporary test I put a strip of Gorilla Tape over it and left it a couple of days to be sure that was the problem. And it was. No more leak.
Sometime in the next few days I’ll re-caulk it.
Thanks, Mister.
Today was really nice, with temps in the mid 60’s and a lot of sun, so Jan and I did a 1/2 mile walk around the park. The last time we walked regularly was back in April when we were in Apache Junction, and it felt good to be doing it again. We’ll do a few days at 1/2 mile and then start working our way up to the 1-1/2 miles we’ve done in the past.
After our walk, Jan and I, along with Mister, sat outside and enjoyed our coffee and muffins. Well, Mister didn’t have coffee and muffins. He just found a warm sunbeam, curled up, and went to sleep.
Around 3:30 Jan and I headed up to Kemah, dropping off our last Christmas card at the PO, before dropping Jan off to get her haircut. Then we headed across the parking lot for dinner at Chili’s. For dessert we split a piece of their new Pumpkin Spice Lava Cake. Really, really, really good.
If you feel the need for speed, check this Hennessey C7 Corvette as it hit 200 MPH on a Houston, Texas Toll Road. The Corvette is stock except for the Hennessey 600 HP upgrade plus the 100 HP Nitrous Express Kit, for a total of 700 HP. Well, the suspension and brakes are stock, anyway.
200 MPH on a Texas Toll Road
The run took place on December 11, 2013 on a new section of Toll Road that’s due to be opened this coming Saturday.
Wonder if the EZ-Tags still work at 200 MPH?
December 18, 2014
Thanks, John . . .
It was overcast and cool all day, so we just stayed in, and stayed warm. I worked on client website stuff while Jan read the latest Ken Follett book, The Edge of Eternity,
which she says is really good. It’s the 3rd book in his Century Trilogy and Jan says all 3 books are great.
Later in the afternoon, I walked next door to say “Hi” to Randy. Turns out he’s completely new to RVing, so he was happy to have any new information he could get.
Reader John Heisler suggested that I might want to try muriatic acid on my drilling mud problem on my rig roof. He thought that since the mud is clay-based (bentonite), that an acid might dissolve it like muriatic acid is used to clean cement grout off tile.
I could see what he was thinking and thought I’d give it a try, especially since I was running out of ideas. But being cheap, and not wanting to drive into town and buy a bottle of muriatic acid that might not work, I decided to give it a try with an acid that I had on hand: Vinegar
If I hadn’t had vinegar, I could have also tried orange juice or Coca-Cola.
Taking Jan’s bottle of vinegar that she uses for the laundry, I soaked a paper work towel in it, and wetted down an area of the roof, let it set for about a minute, and then used the same towel to wipe it off.
And it started coming off.
A few minutes of wiping gave me this.
Success at last!
It will take a little extra scrubbing, but I’ll probably just use vinegar rather than muriatic acid. Muriatic acid is pretty nasty stuff and would have to be diluted with water anyway, so I’ll just stick with vinegar to start.
Thanks, John.
For dinner tonight, Jan fixed Ham & Cheese Biscuits, a dish she fixed a couple of time while we were gate guarding. She bakes up a tube of Pillsbury Grands! Biscuits, then when they’re done, she stuffs 4 of them with layers of ham and cheese and pops them back in the oven for a few minutes. They come out piping hot and full of melted cheesy, hammy goodness. Two biscuits along with some of the Baked Potato Salad I got at the HEB, made for a great dinner.
Later we had a slice of Edwards Pumpkin Pie. Not quite as good as homemade, but really good anyway. Especially when you add more whipped cream.
Tomorrow we’ll leave about 3pm to make the trip down to Alvin, TX to see the annual Alvin Opry Christmas Show. We’ve been going for about 15 years and never miss it. Plus it’s a chance to catch up with a lot of old friends.
But first we’re going down early enough to meet our long-time friends, Bob and Maria, for dinner at the Kelley’s there in Alvin.
Really looking forward to it.
December 18, 2015
Cabo and Conroe . . .
Jan and I walked again this morning, this time doing one of the walking paths that circle the park, upping our distance to 0.88 miles from yesterday’s 0.80. We did come across a lot of deer today, as the warm sun made it nice, even though it was only in the 50’s.
We’ll try to bump it up a little more tomorrow, which will be the last day we’ll walk here, since we leave here for Lake Conroe Thousand Trails on Sunday.
I had started our coffee brewing before we left, so all I had to do when we got back was to pour it into our mugs, and start the pumpkin bread toasting. Then we sat outside for a while, just in time for Janice and Dave Evans to walk by. Taking a break, they sat down for a while as we talked over our past and upcoming travels, but finally Dave’s chores beckoned too strongly, and they headed back to their rig.
After working for while on some computer stuff, about 1pm I walked next door to Bonnie and Vance Clegg’s to see if they wanted to meet us at Los Cabos this evening, but they’d just finished up with lunch, and said they wouldn’t be hungry by 4. But we did start talking before Jan wondered what happened to me and came over too. By the time we headed home, it was about 3pm. Time flies when RV’er get together.
About 4pm Jan and I drove around the circle to pick up our friend Randy to have dinner in Columbus at Los Cabos Mexican Restaurant, our favorite local Mexican place, actually our only local Mexican place. But we’ve never had a bad meal here.
They have all the basics, good chips and salsa, good iced tea, and good service. Oh, and the food’s really good too.
Jan had the Stuffed Avocado, stuffed with fajita beef and cheese, and also a beef fajita taco, and a cup of tortilla soup.
I had the Grilled Fajita Chicken Salad, with their homemade Ranch dressing.
Both really good!
I spent some time going over ideas about boondocking with Randy. He’s planning on boondocking for about 5 days the first part of next year, but he hasn’t done it before, so he wanted to get some tips.
Heading home I stopped off the hardware store to pick up a rotary file or hasp. I need to open up a hole in the inside metal wall of the coach. I was looking for one 5/8” in diameter, but the only thing they stocked were the Dremel size ones, which would be too small. So it’s off to Lowe’s when we get to Conroe.
Getting back to the park, we stopped off at the rig for a couple of minutes before we headed down to the C loop to visit with Janice and Dave Evans.
And as usual, several hours went by before we realized it, and it was after 8pm before we got back to the rig.
December 18, 2016
Christmas in the ‘Patch’ . . .
or at least that’s what’s scheduled right now anyway.
Todd texted us this morning with four days (or nights, really) of gates for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so it’s Christmas in the ‘Patch’ for us this year.
Looks like Santa will have to track us down here in Kenedy this year.
As the cold front rolled in starting last night, the winds really picked up, rocking the coach and flapping the awnings. And sometime around 1:30am it also upended our Winegard Satellite dish and the stand it sits on.
But luckily, when I set it back up and told it to rescan, the signal came right up.
Whew!
About 12:30 Jan and I drove into Kenedy to have the Turkey & Dressing/Fried Chicken Buffet at Barth’s, one of our favorite meals there.
If we weren’t scheduled to work on Christmas Day, we had planned to drive into Katy to spent the day with Brandi and her family, and maybe Chris and Linda. Miss Piper will be working a double at UTMB in Galveston.
But since we’ll be here in Kenedy for Christmas Day we arranged to pick up Christmas dinner from Barth’s. But we’ll have to do that on Friday before 2pm since they close for the holiday then.
So since I’ll be working nights we’ll have lunch there on Friday (Chicken Fried Steak Strips/Fried Catfish) and pick up our Christmas dinners then.
According to my outside thermometer here at the rig, the temp topped out at 39° today, never making it up the forecasted 42. And the scheduled low temp for tonight, originally 29°, has been slipping all day and now is at 26°.
So I did the prudent thing and disconnected and drained our Zero G water hose, switching us over to our rig’s fresh water tank for the night. We’ve been down to 21° a few years ago down at Galveston Bay RV Park in Dickinson, and 6° in Garrison, MT in 2008, so I don’t expect any problems. But we’ll see.
We finished up the last of our Christmas shopping after lunch, and will get them off by Priority Mail tomorrow. They all be there by Thursday, but if not, we’ve still got a few extra days leeway.
December 18, 2018
The Eyes Have It . . .
After almost 4 hours at the ophthalmologist’s office, getting pretty much every test on every machine they have, and a few I think they made up on the fly, along with the drops in my eye, and not getting home until almost 8:30, there’s no blog tonight.
December 18, 2019
You Never Know When Something . . .
Might Happen.
Not much of a blog today because I’ve been under the weather since last night with a really bad cough, a sore throat (from the coughing), and a stuffy head. But strangely enough, no fever or runny noise. So I don’t know what it is.
First off I thought I’d post Landon’s latest project. It was to build a Gingerbread House. But never one to tow the party line, Landon built a Gingerbread . . .
Igloo!
Certainly looks tasty.
You probably read about the lady in NYC who was walking down the street and was killed by piece of building façade falling on her.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/falling-debris-kills-woman-60-nyc-n1103391
When I saw the first story, it just mentioned where her office was, where she left from when she was killed. I knew from the address that it was not too far from our hotel. But it sent a shiver down my spine when this evening I saw the address of the building where she was killed.
Jan and I had walked down that very street, on that very side, Tuesday morning last morning last week, before we left for home Tuesday afternoon. We had been walking around the Times Square area doing some last minute shopping, ending up on that street as we walked back toward our hotel.
As I’ve told Jan a number of times, you never know what’s around the next corner.
Like a guy killed inside an In-N-Out burger in Utah when a driver hit the gas instead of the brake and drove through the side of restaurant.
Of course you could also be killed by a foul ball at Dodger Stadium.
Or closer to home, being killed when a jet engine explodes on your Southwest Airlines flight and pierces the fuselage, sucking you part way out of the plane, and killing you.
You just never know.
So don’t put off until tomorrow something you really want to do.
You may not make it until tomorrow. Or even tonight.
December 18, 2020
A Busy Week Upcoming . . .
I got the word today that my Aunt Janis had passed early this morning.
She turned 90 this past August. This photo was from when we saw her in February 2019, the last time we were up in Athens.
She is loved and will be greatly missed.
I mentioned Privacy.com the other day, the service that lets you create both one-time use credit cards, and ones that can only be used with one company and/or only for designated amounts.
Well, my first charge using a dedicated card when through yesterday with no problems. The charge, for $10.00 with MyFax, my Internet Fax Service, showed up in my bank account just like it was programmed.
I went in today and set up two more cards for CuriosityStream and YouTubeTV, two of our streaming services, so I’ve only got a couple of more to set up.
So far, so good.
Our favorite Chinese buffet, Yummy Yummy, apparently is no more. When we drove by there yesterday, not only was the “Temporarily Closed” sign on the door gone, there were “For Sale” signs all over. So I guess now that we’re left with only East Star up in Webster. It’s good, but it’s further away and more expensive.
Oh, well.
We’ve got a busy time coming up.
Sunday we’re meeting Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at the Floyd’s Cajun Seafood down here in Webster. Then they’ll take Jan back with them for a couple of days of Landon-sitting.
After I pick her up Tuesday afternoon up in Katy, they’ll all be back down here, along with Lowell’s parent’s, Sonja and Lindell, and maybe his sister Sherry. We’ll be getting together for our annual Christmas Eve dinner at King Food here in Webster, something we’ve been doing for over 30 years.
Of course, then Christmas morning Jan and I will drive up to Brandi’s in Katy for Christmas dinner and presents.
After that. on New Year’s Eve, Jan and I are heading up to Fredericksburg to one night, before meeting up with the whole family at our son Chris’ over in Kingsland, finally coming on Sunday, the 3rd.
A busy time. But fun.
December 18, 2021
Well, That Was The Plan, Anyway . . .
The plan for today was to first have lunch at Snooze, then moving on over to the nearby WalMart, and then ending up at the Home Depot down in our area.
Well, that was the plan, anyway. But the weather had other ideas.
With a high today of 77° and a low of 49 tonight, the incoming front brought a LOT of rain with it. Though when we left home it was just spritzing, by the time we got to Snooze it was coming down hard, accompanied by a lot of thunder, lightning, and street flooding. And it never let up all the time while we were eating.
Jan got her usual Bravocado Toast with a side of crispy bacon.
And as last time, I got the Goldilocks’s Porridge.
Since it was still coming down hard when we left Snooze, WalMart and Home Depot got put off until tomorrow, and we just went home.
Looks like our local location of Pho Barr is coming along. They’ve got the sign up on the building so they’re getting close. It’s going into the same spot as our late, lamented Pho 20, so it will be nice to have a nearby place without driving into Webster.
Hopefully soon.
